Defining and Defeating the AQ and Taliban Narratives
Author: Jim Guirard
Source: TrueSpeak.org
………… FINAL DRAFT ONLY -- NOT YET READY FOR PUBLICATION ………..
PART 1 – The al Qaeda, Taliban and Communist Narratives
The late, great linguist and rhetorician George Orwell of "1984" and "Animal Farm" fame would surely have agreed with what US Marine Corps General James Mattis (then head of the Joint Forces Command at Norfolk) meant three years ago when he sharply condemned al Qaeda-style Terrorism as "tyranny in false religious garb."
In this context, both of these wise men would seem to agree that we should stop calling these genocidal haters and assassins by the self-sanctifying "false religious" labels they have so cynically chosen for themselves via their all-too-familiar, self-canonizing narrative of
1. Jihad (alleged holy war) by supposed
2. mujahideen (holy warriors) and bin Laden-anointed
3. shahideen (martyrs) destined for a promised 72-virgin
4. Jennah (Paradise) as reward for killing us alleged
5. kuffr (infidels) and, in time, destroying the alleged
6. Shaitan al-Akbar (the Great Satan, America), as well.
Those among us who use these terms routinely fall into three main categories: first, those who repeat them without regard as to whether they are objectively true; second, those who believe that they represent only the deviant and “false religious garb” of the Terrorists and; third, those who believe (as Osama bin Laden claims) that this narrative represents the heart and soul of Islam itself, rather than a sinful and criminal deviancy from it.
Of course, US Doctrine and practice from the beginning have been to attack Terrorism (a.k.a., “radical extremism” in the Age of Obama) but not the religion of Islam itself – while others clearly consider Islam of the Qur'an to be the Real Enemy and the Terrorists an accurate and faithful reflection of that religion, rather than an insult to the avowedly peaceful and just Allah of the Qur’an.
For his part, Osama bin Laden tries daily to paint the same "war of religions" picture that some of the hard-line anti-AQ critics do, albeit for very different reasons. He and his fellow fanatics claim incessantly that this is "America's War Against Islam" and that it is, therefore, the "holy-war" and the "Will-of-Allah" obligation of every Muslim to fight back in every way imaginable.
Communism’s Very Similar Cold War Narrative
Assuming, as this observer does, that General Mattis is correct in calling the self-serving AQ mantra “false” and a tyrannical deviancy from Islam, those who carelessly (albeit in good faith) parrot its half dozen pro-al Qaeda and anti-American terms without qualification are according the Terrorists a false and very dangerous legitimacy.
They are probably ignorant of the Cold War warnings of yet another great man of words -- the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York -- about the mind-bending dangers of "semantic infiltration," which in the late 1970s he and Ronald Reagan's Under-Secretary of Defense for Policy, Dr. Fred Charles Ikle, correctly defined as follows:
"Simply put, semantic infiltration is the process whereby we come to adopt the language of our adversaries in describing political reality. The most brutal totalitarian regimes in the world call themselves ‘liberation movements.' It is perfectly predictable that they should misuse words to conceal their real nature. But must we aid them in that effort by repeating those words? Worse, do we begin to influence our own perceptions by using them?"
At that time, we Americans and the rest of the Western world were carelessly parroting (and still are to this day!) the perfidious Soviets' and "fascist-Left" Fidel Castro's -- and now Comrade Hugo Chavez' and Daniel Ortega's -- self-justifying, brain-washing and Orwellian "Newspeak" narrative of
1. Wars of National Liberation by alleged
2. Progressive Movements and supposed
3. Patriotic Fronts on their way to heaven-on-earth
4. People's Democracy and "Social Justice" as a reward for killing us
5. Fascists and Occupiers and for defeating the evils of
6. American Imperialism
Viewing these two narratives side-by-side, one should realize that trying to condemn al Qaeda’s genocidal rampage as a truly holy "Jihad" makes as much sense -- or nonsense -- as trying in Cold War days to condemn the Soviets as damnable "liberationists" or continuing even now to label these godless Gulag Guevara-style communists as "populists" and "progressives" and "people's democrats."
It should be noted that many of today’s leaders of these two reactionary-Left anti-American and anti-Judeo-Christian narratives – the Islamo-fascists bin Laden, al Sadr and Ahmadinejad on the one hand and the Communo-fascists Castro, Chavez and Ortega on the other – might seem to differ greatly in their respective religions of “Radical Islamism” and “Liberation Theology.”
But at least for the
time being, their common criminality and world views are simply matters
of “Death to America” and “Death to the Great Satan,” which
to them are one and the same.
Part 2 -- A "New Lexicon" to de-legitimize al Qaeda
So, should we continue to make the same mistakes we did for 70 years in the Cold War -- by mindlessly repeating in "useful idiocy" style the halo-polishing language of the Salafi-Wahhabi-Muslim Brotherhood and AQ-style suicide mass murderers?
Or should we demand that
the Obama Administration drop its current euphemisms (e.g., "man-caused
disasters" instead of Islamist Terrorism, "violent extremists"
instead of Islamo-fascist Terrorists) and adopt some of the Qur’an-compatible
terms which follow -- most which can be found in my September 2007 SmallWarsJournal.com
essay, "David Kilcullen's Call For a New Lexicon." http://truespeak.org/content.
Of interest on the endless question of whether this is actually a WAR, rather than an “Overseas Contingency Operation” or some other euphemistic quien sabe, please refer to the following two essays of mine on this never-ending distraction from the fact that this is, indeed, a “Global War on Terrorism” and that its most appropriate alternative name is “Cold War II.”
This is because, like Cold War I, it is yet another worldwide ideological conflict to the death (so labeled by all of our “Death to America” and “Death to the Great Satan” enemies), within which many local and regional military, psychological, socio-economic and socio-religious wars are being fought and will probably continue to be fought for decades to come.
http://truespeak.org/contents/
http://truespeak.org/contents/
Finally and quite importantly, the controversial term Jihad is neither avoided nor forbidden in the proposed new glossary, as some of the critics might think. Actually, it is entered no fewer than FOUR TIMES -- with 11 novel sub-parts for the last of these.
The purpose here is to more clearly define the word's several confusing and sharply conflicting meanings and thus to de-legitimize AQ-style Terrorism throughout all segments of the Muslim World which are not already lost to Satan and his demons.
******************************
Irhab (eer-HAB) -- Arabic for terrorism, thus enabling us to call the al Qaeda-style killers irhabis, irhabists and irhabiyuun -- rather than the so-called "jihadis" and "jihadists" and "mujahideen" and "shaheeds" (martyrs) and the "Mahdi Army" (God's own Judgment Day warriors) that they so much want to be called.
(Author's lament: Here we are, eight years into a life-and-death War on AQ-style Terrorism, and most of us do not even know this simple Arabic word for terrorism. Amazingly, many of our "know the enemy" experts who quite correctly insist on calling the enemy "Terrorists" in English never, ever manage to call them that in Arabic: Irhabis and Irhabists).
Hirabah (hee-RAH-bah) -- Unholy War and forbidden "war against society" -- or what we would today call crimes against humanity. Among the many al Qaeda-style crimes and sins which constitute this most "unholy war" are such willful, and un-repented transgressions as those enumerated in the next section of this proposed glossary of terms. (Plural versions of the word might be either Hirabists or Hirabans in English or Hirabahyeen or Hirabahiyuun in Arabic.)
Jihad al-Akbar (gee-HAHD ahl AHK-bar) -- this "Greater Jihad" is a personal and spiritual struggle or striving to become closer and more faithful to Allah and his teachings as set forth in the Qur'an.
Jihad al-Saghir (gee-HAHD ahl Sahg-HEER) -- "Lesser Jihad" can be a physical -- and even a military -- struggle to protect or to free Muslims and non-Muslims from oppression, but only in strict accordance with reasonable and non-terroristic standards set forth in the Qur'an, which provides that only the Caliph (or Chief-of-State?) can legally declare such a Jihad.
Because Osama bin Laden is neither, he knowingly committed the arrogant – and clearly the un-repented -- sin of Istihlal (of “playing God”) in issuing his two faux fatwas of “Jihad Against America and the West” in 1996 and 1998.
Jihad al-Kabir (gee-HAHD ahl kha-BEER) -- the spiritual and intellectual quest to promote common knowledge of Divine Revelation through all of Allah's Prophets and to carry out ijtihad (consultative efforts throughout the Umma) in applying both Revelation and Natural Law -- and Reason -- to human affairs.
"Jihad" (gee-HAHD, so called) -- al Qaeda's false label for both Irhab and Hirabah, which is at heart an anti-Islamic, apostate and forbidden "war against society" and a largely satanic assortment of "crimes against humanity," such as the many ruthless and willful violations of Qur'anic standards implied by the faux-"Jihad" deviancies listed below:
o "Jihad" al-Maout -- so-called "Holy War" of DEATH and MURDER
o "Jihad"
al-Irtidad -- so-called "Holy War" of APOSTASY (Sunni)
o "Jihad"
al-Ridda -- so-called "Holy War" of APOSTASY (Shi'a)
o "Jihad"
al-Murtadduun -- so-called "Holy War" by APOSTATES
o "Jihad"
al-Mufsiduun -- so-called "Holy War" by EVILDOOERS
o "Jihad"
al-Hirabah -- so-called "Holy War" of a WAR AGAINST SOCIETY
o "Jihad"
al-Istihlal -- so-called "Holy War" of arrogantly "PLAYING
GOD"
o "Jihad"
al-Khawarij -- so-called "Holy War" OUTSIDE THE RELIGION
o "Jihad"
al-Ibada -- so-called "Holy War" of GENOCIDE
o "Jihad"
al-Mufajjir al-Intihari -- so-called "Holy War" of KILLING
INNOCENTS
o "Jihad"
al-Fitna -- so-called "Holy War" of DISCORD WITHIN THE
UMMA
o "Jihad" al-Shaitani -- so-called SATANIC "Holy
War"
o
"Jihad" al-Jahannam -- so-called "Holy War"
of the ETERNAL HELLFIRE
mujahideen (mooj-ah-heh-DEEN)
– self-declared “holy warriors” and a synonym for alleged “Jihadis.”
This is also a term which implies martyrdom and a sex-orgy Paradise
for the suicide bombers and other mass murderers when, in fact, they
are Jahannam-bound mufsiduun (evildoers),
instead – as these two words are clearly defined immediately below.
mufsiduun (moof-see-DOON) -- Islam's word for evildoers, sinners and corrupters whose criminality and sinfulness, unless ended and sincerely repented, will incur Allah’s ultimate condemnation on Judgment Day; Islam's best antonym for "mujahideen" and “jihadis.”
Jahannam (jyah-HAH-nahm) – Islam’s antonym for Paradise and meaning the Eternal Hellfire to which Allah on Judgment Day condemns unrepentant, un-forgiven evildoers and hypocrites of the unholy war (al-Hirabah) variety.
munafiquun (moon-ah-fee-KOON) -- hypocrites to Islam who pretend to be faithful to the Qur'an but who willfully violate many of its basic rules, mandates and prohibitions. Once again, please refer to the many AQ-style and Taliban-style transgressions listed later in this essay.
hizb (hizb) - a political party, as in Hizballah (Party of God), or as the senior Saudi cleric Sheik Jafar Hawali recently called this radical and arguably apostate Shi’a organization Hizb al-Shaitan (Party of Satan, Party of the Devil).
fitna (FIT-nah) -- discord or conflict within the Umma (the Muslim Community), which all Muslims are admonished not to cause -- but which the Terrorists are causing deliberately and without hesitancy, apology or repentance
kafir (kha-FEER) -- plural: kuffr (KHU-fer) -- Islam's words for infidel(s) and unbeliever(s), often distorted to include all Christians, all Jews and all Muslims who happen to disagree with the radical Islamists who are falsely using these terms as a blanket condemnation for virtually anyone but themselves. (See the word takfir below and note the several Qur’anic citations re apostasy in Part 4 of this essay -- and recall the Qur’an's references to faithful Christians and Jews as "Children of the Book" and as "Sons of Abraham.")
khawarij (kha-WAH-reedj) -- outside-the-religion and outside-the-community individuals and activities; derived from the ancient al Qaeda-like militant Khawar or Kharajite sect, eventually suppressed and expelled as apostates and enemies of authentic, Qur'anic Islam.
istihlal (eesh-tee-LAHL) -- Islam's cardinal sin of "playing God," as Osama bin Laden is doing when he attempts to pervert Islam into his own suicide mass murderous image, and turning it into nothing but a perpetual killing machine -- of all Christians, all Jews and all Muslims who happen to disagree.
al-irtidad (ahl-EER-tee-dahd) or al-ridda (ahl-REE-dah) -- apostasy, a certifiably correct conviction for which is punishable by death in this life and by Allah's eternal damnation in the next, with al Qaeda's sinful excesses eventually to be labeled as "The al Qaeda Apostasy."
takfir (takh-FEER) -- the Wahhabi and al Qaeda-style practice of making wholesale (and largely false and baseless) accusations of apostasy and disbelief toward Allah and the Qur'an. Those radicals, absolutists and judgmental fanatics who engage in this highly divisive practice of false witness and excommunication are derisively called "takfiri."
taqiyya (tah-KEE-yah) – a theological indulgence within political Islam which allows and even encourages Muslims to engage in “false flag” lying and deceit about their own faith and about their mandated enmity toward non-Muslim “infidels” -- as a means of promoting the expansion of militant Islam and of so-called “Sharia” (alleged Islamic Law) in non-Muslim societies.
Jaish al-Mahdi (jaheesh-ahl-MAH-dee) – in Shia Islam, used by radical Iran-supported cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, this is supposedly Allah’s own Judgment Day Army, acting in the Messiah or Redeemer role – but whose truthful name should be “Jaish al-Maout al-Sadr” (al-Sadr’s Army of Death, or al-Sadr’s Death Squad), instead.
Shaitan and shaitani (shy-TAHN and shy-TAHN-ee-yah) – Islam’s Arabic words for Satan and satanic [example: Osama Abd' al-Shaitan -- Osama Slave or Servant of Satan.]
While there are at least as many more Arabic and Islamic terms which could and will be added to any such "New Lexicon" of anti-Terrorism, this is at least a decent beginning. It consists mainly of words, terms and meanings that the al Qaeda, al-Sadr, Hizballah and other al-Shaitani killers do not want us to know -- or to use in making them, rather than us, the real enemies of what remains of authentic, Qur'anic Islam.
What about the terms Islamist, Islamism and Islamo-fascist?
Although not part of the New Lexicon per se, the words "Islamist" and "Islamism" can be most helpful in distinguishing the AQ-style Terrorists' political, ideological and Caliphate-oriented militancy (a) from Authentic Islam itself, (b) from the adjective “Islamic” and (c) from practices which are spiritually Qur’anic rather than political or even apostate in nature.
These terms and "political Islam" are now being used by certain moderate, anti-AQ Muslims to correctly differentiate the "Irhabi Murderdom" deviants from those many sane, civilized and peaceful Muslims to whom the honorable terms "Islam" and "Islamic" correctly apply. As will be seen below, even "Sharia" (so-called Islamic Law) is often so plainly anti-Qur’anic as to qualify as khawarij (outside the religion), as borderline satanic and as more “imamic” than Islamic.
Also, because the loaded label "fascist" has come to mean brutish and unpardonable EVIL, al Qaeda, the Taliban and their murderous ilk are clearly "fascist" to the marrow of their genocidal bones and should surely not be exempted from being labeled "Islamo-fascist" -- as long as this invective does not apply automatically to the entire religion of Islam itself.
For a major essay asserting
that AQ-style Terrorism is both "fascist" and "Leninist," please
refer to my October 6, 2006 essay at url: http://truespeak.org/content.
As the rest of this essay will stress throughout, the question now is whether what remains of this "Authentic Islam" -- which many believe to be the great majority of Muslims -- will rise to the challenge and join forces in drawing an eternally bright line between itself and these murderous and traitorous home-grown deviants.
Only thus can it possibly save itself from being perverted into nothing but a perpetual killing machine of all Christians, all Jews and especially of all peaceful, compassionate and civilized Muslims who dare to disagree.
Part 3 -- A proposed anti-AQ and anti-Taliban Counter-Narrative
And out of this New Lexicon we should construct the optimum counter-narrative to al Qaeda's "false religious garb" -- not in Western secular words only (such as criminals, thugs, assassins, bring to justice, barbarians, killers, mass murderers, etc.) but in highly condemnatory Islamic religious words as well, perhaps along the following lines:
1. Irhab (Terrorism) or al-Hirabah (unholy war, "war against society'") by ruthless
2. mufsiduun (evildoers, mortal sinners, corrupters) destined for
3. Jahannam (Eternal Hellfire) as a proper punishment for their
4. khawarij (outside the religion) violations of the Qur'an which are so serious, so
5. Shaitani (satanic) and so un-repented as to constitute
6. al-Irtidad (or al-Ridda) al Qaeda (the AQ Apostasy) against Qur'anic Islam
At this point, these terms are known by all too few of us. But just as we have learned not only the deceitful, self-serving words of the al Qaeda narrative but several other routine Arabic and Islamic terms, as well – e.g., fatwa (religious edict), intifada (insurrection), Allahu Akbar (Allah is Great), Shari'a (Islamic Law), Insha Allah (God Willing), Umma (the Muslim World), Salaam Aleykum (peace be with you) -- surely we can learn a few more, even the ridiculously easy but seldom seen or heard little Arabic word for terrorism, Irhab.
Especially important will be those newly activated religious terms which finally allow us to begin demonizing rather than continuing to canonize these genocidal and mortally sinful mufsiduun (evildoers) and munafiquun (hypocrites).
A particularly powerful path to such truth-in-labeling in Iraq and elsewhere is to condemn AQ and Taliban-style atrocities – e.g., the slaughter of innocents coming from a prayer meeting, or while shopping in the markets, or while celebrating a soccer team victory, or while attending a Muslim funeral – not merely as "criminal" and "horrendous" and "barbaric" but as being clearly and forever satanic (shaitani), instead.
After all, who delights in these bloody and often genocidal attacks by Muslims on thousands of fellow Muslims? Is it the avowedly “peaceful, compassionate, merciful and just” Allah of the Qur'an? Or is it, instead, that Being who any truly faithful Muslim knows to be the cruel, the hating, the murderous and the ever-deceitful Satan himself? But at this point, the Islamic religious word “shaitani” has yet to appear in any American “war of words” advisory.
The war-ending goal is to paint a convincing picture in which the Umma (the Muslim World) is comprised mainly of healthy cells which are compatible with the Allah of the Qur'an -- but which also includes a small number, albeit a deadly number, of highly aggressive cancer cells, as well. In this medical analogy, these poisonous (and de facto apostate) cells threaten to kill the Umma itself -- and must either
(a) be excised from the body one-by-one, as is now the primary method, or
(b) be isolated or debilitated
en masse by an Allah-approved chemotherapy which strips away their
alleged "Jihadi martyrdom" legitimacy and condemns them
to Eternal Hellfire as a just punishment for their un-repented sins
of "Irhabi Murderdom" (terroristic genocide),
instead.
Part 4 -- Proofs of the al Qaeda and Taliban Apostasies
And as proof positive
that these cancerous cells -- these ungodly and apostate Terrorists --
do truly deserve such harsh condemnations, here is a partial "Bill
of Particulars" of their ruthless transgressions and willful violations
of Qur'anic prohibitions -- as is further explained via the following
url: http://truespeak.org/content.
o Wanton killing of innocents and noncombatants, including many peaceful Muslims
o Decapitating the live and desecrating the dead bodies of perceived enemies
o Committing and enticing others to commit suicide for reasons of intimidation
o Fomenting hatred and fitna (discord) among communities, nations, religions and civilizations
o Ruthless and endless warring against nations in which Islam is freely practiced
o Issuing and inspiring unauthorized and un-Islamic fatwas (religious edicts)
o Using some mosques as weapons depots and battle stations, while destroying others
o Forcing extremist and absolutist versions (and perversions) of Islam on Muslims, when the Qur'an clearly says that there shall be "no compulsion in religion"
o Distorting the word "infidels" to include all Christians, all Jews and many Muslims, as well -- when the Qur'an considers them all "Children of the Book" (the Old Testament) and "Sons of Abraham," and calls Jesus one of Islam's five main Prophets
o Deliberate misreading, ignoring and perverting of passages of the Qur'an, the Hadiths and the Islamic Jurisprudence (the Fiqh)
o Ruthless recruiting of very young and easy-to-brainwash children into lives of hatred, revenge and suicide mass murder, long before they have reached the age of reason
o Heartless use and abuse of mentally handicapped women, some of them carrying infant children for disguise, in acts of suicide bombing of fellow Muslims
Both the number and the gravity of these acts of disobedience and disrespect for the "peaceful, merciful, compassionate, beneficent and just" Allah who is so described by the Qur'an clearly identify the hyena-like perpetrators not as the Godly "mujahideen" and the heroic "shahideen" (the holy warriors and the martyrs) they so falsely claim to be but as the ruthless "mufsiduun" and "munafiquun" (the evildoers and Jahannam-bound hypocrites) they really are.
Similar Proofs of the Taliban Apostasy – Enter General McChrystal
A major new push in this same direction came from the former Commanding Officer of US forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal – who made this recommendation a year ago in his much-discussed 66-page strategy outline for defeating the Afghan Taliban:
" ....... A more forceful and offensive Stratcom approach must be devised whereby INS are exposed continually for their cultural and religious violations, anti-Islamic and indiscriminate use of violence and terror, and by concentrating on their vulnerabilities. These include their causing of the majority of civilian casualties, attacks on education, development projects and government institutions and flagrant contravention of the principles of the Koran ..."
Here are some of those “flagrant contraventions” the General must surely have had in mind:
1. Death Penalty for mere conversion to Christianity (Abdul Rahman case in 2006)
http://truespeak.org/content.
2. Buying, brainwashing, forcing young children to become suicide murderers
3. Stoning to death women who have been raped
4. "Honor" Killings of daughters, wives and other family women
5. Forbidden (Haram) suicide murder of fellow Muslims
6. Terrorizing, killing fellow Muslims at wakes, funeral processions
7. Attacking, burning, destroying schools for girls
8. Poisoning, killing young female students for going to school
9. House-imprisoning of female family members
10. Dishonoring Chapter of Qur'an devoted to Mary, virgin mother of Christ, Messiah
11. Militant and forbidden "Compulsion in Religion"
12. Attacking countries, tribes in which Islam is freely practiced
13. Condemning most Shiites and Sufis as infidels and apostates (offense of Takfir)
14. Intimidating, killing moderate and peaceful community Elders and Imams
15. Causing a justifiable fear and hatred of a militant (and un-Godly) Islamism
16. Using, abusing and trafficking in opium and other addictive poisons
17. Beheading and desecrating the bodies of supposed enemies
18. Ignoring or attacking all major fatwas which condemn their Irhabist ways
19. Guilty of Istihlal (arrogantly "Playing God") in all of the above
20. Ignoring, violating, insulting the Qur’an’s blessed "99 Names of Allah"
The first major deviancy listed above exemplifies the sharp contrast between Qur’anic Islam and the Taliban “Shari’a” (so-called Islamic law). It involves the famous 2006 case in which Afghan President Hamid Karzai had to resolve a Taliban edict that one Abdul Rahman, who had several years earlier converted to Christianity, should be put to death for Apostasy.
Although President Karzai finessed the situation by pointing out that the man was then living in Italy and explaining that he was mentally imbalanced, the Qur’an could readily have been used with a far more informative and meaningful result.
Amazingly, there are over 20 Qur'anic verses which contradict the Taliban Shari'a regarding a simple conversion from Islam to Christianity. One vital element here is that Christianity's founder and namesake, Jesus Christ, is identified by the Qur'an as one of Islam's five main Prophets and even as its "Messiah" (Qur’an 4:171) -- though this high standing is strictly limited by this verse's assertion that this is not the wholly Divine status of Christianity's "Trinitarian" Deity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Imagine, please, how much better for President Karzai if he had settled the crisis via several Qur'anic verses, rather than by appearing to bow to "imperialist Western pressures." Here are just five of these compelling citations which would have made this possible.
[QUR'AN 2:256] "There shall be no compulsion in religion: the right way is now distinct from the wrong way. Anyone who denounces the devil and believes in GOD has grasped the strongest bond; one that never breaks. GOD is Hearer, Omniscient."
[QUR'AN 2:136] "We believe in GOD, and in what was sent down to us, and in what was sent down to Abraham, Ismail, Isaac, Jacob, and the Patriarchs; and in what was given to Moses and Jesus, and all the prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction among any of them. To Him alone we are submitters."
[QUR'AN 5:46] "And in their footsteps we sent Jesus the son of Mary, confirming the Law that had come before him: We sent him the Gospel: therein was guidance and light. And confirmation of the Law that had come before him: a guidance and an admonition to those who fear Allah."
[QUR'AN 5:69] "Surely, those who believe, those who are Jewish, the converts, and the Christians; any of them who (1) believe in GOD and (2) believe in the Last Day, and (3) lead a righteous life, have nothing to fear, nor will they grieve."
The list of relevant Qur'anic citations goes endlessly on -- 109:1-6; 88:21-26; 6:57; 2:62; 57:27; 5:92; 4:90; 49:31 and at least as many more -- including yet another overarching verse which is much revered in the interfaith quest for Abrahamic brotherhood, as follows:
[QUR'AN 5:48, in part] ".....To each among you we have prescribed a Law and an Open Way. If Allah had so willed, He would have made you a single people, but (His plan is) to test you in what He hath given you; so strive as in a race in all virtues. The goal of you all is to Allah; it is He who will show you the truth of the matters in which ye dispute."
In this same vein, even many Afghan hard-liners might be softened by the words of a onetime Muslim Brotherhood counselor to Ayman al-Zawahiri of al Qaeda infamy -- Hassan al-Tubari. It was he who in the early 1990s founded the annual Popular Arab and Islamic Conference, traditionally attended by such radical pre-al Qaeda groups as the PLO, Hamas, Egyptian Jihad and Hizballah.
According to al-Tubari: "How can it be imagined by a rational person that Allah, who has compelled none to believe, allows us the right to compel others and force them to believe? .If Almighty Allah has granted us the merit of freedom, he who wants to believe is allowed that right and so too the one who wants to disbelieve." [He then went on to sharply distinguish peaceful conversion from Islam from forbidden wartime treason against Islam.]
Yet, despite these many
Qur'anic evidences and proofs of Abdul Rahman's innocence, the baseless
charge of "apostasy" against him is likely to remain alive
-- particularly if President Karzai and his supporters fail in retrospect
to cite these in faithful justification of their position.
Part 5 -- Still More Proofs: Antonyms of the "99 Names of Allah"
In addition to the multiple proofs of the Terrorists' anti-Qur’an evildoing listed above, there is another, even more detailed Qur'anic frame of reference which defines just how certifiably satanic these self-styled "holy guys" and supposed "martyrs" actually are.
This can be understood by simply rediscovering and using to advantage one of the most basic and most widely agreed upon tenets of Islam -- namely, the blessed "99 Names of Allah" which appear throughout the Qur'an and which amount to Allah's own self-description.
For a sampling of these self-descriptive (of Allah by Allah Himself in the Qur'an) words and phrases -- and of the ANTONYMS which, by contrast, identify the inherently satanic nature and the sinful works of the pseudo-religious and even "Shaitani" terrorists -- please check the following URL and the 12-word excerpt therein:
http://truespeak.org/content.
Although this "99 Names of Allah" frame of reference is one of the few things which all Islamic Schools of Thought seem to embrace in its entirety, many national and parochial "Shari'as" clearly disagree. They do so by willfully acting in opposition to and in wholesale disrespect of many of these blessed terms which most Muslims believe to be Allah's own (and, therefore, Islam's own) self description.
If this is the case, what is needed now is for truly peaceful and Allah-loving Muslims to inspire a like-minded group of Islamic scholars, jurists and clerics to complete this scholarly search for the rest of these antonyms -- which will forever define the Salafi-Wahhabi and al Qaeda-style terrorists as acting not in the "Will of Allah" but in the will of His antithesis -- Shaitan himself.
Even at the grammar school and typical madrassa levels, where the 99 Blessed Names frame of reference is virtually universal, the existing patterns of instruction and memorization could be supplemented by a challenge to the students at their various grade levels that they discover the truthful antonym to each of these Qur’anic terms.
The vital purpose will be to better understand who, by their sinful actions of hate, envy, brutality, cruelty and Irhabi Murderdom, are the real cancer cells within the Umma and thus the real enemies of Allah of the Qur’an.
Part 6 – An Inter-faith Bridge? – Judeo-Christian Rights of Liberty, Muslim Rights of Justice
Finally, to draw an optimum
bright line between good-guy and evildoer Muslims, we should
explore all possible avenues for fine-tuning and promoting worldwide
acceptance of both the Western "Rights of Liberty" and the
very similar, even if not identical, Muslim "Rights of Justice"
frames of reference. ( See http://truespeak.org/content.
"There can be no true liberation
if, from the beginning,
the Rights of Liberty [of Freedom] are not respected." ...
Pope John Paul II
Freedom of ....Justice in ... "no
compulsion" in the practice of religion
Freedom of ... Justice in ....peaceful religious dissemination
Freedom of ....Justice in ....peaceful and compassionate religious education
Freedom of ....Justice in ....speech (personal, press, artistic, academic)
Freedom of ....Justice in ....voluntary unionism and right to strike
Freedom of ....Justice in ... the practice of peaceable assembly
Freedom of ....Justice in ....peaceable petition and protest
Freedom of ....Justice in ....access to an independent judiciary
Freedom of ....Justice in ....access to a speedy, fair and public trial
Freedom of ....Justice in ....habeas corpus (i.e., from
illegal imprisonment)
Freedom of ....Justice in ....association, personal and cooperative
Freedom of ....Justice in ....ability to travel and to relocate, domestic
and external
Freedom of ....Justice in ....no cruel or unusual punishment
Freedom of ....Justice in ... free, fair and regular multi-party elections
Freedom of ....Justice in ....no discrimination (class, race, age, religion,
sex)
Freedom of ....Justice in ....no slavery and involuntary servitude
Freedom of ....Justice in ....information from Government about the
Government
Freedom of ....Justice in ....privacy and in no unreasonable searches
& seizures
Freedom of ....Justice in ....reasonable access to credit, contract,
property ownership
Freedom of ....Justice in ....reasonable access to food, shelter, education,
healthcare
Freedom of ....Justice in ....minimal abuse by "blind" or
unregulated market forces
Freedom of ....Justice in ....being secure in one's own life and possessions
As a means of testing the acceptability of this list of human rights and civil liberties among individual faithful Muslims and in the Umma (the Muslim World) as a whole, we might pose the following question:
"For the rest of your life and the lives of your children, your grandchildren and your loved ones forever, would you regard the summary denial of ... [name the human right] ... a matter of Allah's eternal Justice or of Shaitan's eternal Injustice?"
To date, every single Muslim to whom I have posed this question has responded that it would be a terrible INJUSTICE to be forever deprived of any, much less all, of these self-evident and God-given "Rights of Justice."
The all-important question now is whether the Muslim World, the Umma, will actually fight for the Godly "Justice" which individual Muslims want and so desperately need -- or will it permit itself to be terrified, brainwashed, humiliated, perverted and subsumed by the fascist-Left and the plainly satanic likes of bin Laden, al-Zawahiri, al-Sadr and Ahmadinejad?
Part 7 -- Q&A Evaluation of anti-Terrorism Bona Fides
While all of this re-evaluation and re-discovery is underway over the next few years, there is an interim method of separating the peace and justice elements of Islam from the murderous cults which call themselves "holy" and "pure" and "Lions of Islam" but who act far more like hyenas, jackals and Jahannam-bound “Shahideen al-Shaitan” (Martyrs for Satan), instead.
This will be to pose the following several questions to individual Muslims, to clerics and to socio-religious organizations alike -- the answers to which will either begin (at long last) to condemn the Terrorists in Islamic religious terms, or will tend to identify the respondents as not willing to declare a truly Holy War (a true Jihad against the faux “Jihad”) against an AQ Apostasy which is as much an enemy of Qur'anic Islam as it is of America and the Judeo-Christian West:
Question: According to your organization, is AQ-style Terrorism the Qur’an-sanctified "Jihad" (Holy War) which Osama bin Laden so fervently claims, or is it Irhab (Terrorism) and Hirabah (forbidden "war against society" and crimes against humanity), instead?
Question: Are this global war’s perpetrators and willing practitioners the truly faithful and heroic "Mujahideen" (Holy Warriors) they claim to be, or are they what the Qur'an routinely condemns as Mufsiduun (evildoers, mortal sinners, corrupters), instead?
Question: Are these genocidal killers most likely the "shuhada" or "shahideen" (martyrs) and "abd'al-Allah" (Servants of Allah) destined for Paradise they claim to be, or are they most likely abd'al-Shaitan (Servants of Satan) destined for Jahannam (Eternal Hellfire), instead?
Question: By your group’s interpretation of authentic Islam, are these killers acting in behalf of the "peaceful, compassionate, merciful, beneficent and just" Allah of the Qur'an, or are they embracing and excusing the khawarij (outside the religion) deviancy and the Istihlal (playing God) arrogance of Osama bin Laden, Muqtada al-Sadr and their murderous kind?
Question: When the Allah-given words of the Holy Qur'an conflict with the man-made words of "Shari'a" (so-called Islamic Law which varies widely from country to country and appears to be far more man-made “Imamic” than Islamic), which option does your organization embrace?
Question: What is your official attitude toward the radical Islamist Hizb ut-Tahrir America (HTA) organization when it openly calls for an end to capitalism and when it promotes the virtues of an Islamic state ruled by strict Sharia law? And what is your attitude toward other Muslim-American groups who support these anti-American and ungodly perversities of the HTA?
Question: What if anything has your organization officially proclaimed or resolved about that Chapter of the Qur’an – Sura 19 -- which is devoted entirely to Mary (Maryam) and her status as the Virgin Mother of Jesus the Messiah of Islam? … and what is your group’s position toward Muslims who either ignore or who willfully reject what the Holy Qur’an says in this respect.
Question: Are the AQ and like-minded Terrorists' claims of so-called "Jihadi Martyrdom" as a proper reward for killing of innocents and noncombatants -- including many peaceful Muslims -- true to the Qur'an and to the Will of Allah, or does their suicide killings constitute the satanic offense of Irhabi Murderdom, instead?
Question: Will your organization be willing to co-sponsor and endorse resolutions and/or fatwas which condemn the willful and unrepentant terrorists by such appropriately harsh Islamic terms as munharefuun (deviants), mufsiduun (evildoers, mortal sinners, corruptors), murtadduun (apostates), munafiquun (hypocrites), kuffr (un-believers), khawarij (outside the religion), Irhabiyuun (terrorists), Hirabahyuun (criminals against society), Jaish al-Maout (Army of Death) and even shaitani (satanic) and Shahideen al-Shaitan (Martyrs for Satan)?
A final word of advice to those in the White House, the State and Defense Departments and elsewhere who would pose such intrusive questions: Pose them as soon as possible -- to place the issues on the table sooner rather than later. But allow some time for the difficult answers to be devised and given.
It will take a while for many of the socio-political and socio-religious organizations in question to "fight it out" internally and for their officers and Boards to decide how to answer such tough and religiously sensitive questions -- and to provide answers which are true to Qur'anic Islam but which are dangerous in face of many vengeful “Irhabi Murderdom” extremists whose semantic masks and self-installed haloes are in danger of deing stripped away and dumped into Hellfire.
What About the Muslim Brotherhood?
How an over-arching organization such as the supposedly “peaceful” Muslim Brotherhood – which is to militant Islamism what the “peaceful” Socialist International is to militant Communism or left-wing Fascism – will answer these questions could be explosive. Truthful answers could reveal much not only about the MB itself but also about its many funded, associated and controlled groups such as CAIR, ISNA, MAS, the HTA and others.
Just as the Socialist International so fervently conspires to convert the planet to World Socialism via its stealthy Antonio Gramscian “March Through the Institutions” strategies and its infamous Saul Alinsky “Rules for Radicals” tactics, so does the Muslim Brotherhood just as fervently seek global dominance for a supremacist version of Islam.
It does so via the equally dangerous strategies and tactics of the late Sayyid Qutb – and of such acolytes as the hard-nosed old Egyptian scholar Sheik Yusuf Qaradawi and the charismatic and highly “Westernized” young scholar Tariq Ramadan, whose own grandfather Hassan al-Banna was the Brotherhood’s founder.
It was al-Banna who established the plainly aggressive – as opposed to calmly proselytizing and peaceful – Muslim Brotherhood motto and mantra which prevails to this day, as follows: "Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Koran is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope." (Not LIVING in the way of Allah but DYING, instead.)
An excellent way for today’s MB and its surrogate organizations to separate themselves from this impulse toward death, rather than toward faithful living, would be for them to condemn outright a 1991 interpretation of this motto, which was issued secretly by a senior US-based leader of the Brotherhood, Mohamed Akram, to his superiors in Egypt:
“The Ikhwan [the Brotherhood] must understand that their work in America is a kind of Grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”
If these purportedly faithful MB followers of “peaceful” Islam either cannot or will not draw sharp distinctions between themselves and the murderous likes of bin Laden, al-Sadr, al-Zawahiri and the Haqqani Taliban, this may indicate that their particular “way of Allah” has been irreversibly subsumed by the Sunni-based al Qaeda Apostasy -- and by its Shi'a-based Hizballah (Party of God) and so-called "Mahdi Army" counterparts, as well.
Surely, this cannot possibly be so with regard to the Umma as a whole. Surely, the all-powerful God of Abraham would not allow his religion to be owned by such mufsiduun and munafiquun and Shahideen al-Shaitan (such evildoers, hypocrites and Martyrs for Satan). But to prove this for once and for all, it is high time for the global Umma, the Muslim World in its entirety,
(a) to rediscover and to reclaim its one and only "True Islam" of Peace and Justice, which is now being perverted and corrupted by the false Shari’a of a variety of satanic cults;
(b) to re-educate itself about what these two names and the 97 other blessed "99 Names of Allah" define this religion to be; and
(c) to remove from itself -- by means of a truly spiritual Jihad, a Jihad al-Khabir -- all those cancerous elements of hate, envy, violence and "Irhabi Murderdom" which are so thoroughly corrupting and desecrating the soul of Islam from within.
Part 8 --
Action items in support of this "Know the Enemy" thesis
1. Slightly revise existing
State Department and USG "Guidance" so as not only to allow
but to encourage prudent use of certain Qur’an-compatible religious
words which will belatedly begin undermining bin Ladenism's unwarranted
legitimacy in a purportedly "peaceful, compassionate, merciful and
just" Islam.
2. Develop DoD/State/DHS/NSC
"war of words" contingency plans for timely and effective
use if and when a decision is made to begin attacking bin Ladenism and
its ugly imitators in Islamic religious terms, rather than in Western
secular terms only -- and require that all Government analyses of Public
Diplomacy, Information Operations and Counterinsurgency include,
rather than deliberately exclude, the Arabic and Islamic terms which
properly distinguish between authentic Islam and the political and murderous
“Islamism” of the AQ-style Terrorists.
3. Encourage anti-Terrorist
Muslim organizations to join in an Umma-wide fatwa and/or a multi-party
Resolution of Condemnation which borrows elements of the ten most sufficient
of earlier fatwas and resolutions – e.g., the Spanish fatwa
of March 11, 2005, the Free Muslims Against Terrorism Resolution of
March 30, 2005, and the Pakistani fatwa of May 17, 2005 – which
will, in effect, declare a truly holy and universal Jihad against
the al Qaeda “Jihad al-Shaitani” and in defense of
authentic, Qur'anic Islam.
4. At the geopolitical
and ideological levels, equate the al Qaeda, al Sadr, Hizballah, Taliban
and similar fomenters and perpetrators of terroristic “Irhabi
Murderdom” with Fascism/Nazism and with Gulag-Left Leninism, Maoism,
Castroism and Chavismo, as well.
5. Encourage "peaceful
and compassionate" Ulema (and individual scholars and Jurists,
as well) to undertake comprehensive analyses of the Qur'an's blessed
"99 Names of Allah" and of the equal number of antonyms which
prove in enormous detail that AQ-style Terrorism is clearly satanic by
contrast.
6. By the Q&A analysis,
sharply differentiate between the true anti-Terrorism of most Muslim-American
socio-religious and socio-political organizations and the pretense of
those which seem suspiciously insufficient -- and examine such distinctions
via major public conferences, essay contests, Internet initiatives and various
mechanisms of Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy.
7. Explore all possible
avenues for fine-tuning and promoting worldwide acceptance of both the
Western "Rights of Liberty" and the very similar, even if not
identical, Muslim "Rights of Justice" frames of reference detailed
above as an all-points interfaith bridge.
8. Promote the correct
wartime analogy which compares the current War on al Qaeda-style Terrorism
not to the 5 years of World War II, or even to the 12 years of Vietnam but
to the 50-70 years of the Cold War, which is still ongoing in many respects.
9. Re-establish the "wartime"
functions of the USIA, RFE-RL, Radio Liberty, Voice of America and other
assertive Information Operations -- and manage them in a "Cold War
II” environment as the hearts, minds and souls spear points they were
in Cold War I.
10. Prepare and promote
carefully designed Glossaries and Lexicons which pull down the semantic
masks and the outright deceits of the Salafi-Wahhabi-UBL narrative of
so-called "Jihadi Martyrdom" and the Marxist-inspired narrative
of "Liberation Theology" -- and which apply both the truth-in-language
and truth-in-religion counter narratives recommended here.
11. Complete the list
of “Proofs of the AQ Apostasy” (increasing these to perhaps 20 or
more) and provide Qur'anic citations for all of them – including specific
examples of how many tribal and parochial versions of Shari’a
conflict greatly with the Qur’an itself. (For a prime example of this
see http://truespeak.org/contents/
12. Encourage essay contests,
poetry contests, artistic competitions in schools, in the media and
among the general public which call for the appropriate use of such
new words, terms and frames of reference that draw bright-line distinctions
between good-guy and bad-guy Muslims along the Qur’an-compatible lines
recommended. Here, for example, are two pro-America and anti-AQ
poems by this writer which use several of the Islamic religious terms
identified above:
******************************
Go Home Americans ... But Not
Quite Yet !!
Akriju Amrikan
… Wa Laquina Laissa al’An !!
From farms and towns and buildings tall
They came this far to save us all
From fates of pain and tyranny --
To win Iraq's new Dignity.
Forsaking home and loved ones there,
They came to give us back Khayer.(1)
With blood and sweat these brave men
fell,
To rescue us from Saddam's Hell.
And when bin Laden came in Hate,
And tried to force his Caliphate,
Our Liberators stood their ground
And helped us build a nation sound.
Where thousands of us also died,
Now millions of us walk beside
Our friends and brothers, hand in hand,
To serve our God of Abraham.
The Peace and Justice He does seek
For all his children, bold and meek,
Are now within our sight and reach
But still in Irhab's (2) pow'r to
breech.
But while our infant State takes life,
Shaitani (3) types still bring us strife,
They'll kill some more and make us bleed
But, Praise Allah, they'll not
succeed.
With Sunni, Shi'a side-by-side --
For mufsiduun, (4) no place to hide.
An earthly peace Allah unvails:
"Salaam Alekuum"(6) now prevails.
We say "Akriju Amrikan" (7)
But add "Wa
Laquina Laissa al'an" (8) --
By which we mean "Go home,"
you bet !!
But, Insha Allah, (9) not
quite yet.
| (1) Well-being | (5) Peace be with you |
| (2) Terrorism's | (6) Go home Americans |
| (3) Satanic | (7) But not quite yet |
| (4) Evildoers | (8) God Willing |
******************************
Al Qaeda's Worst Nightmare –
PEACE
AND WELL-BEING IN IRAQ
In most all of man's thinking to date
On the ugliest aspects of Hate,
It's the haters who merit the
blame
For the evil they bring to the game.
So when suicide killers go mad
And foment a most evil "Jihad," (1)
Allah angrily opens the gate
To Jahannam (2) where flames punish hate.
In Islam, where the rule is propriety,
There's no place for a "war on society."
Such Hirabah (3) is punished as sin:
A Shatani (4) attack from within.
So let those who are faithful to God
Practice only their inner jihad,
And let killing and mayhem and hate
Be condemned behind Hellfire's gate.
Since compassion and peace are His name,
All Iraqis must practice the same.
When they cast out Shaitan's mufsiduun, (5)
They bring peace to Islam's Crescent Moon.
| (1) so-called "Holy War" | (4) satanic |
| (2) eternal Hellfire | (5) evildoers, mortal sinners |
| (3) Unholy War |
13. In various democratizing Muslim nations, encourage carefully designed programs of naming various law and order, stability, police and national security services not by Western-sounding names but by such “peaceful and compassionate” Arabic and Quran-compatible names as
o Quwwat al-Salaam – Force for Peace
o Quwwat al-Istiqrar – Force for Stability
o Quwwat al-Khayer – Force for Public Wellbeing
o Jaish Dhud al-Mufsiduun – Army Against the Evildoers
o Jaish Dhud al-Munifiquun – Army Against the Hypocrites
o Jaish al-‘Adl
– Army of Justice
14. To discredit and
de-legitimize both the "takfiri" (who falsely excommunicate
fellow Muslims) and the equally false accusers of Judeo-Christian "unbeivers"
and “infidels,” carefully make and propagate a list of major elements which
are shared by Qur’anic Islam and Christianity and, to a lesser extent,
by Jewdaism -- e.g.,
(a) the fact that all
three religions worship the monotheistic "God of Abraham"
(b) the fact that all
three agree that there should be "no compulsion in religion"
(c) the fact that all
three consider themselves "Children of the Book” (the Old Testament)
(d) the fact that all three consider Jesus to be a Prophet of the God of Abraham – who they all
define as a God of Peace, Compassion, Beneficence, Truth and Justice
(e) the fact that both Christianity and Islam consider Jesus to be the "Messiah" of their faithful
followers on Judgment Day
(f) the fact that both the Bible and the Qur'an define Mary as "the Virgin Mother of Jesus the
Messiah" -- and with the Quran devoting an entire Chapter (Sura
19) to Mary in this regard.
15. Design and institute
non-partisan programs and practices to insure that our own institutions
(schools from Grammar to Graduate, the media, the think tanks, the foreign
policy elite, the Government agencies themselves) and, in due course,
the general public are not inadvertently and in "useful idiocy"
fashion teaching, preaching and learning disinformational words, labels
and frames of reference which falsely legitimize the satanic enemy –
and which just as falsely relegate us to the status of "infidels"
and "the Great Satan."
Jim Guirard --
TrueSpeak.org
703-768-0957 571-451-3003
Justcauses@aol.com
A DC-area attorney, writer and national
security strategist, Jim Guirard was longtime Chief of Staff to former
US Senators Allen Ellender and Russell Long. His TrueSpeak.org website
is devoted to truth-in-language and truth-in-history in public discourse.