what terrorists want

for pointing out the facts? interesting. you may make a partial observation about certain people being attracted to millitancy, but everyone else sees the bit you dont - that those groups tend to have an islamic grounding.

you may be highlighting the losers that end up blowing themselves, but the reality again is these islamist organisations arnt a rag tag pack of societies wasters who happen to be attracted to islam, they are also some quite influencial and perhaps wealthy individuals with military and political connections who in each case of all islamist groups runs the show - and have an effective hierachy below them whos jobs it is to recruit, train, fund and arm the sacrificial pawns that end up coming from your community. so actually it is important to look behind the ideology that seem s to be the basis for all these islamist groups in a number of different countries

well, you are caricaturing of course : it's not a black or white situation

you don't have only James ("he is but a pawn in their game ", you have ISIS, AL-Qaeda, Boko Haram, the Shabab, the militant Salafis, the Saudis , the Iranians etc all with their Sheyks, their mosques, quite some money, publishing houses, the videos, the glossy magazines etc. It's a huge galaxy : militant Islam goes from poor James who blows himself up to people much higher than him in the socio-political ladder (who, however, are far too indispensable to blow themselves up)

So, who of these people is a Muslim, who isn't ? for a Muslim, the question will involve finding out who is "upon the truth", i.e. who follows the "correct interpretation" of the religion

But, for us non-Muslims, there is not one "correct interpretation of the religion". They are all arbitrary, simply because Islam does not contain any revealed "truth". So, for us, they are (more or less) all equally true, or all equally false.

So, we don't discriminate : whoever declares to be a Muslim, to follow the Quran, to fight for the supremacy of Islam against Kuffar invaders and blasphemers, even in their own lands, well, he is a Muslim - the subtleties of defensive/offensive jihad, of innocent/noninnocent kuffar escape us.

What we recognize is that all Muslims are not the same : and that many Muslims are tolerant, peaceful people. However : who has the correct interpretation of Islam?

Allahu alim (God knows) - fatwa over

Edit : on Molenbeek mosques, an extremist preacher and jihadi networks http://www.france24.com/en/20160325-khalid-zerkani-brussels-jihadist-preacher-kriket-molenbeek

if we are finger pointing all of a sudden, then indeed one can be pointed at you the apologist for these nutcases ideologies and subsequesnt , trying to disassociate them from the islamic background they have had for the 20+ years of their life, becuase they make a political action that they believe is in islams ultimate interest , but you do not. the fact that islam demands muslims to always put islamic agendas first before human ones (even their own family) can quite easily explain why it is people like this can commit attrocities like this against their fellow man. its the effect of propaganda. islamists have the perfect propaganda tool to use on muslims.
out of everyone, your apologist dogma is what permits groups like this to exist and operate with so much autonomy in the islamic world

Is everyone who disagrees with you an 'apologist'? grow up

In the light of the recent terrorist attacks in Brussels, i thought I would share a few reflections on which could be the terrorists' main objectives

In the short term (this is a bit of a truism) terrorists aim to terrorise : to force people into changing their lifestyle, into renouncing part of what constitutes (in their eyes) our decadent habits, like going out, partying ; organising free discussions and debates, freely criticising prophets and religions, etc etc

but the longer-term objective are Western Muslim communities. Terrorists want to cause a backlash against Muslims in the West. They hope that, faced with hostility by the population, and perhaps by restrictive measures by Governments, Muslims will feel progressively estranged and marginalized from the wider Western European societies

This is in fact the only hope, for extremist movements, to avoid isolation : if they somehow manage to exacerbate contrasts and hostilities in our societies, to focus populations' resentment against Muslims, they may manage to somehow increase sympathies, by presenting themselves as the only defense of "true believers" against the "kuffar"

For this reason, IMHO it is essential that we stand without hesitation behind the principle of non-discrimination. There is no such thing in our societies as "collective guilt". Any Muslim, just like any other citizen, is strictly responsible for his/her actions only

Let us make no unnecessary gifts to the terrorists by presenting them with some (even vague) justification for their crimes. We have our own values, and for this reason we consider our societies to be the best thing going (as far as societies go).

Let us not supply any shadow of an argument to terrorists.

You try to look like some kind of posh left wing intellectual, that probably studied philosophy or some other useless subject