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Al Qaeda's Next Wave of Terror

The death of Osama bin Laden is important only for its symbolic message, because Bin Laden had long ago ceased to be a figure of any operational importance and become a symbol of the Jihad. As a 'martyr' he will be just as useful. Perhaps even more so.

His death is not a period, but an anticlimactic comma in a run on sentence whose full length still remains unclear. For Americans it's a chance to celebrate the death of the man who became a symbol of Islamic terrorism. For Muslims it means a day of mourning for the death of a new Saladin. No matter how dead he is now, he achieved his goal of becoming a symbol of the Jihad for an Islamic world order. And that Jihad will not be buried in the ground with him.

We have not really been fighting Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda in some time now. Instead we have been fighting the Taliban, Iranian backed militias and local affiliates of Al-Qaeda. Whatever influence the recruits his diminished organization was able to bring to the battlefield in Afghanistan achieved was limited by the centrality of the Iraqi battlefield to the global Jihad. Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda remained a threat, but more as an inspiration, than the globe-spanning network that media reports have made it out to be.

The early years of the War on Terror had cut down its financial links and its safe operational zones. The new wave of Jihad came from organizations that called themselves Al-Qaeda but had their own command centers, their own funding networks and their own agendas. Organizations that like Al-Qaeda in Iraq no longer answered to Bin Laden and did not even listen to his criticisms. Men like Zarqawi whose appetite for bloodshed made even Bin Laden seem like a reasonable moderate by comparison.

While Americans are still thinking in terms of 9/11, the terrorists themselves have already moved on to the next phase of terror. Al Qaeda might launch another long range operation intended to achieve large scale destruction and massive casualties, but the core tactics have shifted away from such expensive operations and long range operations. The attacks of September 11 were meant to position Bin Laden and Al Qaeda as the leading edge of Islam. And they achieved that goal. The only ones who can take it from them now are Shiite terrorists backed by Iran. And their focus is currently regional.

The next phase of terror is the franchise, the creation of a local affiliate to carry out ongoing terrorist attacks against Americans. "Al Qaeda in America". The Times Square Bomber, the Fort Hood Massacre and other similar arrests lead back to the goal of creating Al Qaeda in America, a terrorist network based around American Muslims. So far there is no Al Qaeda in America, in the way that there is an Al Qaeda in Iraq, or an Al Qaeda in Yemen. But that is only a matter of time.

The opening phase of the franchise features acts of terror by "lone gunmen", recruited in person, or inspired at a distance by videos and recruitment materials distributed over the internet and through Islamic bookstores and mosques. While they will and do have a high failure rate, they serve as examples for other Muslims, to abandon Western materialism, and take up the Jihad against America. Their trials become propaganda showcases inspiring others to follow in their footsteps.

Experience is the best teacher. And any terrorist who succeeds in carrying out an attack and escapes capture, becomes the centerpiece of a new terrorist organization. As an organization grows, it proves itself through acts of terror, laying claim to be the local Al-Qaeda franchise by way of the sheer body count. New recruits brought in through Islamist organizations, tested for their commitment to the Salafist worldview, routed through training camps already located in the United States, will be positioned to begin the next wave of terror. 

Obama's emphasis on civilian trials plays into their hands. The likes of Faisal Shahzad, despite his failure, gets to posture and preen in court as a devout servant of Allah, quote from the Koran and pay fealty to Al Qaeda, Bin Laden and the eventual triumph of Islam. The martyrs of Islam get another member of the pantheon to paste up on posters and Adam Gadahn, aka Azzam the American, himself the son of a counterculture hippie, successfully positions Islam as the new counterculture. And if you think it isn't working, walk down the street of a liberal neighborhood and count how many keffiyahs you see. Then imagine how long it will take to replace them with Hijabs.

With Al Qaeda in America, the goal moves beyond killing Americans in order to boost their standing, to killing Americans in order to Islamize America. Terrorism began as a means of intimidating a world power whose cultural influence and military power are superior to the Ummah, but in the next phase the goal is to terrorize the non-Muslim population into becoming part of the Ummah.

Muslim tactics have not changed very much for over a thousand years, when Mohammed managed to terrorize the cosmopolitan and multicultural residents of Mecca and Medina into becoming Muslims, or accepting Muslim dominance by becoming Dhimmis. His chief tools were violence and false treaties. Violence was used to force non-Muslims to accept those treaties. And those treaties were then used to dominate and subjugate them.

Today in the West, the "Muslim extremists" carry out the violence, while the "moderate Muslims" write up the treaties for us to sign. Both the "moderates" and "extremists" are arms of the Muslim Brotherhood, and are pursuing its agenda. And both empower one another. Every terrorist attack drives cowardly Western politicians to seek to "empower" Muslim moderates in order to ward off the extremists. But the differences between the two groups are tactical, not moral or religious. Muslim terrorists routinely divide their organizations into political and armed divisions. Assuming that the political division is non-violent because it doesn't kill people personally, misses the point. It's as absurd as trying to negotiate with the enemy's propaganda division, rather than their armed forces, as if they represent two different identities, rather than two different functions.

9/11 was the best thing that ever happened to Muslim power and influence in America. It lifted them up from obscurity, gave them a hall pass to the White House and filled their coffers with money. And that was even long before Obama was elected. The idea that we need to work with Muslim moderates in order to stop violence became an idée fixe that led to craven acts of submission. No matter how extensive the proof that the so-called moderates were supporting and funding terrorism, the politicians refused to listen. They had found a solution to the problem of terrorism, and they returned to it, like a dog to its vomit.

As much as the "reasonable thinkers" will deny it, Muslim terrorism leads to Muslim political dominance. Not just in some Third World backwater with three days of running water a week, but right here in the West. After the blood is cleaned off the streets, the political leadership looks for someone to negotiate with. The time isn't right for them to negotiate with Bin Laden (though 9 years after 9/11, we're already negotiating with the Taliban) but there are plenty of local substitutes, organizations founded by Muslim Brotherhood members, funded by Saudi Arabia and treated as representatives of American or Canadian Muslims.

From Al Qaeda's perspective, their plan is on track. The West has begun to submit. For all the bombs dropped on Kandahar, the Koran is welcome in the White House. Bombs come and go, but violence is a constant part of tribal life, the fighters can retreat and then come back again. But so long as the door is open to Islam, then the game is still breaking their way. Since 9/11, America has bent over backward to accommodate Islam. Which means that Al Qaeda has succeeded.

Bin Laden may be dead. Al Qaeda's numbers are scattered. But they have accomplished far more than they could have ever dreamed of with four planes. Since then, despite the small numbers of Muslims, Islam has become a major factor in American politics. Just as Mohammed's terrorism forced local rulers to come to try and come to terms with Islam on a peaceful basis, so too Bin Laden has gotten American politicians to try and do the same thing.

Al Qaeda in America will try to build on those successes with a domestic insurgency. Once it exists as an active force, the goal will be to try and get American politicians to negotiate with it directly. The premise sounds absurd. As absurd as the idea of Israel negotiating with the PLO in the 1980's. Except today the PLO is on track to a state and in control of a sizable amount of Israel, and the controversy is over whether Israel will openly negotiate with Hamas. The next step after a terrorist group is the transition to an armed force that will try to control entire areas. After that comes the specter of a political solution.

For now informants and lack of training is a serious obstacle to Al Qaeda in America. Local Muslims who are suffering from a case of Jihad Fever are as likely to encounter an FBI informant, as the real deal. But the network of informants of the Mukhbarat in Egypt makes their American counterpart seem puny, and yet the Muslim Brotherhood remained a powerful force there. Lack of training means that we'll have more Times Square Bombers who fizzle, but they only need to be lucky once. And as long as terrorists get civilian trials, they'll still have the chance to promote the cult of Jihad.

The left has already accepted Islam as the new counterculture, the identity of the oppressed and the downtrodden, and they are learning to enjoy slumming as Muslims. Lauren Booth is a prominent example, but far from an isolated one. The elites of the left have always looked to the underclasses for diversion, whether it was drugs, farm cooperatives or revolution. Now the latest diversion is Islam. Don a Hijab, grow a beard and rant about the occupation, one of them anyway. The elites of the left are always longing to escape from their gilded cages to be "with the people", whatever they fancy the people to be. Islam is their next great escape from civilization and the need to be civilized. To toss away all morals and mores, and get down in the muck.

The left still has an appetite for violence, but no stomach for organizing it anymore. Al Qaeda in America will be the successor of the anarchists and the Weathermen. And it will continue to attract leftist radicals like Gadahn, who see in Islam, the torch of angry radicalism turning from red to green. It will not topple America, but it is part of the transition from long range attacks out of Pakistan or Germany, and into a local Muslim insurgency, fed by a stream of new converts fostered in Saudi mosques. The next wave of terror is here. And it doesn't depend on plans hatched thousands of miles away, but on your friendly neighborhood Muslim next door.

Comments

  1. Even in the days of the Pharaohs, Arabs made their living through hijacking caravans, pickpocketing, selling slaves and deceit.
    They took Yosef to sell him into slavery, asking no questions.
    That disrespect continued into today with the violation of his grave.
    Things do not change it seems
    Terrorism is a way to make money and for an outlet for violent tendencies.

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  2. Even now, here in Indonesia, many muslims commented in online news that they will continue osama's jihad and fight America.

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  3. Christian Edwards3/5/11

    I wish Obama hadn't taken out Bin Laden, this will boost his rankings and he will now use it to con people in 2012.

    I also think that those Republicans who called him a terrorist sympathiser will now be made to look like fools, furthering his chances even more, expecially since we conservatives have no good candidate.

    What now? It's sickening how the Democrats are using this to fob and obfuscate the real issues.

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  4. Jill3/5/11

    Jill

    Sultan I have to disagree with this part, though agree with the general tone of your piece.

    "The left has already accepted Islam as the new counterculture, the identity of the oppressed and the downtrodden, and they are learning to enjoy slumming as Muslims. Lauren Booth is a prominent example, but far from an isolated one."


    Actually Muslims in the USA and the UK and not an underclass, though they pretend to be. In the UK, they are wealthier than the average Brits, and in the USA again, not only wealthier than most minorities, but better educated too.

    This business of pretending to be oppressed and downtrodden is so they can gain more influence by being underdogs to garner sympathy.

    You have groups like CAIR a Hamas supporting entity, ready to further their cause by crying about "Islamophobia" and other fabricated nonsense.

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  5. It was a symbolic victory. I thought it odd that Obama would say that Bin Laden massacred Muslims. What? By giving them a "bad name" in the world?


    Thrilled as I am with Bin Laden's death I have no intention of voting for Obama

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  6. Anonymous3/5/11

    Kelia, yes, I have no intention of voting for Obama either. It was Bush's Gitmo interrogations that led to the demise of Obummer bin laden.

    That said, at every step the Republicans are looking more and more like goonish thugs, with no leader. The modus operandi seems to be to discredit Obama. I personally felt that the birther crowd and Tea Party activists damaged the Republican party. Even in 2008 under McCain the Republicans had more credibility than today. Trump is made to look like a loser over the certificate. Palin is losing steam, she never was a viable candidate, but the Gifford cross hairs drama did her in for good. Come back McCain.


    Ironically, the article above proves what is being played out. It could be said that Moslem President understood Jihad enough to kill Bin Laden. That will make the appeasers come out and crow, "We told you so" to Republicans who were convinced that focusing on Obama's Moslem connections will ensure his defeat. The Democrats believed the opposite, and said his Moslem connections should be exploited.

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  7. Anonymous3/5/11

    Jill, you said that muslims in the UK are wealthier than the average Brit.

    50% and 75% of muslim males and females respectively of working age in the UK are unemployed. But then again, with welfare payments (housing benefit, unemployment, child benefit, sickness benefit) totalling more than the average wage, maybe you're right...

    My next door neighbours are Somali. There are 8 of them in a house that would cost over $900k to buy - rent paid by the local council, of course. They glide around like ghosts in black niqabs and whatever it is the men wear, and none of them work - for the 10 years they've been here. I know this because they've told me - with a smile on their face that says they can't believe how stupid The West is.

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  8. Jill3/5/11

    Hi Anonymous (2nd)

    Where do you get these stats from? The biggest welfare recipients in the UK are single mothers (which Muslims are not) but I may be wrong, as I havn’t checked the latest welfare recipient stats,


    It’s a serious mistake when people concentrate on the likes of your Somali neighbors, and then go on to say all Muslims are like that because they are painted as underdogs, and that’s why the left wing support them. It hides the insiduous truth, and I think bloggers like Sultan Knish would do well to check the MSM occasionally, as what you find in the Conservative media is really only what they want to hear, and not what is. That’s why I ceased trusting conservative media. There is none, save Fox but even that is not all there.

    Also, like Lauren Booth, there a lot of converts from the upper and middle classes, in Europe, certainly from UK, Germany, France and the other EU nations. But again, it’s not because they “enjoy slumming” as Sultan Knish put it, there may be poor Muslims, but the rich lord it. Eton College has an Islamic prayer room and Islamic studies taught, and it panders to Muslims and it’s supposed to be the most elitest college of the world.

    If Muslims were shown as they are, spoilt arrogant brats hell bent on world dominion, watch the left start reviling them. There is a love fest between Islam and the left elite in America, which conservatives fuel, by making Muslims out to be some poor welfare receiving underdog. They are not as a group I mean, though some like your neighbors may be.

    Anyhow, a cursory check on Google brought these poor welfare receiving underdogs in the UK, one of which is in Prime Minister Cameron’s cabinet as an MP, do a search and you’ll find more. It’s sickening to think they’re portrayed as needy and poor and worthy of coddling.


    Muslim Power 100
    http://www.power100.co.uk/index.php?id=22
    There are 10, 000 Muslim millionaires in Britain. Together with others in the Muslim community they contribute some £31 billion to the country’s economy.




    Our leading Muslims: Power list celebrates the top 100 players boosting the nation
    The Muslim community contributes more than £31bn to the economy, and much else besides to our lives. Last night, the business leaders, writers, academics, doctors, campaigners and aid agency founders who do most for Britain were honoured at an awards evening with a difference. Jonathan Thompson reports

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/our-leading-muslims-power-list-celebrates-the-top-100-players-boosting-the-nation-435941.html
    They range from lords to lawyers, from authors to sporting icons, pre-eminent academics to giants of industry. And they all have two things in common: all are Muslim - and all have made an outstanding contribution to British society.
    Last night, the inaugural Muslim Power 100 list was announced at a glittering ceremony in the Hilton Hotel on Park Lane in London. Established to recognise Muslims who have made "significant contributions to the social, cultural and economic well-being of Britain", the awards have been praised by commentators as a timely public reminder of the positive contribution the vast majority of Britain's 1.8 million-strong Muslim community.

    France's wealthy young Muslims fuel boom in halal food
    Tuesday 03 May 2011
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/7558179/Frances-wealthy-young-Muslims-fuel-boom-in-halal-food.html

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  9. Anonymous--I agree 100-percent with what you wrote about the Republican party, Tea Party and birthers. I'm not at all crazy about the Tea Party for all of the reasons you stated.

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  10. Anonymous3/5/11

    I hope everyone remembers who the grand daddy of terror is and its canary in the proverbial mine--Arafat and Israel. When it started 40 years ago the world could not be bothered, hijackings, killings at the Olimpics or airports. The targeted were Israelis so the world was inconvenienced and thought they can buy safety by making deals with terrorists and releasing the murderes. Anyone rememebers Arafat at the UN? With a gun in his belt and everyone cheering him. Israel has not been allowed to fight back, under pressure they even had to resurrect Arafat, bring him to Gaza, give him arms and make him a "peace partner". Now it's payback time and the world is still blind. My only problem is that those 40 years of ceseless attacks from the whoe world demoralized Israel so that it is on his way to self destruct.
    To Jill and the other person who commented, you are both right. There are the very rich who control and the ones who live on dole and suck the taxpayer of the host country dry. Both serve the goal of destruction of the west.

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  11. Christian Edwards said...
    "I wish Obama hadn't taken out Bin Laden, this will boost his rankings and he will now use it to con people in 2012."

    Unless this linked piece is true, and it get wider circulation.....
    http://newsflavor.com/politics/us-politics/did-senior-militaryintelligence-officials-overrule-president-obama-regarding-mission-to-kill-osama-bin-laden/

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  12. Anonymous3/5/11

    You said it, Daniel: we've been fighting the Taliban (students) .....of what? Al quaeda (the base = the qur'an) so, in a nutshell, those who study the Qur'an become devout and act like mohomet and cause havoc to moderate Muslims and all kuffr using deceit, violence and humiliation. Kate b

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  13. Anonymous3/5/11

    Jill,

    The figures of 50% and 75% with respect to muslim unemployment come from a 700 page report by The Equality and Human Rights Commission in the UK, published in October 2010.

    Muslims are also more likely to be unemployed than other minorities.

    So much for the left-wing canard that muslims would come to the UK to work, pay tax, and thus help support the bloated, socialist welfare state. They are clearly adding to the burden, collecting the jizya.

    And that's the idea.

    0.5% are millionaires? that leaves a lot on welfare or doing crappy jobs...

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  14. Brit3/5/11

    anonymous

    Is this the 700 page report you're talking about? That report says:
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8054403/Britains-coping-classes-at-breaking-point.html
    , The white working classes are missing out on good jobs compared with other ethnic groups, with Chinese and Indian men nearly twice as likely to find professional work.,

    it's by the Human Rights comission thing, thats an organisation that has an agenda to exaggerate the ethnic problems.

    If those Muslims who are welfare recipients were the refugees let into the country in the last few years, because of the wars in Iraq, Somalia and other places, they are first generation, and like the East Europeans they will be in crappy jobs and welfare.

    Especially since ethnic English are finding it hard to get work, comparatively.

    One can conclude then that the 2nd and 3rd generation of Muslims like their other ethnic counterparts have moved up the social scale.


    If the figure of British Muslim millionares in UK is 0.5% as you say, then they wield disproportionate influence in comparison to their numbers, which are not even 5% of the population as it is in France. They certainly wield more influence than their welfare receiving bretheren,

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  15. Anonymous4/5/11

    Brit,

    I know it's from EHRC, but it's all we have, I'm afraid. Having said that, I don't think the figures are going to be THAT wide of the mark. If they're going to tell an outrageous lie and say it's 50% and 75% to mug us off, why not go the whole hog and say it's 95% across the board? it's no less believable. Even if they've hard-boiled them by 15% each - which I don't think they would have (Trevor Phillips has a reputation to protect) - it's a lot of people out of work still.

    The bottom line is that a high percentage of UK muslims that should be working are not, for whatever reasons. Therefore, those men and women are either living in cardboard boxes and eating out of my dustbin at night, or they are on welfare. And, judging by the number of mobile, human-sized black tents I see in the supermarket, I favour the latter. Simple as that. Suggesting they are all caning it out the door by their own endeavours is not really true, is it? And if there are 10k millionaires - whatever. It's not that many out of 2m. Likewise, the 2nd and 3rd gen have moved on to good jobs, as you say. There will also be recent immigrants who do have some dough. But we're talking about the majority here, not the single cell-phone shop owners who spend all their profits on a Lamborghini, shiny wallpaper, and a Dior burkha for the wi/fe/ves (delete as applicable). You don't need a 700 page report by a pressure group to figure it out either - just walk around Tower Hamlets, Finsbury Park, or go north to Bradford.

    Precis - most muslims in the UK are not well off. That's my opinion.

    http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/uploaded_files/triennial_review/tr_execsumm.pdf

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