(c) you can only condemn the violence if you would not do the same thing in their place.
To me, that means you should be able to sell them a peaceful method as being more effective than jihad. Well, we have a historical record.
The peaceful, liberal, pro-democratic reformers in the middle east seem to have gotten defeated and tortured by the CIA and their local satraps. Like what happened to my family.
On the other hand Jihad seems to be winning in Lebanon, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia and so on.
Look, this is the list of things you could find "unreasonable":
(a) the jihadi position on God
(b) the jihadi position on US policy
(c) the jihadi method to affect change - violence
Lets deal with them one by one.
(a) is loony but pretty much irrelevant. You wouldn't feel any better if they converted to Shintoism and continued the jihad, would you?
(b) US policy is well studied so you can't really deny its lousiness. Example references:
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/...
http://www.amazon.com/Power-Systems-Conversations-Democratic...
http://www.amazon.com/Israel-Lobby-U-S-Foreign-Policy/dp/037...
http://goingtotehran.com/
(c) you can only condemn the violence if you would not do the same thing in their place.
To me, that means you should be able to sell them a peaceful method as being more effective than jihad. Well, we have a historical record.
The peaceful, liberal, pro-democratic reformers in the middle east seem to have gotten defeated and tortured by the CIA and their local satraps. Like what happened to my family.
On the other hand Jihad seems to be winning in Lebanon, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia and so on.
http://zenhuber.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/preview-bin-laden-dea...
So you don't have a very strong case.