BBC says that targeting Israelis disqualifies you from being a Jihadist (UPDATE)

The BBC reports:

The data gathered by the BBC found that 5,042 people were killed in 664 jihadist attacks across 14 countries - a daily average of 168 deaths, or seven every hour.

About 80% of the deaths came in just four countries - Iraq, Nigeria, Syria and Afghanistan, according to the study of media and civil society reports.

Iraq was the most dangerous place to be, with 1,770 deaths in 233 attacks, ranging from shootings to suicide bombings.

Civilians bore the brunt of the attacks with a total of 2,079 killed, followed by 1,723 military personnel.

The BBC lists 14 countries where Jihadists killed people.

Israel is not one of them.

So when Islamists kill people in churches or mosques, it is Jihad. But killing Jews worshiping in synagogues is
not.

The BBC offers their methodology:

While jihad is an Islamic concept which means ‘struggle’ and has both military and spiritual connotations, the term jihad-ism describes a political ideology; and while many Shia groups and individuals refer to themselves as ‘jihadists’ this count focuses on a particular movement categorised by Al Qaeda, its affiliates and those who subscribe to a  similar philosophy.

•  These jihadists believe that Islam is under attack – from the West, Israel, apostate Muslim rulers, and the Shiites –and that every Muslim must come to its defence.
•  What differentiates jihadists from other groups and individuals that have justified violence in Islamic terms is their doctrine and long-term political vision. The jihadists’ aim is to create states or societies that are governed by an extremely narrow, puritanical interpretation of Sunni Islam known as Salafism (or Wahhabism).
•  Salafi doctrine accounts for the jihadists’ aggressive hostility towards other sects and religions; their rejection ofman-made laws and democracy; and their enforcement of public morality, dress codes, and social norms.
•  Many groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan – most prominently the Taliban – do not classify as Salafist or Wahhabist. They typically follow the Deobandi or Ahl e Hadith traditions, which are similar to Salafism in their emphasis on literalism and have developed more or less in parallel. For the purposes of this study we have included them as jihadist groups.
•  Some of the beliefs listed above are held by other Muslims but it is a combination of all of these beliefs along with the readiness to kill in the name of those ideas that defines jihadism in this count.

Only a minority of Sunni Muslims worldwide are Salafists, and only a small fraction of Salafists are jihadists. Jihadists,therefore, do not represent mainstream Islam, and their doctrine, views and methods are not shared by the vast majority of Muslims.

Pseudo-social science meets political correctness.

The BBC defines jihadism as Wahhabism/Salafism, except when they want to include others, but they certainly don't want to include Palestinian jihad groups - that's for sure.Above all, they don't want the readers to confuse legitimate jihad with violent jihad, or to mix up violent jihad against Jews with violent jihad against Christians and Muslims.

So we have a situation where a group whose nae is Islamic Jihad is not considered "jihadist."

We habe a situation where Hamas terrorists, who sign all of their press releases with "It is jihad, victory or martyrdom," are not considered jihadists.

Absurdly, the BBC pretends that the philosophy of the jihadists of Hamas who execute their enemies in the street and who slash the throats of Jews in a synagogue is somehow fundamentally different from the jihadists who are beheading people in Syria and Iraq. Sure they both want an Islamic caliphate that institutes Sharia law, and sure they want to kill the infidels and subdue the dhimmis, but, you know, Israel builds houses so they have a good reason to want to slash the necks of Jews.

It is obvious that the BBC created n arbitrary definition of jihadism in order to minimize the seeming threat of Islamists to the West and to exclude any Palestinian Arabs from the definition altogether, no matter what - even as they admit that jihadists hate Israel. And the fact that the BBC cannot face up to the real threat of Islamism even when purportedly doing research in the topic shows a great deal about how the fear of offending Muslims colors its reporting.

(h/t Stanley)

UPDATE: See also Israellycool.