Terror

House Hearing: Hizballah Threat Looms in U.S. Backyard

IPT News
July 8, 2011
Hizballah has established a vast network of operatives throughout Latin America, and even in North America, which could be used to wage terrorist attacks against American interests if the group or its Iranian patrons see fit, witnesses told a House Homeland Security subcommittee on Thursday.
The threat is not imminent, panelists said, as the Lebanese-based Shiite group focuses on money-making criminal enterprises like narco-trafficking.
More than 80 Hizballah operatives have been identified in at least a dozen South American countries, said Roger Noriega, former assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs.

IPT News
July 8, 2011

Hizballah has established a vast network of operatives throughout Latin America, and even in North America, which could be used to wage terrorist attacks against American interests if the group or its Iranian patrons see fit, witnesses told a House Homeland Security subcommittee on Thursday.

The threat is not imminent, panelists said, as the Lebanese-based Shiite group focuses on money-making criminal enterprises like narco-trafficking.

More than 80 Hizballah operatives have been identified in at least a dozen South American countries, said Roger Noriega, former assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs.

Continue reading here. 

Lone Wolf Terrorist Threat Increasing, Say Security Experts

Family Security Matters
By Jim Kouri, CPP
June 24, 2011
The most significant domestic terrorism threat over the next five years will be the lone actor, or "lone wolf" terrorist. They typically draw ideological inspiration from formal terrorist organizations, but operate on the fringes of those movements.
 
With the Muslim world in turmoil, terrorist organizations are likely to find more and more recruits for their organizations. At times their recruits are unknown to terrorist leaders and commanders, but present a threat to nations throughout the world especially the United States and European Union members.
 
Terrorism is the most significant threat to our national security bar none. In the international terrorism arena, over the next five years, it's believed that the number of state-sponsored terrorist organizations may decline, but privately sponsored terrorist groups will increase in number.

Family Security Matters
By Jim Kouri, CPP
June 24, 2011

The most significant domestic terrorism threat over the next five years will be the lone actor, or "lone wolf" terrorist. They typically draw ideological inspiration from formal terrorist organizations, but operate on the fringes of those movements.

With the Muslim world in turmoil, terrorist organizations are likely to find more and more recruits for their organizations. At times their recruits are unknown to terrorist leaders and commanders, but present a threat to nations throughout the world especially the United States and European Union members.

Terrorism is the most significant threat to our national security bar none. In the international terrorism arena, over the next five years, it's believed that the number of state-sponsored terrorist organizations may decline, but privately sponsored terrorist groups will increase in number.

Continue reading here. 

Hamas' New Social Media Push

IPT News
May 23, 2011
"We call for adopting a strategy on the basis of resistance and the upholding of our rights and constants," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri stated in an official message on Twitter. While statements in support of "resistance" may be old and established, Hamas' leadership is capitalizing on the social media craze to try reaching a new crowd.
The power of social media hasn't been lost on Hamas. During the past year, young Palestinians in the Gaza Strip used Facebook, Twitter, and other similar sites to rally for a unified Palestinian government. The protests, which initially were suppressed, ultimately brought Hamas to the table with its Fatah rival, and were a Palestinian expression of pro-democracy movements in the Arab World.

IPT News
May 23, 2011

"We call for adopting a strategy on the basis of resistance and the upholding of our rights and constants," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri stated in an official message on Twitter. While statements in support of "resistance" may be old and established, Hamas' leadership is capitalizing on the social media craze to try reaching a new crowd.

The power of social media hasn't been lost on Hamas. During the past year, young Palestinians in the Gaza Strip used Facebook, Twitter, and other similar sites to rally for a unified Palestinian government. The protests, which initially were suppressed, ultimately brought Hamas to the table with its Fatah rival, and were a Palestinian expression of pro-democracy movements in the Arab World.

Continue reading here. 

The Next Bin Laden

IPT News
May 13, 2011
"We firmly recognize that the umma [nation]of Muhammad is a nation whose destiny is independent of its leaders, no matter how great," said American-born al-Shabaab commander Omar Hammami about the death of Osama bin Laden. For terrorists like Hammami, ending the life of bin Laden hasn't ended the jihad against America.
His statements match the mantra echoing across jihadi forums, as branches of al-Qaida and its allies pledge new terror attacks. Although bin Laden may be dead, the jihad lives on.
Putting aside the rhetoric, al-Qaida is not an anarchist group, despite the loose connection between its regional branches. As long as al-Qaida lacks a clear central leader, it risks being lost in unending attacks without reason. That's contrary to the group's desire to establish a new Caliphate or at least oust the West from Muslim lands.

IPT News
May 13, 2011

"We firmly recognize that the umma [nation]of Muhammad is a nation whose destiny is independent of its leaders, no matter how great," said American-born al-Shabaab commander Omar Hammami about the death of Osama bin Laden. For terrorists like Hammami, ending the life of bin Laden hasn't ended the jihad against America.

His statements match the mantra echoing across jihadi forums, as branches of al-Qaida and its allies pledge new terror attacks. Although bin Laden may be dead, the jihad lives on.

Continue reading here. 

PA TV Rebroadcasts Arab Campaign Presenting Female Terrorist as Role Model for Women

PMW
By Itamar Marcus & Nan Jacques Zilberdik

Last week Palestinian Authority TV rebroadcast a clip from an Arab world TV campaign which among others presents terrorist Dalal Mughrabi as a role model to women.
As reported by PMW, a TV clip presenting several "model women" was broadcast on more than 50 Arab TV stations in November and December 2010, including Palestinian Authority TV, as part of a TV campaign to "support women's issues" in the Arab world.
One of the women promoted in the clip as role models for Arab women today is Dalal Mughrabi, famous for her terrorist attack that killed dozens of Israelis, and another, Al Khansa, who is famous for celebrating the Martyrdom deaths of her children.

Last week Palestinian Authority TV rebroadcast a clip from an Arab world TV campaign which among others presents terrorist Dalal Mughrabi as a role model to women.

As reported by PMW, a TV clip presenting several "model women" was broadcast on more than 50 Arab TV stations in November and December 2010, including Palestinian Authority TV, as part of a TV campaign to "support women's issues" in the Arab world.

One of the women promoted in the clip as role models for Arab women today is Dalal Mughrabi, famous for her terrorist attack that killed dozens of Israelis, and another, Al Khansa, who is famous for celebrating the Martyrdom deaths of her children.

Continue reading here. 

 

Double-Dealing Allies Start to Show Their True Mentality

 

By Amir Taheri
May 5, 2011
Does anyone swallow the Pakistani government's claim that Osama bin Laden lived in that Abbottabad villa for at least six years without anyone getting wind?
 
As it happens, I know Abbottabad rather well, having visited it on several occasions since 1971.
 
Situated in the lower recesses of the Pakistani uplands, the small town was used for centuries to keep a watch on the Khyber Pass. The British, who liked to recruit soldiers from the nearby Pathan and Punjab regions, built a garrison town there -- and then a military school to train Pathan and Punjabi non-commissioned officers, the backbone of the colonial army. (A fictionalized version of the town appears in Rudyard Kipling's "Kim.")
 
With independence, the school became a full-fledged military college, the Pakistani West Point. In 1962, the dictator Muhammad Ayub Khan simply confiscated all land in and around Abbottabad on behalf of the army. Part of the land was distributed among senior army officers, who built sumptuous villas to benefit from the area's superb climate and magical environment.
 
Today, anybody who's somebody in the Pakistani high command owns a villa there -- including Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, head of the Pakistani armed forces. Like former President Pervez Musharraf, Kayani graduated from the town's military academy, just 200 yards from bin Laden's villa.
 
Far from living in a cave, bin Laden chose to live in the nicest place in Pakistan. There, he had the added advantage of being protected by his friends in the Pakistani military intelligence, the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, while being just an hour's drive from the capital Islamabad. Bin Laden and the ISI go back a long away -- to 1982, in fact.
 
A Baluch who isn't familiar with Pushtun and Punjabi languages, President Assaf Ali Zardari might not have known about bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad. But it is hard to believe that the army didn't know. In Abbottabad, a town cordoned off by army checkpoints, almost everyone is a soldier or related to a soldier.
 
President Obama might pretend that the Pakistanis didn't know that bin Laden had been a "guest" in the heart of their army for six years. In private, however, Obama would do well to tell the Pakistanis to let the FBI have a look at the ISI's address book -- which would tell Washington where other al Qaeda and Taliban bad guys are.
 
To start with, we have Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's No. 2. I wouldn't be surprised if he, too, had been living close to the Pakistani West Point.
 
Then we have Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban's commander-of-the-faithful. He is unlikely to be in Abbottabad. But what about Quetta, the capital of the Wild West province of Baluchistan? Over the last 10 years, Omar has presided over several sessions of the Taliban's secret leadership, generally known as the Quetta Council.
 
 
 
Serajuddin Haqqani.
 
The Haqqani brothers, Jalaleddin and Serajeddin, head another network at odds with the Kabul government -- and they have worked with the ISI since 1980. The siblings own several businesses and properties in Abu Dhabi but are assumed to be living in Pakistan, probably in or around Peshawar.
 
All in all, a dozen "hard cases" keep the big pot of Afghanistan, and the smaller pot of al Qaeda, on the boil with a mixture of terrorism and propaganda. Without at least tacit support from the ISI, none of them would last a week.
 
But why is Pakistan behaving in this way? Well, that's another story.
 
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Amir Taheri writes for the NY Post and the Wall Street Journal. His latest book is The Persian Night: Iran Under the Khomeinist Revolution.

Family Security Matters
By Amir Taheri
May 5, 2011

Does anyone swallow the Pakistani government's claim that Osama bin Laden lived in that Abbottabad villa for at least six years without anyone getting wind?

As it happens, I know Abbottabad rather well, having visited it on several occasions since 1971.

Situated in the lower recesses of the Pakistani uplands, the small town was used for centuries to keep a watch on the Khyber Pass. The British, who liked to recruit soldiers from the nearby Pathan and Punjab regions, built a garrison town there -- and then a military school to train Pathan and Punjabi non-commissioned officers, the backbone of the colonial army. (A fictionalized version of the town appears in Rudyard Kipling's "Kim.")

With independence, the school became a full-fledged military college, the Pakistani West Point. In 1962, the dictator Muhammad Ayub Khan simply confiscated all land in and around Abbottabad on behalf of the army. Part of the land was distributed among senior army officers, who built sumptuous villas to benefit from the area's superb climate and magical environment.

Today, anybody who's somebody in the Pakistani high command owns a villa there -- including Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, head of the Pakistani armed forces. Like former President Pervez Musharraf, Kayani graduated from the town's military academy, just 200 yards from bin Laden's villa.

Far from living in a cave, bin Laden chose to live in the nicest place in Pakistan. There, he had the added advantage of being protected by his friends in the Pakistani military intelligence, the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, while being just an hour's drive from the capital Islamabad. Bin Laden and the ISI go back a long away -- to 1982, in fact.

A Baluch who isn't familiar with Pushtun and Punjabi languages, President Assaf Ali Zardari might not have known about bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad. But it is hard to believe that the army didn't know. In Abbottabad, a town cordoned off by army checkpoints, almost everyone is a soldier or related to a soldier.

President Obama might pretend that the Pakistanis didn't know that bin Laden had been a "guest" in the heart of their army for six years. In private, however, Obama would do well to tell the Pakistanis to let the FBI have a look at the ISI's address book -- which would tell Washington where other al Qaeda and Taliban bad guys are.

To start with, we have Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's No. 2. I wouldn't be surprised if he, too, had been living close to the Pakistani West Point.

Then we have Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban's commander-of-the-faithful. He is unlikely to be in Abbottabad. But what about Quetta, the capital of the Wild West province of Baluchistan? Over the last 10 years, Omar has presided over several sessions of the Taliban's secret leadership, generally known as the Quetta Council.

The Haqqani brothers, Jalaleddin and Serajeddin, head another network at odds with the Kabul government -- and they have worked with the ISI since 1980. The siblings own several businesses and properties in Abu Dhabi but are assumed to be living in Pakistan, probably in or around Peshawar.

All in all, a dozen "hard cases" keep the big pot of Afghanistan, and the smaller pot of al Qaeda, on the boil with a mixture of terrorism and propaganda. Without at least tacit support from the ISI, none of them would last a week.

But why is Pakistan behaving in this way? Well, that's another story.

This article was originally published here. 

FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Amir Taheri writes for the NY Post and the Wall Street Journal. His latest book is The Persian Night: Iran Under the Khomeinist Revolution.

 

Osama Gets His Virgins

By Robert Spencer
May 2, 2011
Osama bin Laden has gone to the great bordello in the sky that awaits every good jihadi.
Barack Obama explained that the jihadist mastermind was killed in a “targeted operation: at Abbottabad, Pakistan: “A small team of Americans carried out the operation. After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body.” 
Obama also said that the killing of bin Laden was the “most significant achievement to date” in America’s war against al-Qaeda.
It is undoubtedly significant. Osama bin Laden was wildly popular in the Islamic world. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks Osama t-shirts, hats, and even dolls and action figures sold briskly in many Muslim countries, belying the mainstream media myth that 9/11 was the action of a tiny minority of extremists that had twisted and hijacked Islam, and were duly despised by the vast majority of Muslims. Polls all over the Islamic world always showed a healthy amount of support for bin Laden and, above all, respect for him as a pious mujahid.
But in reality, while the death of bin Laden is fine news, and is certainly a psychological blow to the jihadis and a confidence-booster for Americans, it really won't change anything. 
The role of al-Qaeda in the global jihad, and the role of Osama bin Laden in al-Qaeda, have both been wildly overstated. Al-Qaeda is not the only Islamic jihad group or Islamic supremacist group operating today, and Osama bin Laden was not some charismatic leader whose movement will collapse without him. The exaggeration of his role, in fact, was a result of the general unwillingness to face the reality that the global jihad is a movement driven by an ideology, not an outsized personality, and that that ideology is rooted in Islam. 
Barack Obama epitomized that unwillingness in his address announcing the death of bin Laden. “The US is not – and never will be – at war with Islam,” Obama declared. “Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader. He was a mass murderer of Muslims.” Osama bin Laden himself would have been surprised to be characterized (and by a leader who is probably not a Muslim himself) as “not a Muslim leader.” After all, in his 2002 letter to the American people explaining his motives and goals, he wrote: “The first thing that we are calling you to is Islam.”
Bin Laden explained in this letter to Americans that “it is to this religion that we call you; the seal of all the previous religions….It is the religion of showing kindness to others, establishing justice between them, granting them their rights, and defending the oppressed and the persecuted….It is the religion of Jihad in the way of Allah so that Allah’s Word and religion reign Supreme.”
This perspective on Islam wasn’t just bin Laden’s. Millions of Muslims worldwide share it, and that won’t end with the death of Osama. The US is not – and never will be – at war with Islam, as Obama says, but significant elements of Islam are – and always will be – at war with the U.S. Nothing that happened during that firefight in Abbottabad will change that, and Obama’s continued focus on al-Qaeda as if it were a singular and eccentric group of non-Muslim Muslims that is the cause of all our troubles only perpetuates the unreality that has already led to so many disastrous policy errors.
Until Barack Obama and other Western leaders face the fact that Osama bin Laden was operating within the broad mainstream of Islamic teaching, they will be constantly puzzled by the advent of new bin Ladens, and new al-Qaedas, all over the globe. How is it that all these disparate individuals and groups misunderstand Islam in all the same way? Until U.S. officials can answer that question correctly, we will have made no headway, no matter how many al-Qaeda masterminds we corner and kill in Pakistan.
So Osama bin Laden, after years of silence punctuated by mysterious gnomic utterances delivered (how? by whom?) to the media, finally joins Generalissimo Franco in the ranks of the still dead. It is good news as far as it goes, which is not really all that far. I have hoisted a suitably haram beverage in toast of the happy news. And then it was back to work. The jihad will go on, and so will I, and so, I hope, will you.
Mr. Spencer is director of Jihad Watch and author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), The Truth About Muhammad, Stealth Jihad and The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran (all from Regnery-a HUMAN EVENTS sister company).

By Robert Spencer
May 2, 2011

Osama bin Laden has gone to the great bordello in the sky that awaits every good jihadi.

Barack Obama explained that the jihadist mastermind was killed in a “targeted operation: at Abbottabad, Pakistan: “A small team of Americans carried out the operation. After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body.” 

Obama also said that the killing of bin Laden was the “most significant achievement to date” in America’s war against al-Qaeda.

It is undoubtedly significant. Osama bin Laden was wildly popular in the Islamic world. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks Osama t-shirts, hats, and even dolls and action figures sold briskly in many Muslim countries, belying the mainstream media myth that 9/11 was the action of a tiny minority of extremists that had twisted and hijacked Islam, and were duly despised by the vast majority of Muslims. Polls all over the Islamic world always showed a healthy amount of support for bin Laden and, above all, respect for him as a pious mujahid.

But in reality, while the death of bin Laden is fine news, and is certainly a psychological blow to the jihadis and a confidence-booster for Americans, it really won't change anything. 

The role of al-Qaeda in the global jihad, and the role of Osama bin Laden in al-Qaeda, have both been wildly overstated. Al-Qaeda is not the only Islamic jihad group or Islamic supremacist group operating today, and Osama bin Laden was not some charismatic leader whose movement will collapse without him. The exaggeration of his role, in fact, was a result of the general unwillingness to face the reality that the global jihad is a movement driven by an ideology, not an outsized personality, and that that ideology is rooted in Islam. 

Barack Obama epitomized that unwillingness in his address announcing the death of bin Laden. “The US is not – and never will be – at war with Islam,” Obama declared. “Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader. He was a mass murderer of Muslims.” Osama bin Laden himself would have been surprised to be characterized (and by a leader who is probably not a Muslim himself) as “not a Muslim leader.” After all, in his 2002 letter to the American people explaining his motives and goals, he wrote: “The first thing that we are calling you to is Islam.”

Bin Laden explained in this letter to Americans that “it is to this religion that we call you; the seal of all the previous religions….It is the religion of showing kindness to others, establishing justice between them, granting them their rights, and defending the oppressed and the persecuted….It is the religion of Jihad in the way of Allah so that Allah’s Word and religion reign Supreme.”

This perspective on Islam wasn’t just bin Laden’s. Millions of Muslims worldwide share it, and that won’t end with the death of Osama. The US is not – and never will be – at war with Islam, as Obama says, but significant elements of Islam are – and always will be – at war with the U.S. Nothing that happened during that firefight in Abbottabad will change that, and Obama’s continued focus on al-Qaeda as if it were a singular and eccentric group of non-Muslim Muslims that is the cause of all our troubles only perpetuates the unreality that has already led to so many disastrous policy errors.

Until Barack Obama and other Western leaders face the fact that Osama bin Laden was operating within the broad mainstream of Islamic teaching, they will be constantly puzzled by the advent of new bin Ladens, and new al-Qaedas, all over the globe. How is it that all these disparate individuals and groups misunderstand Islam in all the same way? Until U.S. officials can answer that question correctly, we will have made no headway, no matter how many al-Qaeda masterminds we corner and kill in Pakistan.

So Osama bin Laden, after years of silence punctuated by mysterious gnomic utterances delivered (how? by whom?) to the media, finally joins Generalissimo Franco in the ranks of the still dead. It is good news as far as it goes, which is not really all that far. I have hoisted a suitably haram beverage in toast of the happy news. And then it was back to work. The jihad will go on, and so will I, and so, I hope, will you.

This article was originally published here. 

Mr. Spencer is director of Jihad Watch and author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), The Truth About Muhammad, Stealth Jihad and The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran (all from Regnery-a HUMAN EVENTS sister company).

Gadhafi Must Not Be Left in Power

 

The U.S. intervention in Libya can significantly alter the United States' image in the Muslim world. The inability of the United States to achieve a real victory in Afghanistan and in Iraq has weakened its image and thus encouraged Islamic radicals to continue their war against the West.
If Gadhafi is defeated, the United States can regain its status in the eyes of the Muslim world. But defeat will encourage radicals.
Even a protracted campaign will be viewed as failure by the Muslim world.
According to the media, Libyan soldiers break into homes and create terror by raping women, mostly married ones. 

Newsmax
By Tawfik Hamid

The U.S. intervention in Libya can significantly alter the United States' image in the Muslim world. The inability of the United States to achieve a real victory in Afghanistan and in Iraq has weakened its image and thus encouraged Islamic radicals to continue their war against the West.

If Gadhafi is defeated, the United States can regain its status in the eyes of the Muslim world. But defeat will encourage radicals.

Even a protracted campaign will be viewed as failure by the Muslim world.

According to the media, Libyan soldiers break into homes and create terror by raping women, mostly married ones. 

Continue reading here. 

 

The True Face of Terror

The True Face of Terror

On Friday night, March 11, 2011 Palestinian terrorists broke into the home of an Israeli family, and murdered the parents and 3 of their young children.

Germany's Jihad Murders Point Up the West's Denial

 

By Robert Spencer
March 8, 2011
A Kosovar Albanian Muslim, Arid Uka, murdered two American airmen outside the Frankfurt Airport in Germany last Wednesday.  “I did it for Allah,” he explained. 
Like so many jihad attacks these days, this one was initially dismissed as having nothing to do with terrorism.  Boris Rhein, interior minister for Germany’s Hesse state, almost immediately declared that there were no indications that the shootings had been a terror attack.  After Uka’s openly jihadist statements, Rhein had to reverse himself.  But his initial reaction was indicative of the general tendency toward denial of the reality of the Islamic jihad among government and law enforcement personnel in the West.
What actually would constitute a terrorist attack for enlightened liberal Westerners such as Rhein?  Would the murderer have to announce that he was about to carry out a terrorist attack before he started shooting?  Would he have to be carrying an al-Qaeda membership card?  In the case of the Frankfurt Airport shooting, Uka appears to have acted alone.  Thus German security analyst Bernd Georg Thamm noted:  “We have a new ... perpetrator of terrorism, the lone wolf.  Terrorism experts have dreaded this for a while, and now it’s happened. And it won’t be the last case.”
Indeed.  Yet it is abundantly clear that even if Arid Uka acted alone in the Frankfurt Airport, his view of the Koran is not eccentric among Muslims worldwide.  Yet nearly 10 years after Mohamed Atta and his crew flew a plane into the World Trade Center out of love for Allah, we still don’t see any sustained or concerted effort by self-proclaimed peaceful Muslims in the United States or anywhere else to disabuse their coreligionists of this jihad ideology and its globalist, supremacist, totalitarian political agenda.  Such an effort should not be seen as optional or incidental.  Without it, the very commitment of these self-proclaimed moderates to the United States and its Constitution can and should be called into question.
This week, analysts keep focusing on the question of whether or not Uka was or should be called a “terrorist.”  I don’t care whether you call him a cantaloupe.  The real problem here is that anyone anywhere at any time can read the Koran and come to the same conclusion that Uka did—that is the element of the “lone wolf” terrorist threat that no one wants to face.  If American officials were really serious about preventing a future attack, they would address that fact.  If American Muslim advocacy groups were really serious about being loyal, patriotic Americans, they would address that fact too.
Barack Obama quickly issued a statement saying, “I want everybody to understand that we will spare no effort in learning how this outrageous act took place, and in working with German authorities to ensure that all of the perpetrators are brought to justice.”  Yet it is absolutely certain that if Uka turns out to have been a pious, devout Muslim who read the Koran and cited it as a justification for the idea that Muslims have a responsibility to fight against infidels, that is one lead that Barack Obama will not follow up.  No matter how many Muslim gunmen shout “Allahu akbar” as they open fire on non-Muslims, at this point the dogmatic lines have been drawn:  Analysts in the top military and intelligence posts in the U.S. and Europe understand that Islam is a religion of peace that has been hijacked by a tiny minority of extremists, and they have been taught to understand that that fact somehow frees them from the obligation of understanding the enemy’s belief system and formulating effective ways to combat it.
There needs to be now an honest public discussion of the elements of the Koran and Sunnah of Muhammad (his words and practices) that jihadists use to justify violence and Islamic supremacy.  Muslim spokesmen in America, if they’re really as moderate as they claim, need to explain how they are teaching Muslims to reject these elements of Islam in favor of the principles of the equality of dignity and rights of all people—women as well as men, non-Muslims as well as Muslims.  And they should follow through on these explanations with real action.
Only then might we be getting somewhere against the phenomenon represented by Arid Uka.  But I am not holding my breath.
Mr. Spencer is director of Jihad Watch and author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), The Truth About Muhammad, Stealth Jihad and The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran (all from Regnery-a HUMAN EVENTS sister company).

By Robert Spencer
March 8, 2011

A Kosovar Albanian Muslim, Arid Uka, murdered two American airmen outside the Frankfurt Airport in Germany last Wednesday.  “I did it for Allah,” he explained. 

Like so many jihad attacks these days, this one was initially dismissed as having nothing to do with terrorism.  Boris Rhein, interior minister for Germany’s Hesse state, almost immediately declared that there were no indications that the shootings had been a terror attack.  After Uka’s openly jihadist statements, Rhein had to reverse himself.  But his initial reaction was indicative of the general tendency toward denial of the reality of the Islamic jihad among government and law enforcement personnel in the West.

What actually would constitute a terrorist attack for enlightened liberal Westerners such as Rhein?  Would the murderer have to announce that he was about to carry out a terrorist attack before he started shooting?  Would he have to be carrying an al-Qaeda membership card?  In the case of the Frankfurt Airport shooting, Uka appears to have acted alone.  Thus German security analyst Bernd Georg Thamm noted:  “We have a new ... perpetrator of terrorism, the lone wolf.  Terrorism experts have dreaded this for a while, and now it’s happened. And it won’t be the last case.”

Indeed.  Yet it is abundantly clear that even if Arid Uka acted alone in the Frankfurt Airport, his view of the Koran is not eccentric among Muslims worldwide.  Yet nearly 10 years after Mohamed Atta and his crew flew a plane into the World Trade Center out of love for Allah, we still don’t see any sustained or concerted effort by self-proclaimed peaceful Muslims in the United States or anywhere else to disabuse their coreligionists of this jihad ideology and its globalist, supremacist, totalitarian political agenda.  Such an effort should not be seen as optional or incidental.  Without it, the very commitment of these self-proclaimed moderates to the United States and its Constitution can and should be called into question.

This week, analysts keep focusing on the question of whether or not Uka was or should be called a “terrorist.”  I don’t care whether you call him a cantaloupe.  The real problem here is that anyone anywhere at any time can read the Koran and come to the same conclusion that Uka did—that is the element of the “lone wolf” terrorist threat that no one wants to face.  If American officials were really serious about preventing a future attack, they would address that fact.  If American Muslim advocacy groups were really serious about being loyal, patriotic Americans, they would address that fact too.

Barack Obama quickly issued a statement saying, “I want everybody to understand that we will spare no effort in learning how this outrageous act took place, and in working with German authorities to ensure that all of the perpetrators are brought to justice.”  Yet it is absolutely certain that if Uka turns out to have been a pious, devout Muslim who read the Koran and cited it as a justification for the idea that Muslims have a responsibility to fight against infidels, that is one lead that Barack Obama will not follow up.  No matter how many Muslim gunmen shout “Allahu akbar” as they open fire on non-Muslims, at this point the dogmatic lines have been drawn:  Analysts in the top military and intelligence posts in the U.S. and Europe understand that Islam is a religion of peace that has been hijacked by a tiny minority of extremists, and they have been taught to understand that that fact somehow frees them from the obligation of understanding the enemy’s belief system and formulating effective ways to combat it.

There needs to be now an honest public discussion of the elements of the Koran and Sunnah of Muhammad (his words and practices) that jihadists use to justify violence and Islamic supremacy.  Muslim spokesmen in America, if they’re really as moderate as they claim, need to explain how they are teaching Muslims to reject these elements of Islam in favor of the principles of the equality of dignity and rights of all people—women as well as men, non-Muslims as well as Muslims.  And they should follow through on these explanations with real action.

Only then might we be getting somewhere against the phenomenon represented by Arid Uka.  But I am not holding my breath.

This article was originally published here. 

Mr. Spencer is director of Jihad Watch and author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), The Truth About Muhammad, Stealth Jihad and The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran (all from Regnery-a HUMAN EVENTS sister company).