FDD

Walid Phares: “The West needs to isolate Jihadism by defining it”

At the Launch of his new book The Confrontation at the European Parliament

Brussels, European Parliament, EFD-FDD, March 12, 2008

At the invitation of European MP Jana Hybaskova, a launching event was organized at the European Parliament for Dr Walid Phares’s new book, The Confrontation: Winning the War against Future Jihad. The breakfast lecture was attended by a number of legislators, including MEP Paulo Casaca, experts at the European institutions, US and Arab diplomats, NGOs representatives and the staff of the European Foundation for Democracy (EFD). Phares, is the Director of the Future Terrorism Project at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington and a visiting scholar with EFD. 

Wealth Transfer (CM)

Rachel Ehrenfeld and Alyssa A. Lappen write:

Of the world's 86 million barrels in daily crude oil output, the Middle East produces only 25.6 percent. With escalating prices, crude oil now runs $111 per barrel, putting $2.4 billion daily in Middle East pockets.  …

Legendary investor and Vanguard Group founder John Bogle blasted the “orgy of speculation” that granted foreign investors excessive influence over the U.S. economy. “We should have never let ourselves get into this position where so many dollars are . . . held by foreign countries and bought by foreign countries that are enemies,” he stated also on March 14. “Friend or enemy, they have a lot of control over what happens here,'' he said.

Indeed, major Middle East oil producers have a different understanding than Americans of economics and ownership. The October 2006 Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) “Mecca Declaration” is but one, albeit pointed example of this fundamental difference. Islam views all property owned by Muslims as held “in trust for Allah.” The Qur'an decrees, “The land belongs to Allah, He gives it as a heritage to those of His devotees whom He pleases” (15:128). Therefore, Muslim property “shall be subject to the terms and conditions established by their owners.” While OPEC and the Saudis blame the Bush administration for high oil prices, by “mismanaging” the U.S. economy, in fact OPEC policies cause the escalation.

In a significant indication of brazen Saudi determination to undermine the U.S. and Western economies with petrodollars, King Abdullah rebuffed President Bush's recent appeal to boost production and lower prices.  …

Despite protracted violence against the United States, West and Israel since 1979, only the September 11 attacks forced America to recognize the Islamic holy war (jihad) waged by al Qaeda, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah.

What will it take for the United States to recognize the far more dangerous and important part of that jihadeconomic warfare (financial jihad, or al-jihad bi-al-mal)-which the Saudis and Gulf States now aggressively also pursue? Shari'a mandates that Muslims fund jihad: Qur'an 61:10-11, “strive for the cause of Allah with your wealth and your lives. . . .” And Qur'an 49:15, “(true) believers are only those who…strive with their wealth and their lives for the cause of Allah.” “Financial Jihad [is] … more important … than self-sacrificing,” says Saudi Islamic cleric and Muslim Brother Hamud bin Uqla al-Shuaibi.

More here.

"The long term aim of Terrorists is to numb European resistance"

Brussels, March 6, 2008

Addressing a Breakfast at the invitation of the European Ideas Network at the European Parliament, FDD's Senior Fellow Walid Phares underlined the necessity for legislators, intellectuals and researchers on both sides of the Atlantic to develop a common strategy on confronting the threat of Jihadi terrorism, which "is growing global, lethal and showing all signs of a long term planning." Dr Phares, the director of FDD's Future Terrorism Project and a visiting scholar at the European Foundation for Democracy was the guest speaker of EIN for its monthly breakfast event. The meeting, which took place at the European Parliament, was attended by a number of experts and members in addition to MEPs Mihael Brejc, James Elles, Maria Martenes, Angelika Niebler, Jan Olbrycht, John Purvis and Peter Stastny.

EIN European Meeting

Phares, who was introduced by EIN diretor Guillermo Martinez Casan, referred to his  latest two books Future Jihad and The War of Ideas and announced his forthcoming newest book The Confrontation. "The long term Jihadist strategies aim at numbing Western reaction to the surging of the combat and urban Jihadists," said Phares. "The immense sums of money inserted in the West in general, in the United States and European institutions in particular by Oil backed regimes and circles penetrated the educational systems and created a defense line for the rise of Salafism and Khomeinism. The reason for why Westerners are not able to unify their positions and clarify their statements regarding the ideology and tactics of the Terror forces is fundamentally grounded in the penetration by these long term Jihadi influences inside the educational and academic systems."    

Phares told the EIN forum that during his several briefings and meetings with European officials he felt that "intense intellectual and academic lobbying has been in effect on the continent for a long time now. The arguments used by many officials are not so different in nature from those advanced by Islamist spokespersons on al Jazeera and other similar media." Phares said Europe has "entered the fray of its most difficult war of ideas, that is to see clearer as most of its classical expertise has been impacted by years of impact."  In conclusion, the FDD expert admitted that "despite the historical decline in European intellectual resistance to the rise of Salafism and Khomeinism as ideologies, one can see the counter rise of a younger and vivid generation of researchers who have captured the real meaning of Jihadism and developed a better understanding of the strategies used in the War of ideas."   

Phares briefings in Europe -until mid March- are part of the European Foundation for Democracy to educate public officials on the threats of Terrorism and its ideologies.  He is the author of the newly released The Confrontation: Winning the War against Future Jihad

Tough Times (CM)

Frank Gaffney writes:

Totalitarians have an uncanny appreciation for the subversive effect of foreign propagandists. The Nazis had Lord Haw-Haw, Imperial Japan its Tokyo Rose, the Soviets the World Council of Churches (among many others) and the North Vietnamese Jane Fonda. Now, our time’s totalitarian ideologues – the Islamofascists – have the New York Times.

This may not seem to be exactly a news flash. After all, the Times has been rendering invaluable service to the enemy’s information operations and military campaigns for years. To cite but a few examples: In December 2005, the paper disclosed a highly classified program for monitoring suspected terrorists’ communications on this war’s global battlefield. In June 2006, it revealed another enormously sensitive surveillance effort concerning movement of funds around the world. And practically every day, what passes for its news pages and editorials run down the Nation’s leadership, military and progress in defeating our foes.

The New York Times marked a deplorable new milestone this weekend, however – a true nadir in collaborating with the enemy in the War of Ideas. Its Sunday magazine featured an article by Harvard law professor Noah Feldman entitled “Why Shariah? Millions of Muslims think Shariah means the rule of law. Could they be right?” According to the Times’ Mr. Feldman, the answer is a resounding “Yes.”  …

It is the cruelest of delusions to contend that such Shariah law will produce “just and legitimate governments” anywhere. Feldman struggles to explain why it isn’t so in two of the four places ruled by Shariah today – Iran and Saudi Arabia; he doesn’t even try to do so with respect to Sudan or Gaza, let alone the nightmare that formerly was Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

More here.

Notes and Comments (CM)

ORWELL WOULD UNDERSTAND: In Israel last week, a "militant" went to a religious school and shot everyone in sight. Hamas sang the praises of this "martyr" and in Gaza there was dancing in the streets. On NPR a "reporter" explained that those attending the religious school are religious, as are many of the "settlers" in the West Bank which the Palestinians claim and that "explains" slaughtering these students as they sat studying their Bibles.

I would like to continue but I'm running out of quotation marks.

A question: If Muslims were mowed down in a mosque by an Israeli would NPR offer the same explanation - that they are in a mosque so they are religious and members of al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and Hamas also are religious, so surely one can understand?

Other commentators on this and related issues below.

Israel’s Dilemma (CM)

Bret Stephens writes

Hamas was elected democratically and by overwhelming margins in Gaza. It has never once honored a cease-fire with Israel. Following Israel's withdrawal of its soldiers and settlements from the Strip in 2005 there was a six-fold increase in the number of Kassam strikes on Israel.

Hamas has also made no effort to rewrite its 1988 charter, which calls for Israel's destruction. The charter is explicitly anti-Semitic: "The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!" (Article Seven) "In order to face the usurpation of Palestine by the Jews, we have no escape from raising the banner of Jihad." (Article 15) And so on.

It would seem perverse for Israeli taxpayers, including residents of Sderot, to feed the mouth that bites them. It would seem equally perverse for Israel merely to bide its time for an especially unlucky day -- a Kassam hitting a busload of schoolchildren, for instance -- before striking hard at Gaza. But unless Israel is willing to accept the military, political and diplomatic burdens of occupying all or parts of Gaza indefinitely, the effects of a major military incursion could be relatively short-lived. Israel suffered many more casualties before it withdrew from the Strip than it has since. …

[N]o self-respecting nation can allow the situation in Sderot to continue much longer, a point it is in every civilized country's interest to understand.

More here.