WarSclerotic

The black flag of Islam, Israel Hayom, Dr. Reuven Berko, August 15, 2014

The Islamic State group is re-enacting the horrific conquests of its ancient forebears by bombarding religious sites and persecuting entire communities. Next on its list of undesirables destined to be slaughtered are the Christians, followed of course by the Jews.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, purportedly delivering a sermon at a mosque in Mosul, Iraq. | Photo credit: AP

Even if each organization has its own unique interpretation of ancient Islam, the goal is the same: a worldwide Islamic caliphate that will arise through violent means and will eliminate its enemies, the Christians and the Jews, religions that are irrelevant in the eyes of Islam. Until now, these terrorist organizations were limited by prevailing circumstances, powerful counterforces and differences of opinion and dissension that stemmed from personal battles for positions of leadership.

Standing in the way of this threat is the naivete of U.S. President Barack Obama, who initially aspired to establish constructive ties with radical Islam “lite,” like the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood led by Mohammed Morsi. But Obama is a representative of the crusader superpower, America, which is backing Israel and preventing the Islamists from realizing their goal of spreading Islam. The green flag of the Muslim Brotherhood contains the same guiding message as the black flag of Islamic State.

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A horrific drama has been playing out in recent days in northern Iraq. The terrorists of the Islamic State group routed the anemic Iraqi army, which was left decrepit after the U.S. occupation, conquered large swaths of eastern Syria, and is now taking aim at central Iraq, namely the capital, Baghdad. From there, it will continue on to Iraqi Kurdistan. The terrorists have left in their wake a trail of destruction, with thousands killed, over a million displaced, massive looting, and scores of women raped and sold into slavery.

Iraq is in danger. It is now only receiving aerial assistance from the Americans, who are intervening reluctantly after they thought that this chapter in their history was over. Islamic State forces in Sinjar were bombarded and humanitarian assistance was airdropped to 30,000 Yazidis and Christians who fled to the mountains for their lives. Some 750,000 other refugees sought shelter in the north near the frontiers with Turkey and Syria.

The weakness of Iraq’s prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, is reverberating. In his two terms in office he failed to solidify a centralized ruling government. That is why the president, Fuad Masum, announced the appointment of Haider al-Abadi, he of the National Alliance Party, as al-Maliki’s successor. This was a move which the U.S. engineered from behind the scenes in the hopes that al-Abadi, a figure who has widespread backing, would alter the sectarian and discriminatory policies of al-Maliki, the pro-Iranian Shiite.

Washington was the first to praise the announcement, which also won the endorsements of Turkey, Russia, Egypt, Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani, the Arab League, and even Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the influential Iraqi Shiite cleric. Iranian officials are also pleased. It seems that with the exception of the U.S., everyone realizes that Iraq is no longer a state, but a fiction. The naming of al-Abadi as prime minister is merely throwing a bone to a rotting corpse.

A perplexing dilemma with which the international community is grappling is the success of the Islamic State, a ragtag army that has defeated local forces. Currently, the only armed force that is working to repel it is the militiamen who comprise the Kurdish Peshmerga, who are desperately pleading for American assistance. In the meantime, though, the Islamic State is not stopping. Its men are amassing military equipment that is being abandoned in the field. They are also robbing banks and taking control of strategic transit points, all while sowing horror throughout Iraq.

The group, which is an offshoot of al-Qaida, first formed into a cohesive entity in Syria while fighting alongside the rebels trying to unseat President Bashar Assad. Commanded by the “caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the group is reportedly comprised primarily of castoffs from Saddam Hussein’s army, including those who formed the hard core of the now-defunct Baath Party, which was dissolved once Iraq was conquered by the U.S. military. The group was also joined by Sunnis who felt disenfranchised by al-Maliki and “jihad tourists,” adventure-lovers from around the world who have been indoctrinated with a murderous Islamist fanaticism.

In light of the increasingly menacing threat, it seems the positive reaction spurred by the appointment of al-Abadi is born out of the hope that it will subsequently lead to the formation of a pluralistic, representative Iraqi government which will more effectively cater to the needs of all of the ethnic and religious communities comprising this fractured country.

The formation of one inclusive entity is al-Abadi’s only hope for leading a viable Iraq into the future. Obviously, this is of little concern to the Islamic State, which has thus far ignored calls by the pope as well as by moderate Muslim leaders to cease its massacres.

Following the path of ancient Islam

The crusade of death in Syria and Iraq is replete with atrocities: murder, theft, taking civilians into captivity, the rape of Yazidi and Christian women (in Iraq), and mass graves, where people have also been buried alive. Even decapitation has become an acceptable practice in its war against “the infidels.”

In the name of the god of Islam, the group is returning to the religion’s roots, essentially re-enacting the horrific conquests of its forebears. It is bombarding religious sites, including mosques that are affiliated with those who oppose its philosophies, and it is persecuting entire communities deemed “Murtad,” apostate Muslims who have turned their backs to Islam. Next on its list of undesirables destined to be slaughtered are the Christians, followed, of course, by the Jews.

It would be best not to be confused by the small differences between the various radical Islamist organizations in the region: the Islamic State, the al-Nusra Front, Islamic Jihad and Hamas. All of them are predicated on the same ideas and religious precepts, from Hassan al-Bana to Yusef al-Qardawi. Even among the Palestinians, the most murderous Islamist subcontractors — Ahmed Yassin, Khaled Mashaal, Ramadan Abdallah, and even the head of the Islamic Movement, Sheikh Raed Salah — are merely mimicking Islamic tradition.

Even if each organization has its own unique interpretation of ancient Islam, the goal is the same: a worldwide Islamic caliphate that will arise through violent means and will eliminate its enemies, the Christians and the Jews, religions that are irrelevant in the eyes of Islam. Until now, these terrorist organizations were limited by prevailing circumstances, powerful counterforces and differences of opinion and dissension that stemmed from personal battles for positions of leadership.

Questions of religious doctrine with which these organizations grapple are varied. Should Muslims who strayed from the path of their faith be given a second chance to reaffirm their piety, or should they be put to death? Should Muslims precisely adopt the customs and norms of Mohammed (and his successors) or should they be permitted to use the tools of modernity in order to help their cause? Should Islam be spread through force, or should Muslims make do with “dawah,” or proselytizing?

The differences, as we mentioned, are miniscule, but it helps each organization to define its identity and gain financial backing from supportive governments like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and, in the case of Hezbollah, Shiite Iran.

Standing in the way of this threat is the naivete of U.S. President Barack Obama, who initially aspired to establish constructive ties with radical Islam “lite,” like the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood led by Mohammed Morsi. But Obama is a representative of the crusader superpower, America, which is backing Israel and preventing the Islamists from realizing their goal of spreading Islam. The green flag of the Muslim Brotherhood contains the same guiding message as the black flag of Islamic State.

These flags champion the “shahada,” the Islamic creed which states, “There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his Prophet.” This battlecry is the standard by which every murderous Islamist terrorist group measures itself. It is the basis of their actions, irrespective of how they call themselves or how brutal their methods, all of which are adjusted in accordance to the local norms and the strength of the enemy.

The flexibility permitted to them by the Islamist code enables Islamist terrorism to proceed at different paces and in different regions of the world so that it could eventually establish Islamic emirates that will one day comprise the longed-for global caliphate. They are even permitted to make temporary alliances with the enemies of Islam. Hamas, for example, which has called for jihad against the imperialist West, expects Europe to help it in its war against Israel.

The re-enacting of ancient Islam has become a tradition that has come up with the winning formula. The Islamic State’s doctrine is founded upon copying the actions of the original pious Islamists known as al-Salaf al-Zalah. It is from here that the world “Salafi” is derived. Salafists are an offshoot of radical Islamists who live exactly as their ancient Muslim ancestors lived.

In their conquests, the group is copying the methods employed by Mohammed in his defeats of Arab infidels — massacres, expulsions, rape, mass graves. The Yazidis and the Christians of today are experiencing first-hand what the Jews of the Arabian peninsula experienced in the seventh century.

The spreading inferno

As mentioned before, there are no major differences between the various Islamist terror organizations. It is as if they are Monopoly players, only the board is actually comprised of Islamic countries, and they are being bankrolled by the leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. These vicious monsters are waging a war of Armageddon that is gripping the world today. The problem is that most of the world is in denial of this state of affairs.

This is a battle that is being waged at the same time as humanity is in the throes of a desperate struggle against the ebola virus, which is looking more and more like a malady that cannot be cured. The most optimistic among us believe that just as we exterminated communism, we will also do away with extremist Islam. Radical Islam, however, is gaining by exploiting numerous pretexts, like religious supremacy, claims of disenfranchisement, rejection, apartheid, and exploitation.

The world is filled with raging Islamist fires. It is a blaze with many epicenters, and it is enabling Islamic terrorism to hit numerous countries in the Middle East, Africa, and even some quarters of European cities that are home to Islamic communities that are growing ever-stronger. Some Europeans have even lost hope in one day extinguishing those fires.

In Egypt and Sinai, there is a battle of giants underway. On the one hand, you have Islamic terrorism funded by Qatar and Turkey, and on the other hand you have President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. Terrorists are now setting their sights on Jordan and Lebanon. The Islamic firestarters are also active in Mali, Somalia, Nigeria, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Libya, and Sudan. Here, too, the fire has started in Gaza, Judea, Samaria, and Umm el-Fahm.

The spread of the Islamic terrorist inferno serves to highlight the continuing American dithering and Washington’s inability to grasp that in order to dry up the terrorist swamp, you must shut off the faucet that is feeding this epidemic. The answer to the problem is simple, but it turns out that the United States is acting in accordance with its own interests, which conflict with those of Qatar, Iran, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia — the countries which are at the core of the spread of murderous Islam and which enabled acts like the terrorist attack that toppled the World Trade Center in New York.

At a time when these entities are making a massive effort to persuade 1.2 billion Muslims worldwide “to return to the real roots of Islam,” the U.S. is concerned about trade agreements, weapons sales, and other shady business deals.

By virtue of these interests, Qatar became a darling of the West. Even when it gives money toward inciting masses of Muslims to radical Islam, it was awarded the 2022 World Cup. The American global cop may be watching as it does this, but it is still enabling the al-Thani family, the rulers of Qatar, to spoonfeed global terrorist organizations, from Islamic State to Hamas, from Iraq to Judea and Samaria. Similar considerations enable Turkey, a NATO member, to support Islamic terrorist groups in their war against Egypt while at the same time strengthening the Islamic State group.

Meanwhile, the West has finally rid itself of the political correct discourse and is now openly speaking about radical Islamic terrorism without fear of sounding Islamophobic. When it comes to Israel, however, there are still strong currents of anti-Semitism, which manifest in attacks by European skinheads. They refuse to understand that Israel is a bastion of Westernism that is waging a struggle to stop the advance of a dangerous proxy of global terrorism — Hamas.

It is impossible to comprehend U.N. institutions that chose to launch an investigation into Israel’s military actions during Operation Protective Edge, actions aimed at stopping terrorism. On the other hand, as more reports point to the daily massacres committed in Islamic countries by governments and terrorist organizations, the U.N. says nothing. At most, it issues weak-kneed condemnations.

Religion is not the only factor at play in the murderous march of Islamic terrorist gangs. There are also political, ethnic, and economic interests that yield alliances as well as adversarial relationships. In light of the need for money and arms, and given the fact that they both face a common enemy (the Jews), Sunni organizations will fight alongside Shiite groups. Islam’s code permits this.

Arab countries born following World War II are artificial creations. Ethnic communities exploit this in order to operate, particularly in fractured countries. The motivating interest is sectarian-driven, so terrorist groups like Islamic State took action against the Syrian regime and even against Hezbollah after infiltrating Lebanese soil.

These conflicting interests have created a series of dilemmas for state sponsors of terrorism. Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, who are backing Islamic State in its struggle against Assad in Syria, are having a difficult time supporting it when it is threatening al-Maliki’s government in Iraq and massacring the Yazidi and Christian minorities as well as anyone else it deems “infidels.” That is what led Turkey to support the Peshmerga militias in exchange for oil provided to it by Iraqi Kurdistan.

Another example is Qatar. While the emirate maintains strategic relations with America (“the infidels”), it is, at the same time, funding Islamic State, Hamas and other terrorist groups working against Israel, the Middle Eastern ally of bashful America. Qatar is also very fearful of Iran, but it also has secret, complex relations with Tehran. These ties are mostly motivated by survivalist considerations.

There are also contradictions in the policies of the U.S., which apparently is eager to see Assad fall. While Washington supports Islamic State’s philosophical brethren who are fighting Assad in Syria, it is also bombarding Islamic State troops in Iraq. The Americans maintain ties with Qatar and Turkey, yet it is also assisting Israel in its war against Hamas, the protege of these two wicked governments that are also operating against Israel.

Amid this web of interests, one must understand the main goals of Hamas and Islamic State. For this purpose, we should keep in the mind the famous statement uttered by the Prophet Mohammed, who once said: “I have been scaring the enemy for 40 days, and that’s before I’ve even reached him.”

There is also the Islamic religious passage which calls on Muslims to “sow terror in the heart of the enemy of God, who is your enemy, and in the hearts of others whom you will not meet, but whom God will meet.” All of the horrific deeds committed by Islamist terrorist groups stem from the same source, and they are meant to frighten. This is the secret of Islamic State barbarianism.

Despite the similarities with Islamic State, Hamas sprang from within the population of the Gaza Strip. Unlike Islamic State, there is no basis for its morbid appetite. Hamas’ glory, which is derived from the survival of its terrorists in light of the heavy civilian losses, is despicable. Hamas, unlike the killers of Islamic State who are alien to their surroundings, cannot evade responsibility for the residents of Gaza.

Winter is approaching, and with it the need for Hamas to acknowledge its defeat. No commission of inquiry or threat of more rocket attacks can build a single building in Gaza without Israel’s say-so. Nonetheless, in order to stop Hamas terrorism the Qatari spigot must be shut off, either by the U.S. or by an Islamic accomplice who will set Qatar’s gas fields on fire, engulfing all of the emirate’s residents.

Whoever wants to drain the swamp needs to make sure to patriate the descendants of Palestinian refugees (the status of refugees is not bequeathed from generation to generation) in Arab countries, which are implementing a policy of apartheid against them. UNRWA must be shut down, and this corrupt organization should begin to care for the millions of real refugees around the world. Europe will also be grateful.

This entry was posted on August 15, 2014 at 10:06 PM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.