Jihad against jihadis: Al-Qaeda has already lost in the realm of ideology, Radical Islamism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Radical Islamism and Jihad

Jihad against jihadis: Al-Qaeda has already lost in the realm of ideology

By Fareed Zakaria

February 15, 2010

September 11, 2001, was gruesome enough on its own terms, but for many of us, the real fear was of what might follow. Not only had al-Qaeda shown it was capable of sophisticated and ruthless attacks, but a far greater concern was that the group had or could establish a powerful hold on the hearts and minds of Muslims. And if Muslims sympathised with al-Qaeda’s cause, we were in for a Herculean struggle. There are more than 1.5 billion Muslims living in more than 150 countries across the world. If jihadist ideology became attractive to a significant part of this population, the West faced a clash of civilisations without end, one marked by blood and tears.

More than eight eventful years have passed, but in some ways it still feels like 2001. Republicans have clearly decided that fanning the public’s fears of rampant jihadism continues to be a winning strategy in America. Commentators furnish examples of backwardness and brutality from various parts of the Muslim world — and there are many — to highlight the grave threat we face.

But, in fact, the entire terrain of the war on terror has evolved dramatically. Put simply, the moderates are fighting back and the tide is turning. We no longer fear the possibility of a major country succumbing to jihadist ideology. In most Muslim nations, mainstream rulers have stabilised their regimes and their societies, and extremists have been isolated. This has not led to the flowering of Jeffersonian democracy or liberalism. But modern, somewhat secular forces are clearly in control and widely supported across the Muslim world. Polls, elections, and in-depth studies all confirm this trend.

In 2002, the UNDP published a detailed study of the Arab world. The paper made plain that in an era of globalisation, openness, diversity, and tolerance, the Arabs were the world’s great laggards. Using hard data, the report painted a picture of political, social, and intellectual stagnation in countries from the Maghreb to the Gulf. And it was written by a team of Arab scholars. This was not paternalism or imperialism. It was truth.

http://newageislam.com/jihad-against-jihadis--al-qaeda-has-already-lost-in-the-realm-of-ideology/radical-islamism-and-jihad/d/2467

WHY JIHAD WENT GLOBAL: ‘U.S. has assigned too much importance to the terrorists’, Books and Documents, NewAgeIslam.com

Books and Documents

WHY JIHAD WENT GLOBAL: ‘U.S. has assigned too much importance to the terrorists’

By Jim Miles

First published in 2005, this text still stands the test of time for the theses that it presented then. In this new edition, Fawaz Gerges writes hopefully and expectantly that the new U.S. President, Barak Obama, can overcome the mistakes he sees that the U.S. has made in its “war on terror.” His hopes will obviously have dimmed somewhat if not greatly in consideration of Obama’s actions in the Middle East, but Gerges’ essential thematic message remains important.

Two main themes underlie the ideas in the book. The first tells of the relationship between bin Laden and Zawahiri and how their ideas interacted and reacted to turn the jihadis from the ‘near’ enemy - the local regional governments - to the ‘far’ enemy - the United States. The second theme is the poor manner in which the U.S. has understood essential differences between ‘near’ and ‘far’ jihadis, the history of their development, and the major divisions within the jihadi proponents. Following from the latter theme, a missing context of Gerges arguments concerning U.S. actions in the Middle East is readily discerned.

Bin Laden and Zawahiri

Osama bin Laden is the iconic anti-hero of the al-Qaeda movement, shooting to prominence in the western media with the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. Still at large presumably somewhere in the Afghanistan/Pakistan border region, bin Laden remains the iconic reviled evil of the Muslim world. Although active before 9/11 it was this singular act that brought him to global media attention. Considered to be the mastermind behind the attacks and all other atrocities designated to be by al-Qaeda, Gerges’ arguments present the al-Qaeda top echelon to be structured as much by Ayman al- Zawahiri, a prominent Egyptian jihadi gone global.

http://newageislam.com/why-jihad-went-global--%E2%80%98u.s.-has-assigned-too-much-importance-to-the-terrorists%E2%80%99/books-and-documents/d/2336

TERROR IN THE NAME OF GOD, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad, NewAgeISlam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

TERROR IN THE NAME OF GOD

By Khushwant Singh

October 31, 2009

The recent spate of explosions in different cities of Pakistan — Peshawar, Kohat and Lahore —induced me to try and unravel the mental make-up of the young men who carry out missions that invariably cost them their lives.

All through the history of mankind there have been more or less similar dare-devils who thought little of killing themselves while killing their enemies. A few examples come readily to mind.

The Turks had the jannissaries, who, as the word means, were ever ready to lay down their lives for causes dear to their rulers. Jihadis at war against Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s kingdom had ghazis to lead them on fronts where hand-to-hand combats were frequent. Ranjit Singh pitched his nihangs against them.

The Japanese had their Kamikaze pilots who rammed their aircraft loaded with explosives into American battleships and sank them. The LTTE Tigers had men and women who carried out deadly attacks single-handed and, having accomplished them, swallowed capsules of cyanide to end their lives rather than be taken captive.

We know more about boys and girls employed by outfits like the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Tayyeba largely due to the detailed confession made by Ajmal Kasab, sole survivor of the attack on Mumbai last November.

He has spoken in detail of his childhood, schooling and what induced him to become a religious gangster. Three points are clear: one, that all members of these Islamic terrorist groups come from impoverished backgrounds. Two, they have little education besides cramming a few verses of the Quran. And three, they had little hope of making a decent living or a good marriage.

http://newageislam.com/terror-in-the-name-of-god/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/2031

“The US is not curbing, arresting terrorism”: Pakistan’s Senator Iqbal Haider, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West

“The US is not curbing, arresting terrorism”: Pakistan’s Senator Iqbal Haider

The US has not played any role in curbing, arresting terrorism in our region. We must look at its inability to contain the forces and sources that support terrorism. The US, Saudi Arabia and the Arab world support extremists, militants, religious fanatics. Where are the arms and the money coming from? This must be considered when you view the Mumbai tragedy. India must be careful for it is being sucked into the so-called war against terror.

Pervez Musharraf allowed religious parties a free hand. The US supported Musharraf to the hilt. If that wasn't supporting terrorism, what is? He openly patronised all jehadis LeT, al-Qaeda, Taliban, Mehsud, Fazlullah. They follow the same religious beliefs and have the same modus operandi. And the US gave Musharraf a free hand. The biggest beneficiaries of India-Pakistan tension are these religious, militant, extremist forces in Pakistan. They are all the creation of the same midwife, the US.

Since 2001, terrorists could not have operated and succeeded without the covert and overt support of the Pakistan establishment, the US and NATO forces. At the local level, there is about 20 per cent support for the Taliban, not more than that.

http://newageislam.com/%E2%80%9Cthe-us-is-not-curbing,-arresting-terrorism%E2%80%9D--pakistan%E2%80%99s-senator-iqbal-haider/islam-and-the-west/d/1157

The War Within Islam: Talibanism vs the glorious faith of Rumi and Akbar, Radical Islamism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Radical Islamism and Jihad

The War Within Islam: Talibanism vs the glorious faith of Rumi and Akbar

By K Subrahmanyam

28 Jan 2009, 0011 hrs IST,

As happened in the case of the Nazis and Japanese militarists there is an assumption of racial and ideological superiority by Islamist extremists. They believe that it is their manifest destiny to bring the entire world under the dominance of their version of Islam. And this version of Islam has nothing to do with the glorious Islam of Baghdad, Samarkand, Delhi and Agra or that was preached by Jalaluddin Rumi, Omar Khayyam, Amir Khusro and Akbar. Just as the Nazis perverted the term socialism and degraded it as National Socialism, the followers of al-Qaeda and Taliban have degraded Islam and are using a perverted cult to advance their ideology. Just as the Nazi and fascist ideologies had their followers and supporters all over Europe, there are supporters of the perverted Talibanised Islam in various Muslim countries.

The war is against this ideology and it's not going to be won unless there is de-Nazification as happened in Germany or the demilitarisation in Japan. While this could be carried out in Germany and Japan only after effective military occupation, similar exercises for al-Qaeda and Taliban have to be done without military occupation of Pakistan. Fortunately a much larger portion of the Pakistani middle class consider themselves victims of this perverted Islamist cult than there were anti-Nazis in Germany during the heyday of Adolf Hitler.

http://newageislam.com/the-war-within-islam--talibanism-vs-the-glorious-faith-of-rumi-and-akbar/radical-islamism-and-jihad/d/1158

Mainstream US Islamic Websites -- and Terror, Radical Islamism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Radical Islamism and Jihad

Mainstream US Islamic Websites -- and Terror

By Patrick Poole

More recently, the media has focused on the case of Charlotte, North Carolina resident, Samir Khan. Fox News recently reported that Khan’s website, inshallahshahid, features videos of terrorists bombing US military vehicles, provides links to the writings of Al-Qaeda chiefs Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, and praises “martyrdom bombers” who sacrifice their lives “for the sake of Islam”. Last October, the New York Times reported on Khan’s online efforts, observing that he is just one of many new faces of what Al-Qaeda calls the “Islamic jihadi media”. While Samir Khan lost his job last month after a 3-part investigative report was aired by Charlotte CBS affiliate WBTV, Khan continues to operate his website with impunity.

The same is true for the popular Islamic website, Islamicity.com, which operates an entire video channeldedicated to Yemeni Al-Qaeda cleric and bin Laden mentor, Abd al-Majid Al-Zindani, who was listed by the US government as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist back in February 2004. In several of Zindani’s videos – videos which bear the embedded Islamicity logo – he is seen guarded by a man wielding an AK-47 (for more background on Zindani, see John Devon’s article, “Yemeni Shiekh of Hate”). The website states that Islamicity is run by Human Assistance and Development International (HUDI), a tax-exempt not-for-profit organization based in Culver City, California.

http://newageislam.com/mainstream-us-islamic-websites----and-terror/radical-islamism-and-jihad/d/874

Conspiracy Theories: Confused About 9/11, War on Terror, NewAgeIslam.com

War on Terror

Conspiracy Theories: Confused About 9/11

Cliff May: Townhall.com Columnist

Thursday, September 11, 2008

No less distressing than these opinions is the pose adopted by the foreign correspondent, Michael Slackman. The demands of political correctness in the elite media being what they are he has not found a single source who will suggest that the prevalence of such attitudes reflects the fact that governments and media in the Middle East routinely spread anti-American and anti-Semitic slanders. He does not note that schools in the region instil bias while neglecting critical thinking. He can’t even raise the possibility – however gently -- that the persistence of such beliefs, long after the details of al-Qaeda’s plot have been made public, may reveal a pathology in the culture of the contemporary Arab Middle East.

Instead, the only theory given ink is that such ideas demonstrate “the first failure in the war on terror – the inability to convince people here that the United States is, indeed, waging a campaign against terrorism, not a crusade against Muslims.”

http://newageislam.com/conspiracy-theories--confused-about-9/11/war-on-terror/d/725

Warning on al-Qaeda's new female recruits, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

Warning on al-Qaeda's new female recruits

ByJason Burke, Europe editor The Observer, Sunday August 3 2008

The moves follow a spate of attacks in the Middle East conducted by women bombers and increasing concerns among European security services about increased radicalisation of female militants. The officials specifically cite the UK and North Africa as problem areas.

Women's involvement in recruiting volunteers is a key concern. Though the only known European female suicide bomber was Muriel Degauque, a 38-year-old convert from Belgium who killed herself in Iraq in 2005, European security officials told The Observer that services were monitoring dozens of women involved in logistics or propaganda. There are also fears of women bombers being sent from overseas, particularly north Africa.

'This is now of a much greater scale than we have ever seen before. The problem is knowing who is just fundraising or running websites, who is recruiting and who is a potential bomber,' said one French intelligence specialist. 'Then how do you pick up someone coming in from outside the EU? That's hard to do.'

Gilles de Kerchove, European counter-terrorism co-ordinator, has asked British, French, Spanish, German and other European security services to pool their intelligence through Brussels' strategic analysis unit, the Joint Situation Centre, to produce a report by the autumn.

http://newageislam.com/warning-on-al-qaeda-s-new-female-recruits/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/407

Al-Qaeda leaving Iraq for Afghanistan: The Washington Post report, War on Terror, NewAgeIslam.com

War on Terror

Al-Qaeda leaving Iraq for Afghanistan: The Washington Post report

"We do believe al-Qaeda is doing some measure of re-assessment regarding the continued viability of its fight in Iraq and whether Iraq should remain the focus of its efforts," Brigadier General Brian Keller, senior intelligence officer for General David Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, told the paper in an e-mail.

But Keller cautioned that the United States had not confirmed that recruits are being sent to Afghanistan or that al-Qaeda in Iraq leaders have gone there.

The Post, citing a US intelligence analyst, reported that al-Qaeda in Iraq has been "seriously weakened" in the last year and that the flow of foreign fighters into the country has plummeted.

Abdullah al-Ansari, an al-Qaeda leader in Fallujah, told the daily that group leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri had travelled to Afghanistan through Iran.

http://newageislam.com/al-qaeda-leaving-iraq-for-afghanistan--the-washington-post-report/war-on-terror/d/356

Young Europeans flock to Al-Qaeda camps, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

Young Europeans flock to Al-Qaeda camps

The European security agency, Europol, is sounding the alarm as more and more Europeans are turning up at Al-Qaeda training camps near the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Italian Corierre della Serra reports that newcomers, eager to join the Islamist terrorist organisation, come from the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, Romania, Estonia and the U.S.

Al-Qaeda recruiters operate in many European countries. They are looking for troubled youths, who are dissatisfied with their lives and have a high level of anti-American feelings.

http://newageislam.com/young-europeans-flock-to-al-qaeda-camps/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/148

Has Al-Qaeda Opened A New Chapter In The Sinai Peninsula?, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad,

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

20 Aug 2011, NewAgeIslam.Com

Has Al-Qaeda Opened A New Chapter In The Sinai Peninsula?

By Andrew McGregor August 17, 2011 Executive Summary: In the absence of police and government security forces, al-Qaeda-sympathetic movements, including al-Shabaab al-Islam (The Youth of Islam), have formed in the Sinai Peninsula. The demands of these Salafi-Jihadist groups reflect both local and regional concerns. Among their demands are calls for a full implementation of Shari’a, the revocation of Egypt’s treaties with Israel, the establishment of an Islamic Emirate in the Sinai and Egyptian military intervention against Israel on behalf of the Palestinians in Gaza. Despite a statement proclaiming the establishment of al-Qaeda in the Sinai Peninsula, core al-Qaeda has not yet acknowledged this new chapter of the movement. Sinai-based militants have repeatedly targeted a natural gas pipeline to Israel in a show of distaste for Arab-Israeli relations and to strike a symbol of the corruption of Mubarak’s regime. http://www.newageislam.com/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/has-al-qaeda-opened-a-new-chapter-in-the-sinai-peninsula?/d/5293