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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; Riccardo Dugulin</title>
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		<title>Obama&#8217;s Deal With The Devil</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/riccardo-dugulin/obamas-deal-with-the-devil/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=obamas-deal-with-the-devil</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 29 Nov 2013 05:25:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Riccardo Dugulin]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[deal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[defeat]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=211905</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A lose-lose situation.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/dwd.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-211908" alt="dwd" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/dwd-450x337.jpg" width="360" height="270" /></a>As President Obama inked a notoriously weak deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran, international commentators went berserk. Varying from those who unanimously praise a daring historical move to those who consider it the first step toward apocalypse, views on the topic are as opposed as they have been on the majority of subjects touched by Barak Obama. While there is no doubt that the deal is destructive in its own nature and marks a clear surrender of American power in the Middle East, drawing analogies with the Treaty of Munich may be far-fetched. Khamenei is no Hitler for the simple fact that, even with a nuclear bomb, he lacks the conventional forces and the vision to engage into a hegemonic war. On the other hand, Iran is a threat <i>sui generis</i>. The comparison to past situations is failing simply because of the extent of the terrorist network that Teheran has at its direct disposal and the ability to manipulate world politics that it implies.</p>
<p>The deal struck by President Obama generates an effect closer to the <i>drole de guerre</i>, a period in which two enemy powers who are effectively at war are staring into each other’s eyes to see who will blink first. The problem is that by the steps taken to secure this ephemeral diplomatic victory, Barak Obama has certified that the US military option is off the table, thus freezing the nuclear problem without solving it. Instead, the US will provide Iran with six additional months helping to upgrade the Islamic Republic’s human capital and prepare for the next move.</p>
<p>While focusing on nuclear weapons, President Obama and the entire international community appear to be consciously omitting a key detail: the Iranian nuclear program is only one of Teheran’s tools used to wage war against its regional and international enemies. In fact, the illegal enrichment of uranium is not and should not be considered the unique constituent of the Iranian problem. Since 1979, Iran has been cultivating a network of terrorist organizations loosely linked to the revolutionary establishment that can be activated to wage terrorist attacks from Buenos Aires to Bulgaria and from Israel to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Iran’s proxies have been vigorously developing ties with Western Africa and Latin America, while also fortifying their power bases in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.</p>
<p>The deal President Obama sponsored and pressed for implicitly states that the United States government turns a blind eye on Iranian support of international terrorism as long as the Islamic Republic appears to be respecting a number of weakly defined norms regarding its nuclear program. This decision creates a “lose-lose” situation for the United States and its most direct partners in the Middle East.</p>
<p>On the one hand, President Obama has put the country in a situation in which it loses the power of decision-making and needs to react to other players’ decisions. For the second time in four months, the President has let himself be bullied into negotiations with adversary states over a deal concerning their non-use of WMDs. May it be in Syria or Iran, Barak Obama has played into the hands of regimes who fully understand the political value of their weapons and use them to gain more time to either reaffirm their regional power or further develop an arsenal and a strategy that will be eventually utilized to target American interests in the region.</p>
<p>As it has been previously stated, this deal is structurally flawed because it implicitly emboldens terrorist groups formed to harm the United States and its partners in the region. By opening the diplomatic door to Iran, the message is clear: as long as the regime seems to be cooperating with overly bureaucratic international institutions, it has a free hand in its international covert activities. By attempting a PR stunt, President Obama has ignored the fact that Iran is arming terrorist groups in Nigeria on a massive scale. He has also overlooked the fact that Teheran is countering US policies in Syria by openly fighting militias supported by the White House. Most importantly, President Obama has chosen to abandon its regional partners who are now left virtually alone in their fight against Iran. The United States has suspended the military option for at least six months, thus entering into a situation that has no possible positive outcomes.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the President’s move has also put two essential US partners in the region, Israel and Saudi Arabia, in a uniquely grave position. Both countries have viewed, although to different extent, the White House’s decision as a surrender of its regional engagements, which left their stability and security solely in their own hands. This new reality is likely to lead to two distinct outcomes.</p>
<p>Since President Obama took office in 2008, Israel has been increasingly voicing its fears of American inaction in regard to the Iranian nuclear threat. While the Jewish State is largely capable of dealing with Iranian regional proxies on its own, partial or full military support from the US has always been an important asset for Israeli policy makers contemplating a direct strike against Teheran’s illegal nuclear program. Due to the long history of Iranian double-gaming and conspiracies, Israel is skeptical about the efficiency of the Obama sponsored deal. In fact, as the US chose to draw down its military capabilities in the region, the gap of trust that has been widening over the past 24 months is likely to become unbridgeable.  While it remains unlikely that Israel will launch a unilateral strike against Iranian targets, the United States must understand that because of President Obama’s move the country may well lose its most committed partner in the Middle East.</p>
<p>The problem with Saudi Arabia is structurally different. The financial factor puts US policy makers in great trouble. While there is little doubt that the partnership with the Gulf Monarchy cannot be considered as one based on shared values, the countries’ cooperation has been driven by shared interests embodied in the Saudi spending sprees in regard to American weapon systems. As the White House turned its back on the Arab Gulf, one might expect that the oil rich monarchies will ask for diplomatic and military protection from other world powers such as Russia who is increasingly seen as a deal maker in a region that is in desperate need of outside guidance.</p>
<p>And yet, there emerges another problem that could prove troublesome for the US national security. While Israel has the military advantage over Iran, Saudi does not. For this, it is likely to attempt to defend itself by using its best deterrent &#8211; radical Sunni terrorist organizations. In fact, when the Kingdom feels threatened, it generally expands its financing of fundamentalist groups. Financial assets are moved either through the various intelligence structures operating officially in Riyadh or informally by activating zakat funds collected through the country’s mosques and religious structures. This system is a well-known way used by Saudi Arabia to protect its national interest. Thus, Al Qaeda elements have been created and exported to Yemen to fight the Shi’a insurgency; Saudi officials have trained and armed Sunni militias in Iraq for over a decade and are now at the forefront of the list of countries deemed essential to sustain the Islamist brigades operating in Syria. Should Saudi Arabia feel truly threatened by Iran, its intelligence services are likely to expand the Al Qaeda network in order to limit Teheran’s hegemonic ambitions, which would undoubtedly backfire on the US.</p>
<p>As Barack Obama led the United States into a lose-lose situation in which both the country and its regional partners are mired in a negative position vis-à-vis one of their most direct adversaries, the Iranian government has emerged as the only clear winner of this first phase. It is now in partial control, which obviously does not represent a best-case scenario.</p>
<p><em>Riccardo Dugulin holds a master&#8217;s degree from the Paris School of International Affairs (Sciences Po) and is specialized in International Security. He is currently working in Paris for a Medical and Security Assistance Company. He has worked for a number of leading think tanks in Washington DC, Dubai and Beirut. His official website is <a href="http://www.riccardodugulin.com/">www.riccardodugulin.com</a> and official Facebook site is <a href="http://www.facebook.com/riccardodugulin">www.facebook.com/riccardodugulin</a>.</em></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>.   </b></p>
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		<title>The Al Dura Hoax and Europe’s Media Bias</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/riccardo-dugulin/the-al-dura-hoax-and-europes-media-bias/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-al-dura-hoax-and-europes-media-bias</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 28 Oct 2013 04:25:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Riccardo Dugulin]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Al Dura]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bias]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[France 2]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hoax]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Philippe Karsenty]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=208655</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[What the persecution of hero Philippe Karsenty says about the future of European free speech.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Philippe-Karsenty.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-208731" alt="Philippe-Karsenty" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Philippe-Karsenty-450x296.jpg" width="315" height="207" /></a>On June 26<sup>th</sup>, the Paris Court of Appeal ruled against Philippe Karsenty, deputy mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine, in the <em>France 2 vs. Karsenty</em> case. According to the court’s decision, Mr. Karsenty received a fine of €10 0001 for his involvement in the Al Dura affair and his statements in regard to Charles Enderlin. The verdict emerged as a major setback in Mr. Karsenty’s drive to expose the misinformation resulting from the accident that took place on September 30<sup>th</sup> 2000 in the Gaza strip and involved Mohammed Al Dura.</p>
<p>In the French socio-political climate, the drive to expose the truth concerning the Al Dura affair represents a critical point in unveiling a major obstacle to the citizens’ right to information. While single media outlets may have their specific tendencies and private agendas, the Al Dura issue highlights the fact that the French political class as a whole is ready to abandon the requirements of transparency and objectivity for the purpose of serving a certain set of interests. Since the beginning of the Al Dura affair, few in France or Europe have fully grasped the true nature of Mr. Karsenty’s fight to expose the hoax that falsely portrayed Mohammed Al Dura as the victim of Israeli aggression.</p>
<p>The relative indifference with which the June 26<sup>th</sup> ruling was met by the general public is instrumental in highlighting how the French political system has successfully imposed the official version of the story within the country’s borders. According to the great majority, Philippe Karsenty’s arguments and the Israeli report on the incident issued on May 13<sup>th</sup> are irrelevant even though they embody rational proofs contradicting France 2 and the government’s position. Sound arguments no longer appeal to those who have already been conditioned by a gradual demonization of the State of Israel.</p>
<p>In this sense, the Al Dura affair represents a case study helping to understand the way French and European societies lost their critical thinking in regard to events involving Israeli interests. This reality has been made possible by a wave of media bias spreading throughout the Old Continent and successfully limiting the local populations’ ability to rationally analyze the situation in the Middle East. These obstacles can be defined by the three following issues.</p>
<p>The first point underpins the inability or unwillingness of European mainstream media to present an event in a way which does not portray Israel in a negative light, regardless of the situation. The confusing syntax permeating written pieces and the images used in video reports, such as the Al Dura one, serve as tools enabling such a distorted representation of the reality on the ground.</p>
<p>The second point emphasizes the fact that the European socio-academic sphere is successfully marginalizing all discourses pertaining to Israel. The intellectual reactions to events happening in Israel are depicted as fields of thought confined to Jewish communities. For this, Mr. Karsenty’s drive to expose the truth about the Al Dura affair is viewed by many as a confessional fight, which deprives it of its essential democratic nature.</p>
<p>The third point involves the influence of pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli organizations. May it be on university campuses or in the media, activists belonging to such groups repeatedly diffuse their irrational messages based on propaganda rather than objective information. The Al Dura affair has become a dogma for those openly opposing Israel and benefitting from a preferred position in television shows and newspaper interviews. As it was in the case during the time of the inquisition, it is difficult to question the official version of the Al Dura affair not simply because of the first two points but also because it means opposing a generally accepted dogma.</p>
<p>This situation is highly dangerous as it represents a major threat to the freedom of speech in Europe and the protection of rational thinking. While the June 26<sup>th</sup> court decision has unveiled the shortcomings of the French legal system in the fight for preserving the democratic values on which the country is built, it also gave much needed impetus to international actors, motivating them to enter the debate. On September 30<sup>th</sup>, Daniel Pipes&#8217; Middle East Forum effectively took side with Philippe Karsenty in the Al Dura affair. The Middle East Forum issued a statement evoking the global risks posed by France’s inability and unwillingness to protect the integrity of public information and to counter pro-Palestinian propaganda. The Philadelphia based think-tank offered to pay the entirety of Mr. Karsenty’s fine and to further support him in his fight for the truth.</p>
<p>This decision made by an American institution represents an essential turning point in the affair, as it finally confirmed that the French and the European media bias against Israel can no longer be safeguarded against within the Old Continent’s borders. The Middle East Forum’s stance highlights the global nature of the question. Al Qaeda terrorists used the images recorded by France 2 to justify their terrorist attacks, which means that the Al Dura affair cannot be considered as a French or Jewish question only. The Arab and Muslim nations have used Mohammed Al Dura as a martyr image in their fight against Israel. That is why Philippe Karsenty’s strife for truth should not only be seen as a dispute between a man and a television channel but as a battle between democratic values and irrational hate.  The fact that the Middle East Forum took a position in such a strong and direct way in the Al Dura affair embodies an essential step forward for all those concerned with the gradual degradation of free speech in Europe and its possible impacts on peace and security in the Old Continent, Israel and the whole Middle Eastern region.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
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		<title>The Tragedy of Anti-Christian Pogroms in the Middle East</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/riccardo-dugulin/the-tragedy-of-christian-pogroms-in-the-middle-east/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-tragedy-of-christian-pogroms-in-the-middle-east</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 24 Oct 2013 04:44:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Riccardo Dugulin]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christian]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Middle East]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[persecution]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pogroms]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=208415</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The grim ties that bind the infidels of the Islamic world. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/egypt-christians_2023209c.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-208417" alt="egypt-christians_2023209c" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/egypt-christians_2023209c.jpg" width="291" height="228" /></a>Looking straight into the camera, she states with confidence that she will defeat the Jews. With equal zeal, she defines Christians as a gang of infidels refusing to follow Allah’s teachings. She is a young girl, not even ten years old, trained in a UNRWA summer camp. Posted in July 2013, the video is instrumental for understanding a key concept underlying the hatred that feeds radical Islam. The enemy envisaged by traditional and fundamentalist Muslim societies is but a &#8220;gang&#8221; formed by Jews and Christians alike. Unwilling to yield to the radical teachings of local Muslim communities, they are viewed as guilty of living in the land of Israel.</span></b></p>
<p>In the 19th century, Jewish communities were massacred in various pogroms in Eastern Europe as a result of irrational arguments advanced by nationalist extremists. A similar hostile environment seems to be emerging today. At present, we do not speak about the Russian Imperial Army’s regiments or the hordes of mobs filled with hate. We speak about radical Muslims who tend to separate the Jews and the Christians, ideologically and physically from the rest of the local societies. This leads to a situation in which the destruction of human life is accepted and encouraged.</p>
<p>On July 4th 1976, Palestinian terrorists singled out Jews while conducting the infamous Entebbe hijacking. Throughout his presidency, Mohammed Morsi repeatedly stated that Israelis are descendants of monkeys and pigs while the followers of his party waged war against Egyptian’s Copts.  On September 20th 2013, Islamist terrorists separated Muslims from non-Muslims and tortured the latter to death at the Westgate Nairobi mall. From Libya to Nigeria, from Kenya to Syria and from Pakistan to Dagestan, Jews and Christians are repeatedly targeted by fundamentalist groups because of their faith. They represent an enduring challenge to the totalitarian ideas of radical Islam.</p>
<p>Dozens of heartbreaking and quasi-surreal stories of slaughter, torture and destruction create a historic link between the present-day persecution of Christians and Jews in Africa, Asia and the Middle East and the repeated massacres of Jewish communities in Eastern Europe throughout the 19th century. While the Shoah is an incomparable event in the course of history, similar socio-political discourses and violent attacks establish a parallel between Jews suffering at the hands of fanatical anti-Semites in Europe and those persecuted by fundamentalist terrorists throughout the world. Boko Haram does not turn its weapons against Jews simply because Jewish communities are absent in Northern Nigeria. The same can be said about Jabahat al Nusra and al-Qaeda in Iraq. Those organizations consider the destruction of the &#8220;other,&#8221; may it be a Jew or a Christian, as their ultimate goal pursued in the most gruesome manner, similar to progroms that took place in Eastern and Central Europe.</p>
<p>The slaughter of Jewish communities in Europe should have pushed the local societies to support the Zionist enterprise with the purpose of providing the Jewish people with a State to defend their lives and their interests. In like manner, the current annihilation of Christians should encourage Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox to support the State of Israel. Modern pogroms are organized and staged with the same hate and the same willingness to destroy human life as those that preceded the tragedy of the Shoah. For this, every bombing of a church, every assassination in Judea and Samaria and every video calling for the destruction of Jews and Christians should be treated for what it is: an insight into the genocidal tactics of radical Islam.</p>
<p>The Hamas operatives that torture and kill Christians in the Gaza strip are the same as those who randomly fire rockets against Israeli population centers. The individuals who desecrate Christian holy places in Judea and Samaria are the same as those who targeted the Tomb of Joseph. While the Vatican and official bodies maintain an ambiguous message in regard to the State of Israel, Christian organizations and groups worldwide need to build on the current crisis and reach out to the Jewish State. They should voice their solidarity because those who torch a church are the same as those who would die to kill Jews.</p>
<p>For this, Christians as individuals need to support Israel in two precise ways. Those who attack the Jewish State rely on a well-crafted propaganda machine that makes every effort to distort the truth and hijack the information received by the general public in regard to Israel. Christian associations should use their weight to lobby for a clear and honest information in the coverage of events unfolding in the Middle East. The second aspect lies in the necessity for Christian organizations to take a clear stance against terrorism and sponsor outreach programs crafting a strong and coherent message in support of victims of terrorist attacks.</p>
<p>In the 1930s, the destruction of Jewish communities was made possible because few were those in power who acted against it. Less than a hundred years later, modern pogroms and protracted irrational hatred are threatening Jews and Christians alike.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p><em>Don&#8217;t miss Jamie Glazov&#8217;s video interview with Raymond Ibrahim about how Obama enables Islam&#8217;s new war on Christians:</em></p>
<p><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/i-UBjuUOBHw" height="315" width="420" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
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		<title>The Psychology of Apocalyptic Hostage Takers</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/riccardo-dugulin/the-psychology-of-apocalyptic-hostage-takers/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-psychology-of-apocalyptic-hostage-takers</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 10 Oct 2013 04:00:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Riccardo Dugulin]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Al-Shabaab]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jihad]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mall]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NAIROBI]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Terrorism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[West]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=206743</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The sinister ties that bind. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Nairobi-mall-attack-010.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-206772" alt="Nairobi mall attack" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Nairobi-mall-attack-010.jpg" width="224" height="164" /></a>The slaughter perpetrated by members of the al-Shabaab terrorist organization in the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi left approximately 67 innocent people dead. While the ramifications of this incident are still being investigated, the crisis generated by a small unit of a radical Islamist militia is in itself instrumental in highlighting the psychology of those who may be considered as apocalyptic hostage takers.</span></b></p>
<p>The Dubrovka Theater in late October 2002, a public school in Beslan in September 2004 or the Westgate Mall in September 2013 are all tragedies that led to the same conclusions. While Chechens holding spectators hostage in an Opera House, Arab foreign fighters massacring children in their classrooms and Africans killing shoppers in the middle of a random day may have nothing directly linking them, their modus operandi and especially the psychology behind their actions establish a direct bridge between those diverse groups of Islamic terrorists.</p>
<p>The concept of apocalyptic hostage takers may be defined by three key aspects intrinsic to the crises mentioned above. The first and most straight-forward point is the choice of targets that, in this case, represent the terrorists’ will to destroy the key to intellectual and social life of a world they do not understand and cannot integrate into. The second aspect stemming from the choice of targets is the need to destroy life in its most natural form. For this, Islamist hostage takers do not simply torture and kill but also express no willingness to live. The last notion central to this idea of apocalyptic hostage taking is that Islamist terrorists see the process of leading dozens of innocent people to death as an irrational spiritual experience linking the group of self-proclaimed righteous to the early followers of the Muslim prophet Mohamed.</p>
<p>The first step necessary for understanding the nihilistic and apocalyptic vision of the world present in the hostage takers’ minds is the analysis of the objectives chosen by the Islamist terrorists for their attacks. In the fall of 2002, approximately 50 armed elements of the Riyad As Salahideen took control of the Moscow Dubrovka theater. The hostage taking of hundreds of innocent spectators during a representation of the Nord-Ost opera underlines an essential element revealing the disregard Islamist terrorists have for culture and arts. In an end of the world mentality built upon a dogmatic understanding of a totalitarian ideology, opera houses are part of a freedom of mind that cannot be tolerated. While adults are not supposed to indulge themselves in the pleasures of music and dance, children are not free to study and learn. The massacre in Beslan was the outstanding proof that, pushed by their irrational understanding of life, militiamen are unable to grasp the sanctity of a school and its classrooms. In the apocalyptic state of mind no one is out of reach from the wrath of God, a wrath meant to destroy every aspect of individual freedom and brought forward by men and women armed with automatic weapons and strapped with explosive vests. The Westgate mall is the latest example pointing in that direction. Al-Shabaab militiamen did not only target civilians, they perpetrated an attack on an infrastructure constituting an utter blasphemy in their corrupted mindset. Leisure and self-appreciation found in shopping are elements highly incompatible with the ultra-conservative understanding of Islam espoused by these terrorist groups.</p>
<p>The second element essential to the Moscow, the Beslan and the Nairobi hostage taking crisis is the absolute will to destroy life. Hostage taking incidents led by radical Islamists differ from any other event of this kind as they are based on abuse of the victims, an apocalyptic discourse and utterly unattainable objectives. The overall irrationality of the goals stated by terrorists, may it be the independence of Chechnya or the supposed act of war against Kenyan policies, underlines the inexistence of a clear strategy pursued by the perpetrators. Neither al-Shabaab operatives nor Arabs and Chechens wish to obtain a clear strategic victory out of these hostage takings. In addition, the assailants clearly express their will to die. Their discourse, their attire and their tactics set them at the margins of the society they intend to demolish. For this, the arbitrary execution of innocent spectators and the gruesome torture of random shoppers is only part of the hostage takers’ macabre walk toward a certain death. Since the victims do not and objectively cannot enter the exclusive spiritual circle of the terrorists, any act of brutality is apparently justified to destroy the social fabric of the radical Islamists’ perceived enemies.</p>
<p>The psychology of apocalyptic hostage takers may better be understood by linking it to the modern intellectual fathers of radical Islam: Sayyid Qutb and Ayman Al Zawhiri. These two Egyptians have contributed in developing the concept of a Muslim vanguard using physical and aggressive Jihad to lead fellow coreligionists toward the real meaning of Allah’s precepts. In this vision, all those who are not part of the vanguard movement are to be considered legitimate targets whose death would serve the goal of cleansing the world’s sins. In this theory, the amount of dead cannot be limited and the final objective cannot truly be quantified leading it to be an irrational way of preaching the apocalypse. Both Al Qutb and Al Zawahiri have developed their theories by building on the much fantasized experience of early Muslims, the Muhajireen, who performed hijra from Mecca to Medina with Mohammed. Detached from its motherland, the community is meant to fight for a sacred cause and rely solely on its members.</p>
<p>The utter detachment from any temporal and earthly reality along with the unwillingness to set clear and attainable goals are the key elements setting radical Islamist hostage takers at the margin of a society they do not want to be part of. Since, in their understanding, only the destruction of human life can bring out the truth of the Quran’s teachings, their resulting apocalyptic views are key to understand and counter the tactics used in Moscow, Beslan and Nairobi. Shall other incidents of this kind occur, no negotiations, no socio-political understanding and no indirect support should be allowed as all of it reinforces those who disregard the core of human life. In fact, only the direct destruction of these nuclei of irrational killers may save the lives of innocent men and women.</p>
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