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'WE
have fulfilled our promise and carried out our
blessed military raid in Britain after our
mujahideen exerted strenuous efforts over a long
period of time to ensure the success of the raid."
This was how an Islamist group, using the al Qaeda
brandname, announced its responsibility for the
terror attacks that claimed nearly 40 lives in
London yesterday.
Although the exact circumstances of the raid on
London remain murky, one thing is certain: This was
a suicide operation aimed at killing as many
civilians as possible. That the raid came as the G-8
summit opened in Scotland is certainly significant,
as is the fact that it was the first day of the
Arabic lunar month of Jamadul al-Akhir, Prophet
Muhammad's favorite season for organizing raids
against the "infidel."
What do we do about people who are prepared to court
certain death in exchange for killing others? The
question has been asked by the Israelis for years
and by the Americans since 9/11. It is now the turn
of the British to ponder it.
The first thing to do is not to get impressed by the
fact that an individual who has been brainwashed out
of his or her humanity is ready to die in order to
kill others. The only reasonable way to treat such
individuals is as a new form of weaponry. And, like
all other weapons that impress when first
introduced, these suicide-killers will continue to
terrorize and fascinate until we find an antidote.
Cyrus the Great used camels as a weapon when he
conquered Babylon. Hannibal used elephants for his
raid on Rome. The Islamist terror leaders who wish
to conquer the world and convert entire mankind to
their brand of "true Islam" have gone one better by
using the human body as a weapon.
But like all others, this weapon is designed by some
people, financed by investors, manufactured
somewhere and deployed by leaders who can be
identified and destroyed. These human weapons are
designed and shaped by a constant flow of
anti-Western propaganda from Arab satellite TV, the
so-called Islamic associations and countless
madarassahs (Islamic schools) -RD>and mosques
throughout the world, including in London itself.
Go to any mosque in the West (let alone in the
Islamic countries) on any Friday and you are sure to
hear a litany of woes about how the
"cross-worshippers" have allied themselves with the
"plotting Jews" in order to destroy Islam, which, as
God's final message, is the only true faith.
You will hear how the West is mired in corruption,
its womenfolk exposing their midriff in public and
its governments sanctioning gay and lesbian
marriages. You will also hear how "the Crusaders"
have invaded Muslim lands and are trying to impose
their democratic system on Afghanistan and Iraq.
Such a discourse might leave most Muslims
indifferent or even annoyed. But it is enough for it
to seduce even 1 percent of the world's Muslims —
that is to say a cool 13 million people — for
everyone to be in trouble.
The deadly propaganda is reinforced by other means.
The future terrorist is comforted by the fact that
his or her fellow Muslims in the West use their
bodies as an advertising space for their beliefs. In
many Western cities, this comes in the form of al
Qaeda-style beards and long shirts (qamis) for men
and jet-black hijab (headgear) for women. (Not long
ago, I saw a baby girl in a carriage wearing that
prop of visual terrorism.)
The would-be suicide terrorist is also likely to be
impressed by the self-styled Islamic theologians
coolly debating the issue of whom to kill and how.
Any viewer of Al-Jazeera, the satellite channel
owned by the emir of Qatar, has seen its chief
Islamist guru Yussuf al-Qaradawi insist that Islam
allows the murder of unborn Israeli babies because
they may grow up and join the army. In a recent
visit to Mecca, I witnessed another self-styled
guru, Sheik Safar al-Hawali, informing visitors to
his home that it was "licit" to kill innocent Muslim
women and children in Iraq if that led to "the
defeat of the Crusaders and their apostate Muslim
allies."
The would-be suicide-killer is also comforted by the
sense of guilt manifested by many in the West. He
has seen do-gooders from the United States in the
streets of Arab Jerusalem apologizing to astounded
Muslim passersby for "the Crusades" — which happened
long before the United States came into being.
He may also note that he is treated with something
bordering on deference by much of the Western media,
which has banned the use of the word "terrorist"
altogether, using, instead, such terms as
"militants" or " resistance fighters."
And then there was the successful ghazva (raid) on
Madrid last year, when the Islamists succeeded in
changing the government of a major Western democracy
with a single attack.
If the suicide-terrorists were weapons made of
metal, the victims would certainly try to bomb
places where they were made. But because these
weapons are of human flesh, the assumption is that
they can't be traced back to any specific locality.
It is as if we were dealing with ethereal beings
existing beyond the limits of reality.
The London attack was not the work only of the few
individuals who carried it out. It was the bitter
fruit of a faith that has been hijacked by a
minority of extremists while the majority of its
adepts watch with a mixture of awe and ill-concealed
pride. The real fight against this enemy of humanity
will start only when the so-called "silent majority"
in Islam speaks out against these murderers and
those who brainwash, train, finance and deploy them.
Amir Taheri, an Iranian author and journalist, is a
member of Benador Associates.
www.nypost.com
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