Holy War in the USA

I began writing this post several weeks ago and never finished it. I think it's worth posting, so without further revision, here it is.

***From early June:

As a professional soldier, there are a few issues that I follow to enhance my own personal understanding and further my professional learning. One of these is Islamic jihad.

Jihad, many will contend, is an internal struggle to discipline one's self in accordance with Islamic theology. This is certainly a noble endeavor and a concept that is not exclusive to Islam.

Many seem unwilling to acknowledge that jihad is also in very fact the violent "holy war" that people across the world have, over the course of centuries, grown to fear.

As an American soldier I am particularly interested in seeing how jihad affects the United States.

Several months ago, five Muslim men were convicted in a plot to kill US soldiers at Fort Dix, New York.

Just two weeks ago, two Muslim men, recent converts to the so-called Religion of Peace, were arrested after their plot to blow up a synagogue in New York City was foiled.

Thankfully, in both of these incidents, solid detective work and law enforcement prevented the realization of clearly violent aspirations.

Unfortunately, those mechanisms could not prevent today's tragedy.

PVT William Long was shot and killed at a US Army and Navy recruiting center in Little Rock, Arkansas. PVT Quinton Ezeagwula was also shot and is in stable condition.

Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad recently returned from Yemen having studied with a jihadist imam, Yahya Hajoori (or one of his students). Muhammad told authorities that he targeted the soldiers "because of what they had done to Muslims in the past” and explained that his goal was to “kill as many people in the Army as he could." [source] Indeed, his taken Arabic name includes the militant "mujahid" - a derivative of "holy warrior" and "jihad" (his given name was Carlos Bledsoe).

***Update from June 22nd:

The attack on the recruiting center was tragic, but the real tragedy is our collective failure to recognize this threat. Pres. Obama took the stage in Cairo recently to address the Muslim world. He apologized for the sins of the west, mostly ignored the obvious faults of Islam, and pledged to "fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear."

There are many problems with this vow, but I am mostly concerned that the President's perception is that these "negative stereotypes" are being perpetuated by those that are critical of Islam rather than those that use the religion to further violent or oppressive agendas. Obama merely described the attack in Little Rock as "senseless." His omission of the stated religious motives implies that he does not regard jihadist violence as a negative stereotype of the religion at all. Apparently, in the President's idealistic world of cultural plurality and relativism, there is room to accomodate this sort of religious intolerance and violence. The twisted result of this delusion is that violent jihad advances across the US and the world while those wishing to identify the threat are criticized as intolerant "stereotypers."