:k:
The thing about the caliphs is that while they were militaristic, other than that they were great people when judged by the context of their times. They gave more rights to their minorities than the other empires and major states of the day (Persia, Byzantine Rome, China, etc.), had an impressive system of social welfare by 7th century standards, gave huge amounts of their personal wealth to charity, were known to be humble and honest when they could have easily lived in extravagance and corruption, etc. Today’s Islamists trace their roots to the 1920’s and to a lesser extent an Arab writer (Ibn Tamiyaa) in the 1200’s. They aren’t really based on the caliphs, other than the concept of militarism. Even in that area there is no way that Umar or Abu Bakr would support insanity such as flying planes into buildings, blowing up schools and hospitals, etc. They fought their wars openly and honestly and fought against opposing armies, not civilians buying fruit at a bazaar.