by Will Koz

Created on: January 08, 2007   Last Updated: April 19, 2007

The establishment of Israel?
Cruel treatment of the Palestinians?
US foreign policy?
The invasion of Iraq?

All of these things fuel it, but are not the reason for the fighting. The real reason can be summed up in two words: Radical Islam.

Now when I say that, I don't mean simply Al Qaeda. There are numerous other organizations, groups, and individuals that use this dangerous branch of Islam to accomplish their goals. Radical Islam is a way to motivate Muslims to commit acts of violence against westerners, jews, and even other Muslims.

How do I define radical Islam?

Radical Islam: The idea that violence and killing in the name of Allah is warranted, justified, and even rewarded after death. This is the branch of Islam that recruits and utilizes suicide bombers. Radical Islam also teaches that anyone who is not a muslim is almost sub-human, often referred to as a "dirty kuffar."

Now, many of you are most likely thinking that radical Islam is a means of accomplishing a goal, but it is not a the reason for turmoil in the middle east. However, one of the primary goals of those who believe in radical Islam is to establish a world caliphate and to fight those who get in the way...basically anyone who believes in a non-Islamic government. This is definitely the goal of the leaders of the radical Islamic movement. Osama Bin-Laden is the most famous of these leaders.

While not everyone who believes in radical Islam fights to establish this caliphate, although they wouldn't mind if it was established. Many fight because of the reasons I listed at the top of this post. It is radical Islam that teaches them that it is acceptable to fight and to kill Islam's enemies. Radical Islam fuels the hate, the violence, the terror. There are many muslims who believe that killing is wrong, whoever the victim is. However, holding this belief means that it would be wrong to kill those Muslims view as enemies (westerners, Jews, etc.). So they use the teachings of radical Islam to justify their hate and their violence.

The leaders of radical Islam love this. They use conflicts such as those between Palestine and Israel and the Iraq invasion to fuel the hate that leads to a belief in radical Islam. They use these conflicts to recruit fighters and suicide bombers. Look at the major violent conflicts around the world and somewhere, beneath the surface, you'll most likely find the teachings of radical Islam. Israel, Iraq, Darfur, even Chechnya. The bombings in England and Spain were fueled by the teachings of radical Islam.

Westerners often make the mistake of blaming themselves or other westerners for causing the violence in the middle east, but this is a mistake. The majority of the blame does not fall on the west, but on the radical teachings in the east. If the "infidels" aren't in the middle east, where they can be killed, the followers of radical Islam will take the fight into the west, i.e. 9-11, the London subway bombings, the bombings in Spain, etc.

The establishment of Israel as a Jewish state.
The cruel treatment of the Palestinians.
US foreign policy.
The invasion of Iraq.

These things are used to recruit followers and to fuel the hate that lies beneath radical Islam, they are not the causes of the fighting. Without radical Islam, there is no violence.

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