The Evolution Of The Global Jihadist Movement -- A Commentary

Photo: Chechen commander Shamil Basayev. Photo from Sydney Morning Herald

Russia's New Age Terrorist, And What He Tells Us About The Global Jihadist Movement -- The Telegraph

Back in 2004, the Russian jihad commander who founded the organisation which carried out this week’s murderous attack in Moscow set about writing an inspirational manifesto for his followers.

He turned, bizarrely enough, to the Brazilian New Age novelist Paulo Coelho for inspiration.

“In late March of last year,” Shamil Basayev wrote in the preface of The Book of the Mujahid, “I had two weeks of spare time when I got hold of Warrior of the Light: A Manual. I wanted to derive benefits for the mujahideen from this book and this is why I rewrote most of it, removing some of the excesses.”

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My Comment: This is one of the best commentaries that I have read on the Global Jihadist movement in a long time .... this is a must read.

Unable To Define the Enemy

Faisal Shahzad is suspected of driving a bomb-laden vehicle into New York's Time Square. Photograph: Orkut.com/Reuters

Times Square Suspect: The ‘Foreclosure Terrorist’?

Faisal Shahzad is a Muslim terrorist motivated to kill by his religion, not by the loss of his house to the bank.

It is fascinating to see how the authorities and the major media outlets avoid the words “Islam” and “Muslim” in connection to the failed Times Square bombing. In both this piece in Time and in this piece in the New York Times the word “Islam” is only used in the name of the city of Islamabad in Pakistan.

The Times uses the word “Muslim” once: “At his news conference, Mr. Bloomberg warned against any backlash against Pakistanis or Muslims in New York, saying, ‘We will not tolerate any bias.’”

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My Comment: Being a Canadian with European roots, I have a non-American perspective on seeing how different Governments and the media define Islamic radicalism and Islamic terrorism. For example, in Eastern Europe everyone knows that Islamic terrorism and Islamic radicalism is done using Islam as the moral justification for their actions. Western Europe is now also the same, with places like Britain sometimes splitting hairs on defining Islamic radicalism. Asia holds no punches when it comes to this issue .... with countries like China and India being blunt on what is Islamic radicalism, and even more forceful in their response to it.

The U.S. and (to a lesser extent) Canada are completely blinded to defining Islamic radicalism and the jihad that they follow. If there was ever a case of political correctness running amok .... this will be exhibit A. Fortunately .... unlike the U.S. government and much of the main stream media .... the American public (by vast majorities) do not share this point of view.

In This War, Islamists Have Found A Shared Strategy. We Haven't -- A Commentary

The body of Islamic Jihad commander Muhammad Abdallah, killed in an Israeli air strike, is carried during his funeral in Nusseirat in the central Gaza Strip, 28 December 2007. Abdallah was killed in an Israeli air strike, and is one of six Palestinian militants killed in separate Israeli attacks on Thursday. (Wissam Nassar/MaanImages)

From The Telegraph:

David Miliband is misguided to claim that the terrorist threat is disaggregated and heterogeneous, writes Matthew d'Ancona.

The inauguration of Barack Obama on Tuesday will be a festival of hope, generational change and soaring rhetoric. But the predominant emotion will be relief: goodbye President Bush, squinty dynast and low-IQ ideologue. Welcome, President Obama, brilliant, handsome and sensible person. Please, sir, can we have our planet back? The world will click the heels of its ruby slippers and sigh: There's no place like home. Everything will be OK now.

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My Comment: Liberals like President Obama and Hilary Clinton are of the firm belief that their "anti-Bush" policies will help to protect America. A majority of Americans are also of the same opinion.

Critics (like myself) can only voice an opposite point of view. We know that we are right .... but we hope that we are wrong.

President Obama and his administration are of the belief that they are right .... and are not even thinking that they are wrong.

Because critics like myself are not in a position to implement strategy and policy, our options are only limited to the following. If they (the Obama administration) are wrong .... and the worse happens .... they must be taken to task for what they have done. They must accept the responsibilities and consequences for their bad decisions, and we (in turn) must position ourselves to convonve them that their strategies were wrong, and that President Bush's were right.

The Patriot Act, Guantanamo, the war on terror, defining properly Islamic jihad and all of its content, FISA, rendition, water boarding ... all of the measures that have protected us for the past 7 years must be brought back .... or at least looked at.

There is a part of me that fears that I will be saying a lot of "I told you so" in this blog in the next year or two .... that the worst will happen. I hope that I am wrong.