Jamaat-ul-Ahrar TTP, the new splinter group of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan (Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP), released a graphic as well as a statement celebrating al Qaeda’s attack on the US on Sept. 11, 2001. The image and statement were emailed by Ihsanullah Ihsan, the group’s spokesman, to The Long War Journal. The image is reproduced above, and the statement, titled #Happy911, is here.
Unsurprisingly, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar is supporting the global jihad. One of its top leaders, Omar Khalid Khorasani, is closely linked to al Qaeda’s emir, Ayman al Zawahiri. In the statement, the group correctly notes that the global jihad has expanded since 9/11:
In 2001, Afghanistan was the only Islamic Emirate in the world but now Jihad has spread to a vast swathe of land including Pakistan, Chechnya, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Algeria, Mali and Nigeria.
Additionally, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar clearly states it is part of the jihadist project to impose a global caliphate:
We in Tehrik e Taliban Jamaat ul Ahrar pledge that we shall continue the mission of our great martyrs until the Khilafah [caliphate] is established in every nook and corner of the world.
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7 Comments
The beginning of this article nails it by describing the spread of Radical Jihad thru-out Muslim world.
While ISIL or Al Qaeda or whatever Islamist group gets the attention of the West as the “Cancer,” Radical Islam as an ideology continues to spread.
As “Memes” go, Radical Islam is highly effective at spreading. And unfortunately conditions are optimal: Arab Spring giving rise to power vacuums both in the political sense and ideological sense, social networks, USA and other “Infidels” can be marketed as attacking the Muslim world, success of Islamic State and thus credibility, and most of all a renewed “credibility” for a Global Islamist Caliphate that seems reachable by the hardcore Islamist cadre drunk with Islamist visions.
Meanwhile, nobody in the USA or West is really taking “Radical Islam” as the real disease or cancer (except Tony Blair in his recent speeches). It is just ISIL today and Al Qaeda yesterday that is perceived as the cancer. And why should they? An identifiable monster group is so much easier to deal with than an ideology highly contagious and evil.
If we go back to Hitler and the Nazis, despite the growing signs of militarization and then the “piece” by piece conquests of Europe up to Poland, the World was in denial or at least Willful Blindness on what ultimately was the game plan. Don’t just blame Chamberlain, blame everybody, except maybe Churchill.
So to with Radical Islam: It is not the ideology that is the problem, just these Psychotic Islamists groups. Let’s just address these because it is manageable and measurable.
Meanwhile, Radical Islam and Jihadi groups are popping up all over the Muslim world (and yes, in the Western World too).
Just like for the world to wake against Hitler and the Nazis it took an invasion of Poland, and a Pearl Harbor sneak attack for the USA.
It seems we are on an analogous course, Radical Islam, like the Nazis, will need to unfortunately grow and spread until it is so ugly and so threatening that it too does its version of the Polish Invasion/Pearl Harbor, and I do not even want to imagine what form that horror will take.
And on that future day (God forbid I hope am wrong), let us hope the West will have a Churchill of the 21st century because we are going to need the Mother of All Leaders for the potential mother of all wars: Radical Islam vs. Planet Earth.
its about time we look at the ideology and who is funding/promoting it!
The only way to defeat radical Islam is through improving education and employment opportunities in the Middle East. Facing off against terrorists through military power is, while necessary, a short term band-aid. If we ever hope to truly remove the threat we have to fix the society as a whole. The problem, of course, is how do we do it. And I have yet to hear anyone answer that question. Including myself. But if our children or their children will ever know a world without the threat of terrorism, we need a better strategy than unending war.
Wahabist Islam is a threat but it will be crushed.
“Wahabist Islam is a threat but it will be crushed” OK . . . and just who exactly will crush it?
Noticed that you wrote in the passive voice and left out identifying who or what would be doing the crushing.
Saudi Arabia backs 100% Wahabi Salifi Sunni Islam as does Qatar. Both are totally protected by USA for geopolitical reasons and alot of complexity, even more financial investment US vital interests, and 50 year old US-Saudi alliance to get thru there.
Now who in the heck is gonna have the guts (or delusion) to try and crush Wahabi Islam? Or is this just a “wish list”?
Really, please do elaborate.
Through all of this bloodshed and destruction, one of the *only* positive things I can see happening is that people are ready to admit these days the complete failures, mistakes, or corrupt decisions employed by the U.S. and western world in all of this. If we want to defeat the ideology, we need to also make sure our own house is in order, and I’m finally starting to see rational, reflective self-criticism and admittance of errors and corruption on our side.
I’ll take that over the wacky conspiracy theories and jingoist chest beating that plagued the past.
These are jihadist armies that march on Western food and fire Western armaments.
The sole and only reason for their virulence has been cheap food imports.
How cheap? Try totally free — all the way to the point of retail distribution.
Free food is at the core of the Somali war ethos.
No-one need farm; farming thereabouts has utterly collapsed.
Now, every boy grows to be either a jihadist pirate — or a jihadist warrior.
And feeding all of the nastiness: a TFR that’s the highest on the planet. Hard figures are impossible in Somalia — for obvious reasons — but most guestimates place their TFR beyond 7.4 — an astonishing figure.
Their economic growth is, of course, entirely negative. Somalia is all mouth and no production; reproduction, yes.
If you leave food out — you’ll have a bear ‘problem’ in bear country. If you shovel food into Muslim desert lands you’ll have a jihadi ‘problem.’
It really is as simple as that.
Forget punishments. Just stop feeding them. Once their energies are redirected towards farming — at pitiful yields, Somalia will mellow out.
And, ALL Muslim immigration must come to a complete halt. It’s just too dangerous for all non-Muslims. Muslims can’t change, and we don’t want to change. Separation is best for all concerned.
This is easy to do, and involves no military campaigns of any kind.
We’re not going to make Muslims like us. And we’re not destined to like them. They can’t live under our secular societies. It’s got to be Shariah every time — for a true Muslim. True Shariah requires the extermination of non-Muslim culture — and ultimately — non-Muslims. This is an unbreakable dictum from Mo’ himself. It’s stood the test of time — against all infidel cultures — however powerful.