Coping with Islamists

By Dr. Sam Holliday

The Obama administration has stated that our enemy is al-Qaeda and its terrorist affiliates. They reject any suggestion that Islam motivates our enemies. John Brennan has said "Nor do we describe our enemy as jihadists and Islamists." They do not recognize the two faces of Islam. This view does not recognize that we are in a struggle with a worldwide movement, known as the Great Jihad, motivated by the teaching of Muhammad. It is time for the Obama administration to face the reality of the Islamists Threat.

Today there are Muslims who, in accordance with the Qur’an, continue the Great Jihad. They call themselves jihadists, or holy warriors. Those who value Western Culture should refer to them as hirabahists, or unholy warriors. Islamists is an accurate name for them, since that indicates Islamic motivation, yet it does not suggest all Muslims. Islamists call the current worldwide struggle the Third Jihad, and have five goals:

1. To weaken US influence in the Middle East and South Asia and to increase the “fifth column” in Europe and the United States.

2. To use the United Nations to paralyze effective action by the United States.

3. To control the oil in the Middle East, and then use that control to weaken the economic power of the United States.

4. To eliminate Israel.

5. To continue the struggle until a Great Caliphate is created.

How many Muslims are Islamists? It is impossible to know. Clearly the leaders of the Third Jihad are Islamists. Most of the terrorists lack the necessary historical perspective or theological knowledge to be Islamists. They are motivated by feelings of envy, frustration, greed, prejudice, and hatred resulting from manipulation by the leaders. What about most Muslims? Most Muslims believe in jihad, i.e. struggle.

However, they believe in different kinds of struggles. For some Muslims it is a personal (inner) struggle. Islamists struggle for the five goals of the Third Jihad. Some Muslims belief the Qur’an prevents them from condemning Islamists, or helping to neutralize them. The critical question is: How many Muslims will struggle for modernity and integration into Western Culture?

The current threat to Western Culture is from transnational Islamists with political goals. This is a battle of wills. We have not yet neutralized them or weakened their will, and they have not weakened our will. However, this conflict will not end as long as there are Islamists who believe the Qur’an requires a Great Jihad.

Muslims are not our enemies. Our enemies are all the Islamists that want to kill us and drive us out of “Islamic lands”, and those that provide them funds, sanctuary, and moral support; this includes al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and many other groups and individuals. Islamists support an ideology that opposes modernity and Western Culture; but not all Muslims support this ideology. At this time the threat doesn't call for a Holy War; there is not justification for an overall strategy similar to those used in World War II or the Cold War. We are not yet in a Clash of Civilizations and it would be a mistake at this time to think that we are. We should attempt to handle the conflict as Irregular Warfare, until the threat from the Islamists becomes greater—or is neutralized.

Our Overall Strategy

Our overall strategy must include information dissemination (communication) that is as effective as that of our enemy. However, this should not be confused with the spreading of our own values, attitudes, and ideology about economic and political systems. The goal of our strategy should be stability (homeostatic equilibrium), not political or economic development. The immediate goals must be local security and local authority. In time, we can hope, all Muslims might learn to value the free exchange of ideas, tolerance, free market economics, and representative government and give up those aspects of Islam that are incompatible with Western Culture. In other words, conversion to what we consider best should not be the strategic goal. Our strategic goal should be stability and stopping those who want to destroy us.

Our strategy must include getting Muslims to become a counter-balance to the Islamists. But the two faces of Islam cannot fool us. On the one hand, Muslims can be outwardly moderate, understand, tolerate and peaceful when living among nonbelievers, but inwardly believe in the Great Jihad. Only those who will work against Islamists and the Great Jihad can be trusted.

To date Muslims have failed to:

• Point out that it is un-Islamic for the Islamists to claim they are conducting a Jihad (holy war), and that the so-called jihadists have perverted authentic Islam.

• Clarify the “jihad martyrdom” factor so that it is not used as a recruiting tool.

• Distinguish between offensive, defensive, and personal jihad.

• Clarify the meaning of “infidel”, so that it is not used for political purposes and the killing of innocents.

• Point out that many Islamist leaders are not clerics and have no authority to issue fatwas (religious edicts).

• Point out that the Islamists deliberately ignore or misread many passages of the Qur’an and the Islamic Jurisprudence (the Figh).

Any successful strategy against Islamists requires realism, frankness and a high degree of unity. It requires honesty from governmental officials about the threat, and honesty from a loyal opposition in domestic politics. The skeptics, ideological Luddites (those with naive political beliefs that destroy that which supports and protects them), and partisans cannot be allowed to sabotage our strategy against the Islamists. Domestic political disputes must not provide an opportunity for the Islamists to divide and conquer. The useful idiots must be exposed. We must face this threat as one nation. In Irregular Warfare motivation, dedication, unity, effort and sacrifice are just as critical to success as they are in Conventional War.

Our leaders have to be candid about the threat, and what must be done; they should not speak in generalities or in words designed not to offend Muslims. They must believe in American exceptionalism. They must be honest, accurate and frank. They must project strength and confidence. Our leaders must admit that they don't know all and can't tell all that they know. They must explain:

• That this is a protracted conflict being played out on a global field with Islamists who have their tentacles virtually everywhere.
  
• That the "organization" of the Third Jihad has many autonomous parts and they often hide behind respected religious, culture, and welfare institutions.
  
• That the legal rights and protections of individuals, determined to be appropriate for peace, are a mill stone around the neck of open, free, representative societies during Irregular Warfare; they need be appropriately revised in those situations when the actions of Islamists destroy the conditions of peace.

Unless there are such revisions, the Islamists will exploit the weaknesses of their target countries to their advantages.

The Challenge

The ideology of the Islamists is hostile to pluralistic, representative, secular government, since true believers consider Qur’an law and its Sharia derivatives the only basis for governance. This view must be recognized as a subversive ideology; it should not be legitimized as a religion. It is true that Christianity, Shinto, and other religions do not have stellar records.

However, dhimmi status (subordinate, disfranchised, residents subject to discriminatory taxation and limits on freedom) is unique to Islam. The teaching of hatred for non-believers is unique to Islam. Only when Islam controls a country, and all non-Muslims have accepted dhimmi status, can Islamists accept diversity. We value God given rights of individuals—Islamists values submission to Islamic leaders.

It is true that Islamists want to expel Western influences from all territory formerly under Muslim control. They want their politico-economic and philosophical views to be dominant. Whereas most insurgents in the past were motivated by a utopian view of a better world with economic equality and social fraternity, Islamists seek spiritual purity in the eyes of Allah. Islamists see nonbelievers as too weak, too easily tempted, too confused to govern themselves; therefore, scholar-jurists who know the way of Allah must control them. They seek to protect people from worldly temptations; therefore they attempt to remove anything that will prevent people from submitting to Allah.

The ideology of the Islamists is hostile to pluralistic, representative, secular government, since Islamic true believers consider Qur’an law and its Sharia derivatives the only basis for governance. This view must be recognized as a subversive political ideology; it should not be legitimized as a religion. It is true that in the past the leaders of Christianity, Shinto, and other religions have twisted religious doctrine into political ideologies.

However, today this is true only of Islam. Dhimmi status (subordinate, disfranchised, residents subject to discriminatory taxation and limits on freedom) is unique to Islam. Only when Islam controls a country, and all non-Muslims have accepted dhimmi status, can Islamists accept diversity. Today the teaching of hatred for non-believers is unique to Islam. Western Culture values the God given rights of individuals—Islamists values submission to Islamic leaders.

“Moderate and reasonable Muslims” who support the Third Jihad—such as CAIR, the Holy Land Foundation, ISNA, Organization of the Islamic Conference, and the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination League--are a greater threat than terrorists. Such “moderates” are Islamists since they do not reject those parts of the Qur’an that call for a Great Jihad.

They hid their true intent and consider it in keeping with the Qur’an to deceive non-believers. They use our legal system to silence and punish free speech critical of Islamists or their sources of financing. They are the lead elements of the “fifth column” seeking to weaken Western Culture and prepare the way for Islamic domination of the world.

It is Islamists—not all Muslims—who want the Third Jihad to be a worldwide movement that will cause all non-believes to submit.

More effective ways to neutralize the tactics, techniques and strategies of the Third Jihad must be used in the future if it is to be defeated. We must defeat, deter, or neutralize our enemy. In Irregular Warfare there is never the final victory of Conventional War—success is defined by stability. First, we must recognize that killing Islamist leaders will not end the Third Jihad.

The leaders represent an important segment of our enemy, but not its totality. Second, we do not want to make Islam or an entire Islamic culture our enemy. Third, we must recognize that the demise of Israel will not mean an end of the Third Jihad, even though Israel will always be used to rally support for the Third Jihad. Fourth, we must recognize that withdrawal from the Middle East will only embolden the Islamists and make the final Clash of Civilizations more likely.

Strategy to Defeat the Third Jihad

The best strategy for defending Western Culture includes:

1. Assure that the Middle East and South Asia are stabilized and that worldwide no state is willing to support Islamists attempting to overthrow those in authority.

2. Work toward energy independence through:

• Developing the massive U.S. oil resources so that our economy is not dependent on sources that our enemies can disrupt. This would include the conversation of coal and natural gas into oil.
  
• Reducing dependence on fossil fuels, and using less energy overall, while maintaining our standard of living.
  
• Developing new sources of energy—primarily proven nuclear energy systems, such as those non-SL1 systems abandoned by the Army in the 1960s.

3. Adopt a policy of containment until the faults within the Third Jihad cause its ideological certitude to collapse, allowing other Muslims to neutralize the Islamists. Pursue such policies, both overt and covert, to hasten this collapse.

4. Face the fact that communication superiority is a prerequisite for success in Irregular Warfare--just as air superiority is a prerequisite for victory in Conventional War. To date we have been ineffective in the strategic communication campaign to strengthen the will of our own people, to weaken the will of our enemies, and to gain the support of people around the world. In the current battle of wills strategic communication is the center of gravity. This conflict is not to be won through economic, diplomatic, and military means.

5. Develop a message as effective as Muhammad's in winning hearts and minds. Then develop a sociopolitical structure to communicate that message which is more effective than that of the global revivalist movement known as the Third Jihad.  Recognize that the true believers of the Third Jihad are willing to suffer, sacrifice, deceive, kill, conquer, and die for their cause. Recognize that we need true believers in our cause, i.e. the principles and ideals of Western Culture.

6. Encourage respected leaders and scholars of the Islamic world to condemn in religious terms those using violence in the name of Islam. Also condemn as “useful idiots” those in the West who give aid, comfort and support to Islamists.

7. Take actions to strengthen pride in Western Culture. The weakening of the will in Europe and America, and ability to protect Western Culture as it developed in the modern era (from 1500 to the 1960s), has many causes. Partly it is the result of actions by those disillusioned by World War I and World War II, and partly it is the result of the cycle of rise and decline common to all groups. The ability to counter the Third Jihad depends on strengthening the will and unity of all of those who value Western Culture.

8. Designate any Muslim an Islamist, even if he or she claims to be a moderate, if that person will not condemn the Islamists and renounce that portion of the Qur’an that calls for the Great Jihad.

Life and liberty requires knowledge of your enemies and the ability to destroy or neutralize those enemies.

Dr Sam Holliday is Director of the Armiger Cromwell Center

All publications copyright © 2010 Armiger Cromwell Center. Permission is granted to forward this article by e-mail to friends or colleagues on a fair use basis. For reprint permission, contact Armiger Cromwell Center at armigercc@comcast.net

All posts by Sam Holliday on Politeia

Related dossiers

- The Unholy Alliance"
- "The Jihad Project"
- "In Defense of Liberty"
- "Legal Jihad"
- "The Balkan Caliphate"
- "Stop Islamization of Europe/America"
- "Eurabia"
- "Islamization=Apartheid"
- "Apostating Islam"

"We Didn't Know" is No Excuse

Andrew Bostom is publishing a series on Pajamas on the history of infidels in Iran. Bostom is an authority on the fate of non Muslims in Muslim conquered lands, the so-called dhimmis. Part II was just released. Part III is coming up soon. We'll link to it as soon as it becomes available. The historian Bat Yeor coined the term in her book "Islam and Dhimmitude".

Would the Amsterdam anti discrimination Court, where Geert Wilders is currently on trial, be aware of all that? Given that 15 expert witnesses out of the 18 requested by Wilders were rejected by the Court, defending counsel's reaction was that "apparently they already know".

The series is reminiscent of Wilders' proposal for the rag head tax! Regretably it went nowhere. It would have given cause to a lifely debate. A junior journalist who went undercover in Wilders' party, said he even regretted it.

Turns out, the Nazis invented very little themselves. Antisemitism laws appear to have been lifted 1o1 from Muslim tradition. Part II of Bostom's series relates that even the World War II Star of David badge is an old Iranian custom. All that might well have had something to do with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, an uncle of Yasir Arafat, who was a regular on the Nazi scene.

We have our own theory here, that the genocide of the Jewish tribe of Medina, the Banu Qurayza, later stood model for both the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian genocide, as well as the Holocaust of World War II. At least it must have justified it, because it gave the mass murders a religious base.

Read all about it in "The Medina Precedent for Holocaust and Genocide" and "The Turkish Genocides, the Endless Story".

Also by Andrew Bostom: "The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims" and "The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism".

Pajamas: "Jihad and Genocidal Islamic Anti-Semitism in Shi’ite Iran": Part I - Part II - Part III

Related dossiers:

- "The Unholy Alliance"

- "In Defense of Liberty"

- "The Jihad Project"

- "Stop Islamization of Europe"

- "Islamization=Apartheid"

- "Apostating Islam"

- "Muslims versus Sharia"

Geert Wilders and the Rag-Head Tax Plot

During the debates that mark the beginning of the Dutch Parliamentary year Geert Wilders once again had his opponents enraged to the point of breaking blood vessels and generally getting their multicultural knickers in a twist.

What's he done now?

Well, he's proposed a rag-head tax ... eh what?

That's a tax on head-scarves. Here's an article on the site of Dutch International Radio. You can read Wilders' entire speech for Parliament here.

- Caption: Ottoman revenue stamps (Crete) - 

Wilders proves once again to be a clever politician while his opponents appear to be in a permanent state of collective psychosis induced by postmodern outrage (feigned, or otherwise). Wilders on the other hand, has laid his ambush with patience and care. 

He's probably preparing more of the same, only to turn the table on the political correctness brigades at the last moment, possibly at the height of the campaign for city council elections early next year.

Special taxes is the sort of measure in the time honored tradition of the Dar-al-Islam*. In the West it is now sadly forgotten (or whiped from our carefully sanitized history text books). Muslim conquerors were wont to give the vanquished three choices: convert, pay or die.  

- Caption: scene of a trial on Crete during Ottoman rule (1879) - 

Pay, consists of a tax called jizya, another discriminatory injustice, according to this wiki rooted in the prehistory of the Arabian dessert. Sadly, that doesn't explain why the conquering Turkish hordes did the exact same thing. The most bitter aspect of it is that the subjugated - in effect - financed their own defeat and occupation. That this practice still exists in the Dar-al-Islam is described in colorful terms in this article.

The Muslim conquerers were masters in thinking up methods to humiliate and oppress the dhimmis. The Greeks for example were forbidden to ride horses, because that would make them appear more impressive than a Muslim riding a donkey, and that would never do. The dhimmi must be kept in place. This was institutionalised in the Ottoman millet** system.

At present, development aid, subsidies and other NGO and Government sponsored programs benefiting the Dar-al-Islam may be construed as a form of jizyah; appeasement of terrorism a non-monetary manifestation of jizyah.

Wilders also demanded from the Government to submit to Parliament a cost benefit analysis of migration policies over the last couple of decades or so. In a constitutional novelty the Government has refused to do so, justifying their Contempt of Parliament with the excuse that it is technically not possible to produce such figures. If the cost exceeds the benefit, that's also a form of jizyah.

Wilders, the clever man, is in stitches while the multiculti condemn his proposals as barbaric, uncivilized, fascist, racist, and what have you - only to be confronted with the fact that this is precisely what Muslims do to non Muslims living in what they consider to be "the lands dominated by Islam".

Go, Geert!

* The home of the Ummah (Muslim collective) is the Dar-al-Islam, the land that "belongs" to Islam. It was largely Christian before the conquests. Land that doesn't "belong" to Islam is the Dar-al-Harb, the land of war - that's us; until we submit that is, and become incorporated in Dar-al-Islam.

** The millet system is explained quite well in this video about the Armenian genocide.

Tribute to the 1955 Kristallnacht of Constantinople

My Greek Odyssey, in "Kristallnacht in Constantinople", first published in September/October 2007 issue of Greek America Magazine, is paying tribute to history in an important post on the all but forgotten 1955 pogrom of Constantinople, for which the Nazi Kristallnacht stood as a model.

It is important, not just because the pogrom finally destroyed the remaining vestiges of Hellenistic Byzantium in Constantinople, both in physical and psychological sense; it is also relevant today as myths are purposely erected to 'sell' postmodern geopolitical developments, which are presented, not as man-made policies but as inevitable Acts of God, or Hegelian 'historical events': the 'multicultural society that is upon us' and the creation of multi-ethnic and multi-cultural super-states at the expense of nations, also known as transnational progressivism.

For one, the fairy tale for the Utopian hard of hearing is crushed to smithereens, that Muslims would 'respect' the peoples of The Book and that Jesus, as a Muslim 'Prophet', is as untouchable as Mohammed himself, or so it is implied. The photos in the post by Demetrios Kaloumenos make it plain - what is already known to anyone with eyes willing to see - that expressions of Judeo-Christian civilization - in 1955, as in the present - are hardly tolerated in any part of the Dar-al-Islam.

Another piece of nonsense, designed to make the avant-garde of multiculturalism sleep quietly in their beds at night collapses under the weight of the evidence of history: that of the blessings of the dhimmi status. Whereas the postmodern approach to history is on the one hand "a collection of wave after wave of ethnic cleansing", it is simultaneously believed that Jews, Christians and Muslims have lived happily together for centuries, under the all-seeing eye of the Ottoman Caliphate.

My Greek Odyssey concludes that "The Turkish government, press, and nation 'justified' this savagery on the false pretext that the Greeks had bombed the house of Ataturk in Thessaloniki. In reality the Greeks had not placed the bomb in the Turkish consular complex in that city on September 6. It had been put there by a Turk, in collusion with the Turkish government, in order to provide the pretext for a carefully laid plan to destroy the houses, the businesses, the property, the churches, the schools, the newspapers of the Greeks in Constantinople. It was a "logical" sequence (in Turkish minds) to the oppressive Varlik Vergisi of 1942-1943, a Turkish confiscatory law which destroyed the economic bases of the Greek, Turkish and other minority communities. The pogrom of 1955 was a Turkish "success" as it finally destroyed the ancient Hellenism of Constantinople, both in physical and psychological dimensions. >>>

- More historical photo material by "Byzantinos.com".

- Related: "The Unholy Alliance"

- Filed on Articles in "History Compiled" -

Review: "Farewell Israel: Bush, Iran and The Revolt of Islam"

The political video documentary"Farewell Israel: Bush, Iran and The Revolt of Islam", written and directed by Joel Gilbert is - on the whole - a beautifully produced opus that delves into the origins of the confrontation between Islam and the Jews at the time of the Prophet Mohammed and is insightful in that respect, to say the least.

It is introduced as "a historic journey from the birth of Islam, through its 1,200 year reign over the civilized world, to the last 300 years is Islamic decline, overtaken and dominated by the West - then humiliated by a Jewish state. Islam's historic trials with Jews, and its relationship with conquered non believers, help illustrate the Islamic world view - all through the eyes of Muslims."

And this is exactly where the problem with this effort lies, resulting in part omission, part subjectivism, part revisionism. While it is appreciated that Judeo-Christian history is not part of this 'narrative', it is a serious objection to completely ignore the scene in which Islam from its inception, found itself. History begins with Mohammed, the measure of everything, so is the message.

The suggestion is made, that Christendom emerged from 'the obscurantism of the Dark Ages with the discovery of the Americas', ignoring centuries of social, cultural, religious, scientific and philosophical development under the influence of the Roman Church, and everything else for that matter, that has taken place before AD 610. The suggestion is ludicrous.

The author also missed the opportunity to stress the emergence and conquests of the Turkish tribes in the twelth and thirteeth centory, which could have clarified the Christian origins of the Levant and Asia Minor. Likewise, that the Crusades were as much a reconquest as the Spanish Reconquista.

The rich roots of pre Christian Greco-Roman culture, of which Islam was the custodian during the often praised 'Golden Age of Islam', is ignored altogether, as is Middle Eastern paganism. Islam, apparently, is an island. In that respect Gilbert indeed paints an accurate ' version of reality' .

On the other hand, an important insight is provided by describing more recent history. During the course of the last century Amin Al Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem between 1921 and 1948 and uncle to Yassir Arafat, is correctly identified as the link between the precedent of the massacre of the Jewish tribes at M'dina at the hand of Mohammed for failing to accept Dhimmitude, and the justification of the Turkish genocides of Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians in the aftermath of World War I, as well as the Nazi Holocaust (recommended video) during World War II.

The last two occasions of genocide and alleged genocide were encouraged and sanctified by Amin al Husseini on the grounds of the M'dina precedent: Dhimmis behaving in a manner unbecoming of their status. The M'dina Jews refused conversion as well as taxation, resulting in their 'justified' annihilation.

As Mohammed is the measure of everything in Islam, the less than loyal attitude of the Dhimmi groups that were subjugated and unwillingly integrated into the Turkish (Ottoman) Empire, likewise resulted in their mass murder.

Strikingly Adolf Hitler came up with the so-called Dolchstoss legend against the Jews, 'treason' resulting in the loss of World War I on the part of the German-Turko side - a similar justification for Holocaust. (More on the Unholy Alliance between (National) Socialism and Islam on files, Part I and Part II.)

Interesting is the suggestion that Anwar Sadat's 1977 Camp David Accords with Israel actually constituted not an offer of peace, but an attempt at destroying Israel by diplomatic efforts. The question is such case is, why was he assassinated by Al Zawahiri c.s. Apparently the effort was wasted on the Muslim Brotherhood.

The document' s central assertion is that - contrary to what is suggested by the title - the Islamic world doesn't seek as much the destruction of the state of Israel, as the wish to reduce it to Dhimmi status - tributaries under Islamic rule - the natural and solely acceptable status of infidels under Islamic rule. This suggestion is a fresh attempt at literally playing dice with Evil at the price of a second Holocaust. The very notion is despicable and worthy of denunciation as a irresponsible, Postmodern piece of amorality!

Nonsensical is the idea that the Bush administration played into Al Qaeda's hands after 9/11 by attacking Islamic lands. The suggestion is, that this would so much outrage Muslims that they'd dispose of their despotic rulers on a mass scale. In effect, the only changes of regime that have occurred have taken place in the countries thus liberated by the Coalition.

Gilbert further suggests that the establishment of democracy will merely result in radical Islamist regimes being voted in all over the Middle East. Indeed, the Hamas regime in Palestine has nothing to do with Fatah corruption and mismanagement, and everything with spiting the West.

Artistically "Farewell Israel: Bush, Iran and The Revolt of Islam" is a fine piece of work. Historically it is insuffient, it is politically wanting, and moraly irrelevant.

- Filed on Articles in "The Unholy Alliance", Part II -