Colonial Expansions Resumed

 

The greatest colonial force in the history of humankind is again on the march. This colonial system has expanded reaching beyond the size if not scope of the great European empires of France, Spain, Portugal, England and the rest. This expansionary force has reached beyond the scope of all systems with the exception of Communism and is now ascending as Communism collapses in Europe and Russia. This expansive colonial force is, of course, Islam. Islam is not actually a religion as much as a weaponized political force wrapped in the shroud of an all-consuming religion. Islam is perfectly named and correctly translated to English meaning “Surrender.” That is exactly what Islam requires and Sharia is the force used to demand the complete turning over of one’s existence to Islam. All free will is surrendered. All curiosity is surrendered. All of one’s society and way of life is surrendered. Islam demands that it be granted all power over every act one will be permitted from the moment Islam assumed full influence in an area. Islam empowers the cult of personality placing the most successful Imam as Caliph, and the greatest Imam is that which has conquered the largest number of minds into blind obedience into every interpretation given of the Quran.

 

Inside the Quran is the secret magic of Islam and Sharia. The Quran contains verses placed in order not chronologically, not by importance of highest to lowest or lowest to highest, but from shortest to longest. The Quran is assembled in a manner which lends to its being memorized starting at the earliest of ages. Thus Islamic education takes over the entirety of the education system into which it plants memorized verses. It is then the privilege of the Imam to exemplify and amplify by their teaching those verses which are dominant and those which are of lesser standing. This too lends itself to a means of conquest. Islam can be all things to all peoples simply by expressing certain verses as superceding all other verses. This lends perfectly to the use of Taqiyya which is using deceit to gain advantage and for the sole implementation of Sharia. The implication of Sharia is the ultimate goal of Islam as once Sharia has been imposed on a society, Islam will inevitably become the sole religion and further, only the manner of Islam practiced by the main body will result in the only permitted form of Islam. In the world today that would mean that Sunni Islam is dominant. Even this realization still leads to an eventual conflict between the main proponents of Sunni Islam, Wahhabi Islam or the Muslim Brotherhood Islam.

 

Reading the Quran one will inevitable discover that there are verses which are contradictory where there are a set which preach acceptance and peaceful coexistence and still others which dictate conquest and submitting any native population forcing conversion or death choices and still others which direct exactly how one is to live one’s life. There are the obvious religious teachings such as prayer five times each day, observing Ramadan fasting, giving of alms, making of the Haj to Mecca in one’s lifetime and the acceptance of Allah and Muhammad as Allah’s messenger on Earth as the final revelation. These five laws are called the “Five Pillars of Islam” pictured below. Additionally the Quran teaches what foods are acceptable as Halal and numerous other requirements of Islam. Beyond these basics are the two sets of verses which are obvious in their differences.

 

 

The two obviously contradictory verses within the Quran are the Mecca versus preaching peace, acceptance, pluralism, respect for other religions and even recognizing the Promised Lands as belonging to the Jewish people. Then there are the verses demanding conquest, subjugations and the eventual complete absorption of a society by force if required which were recorded in Medina. An introductory explanation can be found here. Suffice it to say these different and opposing verses are implemented such that Islam slowly builds until reaching a critical point at which it conquers. Islam has attempted to conquer Europe at a minimum twice, once from the west and once from the east.

 

The western offensive was eventually halted in the Battle of Tours where the Frankish forces commanded by Charles Martel who was also known as Martellus (“The Hammer”), who defeated the Muslims of the Umayyad Caliphate advancing out from Spain in October 732. The Battle of Tours was known to Islam as the Battle of the Palace of the Martyrs (Arabic: معركة بلاط الشهداء‎‎, transliterated as ma’arakat Balâṭ ash-Shuhadâ). This turned back the Islamic armies who were later driven from Spain starting with the Spanish reconquest and the imposition of the Inquisition to cleanse the Spanish of any remnants of unbelievers, mostly Muslims and Jews. This was a cleansing by the Church to reestablish their dominance after recovering from Islamic conquest.

 

The conquest from the east was turned back at Vienna in the breaking of the Siege of Vienna on September 11 through 12, 1683. This battle pitched the Ottomans against the Holy Roman Empire and was subsequent to the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and its being renamed Istanbul to erase its history in Christianity and Roman, Greek, Persian and even earlier civilizations and empires going back originally in the first known empire of the Hittites. The breaking of the Siege of Vienna was largely accomplished by the addition of the Polish forces to those of the Holy Roman armies and the commander, the King of Poland leading the troops himself, King John III Sobieski. The battle was depicted by an anonymous British artist shown below. This was the high watermark of the Ottoman Empire’s thrusts into Europe. The Ottoman Empire was finally defeated as a result of World War I leading to the Sykes-Picot Treaty, Treaty of Versailles, and the Treaty of Sèvre which codified the San Remo conference and the Mandate System subsequently recognized by the United Nations in Article 80 of the Charter.

 

Siege of Vienna Depicted by an Anonymous British Artist

 

Islam originated in the Arabian Peninsula by the Prophet Muhammad starting around 611 to 625 in Mecca and finally truly established in Medina around 629 establishing it in both cities until his death in 632. This led to the Rashidun Caliphs who ruled and expanded Islam from 632 through 661 and were succeeded by the Umayyad Caliphs ruling from 661 through 750 and expanding Islam further taking it into Spain finally halted by Charles Martel in 732 as noted above. A map depicting these early advances can be seen below. The early expansion would continue to include subsequent conquest of Constantinople and under the Ottomans conquer up to Vienna where they were stopped and repulsed by the Holy Roman Empire aided by the support of the Polish Army and the combined troops commanded by King John III Sobieski of Poland, also as noted above.

 

Islamic Expansion

 

Islam in the Middle East and much of North Africa is currently engaged in a great political upheaval which will likely spell the end of the Sykes-Picot Treaty’s borders and set up of states to be replaced either by tribal boundaries or possibly a unified Islam likely broken into two camps, the Sunni and the Shiite. The Shiites will most definitely be under the control either directly or indirectly by Iran and will include Yemen, western Syria and potentially central Syria, Lebanon and Southern Iraq. The Sunni Islamic camp will include as separate but potentially allied Egypt and Saudi Arabia with each under strong leadership and the partnership always slightly tentative between these two. Saudi Arabia and Egypt may include Turkey though Egypt and Turkey are currently at odds over loyalty or opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood. Jordan will remain a lesser player probably seeking shelter under Egypt or Saudi Arabia if not both. Jordan also has a delicate balance with the Muslim Brotherhood with their allowed a presence but not overtly ruling the country. Then there are the Kurdish forces which have been showing signs of joining the radical jihadi forces but on their terms. This will depend on the Kurdish forces currently engaged by Turkey surviving the Turkish offensive bent on wiping them out as a viable fighting force. This has led to some friction between Turkey and the United States who was serendipitously supplying the Kurds with bombing support and some logistics and planning. The one obvious challenge to all Sunni forces is the Islamic State which has terrorist bands in the Sinai Peninsula and Libya as well as their main body centered in southern Syria and into central Iraq. The Islamic State is currently opposed by all state actors who are refusing to grant the Islamic State leader al-Baghdadi who is a self-proclaimed Caliph and insisting that the Islamic State is the new Caliphate, something which remains to be seen.

 

The advance guard of the Islamist forces are currently infiltrating the Western nations as a part of the “refugee” crisis which has Europe, the United States, Canada and Australia allowing increased immigration with minimal if any checks on any Middle Eastern or North African claiming to be refugees from any of the wars currently embroiling much of the area. These refugees include Syrians, Afghanis, Iraqis, Iranians, Yemenis, Libyans, Algerians and others from as far as the Horn of Africa to Morocco back across to Pakistan. Imbedded within the refugee population are teams of Islamists, both Sunni and Shiite largely from Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Hezballah on the Shiite side and Islamic State, Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaeda and smaller groups on the Sunni side. All these planted groups plus unknown numbers of Muslims who are being excited by the signs of a resurgent Islam are taking on themselves the mantle of jihad and attacking in what are call “Lone Wolf” attacks. The violence and lawlessness which has come along with the predominantly male fighting age single unaccompanied men has led to some second thoughts across Europe. Sweden is paying undocumented Middle Eastern refugees money to leave and presumably return to their national origins in the Middle East, or at least appear to be heading in that direction. Some Eastern European nations simply refused to allow any refugees to permanently remain within their borders with some places the military at the train stations forcing the refugees to continue on to Germany, France, Britain or anywhere but “here”. Russia has pretty much been bypassed as a nation for the refugees. The biggest scandal has been the entire Islamic world refusal to accommodate resettling any of the millions of refugees. Turkey and Jordan have been stymied by the hordes crossing from Syria and Iraq simply to escape the wars in those nations. Quietly Israel has provided aid to Jordan in the form of additional water and electricity to assist the refugee situation. Whatever additional aid has been provided is uncertain.

 

On another front the Islamic State is serious about their becoming the next Caliphate and is fighting against Saudi Arabia and Egypt as well as throughout the remainder of northern Africa. Further, terror groups including Boko Haram in Nigeria and neighboring nations and some groups formerly tied with al-Qaeda also have sworn allegiance to the Islamic State. The main problems with these forces have been in the Sinai Peninsula and have been aided as possible by Hamas in Gaza. This has made for a strange cooperative effort by Egypt and Israel in sharing intelligence and closing all borders over land and sea by both nations to prevent military and dual use items from being used by Hamas as much as they are capable. Hamas has stolen, re-appropriated if you insist, the building provisions such as bricks and cement and concrete for their tunnel construction to infiltrate into Israel or the Sinai. This has had the strange effect of a world demanding that more building provisions be sent into Gaza despite the known misuse. Apparently building tunnels with humanitarian aid is just fine with much of the world providing those tunnels are used to murder Israelis. So nice to be appreciated in this manner, we bet!

Meanwhile, the numbers and severity of crimes, many of which could be termed as Jihadic or terrorist attack, have been exploding across Europe with concentrations in Germany, France, and the Scandinavian nations, the places which took in the largest share of Muslim refugees or had large Islamic populations to begin with. One systemic problem has been the radicalization of the younger indigenous Muslims by the instigators planted within the refugee populations. By all appearances, what had been considered to be the peaceful Muslims, the good Muslims if you will, only need be aroused and pushed, perhaps threatened to join jihad or else and they appear to respond, at least a percentage. There will be those who will rightfully point out that the problems are caused by a minority, anywhere from negligible (obviously the low estimate) to as high as one in five or even in four but not quite three, or so we hope. Still, twenty percent of three or four million refugees is still well over half a million persons and add in the “Lone Wolves” and you are likely approaching a potential of three-quarters of a million threatening social cohesion which had been low to begin with. Seven-hundred-fifty-thousand jihadists will overwhelm European and western society’s ability to cope with such a threat.

 

These are just the initial wave as the refugees are still pouring into eastern Europe heading northward and westward aiming for Germany, France, Britain, the Scandinavian countries; anywhere that a strong social basket is deployed giving what amounts to a guaranteed wage for all persons reaching and registering with the government no questions asked. The problems in Germany alone appear to be sufficient that Chancellor Angela Merkel appears to be on her way out of office come the next elections no matter what the future holds, as the people are furiously upset with her open borders policies. Should Donald Trump win in the United States, his election will in part be all about closing the borders, all the borders including those currently used by the State Department to import as many Islamic refugees as humanly possible. The most interesting and important item is that very few of the refugees are Christians or Yazidis, people truly under threat just remaining in the Middle East and North Africa. It is as if these refugees are not desirable and the few who manage to arrive in Europe are often murdered in the camps by the other refugees. One would think that the Christians would identify themselves as such to the Europeans and they would be separated out but maybe the European powers that be are not interested in importing devout Christians, Christians who have resisted unknowable hardship that Western Christians have never faced. Western European Christians face a different threat, indifference and a strong societal urge for hedonism. We know from past empires failing that when the public turns as a whole to hedonism as their life’s theme the society will die within two generations at most, often in one generation. Perhaps these two symptoms go together one causing the other. Hedonistic society not reproducing as that would curtail the fun and thus requiring immigrants to replace the children they refuse to have of their own and then they wonder what happened when the new refugee brought morality closes all the doors and brings their fun ride to its undeniable terminal end. Perhaps this is the Requiem for Europe and Christianity in the Western world, or at least in Europe. Requiem for Europe, somebody should write a song with this title, it would be appropriate to salute the death of a society.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

How Many Innocents Must Die?

 

This past week brought another horrific murder in the name of Islam. A priest, Father Jacques Hamel, was reciting Mass at the Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen. The 85 year old priest was forced by his attackers, the terrorists, to kneel before they sliced his throat. Some reports have stated they completely beheaded though we were unable to confirm the report. Parishioners, who were in prayer when the attack occurred, reported further that when the police arrived they attempted to use the nuns from the church as human shields. Another unnamed individual referred to only as an 86-year-old worshipper was seriously injured but hospital reports inform they are out of danger and continue to be treated. The alarm was raised when one of the nuns escaped and called the authorities. The Islamic State claimed ‘credit’ for the attack, but who claims credit for murdering an unarmed innocent allowing it to stand as a testament to their faith? The answer is the Islamic State as their Caliphate gets spread with designs on world conquest. What needs to be understood is that many of these Islamic groups and definitely applies to such as the Muslim Brotherhood who is working on a Civilizational Jihad whereby they use religious tolerance and such to change the customs and laws eventually altering imposing Sharia in one final blitzkrieg where the remainder of laws are rewritten or replaced making Islam the only recognized and eventually permitted faith. Islamic State is less patient and take spreading Islam by any means including the sword, though they use rifles and knives when beheading priests. The blood toll of the Islamic State has included their brave conquest of the basically unarmed Yazidi who they slaughtered saving only the younger women who they made sport of raping them often until they died. They slaughtered the Christians they could find in Mosul using their women in similar fashion. Probably the least mentioned thing is what happened to the Muslims of Mosul and other areas where the Islamic State took hold. One need understand that the Islamic State has their own version of Islam and their own select verses of the Quran which they hold were the final verses and the only verses necessary to permit their conquests and purification even of other Islamic believers. The largest number of victims of the Islamic State has been other Muslims. They often ask questions which any Muslim to quote the verses they have chosen and in the exact way they have interpreted said verse often at the end of a rifle. Should one not choose as the Islamic State warrior desires they may very well end up murdered. The tale was the trail of Islamic blood spilled throughout Mosul and other places visited by the Islamic State. Additionally, the Islamic State is warring with other Muslims and murdering only Muslims as are the branches of al-Qaeda and the Syrian Army. This is the holy war being fought in Syria and areas of Iraq, Muslims killing Muslims in the name of Allah and Islam. While they are busy killing one another they also urge others to murder people, their neighbors in many instances, and kill in the name of Allah and expect this to make people admire Allah and Islam. Eventually, once the world figures out the simple truth, which such forces as the Islamic State, al-Qaeda, Taliban, Iran, and other Islamic forces all desiring world conquest, will not rest until they force all to bend before them and fall before the sway of Islam as so prescribed by their conquerors kneeling before them in submission. That is right, world conquest as it has not been recognized as impossible by some forces and Islam is amongst those who still desire conquest of the world by the sword if required. Do not believe us just ask Erdogan in Turkey who has been executing his military, police and judiciary and other lawyers in his own Stalinist purge of thousands of fellow Turks and Muslims to make Turkey in his own image and ready to reestablish the Ottoman Empire and proceed in conquering the rest of the world making him Caliph.

 

Father Jacques Hamel

 

Speaking of Father Jacques Hamel, Sister Danielle told French TV, “They forced him to his knees. He wanted to defend himself. And that’s when the tragedy happened. They recorded themselves. They did a sort of sermon around the altar in Arabic. It’s a horror. He was an extraordinary priest. He was a wonderful, kind man.” How many tributes about a kind man, a compassionate mother, a wonderful brother, sister or loving parent does the world need before we realize that these are not “man caused disaster” and that it will take something greater than an “overseas contingency operation” to end the murders by the Islamic State and the Haters they influence? These killings will continue for as long as leaders simply make grand speeches and fantastic promises about working across lines with all faiths and actually face that this is a war and only fighting against those who demand to wage war does a war end. Still, the people cannot fully lay the blame on their leaders as the way things stand in the Western World, the people themselves have no stomach for a prolonged war to bring an end to Islamist violence and without the support of the people no fight can be waged. As long as no fight will be waged, then the attacks will only continue and; if the Muslims fighting one another ever united under one banner, then Europe would be the first frontier and the war would come to them full force. As things stand now the fight to bring an end to Islamic terrorism in Europe, in the United States, in Canada, in Israel, around the world and most of all throughout the Muslim world where non-Muslims, infidels as the Islamists call them, and those Muslims considered to be the wrong kind of Muslim or insufficiently Muslim or weak or un-Islamic, they are the ones who are suffering the most from Muslim violence.

 

The terrorism faced in the Western and developed worlds is nothing compared to the violence in northern Africa which itself barely registers compared to Islamist on Muslim violence. The perfidy of Islam goes further as it serves as a shield behind which many leaders hide while the people suffer in poverty. If as much money and effort that goes into building ever larger and grander Mosques were instead used to build infrastructure, irrigations, and facilities to encourage manufacturing and other ventures thus attracting companies to construct factories and employ thousands then the people could be brought out of poverty and backwardness. There is one thing preventing such investments which can be put into a single word, violence. As long as terrorism threatens any factory or other venture it will remain impossible to bring any investments into the Islamic world. Those who claim it is impossible to modernize and bring prosperity to any population need look no further than Malaysia(PDF file). Malaysia is but one example of such change with Sanghai being another example of Third World to First World transition in barely a single generation. These examples prove that what it takes to attain such results is a formula which, where posing serious challenges, has nothing insurmountable with good leadership and a dedicated core of inspired individuals.

 

The fist requirement is a ruler desiring change and modernization for their people over enriching themselves, though often they also benefit from the new economics. The first requirement is impressing upon the nation law and order with personal freedoms and ownership of assets such as land, businesses, homes and so forth. The nation will have started in the right direction as the nation builds infrastructure, largely good roads, access to harbors, enlarged harbors, additions to airports, electricity, gas and water extensions and increased ability. Within a year or two of starting such a project other countries and companies will have taken notice. Here it becomes important to make the framework of the government, nation and its peoples attractive to investments. This includes improved education with a new emphasis on math, science and technologies. Further, any laws restricting religious beliefs or favoring one group over other demographic entities such as Apartheid laws need be repealed or otherwise removed as no company will construct their facilities in a nation where all of their employees, especially upper management, would be prosecuted or otherwise inconvenienced simply by visiting their facilities in the nation they constructed a facility. Finally, the tax structure should be conducive or even favoring both industry and their employees. Such lowered taxes can be recovered by laying a small percentage on purchases other than food or medical expenses. There might also be a further tax on “luxuries” such as vehicles above a certain price, that part is taxable, jewelry, alcohol and other amenities. Once these changes and perhaps others; depending on the culture, laws, and other factors, have been accomplished and there begins investments and coming industries then employment of the people is accomplished, the standard of living increases and the nation is itself being transformed out of third world and towards first world status and potentially developed world joining those in the information age, an accomplishment requiring a highly educated population.

 

Great upheavals are envisioned as the world itself transforms and new nations rise and other long established ones crash. This has occurred all throughout history with the fall of ancient Egypt, Babylonia, Minoans, Hittite, China, Mongol, USSR, Greek, Roman, Spain, Portugal, Zulu, Aztec, Olmec, Toltec and near countless others some of which exist only in the anthological records waiting to be unearthed. Behind each collapse rose another, Mongols came after the collapse of a united China breaking at its seams with different families struggling for supremacy. The Rise of Islam came on the heels of a collapsing Roman Empire leaving a vulnerable Byzantine Empire which was the eastern Roman Empire with its stronghold of Constantinople. After numerous decades the great walls of Constantinople were finally breached and Islam took what today would be Turkey. Constantinople was renamed Istanbul, a practice used by Islam to erase any histories which predate their inception thus making Islam the start of all humanity should they accomplish their goal of world conquest. Such a desire was an objective of empires all the way up to somewhere before World War I. World hegemony is the current hope of such empires as the United States whose culture permeates almost every corner of the globe. Almost anywhere one travels there will be American style T-shirts in English and even in the native language. This influence is oft referred to as the Anglo-influence. But even with its powerful military, the United States no more dreams of empire and world conquest because they realize, as should most, that even a world under a single rule would no sooner be accomplished before segments of such a society would revolt to break away from centralized rule. That is what brought the age of colonialism to an end and cut the British Empire down by its colonies, as did the Spanish, French, Portuguese and other empires with one exception, the Islamic Arab Empire which still stretches from the Iran/Iraq border to Morocco. This is the final empire and it is currently in remission but starting to arise and press Europe and North America through terrorist attacks and cultural conversion to bring them too under Islamic Arab hegemony or even direct control. The most violent of their fronts is in Central and North Africa.

 

The war being fought is both direct confrontation and military conquest known as Jihad, or they are using sublimation and injection of Sharia and other favorable laws using minority rights and the cloak of Islam as a religion rather than a smothering cloak that brings about the conquest through usurpation of the legal system to submit the entire culture replacing it with Sharia and Islamic rule, known as Civilizational Jihad. The use of freedom of religion, false claims of purported assaults on Muslims, demands for accommodation of prayer schedules and private dedicated prayer rooms, and their demands for special treatment not given other religions, they slowly take the easily surrendered legal grounds. This is combined with their taking positions as they are able often deceiving their real intentions. This can be found in many educational systems throughout the developed world, especially the United States. They attempt to have text books which favorably treat Islam and denigrate Israel or even replace it on world maps with “Palestine.” This was evidenced when publishing giant HarperCollins released an atlas which included Lebanon, West Bank, Gaza but omitted Israel. The entire run of tens of thousands (if not millions) of these atlases were recalled and destroyed to be replaced with a proper map of the area (see below).

 

Atlas Released by HarperCollins which
Omitted Israel Causing Mass Recall

 

Such could be attributed to a single person with a motive whose supervisor agrees with the politics in which Israel is seen as a condemnable, colonialist, Apartheid, racist and unforgivable blight on the world which must be eliminated even if only and uniquely in this particular atlas as all things need a first step. The problem with such thinking is such an act is so far from being the first step that if one knows their history it makes such laughable. The founding of the Jewish State was actively opposed by the British who had promised the Arab League that there would never be a Jewish State because the British would allow as many Arabs as required into the area such that there would never ever be a Jewish majority. This was true and when Israel was declared a state there were more Arabs residing in Israel than Jews and they could have declared themselves an Arab Islamic entity and made Jews a persecuted minority to be hunted down and murdered. Instead of relying on such democratic means, the Mufti of Jerusalem, the man who met with Hitler and the upper crust of Nazism and recruited divisions for the Reich and fomented uprisings against the Jews throughout the late 1920’s through the 1930’s, demanded the Arabs leave their homes so the entering Arab armies of half a dozen nations could simply kill all they encountered as they wiped the Zionists from the face of the Earth. They did not attain their desired goal but did gain both Gaza and Judea and Samaria (renamed West Bank as Judea was a bit too Jewish) and occupied these areas illegally. Still, Israel remained and need be in any accurate atlas no matter who drew it.

 

The real problem facing the world and even more heavily facing Islam is what to do about the now evident attempts by Islamic forces to advance their conquest once again and see Europe and eventually the United States fall before their subversions. Further, there is a military attempt to subvert and conquer more of Africa moving into central Africa where they plan on converting by whatever means is required the Christian and Animist cultures of Central Africa and complete their complete and total domination of North Africa driving out, converting or murdering every last person not worshiping and surrendered to Allah and Islam. The singular aim of Islam anywhere it takes hold and even if there is but a single Muslim the lands they tread are required to be brought under Islam and all converted by coercion or by the sword. Until the current Islamic supremacy doctrine is destroyed or altered, Islam will remain a threat and challenge to every non-Islamic nation on earth.

 

This brings us right back to the question of how many more must die before the world awakens and brings about the reformation of Islam that some Imams and President Sisi of Egypt have proposed and Imams through the ages have attempted to bring about. Thus far such people have been in the minority as Islam was not under threat and in the developed world even offered the protection granted all religions. What was not seen, or seen but not believed, were the supremacy doctrines in the Quran and the Hadiths. They were viewed as something from the deep past and as Islam was calmly being observed with only minor violence perpetrated and in modern times the majority of Islamic violence had been directed against Israel which many in the Western World found served their desires for their forming of the Jewish State to be revoked and the Arabs were providing the means. As long as those murdered were Israelis, then all was forgiven and even condoned in some circles. That violence is now being expanded into the developed world. The same terrorist groups which assault Israel now have shadow branches growing from the same roots, the roots planted by the Mufti of Jerusalem after World War I and through World War II and beyond being the same roots for these groups, al-Qaeda, Islamic State, Taliban, Boko Haram and near countless others now operating in Russia, Europe, China, United States, Canada, Australia and Africa. These terror groups also spawn what are often called ‘lone wolves’ who attack often from off the radar of Western security forces. Israel has a means of detecting and intercepting such attackers but even they miss more than one would prefer, but they intercept their share which often are not reported so as to retain sources and intelligence methods. The same is probably true in the developed world though Israel has spent decades building up HUMIT (human intelligence) without which they would be as blind as the rest of the world was on September 11, 2001 when the World Trade Center and Pentagon were struck and one other undisclosed target was saved by the actions of the passengers on that fateful flight. That was and remains the shining example of ordinary citizens rising to the occasion and taking the risk and ending a terror threat even, in this case, at the cost of their lives.

 

The world is facing a menace and if one were to read about the elections in the United States or the BREXIT vote in Britain, one would believe that the economy was the greatest problem faced by society and the threats from Islam are nowhere on the horizon. The threat becomes heated after the murder of a priest, or the slaughter of people across Paris or an attack by an Army Officer at Fort Hood taking the lives of numerous soldiers and their family or whatever is the most recent attack. Still, these are treated as singular events and not at all related to Islam or connected to one another. The threat is allowed to fester and grow and eventually will be so pervasive that the people will demand action and those politicians unwilling to take such steps will not be reelected. The need is for the people to demand of their elected officials that they take the needful steps to eradicate the threat. Granted that the vast majority of the Muslims we all know are decent and hard working members of our communities. That would have been the description of a fellow worker whose supervisors described as a hard worker who did not bother others and was friendly and cordial in his relations. What none of us knew was he had a second life where he was the leader of a terror strike force. He is currently serving a very long sentence in a Federal Prison as he and his team were caught before they took their actions. I was surprised but far from shocked as I had observed some clues but had not reached any conclusive belief he was a terrorist, let alone a leader of a terrorist team.

 

But one need ask themselves a simple question. Let us assume there is a mostly Muslim neighborhood where within a short distance from a Mosque five hundred to a thousand members to this Mosque reside. All has been a bed of roses but unbeknownst to all a team of fifty Islamists move into the area and instruct their Imam to begin putting a sharper tone to his sermons, not all at once but slowly over the weeks. After about six months one of the leaders of this group takes the forum one week and preached the need for Jihad. A few weeks later the youth director resigns and is replaced or gains an assistant, a minder. The children are taught Jihad as the way for all good followers of Islam. They are taught about the great leaders of Islamic conquest, Saladin, Khalid bin Walid, Bu Ali, Khalid ibn al-Walid, Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib, Al Qaqaa Ibn Omar, Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb, Omar Mukhta, Abu Ali and others. They are regaled with tales of defeating the Crusaders, the breaching of the walls of Constantinople with siege cannons and balls brought by barges to the battle front, the conquests of Jerusalem, the conquest of North Africa and of Spain. The children start correcting any presumed deficiencies in their observance of Islam. Initially the parent see this as endearing as their children are learning to be good Muslims and they feel they will be like their parents when they are older just as they adjusted. What they learn too late is their children are being inundated with Jihad as well as their faith. The children are learning to be pure Islamic warriors ready for Jihad. When the final push comes even many parents never saw what was coming, they missed the signs and the changes. Now your peaceful neighbors are challenged to join Jihad or face recrimination and to prepare themselves for assigned duties. Most are given mundane tasks such as praying and demanding prayer rooms at work, demanding women’s only times for Islamic women to use the pool in private. There will be demands that they be wearing more concealing proper clothing and eventually the full body covering and veil. By this point your Muslim friends will view themselves as no longer a part of the community but rather a community apart and superior and truly religious while the rest are Kaffir, unbelievers to be converted or put to the sword. At this point a portion of your former peaceful Muslims will now have become potential, if not already; Jihadist Muslims ready to wage the war against the unbeliever. Those who resisted this propagandizing are no longer members of their former society and are under a great deal of pressure to return. Those most resistive will be considered part of the great unwashed and also to have deserted their faith; and as apostates, they are in even greater danger than the unbelievers. What occurs next, well, let us all hope we have awakened long before such unrest strikes our homes. This war is progressing and will continue to advance in stages which have been tried and proven true throughout Islamic history and is in progress today throughout much of our world. Be aware, pay attention, read the little and passive signs but not to the point of paranoia. The best thing one can do is continue to be an anchor point with your Islamic friends and treat them as you would best friends as they are the front line in preventing Islamists from converting them and their friends and fellow Muslims and perhaps Islam will finally be granted its reformation and the Mecca Quran can become dominant over the Medina Quran (read our intro to the two Qurans here) and the initial verses of tolerance and welcome will prevail over those of conquest by the sword or any other means necessary.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Treating Terrorism in a Modern Democratic Governance

 

Terrorism and a Democratic free society pose problems which are not present in any of the totalitarian style governances such as Communism, Monarchies, Fascism or Religious totalitarianism. In these governances the security forces can literally close down almost all activity relegating their populations to carefully orchestrated movements. Work transportation can be set by government, shopping for groceries can be set to limited times and all other such commerce limited extremely or closed for the time period of the emergency. By turning the society into regulated movements with careful choreography then anything not conforming to the plan is immediately obvious and a concentration of forces will quickly return things to the ordered schedule. In such a society the comfort of the people is secondary to security. If a society is prepared to give up all freedoms for the appearance and possibly improved security, then security will be increased, but at what price. In a Democratic form of governance the people’s freedoms come before anything the government desires to do and the people presumably set the level they desire on freedoms and government works around those freedoms.

 

Let’s look at a simply example that any man will understand and women will be amused though they would never admit so. It is Sunday morning and there is a one day sale at the mall and her favorite department store is adding additional savings above those the mall offers on purchases. Of course the Big Game comes on at 2:30 PM in the afternoon and it is approaching 11:00 in the morning and she demands that the two of you go have brunch at the mall and do a “little” shopping. Hopes of seeing the Big Game getting dimmer and dimmer, you do what any husband knows is the less painful thing and ready for the mall as quickly as possible so maybe, just maybe you will catch the last period of the game where you will have to provide your own level of excitement that the rest of the game presumably had generated. In a democracy such a decision would be voted upon and hopefully in the entire community men would all watch the game and the women, or most women, would converge on the mall and all would be happy. The real world is never that smooth and the bumps are always unexpected and raise the ire with government as somebody has to be blamed and they are as good a target as anybody, especially when you are changing the burst tire after hitting a pothole at fifty miles an hour on your way to work. You know the boss will be less than understanding, so the government is all to blame for not repairing the road; and if they are repairing the road, then why during rush hour making you late for work. Face it, government is always wrong, period.

 

So, terrorism, where is it that life sits on this. First thing is we all know that the routine of insanity we go through at the airport with the TSA (Transportation Safety Administration) experts makes life miserable and searchs every octogenarian while ignoring any profiling which might prove effective. This is the very TSA which misses detection of 90% of items in tests run by the agency itself. This government employment boondoggle offers somewhere between none and a miniscule amount of professionalism or competence and adds nothing to the safety of flying. We all know that if each airline was responsible for their own security, then we would see automated detection systems installed around the concourses and they would work together to provide such airtight security systems which have proven well over 90% effective in detecting suspicious persons. One of the, if not the, safest airports in the world, Ben Gurion outside Tel Aviv, has some innovative security as described in this article. But then Israel had little choice but to be on the top of security and anti-terror systems, and there lies one of the greatest terror fighting tools Israel had to develop and was likely the most difficult, but establish this system they have.

 

Israel is the one place you see just as many people running towards the explosion or gunfire of a terror attack as are fleeing. The ones heading towards the attack are IDF personnel with weapons (yes, the IDF soldiers trained in use of their weapon in the public sphere carry their weapons with them 24/7 and consider themselves always on duty), police, security personnel, first responders, health care professionals, emergency care personnel, motorcycle first responders (they treat survivors and perform triage and necessary emergency life-saving treatment such as stopping bleeding and immobilizing injured areas etc.), and armed citizens licensed to carry weapons (in Israel to own a weapon you must pass a course or have proven training in public use of weapons as all owners are encouraged during heightened security times to carry their weapon and these were many of the responders who saved lives during the stabbing intifada recently faced in Israel). People you pass every day on the streets and in the halls in Israel may very well be the person who saves your life in the instance of a terror attack and this does not cover others with military and security expertise who are retired or in new professions who also are likely to run towards the attack instead of away. A trained public is the first and best line of defense but takes decades to get trained and functioning as intended.

 

But Israelis have developed systems which work with minimal input or even independently monitoring entire crowds of people looking for particular actions some of which are subconscious but found by researchers to appear on people who should be suspected and potentially watched more closely. Another system asks each individual four simple questions which are as innocuous as anyone could be asked and upon the facial expressions it picks out things which would be mostly unnoticeable to even a professional but are cues to subliminal indicators and uses these to warn of potential criminal or terrorist activity potentials. These systems have been tested in trials and have proven their effectiveness. Within a couple of years such systems will be placed in airports, malls, movie theaters, at public events, sports stadiums and across the length and breadth of many major metropolitan areas monitoring everything people do throughout the monitored areas. These systems may become so sophisticated as to be capable of using even marginally decent camera images or cities might offer purchase subsidies in exchange to hooking their systems up to the city surveillance systems expanding their web even more intrusively. But currently we need to rely on more basic human fallible systems with people watching and taking off our shoes and who knows what else just to fly off to visit the grandkids or whatever. The United States has established a frequent flier and wealthy folks go around for airport security where one goes through a precheck and is given a biometric card such that a finger print or other measure scanned and matching the card electronic record they pass right through shoes still tied and belts in place without the aggravation and indignity of the TSA rigmarole.

 

Currently most terrorist prevention must be carried out in secret and without the public being aware of their successes. We will most definitely hear about every fail as that will be the headlines for days, possibly weeks. When they fail then their following investigations are often very public which puts the government in a tough spot as the public demands to know what they have discovered and what is being done to assure such an attack never again strikes their fair city and government needs to keep much of what they learn and what they plan to do and change in their techniques known only to them if these changes and new lines of information are to remain effective. New procedures and lines of gathering information and other intelligence gathering systems must remain unknown to the terrorists in order for them to remain viable. That is why much of what we are told after a terror attack seems so lame, lame the terrorists already know or can know and it will not make their operations more efficient and capable of being undetected, everything else must remain hidden for the people to be best protected. Such secrecy is technically undemocratic and more autocratic making those involved in such security aspects of life more informed than the average person on the street. For reasons which are less than logical many people get all forms of upset when they know the government is not being fully open with them, especially on a subject as vitally important as terrorists and the dangers they pose. On another side, would the public expect that every physicist working on the latest nuclear warheads as government workers reveal everything about their work in the New York Times? Of course not, that would be foolish and dangerous. Defending against terrorism is exactly the same, it needs to be kept unknown generally if it is to serve to the advantage of the nation and make everybody that much more safe.

 

That understood, there is still much we can know which will not compromise or stop terrorism. We can know that the Islamic State is not the JV and where the average terror fighter in the Islamic State is not Kobe Bryant, their top planners and bomb makers are Kobe Bryant as far as their line of specialties are concerned. That is important for us to realize as is the fact that they want the entire non-Muslim world to either convert to Islam, pay a special tax to them for the privilege of not becoming a Muslim or dead, and by dead we mean as painfully, embarrassingly, and video-shockingly as humanly possible. Anybody who has watched their videos they chose to showcase to the world realized that they are as imaginative as they are sick and mentally disturbed. What else we need to realize is that these people are considered great minds who are making Muhammad’s and Allah’s dreams for the world be realized. Think Inquisition and you begin to realize that the Western World already survived and moved past the concept of a single world religion. Some religious groups in the West moved beyond that earlier than others, but no need to go into that.

 

The other thing one need realize is there is no such thing as religious terrorism. All terrorism is political. Your religion can drive your politics but terrorism is all about who rules over who and that is political. Catholicism, also known as The Church, was as much a political body as it was religious. Think Cardinal Richelieu against King Louis XIII and Queen Anne (of Austria) and the Three Musketeers? The Church in France had their own armies and the King had two armies, one of the Realm with which he would defend France herself and a royal guard, the Musketeers, who protected the crown mostly from British intrigues and the forces of Cardinal Richelieu. There was another French Monarch who was very well appreciated by the Church; his name eventually became Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne, King of the Franks and protector of the Church. Those were earlier times when a small kingdom could come close to conquering half the known world; think Ottoman Empire where a small tribe from northeastern Turkey conquered much of the Caliphate and held the lands of Middle East and Northern Africa slowly losing ground before being felled during World War I. One could say that the world changed breaking between before and after World War I. Before World War I where the world had empires and royalty ruled absolutely and post-World War I where the Ottoman Empire and Austrian-Hungarian Empire were split into individual countries and the rule of Kings and Queens in Europe gave way to representative governments and the Middle East and North Africa were ruled as colonies presumably to prepare for eventual representative governments which proved expensive and was untenable leading to simply deserting these nations soon after World War II and soon after dictators rose to rule in the vast majority of these countries and their arbitrary borders were much to blame and are now collapsing.

 

What will rise to replace the dictatorial monarchial governances in the Middle East and North Africa will also have much to do with the potential of terrorism growing worse or lessoning into the future. Democratic governance with a separation of Church, Synagogue, Mosque and State will result in a decrease in terrorism as each elected government will face the threat as well as the West and will thus find their bases being destroyed by the governments of the countries they use as their bases currently. On the other side there is a possibility that something of the ilk of the Islamic State could become resurgent and reinstate the Caliphate on the lands which originally constituted the Ottoman Empire and striving to reestablish the entirety of the original Caliphate which at its largest stretched from Spain and southern France ending at Tours, see Charles the Hammer Martel, all the way through then Persia stopping in northern India, see Taj Mahal. The likelihood of an empire rising across the Middle East and Northern Africa are very low as long as there is an elected and largely secular government in Egypt. I would be more concerned with a Muslim Brotherhood ruled Egypt than the Islamic State as Egypt has a very modern and powerful military as far as equipment of arms. They have modern fighter-bombers, tanks, rifles, artillery along with support, control and communications systems. Most of their current systems are from the United States with some older USSR equipment and are contracting for modern, state of the art Russian equipment. The Saudi Royal Family also stand in command of a modern military as does Iran who have the advantage that much of their equipment is manufactured in Iran. Then there is Israel, the cork in the bottle as many a military expert has referred to her. The instability in the Middle East and parts of Northern Africa is rife with terrorist entities, some intertwined fighting one another such as Islamic State, al-Nusra Front (al-Qaeda), Hezballah (Iran/Syria) and numerous smaller terror entities all embroiled in the remains of Syria and into Iraq and then the tribal groups some aligned with Islamic State, some with al-Qaeda and still others Muslim Brotherhood and some just for themselves in the imbroglio formerly known as Libya, aka the mess that Hillary made.

 

Cardinal Richelieu against King Louis XIII and Queen Anne of Austria

 

The solution to bring much of terrorism to an end is not that simple. One of the people at the forefront of this and with the correct idea is the current, as of this writing, President of Egypt Abdel Fattah al-Sisi who has called for a religious reformation of Islam and demanding that a path forward must include the ability for Islam to exist amongst the other religions and under secular governance and end its supremacy complex where it demands it be the sole religion and rule over everything which can be within its domain. Islam currently has no limitations on the extent of its domain and demands at a minimum it rule over the entire earth and that every person be a Muslim, eventually the exact same sect and potentially even learning from the same Imam. Wars in Islamic history have been fought over which leader was the legitimate leader of all Islam and that remains a point of contention to this day. There is the split between Sunni and Shiite which is the largest divide plus there are the Salafists, the Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic State, al-Qaeda and who knows how many other lesser sects or teachings all of which claim to hold the only true and pure form of Islam. As we have said here is the remarkable similarity to Highlander as in the end, there can be only one. Some of this is a direct result of the creed of an old Arab Bedouin saying: “I, against my brothers, I and my brothers against my cousins, I and my brothers and my cousins against the world (the stranger).” This mentality refuses anything or anyone different and is incapable of incorporating anything new or different into their lives or their ethics and politics. This is what has led to centuries of warfare as it was once the belief of humankind the world over. The initial expression of treating the stranger as a welcome guest was formalized in the Old Testament as was exemplified by Abraham and the way he would greet strangers by doing everything to be a gracious host. But such has not become the accepted norm around the globe with many cases as far from the norm as possible. Some areas on the globe have even moved further from such an open and accepting model. Much of the world still sees the other as a threat and as something or someone to be conquered or worse, destroyed completely. Until the world reaches a community of inclusiveness, terrorism will exist as a method to intimidate and destroy the other, the more technologically and often sociologically advanced and accepting ethos from what classically would be called the barbarians at the gates, or within the gates, depending on the realities. Many in the West are not seeing the barbarians at their gates and are opening their gates wide to allow them in in the mistaken belief that their great loving and accepting nature will win them over. History teaches us otherwise. We once before lost the technologically most advanced culture to the barbarians even if Rome had devolved spiritually and socially. The question is will we repeat that history again. The last time it brought on a darker age for much of the globe and allowed another culture to spread across much of the known world stopped only at some of the least expected of areas. Will we watch the world take a huge step backwards? More than likely as there is an entire liberal elite who thinking they know all better than anybody else are rushing headlong to disaster just to prove they were right, what if they are wrong?

 

Beyond the Cusp