What Jihadists Think of Aid Workers

by Michael Kleinman

Published November 16, 2008 @ 09:19PM PST

Just came across an interesting Stratfor report released a few weeks ago, entitled Jihadist Ideology and the Targeting of Humanitarian Aid Workers.

Looking at Afghanistan and Somalia, the report explains why groups like the Taliban would want to target humanitarian organizations:

"The Taliban clearly see Afghanistan’s many foreign missionary and secular humanitarian aid organizations as supporting the Afghan government, and they believe that driving these organizations out of Afghanistan will be a blow to the government’s efforts to promote stability in the country."

Apparently, though, such attacks are "becoming a point of contention between jihadist ideologues and militant groups."  Which is comforting, except for the fact that it's not.

Continued after the jump:

It turns out that leading jihadist thinkers such as Isam Mohammed Taher al-Barqawi (or, as he's more popularly known in certain circles, Abu Muhammad Asem al-Maqdisi) have recently come out against targeting "genuine" humanitarian organizations like the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

(According to the report, al-Maqdisi's attitude towards the ICRC might have something to do with fact that he had "positive interactions" with the ICRC while incarcerated in a Jordanian prison.  Nothing like personal experience.)

The report concludes:

"So far, tactical considerations have outweighed ideological arguments against such attacks, and we see no end in sight to such attacks. But with al-Maqdisi’s pronouncement, the pressure against such attacks will surely grow and the topic should spawn a lot of discussion and division in militant circles."

Rather cold comfort indeed.  Especially seeing as how so far this year thirty-one aid workers have killed in Afghanistan, and another thirty-three in Somalia.

[Photo of Abu Muhammad Asem al-Maqdisi]