Getting The Lay Of The Land

Wretchard of Belmont Club has a few interesting things to say about the worldly desires of jihadis.

Rod Norland of the New York Times writes that in Baghdad the best police sources on the activities of the JAM and al-Qaeda are prostitutes.

One police detective said he would not dream of enforcing the law against prostitutes.

“They’re the best sources we have,” said the detective. “They know everything about JAM and al-Qaida members,” he said, referring to Jaish al-Mahdi or Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia.

The detective added that the only problem his men had was that neighbors got the wrong idea when detectives visited the houses where prostitutes were known to live. They really do just want to talk, he said.

As I’ve written many times before, it is a mistake to think that “Muslim” pirates in the Philippine South are to be found praying five times a day in the mosque. You are going to have better luck wherever ladies and liquor are in more abundant supply. Although there are doubtless men who are motivated primarily by religious texts, I think they are outnumbered by those who have found religion to be the perfect cover under which to advance simpler ambitions for power and worldly desire.

It appears that the desire for power and control is more universal than Islam. However, Islam gives them the perfect cover. You can do any thing you want to with infidels and their property. And to some extent we mirror that somewhat more selectively. You can do anything you want to jihadis until they surrender.

I have written frequently that secular desires, such as the desire for Jewish pornography (is it Kosher?) would destroy Islam as a religion. Or another bit I did called Pornography at War. What Wretchard has given us is further proof. And the excuse for an amusing headline.