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Posts Tagged ‘jihad’

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Islamo-Fascism Awareness Day

Posted by Richard on April 15, 2007

As if April 19th weren't already a significant enough date, the David Horowitz Freedom Center's new Terrorism Awareness Project has chosen that date as Islamo-Fascism Awareness Day:

On April 19th, TAP will stage a nationwide Islamo-Fascism Awareness Day. The focus of this national event will be a screening of the groundbreaking film Obsession: Radical Islam's War against the West on dozens of college campuses across America. …

Obsession is a wake up call. It offers a direct and chilling profile of what is brewing in the world of jihad right now-the plans for the mass murder of Americans and other Westerners and the justification that rationalizes radical Islam's blueprints for genocide.

We anticipate a great deal of opposition from the radical left that refuses to recognize that the War on Terror was not started by Washington, but has been declared on us by a global confederacy of Islamists dedicated to the subjugation and murder of us and other "infidels".

I've posted about Obsession before. It's compelling and important. If you're near one of the 70 or so campuses participating in this event, I urge you to attend. The University of Colorado at Boulder is one of them. Check the Islamo-Fascism Awareness Day page for the full list.

I've also written about the Terrorism Awareness Project before, recommending "The Islamic Mein Kampf" and other materials available at the site. Check it out.

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Econ 101 and Iran

Posted by Richard on March 22, 2007

The Watcher of Weasels chose Big Lizards to fill the last vacancy on the Watcher's Council, and it looks like a fine choice. Check out, for example, The Contranomics of Global Jihad, nominated by the Council as one of this week's most link-worthy pieces of writing. Dafydd's excellent post argues that Iran is in the process of being defeated in the same way that the Soviet Union was defeated — by economics, not military force (emphasis in original):

Force projection is dreadfully expensive, even if you call it global jihadism: Iran is supporting Hezbollah in Syria and Lebanon, the Qods Force in Iraq, a war against Israel a few months ago, assassins all over the world, and Shiite revolutionary movements from Malaysia to Venezuela. But at the same time, the drain on their resources from trying to develop a nuclear "Qods bomb" and buy a delivery system from North Korea, Russia, or Red China has caused Iran to stop investing in its oil infrastructure.

Totalitarian, anti-capitalist societies, Dafydd points out, simply can't afford the technological development and force projection that Iran is trying to pursue. Only free, open societies that grasp Econ 101 can do that.

Read the whole thing. And browse some of his other stuff, too — it's a good blog, once you get past the blinding banner!

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Monsters

Posted by Richard on March 21, 2007

The enlightened intelligentsia, the sensitive liberals, the sophisticated Europeans, the journalists whose goal is to make this a better world — they all agree that we unenlightened American yahoos need to be less judgmental and more understanding of the grievances of the radical Islamists, that we need to be willing to talk with them, to negotiate and search for common ground. That we need to temper our hostility, abate our anger, abandon our adversarial stance, and ask ourselves and them, "Can't we all just get along?"

Yesterday, Little Green Footballs pointed out this AFP story that further illuminates the nature of the enemy with whom we're supposed to reconcile. In case you missed it:

Insurgents in Iraq detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle with two children in the back seat after US soldiers let it through a Baghdad checkpoint over the weekend, a senior US military official said Tuesday.

The vehicle was stopped at the checkpoint but was allowed through when soldiers saw the children in the back, said Major General Michael Barbero of the Pentagon's Joint Staff.

"Children in the back seat lowered suspicion. We let it move through. They parked the vehicle, and the adults ran out and detonated it with the children in the back," Barbero said.

The general said it was the first time he had seen a report of insurgents using children in suicide bombings. But he said Al-Qaeda in Iraq is changing tactics in response to the tighter controls around the city.

They parked the vehicle between a market and a school. The explosion was relatively small, really. It only injured seven and killed five. Including the two children, of course.

No, we can't understand. Or talk. Or find common ground. Or get along. There is nothing to negotiate and no middle ground. Is that clear?

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Individual jihad

Posted by Richard on February 16, 2007

The other day, I said that the Salt Lake City shooter, Sulejman Talovic, was a Muslim, but that if there was evidence of a religio-political motive, it probably wouldn’t get reported. Robert Spencer has a new article at FrontPageMag.com that addresses this issue.

Spencer described four "random acts of violence" with multiple victims committed by young Muslim men in the past year — one was a shooter, and the other three used vehicles as weapons. According to officials, all four were just disturbed individuals acting alone, and they "had nothing to do with terrorism." That may be true, said Spencer, but another possibility ought to be considered (emphasis added):

None of these were terrorist attacks in the sense that they were planned and executed by al-Qaeda agents. And it is possible that all of them were products of nothing more ideologically significant than a disturbed mental state, although it is at least noteworthy that each attacker explained his actions in terms of Islamic terrorism. As such attacks grow in number, it would behoove authorities at very least to consider the possibility that these attacks were inspired by the jihadist ideology of Islamic supremacism, and to step up pressure on American Muslim advocacy groups to renounce that ideology definitively and begin extensive programs to teach against it in American Islamic schools and mosques.

In October 2006, a pro-jihad internet site published a “Guide for Individual Jihad,” explaining to jihadists “how to fight alone.” It recommended, among other things, assassination with guns and running people over. Is it possible that Sulejmen Talovic and some of these others were waging this jihad of one? It is indeed, but with law enforcement officials trained only to look for signs of membership in al-Qaeda or other jihad groups, and to discount terrorism as a factor if those signs aren’t there, it is a possibility that investigators will continue to overlook.

This is speculative, as Spencer himself said, but if a radical Islamist web site is promoting the idea of "individual jihad," isn’t it reasonable to suppose that some of its followers might act on that?

Pressuring American Muslim groups to renounce the "jihadist ideology of Islamic supremacism" and begin teaching against it in schools and mosques sounds like a very good idea. But it also sounds like a pipe dream. At this point, it would be a major step forward if we could get the majority of Islamic schools and mosques to give up their Saudi-provided Wahhabi texts and stop teaching that ideology.
 

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Another jihadi?

Posted by Richard on February 14, 2007

A Google News search for trolley square mall gunman just returned 1,258 results. A search for trolley square mall gunman muslim returned 3. I suppose it’s prudent at this stage of the investigation to say, as most reports do, that no one knows the shooter’s motive yet. Or to say, as Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank did, that his motive was "to kill a large number of people."

According to news reports, however, Sulejman Talovic, the 18-year-old shooter, was a Bosnian who came to the United States with his family in 1998 as refugees from Croatia. Given his name and background, I’d wager a fairly large sum on Sulejman being a Muslim. That doesn’t necessarily mean he was a jihadi with a religio-political motive. But I’d sure be looking into the mosque he attended and the other young Muslims he hung out with.

Most of Sulejman’s victims were people in a card shop buying Valentine’s Day cards, and that holiday apparently is deeply offensive to certain Muslims.

Sulejman wouldn’t be the first jihadi in the U.S. to start shooting people in a public place. And as Dr. Rusty Shackleford noted (emphasis added):

We should also remember that the Islamist message boards have been encouraging potential jihadis to keep it simple. Also, it’s important to think about the role of the internet in creating "virtual cells" of mujahideen. That is, jihadis who may never physically meet or formally join an terror organization, but who encourage one another to do acts of violence.

As I’ve mentioned here many times before, the present structure of the Salafi jihadi movement is such that any one can now claim to be al Qaeda. Although the formal organizations of al Qaeda 1.0 (bin Laden, Zawahiri) and 2.0 (Zarqawi/al Masri in Iraq/ — GSPC/al Qaeda in Algeria) remain a threat, this "al Qaeda 3.0" is more of a movement than it is of an organization. And thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of young Muslim men in the West sympathize with that movement.

One of Dr. Rusty’s commenters noted an odd coincidence of names:

One of the murderer’s relatives mentioned in some news reports is an aunt named Ajka Omerovic.A Bosnian with the name of Omerovic made the news a couple of years ago. From the Associated Press:

Anthrax hoaxer gets 10-month sentence

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Monday, July 29, 2002 11:51PM EDT

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) – A man who mailed letters threatening to use anthrax against government agencies was sentenced Monday to 10 months in prison.

Amir Omerovic, 28, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Bosnia, had faced up to five years in prison after pleading guilty in U.S. District Court in February.

After serving his term, Omerovic will be confined to his home for six months and placed on supervision that will include mental health treatment, Judge Alan Nevas ordered.

Federal prosecutors said Omerovic mailed letters in October to Gov. John Rowland, the Coast Guard, Marine Corps and other public agencies in Connecticut. The letters referred to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“This is only the beginning,” the letters said. “Americans will die. Death to America and Israel.”

I’m keeping an open mind at this point. Considering how the media have shied away from reporting the religio-political motives behind other jihadi killings in the U.S., I suspect we can’t count on getting the straight scoop on this young man’s motive. On the other hand, I don’t want to be paranoid about this — he could have been just another badly disturbed teen on Ritalin or something, with no ties to radical Islam at all.

But if I ever encounter someone named Omerovic, I’m going to be very, very careful.
 

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Hitchens on Steyn

Posted by Richard on February 12, 2007

In the new issue of City Journal, Christopher Hitchens reviewed Mark Steyn’s new book, America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It, and the review really is a must read. I haven’t read Steyn’s book yet, but I’ve heard good things about it. Hitchens approves of it ("a welcome wake-up call"), but is far from uncritical and goes well beyond just reviewing. He points out the book’s flaws, bolsters its weaknesses, and offers some policy recommendations of his own.

This is not to deny Steyn’s salient point that demography and cultural masochism, especially in combination, are handing a bloodless victory to the forces of Islamization. His gift for the illustrative anecdote and the revealing quotation is evident, and if more people have woken up to the Islamist menace since he began writing about it, then the credit is partly his. Muslims in one part of England demand the demolition of an ancient statue of a wild boar, and in another part of England make plots to blow up airports, buses, and subway trains. The two threats are not identical. But they are connected, and Steyn attempts to tease out the filiations with the saving tactic of wit.

I still think—or should I say hope?—that the sheer operatic insanity of September 11 set back the Islamist project of a “soft” conquest of host countries, Muslim countries included. Up until 9/11, the Talibanization of Pakistan—including the placement of al-Qaida sympathizers within its nuclear program—proceeded fairly smoothly. Official Pakistani support for Muslim gangsters operating in Afghanistan, Kashmir, and India went relatively unpunished. Saudi funds discreetly advanced the Wahhabist program, through madrassa-building and a network of Islamic banking, across the globe. In the West, Muslim demands for greater recognition and special treatment had become an accepted part of the politically correct agenda. Some denounced me as cynical for saying at the time that Osama bin Laden had done us a favor by disclosing the nature and urgency of the Islamist threat, but I still think I was right. …

Of course, these have not been the only consequences of September 11 and its aftermath. Islamist suicide-terrorism has mutated into new shapes and adopted fresh grievances as a result of the mobilization against it. Liberalism has found even more convoluted means of blaming itself for the attack upon it. But at least the long period of somnambulism is over, and the opportunity now exists for antibodies to form against the infection.

Hitchens doesn’t care much for the "somewhat slapdash" 10-point program with which Steyn ends his book. Instead, Hitchens offers his own eight steps to counter Islamism, and I urge you to read and think about them. In particular, his opening point regarding "one-way multiculturalism" and "creeping Islamism" proposes the long-needed showing of some cultural backbone that’s essential to the moral and intellectual defense of Western Civilization.

Hitchens’ recommendations regarding India — "the other great multiethnic democracy under attack from Muslim fascism" — and the West African states threatened by the jihadists make a lot of sense to me, too. And I’d never even thought about the seismological implications of Iran’s nuclear program. Go read the whole thing.
 

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Radical Islam

Posted by Richard on February 4, 2007

Warm up your TV or program your VCR, DVR, or Tivo. A new special report — Radical Islam: Terror in Its Own Words — is being aired on Fox News tonight and again tomorrow, and it’s must-see TV:

Saturday, February 3 at 9 p.m. ET
Sunday, February 4 at 4 p.m ET
Hosted by E.D. Hill

The warning is loud and clear: radical Islam wants to kill you.

But don’t take our word for it. In this FOX News investigation, E.D. Hill exposes the evil aims of radical Islam — in its own words.

Muslim clerics vowing to slaughter Americans and destroy the United States.

School children brainwashed to kill.

Mothers who rejoice at the news that their sons and daughters have blown themselves up in suicide attacks.

And an Islamic media that glorifies mass murder and cheers on terrorists.

It’s an hour every American must see.
 

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The Mahdi Hatters of Tehran

Posted by Richard on January 3, 2007

Ever wonder what interests the leaders of Iran are pursuing when they aren’t occupied with the construction of more centrifuges to hasten the day they have nuclear weapons?

Well, for one thing, they seem interested in historical research — with a rather revisionist bent. MEMRI has posted translated excerpts of a Dec. 28 interview with Mohammad Ali Ramin, Iranian Presidential Advisor, who discussed what the Iranian historical research discovered about Hitler’s Jewish parents and powerful Jewish associates (I’m not making this up):

"Adolf Hitler himself developed an aversion to Judaism because his mother was a Jewish whore. …

"Thus… Hitler simultaneously developed both feelings of solidarity with Judaism and feelings of hatred towards it, and this emotional ambivalence shaped his behavior towards the Jews. On the one hand, his entire family, the people who shared his views, and his associates who brought him into power and stood by him to the last – including his lovers and his personal doctor – were [all] Jewish. On the other hand, he welcomed the policy of expelling the Jews from Central Europe for two other reasons: Firstly, the establishment of a Jewish government in Palestine was an aspiration of the rich and influential Jews who surrounded him. Secondly, exiling the Jews from Europe and Germany was a general and historical demand of the Western Christian nations. With the full support of the British, and in coordination with them, Hitler addressed this general demand and [thereby] managed to gain widespread popularity in Europe. Obviously, publishing writings and information of this sort is forbidden in Germany and in the West…

(Hat tip to Yoni the blogger, who really needs to learn to provide links to the sources he cites.)

In addition to researching the past, the Iranian government is also very interested in predicting the future. A Ynetnews story recently drew attention to an Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) web page entitled "The World Toward Illumination." A series of posts over the past two months discuss the return of the Twelfth Imam, or Mahdi. The Dec. 11 update said he may be returning soon, and he’ll be heading for Jerusalem:

A triumphal religious prophecy has appeared on an Iranian official state media website, heralding the return of the Shiite messiah.

According to the website, "Imam Mahdi (may God hasten his reappearance) will appear all of a sudden on the world scene with a voice from the skies announcing his reappearance at the holy Ka’ba in Mecca."
…

"After his appearance the Imam would remain in Mecca for some time, and then go to Medina… a descendant of the Prophet’s archenemy Abu Sofyan will seize Syria and attack Iraq and the Hejaz with the ferocity of a beast… finally Imam Mahdi sends troops who kill the Sofyani in Beit ol-Moqaddas (Jerusalem), the Islamic holy city in Palestine that is currently under occupation of the Zionists," the IRIB added.
…

‘The World Towards Illumination’ series cites some Islamic sources as saying that the Mahdi’s return "may coincide with the Spring Equinox…

If you’ve ever wondered why many on the left seem oddly unconcerned about and even sympathetic toward the Islamists, read more of that IRIB page and you’ll begin to see. The latest (Dec. 25) update, for instance, sounds like a mixture of Marxism and National Socialism with mystical flourishes:

… The cold and calculating domineering powers impose on the weaker nations, the methods of production, consumption and technology that are to the benefit of capitalists. In the weird system of today’s powerful counties, moral and spiritual values have no place and are seen as undesirable liabilities that prevent these powers from reaching economic welfare and what they call true prosperity. However, the exploitation of the weak, the unjust system of distribution and denial of the rights of nations, will end with the reappearance of Imam Mahdi (AS). In the government of the Imam man will witness real economic welfare throughout the world without any discrimination. The main issue in his global government is carrying out social justice and one of the main products of social justice is a highly developed economy that leads to the blossoming of moral and spiritual values as emphasized by the dynamic teachings of Islam. According to narrations, justice revives the dynamics of the shari’a or religious rulings. The Prophet’s 6th infallible successor, Imam Ja’far Sadeq (PBUH) says people will be needless when justice governs their life.

In the ideal society of Imam Mahdi (AS), justice will be materialized. Elements for production and economic prosperity will increase and people will witness the full development of the Islamic society. … Imam Mahdi’s educational system will mould man’s personality and morality toward sublimity and create conditions throughout the world that will lead man to abstain from any extravagance and overuse or waste of natural resources. Thus the environment and its resources will remain immune from destruction and pollution. In the economic field, people will have complete mutual trust and conclude deals without the exchange of economic documents, and no infraction will be committed in these deals.

Anti-capitalism, one world government, wealth redistribution, social justice, environmentalism — this Mahdi is the average leftist’s wet dream. Well, except for those bothersome quirks like stoning adulterers and homosexuals, forbidding everything remotely fun and pleasurable, and treating women as chattel. But the average post-modern enviro-socialist has more in common with Ahmadinejad and his pals than first meets the eye, and probably thinks (incorrectly) that their differences could be resolved by talking.

As for the Mahdi returning in a few months and heading for Jerusalem, I can’t help but wonder if he might be wearing one of these:

Demron - Radiation Protection Suit

 

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Ahmadinejad’s ultimatum

Posted by Richard on December 5, 2006

Kenneth Timmerman took a look at the Iranian president’s recent letter to the American people, and he didn’t like what he saw:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has followed up his 18-page letter to President Bush earlier this year with a five-page missive to the American people.

In the earlier letter, which left the Bush White House shaking their heads with wonderment, the Iranian invited Mr. Bush to embrace Islam. That is a well-established Islamic tradition when dealing with an enemy just prior to war. If they refuse, then the Muslims are "justified" in destroying them.

Timmerman noted that Ahmadinejad’s letter to the American people referred to America’s "injustice" a dozen times, and the concept of justice has a rather different meaning for Ahmadinejad than it does for those of us in the West. To him, it’s all about submitting to Allah — the "Islamization of the entire world." He demanded that we stop supporting Israel, leave Iraq, and quit embracing "moral corruption." Timmerman pointed out that "corruption" is a rather serious crime in Iran:

Students of recent Iranian history will recall that the "crime" most often used to justify a death sentence by Islamic Republic revolutionary courts during the early years of the revolution was "corruption on Earth." This was how the regime simply eliminated its opponents or those who rejected absolute clerical rule.

Timmerman thinks most commentors have missed the point of the letter, which came at the end:

Citing from the Koran at the close of his letter, he says that if Americans "repent" of their "injustice," they will be blessed with many gifts. "We should all heed the divine Word of the Holy Koran," he says.

The context of this particular verse (28:67-28, Sura "Al-Qasas," or The Narration), is very clear. It follows a graphic description of destruction and devastation that will befall those who fail to repent of their injustice, i.e., support for Israel and refusal to adopt Islam.

It also sets out the terms of the traditional Muslim warning to the enemies of Allah. "And never will your Lord destroy the towns until He sends to their mother town a Messenger reciting to them Our Verses." This is precisely what Mr. Ahmadinejad does in his letter.

Dump George W. Bush, allow the Muslims to destroy Israel, and adopt Islam — or else you will be destroyed. This is Mr. Ahmadinejad’s message.

Meanwhile, the gas centrifuges are humming in the underground bunkers at Natanz (the ones off-limits to inspectors), construction continues at the secret Neyshabour facility (deeper underground and less vulnerable to air strikes), and the supply of weapons-grade uranium slowly but surely grows.
 

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Jihad Against the West conference

Posted by Richard on October 17, 2006

If you’re in the Boston area this weekend (10/20-10/22), you might want to check out the Ayn Rand Institute’s three-day conference, The Jihad Against the West: The Real Threat and the Right Response.

Speakers include Daniel Pipes and Robert Spencer, so this promises to be a really tremendous conference. The descriptions of the events certainly make me wish I could attend.

If you’re a student, the deal is irresistible: all the lectures and panel discussions are free, and the Saturday evening reception is just $15. See the registration page for details of on-site registration and proof of student status.

Non-students are presumed to be greedy, rich capitalists who can easily afford $30-55 for each event.

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