In an interview conducted back in 2005, al-Qaeda’s Ayman al-Zawahiri was asked about the statuses of Osama bin Laden, then leader of al-Qaeda, and Mullah Omar, then leader of the Taliban—the two men most implicated for the September 11, 2001 terror strikes on the U.S. (bin Laden for masterminding it, Omar for providing him with logistical aid and sanctuary).
It had been four years since the U.S. had invaded Afghanistan, toppled the Taliban, and sent jihadists of all stripes running; and there had not been a peep from either the leader of al-Qaeda or the leader of the Taliban for quite some time.
Al-Zawahiri’s response, which I translated for inclusion in The Al Qaeda Reader (2007), has always stayed with me. He said:
Jihad in the path of Allah is greater than any individual or organization. It is a struggle between Truth and Falsehood, until Allah Almighty inherits the earth and those who live in it. Mullah Muhammad Omar and Sheikh Osama bin Laden—may Allah protect them from all evil—are merely two soldiers of Islam in the journey of jihad, while the struggle between Truth [Islam] and Falsehood [non-Islam] transcends time (p.182, emphasis added).
Consider the applicability—if not the prophetic nature—of this response in light of recent developments: twenty years ago, the U.S.A.—the world’s only superpower—invaded Afghanistan, one of the world’s weakest and poorest nations; it made quick work of its enemies and set shop, nation building and importing “democracy”; and it eventually eliminated its archenemies, Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar.
To any casual Western observer, it was an unqualified and resounding U.S. victory.
And yet…. and yet, two decades, trillions of U.S. dollars, and thousands of American servicemen’s lives later, not only does the U.S. not having anything to show for it, Afghanistan is set to become a much larger threat than ever before (not least as the Taliban—a “radical Muslim” group that has just founded the “Islamic emirate” of Afghanistan—seized billions’ worth of American weapons and equipment).
So what went wrong? Perhaps the following dichotomy—or rather dictum—may help: Whereas Muslims take a long, patient view of history, Westerners take a very short, myopic view; whereas Muslims maintain their ways and bide their time in moments of defeat (“we may be down but—so long as we’re not out—we’re still in the game”), Westerners allot too much significance to the temporal—to specific achievements or markers in time and space.
Take a concrete example—the wild euphoria that took the media by storm after the death of Osama bin Laden in 2011. Then, CNN security analyst Peter Bergen declared that “Killing bin Laden is the end of the war on terror. We can just sort of announce that right now.” Insisting that the “iconic nature of bin Laden’s persona” cannot be replaced, Bergen further counseled that “It’s time to move on.”
Another CNN analyst, Fareed Zakaria, assured us that “this is a huge, devastating blow to al-Qaeda, which had already been crippled by the Arab Spring. It is not an exaggeration to say that this is the end of al-Qaeda in any meaningful sense of the word.”
And yet … and yet, a full decade after bin Laden’s death, not only is his original safe haven, a Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, back in action, but so too is al-Qaeda.
Why? Again, to quote that terrorist organization’s leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri: “Mullah Muhammad Omar and Sheikh Osama bin Laden … are merely two soldiers of Islam in the journey of jihad, while the struggle between Truth [Islam] and Falsehood [non-Islam] transcends time.”
Kill this or that jihadist; conquer this or that Muslim nation; prop up this or that government and import this or that Western ideology or style of governance—so long as Islam is alive and well, so too will the “journey of jihad” continue, even if as an imperceptible pulse under the surface, revealing itself only when the time is right.
That you can always bet on.
I love your work.
I found your book “Sword and Scimitar” difficult to read due to the palpable sadness it engendered.
I was a college professor during the 9/11 rebuild downtown. I explained what the prophet had said regarding building an elevated rabat. Happily this was never done.
It is very difficult dealing with Islam in a sober manner without being labeled a bigot. You seem to have achieved this. Excellent work. Best
I love your comments.
I found your book “Sword and Scimitar” difficult to read due to the palpable sadness it engendered.
I was a college professor during the 9/11 rebuild downtown. I explained what the prophet had said regarding building an elevated rabat. Happily this was never done.
It is very difficult dealing with Islam in a sober manner without being labeled a bigot. You seem to have achieved this. Excellent work. Best
I wish trump was still there, he could have at least crippled them abit,say day two decades again
I liked Trump, but he started the withdrawal and peace process with the Taliban February last year. It’s a bipartisan failure. Raymond gets it; Western leaders don’t. They are hopelessly naive when it comes to Islam, which bodes ill for us all. Please keep up the great work, Raymond.
Trump is the one primarily responsible for this debacle. Last year, he was proudly proclaiming that he had made peace with the Taliban and, without waiting to see whether they would keep their word, he had withdrawn almost 90% of the American military by the time he left the White House, together with all their equipment. So the Taliban made no effort to implement their commitment to negotiate peace with the Afghan government, waited until Trump had made the USA powerless to influence events, and renewed the war. In the meantime, the soldiers of the Afghan army no longer had Americans to guide and support them and were not paid for months because Trump had made the Afghan government responsible for paying them but did not insist on getting them paid. So the soldiers had nothing to fight for and surrendered in droves. Trump betrayed Afghanistan like he earlier betrayed the Syrian Kurds, but in the latter case Putin intervened to save the Syrian Kurds from massacre by Turkey and its jihadist protegees.
It only allows one conclusion to be made – never accept Muslims in secular or Christian nations, and tolerate any intention to alter the country’s legislation to accommodate Sharia-driven jurisdiction.
Japan has had it clear for decades …
Thank you for this sane and realistic reminder of the evils of Islam and Western politicians.
Of the articles I have read, they discuss every political angle, but not the suffering that the ordinary Afghanis have to endure. The pictures of them hanging onto departing US planes is heartbreaking.
With the renewed strengthening of the radical jihadists in Afghanistan, I fear that it will give renewed bravado to the smaller terrorists groups who brutalise Christians and other groups up and down Africa, leading to increased persecution and suffering of Christians.
Why would politicians care now since they have never cared before?
They are mostly unGodly fools sitting atop of their own garbage hills.
We are already feeling God’s judgement and worse is yet to come.
Your article correctly states that the U.S were wrong in stating that they had beaten the Taliban, but you almost applaud the Taliban, instead of stating that they are a gang of evil terrorists, without any humanity. As a self proclaimed expert on Islam and Islamic warfare, you should offer your advice on how the civilized world can live with Islam, which encourages its members to murder non Muslims, even in states which accommodate Muslim migrants and asylum seekers. This is a big problem in many European states, who do not appear to have the necessary understanding of Islam, to enable them cope with the flood of Muslim migrants and refugees from Africa, Asia, the Middle East etc who are all fleeing the hellish Islamic states, to get some sanctuary for their tortured souls.
Your comment comes across as rather hostile Mr. Murphy.
Have you considered that you might be wrong?
To Brian Murphy: “you almost applaud the Taliban, instead of stating that they are a band of evil terrorists”? It seems to me you have misunderstood the fundamental point of Mr Ibrahim’s article. And BTW Mr Ibrahim is not a “self-proclaimed” expert on Islam. He is an expert on Islam.
I don’t think the West can sustain a thousand years of hate and envy.
Until last week I was calling it Sharia Creep, now upgraded to a Sharia Storm, which will rage again because you’re absolutely right. We have the attention span of children. We forgot the faith of our fathers, we worship Social Media and cheap Chinese crap, we surrender freedom to unnatural notions and policies and have abandoned wisdom for creepy victimhood. We surrender to lazy entertainments. We are divorced from ourselves, and our mortal enemies have memorized it all.
The real danger, and the biggest loss is the stop to international terrorism.
In the eyes of those who practice Islam it means a win for Islam and a loss
for any “golden rule”.
Taqiyya is not a term that either Joe Biden or Boris Johnson or Emmanuel Macron or Angela Merkel seem to be familiar with.
Taqiyya is the deliberate telling of lies to further Islam, and it’s pretty clear that Biden/ Taliban “agreement” was no agreement at all, and an opportunity for the Taliban to break it, just as easily as the Japanese early attack on Pearl Harbour.
Taqiyya is what the west should be made aware of, and as it is in their best interest to defuse terrorism at every level make no “deals” with Muslim countries, economic, political, or any other kind, and as far as possible bleed the Taliban of their economic resources. That will hurt them more than any other factor.
The women journalists who are able to get their stories out of Afghanistan on Taliban movement should be given maximum opportunity to do so, and their stories widely circulated. That also will hurt any Taliban “moral high ground”. Islam is intensely patriarchal, and will have to face the success stories in its midst. However, expect every Muslim country- Turkey for instance to set itself up as a “contrary” point of view. It will not be easy for these heroines.
Needless to say, the immigration of Muslims from a Muslim majority country should be viewed with maximum suspicion. Denmark has shown it is prepared to go against its own convictions just to make it possible for its countrymen and women to survive, unlike Sweden which has gravitated from being the lowest crime rate in Europe to the highest crime rate in just ten years because of migrants. Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Denmark show promise, but terrorism is now being fueled in Afghanistan, and they will have their work cut out for them.
“Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and make their home there. And the last condition of that man becomes worse than the first”.
With much more American weaponry, Billions of dollars worth, the Taliban are more evil than ever before.
Well we never ‘defeated’ the Taliban. See Sun Tzu, The Art of War.
We never even identified the ‘enemy.’
We identified a tactic – terrorism. And our plan to ‘stop’ this ‘terrorism’ was to A) start two Vietnams and B) make nice with people who hate us.
The real blame for this mess goes to George W Bush, and his neo-con allies. And before we blame conservatives – aka actual Americans – remember that Bush had years to stop it, and he was warned time and time again to stop repeating Vietnam, and that huge numbers of civilians and innocent by-parties (e.g Christians) would die as a result. And Obama had eight years to fix it, but as it was costing America money, lives, power, and prestige, he just wanted to throw gas on the fire.
*** God bless everyone here.
I understand we live under massive censorship, but I cant take measurements of what pretenses are next on the docket to be told to the people before reality is confronted. So I will just go ahead and disagree with the main points of your article. Even though compared to the rest of what passes for media on this planet, your words are more honest or closer to the truth.
Tell your average american hood girl, or white equality utopian that we have been on A long journey to defeat racism, lasting hundreds of years, and even though we are not there, we are making progress, and it may take us A 100 years, but we will achieve our goal of mixing all of human kind and attaining complete equality. Most of them will agree with you, and consider you A friend.
If we were engaging any of the fundamental beliefs of the muslims or the western left, then we would have made major strides towards achieving our goal of formulating good security policies supported by the majority of our populations, with the entire spectrum of race relations, diplomacy, crime and punishment, the chauvinist tribal mind, the dynamics of inequality, A rational immigration policy that took into account different peoples primary belief systems, and corresponding behaviors and attitudes towards toleration, all enlightened to the point where A viable international security apparatus could be established, and the terrorist nuclear threat could be massively reduced.
Without G-d, the legitimacy of the people of the world will be missing. G-d must prove to the intelligent and the first worlder’s, that it is critical to uphold merit, and support the inequality of all people, distributing unequal resources and privilege’s based on talents and contributions towards the form of government that most benefits human kind. Once the leaders of the world are consolidated around the idea that merit, inequality and the rightful compensation of those who contribute to bring about A functional form of government among human kind, despite the hatreds, fears and sins of human kind, that compel many to fight against justice for all people. Many people benefit from tyranny and injustice. For A system to be just, rightful and fair punishment must be doled out to those who harm human kind, due to their selfish aspirations.
Confronting the utopian aspirations of the western left, should be easy. Their beliefs are so radically disconnected with the real world, that to show them some images of some Taliban fighters marrying 9 year olds, will force them to admit that their strategy of avoiding the conversation is intolerable. They are the dominant power in the west, in substantial part because it is far easier to play coward, or near coward, on the street and in your business. In fairness, there are millions of very violent blacks and leftists wandering around America, and they do pose A serious security situation.
Regardless, all we have to do is introduce the poison to their utopia, and watch as they are transformed miles closer to the right type of thinking for this world. Even the radical violent left would be destroyed in vast numbers by such exposure. The slave markets of Africa, the discriminatory laws of every single muslim nation, the muslim judges who carry out those discriminatory policies, the trials the court rooms, the public opinion in the middle east, and around the world. All would cause massive discussion in the usa, Canada and even western Europe. All that is required is to light the match, and support for freedom and fear of tyranny would skyrocket. Imagine what hammering the Islamic rape gangs of Europe would do. Or documenting how muslims were taking over the prison system, and their violent pressure was spreading to poor neighborhoods.
Perhaps we are conducting A census of how many westerners still support freedom, versus how many will volunteer to surrender to any tyranny, even one badly posing as politicians hysterically concerned about our health.
Today we live in A time of A great explosion of knowledge among mankind. The truths of islam learned by this generation will not be forgotten by future generations. They will also have to live with inequality, and all the bitterness and hatred that it produces.
The very real challenges inequality causes to those who do not chose to mix, who insist on their democratic voice and their freedom, forcing the formerly supposedly open minded utopians, to either live with criticism and rejection of their lifestyle, or embrace tyranny and force everyone to live like they do. Knowing full well that tyranny annihilates the legitimacy of government, property rights, all freedoms, consent, permanently among A natural part of society, the right wing and the religious who have existed for thousands of years clearly as A result of genetics and environmental factors. A never ending rebellion as A result of tearing apart families forever, or until the only nations on earth that support multiculturalism the white western nations, collapse, just as they have so many times before.
It is A good contribution that you have ended with islam is lying in wait, prepared to lash out. This is closer to the truth of anger over inequality being A permanent feature of human kind, and peoples levels of violence and moral standards decide how they will deal with the inequality of others. They will be blessed if real courage and leadership is offered by the first world people, who set an example of dealing with the less than equal and the more than equal. All they have to do is to say they will take into consideration the poverty levels of people, establish A ground floor of acceptable suffering, and make the focus of the rest of the economy merit.
Currently America is losing to equal outcomes, A much more expensive tax on white gentiles, and even Jewish producers, despite Jews being exempt from affirmative action quotas. With no ability to oppose unequal non white immigration into America without being accused of racism, unequal white and Jewish America face an inevitable catastrophe as the number of people being supported by welfare skyrockets without end. Their share of the jobs continually grow according to their share of the population. They collect the paychecks, but they do not produce enough to have earned those jobs without government mandates.
An entire world exists, of thoughts, opinions and observations, that will supersede the meager replacement for intelligent thought that the leftists are trapped in. We only need to expose it to be victorious against this enemy, whatever enemy that might be. We can justify the rich, the Jews the non whites, everybody’s position, the logical arrangements. Those who protest, will inevitably succumb to the superior logic of the solution, in lock step with the revelation of the truthfulness of perceiving the world as one where people do commit crimes against those of other races due to inequality, that nobody but G-d is responsible for. So what if their emotional reaction is strong. It is nothing, meaningless grunts and kicks from A belief system abandoned by so many, and so easily refuted.
I do not know the level of control that will exist for each people, or the level of censorship. But I do know that we are going to reveal the truth before we get acceptance for implementing the policies that are necessary. So what relevance is there to the question of how we release the information, in what quantity, with what degree of violence do we permit the slowing down of the release of information? We know most blacks and latinos, will not be joining the conversation outside of A mindless repetition of slogans promoting their false reality that allows them to continue to attain as much money as they are able.
Perhaps some judgment is being carried out on the white gentiles, or the Jewish people. Perhaps they are being found to be unworthy of the next level of discourse, and we will be stuck here in covid tyranny for the rest of our lives. Perhaps this is how the medical community discredits itself, removing from the people in charge A means for uniting the people, that of the danger of A fake pandemic. Seems awful that we cannot save so many people from death or serious possible harm.
But I suppose before people become aware of the shadow government, their may be A great deal of people to get rid of, or harm to be done, in order to make people think before they support evil. When the people is confident enough of their right to freedom, and their willingness to support whatever it takes to achieve that goal, then mass murder by vaccine will no longer be possible. This makes the case for the idea that freedom is A necessity, A type of boundary that must be pursued, in order to be able to deal with issues in the first place. Otherwise the distribution of power in society will inevitably create A comfortable state of corruption and injustice. Unfitting for A time when great taboos are being faced.
The people will be educated, the truth will be undeniable, and those that embrace what must be will become the foundation of the world to come. From which all the other haters, ignoramuses, evil men addicted to sin of every sort can be defeated, dominated and imprisoned. In G-d I trust.
Until you defeat Islamic schools, you cannot win the war.
But this West does not offer positive things either.