The news is filled with comments made by people who knew the Boston Marathon bombers that they were "nice", regular people. They cannot believe that the Tsarnaev brothers could be violent. This is not the first time we have heard such observations, but there is an added dimension. What happened was not just violence, but jihad. By jihad I mean the "kill the Kafir" (non-Muslim), not the spiritual struggle that the apologists for Islam like to dwell on. References to jihad as "spiritual struggle" are minimal. As one measure, Bukhari collected the most important traditions of Mohammed, called Hadith. Out of 7000 of these traditions, about 1500 of them are about jihad. Of these 1500 jihad hadiths, nearly 1400 are about "kill the Kafir" jihad and only a 100 or so are about jihad as spiritual struggle. This indicates Mohammed thought that jihad as war was the much more important aspect. Mohammed preached the religion of Islam for 13 years in Mecca and converted only a 150 people. He was...(Read Full Post)