Why global jihad is losing
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0:01 - 0:04I'm going to talk about the power of a word:
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0:04 - 0:07jihad.
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0:07 - 0:12To the vast majority of practicing Muslims,
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0:12 - 0:16jihad is an internal struggle for the faith.
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0:16 - 0:20It is a struggle within, a struggle against vice, sin,
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0:20 - 0:23temptation, lust, greed.
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0:23 - 0:26It is a struggle to try and live a life
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0:26 - 0:33that is set by the moral codes written in the Koran.
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0:33 - 0:38In that original idea, the concept of jihad is as important
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0:38 - 0:44to Muslims as the idea of grace is to Christians.
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0:44 - 0:48It's a very powerful word, jihad, if you look at it in that respect,
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0:48 - 0:53and there's a certain almost mystical resonance to it.
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0:53 - 0:55And that's the reason why, for hundreds of years,
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0:55 - 0:58Muslims everywhere have named their children Jihad,
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0:58 - 1:01their daughters as much as their sons, in the same way
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1:01 - 1:04that, say, Christians name their daughters Grace,
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1:04 - 1:08and Hindus, my people, name our daughters Bhakti,
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1:08 - 1:14which means, in Sanskrit, spiritual worship.
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1:14 - 1:17But there have always been, in Islam, a small group,
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1:17 - 1:19a minority, who believe that jihad
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1:19 - 1:22is not only an internal struggle but also an external struggle
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1:22 - 1:28against forces that would threaten the faith, or the faithul.
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1:28 - 1:32And some of these people believe that in that struggle,
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1:32 - 1:35it is sometimes okay to take up arms.
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1:35 - 1:38And so the thousands of young Muslim men
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1:38 - 1:41who flocked to Afghanistan in the 1980s
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1:41 - 1:45to fight against the Soviet occupation of a Muslim country,
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1:45 - 1:47in their minds they were fighting a jihad,
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1:47 - 1:50they were doing jihad,
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1:50 - 1:52and they named themselves the Mujahideen,
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1:52 - 1:57which is a word that comes from the same root as jihad.
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1:57 - 2:00And we forget this now, but back then
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2:00 - 2:04the Mujahideen were celebrated in this country, in America.
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2:04 - 2:07We thought of them as holy warriors who were taking
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2:07 - 2:10the good fight to the ungodly communists.
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2:10 - 2:12America gave them weapons, gave them money,
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2:12 - 2:15gave them support, encouragement.
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2:15 - 2:18But within that group, a tiny, smaller group,
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2:18 - 2:22a minority within a minority within a minority,
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2:22 - 2:25were coming up with a new and dangerous
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2:25 - 2:27conception of jihad,
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2:27 - 2:33and in time this group would come to be led by Osama bin Laden,
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2:33 - 2:34and he refined the idea.
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2:34 - 2:39His idea of jihad was a global war of terror,
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2:39 - 2:41primarily targeted at the far enemy,
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2:41 - 2:46at the crusaders from the West, against America.
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2:46 - 2:49And the things he did in the pursuit of this jihad
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2:49 - 2:51were so horrendous, so monstrous,
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2:51 - 2:53and had such great impact,
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2:53 - 2:57that his definition was the one that stuck,
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2:57 - 2:59not just here in the West.
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2:59 - 3:03We didn't know any better. We didn't pause to ask.
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3:03 - 3:07We just assumed that if this insane man and his psychopathic followers
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3:07 - 3:12were calling what they did jihad, then that's what jihad must mean.
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3:12 - 3:16But it wasn't just us. Even in the Muslim world,
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3:16 - 3:20his definition of jihad began to gain acceptance.
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3:20 - 3:24A year ago I was in Tunis, and I met the imam
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3:24 - 3:26of a very small mosque, an old man.
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3:26 - 3:30Fifteen years ago, he named his granddaughter Jihad,
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3:30 - 3:32after the old meaning. He hoped that a name like that
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3:32 - 3:37would inspire her to live a spiritual life.
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3:37 - 3:40But he told me that after 9/11,
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3:40 - 3:42he began to have second thoughts.
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3:42 - 3:44He worried that if he called her by that name,
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3:44 - 3:47especially outdoors, outside in public,
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3:47 - 3:53he might be seen as endorsing bin Laden's idea of jihad.
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3:53 - 3:55On Fridays in his mosque, he gave sermons
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3:55 - 4:00trying to reclaim the meaning of the word,
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4:00 - 4:03but his congregants, the people who came to his mosque,
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4:03 - 4:06they had seen the videos. They had seen pictures
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4:06 - 4:11of the planes going into the towers, the towers coming down.
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4:11 - 4:14They had heard bin Laden say that that was jihad,
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4:14 - 4:17and claimed victory for it. And so the old imam worried
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4:17 - 4:22that his words were falling on deaf ears. No one was paying attention.
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4:22 - 4:25He was wrong. Some people were paying attention,
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4:25 - 4:27but for the wrong reasons.
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4:27 - 4:30The United States, at this point, was putting pressure
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4:30 - 4:32on all its Arab allies, including Tunisia,
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4:32 - 4:36to stamp out extremism in their societies,
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4:36 - 4:40and this imam found himself suddenly in the crosshairs
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4:40 - 4:43of the Tunisian intelligence service.
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4:43 - 4:44They had never paid him any attention before --
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4:44 - 4:47old man, small mosque --
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4:47 - 4:50but now they began to pay visits,
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4:50 - 4:51and sometimes they would drag him in for questions,
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4:51 - 4:53and always the same question:
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4:53 - 4:57"Why did you name your granddaughter Jihad?
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4:57 - 5:01Why do you keep using the word jihad in your Friday sermons?
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5:01 - 5:03Do you hate Americans?
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5:03 - 5:08What is your connection to Osama bin Laden?"
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5:08 - 5:10So to the Tunisian intelligence agency,
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5:10 - 5:12and organizations like it all over the Arab world,
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5:12 - 5:17jihad equaled extremism,
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5:17 - 5:21Bin Laden's definition had become institutionalized.
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5:21 - 5:25That was the power of that word that he was able to do.
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5:25 - 5:30And it filled this old imam, it filled him with great sadness.
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5:30 - 5:33He told me that, of bin Laden's many crimes, this was,
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5:33 - 5:36in his mind, one that didn't get enough attention,
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5:36 - 5:40that he took this word, this beautiful idea.
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5:40 - 5:45He didn't so much appropriate it as kidnapped it
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5:45 - 5:47and debased it and corrupted it
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5:47 - 5:51and turned it into something it was never meant to be,
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5:51 - 5:56and then persuaded all of us that it always was
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5:56 - 5:59a global jihad.
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5:59 - 6:03But the good news is
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6:03 - 6:08that the global jihad is almost over, as bin Laden defined it.
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6:08 - 6:11It was dying well before he did,
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6:11 - 6:13and now it's on its last legs.
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6:13 - 6:16Opinion polls from all over the Muslim world show
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6:16 - 6:20that there is very little interest among Muslims
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6:20 - 6:23in a global holy war against the West,
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6:23 - 6:26against the far enemy.
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6:26 - 6:30The supply of young men willing to fight and die for this cause is dwindling.
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6:30 - 6:33The supply of money — just as important, more important perhaps —
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6:33 - 6:36the supply of money to this activity is also dwindling.
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6:36 - 6:38The wealthy fanatics who were previously
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6:38 - 6:45sponsoring this kind of activity are now less generous.
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6:45 - 6:46What does that mean for us in the West?
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6:46 - 6:50Does it mean we can break out the champagne,
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6:50 - 6:55wash our hands of it, disengage, sleep easy at night?
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6:55 - 7:00No. Disengagement is not an option,
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7:00 - 7:07because if you let local jihad survive,
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7:07 - 7:10it becomes international jihad.
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7:10 - 7:12And so there's now a lot of different
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7:12 - 7:15violent jihads all over the world.
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7:15 - 7:17In Somalia, in Mali, in Nigeria,
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7:17 - 7:22in Iraq, in Afghanistan, Pakistan, there are groups that claim
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7:22 - 7:28to be the inheritors of the legacy of Osama bin Laden.
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7:28 - 7:29They use his rhetoric.
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7:29 - 7:34They even use the brand name he created for his jihad.
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7:34 - 7:39So there is now an al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb,
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7:39 - 7:40there's an al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,
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7:40 - 7:43there is an al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.
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7:43 - 7:45There are other groups -- in Nigeria, Boko Haram,
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7:45 - 7:51in Somalia, al Shabaab -- and they all pay homage to Osama bin Laden.
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7:51 - 7:53But if you look closely,
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7:53 - 7:56they're not fighting a global jihad.
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7:56 - 8:00They're fighting battles over much narrower issues.
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8:00 - 8:04Usually it has to do with ethnicity or race or sectarianism,
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8:04 - 8:05or it's a power struggle.
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8:05 - 8:07More often than not, it's a power struggle
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8:07 - 8:11in one country, or even a small region within one country.
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8:11 - 8:14Occasionally they will go across a border,
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8:14 - 8:20from Iraq to Syria, from Mali to Algeria,
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8:20 - 8:22from Somalia to Kenya, but they're not fighting
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8:22 - 8:27a global jihad against some far enemy.
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8:27 - 8:30But that doesn't mean
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8:30 - 8:32that we can relax.
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8:32 - 8:35I was in Yemen recently, where -- it's the home
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8:35 - 8:38of the last al Qaeda franchise
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8:38 - 8:42that still aspires to attack America, attack the West.
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8:42 - 8:44It's old school al Qaeda.
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8:44 - 8:46You may remember these guys.
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8:46 - 8:48They are the ones who tried to send the underwear bomber here,
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8:48 - 8:51and they were using the Internet to try and instigate
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8:51 - 8:54violence among American Muslims.
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8:54 - 8:55But they have been distracted recently.
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8:55 - 8:58Last year, they took control over a portion of southern Yemen,
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8:58 - 9:01and ran it, Taliban-style.
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9:01 - 9:04And then the Yemeni military got its act together,
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9:04 - 9:07and ordinary people rose up against these guys
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9:07 - 9:10and drove them out, and since then, most of their activities,
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9:10 - 9:14most of their attacks have been directed at Yemenis.
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9:14 - 9:18So I think we've come to a point now where we can say
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9:18 - 9:22that, just like all politics, all jihad is local.
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9:22 - 9:26But that's still not reason for us to disengage,
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9:26 - 9:30because we've seen that movie before, in Afghanistan.
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9:30 - 9:34When those Mujahideen defeated the Soviet Union,
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9:34 - 9:37we disengaged.
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9:37 - 9:44And even before the fizz had gone out of our celebratory champagne,
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9:44 - 9:47the Taliban had taken over in Kabul,
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9:47 - 9:50and we said, "Local jihad, not our problem."
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9:50 - 9:53And then the Taliban gave the keys of Kandahar
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9:53 - 9:56to Osama bin Laden. He made it our problem.
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9:56 - 10:02Local jihad, if you ignore it, becomes global jihad again.
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10:02 - 10:06The good news is that it doesn't have to be.
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10:06 - 10:08We know how to fight it now.
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10:08 - 10:11We have the tools. We have the knowhow,
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10:11 - 10:12and we can take the lessons we've learned
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10:12 - 10:16from the fight against global jihad, the victory against global jihad,
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10:16 - 10:20and apply those to local jihad.
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10:20 - 10:24What are those lessons? We know who killed bin Laden:
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10:24 - 10:26SEAL Team Six.
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10:26 - 10:31Do we know, do we understand, who killed bin Ladenism?
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10:31 - 10:34Who ended the global jihad?
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10:34 - 10:37There lie the answers to the solution to local jihad.
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10:37 - 10:42Who killed bin Ladenism? Let's start with bin Laden himself.
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10:42 - 10:44He probably thought 9/11 was his greatest achievement.
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10:44 - 10:48In reality, it was the beginning of the end for him.
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10:48 - 10:51He killed 3,000 innocent people, and that filled
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10:51 - 10:55the Muslim world with horror and revulsion,
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10:55 - 10:59and what that meant was that his idea of jihad
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10:59 - 11:00could never become mainstream.
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11:00 - 11:04He condemned himself to operating on the lunatic fringes
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11:04 - 11:08of his own community.
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11:08 - 11:139/11 didn't empower him; it doomed him.
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11:13 - 11:18Who killed bin Ladenism? Abu Musab al-Zarqawi killed it.
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11:18 - 11:21He was the especially sadistic head of al Qaeda in Iraq
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11:21 - 11:24who sent hundreds of suicide bombers to attack
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11:24 - 11:31not Americans but Iraqis. Muslims. Sunni as well as Shiites.
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11:31 - 11:35Any claim that al Qaeda had to being protectors of Islam
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11:35 - 11:38against the Western crusaders
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11:38 - 11:43was drowned in the blood of Iraqi Muslims.
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11:43 - 11:47Who killed Osama bin Laden? The SEAL Team Six.
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11:47 - 11:50Who killed bin Ladenism? Al Jazeera did,
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11:50 - 11:55Al Jazeera and half a dozen other satellite news stations in Arabic,
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11:55 - 11:58because they circumvented the old, state-owned
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11:58 - 12:01television stations in a lot of these countries
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12:01 - 12:04which were designed to keep information from people.
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12:04 - 12:08Al Jazeera brought information to them, showed them
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12:08 - 12:11what was being said and done in the name of their religion,
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12:11 - 12:16exposed the hypocrisy of Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda,
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12:16 - 12:18and allowed them, gave them the information
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12:18 - 12:23that allowed them to come to their own conclusions.
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12:23 - 12:26Who killed bin Ladenism? The Arab Spring did,
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12:26 - 12:29because it showed a way for young Muslims
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12:29 - 12:33to bring about change
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12:33 - 12:35in a manner that Osama bin Laden, with his
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12:35 - 12:39limited imagination, could never have conceived.
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12:39 - 12:42Who defeated the global jihad? The American military did,
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12:42 - 12:45the American soldiers did, with their allies,
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12:45 - 12:50fighting in faraway battlefields.
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12:50 - 12:55And perhaps, a time will come when they get the rightful credit for it.
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12:55 - 12:58So all these factors, and many more besides,
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12:58 - 13:01we don't even fully understand some of them yet,
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13:01 - 13:04these came together
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13:04 - 13:08to defeat a monstrosity as big as bin Ladenism,
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13:08 - 13:12the global jihad, you needed this group effort.
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13:12 - 13:14Now, not all of these things will work in local jihad.
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13:14 - 13:17The American military is not going to march into Nigeria
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13:17 - 13:19to take on Boko Haram,
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13:19 - 13:21and it's unlikely that SEAL Team Six will rappel
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13:21 - 13:26into the homes of al Shabaab's leaders and take them out.
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13:26 - 13:29But many of these other factors that were in play
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13:29 - 13:35are now even stronger than before. Half the work is already done.
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13:35 - 13:38We don't have to reinvent the wheel.
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13:38 - 13:42The notion of violent jihad in which more Muslims are killed
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13:42 - 13:45than any other kind of people is already thoroughly discredited.
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13:45 - 13:49We don't have to go back to that.
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13:49 - 13:53Satellite television and the Internet are informing
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13:53 - 13:57and empowering young Muslims in exciting new ways.
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13:57 - 14:00And the Arab Spring has produced governments,
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14:00 - 14:03many of them Islamist governments,
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14:03 - 14:06who know that, for their own self-preservation,
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14:06 - 14:12they need to take on the extremists in their midsts.
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14:12 - 14:15We don't need to persuade them, but we do need to help them,
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14:15 - 14:20because they haven't really come to this place before.
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14:20 - 14:24The good news, again, is that a lot of the things they need
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14:24 - 14:26we already have, and we are very good at giving:
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14:26 - 14:30economic assistance, not just money, but expertise,
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14:30 - 14:33technology, knowhow,
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14:33 - 14:37private investment, fair terms of trade,
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14:37 - 14:41medicine, education, technical support for training
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14:41 - 14:44for their police forces to become more effective,
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14:44 - 14:49for their anti-terror forces to become more efficient.
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14:49 - 14:51We've got plenty of these things.
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14:51 - 14:53Some of the other things that they need
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14:53 - 14:56we're not very good at giving. Maybe nobody is.
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14:56 - 15:02Time, patience, subtlety, understanding --
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15:02 - 15:04these are harder to give.
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15:04 - 15:06I live in New York now. Just this week,
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15:06 - 15:08posters have gone up in subway stations in New York
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15:08 - 15:14that describe jihad as savage.
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15:14 - 15:19But in all the many years that I have covered the Middle East,
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15:19 - 15:22I have never been as optimistic as I am today
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15:22 - 15:25that the gap between the Muslim world and the West
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15:25 - 15:28is narrowing fast,
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15:28 - 15:30and one of the many reasons for my optimism
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15:30 - 15:33is that, because I know there are millions,
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15:33 - 15:37hundreds of millions of people, Muslims like that old imam
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15:37 - 15:44in Tunis, who are reclaiming this word
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15:44 - 15:49and restoring to its original, beautiful purpose.
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15:49 - 15:52Bin Laden is dead. Bin Ladenism has been defeated.
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15:52 - 15:56His definition of jihad can now be expunged.
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15:56 - 16:00To that jihad we can say, "Goodbye. Good riddance."
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16:00 - 16:07To the real jihad we can say, "Welcome back. Good luck."
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16:07 - 16:11Thank you. (Applause)
- Title:
- Why global jihad is losing
- Speaker:
- Bobby Ghosh
- Description:
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Throughout the history of Islam, says journalist Bobby Ghosh, there have been two sides to jihad: one, internal, a personal struggle to be better, the other external. A small minority (most recently Osama bin Laden) has appropriated the second, using it as an excuse for deadly global violence against "the West." Ghosh suggests that, now that bin Laden's worldwide organization has fragmented, it's time to reclaim the word. (Filmed at TEDxGeorgetown.)
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 16:31
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Why global jihad is losing | ||
Thu-Huong Ha approved English subtitles for Why global jihad is losing | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Why global jihad is losing | ||
Morton Bast accepted English subtitles for Why global jihad is losing | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Why global jihad is losing | ||
Joseph Geni added a translation |