International Islamic Jihad is a new item on the global menu of terrorism. New, in that it did not exist 30 years ago. We had terrorism and isolated terrorist attacks but nothing like we are living through today. This can be laid at the feet of Islam and Muslims. Not all Muslims are terrorist but all terrorists are Muslims is one we have all heard. Those who are in denial of this fact are Islamists, Islamoapologists and those who suffer from the mental illness of political correctness, diversity and the worst of them all, multiculturalism. I am sick and tired of listening to liberals and conservatives play down the threat from Muslims and Islam. Terrorism and jihad now link the enire globe in a way that many of us thought could never happen. To be witnessing the now constant attempts to wage terrorist attacks inside the United States makes this patriot very upset and angry. Angry and upset at a president who is an arrogant, ignorant Muslim, who thinks being nice and apologizing to Islam and Muslims will buy us credibility and safety in an ever increasingly hostile world. Those waging jihad will NEVER stop until they are completely and totally eradicated. This may not happen in my lifetime or yours but happen it must.
This article from Serbianna traces the history of Islamic Jihad. You will have to use the link provided to read the entire article as it is quite long. Worth your time? Absolutely! What price do we put on educating ourselves about our enemy? Education is priceless. Especially in the study of Islam and the never ending jihad it is waging on the entire world.
International Islamic Jihad: The first global terrorist movement in history
By Ioannis Michaletos
From Serbianna:
1. The Spread of Jihad
The past two decades a new form of terrorism has spread dynamically in a worldwide level. The USA was one of the first countries to alert itself since the late 80’s with this kind of asymmetrical warfare, but it wasn’t until 9/11 that the full strength of the Islamic-driven terrorism was shown. The 19 hijackers proved to be a peril for the security of the world, in greater respect that rogues states and third world dictatorships. The fanatics of Islam have engineered a new way of war through the Salafist Jihad, and without restrains concerning civilian casualties. The new terror is composed by networks of individuals spread throughout the globe that provide logistic support to the mercenaries and soldier of Islam that perform terrorist actions.
The global wave of violent extremism from its bases in Egypt and Saudi Arabia was matured in Afghanistan, Sudan and in parallel formed a network of cells in Eurasia. Moreover a part of the second and third generation Muslims in the Western world is being introduced in the Jihad so as to penetrate the societies from within, leaving less space for security and intelligence agencies to counterbalance the ongoing pressure of terrorism. The Al Qaeda and the new terror are also cooperating with the Sunni organizations in Iraq that has gained combat experience in the fighting between Muslims and the USA-UK troops. Actually Iraq has become a training field for thousands of Islamic extremists that will transfer their know-how in their homelands once they return. The older Al- Qaeda generation was war-hardened in the mountainous Afghanistan terrain, whilst the new generation gains its experience in the Mesopotamian plain. In the 90’s it was also the Balkans and Sudan that provided training for Islamists that fought Croatians and Serbs in Bosnia and Kosovo.
Another phenomenon that greatly facilitates the spread of Jihad is the existence of internet and the expansion of telecommunications. It is possible to acquire an extensive geographical span, by using simple techniques and make use of the modern day technology. The basic principles that characterize new terror are: Mass casualties, use of new technologies, international-multinational membership and of Islamic religious base. The basic aim of the Jihad is to establish a Caliphate by overthrowing moderate Muslim leaders and the final goal would be to evolutes a power unit equivalent to the West on a global scale. Al Qaeda is by itself an evolution of the “Mind of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the education by the Pakistani Madrassas, the capital of the Saudi Wahhabis and the fighting capabilities of Yemenis, Chechens and Algerians”.
2. Salafism
The worldwide Salafist Jihad is an extreme version of Sunni Muslims. The etymology of the word originates from “Salaf” that in Arabic means, ancient. It is basically a return to the archaic nature of Islam as it was developed before the Middle Ages. Al Qaeda in its turn is the basic pole on which ideologically and logistical the other organizations and networks strike the West.
Jihad means, “Fight”, but in daily life and the adhesion in keeping up with daily prayer, charity and Ramadan fasting by the Muslims. It also has the meaning of the fight against infidels, and it is a major theological controversy amongst Muslim theology scholars in our days. Nowadays quite a few Islamic religious leaders issues Fatwa (Orders) against Westerners –Or moderate Muslims- thus energizing the populous against the other nations, in a battle resembling Manichaeism. During the 80’s the Palestinian born and Egyptian educate, Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, issued numerous fatwa in order to recruit fighters for Afghanistan and pioneered the use of this orders to conduct global recruitment. Azzam was directing the use of Afghanistan as a purely Islamic state, whilst Bin Laden (That allegedly assassinated him in 1989), was eager to create an international Islamic front and attack several targets simultaneously. In reality Bin Laden was a radical and Azzam a conservative, and in the late 80’s the former was able to control the Islamic network for his own initiative.
Salafism originated from an 18th century Islamic sect in present day Saudi Arabia. Mohamed Ibn Abd Al Wouahab a religious leader of his time preached for a return in the original Islamic tradition and eschewed modernity in every mode. He proceeded in cooperating with the forefather of the Saudi dynasty, Mohamed Ibn Saud and formed the actual basis for today’s puritanical version of Islam in that country. In the 20th century Sayib Koutb, an Egyptian Islamic ideologist of the “Muslim Brotherhood”, elaborated the basics of Jihad and called for an abolition of secularism in the everyday life of all Muslim dominated societies, as well as, the overthrow of moderate administrations. The real difference with Al Qaeda and the older generations is the ability of Bin Laden and its followers to strike globally and not just in local level or a particular country. In 1996 Bin Laden issued his infamous Fatwa for war against the Americans, where he also mentioned the ousting of the Saudi dynasty, reflecting thus a totalitarian view of the new terror that ensued. In 2001, his number 2, Ayman Al-Zawahiri named all the enemies of Islam that included the West, pro-Western Muslim states, multinational corporations, international media and charity funds. In a sense it aims to topple the world as it is known. The Salafism is not longer a movement towards stricter enforcement of Islamic principles, but a global anti-Western campaign, being conducted through the use of asymmetrical warfare.
3. The Start of It All
In 1987 Al Zawahiri established in Peshawar-Afghanistan the Islamic Jihad organization and issued a monthly journal, named Conquest. The published was Al-Sharif and other editors included, Al Rashidi, Mohammed bu Sittah, Rifai Taha, Mustafa Hamza and Mohammed Al-Istanbul. These are known as the “Egyptian group”, that functioned as the ideological punch of the latter Al-Qaeda. Osama Bin-Laden soon placed the aforementioned in key sections of his organization and both created the Masada training camp in the town of Khowst, from where a new breed of Mujahedin was trained. The withdraw of the Soviet troops in 1989 was a major victory for Osama Bin Laden that saw his popularity rising in the Islamic world. In the 24th of November Azzam (See part 2 above) was assassinated with his two sons because he objected the creation of a global Jihad. Afterwards Bin Laden capitalized the war between Iraq and the UN forces, along with the stationing of Western troops in Saudi Arabia and in parallel formed a pact with Al Turabi, an influential spiritual leader in Sudan. This state would become an integral hub for the coordination of attacks in the 90’s. Al Qaeda spread also in London where it issued a radical paper, named Al Ansar and recruited people from across the Arab world that facilitated greatly in dispersing its ideology and Mujahedin in all corners of the earth.
Al Qaeda evolution is similar to that of a multinational corporation with its peripheral offices, managers, sub-contractors and clients. It also created committees and project groups, while it continued its struggle in the new front of the Balkans, during the Bosnian war in 1991 to 1995. This is where it first established presence in Sarajevo, Albania and in parallel the first cells appeared in Hamburg, Amsterdam, Paris and Milan. During the Sudanese period, Al Qaeda was also formidable in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Philippines and Yemen. In 1996 Bin Laden and 150 of his followers were forced to leave Khartoum under Western pressure and returned to Afghanistan. The leader of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammed Omar provided assistance and viewed Al Qaeda as a staunch ally. Soon –In 1998- the first major terrorist hit in Kenya and Tanzania proved the peril that Al Qaeda is to the world, albeit no concrete action was taken apart from some sporadic missile attacks by the USN.
The American victory in Afghanistan in October 2001 didn’t result in the destruction of Al Qaeda. The labyrinth of cells across the world ensured for the continuation of their existence and managed to perform other spectacular attacks against targets in Istanbul, Casablanca, and Bali, Madrid. Riyadh and London. The difference with older attacks is the loose coordination that makes almost impossible for the security forces to identify the heads behind every action. Moreover the bonds between Al Qaeda members and officials for the Pakistani ISI, still remain, as well as, contacts and cells in Saudi Arabia, Kashmir, Bosnia, Indonesia and Iraq. These are the regions where Al Qaeda is popular and rather strong despite prosecution.
4. Global Jihad
The worldwide Salafist Jihad is a formidable network of human resources and capital aimed at striking terror against the West. The main culprits and the organizers of the Jihad, are mostly of Saudi and Egyptian origin, and contain members from virtually any country that has a Muslim segment in it. Also it is interesting to note that the majority of the Al Qaeda members are rather affluent and educated, and do not constitute a group of people of disadvantaged status. They are apt in the new technology and quite a few of them have completed numerous studies in technical schools that prove to be of an advantage when organizing terrorist attacks.
Moreover the terrorists do not exhibit in most respects the characteristics of paranoid personalities and they are able of keeping in pace with the rest of the society, adopt foreign costumes superficially and keep in tune with the wider developments in the world. They are also trained internationally by Al Qaeda and have the ability to travel easily (Before 2001) in foreign countries. In a nutshell they do not represent the majority of the Muslim world and are in terms of social-economic status some where in between the elite of the Arab world and the mainstream classes. The main elements of Al Qaeda that conduct the strategic operation and the training are mostly Egyptians, Saudis and Pakistanis.
5. Think global, act local
Since 9/11 Al Qaeda managed to muster popular support in the Islamic world for its actions, by being seen as the defender of the faith and the only power that challenged the West. The most important organizations of the Islamic Jihad against the West presently are: Al Qaeda, Al Jama’a Al Islamiya, Islamic Jihad, Armed Islamic Group (GIA), and the organization of Al Zarqawi in Iraq. GIA in Algeria is being gradually absorbed by the Group for Dawa and Combat. One of the leading Islamic figures that played a role in directing Jihad on a global scale is Al Zawahiri, who was very much influenced by the teachings of the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt.
The main reason why Jihad passed from the local theatres to the global one is the one way option it faced if it didn’t want to be annihilated by conventional forces. By using the globalizations process it could facilitate it s survival by following the flow of the international commerce, immigration and transport. Otherwise, a defeat in a locality would mean the end of their organizations. Despite the fact that Arab regimes such as Libya or Saudi Arabia, have cooperated spectacularly with the West; Islamic Jihad is far from being disrupted and continues to strike almost annually somewhere in the world. The war in Iraq is stimulation for an expansion of its global role, since it recruits Mujahedeen from different states, sends them and facilitates their return to be used as potential terrorists, of a trained nature. Continue reading
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