By: Tashbih Sayyed
Contrary to President George W. Bush's assertion that US war against terrorism is not against Islam, radical Islamists want the Muslims to believe that it is. And the rising Muslim resentment against US, all over the world, suggests that they have been more than successful in achieving their goal. The Muslim world is convinced that US, under Bush has launched the freshest wave of crusades. Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, is the living example of this conviction. Explaining his motivation to destroy an aircraft that could have killed hundreds of innocent passenger, he said, "Islam saved my life. It was under attack from the West. I had to do what I could."
Shoe bomber's lawyers assert that Reid knew there was "a chance" that if he could properly light the shoe bombs, the plane would break apart and plummet to the sea. According to experts, attempted explosion on Dec. 22, 2001, aboard American Airlines Flight 63, with nearly 200 people aboard, "Was without question a horrific act."
The fact that all terrorists like Richard Reid, emphasize that they are Muslims, indicate only one thing that they have been brain washed by the enemies of Islam. At the time of his hearing, Shoe bomber underlined, "I believe in Allah. He is merciful and just and also all-knowing. He keeps man from corrupting himself."
Listening to him talking about Allah and justifying his murderous plan in the name of Islam, one is justified in thinking that his Islam is evil. Does Islam really teaches to kill innocent human beings? The answer is that Islam does not, but ISLAMISM does. Sociologists have pointed out that Fascism, in order to recruit its cadres, look for people who have failed in their societies. Losers and failures always look for escape goats. They need to blame someone for their incompetence. Adolph Hitler is the best example of such a failed individual.
Islamist protagonists are spending a lot of money, time and energy to convert troubled, poor, unfortunate, socially, culturally and economically deprived and criminals into Islamism - a radical, dogmatic, absolutist ideology, Wahhabism. Wahhabism is committed to destroy the civilized values as represented by the United States of America. They have found that it is not just the Muslim countries, where there is no shortage of people who are ready to be recruited for a terrorist mission. Jonathan Stevenson, a senior fellow for counter-terrorism at the International Institute for Strategic Studies says, "It is no surprise that the 15 million Muslims in the European Union should be ripe for recruitment by Al Qaeda. They live on the margins of European society, socially, economically and politically.
According to the experts, more than 100 British Muslims joined the Taliban in Afghanistan to try to repel American and allied forces, and up to 3,000 British Muslims have undergone military training at terrorist camps in Afghanistan since 1996. Radical clerics preach war against the West in Europe's mosques. European citizens like Richard C. Reid of Britain and Zacarias Moussaoui of France, described by prosecutors as the would-be 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11 attacks, were converts to militant Islam.
The situation in US is not much different. Here too, there are hundreds who live on the margins of society, socially, economically and politically. That's why, Islamist have been so successful in converting thousands of people into their fold. And that's why they claim that "Islam" is the fastest growing religion in US.
Islamists spread all kind of dis-information among the Muslim societies. As a result, the majority of Muslims view US foreign policy with despair, suspicion and even hatred, making it difficult for Washington to convince them about the sincerity of her mission. In a recent report, ABC NEWS quoted Bernard Haykel, a professor of Islamic Studies at New York as saying, "I think the entire Muslim world sees the US as very aggressive industrially, militarily and commercially." Haykel, in this report, points to US policy in the Middle East, Iraq, Iran and the stationing of US troops in Saudi Arabia, as contributing to a feeling of resentment among Muslims.
Many impartial analysts attribute the success of Islamist propaganda to two factors. One, there is a lack of sincere effort on the part of so called pro Western rulers to explain US policies to their people in a positive manner. Second, as the Islamists do enjoy a lot of credibility in their societies because of their hold on places of worship, they have convinced the masses that their pro-Western rulers are American stooges. As a result, Muslim masses look down upon their moderate or secular governments. And whenever a moderate head of a government tries to defend certain American policies, their explanations only go to exasperate the anti-American environment.
Islamists use their control over the Muslim main street to demonize US and her policies. For instance, Muslims everywhere are convinced that Washington's arrogance is responsible for the death of millions of Iraqi children. They also see a US presence on Saudi soil as an affront to Islam. Political scientists note with concern that there is nothing credible that can counter the increasing Islamist influence. Meanwhile, Muslim anger and despair is increasing by the minute.
The Islamist PR war against US is part of their historical and well thought out plan to unify Muslims into one universal nation "Ummah" making the division of this world into two distinct camps, Dar-ul-Aman (house of peace) and Dar-ul-Harb (house of war). Once these two camps are established effectively, it will become much easier for them to launch a Jihad (holy war) to re-establish the Khilafah (an absolutist Islamist universal state).
Islamists, ever since the demolition of Ottoman Empire (Khilafah) in 1924, have only one dream - re-establishment of a universal absolutist Islamist state. They are convinced that unless they overwhelm the infidel forces of culture, their way of life (faith) is threatened. They resent the intrusion of modern tendencies in Muslim societies. And they blame the absence of a Khilafah for the spread of western culture that has changed the face of Muslim social behavior.
A recent message from an Islamist group, cited a saying of the prophet, "Islam began strange and it shall return strange. So glad tiding to the Strangers." As an explanation, Islamists said, "This hadith (saying of the prophet) holds a meaning that is especially reflective of our times. For in the last hundred years this noble Ummah (Muslim nation) has witnessed the destruction of her State. And due to the colonization of her lands by the colonialists, the crushing tidal wave of the western culture. The western culture completely engulfed her to the point of suffocation. It turned black into white and white into black. Never did the Ummah encounter such cultural strangulation, which left her bewildered and confused about the most basic and rudimentary tenets of her Deen."
One thing that Islamists see as a major hurdle in their way is the institution of nation state. They know that so long Muslims are divided into a number of nation states, a universal Khilafah (Islamic state) can not be founded. They are working very hard to convince the Muslims that the concept of nation states is a conspiracy against Islam. To achieve this goal, Muslims are told that the Christian colonialists, in order to cause maximum damage to the Muslim unity, chose their targets carefully "when they unleashed their degenerate culture upon us: they attacked the notion of one Ummah by disseminating the idea of nationalism and nationhood." The nation states have deprived the Muslims of a sense of belonging to one Ummah (a Muslim nationhood that transcends political and geographical boundaries). Muslims, Islamists exhort, will have to reject the concept of nation state, if they have to defeat the infidels.
Only one thing could have helped Islamists to gather Muslims under their banner - a conviction that their faith Islam is under attack. US determination to eliminate the scourge of terrorism in the after math of September 11, 2001, provided the Islamists their long awaited chance to convince the Muslims their faith is threatened. They unleashed a anti-US campaign with a new fervor. Using their usual sources and platforms, they convinced almost every Muslim that the US war against terrorism is in fact a charade to cover the actual operation - the initiation of the newest phase of Crusades against Islam. They emphasized that the real target of the West is not terrorism but Islam.
True Muslims, more than any one else, are concerned of the Islamist's tactics. They know that Islamists want to destroy the image of Islam that is basically a peaceful faith. They realize that all the acts of terrorism that were perpetuated by radical Islamists have contributed in turning the world against Islam and Muslims. They also know as to why radical Islamists want to destroy the peaceful image of Islam - a peaceful Islam does not support the establishment of a fascist Islamist state.
As a proof, concerned Muslims cite the extremist and violent tendencies in new Islamist converts. They point out that if a non Muslim is introduced to the true teachings of Islam, he or she will never try to kill innocent people. He will never become an American Taleban or a shoe bomber. But, since, the people who have devoted themselves to converting people into their faith are Islamists who hate our freedoms. They do not want people to become Muslims. They want people to become homicide bombers - Islamists.
That's why, to Muslims, the real threat to Islam is not from Christians or Hindus or Jews but from Islamists. Islamists, under the influence of a fascist totalitarian doctrine of Wahhabism, are determined to corrupt Islam into another Nazi or Communist ideology. That's why every time an Islamist terrorist finds an opportunity to speak whether it is at the time of his or her arrest or at a court hearing, he talks of his devotion for Islam. He presents himself as a true and committed mujahid (holy worrier). As Richard Reid did, "I believe in Allah. He is merciful and just and also all-knowing. He keeps man from corrupting himself."
This is a calculated move on the part of Islamists to turn the whole world against Muslims. Because they know that when the true Muslims will find their lives and property insecure in a non-Muslim society, they will have to seek shelter under Islamist's banner. This way, very soon, the world will stand divided in two camps - willing and determined to annihilate each other.
Richard Reid carried out the Islamist's instructions religiously, "I start by praising Allah because life today is no good. I bear witness to this and he alone is right to be worshipped. And I bear witness that Muhammad ... is his last prophet and messenger who is sent to all of mankind for guidance .... Concerning what the court said? I admit, I admit my actions and I further state that I done them. I further admit my allegiance to Osama bin Laden, to Islam, and to the religion of Allah. OK?"
I found many good Muslims feeling cheated and scared because of these claims by terrorists. One of them said to me, "I am a Muslim, and I do not really know this 'Allah' of Richard Reid, who wanted him to murder hundreds of innocent people." Another Muslim professor told me to say, "Shoe bomber's prophet, is not the same as mine. My Prophet Muhammad is the mercy for all mankind." I agree Prophet of Islam was mercy personified.
Terrorists like shoe bombers want to destroy the image of Islam completely. That's why Richard Reid continued with his evil mind, "I am at war with your country (US). I'm at war with them not for personal reasons but because they have murdered so many children and they have oppressed my religion and they have oppressed people for no reason except that they say we believe in Allah. This is the only reason that America sponsors Egypt. It's the only reason they sponsor Turkey. It's the only reason they back Israel. OK?"
Every argument that the terrorist advanced in defense of his evil plan confirmed an Islamist thinking. Islamists always blame the governments that support US. Because US influence, eventually will result in the spread of democracy in their countries.
In the end, Richard Reid warned the United States that Allah "will give victory to his religion." If Richard Reid would have been introduced to the true Islam, he would have known that the United States of America is the first country in the history of human civilization that all prophets wanted to establish. It represents the true spirit of Islam - a spirit that has never been in action in any of the Muslim states whether national state or a Khilafah. That's why any attack on America is an attack on Islam.
The United States must ensure for the sake of freedoms, that the Islamists are stopped from spreading their fascist message in the garb of Islam.
