I am not enthusiastic about this set of thoughts.
I not a good orientalist.
What we want to do is shut down the jihadi aspect of Islam.
When my high school teachers, an early twentieth century lot, touched on Islam
they named jihadism "conversion by the sword". This was objectionable at best.
Some progress was made by the British Empire. Starting with the suppression of the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 and continued with the second Afghan war and the campaigns on the North West Frontier on into the Sudan Campaign. T.E.Laurence attached the jihadi to the cause of Arabic nationalism in 1914-1918 to continue the destruction of the Turkish Empire. Ataturk managed to halt that destruction by accepting Turkish Nationalism and forcing a secular state. Jihadi nationalism led to Saddam's Iraq where it again halted as a secular state.
When the USSR invaded Afghanistan our CIA used Jihadism to further motivate and support the Mujaheddin. The CIA intentionally awakened the dragon. We are left with the problem of dealing with the further consequences of that act.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Bell
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