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One of the interesting phenomena related to Al-Qaeda and the culture of global Jihad since the September 11th attacks and the global war against Islamist terrorism led by the United States, is the emergence of a group of interpreters of Osama bin Ladin, Tanzim Qaedat al-Jihad, and of the nature of the war between radical Islam and the West. These interpreters, primarily Saudi, Yemeni, and Egyptian scholars and intellectuals, have published throughout the past year, dozens of articles in Islamist web sites and on-line magazines. Their articles are widely distributed and circulated on numerous Islamist Internet forums. The numerous responses to them prove their popularity. Some of them opened in recent months their own web sites. Amongst the more famous of these scholars are Abu Ayman al-Hilali, Abu Saad al-Ameli, Lewis Atiyyat Allah, and Abu Ubayd al-Qurashi.
Some of the Learned Elders of Islam..
These popular scholars are part of a bigger group of well-known clerics, primarily Saudis from the Saudi Islamist opposition known in Arabic Ulama al-sahwah (Clerics of the resurgence), who serve as the backbone of the support for the ideology and doctrines of the culture of global Jihad and Al-Qaeda. But, if the contribution of the clerics lies in supporting and developing these doctrines, the importance of the âinterpretersâ lies in spreading the political messages of the global Jihad in the Arab and Muslim world, and in promoting the expectations of the radical Muslim youth for further struggle and more anti-Western and anti-Jewish sentiments. Part of their articles could be viewed in the West as disinformation or psychological warfare. Yet, a profound research of the phenomenon of the global Jihad and their radical Jihadi Salafist doctrines, as well as Al-Qaedaâs policies, should not ignore them.
| Some of us have been poring over them... |
Another example for such âinterpretationsâ are several dozens of unsigned articles published in the past year by the Center for Islamic Study and Research (Markaz al-Dirasat wal-Buhuth al-Islamiyyah). The center is regarded by many observers and intelligence communities as one of the official means of propaganda for al-Qaeda, which accurately reflects the Jihadi-Salafist doctrines of the culture of global Jihad. The fact that many of the reports and articles published by the center are unsigned, gives them the image of the authentic views of the organization or front of al-Qaeda, and not just individual views of its supporters.
| Kind of like Pravda used to publish the Party line... |
One of the more popular interpreters of al-Qaeda is Lewis Atiyyat Allah, who is well known in the circles of the supporters of the culture of global Jihad in the Arab and Muslim world, and has his own web site as well â Yalewis. In November 30th 2002, Atiyyat Allah published an interesting article, which was circulated in several Islamist web sites, including his own, titled: âThe New World Order as written by Osama bin Laden.â This is an attempt to review the development of Al-Qaeda and the culture of global Jihad and mainly their future, as if bin Ladin himself was sketching his lines of thinking. The article that was written in the first person, is unusual in its attempt to enter bin Ladinâs mind in such a direct manner. Yet, it might really reflect the future plans and policies of Al-Qaeda and its front groups.
| With about the same degree of reliability as our occasional forays on Rantburg into what Bush or Rice might really be thinking... |
The present conflict between the Islamist radicals and the West is perceived by the author as the first stage, yet there are three other stages. The next phase and first priority of the global Jihad for the near future as presented in this analysis, is to defeat the Arab governments. They should achieve that goal by:
Imposing upon the American administration the direct cooperation with us. The United States itself will remove the legitimacy of the [Arab] cartoon states. The American direct involvement in the affairs of the Muslim world by limiting the power of their rulers or by encouraging them to behave according to the American dictates is the ideal situation we wish for a long time. When the direct confrontation between the Americans and us comes, there would be no importance to the agent Arab and Islamic governments.
The third stage is called the âstage of isolation,â in which the Islamists would seek to isolate the American administration from its own citizens on one hand, and from its allies, on the other. âAt first, we did not know how we could arrive at this stage due to the war against us. But, the American political stupidity of the Bush administration gave us the answer, when it started recruiting the world towards the war against Iraq.â The atmosphere of the forthcoming attack against Iraq, perceived by Islamist radicals as part of the war against Islam, increases the expectations of the supporters of al-Qaeda and a great part of the Anti-American Muslim world, for a major retaliation by al-Qaeda. Moreover, on the background of this event there is a growing atmosphere in an historical sense that arouses apocalyptic visions among Muslim, as occurred in 1991. Wishful thinking of the forthcoming appearance of the Mahdi and the Black Flags started to be popular recently.
| Next time somebody starts to bore you with yap about the impending arrival of the Rapture, keep in mind that they're relatively harmless; these guys aren't. |
We can find signs of that sense in Islamist forums, as well as in the web site of the Center for Islamic Study and Research. In an article published in late January 2003, by the center, they attempted to cool down the enthusiasm of those who started waiting for the Mahdi, and even wished to view Osama bin Ladin as the expected one.
| Just in case someone should exhibit his bullet-riddled corpse in the next 12 months or so... |
The third stage is linked to the forth: the final direct confrontation with the United States in order to âpure the world from the American powerâŠ. By destroying the United States and defeating it on its soil.
| The ultimate goal, of course... |
Defeating the United States means the defeat of the West, what would lead to the shift of the international center of gravity back to the Islamic world.â
| Then, Islamic Paradise, heaven on earth: "Turbans for everyone! Get them broads covered up! Where's y'r burka, lady? Off with her head!" This is the vision of Khilafa Rashida that Hezb ut-Tehrir is pushing, the fat guy with the jewelled turban and the dancing girls, with the Grand Vizier in the background, rubbing his hands, dispensing Islamic Justice in accordance with the writs of the Holy Koran as interpreted by the Holy Men, who are all held in positions of power and prestige. It's a vision of divine-right monarchy, tempered only by the influence of the clerics, who would form the aristocracy. Being a religious scholar, by the way, can be a pretty much heredity thing, which is a recipe for the complete ossification of society. |
And then what? Do these radical Islamists possess a real political vision? Not necessarily. As other Islamic groups that have no political vision of a modern Islamic state, it seems that al-Qaeda is not different. The author, speaking on behalf of bin Ladin, claims that âwe have our perceptions of how the Islamic world would look like after the forth stage, and we have already planned it in details, yet, what we really look for is the awakening of the nationâŠ. Until that day we must do our best in fighting the enemies of Allah, through the sword, the pen, and the word in order to chain their hands and deport them from the Islamic world, and stop their support for the Jews in Palestine.â Where are those political plans for the future Islamic world? Are they not important for the motivation and recruitment of the Muslims? There is no answer, but a utopian vision of a world that âwould be more just, purer, cleaner, and nicer, without the United States. We act for the day in which we would wake up and there is no America.â
This vision of the future of the conflict of the Islamic world with the United States and the West, whether it reflects the environment of al-Qaeda and Osama bin Ladin, or just the wishful thinking of the author, is far beyond the limited targets of deporting the American military forces from Arabia, the Middle East, or the Muslim world. This is a vision of megalomaniacs, as the late Prof. Ehud Sprinzak defined them, which are fed by doctrines of hatred.
| Usually we refer to them (accurately) as loons, but we recognize that their primary driver is hatred that's been nurtured and fed a sort of philosophical Miracle Gro, watered with the spittle of thousands of clerics, dividing the world into "us and them" â an extreme and festering outgrowth of the tactics of the Algerian revolution. It's a world where logic is replaced by Dire Revengeâ¢. |
They are not motivated by positive and constructive political ideas, but by the demonization of an eternal enemy. They cannot supply their audience a clear political vision for the stage that would follow their victory, as if the Jihad as an endless struggle is actually the primary and even the only goal.
| As confirmed by the most perfunctory perusal of any utterance by Hafiz Saeed... |
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