Wall Street Journal claims
‘jihadism’ is ‘in retreat’

Jan 6, 2026
By Robert Spencer                              14 Comments
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One week before Islamic State-inspired terrorists attacked a Jewish religious celebration in Sydney on Dec. 14,
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa addressed a diplomatic conference in Doha, Qatar.

Fresh from hobnobbing with President Trump in the White House and dressed in a suit and red tie, the man who had created the Islamist extremist movement’s Syrian franchise told the assembled dignitaries that his homeland would not be a source of problems for anyone—including neighboring Israel.

“We have gone from being a country that exported crises
to one that has a hope of delivering stability,” ****Sharaa said.

The occasional terrorist acts flaring up around the world, often by
self-radicalized Islamic State sympathizers
such as the father and son who gunned down 15 people at the Hanukkah party in Sydney,
overshadow the broader trajectory of political Islam in the Middle East and beyond.

In a historic shift away from
the lure of global upheaval
and toward a more pragmatic coexistence
with the rest of the world,
including the West,
it now largely follows Sharaa’s path.

“Jihadism and radicalism are in demise.

And that’s because they have never had a successful model to present to society, not once in the past 100 years,” said Hemin Hawrami, former deputy parliament speaker of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region and a senior leader in its dominant party.
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Islamophobia again.  Tsk, tsk, tsk... 

Islamophobia again.  Tsk, tsk, tsk... 

Here you go Brian. It is probably referring to verse 5:

https://www.ozpolitic.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1469837313

freediver wrote on Jan 20^th, 2026 at 12:48pm:


Amazing how you fail to quote the verse in full, hey, Freediver. Why is that?  Afraid to admit that allows Muslims an escape clause?  "But once the Sacred Months have passed, kill the polytheists wherever you find them, capture them, besiege them, and lie in wait for them on every way. But if they repent, perform prayers, and pay alms-tax, then set them free. Indeed, Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful."

Tsk, tsk, tsk... 

Amazing how you fail to quote the verse in full, hey, Freediver. Why is that?

The thing is, Freediver, Islam doesn't demand non-believers to convert, if they don't desire to.

"Jizya" (or jizyah) refers to a historic tax imposed in Islamic states on non-Muslim adult males (dhimmis) in exchange for protection and exemption from military service, a system rooted in Islamic law but largely obsolete as modern nation-states define citizenship differently, though its historical application and interpretation remain subjects of discussion, with some viewing it as equitable protection and others as discriminatory.
Key Aspects of Jizya:

    # Definition: A per capita tax on non-Muslims (People of the Book, like Jews and Christians) living under Islamic rule.
    # Purpose: To provide protection (dhimma) and exemption from military duty, as Muslims paid Zakat (a different tax) and performed military service.
    # Variations: The amount varied by wealth, with different rates for the rich, middle class, and poor, and was not to be collected cruelly.
    # Abolition/Obsoletion: While some rulers, like Akbar, abolished it, it's generally not collected in modern Muslim-majority nations due to changes in citizenship and governance.
    #Interpretation: Some scholars see it as a fair exchange for communal rights and security, while others criticize it as discriminatory.

In essence, it's a historical Islamic financial obligation for religious minorities under Islamic rule, now largely a matter of historical and theological debate rather than current practice