France shuts down 3 mosques, 334 weapons seized since Paris attacks

[zinfamous]

It could be possible but it would take major global leaders to agree to changing some of the texts. The fact that the Koran is perfect is a problem, yes. How do you change something that is already perfect? Maybe they need to take a page out of the Mormon playbook/Catholics - modern day prophets who can directly speak to God and modernize the text accordingly.

You pondered on Christianity, well how did the NT/New Covenant and Jesus come about? It wasn't so much that Christianity had to evolve, the out was already there from the beginning (New Covenant invalidates the OT/Torah). This "out" from the violent passages in the Koran could involve only adhering to "greater jihad", i.e. within oneself and remove "lesser jihad", i.e. struggle and attack non-believers. It just needs a slight tweaking there.

Alternative fuels, especially solar, will eventually all but eliminate our need for the ME oil. The clock is ticking. Let's be honest, what will happen to the ME when the oil money dries up? How many more muslims will look to radicalization as their standard of living gets even worse? It could really devolve into a shitstorm of poverty there. The Saudis and even Turkey propping up these regimes will lose their oomph when oil goes the way of the dinosaur. Of course that is long term. Short term, yes we will need to prop up Kurds and opposing forces to try to make a land grab against the caliphate. Airstrikes aren't going to cut it. Once they're eliminated there, it will invalidate the immediate threat here. Then maybe they can start discussing some of the texts about lesser jihad. It may not be a possible solution, however. And the cycle of violence will continue for our kids, and kid's kids. I agree that it can probably only be resolved within Islam. Evolve or go the way of the dinosaur.

--aside
agreed and true. it still baffles me, though, when the OT is invalidated by the NT, Evangelicals cling to it in their defense of biblical hatred of the icky people of modern society.

This is strange. Those words are invalid, because Christ says so, and yet they aren't. Convenience.

Another one of those: Hey, at least the jihadists don't dick around with what is true and what is not moments. haha.
aside--

No matter what happens in the present, it's pretty clear that the ME is in line for a long and drawn-out reformation that will certainly not be pretty (yeah, no shit, man). The current power structure there is very much headed towards a foreseeable end, though I doubt the entrenched Mullahs and Sheiks and Emirs dependent on oil are going to suddenly be out of power when the dipstick comes up dry. They are simply far too wealthy and far too friendly with western oligarchs to lose all of their power. Yes, they will appear less attractive without the crude flowing in, but I can imagine that they will have diversified into lucrative venues such as gambling and weapons and what not (I do doubt the tenacity of their moral convictions--the Sauds especially)

I think one major benefit of propping up a group like the Iraqi Kurds is that they are, imo, the only real hope for a sense of secular, developed stability in the mideast--and one that has a capable enough military strength to maintain whatever territory they claim. I see them as the next Israel for the US, and one far more worth supporting, tbh. Yes, they make Turkey unhappy, but fuck Turkey. Let the Kurds have their land and the Turkish Kurds a place to return and live. They have been extremely successful cordoning off their own society--educated, developed, stable--within Iraq and are the only ones to do so.

Empower these guys as a stabilizing force going forward in the new ME. An unprecedented ally for the west in that region of the ME. Work with the refugee camps in Jordan and all over to vastly improve their resources. If not militarily, that is a major population of displaced people that really should be our allies once the bloodletting subsides.

As for the Quran...Honestly no idea. One would think that some sort of summit between whatever scholars garner the widest respect within moderate Islam, Pope Frank, and I don't know--jimmy Carter? need to get together and fix this. It's a complete fantasy, of course, because I doubt that Islam and its followers work that way. Clearly there are a majority of moderates all over the world, but even many of them cling to antiquated notions of subservience and piety. I doubt any outside intervention will mean anything for them. It really is something that they have sort out themselves. Any exterior ultimatum is both useless, and really quite insulting, tbh.

ISIS, Al Qaeda and others survive not because they are run by fanatics, but because those fanatics have an infinite pool of willing participants from which to recruit. Getting the west out of their territory in a very visible fashion would go a long way to cutting off that source. Yes, also a bit of a pipe dream, but there are ways to intervene from behind, which is what the US really should be doing. it is not a cowardly stance. it is the smart stance.

US foreign policy never was and never should be a dick-wagging contest. That is the kind of fucked-up monkeyshit that made the ME what it is. Doubling down on this (send in more troops! more wars!) is just prolonged dumbassery.

The worst part of that is....I'm not sure that there are any real alternatives right now. ISIS changes the game a bit because the now really is important. Waiting for vast social and geopolitical change vis-a-vis global resource restructuring, mutually-beneficial alliances, theological reformation, isn't something that the world can afford to do right now. These are all things that very much need to happen, there is some of that the west can accomplish and aid in, some that it can not; but all the while we honestly need to keep dropping bombs in "smart places" whatever the hell that means....