I knew I had to read this book after seeing many other books on counter-terrorism and radical Islam referenced this work. There’s a reason why this book is cited often and mentioned in bibliographies: it is a well-researched book on the origins of Al Qaeda leading up to their attack on September 11th. The author spent five years researching for the book which led the author to travel all over the world.
Here’s a video that was rather interesting as a social experiment.
I don’t condone pranks that scare people with terrorism or threaten their lives. I share this because it is an ilustation that worldview does matter.
While the prank never interviewed anyone afterwards for their political persuasion, I imagine Leftists and liberals who think Islam is a religion of peace would react the same as those across the other political spectrum.
A good book, no wonder it’s published by Yale University Press. Few books out there actually examine the theology of radical Jihadists like the way this one did. In the beginning of the book the author argue that some of the West’s attempt at understanding Al Qaeda and 9/11 in purely economic, colonial and political terms fail to do justice in explaining the rationale and motivation of Al Qaeda and similar Jihadist organizations. For instance such narratives have a hard time accounting for the fact that significant numbers of these Jihadists are well-educated and come from well-to-do families. Moreover, the author makes the point that the rise of Islamists’ ideology began before European colonization of Islamic land and even in areas which European colonization never reach. Mary Habeck also note that such narrative by the West tend to ignore what the Jihadists themselves are saying, which reveal more about the West than they do concerning the Jihadists: the West often presuppose that the religious sphere is not important and again this ignores what the Jihadists themselves are saying. This work deals with the ideological roots of the modern Jihadist movement beyond the typical presentation of Muhammad’s imperialism. The auther writes about Wahabism (the kind of Sunni Muslim Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda subscribe to) and it’s founder, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. I like how the book is so detailed about historical Islamic legal reasoning. Readers will be introduced to important historical contributors to the modern Jihadist ideology, such as Ibn Taymiyyah and early jurist Ahmad ibn Hanbal. These men who lived hundreds of years ago, wrote about jihad including it’s goals and method. Readers will suddenly realize that a lot of the motif in current Jihadist literatures came from these earlier theologians and scholars of Islamic jurisprudence. I appreciated the author’s ability to show us the thinking of the jihadist which no doubt would seem so foreign to many. For instance, Osama Bin Laden and others believed that the Crusades never ended, that modernism in the West is a deliberate poison the West wants to introduce to Islamic land for the soul purpose of destroying Islam. The book also talk about contemporary Islamists and Jihadists. Most frightening in the book is how Jihadists have a plan for global dominion for all to be under Islam and the debate among themselves and in the past with Muslim scholars is whom to attack first: the infidels from afar, “false Muslims” (and what constitute a false Muslim is also another fascinating debate) or the leaders of Islamic countries today (they wish to unite under one world empire under the Caliph)? While the book was written before Arab Spring, one can’t help it but to see some of the policies in these new government seem to be advancing an agenda that’s in step with the vision and plan (such as increasing pressure on non-Muslim, etc). Must read book, I totally recommend it.
Those who’s philosophy of history is bent towards a Marxist explanation of things (mode of production determines history, and since our mode of production currently bring about poverty then this in part explain why Jihad occurs) need to consider whether or not it’s true in explaining that poverty causes Jihad.
Two-thirds of British terror suspects are from middle-class backgrounds and those who become suicide bombers are often highly educated, a classified MI5 document reveals.
The paper, marked ‘Secret: UK Eyes Only’, also debunks the myths that terrorists and suicide bombers are ‘loners’ and ‘psychopaths’.
Instead, the security service says that 90 per cent of them can be categorised as ‘sociable’ and have a high number of friends.
The 200-page document, titled Radicalisation Of Muslims In The United Kingdom – A Developed Understanding, was found by a Mail on Sunday reporter in the abandoned residence of the British ambassador in the Libyan capital, Tripoli.
The research paper, which was intended to be read by only MI5 agents and officers, was produced after studying 90 terror suspects investigated by the security service.
While some of the information in the document comes from the interrogation of suspects, other data came from surveillance by spies and informants. The report gives a rare glimpse into how security service agents view Islamic extremists, and what MI5 believes are the main causes of Muslims becoming radicalised.
While the report says that Western foreign policy and the perception that ‘Islam is under siege’ plays a role, they are not the main cause.
Instead, the four causes of radicalisation are:
Drum roll:
[1] ‘Trauma’, such as the death of a loved one: Ten per cent of terror suspects became radicalised after a life trauma, says the report.
[2] ‘Migration’: A third of all extremists ‘migrated to Britain alone’.
[3] ‘Criminal activity’: Two-thirds of the sample had criminal records.
Acts of violent jihad allow them to channel those thuggish impulses for a “good” cause.
[4] ‘Prison’: Muslim prisoners who are not religious are often radicalised in prison. The report identified 60 known Islamist extremists operating in British jails.
The study says that the ‘mean age’ at which a Muslim becomes radicalised is 21.6 years, while anyone between the ages of 16 and 32 is regarded as vulnerable….
Qur’an 9:123—O you who believe! fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in you hardness.
Qur’an 48:29—Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and those who are with him are severe against disbelievers, and merciful among themselves.
Qur’an 9:29—Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the Religion of Truth, from among the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizyah with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.
Sahih al-Bukhari 6924—Allah’s Messenger said, “I have been ordered to fight the people till they say: La ilaha illallah (none has the right to be worshipped but Allah), and whoever said La ilaha illahllah, Allah will save his property and his life from me.”
Sam Shamoun is to be congratulated for a good work. He was able to stay on the topic and gave a good presentation and rebuttal on his part. I believe the Muslim debater is the first in the U.S to debate on “Is Islam a Religion of Peace?”
If the US announced to the terrorist a truce, and allow the terrorists to flee Iraq and Afghanistan, leaving behind their weapons, because the US would win,
The world would laugh
Yet these Terrorists thinks they are going to win…
And is going to ‘allow’ American soldiers to leave, and leave behind their heavy weapons in Iraq for the Jihadists too…
Last year, a group of Indonesian men ambushed four girls (men vs girls) as they walked to their Christian school. One of the three survived with serious wounds. The school had been burned down during a previous round of sectarian conflict and later rebuilt.
The police said the heads of the three victims were discovered by local residents some distance from the bodies. The surviving student told the police that there had been six assailants wearing masks and black shirts. The victims were identified as Yarni Sambue (15) Interesia Morangke (16) and Alfita Paulina (19).
The survivor has been identified as Noviana Malewa, who is currently in intensive care at a nearby hospital. The bodies of the girls were left at the site of the attack near a cocoa plantation. The heads were found at separate locations two hours later by residents. One of the heads was found near a church.
They have found the men responsible for the beheadings. Three Muslim men have been charged in the beheadings of three girls in an Indonesian province filled with sectarian tension. More news here, here, here and here.
Update: The “three Christian high school girls who were beheaded” was a Ramadan “trophy” by Indonesian militants who conceived the idea after a visit to Philippines jihadists, a court heard yesterday.
The girl’s severed heads were dumped in plastic bags in their village in Indonesia’s strife-torn Central Sulawesi province, along with a handwritten note threatening more of such attacks.
The note read: “Wanted: 100 more Christian heads, teenaged or adult, male or female…“
There has been an increase in terrorism activities in light of the President of the US visiting Indonesia.
The jihadists are angry,
A young Indonesian girl wants him dead or alive,
This is their hero,
These pictures show the violence of these people! Chopping of heads and what not in somewhat a way of life, more of a way of their religion. Some of the pictures are between tribal clashes but the rest are between Christian and Muslim. And who might be the victim…..? Remember the three Christian school girls who were unarmed and defenseless?
Why with the fascination of chopping of heads and than parading it? Not only in Iraq but in Indonesia as well.
Notice the modern background – tar roads, brick houses, modern bikes, modern clothes, etc. It seems to be in a modern civilization accept for ……..
That is a young boy! Why? Again we see the murder of a young and defenseless person in the hands of who else…… Everyone else seems to be OK about it. What civilization is this?
Motorcyclists wielding machetes have attacked Christians in Donggala Regency, Central Sulawesi, leaving one dead and five injured.
Motorcyclists wielding machetes have attacked Christians in Donggala Regency, Central Sulawesi, leaving one dead and five injured. On Thursday evening, 11 March, four men riding on two motorcycles sped through the village of Maranatha, 18 miles south of the regional capital Palu, leaving death and bloodshed in their wake. Nuci, a 40 year old mother of two, died two hours after receiving fatal injuries to her head, neck and back. A witness to the incident described how she heard the roar of the motorbikes, followed almost immediately by a baby’s screams. She ran towards the cries and found Nuci, bleeding to death and crawling towards her baby. The attackers wounded five others, who were Efrain, 30, Kanus, 30, Kalfin, 25, Pianus, 18, and Listin, 17 (many Indonesians have just one name).
The situation in the village is still tense, but no further incidents have been recorded. Hundreds of villagers are now standing on guard with machetes, spears and hand-made guns. The dead woman’s relatives have called on the police to respond decisively as they fear that this is the start of another round of anti-Christian attacks.
On Monday 15 March, five suspected members of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) were convicted on charges of terrorism in Palu District Court. Three of them, described as key local JI members, were jailed for six years, while the others received sentences of five and three years. JI has been blamed for the Bali bombings and widespread church bombings on Christmas Eve 2000.
While the district court in Palu has upheld justice, the same cannot be said concerning a recent decision in Indonesia’s Supreme Court. The court upheld an August 2002 decision to acquit five army officers of their suspected role in the massacre of 200 Christians in a church. The attack, in which three church ministers were also killed, took place in East Timor on 6 September 1999. Human Rights Watch has called on the UN to investigate the failure of the courts to reach a conviction.
Remember this three Christian ladies who are on trial? They were convicted for converting children. Can you imagine yourself being in the court room with these jihadists shouting for your death?
If you are a Muslim reading this, please consider the love and mercy of Jesus Christ which is revealed in the true word of God – the Holy Bible. There will be a judgment awaiting all mankind. The only way of escape from that terrifying Day is to be clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ from His atoning sacrifice.
And if you are a Christian reading this, if you are not proclaiming Christ you are sinning. Repent and get back to the work of proclamation.
