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The age of modern jihadism began in 1928 with the creation of the Muslim Brotherhood, itself a reaction to the collapse of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1924. Eighty years later Osama bin Laden called that event a “catastrophe” and a “humiliation and disgrace,” for it marked the culmination of the infidel West’s domination of Islam, the religion of some of the greatest warriors in history.
The purpose of the Muslim Brotherhood was to restore Islam to the global power and dominance of Christendom it had wielded for a millennium; and to return Islam to its divine destiny, which founder Hasan al-Bana wrote is “to dominate not to be dominated, to impose its laws [Sharia] on all nations, and to extend its power to the entire planet.”
Most Westerners didn’t notice or think about the loss of the Caliphate and the epochal shift in the geopolitical order, especially since their secularist culture had relentlessly been diminishing the role of Christianity in our culture and civilization. By the Thirties, Hilaire Belloc could write, “Millions of modern people . . . have forgotten all about Islam. They have never come in contact with it. They take for granted that it is decaying, and that, anyway, it is just a foreign religion which will not concern them.”
Despite the gruesome bloody reminders on 9/11 that jihadism and Islam were still a threat, many of our credentialed cognitive elites dismissed criticism of Islam’s doctrines, especially jihad, as Islamophobic slanders and bigotry. Moreover, although the outcome of Hamas’ butchery on Oct. 7 last year seems to be a failure, it is itself an object lesson in the continuing danger of jihadist violence. The collapse of Bashar al Assad’s regime in Syria, mostly at the hands of jihadist forces, should be a warning that jihad never sleeps, and we should not blind ourselves to its nature as documented in Islam’s doctrines and historical practice.
Another signal that Islam was reviving, one louder, clearer, and globally consequential than the Muslim Brotherhood, was the Iranian Revolution begun in 1978. While Western foreign policy mavens spoke of “national self-determination,” “anticolonialism,” “democracy,” and other tenets of the “rules-based international order,” the catalyst of the revolution, the Ayatollah Khomeini, explicitly cast the revolution as a jihad waged to institute an Islamic state governed by Sharia law, and to fight against the Western infidels who had usurped Islam’s rightful place as what the Koran calls “the best of nations.”
In November of 1979, for example, Khomeini preached, “The Muslims must rise up in this struggle, which is more a struggle between unbelievers and Islam than one between Iran and America: between all unbelievers and the Muslims. The Muslims must rise up and triumph in the struggle” –– the very definition of “jihad.”
Yet our foreign policy establishment, with a few exceptions, dismissed Khomeini as a “beard from the fringe,” a religious crank like Jim Jones or David Koresh. Typical of secularist bias was the comments of Carter’s National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, who predicted that, as David Farber summarized in his book Taken Hostage, “experts and secularists of various stripes would replace Islamic fundamentalists in key decision-making posts.” Similarly, an Assistant Secretary of State said that “after a transition period common interests could provide a basis for future cooperation”––a failure of imagination and the ignorance of Islamic doctrine we saw reprised in Obama’s 2019 “nuclear deal.”
The loss of our critical Cold War ally Iran has turned out to be a geopolitical disaster for the West, one still resonating today. Iran has fomented throughout the region jihadist violence with its proxies such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthi, Iraq, and Syria. They and especially their Iranian sponsor have the blood of thousands of Americans on its hands, most grievously the 241 U.S. military personnel murdered in Beirut in 1983. The mullahs have taken a giant step towards fulfilling Khomeini’s promise that “We shall export our revolution to the whole world. Until the cry ‘There is no god but Allah’ resounds over the whole world, there will be jihad.”
Worse, appeasement of that violence–– whether through a political failure of nerve, a cognitive failure of imagination, or economic interests––emboldened the theocratic regime, further encouraging the Mullahs, who have been checked only by Israel’s stout and devastating resistance. But unless the West destroys Iran’s nuclear weapons program and infrastructure, the next time might have a different ending.
Israel’s success, however, has also led to a new danger growing in Syria, which is now ruled by another jihadist outfit that many Westerners are misunderstanding or whitewashing–– Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, as the insurgents controlling Damascus are called. Uzay Bulut of the Gatestone Institute reports, “In 2022, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom . . . stated, ‘The al-Qaeda offshoot Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) continues to brutalize and displace religious minority communities in the northwestern region of Idlib, and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has increased its presence in eastern Syria, waging almost daily attacks and destabilizing the region for religious minorities. Opposition groups leverage their Turkish financing and military support to wage campaigns of religious and ethnic cleansing in Afrin.’”
Moreover, according to Matthew Lewis of the Los Angeles Times, “social media is replete with images of jihadist rebels in Syria describing their victory there as a first, not last, step. In one, a group of rebels appear and proclaim: ‘We entered the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus chanting Allah Akbar and with the help of Allah we will also enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque and we will also enter the Prophet Muhammad’s Mosque and the Kaaba in Mecca,’ referring to sites in Jerusalem and Saudi Arabia.”
These reports show that the jihadists in Syria think that what we call a “revolution” against a tyrant that violates his people’s rights, is in reality the continuation of the jihad that Hassan al-Banna called for, and Khomeini achieved in Iran.
What this all means is that we can no longer afford to reprise yet again the blunders, secularist disdain for religion, feckless foreign policy idealism, and Islamophilic delusions that we’ve indulged for nearly half a century. Consider, for example, the plans for the Afghan people codified in the 2002 Bonn Conference, convened to establish the goals for rebuilding Afghanistan: “To freely determine their own political future in accordance with the principles of Islam, democracy, pluralism and social justice.”
The dangerous begged question is that the core principles of Islam and Sharia can actually be reconciled with secular Western political ideals such as the separation of church and state, or the equality of the sexes. The Islamic [N.B.] Republic of Iran has demonstrated for over forty years that such a reconciliation is not possible for devout Muslims.
Hence, we cannot, as Andrew McCarthy writes in National Review, “persist in willful blindness to what remains the most basic, incorrigible fact about the region: the predominance of sharia supremacism. Fundamentalist Islam, which has developed for over a millennium, is not merely a religious creed; it is a comprehensive legal and societal framework that is self-consciously hostile to Western liberalism and, thus, to the principles of the American republic.”
Nor, McCarthy suggests, should we delude ourselves into thinking that the leader of HTS, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani––for now the dominant leader in Syria and most likely to take control of the state–– will be a “moderate” and a “nationalist,” and create a normal state that will join the “rules-based international order.”
On the contrary, the violence against religious minorities and the Kurds will worsen. “According to the human rights organization Open Doors,” Gatestone’s Butut points out, “‘there are around 579,000 Christians in Syria. Many of them fled cities and villages seized by jihadists, to take refuge in the formerly government-controlled Wadi al-Nasara (‘Valley of Christians’). With the collapse of the Assad regime, the Valley has fallen to jihadists, and the lives of those Christians are in danger.’”
The West has for decades indulged such democracy promotion pipe-dreams about Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan, yet an Islamic liberal democracy has still not come to pass. That’s because most Muslims have managed to keep their faith alive and intact, and avoided the secularism, metaphysical materialism, programmatic skepticism, relativism, and hedonism that characterize the West. As Belloc wrote, “In Islam, there has been no such dissolution of ancestral doctrine—or, at any rate, nothing corresponding to the universal break-up of religion in Europe.”
Many apologists for traditional Islam as it has existed for millennia dishonor that faith by bowdlerizing its tenets and reducing them to our own secularist political principles and assumptions. But as Belloc reminds us, Islam “is, as a fact, the most formidable and persistent enemy which our civilization has had, and may at any moment become as large a menace in the future as it has been in the past.”
There are 1.5 billion Muslims in the world, and not all of them share what historian Efraim Karsh calls the jihadist’s “imperial dream of world domination.” But it “has remained very much alive in the hearts and minds of many Muslims.” And as history continues to remind us, jihad never sleeps.
The deadly dangers of Jihad entities as al Qaeda, ISIS Hamas, Hezbollah and so forth will continue because of their basic root ideology of Islam.
Likewise, there is much discussion about rooting out the ideology of Islamic terrorism. What is not mentioned is that the foundation of this type of terrorism is the theology of Islam’s “holy book” the Quran. For the Quran instructs in the use of violence and killing for the advancement of Islam. As found in, for example, 2:191. 5:33. 9:5, 111.123. 47:4. Therefore Islam is a false, dangerous and deadly religion.
Muslim terrorist violence and killing will continue because of the basic root ideology of Islamic terrorists is based on the theology of Islam’s “holy book” the Qur ‘an. For the Qu ‘ran instructs in the use of violence and killing for the advancement of Islam. As found in, for example, 2:191. 5:33. 9:5, 111.123. 47:4. Therefore Islam is a brutal cruel violent and death inflecting religion.
If I remember correctly, FPM ran a story on Jesse Petrilla’s new book “If It Takes A Thousand Years.” … and should be on everyone’s required reading list.
The title obviously encapsulates the mindset of the Jihadis.
So why do so many in the press, be it TV or podcast, whine about “Forever wars”?
The enemy gets a vote, and they’ve voted to exterminate all infidels, regardless of your limited attention span, or your fear of reality.
You’re absolutely correct!
I knew right after 9/11 that we were locked in a generational fight that’d dwarf the 100 Years War.
And with Bush43’s lackluster resolve, it’d be a guaranteed affair with us receiving major setbacks.
I was wholly unimpressed with Bush kissing islamic ass by visiting a mosque, receiving imams at the White House, and calling islam a “religion-of-peace”.
Human filth like the “six flying imams” knew they could stage a brazen dry-run, and instead of getting a trip to Club Gitmo, they’d get a monetary settlement.
Of course they were confident they could pull it off. Bush left Clinton-appointed, crybaby Norman Mineta in as Transportation Secretary.
Bush fought in a manner as if to win a congeniality contest.
Jug-eared Barry fought to lose. His chickenshit rules-of-engagement led to the loss of many of Seal Team Six, let Iran get drone technology and take a U.S. ship.
And for good measure imported islam from Syria for the low-low price of $67,000+ per head. (Christian Syrians were specifically excluded.)
Sleepy Joe fought to give the store away including Bagram Airbase. Had the Taliban called with a list of demands, they’d have gotten less because they wouldn’t have thought to ask for as much.
Yep. We’re in for a long haul. What’s sad, is we could’ve wiped the floor with ’em, but Bush chose style over substance – then Barry & Sleepy chose rewarding islam & pursuing patriots.
Petrilla’s book is a great read, and a good introduction into the tribe/clan mindset, so very different from ours. I’m giving it as a Xmas present to my brother.
“Jihad never sleeps”.
It hasn’t for 1400 years.
But it has been beaten back with the GUN for many of those 1400 years.
Some things never change.
Our Nation was founded on the basis of many Freedoms and Freedom OF Religion is one of our most important ones. We do not forbid any “religion” – even the insane snake handlers! But, we should make sure that a “religion” is not just an ENEMY ARMY hiding in plain sight! Islam is not a “religion” – it’s a World Dominance ideology that has no place in a CIVILIZED Nation! Do the Baptists or Methodists or even those insane snake handlers base their Religions on World Dominance and death to “non-believers”?? No! Islam should be considered an ideology incompatible with Western nations and increasingly even in muslim nations! People want to live in Peace! The suggestion that it’s ok to beat your wife or murder them or your children for “slights” against an ancient man is ludicrous and should be non-existent in a civilized nation! Once their numbers reach a certain point a Nation is lost – the UK is finding out – the USA should NEVER allow it!
I CAN’T THINK OF A GREATER THREAT TO MANKIND THAN ISLAM!
The purpose of the Muslim Brotherhood was to restore Islam to the global power and dominance of Christendom it had wielded for a millennium; and to return Islam to its divine destiny, which founder Hasan al-Bana wrote is “to dominate not to be dominated, to impose its laws [Sharia] on all nations, and to extend its power to the entire planet.”
Erdogan Repeats Old Claim that Turks and Muslims Own Jerusalem
Joel B. Pollak
22 Dec 2024
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey repeated a pledge Saturday to conquer Jerusalem during a speech in Mardin, Turkey, raising eyebrows and signaling new tensions in the relationship with Israel.
It was not the first time that Erdoğan has made such claims: in 2020, he said that “Jerusalem is our city,” referring to the Ottoman Empire that collapsed after the First World War.
The Times of Israel reported at the time:
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Thursday implied that Jerusalem belongs to Turkey, referring to the Ottoman Empire’s control over the city for much of the modern era.
“In this city that we had to leave in tears during the First World War, it is still possible to come across traces of the Ottoman resistance. So Jerusalem is our city, a city from us,” he told Turkish lawmakers during a major policy speech in Ankara. “Our first qibla [direction of prayer in Islam] al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem are the symbolic mosques of our faith. In addition, this city is home to the holy places of Christianity and Judaism.”
Christianity is Paganism’: Florida Imam Warns Muslims Against Wishing ‘Happy Holidays’ to ‘Pagan’ Christians
Joshua Klein
24 Dec 2024
Christianity today is “paganism” and Christians are “pagans” and “not believers,” according to Florida Imam Abu Usama At-Thahabi, who urged Muslims to reject Western cultural influences and warned them against wishing others a “merry Christmas” or even “happy holidays.”
In his Friday, December 20, sermon at the Masjid As-Sunnah mosque and Islamic center serving the Orlando, Florida, area, the American-born Abu Usama delivered a scathing critique of Christianity, declaring it polluted with pagan practices, while urging Muslims to remain steadfast in their identity.
“The Christians today, the ones you know, those of us who are reverts [to Islam], our relatives — Christians — are pagans,” he argued.
Much of professing Christianity is plagiarized Judaism. It has mixed itself up into God’s program with Israel; such as the commandments, certain aspects of the Law. Their practice of water baptism, tithing, the attempts to try and practice the healings performed in the gospel’s. All of those things concerned God’s program with Israel. God temporarily suspended His program with Israel some 2K years ago. Men can’t force God to do what He’s just not doing. God began something new upon the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. And what God began with Paul had been unprophesied. It’s called, the “mystery,” Romans 16:25; Colossians 1:25-26.
When this dispensation of grace concludes, God will resume His program with Israel, and once and for all, through His Son, will take care of the contention for Israel and Jerusalem, and no one will be able to do anything about it. Israel will be Israel’s, and the Gentiles will to submit to them and the King. Until that time begins, it would behoove all men to receive God’s grace, His gift, which is in His Son.
My favorite quote from the original Ayatollah Khomeini was when he said to the West, “We don’t want your freedom.”
Islam is the ideology of world domination by any means necessary to establish a brutal dictatorship.
It’s a ideology of war.
Anybody who seems islam as anything other than what it really is doomed to be destroyed by it.
All of the non-muslim world must unite under the banner of fighting islam. That’s the only way for the world to survive.
This is just a small portion of what Israel found amongst the followers of what George W. Bush told us is the “religion of peace” ™️.
All of their energy is devoted to war and murder. Do Buddhists have caches of weapons like this? Hindus? Only the one religion of peace ™️ is completely dedicated to carnage.
Thank you Mr Thornton. Great work. Hopefully we have bombs and bullets being made ready for the idiotic jihadists, home and abroad. Especially in Syria, Iraq, Iran and Gaza
The primitive superstition was founded by a known killer. Until the West accepts the fact, the West will continue to ‘give ground’ to Islam.
Slandering the truth with the clap trap charge of ‘phobia is the position of cowards inspired by ignorance.
Proverbs 4:16:
For they cannot sleep
unless they do evil;
they are deprived of slumber
until they make someone fall.