(politics) the real terrorist supporters...

...are us. Every single one of us. As long as we depend on petrol,
we're all supporting these terrorists. I know we don't have a choice,
but let us at least recognise it.

All the attention is on Pakistan, but the ones who are REALLY behind
all this, the ones who are too bloodthirsty even to indulge in the
human emotion of gloating, the ones who are **financing** all this,
are the wahabi's of Saudi Arabia.

Sufi and Sunni Islam are largely peaceful, I think -- it's hard for
anyone who saw even the highly fictionalised "Jodha Akbar" and fell in
love with the "Khwaja Mere Khwaja" song to think otherwise, however
stupid and hopelessly romantic (and previously unaware of sufi music)
that might make me sound! It's the wahabis who believe that the
entire world MUST be brought to heel and will not stop until that
happens. Or they are exterminated or lose their power.

But as long as the entire world runs on petrol, they win. Pakistan is
a convenient whipping boy for everyone (India, EU, US, and anyone
else), but no one, not a single world leader, will point the finger at
the real terrorists. They can't afford to.

An extract from
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/08/opinion/08french.html is below. As
you can see, Mr French just barely mentions where the money comes from
and stops there.

But move on from that line and read the description of this "Hafiz
Saeed" [a most inappropriate name for someone like this, by the way].
The ideology is chilling, the sense of purpose scary. But tell me
this: who would finance him if they did not believe the same things,
or worse?

And every time I take my car instead of walking, I am supporting them.
Anyone who buys an SUV and drives it ALONE, is supporting them.

And even we all stop doing those little, oh-so-avoidable, things, it
wouldn't make a difference -- rising population has ensured that
demand far outstrips supply forever.

Suddenly I'm feeling good about all those dire predictions that world
fossil fuel supplies will only last another 20 years or whatever. So
by the time my son is coming close to my age, terrorism will cease!
Hurrah!

----------

[extracted from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/08/opinion/08french.html]

These misdeeds are real, as are India's other social and political
failings (I recently met a Kashmiri man whose father and sister had
died at the hands of the Indian security forces). But there is no sane
reason to think Lashkar-e-Taiba would shut down if the situation in
Kashmir improved. Its literature is much concerned with establishing a
caliphate in Central Asia, and murdering those who insult the Prophet.
Its leader, Hafiz Saeed, who lives on a large estate outside Lahore
bought with Saudi Money, goes about his business with minimal
interference from the Pakistani government.

Lashkar-e-Taiba is part of the International Islamic Front for Jihad
Against Jews and Crusaders (the Qaeda franchise). Mr. Saeed's hatreds
are catholic -- his bugbears include Hindus, Shiites and women who
wear bikinis. He regards democracy as "a Jewish and Christian import
from Europe," and considers suicide attacks to be in accordance with
Islam. He has a wider strategy: "At this time our contest is Kashmir.
Let's see when the time comes. Our struggle with the Jews is always
there." As he told his followers in Karachi at a rally in 2000: "There
can't be any peace while India remains intact. Cut them, cut them --
cut them so much that they kneel before you and ask for mercy." In
short, he has an explicit political desire to create a state of war
between the religious communities in India and beyond, and bring on
the endgame.

Like other exponents of Islamist extremism, he has a view of the world
that does not tolerate doubt or ambiguity: his opponents are guilty,
and must be killed. I have met other radicals like Mr. Saeed, men who
live in a dimension of absolute certainty and have contempt for the
moral relativism of those who seek to excuse them. To achieve their
ends, it is necessary to indoctrinate boys in the hatred of Hindus,
Americans and Jews, and dispatch them on suicide missions. It is
unlikely that any of the militants who were sent from Karachi to
Mumbai -- young men from poor rural backgrounds whose families were
paid for their sacrifice -- had ever met a Jew before they tortured
and killed Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka, who was
several months pregnant, at the Mumbai Jewish center.