They Just Don't Get It

Today I received an invitation to a conference in London entitled "The Changing Faces of Jihadism: Profiles, Biographies, Motivations," put on jointly by British and Norwegian defense experts. The title page of the 4-page PDF file has a security camera picture of one of the four London subway bombers. So far, so good.

Then we get to the introduction:

Europe is faced with a sustained challenge from militant jihadism. Most worryingly, the emerging networks seem to defy everything we thought we knew about terrorism: their structures are loose, and the profiles of individual jihadists don’t seem to reveal any striking similarities.

Right. Aside from they fact that they

(a) are males between the ages of 18 and 35;
(b) are fanatically dedicated Muslims indoctrinated by an imam, in prison, and/or jihad websites;
(c) have often visited Pakistan or Afghanistan for "religious instruction;"
(d) usually have piles of jihadi snuff videos and/or audiotaped sermons in their apartments;
(e) associate with other like-minded individuals; and
(f) frequently have bank balances that cannot be accounted for by their family status or employment;

why yes, it's a total mystery. The introduction goes on:

Are there no patterns to be discerned? Or does the absence of any shared characteristics indicate how little we understand the phenomenon?

I'm thinking yes. Then I continue to the list of speakers -- almost entirely university professors, none of whom I recognize. But one speaker's name jumps out:

Sir Iqbal Sacraine, Secretary General, Muslim Council of Britain.

These amateurs can't even spell his name correctly, much less grasp the concept of taqqiya. I halfheartedly finished scanning the rest of the short (271-word) introduction, which is filled with phrases like "better understanding," "developing effective methods," "facilitate strategies of engagement," and "facilitate constructive debate and exchange."

Now, if it had words like "pitchforks," "torches," "resistance," "deportation," and "death cult," I'd be interested. So, uh, yeah. Good luck with that.