1. God
• Muslims are strict monotheists who worship one supreme God named Allah
• Islam means submission to Allah and a Muslim is one who submits fully to God’s will
• Muslims believe Christians are polytheists since they see the Trinity as three separate gods
2. Quran
• The word Quran means “recitation” and refers to the oral verses in Arabic, but broadly refers to the written record also
• It is the literal word of God recorded by the prophet Mohammed through the angel Gabriel between 610 and 632 AD
• It is divided into 114 chapters, which combined, contain 6,236 verses.
3. Angels
• Angels, or messengers (malak), are crucial to Islam
• Angels do not have free will and must worship and obey God perfectly
• Angels' duties include communicating revelations from God, glorifying God, recording every person's actions, and taking a person's soul at the time of death
4. Mohammed
• Mohammed (570-632) was a religious, political and military leader who received revelations from God which were recorded in the Quran
• Muslims view him not as the creator of a new religion but the restorer of the original, uncorrupted monotheistic faith of Adam, Abraham and others
• Mohammed preached in Mecca for 13 years calling the people to leave polytheism, only to be expelled and settled in Medina in 622. After a series of battles he captured Mecca in 629 and controlled the whole Arabian peninsula in 632
5. Resurrection, Judgment and Predestination
• All men will be resurrected to face judgment to be either rewarded or punished for their deeds done in life on this earth
• Some sins, such as unbelief, usury and dishonesty, will automatically condemn a man to hell
• Paradise is an eternal dwelling place of the righteous filled with physical pleasures and joy in God’s presence
• God has complete foreknowledge and absolute control over all events: “Nothing will happen to us except what Allah has decreed for us: He is our protector”
6. The Five Pillars of Islam
• The shahadah: “There is no god but Allah, and that Muhammad is his messenger”
• Salah: ritual prayer performed five times a day
• Zakat: almsgiving is the practice of giving based on accumulated wealth, and is obligatory for all Muslims
• Sawm: fasting during the month of Ramadan
• The Hajj: the pilgrimage during the Islamic month of Dhu al-Hijjah in the city of Mecca.
7. Law, Diet and Jihad
• Sharia is Muslim based on traditional Islamic scholarship and covers every aspect of life
• Like Jews, Muslims cannot eat pork, shellfish, and alcohol
• Jihad is “exerting one's utmost power, efforts, endeavors, or ability in contending with an object of disapprobation”
8. Major Branches of Islam
• Sunni (85%) believe that the caliph must be elected
• Shia (15%) believe that the caliph must come from the line of Mohammed through his son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib
• Sufism is not a denomination but a mystical-ascetic form of Islam which strives to obtain direct experience of God
9. Islam and Christianity
• It is very difficult for a Muslim to convert to Christianity because of severe social pressure
• Muslims believe the Old Testament is true and the Jesus was a prophet like Mohammed
• Allah tends to be viewed as very distant and unknowable, so focus on having a personal relationship with Jesus
• Islam is very legalistic and harsh, so win them through love and compassion and Christ’s forgiveness
Showing posts with label Islam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Islam. Show all posts
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
No Terrorist Attacks this Summer
I received the following bulletin from Stratfor.com
SUMMER 2007: THE ATTACK
THAT NEVER OCCURRED
By Fred Burton and Scott Stewart
The summer of 2007 was marked by threats and warnings of an
imminent terrorist attack against the United States. In addition to the
well-publicized warnings from Homeland Security Secretary Michael
Chertoff and a National Intelligence Estimate that al Qaeda was
gaining strength, a former Israeli counterterrorism official warned that
al Qaeda was planning a simultaneous attack against five to seven
American cities. Another warning of an impending dirty bomb attack
prompted the New York Police Department to set up vehicle
checkpoints near the financial district in Lower Manhattan. In
addition to these public warnings, U.S. government counterterrorism
sources also told us privately that they were seriously concerned
about the possibility of an attack.
All these warnings were followed by the Sept. 7 release of a video
message from Osama bin Laden, who had not been seen on video
since October 2004 or heard on audio tape since July 2006. Some
were convinced that his reappearance -- and his veiled threat -- was
the sign of a looming attack against the United States, or perhaps a
signal for an attack to commence.
In spite of all these warnings and bin Laden's reappearance -- not
the mention the relative ease with which an attack can be conducted
-- no attack occurred this summer. Although our assessment is that
the al Qaeda core has been damaged to the point that it no longer
poses a strategic threat to the U.S. homeland, tactical attacks
against soft targets remain simple to conduct and certainly are within
the reach of jihadist operatives -- regardless of whether they are
linked to the al Qaeda core.
We believe there are several reasons no attack occurred this
summer -- or since 9/11 for that matter.
No Conscious Decision
Before we discuss these factors, we must note that the lack of an
attack against the U.S. homeland since 9/11 has not been the result
of a calculated decision by bin Laden and the core al Qaeda
leadership. Far too many plots have been disrupted for that to be the
case. Many of those foiled and failed attacks, such as the 2006
foiled plot to destroy airliners flying from London to the United
States, the Library Tower Plot, Richard Reid's failed attempt to take
down American Airlines flight 63 in December 2001 and Jose
Padilla's activities -- bear connection to the core al Qaeda
leadership.
So, if the core al Qaeda has desired, and even attempted, to strike
the United States, why has it failed? Perhaps the greatest single
factor is attitude -- among law enforcement and intelligence
agencies, the public at large, the Muslim community and even the
jihadists themselves.
Law Enforcement and Intelligence
Prior to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the FBI denied the
existence of an international terrorism threat to the U.S. homeland, a
stance reflected in the bureau's "Terrorism in the United States"
publications in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Even after the radical
Zionist Rabbi Meir Kahane was killed by a jihadist with connections
to the Brooklyn Jihad Office and "Blind Sheikh" Omar Abdul-
Rahman, the FBI and Department of Justice denied the act was
terrorism and left the investigation and the prosecution of the
gunman, ElSayyid Nosair, to New York police and the Manhattan
District Attorney's Office. (Though they were greatly aided on the
federal level by the Diplomatic Security Service, which ran
investigative leads for them in Egypt and elsewhere.)
It was only after Nosair's associates detonated a large truck bomb in
the parking garage of the World Trade Center in 1993 that the
existence of a threat to the United States was recognized. Yet, even
after that bombing and the disruption of other plots -- the July 1997
plot to bomb the New York subway system and the December 1999
Millennium Bomb Plot -- the apathy toward counterterrorism
programs remained. This was most evident in the low levels of
funding and manpower devoted to counterterrorism programs prior to
9/11. As noted in the 9/11 Commission Report, counterterrorism
programs simply were not a priority.
Even the April 1995 Oklahoma City bombing made no real
difference. Some changes were made, such as physical security
enhancements at federal buildings, but they were merely window
dressing. The real problems, underlying structural problems in the
U.S. government's counterterrorism efforts -- resources, priorities
and intelligence-sharing -- were not addressed in a meaningful way.
Prior to 9/11, experts (including the two of us) lecturing to law
enforcement and intelligence groups about the al
Qaeda/transnational terrorist threat to the United States were met
with indifference. Of course, following 9/11 some of those same
groups paid careful attention to what the experts had to say.
Transnational terrorism had become real to them. The 9/11 attacks
sparked a sea change in attitudes within law enforcement and
intelligence circles. Counterterrorism -- aggressively collecting
intelligence pertaining to terrorism and pursuing terrorist leads -- is
now a priority.
Citizen Awareness
Before the 1993 World Trade Center bombing the American public
also was largely unconcerned about international terrorism. Even
after that bombing, the public remained largely apathetic about the
terrorist threat to the U.S. homeland. This was partly the result of the
media's coverage of the 1993 bombing, which seemed to focus on
the hapless, bumbling Mohamed Salameh and not the cunning and
dangerous Abdel Basit (who is more widely known by his alias,
Ramzi Yousef). Furthermore, the follow-on plot to that attack, the
1993 New York bomb plot -- for which Abdul-Rahman and some of
his followers were accused of planning strikes against the Lincoln
Tunnel and other New York City landmarks -- was thwarted. This led
many to believe that the government had a handle on terrorism and
that the United States was protected from such attacks. The second
plot was thwarted before it could be executed, and most Americans
never saw the gigantic crater (nearly 100 feet across) that the
February 1993 truck bomb created through several floors of Building
One's reinforced concrete parking garage. Instead, they saw only a
bit of smoke billowing from the damaged building. The 1993 cases
lacked the stunning visual displays of the 9/11 attacks.
The events of 9/11 also created a 180-degree change in how people
think about terrorism and how they perceive and respond to
suspicious activity. "If you see something, say something" has
become a popular mantra, especially in New York and other large
cities. Part of this stems from the changed attitudes of law
enforcement officials, who not only have issued appeals in the press
but also have made community outreach visits to nearly every flight
school, truck driving school, chemical supply company, fertilizer
dealer and storage rental company in the United States. Through
media reports of terrorist plots and attacks, the public also has
become much more aware of the precursor chemicals for improvised
explosive mixtures and applies far more scrutiny to anyone
attempting to procure them in bulk.
U.S. citizens also are far more aware of the importance of
preoperational surveillance and -- fair or not -- it is now very difficult
for a person wearing traditional Muslim dress to take a photograph of
anything without being reported to the authorities by a concerned
citizen.
This change in attitude is particularly significant in the Muslim
community itself. Contrary to the hopes of bin Laden -- and the fears
of the U.S. government -- the theology of jihadism has not taken root
in the United States. Certainly there are individuals who have come
to embrace this ideology, as the arrests of some grassroots activists
demonstrate, but such people are very much the exception. In spite
of some problems, the law enforcement community has forged some
strong links to the Muslim community, and in several cases Muslims
have even reported potential jihadists to law enforcement.
Even in places where jihadism has more successfully infiltrated the
Muslim community, such as Europe, North Africa and Saudi Arabia,
the jihadists still consider it preferable to wage the "real" jihad
against "crusader troops" in places such as Iraq, rather than to
attack soft civilian targets in the West or elsewhere. As unpopular as
it is to say, in many ways Iraq has served as a sort of jihadist
magnet, drawing young men from around the world to "martyr"
themselves. Pragmatically, every young jihadist who travels from
Europe or the Middle East to die in Baghdad or Ar Ramadi is one
less who could attack Boston, London, Brussels or Rome.
Attitude is Everything
In late 1992 and early 1993, amateur planning was all that was
required to conduct a successful terrorist attack on U.S. soil. In
addition to the almost comical mistakes made by Salameh, serious
gaffes also were made by Ahmed Ajaj and Basit as they prepared
for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. However, because of the
prevailing apathetic attitude among law enforcement officials and the
public in general, those mistakes were not fatal to the operation.
Given the changes in attitude since 9/11, however, no operation
conducted as poorly as the 1993 bombing would succeed today.
Before the bombing, the FBI investigated the cell that carried it out,
made the determination that the men were harmless fanatics and
closed the investigation. That would not happen today, as even
slightly goofy, wannabe terrorists such as the Miami Seven are
vigorously investigated and prosecuted when possible.
When Ajaj and Basit flew into JFK Airport in September 1992,
authorities pretty much ignored the fact that Ajaj was found
transporting a large quantity of jihadist material, including
bombmaking manuals and videos. Instead, he was sentenced to six
months in jail for committing passport fraud -- a mere slap on the
wrist -- and was then to be deported. Had authorities taken the time
to carefully review the materials in Ajaj's briefcase, they would have
found two boarding passes and two passports with exit stamps from
Pakistan. Because of that oversight, no one noticed that Ajaj was
traveling with a companion. Even when his co-conspirators called
Ajaj in jail seeking his help in formulating their improvised explosive
mixtures and recovering the bombmaking manuals, the calls were
not traced. It was not until after the bombing that Ajaj's involvement
was discovered, and he was convicted and sentenced.
These kinds of oversights would not occur now. Furthermore, the
attitude of the public today makes it far more difficult for a
conspirator like Niday Ayyad to order chemicals used to construct a
bomb, or for the conspirators to receive and store such chemicals in
a rented storage space without being reported to the authorities.
Another change in attitude has been on the legal front. Prior to the
1993 World Trade Center bombing, there were no "terrorism"
statutes concerning the use of weapons of mass destruction or acts
of terrorism transcending national borders. Instead, prosecutors in
terrorism cases struggled to apply existing laws. The defendants in
the 1993 New York bomb plot case were not charged with
conspiring to build bombs or commit acts of international terrorism.
Rather, they were convicted on "seditious conspiracy" charges.
Similarly, Salameh was convicted of violating the Special Agricultural
Worker program and with damaging U.S. Secret Service cars stored
in the basement of the World Trade Center building.
The U.S. security environment has indeed improved dramatically
since 1993, largely as a result of the sweeping changes in attitude,
though also to some extent due to the magnet effect of the war in
Iraq. Success can engender complacency, however, and the lack of
attacks could allow attitudes -- and thus counterterrorism resources -
- to swing back toward the other end of the spectrum.
SUMMER 2007: THE ATTACK
THAT NEVER OCCURRED
By Fred Burton and Scott Stewart
The summer of 2007 was marked by threats and warnings of an
imminent terrorist attack against the United States. In addition to the
well-publicized warnings from Homeland Security Secretary Michael
Chertoff and a National Intelligence Estimate that al Qaeda was
gaining strength, a former Israeli counterterrorism official warned that
al Qaeda was planning a simultaneous attack against five to seven
American cities. Another warning of an impending dirty bomb attack
prompted the New York Police Department to set up vehicle
checkpoints near the financial district in Lower Manhattan. In
addition to these public warnings, U.S. government counterterrorism
sources also told us privately that they were seriously concerned
about the possibility of an attack.
All these warnings were followed by the Sept. 7 release of a video
message from Osama bin Laden, who had not been seen on video
since October 2004 or heard on audio tape since July 2006. Some
were convinced that his reappearance -- and his veiled threat -- was
the sign of a looming attack against the United States, or perhaps a
signal for an attack to commence.
In spite of all these warnings and bin Laden's reappearance -- not
the mention the relative ease with which an attack can be conducted
-- no attack occurred this summer. Although our assessment is that
the al Qaeda core has been damaged to the point that it no longer
poses a strategic threat to the U.S. homeland, tactical attacks
against soft targets remain simple to conduct and certainly are within
the reach of jihadist operatives -- regardless of whether they are
linked to the al Qaeda core.
We believe there are several reasons no attack occurred this
summer -- or since 9/11 for that matter.
No Conscious Decision
Before we discuss these factors, we must note that the lack of an
attack against the U.S. homeland since 9/11 has not been the result
of a calculated decision by bin Laden and the core al Qaeda
leadership. Far too many plots have been disrupted for that to be the
case. Many of those foiled and failed attacks, such as the 2006
foiled plot to destroy airliners flying from London to the United
States, the Library Tower Plot, Richard Reid's failed attempt to take
down American Airlines flight 63 in December 2001 and Jose
Padilla's activities -- bear connection to the core al Qaeda
leadership.
So, if the core al Qaeda has desired, and even attempted, to strike
the United States, why has it failed? Perhaps the greatest single
factor is attitude -- among law enforcement and intelligence
agencies, the public at large, the Muslim community and even the
jihadists themselves.
Law Enforcement and Intelligence
Prior to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the FBI denied the
existence of an international terrorism threat to the U.S. homeland, a
stance reflected in the bureau's "Terrorism in the United States"
publications in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Even after the radical
Zionist Rabbi Meir Kahane was killed by a jihadist with connections
to the Brooklyn Jihad Office and "Blind Sheikh" Omar Abdul-
Rahman, the FBI and Department of Justice denied the act was
terrorism and left the investigation and the prosecution of the
gunman, ElSayyid Nosair, to New York police and the Manhattan
District Attorney's Office. (Though they were greatly aided on the
federal level by the Diplomatic Security Service, which ran
investigative leads for them in Egypt and elsewhere.)
It was only after Nosair's associates detonated a large truck bomb in
the parking garage of the World Trade Center in 1993 that the
existence of a threat to the United States was recognized. Yet, even
after that bombing and the disruption of other plots -- the July 1997
plot to bomb the New York subway system and the December 1999
Millennium Bomb Plot -- the apathy toward counterterrorism
programs remained. This was most evident in the low levels of
funding and manpower devoted to counterterrorism programs prior to
9/11. As noted in the 9/11 Commission Report, counterterrorism
programs simply were not a priority.
Even the April 1995 Oklahoma City bombing made no real
difference. Some changes were made, such as physical security
enhancements at federal buildings, but they were merely window
dressing. The real problems, underlying structural problems in the
U.S. government's counterterrorism efforts -- resources, priorities
and intelligence-sharing -- were not addressed in a meaningful way.
Prior to 9/11, experts (including the two of us) lecturing to law
enforcement and intelligence groups about the al
Qaeda/transnational terrorist threat to the United States were met
with indifference. Of course, following 9/11 some of those same
groups paid careful attention to what the experts had to say.
Transnational terrorism had become real to them. The 9/11 attacks
sparked a sea change in attitudes within law enforcement and
intelligence circles. Counterterrorism -- aggressively collecting
intelligence pertaining to terrorism and pursuing terrorist leads -- is
now a priority.
Citizen Awareness
Before the 1993 World Trade Center bombing the American public
also was largely unconcerned about international terrorism. Even
after that bombing, the public remained largely apathetic about the
terrorist threat to the U.S. homeland. This was partly the result of the
media's coverage of the 1993 bombing, which seemed to focus on
the hapless, bumbling Mohamed Salameh and not the cunning and
dangerous Abdel Basit (who is more widely known by his alias,
Ramzi Yousef). Furthermore, the follow-on plot to that attack, the
1993 New York bomb plot -- for which Abdul-Rahman and some of
his followers were accused of planning strikes against the Lincoln
Tunnel and other New York City landmarks -- was thwarted. This led
many to believe that the government had a handle on terrorism and
that the United States was protected from such attacks. The second
plot was thwarted before it could be executed, and most Americans
never saw the gigantic crater (nearly 100 feet across) that the
February 1993 truck bomb created through several floors of Building
One's reinforced concrete parking garage. Instead, they saw only a
bit of smoke billowing from the damaged building. The 1993 cases
lacked the stunning visual displays of the 9/11 attacks.
The events of 9/11 also created a 180-degree change in how people
think about terrorism and how they perceive and respond to
suspicious activity. "If you see something, say something" has
become a popular mantra, especially in New York and other large
cities. Part of this stems from the changed attitudes of law
enforcement officials, who not only have issued appeals in the press
but also have made community outreach visits to nearly every flight
school, truck driving school, chemical supply company, fertilizer
dealer and storage rental company in the United States. Through
media reports of terrorist plots and attacks, the public also has
become much more aware of the precursor chemicals for improvised
explosive mixtures and applies far more scrutiny to anyone
attempting to procure them in bulk.
U.S. citizens also are far more aware of the importance of
preoperational surveillance and -- fair or not -- it is now very difficult
for a person wearing traditional Muslim dress to take a photograph of
anything without being reported to the authorities by a concerned
citizen.
This change in attitude is particularly significant in the Muslim
community itself. Contrary to the hopes of bin Laden -- and the fears
of the U.S. government -- the theology of jihadism has not taken root
in the United States. Certainly there are individuals who have come
to embrace this ideology, as the arrests of some grassroots activists
demonstrate, but such people are very much the exception. In spite
of some problems, the law enforcement community has forged some
strong links to the Muslim community, and in several cases Muslims
have even reported potential jihadists to law enforcement.
Even in places where jihadism has more successfully infiltrated the
Muslim community, such as Europe, North Africa and Saudi Arabia,
the jihadists still consider it preferable to wage the "real" jihad
against "crusader troops" in places such as Iraq, rather than to
attack soft civilian targets in the West or elsewhere. As unpopular as
it is to say, in many ways Iraq has served as a sort of jihadist
magnet, drawing young men from around the world to "martyr"
themselves. Pragmatically, every young jihadist who travels from
Europe or the Middle East to die in Baghdad or Ar Ramadi is one
less who could attack Boston, London, Brussels or Rome.
Attitude is Everything
In late 1992 and early 1993, amateur planning was all that was
required to conduct a successful terrorist attack on U.S. soil. In
addition to the almost comical mistakes made by Salameh, serious
gaffes also were made by Ahmed Ajaj and Basit as they prepared
for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. However, because of the
prevailing apathetic attitude among law enforcement officials and the
public in general, those mistakes were not fatal to the operation.
Given the changes in attitude since 9/11, however, no operation
conducted as poorly as the 1993 bombing would succeed today.
Before the bombing, the FBI investigated the cell that carried it out,
made the determination that the men were harmless fanatics and
closed the investigation. That would not happen today, as even
slightly goofy, wannabe terrorists such as the Miami Seven are
vigorously investigated and prosecuted when possible.
When Ajaj and Basit flew into JFK Airport in September 1992,
authorities pretty much ignored the fact that Ajaj was found
transporting a large quantity of jihadist material, including
bombmaking manuals and videos. Instead, he was sentenced to six
months in jail for committing passport fraud -- a mere slap on the
wrist -- and was then to be deported. Had authorities taken the time
to carefully review the materials in Ajaj's briefcase, they would have
found two boarding passes and two passports with exit stamps from
Pakistan. Because of that oversight, no one noticed that Ajaj was
traveling with a companion. Even when his co-conspirators called
Ajaj in jail seeking his help in formulating their improvised explosive
mixtures and recovering the bombmaking manuals, the calls were
not traced. It was not until after the bombing that Ajaj's involvement
was discovered, and he was convicted and sentenced.
These kinds of oversights would not occur now. Furthermore, the
attitude of the public today makes it far more difficult for a
conspirator like Niday Ayyad to order chemicals used to construct a
bomb, or for the conspirators to receive and store such chemicals in
a rented storage space without being reported to the authorities.
Another change in attitude has been on the legal front. Prior to the
1993 World Trade Center bombing, there were no "terrorism"
statutes concerning the use of weapons of mass destruction or acts
of terrorism transcending national borders. Instead, prosecutors in
terrorism cases struggled to apply existing laws. The defendants in
the 1993 New York bomb plot case were not charged with
conspiring to build bombs or commit acts of international terrorism.
Rather, they were convicted on "seditious conspiracy" charges.
Similarly, Salameh was convicted of violating the Special Agricultural
Worker program and with damaging U.S. Secret Service cars stored
in the basement of the World Trade Center building.
The U.S. security environment has indeed improved dramatically
since 1993, largely as a result of the sweeping changes in attitude,
though also to some extent due to the magnet effect of the war in
Iraq. Success can engender complacency, however, and the lack of
attacks could allow attitudes -- and thus counterterrorism resources -
- to swing back toward the other end of the spectrum.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Arabian Nights
The Book of One Thousand and One Nights has delighted readers for over a millennia. It is a collection of tales from the early days of Islam that is framed in a story about a beautiful girl, Scheherazade, who agrees to marry king Shahryar in order to end his practice of sleeping with a virgin each night and then killing her in the morning so she can’t be unfaithful to him as his wife had been. In order to win the king’s heart and keep him from killing her, Scheherazade tells him these fascinating stories night after night, each one ending with a cliffhanger that can only be resolved the following night, until he agrees not to kill her.
My favorite stories are the Barber’s tales of his six brothers, Aladdin and the magic lamp, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and the Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor. These tales are still fascinating even today, not only for children but even for adults. Not only do they entertain but they also are a window into the culture, religion and ethics of early Islam and Arabia.
My favorite stories are the Barber’s tales of his six brothers, Aladdin and the magic lamp, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and the Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor. These tales are still fascinating even today, not only for children but even for adults. Not only do they entertain but they also are a window into the culture, religion and ethics of early Islam and Arabia.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Pulling out of Iraq
A letter sent between high level Al Qaeda leaders in July, 2005 clearly outlines their four step strategy in Iraq for establishing a Caliphate within the heart of the Islamic world:
First, expel the Americans from Iraq.
Second, establish a fundamentalist Islamic government in Iraq.
Third, extend the Jihad wave to the secular Islamic countries in the region.
Fourth, initiate a clash with Israel.
It is clear that even if we pull out of Iraq, it will not be the end of Jihadist activity. As long as they are able, they will carry on this war until they have unified the Muslim world under the control of a fundamentalist Caliph.
Al Qaeda has always had a long-term strategy for Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as for the whole region. Osama bin Laden is convinced that the American military, government and people are incapable of sustaining a long war and will quickly withdraw when it gets inconvenient. The current push to withdraw troops from Iraq within a year plays right into Al Qaeda’s hands. Those calling for the withdrawal are short-sighted and playing with America’s security in order to win political points for the upcoming election.
Check out this website for some excellent analysis of what is going on in the war on terror: http://www.stratfor.com/
First, expel the Americans from Iraq.
Second, establish a fundamentalist Islamic government in Iraq.
Third, extend the Jihad wave to the secular Islamic countries in the region.
Fourth, initiate a clash with Israel.
It is clear that even if we pull out of Iraq, it will not be the end of Jihadist activity. As long as they are able, they will carry on this war until they have unified the Muslim world under the control of a fundamentalist Caliph.
Al Qaeda has always had a long-term strategy for Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as for the whole region. Osama bin Laden is convinced that the American military, government and people are incapable of sustaining a long war and will quickly withdraw when it gets inconvenient. The current push to withdraw troops from Iraq within a year plays right into Al Qaeda’s hands. Those calling for the withdrawal are short-sighted and playing with America’s security in order to win political points for the upcoming election.
Check out this website for some excellent analysis of what is going on in the war on terror: http://www.stratfor.com/
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Which Islam is the True Islam
In an excellent review of Lawrence Wright’s book, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, Stephen Prothero claims that Islam is not simply at war with the West but it as war with itself. Prothero traces the current political situation in radical Islam back to the Egyptian cleric Sayyid Qutb, executed in 1966, who began calling all Muslims who didn’t believe as he did as apostates and idol-worshippers. In this way, killing women and children became acceptable, and even mandatory, since the Qur’an calls for true Muslims to “slay the idolaters wherever you find them.”
Not only are Jews and Christians under this sentence of death, but all Muslims who do not hold to the radical view of Islam found in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and other fundamentalist Islamic countries. While we might think that no true Muslim would fly an airplane into a skyscraper in order to kill thousands of innocent women and children, a radical Muslim would think that no true Muslim would refuse such an honor.
You can read this article at: http://www.christianitytoday.com/books/features/bookwk/070319.html
Not only are Jews and Christians under this sentence of death, but all Muslims who do not hold to the radical view of Islam found in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and other fundamentalist Islamic countries. While we might think that no true Muslim would fly an airplane into a skyscraper in order to kill thousands of innocent women and children, a radical Muslim would think that no true Muslim would refuse such an honor.
You can read this article at: http://www.christianitytoday.com/books/features/bookwk/070319.html
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Love Your Muslim as Yourself
This article, "Love Your Muslim as Yourself", is one of the best Christian articles I have read about the situation in the Middle East. Most Christians (including myself) are woeful ignorant of what is really going on and what is motivating all of the violence. If we are going to love our neighbor as ourselves, we need to spend more time getting to know our neighbor. You can’t love someone you don’t understand, and we need to deepen our understanding of the world’s second-largest religion.
Here are a few quotes that I found convicting and helpful:
One reason is that Middle East conflicts are complex. In a press conference, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said the violence in Iraq cannot be described as a civil war. “I think that the words civil war oversimplify a very complex situation in Iraq,” he said. “I believe that there are essentially four wars going on in Iraq. “One is Shi'a on Shi'a, principally in the south; second is sectarian conflict, principally in Baghdad, but not solely; third is the insurgency; and fourth is al Qaeda, and al Qaeda is attacking, at times, all of those targets.” And that's just Iraq. Equally complex conflict characterizes Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Iran, and, of course, Israel and Palestine. While few would argue that Middle East issues are solely religious, there are strong religious dimensions to which our military and diplomatic efforts must pay attention.
“We have little, if any, ability to deal with religious differences in a hostile setting,” Johnston says. To be clear: It's not that Sunnis and Shi'as are killing each other over doctrine or worship practices—politics, revenge, culture, religion, and ethnicity have all come together to create an explosive, hate-filled atmosphere. But knowing more about Islam can provide the basic understanding needed to begin addressing such issues.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that evangelicals hold as many stereotypes and misunderstandings about Muslims as does our broader culture. We need to use Sunday school classes and sermons to communicate more about who Muslims really are and how we can love them as ourselves.
You can read the article at: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/april/11.27.html
Here are a few quotes that I found convicting and helpful:
One reason is that Middle East conflicts are complex. In a press conference, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said the violence in Iraq cannot be described as a civil war. “I think that the words civil war oversimplify a very complex situation in Iraq,” he said. “I believe that there are essentially four wars going on in Iraq. “One is Shi'a on Shi'a, principally in the south; second is sectarian conflict, principally in Baghdad, but not solely; third is the insurgency; and fourth is al Qaeda, and al Qaeda is attacking, at times, all of those targets.” And that's just Iraq. Equally complex conflict characterizes Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Iran, and, of course, Israel and Palestine. While few would argue that Middle East issues are solely religious, there are strong religious dimensions to which our military and diplomatic efforts must pay attention.
“We have little, if any, ability to deal with religious differences in a hostile setting,” Johnston says. To be clear: It's not that Sunnis and Shi'as are killing each other over doctrine or worship practices—politics, revenge, culture, religion, and ethnicity have all come together to create an explosive, hate-filled atmosphere. But knowing more about Islam can provide the basic understanding needed to begin addressing such issues.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that evangelicals hold as many stereotypes and misunderstandings about Muslims as does our broader culture. We need to use Sunday school classes and sermons to communicate more about who Muslims really are and how we can love them as ourselves.
You can read the article at: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/april/11.27.html
Friday, March 9, 2007
Preachers of Hate
Kenneth Timmerman is a journalist who has spent most of his life covering the news in the Middle East. In Preachers of Hate he traces the roots of anti-Semitism and how it is growing around the world, especially in the Middle East. He covers much of the same ground as other books I have read recently, but he uses a lot of primary source materials, interviews, and quotes to illustrate first-hand the hatred and racism of leaders and major figures not only in the Middle East but around the world.
One of the main sources of modern anti-Semitism is The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a fictional document published by the secret police in Russia around 1890 to 1900 to stir up hatred toward the Jews. The book pretends to be the minutes of secret meetings by Jewish leaders where they plot to take over the world. This document has been published in many languages and spread around the world. Even today, the lie that there is a worldwide conspiracy of Jews to take over the world is rampant in many countries.
Every fanatical Islamic radical is familiar with this document and they believe it is true. Islamic religious leaders use this work to indoctrinate young men and stir up in them a hatred for the Jews. Millions of copies are available in Arabic in every Arabic language bookstore around the world. It is one of the primary texts used to stir up animosity towards Israel and all Jews living around the world.
Another interesting fact is the alliance between Hitler and radical Islamists before and during World War II. Because of their mutual hatred of the Jews, an agreement was made to work together to eradicate the Jews from the earth. Prominent Nazi leaders had high level meetings with Arab leaders in order to facilitate the murder of millions of Jews not only in Europe, but throughout the Middle East during the war.
I also found the story behind how Yasser Arafat won the Nobel Peace prize in 1994. The prize was shared with Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin in order to quell public outrage. How any of these men could be considered candidates for a peace prize is beyond belief, especially Arafat. Yasser Arafat was adept at manipulating public opinion, mainly by promoting peace in English to the Western press and then turning around in Arabic and promoting the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews. If his statements in English were taken at face value without any consideration of his actions or true beliefs, it might be possible for him to be seen as a peacemaker. However, his actions and undeniable public statements leave no doubt that he had no intention of making peace with Israel. Instead, he worked tirelessly for Israel’s destruction and would settle for nothing less than complete annihilation of the Jews.
Here are some quotes from the book that clearly illustrate this point.
Here is a quote that clearly shows the message Arafat publicly declared he wanted to send to Palestinian children:
In an interview with Arafat broadcast on TV he was asked what message he wanted to share with the Palestinian children he quickly replied, “A Child who is grasping a stone, facing a tank, is it not the greatest message to the world when that child becomes a martyr. We are proud of him. Such a child will be given a new life.”
In addition to this, children are taught how to achieve martyrdom. One of the main roles of religious clerics is to educate young children in the art of suicide bombing. In Palestine, religious leaders are not men called by God but appointed by Arafat. They have no interest in religious education unless it is useful for stirring up hatred for the Jews. They are commanded to preach Jihad against Israel or be damned as the very word of God. This is a direct call to murder Jews for no other reason than hate. Killing Jews is not a political need but a religious requirement, and it is not an order from Arafat but the word of God Himself.
This is the message that has been pounded into them at the mosques week after week, year after year; if they want to be good Muslims they have to kill Jews. This is an important lesson we in the west have to heed. The enmity being preached against America and the West has nothing to do with politics or support for Israel but the simple fact that we are not Muslims.
Arafat’s top appointed cleric in Gaza preached: “The Jews are the allies of the Americans and the Americans are the allies of the Jews, and they are against you, Oh Muslims. Wherever you are, kill the Jews and those Americans who are like them and those who stand by them. They are all in one trench against the Arabs and the Muslims.
At the end of a video for children urging them to become martyrs, the official seal of the Palestinian Authority comes on at the end with a written message in Arabic and English: “Ask for death; the life will be given to you.”
Timmerman points out that not even Hitler’s youth were urged to commit suicide; they were taught to kill, not be killed. This is the ultimate in child abuse. That young children are being indoctrinated to hate Israel and the West and commit suicide in order to murder them still hasn’t been fully understood by the West.
Another important distinction to be made is that the present political conflict in Israel today is not the cause of the hatred of the Jews. Rather, it is the hatred of the Jews that is causing all the violence in the Middle East. It is not a matter of Israel’s political policies or defensive measures. No matter what Israel does, the only solution for the radical Muslim extremists is the total annihilation of Israel and the death of all Jews.
What Arafat and other Muslim leaders have done is take a minor border conflict in Palestine and have transformed it into a global conflict between Islam and non-Muslims, an eternal battle between Good and Evil. The Muslims have taken the position of no peace, no accommodation, no compromise, no coexistence. Muslims are being taught that the conflict between Muslims and Jews is total and eternal, and it will end only when the Muslims have murdered the last Jew hiding behind a tree or a stone.
Timmerman also gives some important information on Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda and the Saudi support of global terrorism through the takeover of mosques around the world by radical Wahhabi teachers.
Osama bin Laden boasted about his terrorist training camps, saying that “the only expense for a new trainee is the cost of travel to the camp. Everything else is paid for by Al Qaeda. We are building an international army, Mohammed’s army, to combat occupying governments. There are 26 million Muslims in Europe, and in the United Kingdom we have over 385 Islamic fundamentalist organizations, 1,200 mosques, and 800 fundraising organizations. We form a fifth column and we will create chaos. We won’t stop until we see the Muslim flag flying over Number 10 Downing Street.”
According to CIA former head George Tenet, “Al Qaeda’s terrorist network is present in over 60 countries. An estimated 20,000 men have received military and intelligence training in their camps before returning to their home countries. They form the backbone of a deadly worldwide Jihad.”
One of the main sources of modern anti-Semitism is The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a fictional document published by the secret police in Russia around 1890 to 1900 to stir up hatred toward the Jews. The book pretends to be the minutes of secret meetings by Jewish leaders where they plot to take over the world. This document has been published in many languages and spread around the world. Even today, the lie that there is a worldwide conspiracy of Jews to take over the world is rampant in many countries.
Every fanatical Islamic radical is familiar with this document and they believe it is true. Islamic religious leaders use this work to indoctrinate young men and stir up in them a hatred for the Jews. Millions of copies are available in Arabic in every Arabic language bookstore around the world. It is one of the primary texts used to stir up animosity towards Israel and all Jews living around the world.
Another interesting fact is the alliance between Hitler and radical Islamists before and during World War II. Because of their mutual hatred of the Jews, an agreement was made to work together to eradicate the Jews from the earth. Prominent Nazi leaders had high level meetings with Arab leaders in order to facilitate the murder of millions of Jews not only in Europe, but throughout the Middle East during the war.
I also found the story behind how Yasser Arafat won the Nobel Peace prize in 1994. The prize was shared with Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin in order to quell public outrage. How any of these men could be considered candidates for a peace prize is beyond belief, especially Arafat. Yasser Arafat was adept at manipulating public opinion, mainly by promoting peace in English to the Western press and then turning around in Arabic and promoting the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews. If his statements in English were taken at face value without any consideration of his actions or true beliefs, it might be possible for him to be seen as a peacemaker. However, his actions and undeniable public statements leave no doubt that he had no intention of making peace with Israel. Instead, he worked tirelessly for Israel’s destruction and would settle for nothing less than complete annihilation of the Jews.
Here are some quotes from the book that clearly illustrate this point.
Here is a quote that clearly shows the message Arafat publicly declared he wanted to send to Palestinian children:
In an interview with Arafat broadcast on TV he was asked what message he wanted to share with the Palestinian children he quickly replied, “A Child who is grasping a stone, facing a tank, is it not the greatest message to the world when that child becomes a martyr. We are proud of him. Such a child will be given a new life.”
In addition to this, children are taught how to achieve martyrdom. One of the main roles of religious clerics is to educate young children in the art of suicide bombing. In Palestine, religious leaders are not men called by God but appointed by Arafat. They have no interest in religious education unless it is useful for stirring up hatred for the Jews. They are commanded to preach Jihad against Israel or be damned as the very word of God. This is a direct call to murder Jews for no other reason than hate. Killing Jews is not a political need but a religious requirement, and it is not an order from Arafat but the word of God Himself.
This is the message that has been pounded into them at the mosques week after week, year after year; if they want to be good Muslims they have to kill Jews. This is an important lesson we in the west have to heed. The enmity being preached against America and the West has nothing to do with politics or support for Israel but the simple fact that we are not Muslims.
Arafat’s top appointed cleric in Gaza preached: “The Jews are the allies of the Americans and the Americans are the allies of the Jews, and they are against you, Oh Muslims. Wherever you are, kill the Jews and those Americans who are like them and those who stand by them. They are all in one trench against the Arabs and the Muslims.
At the end of a video for children urging them to become martyrs, the official seal of the Palestinian Authority comes on at the end with a written message in Arabic and English: “Ask for death; the life will be given to you.”
Timmerman points out that not even Hitler’s youth were urged to commit suicide; they were taught to kill, not be killed. This is the ultimate in child abuse. That young children are being indoctrinated to hate Israel and the West and commit suicide in order to murder them still hasn’t been fully understood by the West.
Another important distinction to be made is that the present political conflict in Israel today is not the cause of the hatred of the Jews. Rather, it is the hatred of the Jews that is causing all the violence in the Middle East. It is not a matter of Israel’s political policies or defensive measures. No matter what Israel does, the only solution for the radical Muslim extremists is the total annihilation of Israel and the death of all Jews.
What Arafat and other Muslim leaders have done is take a minor border conflict in Palestine and have transformed it into a global conflict between Islam and non-Muslims, an eternal battle between Good and Evil. The Muslims have taken the position of no peace, no accommodation, no compromise, no coexistence. Muslims are being taught that the conflict between Muslims and Jews is total and eternal, and it will end only when the Muslims have murdered the last Jew hiding behind a tree or a stone.
Timmerman also gives some important information on Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda and the Saudi support of global terrorism through the takeover of mosques around the world by radical Wahhabi teachers.
Osama bin Laden boasted about his terrorist training camps, saying that “the only expense for a new trainee is the cost of travel to the camp. Everything else is paid for by Al Qaeda. We are building an international army, Mohammed’s army, to combat occupying governments. There are 26 million Muslims in Europe, and in the United Kingdom we have over 385 Islamic fundamentalist organizations, 1,200 mosques, and 800 fundraising organizations. We form a fifth column and we will create chaos. We won’t stop until we see the Muslim flag flying over Number 10 Downing Street.”
According to CIA former head George Tenet, “Al Qaeda’s terrorist network is present in over 60 countries. An estimated 20,000 men have received military and intelligence training in their camps before returning to their home countries. They form the backbone of a deadly worldwide Jihad.”
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
See No Evil
See No Evil chronicles the twenty-five years of Robert Baer’s career as a field operative for the CIA. Bob spent many years on the ground collecting intelligence in the Middle East and is privy to much of what went on behind the scene in this volatile area. Much of the book is more fascinating than a Tom Clancy or Robert Ludlum spy novel, especially because it records real events. The people Bob dealt with and the situations he got himself into, and out of, are more colorful than any fiction author could have imagined and put down on paper.
In addition to being entertaining, it is very informative. It is one of the best books I have read on the Middle East and terrorism so far. Bob has first hand knowledge of many of the key players in the Middle East and he traces all the connections with great detail. In fact, there is so much detail it is impossible to keep all the people, places, dates and facts straight.
As a case officer, Bob recruited and ran hundreds of agents, collecting information on terrorists vital to the security of our country. He paints a vivid picture of what life is like as a real secret agent, not some James Bond fantasy. His descriptions are so realistic they draw you into the action so you feel as if you are there experiencing everything with him.
Bob has a clear purpose for writing this book, and it isn’t merely to entertain people or to boost his image. He is serious about the degeneration of America’s intelligence agencies and their increasing inability to collect valuable intelligence on our enemies. Bob clearly saw the decline of the CIA from the inside, and its devolution into near complete incompetence led him to resign. When America’s intelligence officers become more concerned with protecting their careers than in gathering intelligence, it is the beginning of the end. It was shocking to see how so many within the CIA and other intelligence agencies were not collecting intelligence and actually preventing those in the field from collecting any worthwhile intelligence.
As a result, America is blind and deaf and has no clue what is happening around the world, especially in Islamic countries. At the beginning of the Iraq war, there was not a single agent within Iraq collecting intelligence for the U.S. There are no human intelligence resources in any Muslim nation, nor has anyone penetrated any terrorist organization. It is no wonder that we were taken by surprise on 9/11.
Another problem is the politicization of the intelligence agencies. More often than not, presidents and elected officials are more concerned with their public image and getting reelected than they are in dealing realistically with terrorism. Terrorism is messy and it is easier to sweep the information under the rug than to deal with it. For example, the CIA had clear intelligence that gave them the exact date and time that the U.S. Embassy in Beirut would be bombed, but the information was never acted upon. The CIA knew from the very beginning that Iran was behind the bombing and was using the Islamic Jihadist Organization as a front to cover their tracks. But instead of punishing Iran, the U.S. chose to ignore Iran’s terrorist activities and let it get away with many more terrorist strikes. In fact, the U.S. knew that a high ranking Iranian government official was the leader of the IJO attacks, yet chose to pin their hopes on building a relationship with him in order to normalize relationships with Iran.
In the 1990s there was clear evidence that Osama bin Laden had networked with the IJO and was being backed by Iran. In fact, bin Laden had a hand in many of the IJO’s bombings. Bin Laden went to Iran and convinced them to stop trying to undermine the Central Asian states and to join him in attacking America. Bin Laden also networked with Egypt’s Islamic Brotherhood, forming the most formidable terrorist alliance in history. These three organizations, IJO, IB, and Al Qaeda are all working together to destroy the West, and they are not only determined, they are trained and equipped to carry out their goal. The attacks of 9/11 were not carried out solely by Al Qaeda, but by this new terrorist alliance. The problem is much larger than the U.S. government has let on.
The CIA and the U.S. government knew of the connections of Iran and Saudi Arabia to radical Islamic terrorist organizations yet chose to remain silent. They felt it is better to “See no evil” than to deal with the growing threat. It is easier to sweep the bad news under the rug and leave it for the next administration to deal with. Getting reelected was much more important than stopping global terrorism, especially since any effective action would be politically damaging. All the presidents in the last 15 years have glossed over the problems, kept the truth from the public, and pretended that they were doing all they could to fight terrorism, all the while refusing to act on the truth. This is why we are in such a mess today. Terrorism has grown into one of the most pernicious problems because our government didn’t have the backbone to do what is necessary to stop it while it was still a localized problem.
America’s response to 9/11 was misguided since it failed to deal with the source of terrorism. Even if we killed Osama bin Laden or captured him and paraded him down the streets of Manhattan, all we would do would be to make a martyr out of him around which millions of young Islamic men would rally. By attacking Saddam Hussein, we have only done what is easy and not what is needed. By attacking Iraq we have only infuriated all the Islamic states and given them a chance to give us a black eye.
One of the most startling revelations Bob gives is the failed attempt by the Iraqi military to overthrow Saddam Hussein. The Iraqi general behind the plot begged for American assistance but the U.S. waited until the last day to tell the general that we would not help. By then it was too late since the key players were already committed and couldn’t back out. The end result was the capture and execution of all the coupe leaders, except the general who escaped to Belgium. The U.S. could have had Saddam ousted without a single American life lost, but because Clinton didn’t have the guts to do what was right, we are stuck in Iraq today.
The key is to gather intelligence on the terrorists. We need to infiltrate their networks, and get agents on the ground who can tell us what the terrorists are planning so we can stop them. As long as we trust in satellites and high tech gadgets and refuse to employ human intelligence, we will lose the war. We also have to do what is necessary to stop the terrorists before they can strike.
Terrorists do not have bureaucracies to slow them down, bureaucrats interested in protecting their careers, calcified channels of command and do-nothing politicians. Instead, they are highly motivated, highly trained, focused and agile, forming networks when needed, and then dismantling those networks when they are finished. They are quick, intelligent, and won’t stop until they succeed. We can’t afford to play games and sweep the truth under the rug any longer.
After retiring from the CIA, Robert Baer became a consultant. He moved to Beirut and renewed old networks. In August of 2001, one of his contacts gave him a list of all the operatives in Al Qaeda along with information that they were planning something “big.” This information, along with other crucial intelligence on bin Laden, was sent to the CIA, but no response was ever given. Bob then met with a high Saudi government official who refused to even look at the list. They, too, like America, wanted to keep their head in the sand and “see no evil.”
Here are some helpful links:
http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/03/09/12_baer.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Baer
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200305/baer
http://books.guardian.co.uk/extracts/story/0,,631433,00.html
http://www.fpa.org/topics_info2414/topics_info_show.htm?doc_id=100339
In addition to being entertaining, it is very informative. It is one of the best books I have read on the Middle East and terrorism so far. Bob has first hand knowledge of many of the key players in the Middle East and he traces all the connections with great detail. In fact, there is so much detail it is impossible to keep all the people, places, dates and facts straight.
As a case officer, Bob recruited and ran hundreds of agents, collecting information on terrorists vital to the security of our country. He paints a vivid picture of what life is like as a real secret agent, not some James Bond fantasy. His descriptions are so realistic they draw you into the action so you feel as if you are there experiencing everything with him.
Bob has a clear purpose for writing this book, and it isn’t merely to entertain people or to boost his image. He is serious about the degeneration of America’s intelligence agencies and their increasing inability to collect valuable intelligence on our enemies. Bob clearly saw the decline of the CIA from the inside, and its devolution into near complete incompetence led him to resign. When America’s intelligence officers become more concerned with protecting their careers than in gathering intelligence, it is the beginning of the end. It was shocking to see how so many within the CIA and other intelligence agencies were not collecting intelligence and actually preventing those in the field from collecting any worthwhile intelligence.
As a result, America is blind and deaf and has no clue what is happening around the world, especially in Islamic countries. At the beginning of the Iraq war, there was not a single agent within Iraq collecting intelligence for the U.S. There are no human intelligence resources in any Muslim nation, nor has anyone penetrated any terrorist organization. It is no wonder that we were taken by surprise on 9/11.
Another problem is the politicization of the intelligence agencies. More often than not, presidents and elected officials are more concerned with their public image and getting reelected than they are in dealing realistically with terrorism. Terrorism is messy and it is easier to sweep the information under the rug than to deal with it. For example, the CIA had clear intelligence that gave them the exact date and time that the U.S. Embassy in Beirut would be bombed, but the information was never acted upon. The CIA knew from the very beginning that Iran was behind the bombing and was using the Islamic Jihadist Organization as a front to cover their tracks. But instead of punishing Iran, the U.S. chose to ignore Iran’s terrorist activities and let it get away with many more terrorist strikes. In fact, the U.S. knew that a high ranking Iranian government official was the leader of the IJO attacks, yet chose to pin their hopes on building a relationship with him in order to normalize relationships with Iran.
In the 1990s there was clear evidence that Osama bin Laden had networked with the IJO and was being backed by Iran. In fact, bin Laden had a hand in many of the IJO’s bombings. Bin Laden went to Iran and convinced them to stop trying to undermine the Central Asian states and to join him in attacking America. Bin Laden also networked with Egypt’s Islamic Brotherhood, forming the most formidable terrorist alliance in history. These three organizations, IJO, IB, and Al Qaeda are all working together to destroy the West, and they are not only determined, they are trained and equipped to carry out their goal. The attacks of 9/11 were not carried out solely by Al Qaeda, but by this new terrorist alliance. The problem is much larger than the U.S. government has let on.
The CIA and the U.S. government knew of the connections of Iran and Saudi Arabia to radical Islamic terrorist organizations yet chose to remain silent. They felt it is better to “See no evil” than to deal with the growing threat. It is easier to sweep the bad news under the rug and leave it for the next administration to deal with. Getting reelected was much more important than stopping global terrorism, especially since any effective action would be politically damaging. All the presidents in the last 15 years have glossed over the problems, kept the truth from the public, and pretended that they were doing all they could to fight terrorism, all the while refusing to act on the truth. This is why we are in such a mess today. Terrorism has grown into one of the most pernicious problems because our government didn’t have the backbone to do what is necessary to stop it while it was still a localized problem.
America’s response to 9/11 was misguided since it failed to deal with the source of terrorism. Even if we killed Osama bin Laden or captured him and paraded him down the streets of Manhattan, all we would do would be to make a martyr out of him around which millions of young Islamic men would rally. By attacking Saddam Hussein, we have only done what is easy and not what is needed. By attacking Iraq we have only infuriated all the Islamic states and given them a chance to give us a black eye.
One of the most startling revelations Bob gives is the failed attempt by the Iraqi military to overthrow Saddam Hussein. The Iraqi general behind the plot begged for American assistance but the U.S. waited until the last day to tell the general that we would not help. By then it was too late since the key players were already committed and couldn’t back out. The end result was the capture and execution of all the coupe leaders, except the general who escaped to Belgium. The U.S. could have had Saddam ousted without a single American life lost, but because Clinton didn’t have the guts to do what was right, we are stuck in Iraq today.
The key is to gather intelligence on the terrorists. We need to infiltrate their networks, and get agents on the ground who can tell us what the terrorists are planning so we can stop them. As long as we trust in satellites and high tech gadgets and refuse to employ human intelligence, we will lose the war. We also have to do what is necessary to stop the terrorists before they can strike.
Terrorists do not have bureaucracies to slow them down, bureaucrats interested in protecting their careers, calcified channels of command and do-nothing politicians. Instead, they are highly motivated, highly trained, focused and agile, forming networks when needed, and then dismantling those networks when they are finished. They are quick, intelligent, and won’t stop until they succeed. We can’t afford to play games and sweep the truth under the rug any longer.
After retiring from the CIA, Robert Baer became a consultant. He moved to Beirut and renewed old networks. In August of 2001, one of his contacts gave him a list of all the operatives in Al Qaeda along with information that they were planning something “big.” This information, along with other crucial intelligence on bin Laden, was sent to the CIA, but no response was ever given. Bob then met with a high Saudi government official who refused to even look at the list. They, too, like America, wanted to keep their head in the sand and “see no evil.”
Here are some helpful links:
http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/03/09/12_baer.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Baer
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200305/baer
http://books.guardian.co.uk/extracts/story/0,,631433,00.html
http://www.fpa.org/topics_info2414/topics_info_show.htm?doc_id=100339
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Terrorist
Terrorist, the newest novel by John Updike, is well written and thought provoking. Ahmad is a high school senior living with his mother, a flirtatious Irish woman, having been abandoned by his father, an Arab, while he was an infant. Even though he is only half Arab and is raised by his ex-Catholic mother, he chooses to follow Islam. He is very serious about his faith and studies the Koran with an Yemini Imam, who fills his mind with anti-American rhetoric and a Jihad.
His Imam convinces him to become a truck driver and not go to college. After high school he gets a job delivering furniture for an Arabic Furniture company. He discovers that on some of his deliveries he is dropping off more than furniture when he secretly watches the recipients tear the furniture open and take out thousands of dollars hidden inside. He confronts his coworker who explains that they are payments for a terrorist cell planning an attack on the anniversary of 9/11. Ahmad agrees to drive the truck that will be laden with explosives and die a martyr’s death by blowing up a commuter tunnel during the morning rush hour.
John Updike writes with a deft style and fully develops his characters. Scenery and action are vividly painted without bogging down the plot. He does an excellent job portraying the mindset of an Islamic extremist. By listening to Ahmad talk and think, you get a sense of how a young Muslim thinks and feels. The faith of a terrorist comes to life in this novel, giving you a better understanding of what drives these men to commit suicide in the service of Jihad.
However, there are several problems with this novel. First, John Updike always works graphic sex into his novels, and this novel is no exception. Second, the ending is not completely believable. I don’t want to ruin the ending, so let me say that there is not enough psychological development to support the choice Ahmad makes at the end. Also, it is unlikely that the events could realistically play out the way he portrays them. In light of these drawbacks, I feel that this novel is an important contribution to understanding the religious, social, intellectual and emotional context of radical Islamic terrorism. Anyone who wants to gain a better understanding of how such attacks can be justified in the minds of the terrorists, this novel will be very helpful.
His Imam convinces him to become a truck driver and not go to college. After high school he gets a job delivering furniture for an Arabic Furniture company. He discovers that on some of his deliveries he is dropping off more than furniture when he secretly watches the recipients tear the furniture open and take out thousands of dollars hidden inside. He confronts his coworker who explains that they are payments for a terrorist cell planning an attack on the anniversary of 9/11. Ahmad agrees to drive the truck that will be laden with explosives and die a martyr’s death by blowing up a commuter tunnel during the morning rush hour.
John Updike writes with a deft style and fully develops his characters. Scenery and action are vividly painted without bogging down the plot. He does an excellent job portraying the mindset of an Islamic extremist. By listening to Ahmad talk and think, you get a sense of how a young Muslim thinks and feels. The faith of a terrorist comes to life in this novel, giving you a better understanding of what drives these men to commit suicide in the service of Jihad.
However, there are several problems with this novel. First, John Updike always works graphic sex into his novels, and this novel is no exception. Second, the ending is not completely believable. I don’t want to ruin the ending, so let me say that there is not enough psychological development to support the choice Ahmad makes at the end. Also, it is unlikely that the events could realistically play out the way he portrays them. In light of these drawbacks, I feel that this novel is an important contribution to understanding the religious, social, intellectual and emotional context of radical Islamic terrorism. Anyone who wants to gain a better understanding of how such attacks can be justified in the minds of the terrorists, this novel will be very helpful.
Saturday, February 3, 2007
Love’s Kingdom
While listening to Hatred’s Kingdom by Dore Gold, I was struck by the similarities between Saudi Wahhabi Muslims and the Pharisees of the New Testament. Extremist Muslims desire purity and righteousness and pursue it with a passion unequalled in the world today. This zeal is very similar to the zeal the Apostle Paul had:
“If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.” (Philippians 3:4-6).
Paul was the most righteous and zealous Jew of his day. No one could claim to be any more righteous than he, and his zeal for God was unmatched by any of his contemporaries. He was so zealous that he killed Christians, hunting them down in order to kill them. Yet Paul had a stunning revelation that caused him to realize that what he thought was the ultimate gain was actually the ultimate loss in God’s eyes. He was blinded by his own zeal and self-righteousness. He couldn’t see the truth until God dramatically broke through to him.
The Pharisees of Jesus’ day were very religious; praying, fasting, giving alms, and maintaining their purity. However, they had no love. They hated Jesus and sought to kill him, finally succeeding by having him crucified. They were intolerant of “sinners” and saw themselves as better than them. They loved to be seen praying and fasting, taking every opportunity to display their righteousness and piety yet they refused to lift a finger to help the poor and needy. They looked down on women and despised Gentiles, refusing to let them into their houses or to enter a Gentile’s house. Jesus had his harshest words for them:
On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:12-13)
“If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.” (Matthew 12:7)
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.” (Matthew 23:23)
Like the Pharisees, the radical Islamists have neglected mercy and love in their pursuit of righteousness and piety. Yet righteousness without love is a sham. John clearly teaches in his first epistle that to claim to know God but not love your brother is a lie:
Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him. (1 John 2:9-11)
This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. (1 John 3:10)
We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. (1 John 3:14-15)
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1 John 4:8)
If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. (1 John 4:20)
Now, a Muslim may say that he loves his brother. Yet, loving those who are like you, are kind to you, and agree with you is easy. It is when you love those who hate you, persecute you, are different from you and don’t agree with you that you demonstrate your true character. If you do not love these people, then your love for your “brother” is a sham. Jesus said:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?” (Matthew 5:43-47)
Righteousness and love must mark the true believer. One without the other is deficient. They are two sides of the same coin. God is light and God is love. He is holy and righteous and demands holiness and righteousness of his people. However, he is also love and he demands love of his people as well. God’s love and holiness work together. God is both just and the one who justifies:
God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:25-26)
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
God’s holiness demands that sin be punished but God’s love provided the means for that sin to be cleansed and removed. The Pharisees saw, and extremist Muslims see, God as only holy and righteous, demanding righteousness and punishing sin, leaving no room for forgiveness, mercy and love. This produces a harsh, legalistic, self-righteousness that is intolerant, inflexible, uncaring, unmerciful and rigid.
The danger today is to go to the other extreme and see God as only love. This has resulted in a wimpy, feel-good, morally lax Christianity without any backbone. “If it feels good, do it”, and “Don’t judge me” are some of the mottos these antinomian Christians like to quote.
However, the key is to hold on to both God’s holiness and God’s love and seek to live a life characterized by both. Paul says that the law is summed up in love:
Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. (Romans 13:10)
The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:14)
We need to have a loving righteousness, a righteousness motivated and expressed through love. Anything less is not genuine faith. We must be careful that we as Christians don’t become like the extremist Muslims and seek righteousness apart from love. We must also be careful not to seek love apart from righteousness. We need to be lights to this dark world by loving righteously. The best answer we can give in response to the hatred of Wahhabi Islamic extremists is to demonstrate a radical righteous love to all.
“If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.” (Philippians 3:4-6).
Paul was the most righteous and zealous Jew of his day. No one could claim to be any more righteous than he, and his zeal for God was unmatched by any of his contemporaries. He was so zealous that he killed Christians, hunting them down in order to kill them. Yet Paul had a stunning revelation that caused him to realize that what he thought was the ultimate gain was actually the ultimate loss in God’s eyes. He was blinded by his own zeal and self-righteousness. He couldn’t see the truth until God dramatically broke through to him.
The Pharisees of Jesus’ day were very religious; praying, fasting, giving alms, and maintaining their purity. However, they had no love. They hated Jesus and sought to kill him, finally succeeding by having him crucified. They were intolerant of “sinners” and saw themselves as better than them. They loved to be seen praying and fasting, taking every opportunity to display their righteousness and piety yet they refused to lift a finger to help the poor and needy. They looked down on women and despised Gentiles, refusing to let them into their houses or to enter a Gentile’s house. Jesus had his harshest words for them:
On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:12-13)
“If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.” (Matthew 12:7)
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.” (Matthew 23:23)
Like the Pharisees, the radical Islamists have neglected mercy and love in their pursuit of righteousness and piety. Yet righteousness without love is a sham. John clearly teaches in his first epistle that to claim to know God but not love your brother is a lie:
Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him. (1 John 2:9-11)
This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. (1 John 3:10)
We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. (1 John 3:14-15)
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1 John 4:8)
If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. (1 John 4:20)
Now, a Muslim may say that he loves his brother. Yet, loving those who are like you, are kind to you, and agree with you is easy. It is when you love those who hate you, persecute you, are different from you and don’t agree with you that you demonstrate your true character. If you do not love these people, then your love for your “brother” is a sham. Jesus said:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?” (Matthew 5:43-47)
Righteousness and love must mark the true believer. One without the other is deficient. They are two sides of the same coin. God is light and God is love. He is holy and righteous and demands holiness and righteousness of his people. However, he is also love and he demands love of his people as well. God’s love and holiness work together. God is both just and the one who justifies:
God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:25-26)
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
God’s holiness demands that sin be punished but God’s love provided the means for that sin to be cleansed and removed. The Pharisees saw, and extremist Muslims see, God as only holy and righteous, demanding righteousness and punishing sin, leaving no room for forgiveness, mercy and love. This produces a harsh, legalistic, self-righteousness that is intolerant, inflexible, uncaring, unmerciful and rigid.
The danger today is to go to the other extreme and see God as only love. This has resulted in a wimpy, feel-good, morally lax Christianity without any backbone. “If it feels good, do it”, and “Don’t judge me” are some of the mottos these antinomian Christians like to quote.
However, the key is to hold on to both God’s holiness and God’s love and seek to live a life characterized by both. Paul says that the law is summed up in love:
Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. (Romans 13:10)
The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:14)
We need to have a loving righteousness, a righteousness motivated and expressed through love. Anything less is not genuine faith. We must be careful that we as Christians don’t become like the extremist Muslims and seek righteousness apart from love. We must also be careful not to seek love apart from righteousness. We need to be lights to this dark world by loving righteously. The best answer we can give in response to the hatred of Wahhabi Islamic extremists is to demonstrate a radical righteous love to all.
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