Apologists claim that the Islamofacist war on the West is motivated by desparation resulting from poverty or colonialism, or worse has been deliberately concocted by the US Military Industrial Complex to fill the void left by the Soviet collapse. On the contrary when you hear Islamist leaders talking to their followers they brim with triumphalism and superiority and clearly state that they are motivated to war by the simple fact that they wish to crush all that is not Islam and will not stop until they succeed. In other words no amount of infidel appeasement and diplomacy – withdrawing from Iraq, closing Gitmo, electing Gore, censoring cartoonists, letting Iran have nukes – will satisfy them. Erikson’s essays trace Islamist personalities and events back to the 1930s. The philosophy and methods of jihad trace back to Mohammed himself.
Islamism, fascism and terrorism
By Marc Erikson (Nov-Dec ’02)
Al-Zawahiri wrote several books on Islamic movements, the best known of which is The Bitter Harvest (1991/92), a critical assessment of the failings of the Muslim Brotherhood. In it, he draws not only on the writings of Sayyid Qutb to justify murder and terrorism, but prominently references Pakistani Jamaat-i-Islami founder and ideologue Mawdudi on the global mission of Islamic jihad.
Mawdudi had written, “Islam wants the whole earth and does not content itself with only a part thereof. It wants and requires the entire inhabited world. It does not want this in order that one nation dominates the earth and monopolizes its sources of wealth, after having taken them away from one or more other nations. No, Islam wants and requires the earth in order that the human race altogether can enjoy the concept and practical program of human happiness, by means of which God has honored Islam and put it above the other religions and laws. In order to realize this lofty desire, Islam wants to employ all forces and means that can be employed for bringing about a universal all-embracing revolution. It will spare no effort for the achievement of this supreme objective. This far-reaching struggle that continuously exhausts all forces and this employment of all possible means are called jihad.”
And further, “Islam is a revolutionary doctrine and system that overturns governments. It seeks to overturn the whole universal social order … and establish its structure anew … Islam seeks the world. It is not satisfied by a piece of land but demands the whole universe … Islamic jihad is at the same time offensive and defensive … The Islamic party does not hesitate to utilize the means of war to implement its goal.”
Via Spengler, who has quite of bit to say about Islam himself.
So Im confused…
We are helping islamic people in Iraq and Afghanistan form democracies despite the belief that ultimately they want to destroy us…
Spegler: “The trouble is that today’s Arabs (and to a great extent other Islamic populations) are in the position of the Slavs of 1914. They are an endangered culture, and like many endangered cultures, the extremists among them will take desperate measures”.
His view on “endangered cultures” is interesting. Pieces Ive read on the Slavs was that they were a growing minority population within the Austro-Hungary Empire, neighboring Serbia was growing in power and stature in the Balkans and the assasination of Archduke Ferdinand was a convenient opportunity to declare war on the Serbs and crush any hope of Slav nationalism.
Similarly, Islamic nations seem to be growing, not more “endangered”. Pakistan is already in the nukular club and Iran appears to be inevitably following.
Extremists exist in all cultures and political factions. They all wish to arrest power and ultimately will show themselves.
The real question is whether we are going to pursue a Spegleresque world war on Islam or whether we can co-exist with Islam and have small wars with the extremists.
It’s not complicated. We are helping ourselves by helping Muslims democratize, which undermines Islam.
We are already at war, whether infidels realize it or not. I’d much prefer they do realize, and do something about it.