Editor’s
note: this piece was written before the jihad attacks in London last
night, but its message is all the more urgent in light of them.
It was meant to be a happy and memorable evening last
Monday in Manchester Arena, as youth pop star Ariana Grande had ended
her concert and her fans started leaving. But in the lobby, a soldier of
the Islamic State was waiting, his backpack packed with explosives. He
detonated this with devastating effect at 10:30 PM, killing 22 fans and
wounding 119, as they were peacefully heading home.
The natural terror of the attack blends with fear and
confusion, leading to questions and statements such as “Why on Earth??”,
“Will this happen again?” and “We shall not change our way of life!”
These reactions are becoming routine, along with odd symbolic
statements, such as turning off the lights of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Obviously, our “candles and teddy bears” reactions have not helped us
yet, and we need to do something entirely different.
This is not crime – this is war
British police and intelligence services will of course
take up their task of discovering networks and connections to the
22-year old Libyan citizen Salman Abedi. As thousands of Islamic
warriors before him, he sacrificed his life in order to kill as many
“enemies” as possible. In Islamic tradition, this makes him a “Shaheed”
(often mistranslated as “Martyr”), a person who dies in the ongoing war
against non-Muslims.
The police and intelligence efforts are necessary, yet
insufficient. For as the direct perpetrator was the first person to die
in the attack, no further punishment of him is possible. His friends,
connections and trainers can be found, punished or even assassinated.
While that would be effective against criminal networks, it is much less
so against networks considering themselves soldiers, proving in word
and in action their willingness to die for their cause.
And this willingness is a hallmark feature of Jihadis
such as those fighting for the Islamic State. Suicide missions by the
hundreds, if not by the thousands, are the most deadly weapons used by
the Islamic State in their wars in Middle East. It is a well-known fact
that thousands more have been trained and motivated in the battlefield,
but have since returned to Western countries who have issued them
citizenship and passports.
Further elevating the risk is the declaration of “Total
Confrontation” recently issued by the Islamic State, from the start of
the Islamic “holy” month of Ramadan – that is, May 27, 2017. Originally a
plan devised by Al-Qaeda, this is a call for all Islamic sleeper cells
to start attacking their host countries.
As the Islamic State considers itself to be the
Caliphate, Islamic tradition and law requires it to be in a permanent
state of war against non-Muslims, in order to spread Islam and Sharia.
This is expressed in a series of attacks against civilian targets in the
West, with more to come. The next logical step is the use of military
force to establish Islamic enclaves in the host countries.
An example of using force to establish purely Islamic
enclaves can be observed in the Philippines, whose president Duterte
recently went to Moscow, practically begging for weapons to restore the
constitutional order. There can be little doubt that Russia will, on its
own terms, be happy to take over the role previously held by the US as
the main supplier of the Philippine Army.
What did the Islamic State say?
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Manchester attack by issuing this statement (emphasis in the original):
“With Allah’s grace and support, a soldier of
the Khilafah managed to place explosive devices in the midst of the
gatherings of the Crusaders in the British city of Manchester,
in revenge for Allah’s religion, in an endeavor to terrorize the
mushrikin, and in response to their transgressions against the land of
the Muslims. The explosive devices were detonated in the shameless
concert arena, resulting in 30 Crusaders being killed and 70 others
being wounded. And what comes next will be more severe on the worshipers of the Cross and their allies, by Allah’s permission. And all praises due to Allah, Lord of the creation.”
Here, the Islamic State reiterates that it is the
Caliphate, that one of their soldiers carried out the attack, that is
was an Islamic act of revenge, and that the intention indeed is to
terrorize their enemies.
A key justification for Islamic State to attack the
Manchester Arena was that the participants in the concert supposedly
constituted “Crusaders.” This, of course, is a reference to the famous
European counter-offensive against Islam that took place eight centuries
ago. In this famous offensive against Islamic Jihad, European armies
conquered Jerusalem and established several Christian kingdoms that
existed for some 150 years.
The Crusades seriously harmed the Islamic
self-perception as being ever-expanding, and is neither forgotten or
forgiven by Islamic jihadists today. The presence of British forces in
the ongoing battle against the Islamic State thus becomes a rationale
for attacking civilian targets in Britain, probably in order to turn the
tide on the battlefields in the Middle East.
And turning the development in the battlefield is
something that the Islamic State desperately needs. Their forces are
being decimated at the hands of Kurdish, Syrian, Iraqi, Russian and
American military, and most of their financial and military supply lines
have been cut off. If this battle is allowed to run its course, the
Caliphate in the Middle East will not last many months. Thus the need to
resort to desperate measures, such as bombing concerts or creating
false flag chemical attacks.
Another gripe from the Islamic State concerns the loss
of civilian lives in American air attacks in Mosul and elsewhere. This
is a delicate problem, for it has great intrinsic propaganda value.
Islamic jihadists such as Hamas are known to use civilians as “bomb
shields,” forcing them into harms’ way, in order to create civilian
losses, and then use it in their propaganda. So when the US complains
about “brutal” Russian air strikes, yet gets criticized by the United
Nations for excessive use of air force in Mosul, this carries quite a
sting, not least due to the impression of hypocrisy one gets.
It takes a stiff upper lip to stay on course in spite of
such criticism, and this is what the Islamic State tries to exploit. To
do so, it is well worth understanding and publicizing the suffering of
civilians – in particular non-Muslims – ruled by the Islamic State and
other Islamic supremacists. The liberation of Aleppo (Syria) from
Al-Nusrah showed this clearly: As soon as they got the opportunity to
escape from the terror regime they had suffered for over four years,
they did so, thousands after thousands.
Also well worth noting is the word “shameless.” This can
refer to the singer Ariana Grande, whose performances would never be
permitted under Islamic law (Sharia), or to an audience with many young
women freely in attendance. It constitutes a message to women
everywhere, Muslims and non-Muslims: “Such behaviour is in violation of
Islamic law, and we shall act to stop it.”
The worst is yet to come
Islamic State had this final thing to say before their mandatory praise of Allah:
“And what comes next will be more severe on the worshipers of the Cross and their allies.”
Thus their act of war in Manchester is far from the last
of its kind – they explicitly tell us that they will escalate their
terrorist activities. At this point in time, holding on to their last
cities in Syria and Iraq seems futile – and their goals certainly are
not restricted to that: Based on classical Islamic ideology, their goal
is to spread Islamic rule and Sharia globally, eliminating all forms of
democracy and human rights in the process.
The Islamic State has repeatedly declared that they
consider themselves at war with the West, and they are executing on
that. The motivation and training of Islamic warriors drive them to
consider the “Cause of Allah” (Jihad) to be more important than their
own lives. This willingness to die for their ideology makes it
challenging to put and end to terrorism – even if a considerable part of
the terror plots are foiled, too many succeed, with deadly results as
we’ve seen often in 2016.
At this point, business as usual no longer even seems to
work. Countering Jihad with candles, flowers and teddy bears did not
cause Islamic warriors to stop attacking us. The proper response to a
declaration of war is to conduct war on the issuer, no matter who it is,
with an intensity that forces him to either accept defeat, or
eliminates him.
We went into a full war against the national socialists
during World War II, and can do the same against the Islamic State. As
was the case then, it is vital to understand the ideology that drives
the enemy, and act on that understanding. And this is getting urgent:
the Islamic State has declared that at the start of Islamic Ramadan, it
will initiate “Total Confrontation,” calling upon everyone loyal to them
to conduct any form of attack they can. This is now.
Thus, we need urgent action against everything that puts
us at risk of terrorist attacks. The Islamic State has openly said that
it smuggles their warriors to Europe among refugees. Thus, we should
halt immigration from Islamic countries at least until the Islamic State
is defeated. And we must go after anyone supporting the Islamic State
from our countries, just as Germans and Japanese in our countries were
controlled or even jailed during World War II. Working for the Islamic
State and Sharia simply means working for the enemy, and that is not
protected by freedom of speech or religion.
Yet military action is only one aspect of the struggle
required, and hardly the largest. More dangerous in the long term is the
culture wars: By permitting Sharia to take root in our societies, we
are already in the process of losing the freedoms we used to take for
granted. This means freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and equal
rights for women. This happens while our classical city centers are
starting to show that we are under siege by placing concrete blocks
everywhere, and the army is being deployed. Dystopian prophecies about
our future with Islam are coming true, now.
Urgent action required
After more than 15 years of sorrow, flowers and
declarations of sympathy, it is clear that this does not stop the Jihad
against us. We need to take the lead in the war that has been forced
upon us. This requires an unconstrained analysis of our enemy, of his
objectives and methods, and use this knowledge to hit the enemy where
he’s weakest. By studying the political aspect of Islam, it becomes easy
to separate political aims from religious ones, and act accordingly –
even in śpite of the risk of short-term unrest and increases in
terrorist attacks.
This means rejecting any and all demands to promote
Sharia, to imprison or deport individuals on grounds of treason, and
dissolve all organisations supporting this purpose. This is perfectly
doable: As we saw in the American Holy Land Foundation trials, proper
investigation can easily lead to conviction on a rich number of crimes
and felonies, including very severe ones.
Finally, it is high time for NATO to acknowledge the
declaration of war that we have been served, and deploy the full force
its expensive arsenals against the Islamic State.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/24/world/middleeast/us-iraq-mosul-investigation-airstrike-civilian-deaths.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4010690/Around-1-500-European-jihadists-return-Mideast-report.html
http://news.abs-cbn.com/news/05/23/17/philippines-needs-modern-weapons-vs-isis-duterte-tells-putin
www.ambrosekane.com/2015/08/18/stephen-coughlins-red-pill-presentation-a-must-watch/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/manchester-terror-attack-everything-know-far/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Temperer
https://www.thereligionofpeace.com/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/26/islamic-state-calls-all-out-war-west-start-ramadan-manchester/
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10430/terrorism-candles-teddy-bears
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_State_of_Iraq_and_the_Levant
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-05-23/islamic-state-claims-responsibility-manchester-bombing
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/26/opinion/coptic-christians-islamic-states-favorite-prey.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-air-strike-mosul-200-civilians-killed-isis-northern-iraq-pentagon-central-command-islamic-state-a7651451.html
https://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/2013/05/25/an-explanatory-memorandum-from-the-archives-of-the-muslim-brotherhood-in-america/
http://www.reuters.com/article/britain-security-manchester-islamic-stat-idUSL8N1IP096
An unedited form of this piece originally appeared in 10news.one
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/06/the-jihad-attacks-in-britain-this-is-war-not-criminal-activity
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