07-16-2006, 07:01 AM
http://tinyurl.com/j6jts
<b>This is jihad</b>
<b>The holy warriors who carried out the 7/11 bombings in Mumbai may be members of local sleeper cells of the LeT and SIMI but the battle they are fighting is part of the global war being waged by Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda. With Islamism finding an increasing number of converts in India, Osama and his generals will now find it easier to deploy foot soldiers in our country to push the frontiers of jihad, writes Kanchan Gupta</b>
I don't speak, of course, to the vultures who seeing the September 11 images scornfully giggle 'Good. Americans-got-it-good'. I speak to the people who, though neither stupid nor evil, delude themselves in pietism or uncertainty or doubt. And to them I say: Wake up, folks, wake up! As intimidated as you are by the fear of going against the stream... you don't understand or don't want to understand that a Reverse Crusade is on march. As blinded as you are by the myopia and the stupidity of the Politically Correct, you don't realise, or don't want to realise, that a war of religion is being carried out. A war they call Jihad..."
Celebrated Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci in The Rage and The Pride
There is a certain predictability to the manner in which we in India respond to Islamist terrorism. The lib-left intelligentsia unleashes a propaganda offensive with the aim of painting the criminals as victims and placing the blame at someone else's door. Every time a bomb goes off, leaving in its wake death and destruction, we get to hear the familiar refrain: Babri demolition, Gujarat riots, poor Muslims. We also get to hear, as we did during the hours following the Mumbai bombings, wide-eyed television news anchors breathlessly asking all and sundry: "Do you think this was a terrorist attack?" Perhaps the anchors hoped to hear someone say, "No darling, it was fireworks to celebrate Italy's victory in the World Cup." Within days of the jihadi attack on Sankat Mochan Mandir on the eve of Holi in March this year, a Hindustani classical music concert was organised and telecast live to show that the outpouring of rage across the country was quite misplaced as the people of Varanasi were busy listening to Hori and Thumri. Similarly, after the slaughter in Mumbai, the emphasis has been on how life in that city has not been affected. Boys will be boys, why bother about a bit of harmless mischief?
Meanwhile, the Government is busy doing what this regime does best: <b>Pretending hurt innocence and slyly pointing fingers at "external forces", darkly hinting at Pakistan's role in the bombings but fighting shy of lifting the veil and exposing Islamabad's nasty face.</b> Instead, colourful stories are being planted of how shadowy Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyeba activists carried out the bombings with the help of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and then "fled the country". What is not being mentioned is that this Government had allowed the ban on SIMI to lapse for six months, allowing the Islamist organisation to regroup and rearm its cadre. And while the Government looks for convenient stories to dilute anger over its abject failure, Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh and Minority Affairs Minister AR Antulay wave away all suggestions of the Mumbai bombings, and the bombings and attacks preceding Terror Tuesday, as manifestations of jihad.
Notwithstanding the crafty propaganda of the lib-left intelligentsia and the cunning disinformation campaign of the UPA Government, the writing on the wall is clear: Global jihad has arrived in India. We have the choice of either reading the message and acting accordingly, or demolishing the wall and pretending that all is fine and such "minor irritants" cannot be allowed to come in the way of the peace process with Pakistan. The enormous human cost, it would seem, is a small price to pay for those of us who, to quote Oriana Fallaci, "don't understand or don't want to understand that a Reverse Crusade is on march", who are "blinded... by the myopia and the stupidity of the Politically Correct," who "don't realise, or don't want to realise, that a war of religion is being carried out. A war they call Jihad".
The holy warriors who carried out the 7/11 bombings in Mumbai, and before that in Delhi on the eve of Diwali last year and in Varanasi on the eve of Holi this year, may be members of local sleeper cells of Lashkar-e-Tayyeba and SIMI, but the battle they are fighting is part of the global war being waged by Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda, at present headquartered in Gen Pervez Musharraf's Pakistan, to establish the primacy and dominance of Islam. With Islamism finding an increasing number of converts in India, and pretended victimhood becoming a convenient cover to unleash manufactured rage on issues ranging from President George Bush's visit to the alleged lampooning of the Prophet by Jyllands-Posten, a Danish newspaper, from India's vote against Iran in the IAEA's board of governors meeting to Western aid agencies refusing to fund Hamas's terror campaign - issues that fit into the larger matrix of pan-Islamism - Osama bin Laden and his generals will now find it easier to deploy foot soldiers in our country to push the frontiers of jihad and expand the theatre of this clash of civilisations.
Moreover, as explained by terrorism expert Alexis Debat in his analysis, Why Al Qaeda is at Home in Pakistan: Terror Organisation Believed to be Drawing Less from Arabs, More from South Asia, there has been a tactical shift in Al Qaeda's campaign. Rather than send in "outsiders" to carry out spectacular attacks - as was done on 9/11 when Egyptian Mohammed Atta led a group of Saudis and other Arabs to implement a plot hatched by, among others, Pakistani Khalid Shaikh Mohammed - it now prefers to use local recruits to the cause of jihad. The message is external, those who carry out the task are from within.
This point is underscored by a factor that is common to the Madrid bombings of March 11, 2004, the London Underground bombings of July 7, 2005, and the Mumbai bombings of July 11, 2006. In all three instances, the attacks were planned and carried out by homegrown jihadis: Moroccan immigrants in Spain, Pakistani immigrants in the UK, and, unless proved otherwise, Indian Muslims in Mumbai. The bombers may have been motivated by "local causes", but the larger cause is that of flying the flag of global jihad. They have inflicted pain on their country to satiate the dark desires of their ideological masters; they have made their country suffer so that pan-Islamists can cheer.
If we are looking for the "external message" that activated "internal" sleeper cells to go on the offensive in Mumbai, we could perhaps find it in Osama bin Laden's April 23, 2006, message broadcast by Al Jazeera in which he ranted against what he described as "a Crusader-Zionist-Hindu war against the Muslims". Elaborating on this point, he declared, "A UN resolution passed more than half-a-century ago gave Muslim Kashmir the liberty of choosing independence from India. George Bush, the leader of the Crusaders' campaign, announced a few days ago that he will order his converted agent (Pakistan President Pervez) Musharraf to shut down the Kashmir mujahidin camps, thus affirming that it is a Zionist-Hindu war against Muslims... It is the duty of the umma with all its categories, men, women and youth, to give away themselves, their money, experiences and all types of material support, enough to establish jihad particularly in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Sudan, Kashmir and Chechnya. Jihad today is an imperative for every Muslim. The umma will commit a sin if it does not provide adequate material support for jihad."
So, we have local issues blending into Osama's global war against non-believers.
Seen against the backdrop of global jihad and as part of the larger matrix of Reverse Crusade, the Mumbai bombings serve Osama bin Laden's blood-soaked cause in more ways than one. Ever since the Twin Tower bombings and the assault on the Pentagon, Al Qaeda has been plotting spectacular attacks in a manner that keeps jihad on the front page, in prime time news bulletins, and high on the collective consciousness of people across the world. So we had the Bali bombings of October 12, 2002; the Madrid bombings of March 11, 2004; the London bombings of July 7, 2005; and, now, the Mumbai bombings of last Tuesday. The latest strike can also be seen as an attempt to escalate Al Qaeda-inspired Islamist terror. We have Hamas and Hizbullah courting retaliatory violence from Israel so that they can justify subsequent acts of terror. In southern Afghanistan, Al Qaeda's new hero Dadullah, known for blood-chilling cruelty that can put Atilla the Hun to shame, is leading a renewed and vigorous Taliban offensive. In Iraq, Islamist "insurgency" continues to overshadow political gains and consolidation of pro-democracy forces. A third factor that needs to be built in to get the larger picture is Al Qaeda's - more so Osama bin Laden's - expected effort to overcome the deaths of two of its generals in recent days: Abu Musab Zarqawi, killed in Iraq on June 8, and Shamil Basayev of Beslan fame, hunted down by Russian troops in Chechnya on July 10. After the Mumbai bombings, Al Qaeda can tell subscribers of Osama bin Laden's venomous ideology that a death here and a killing there of its men mean nothing and cannot stall the onward march of jihadis.
If there is any lesson to be learned from the carnage in Mumbai, it is that we should not delude ourselves in "pietism or uncertainty or doubt". Heed Oriana Fallaci's rage and, "Wake up, folks, wake up!" This is jihad.
<b>This is jihad</b>
<b>The holy warriors who carried out the 7/11 bombings in Mumbai may be members of local sleeper cells of the LeT and SIMI but the battle they are fighting is part of the global war being waged by Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda. With Islamism finding an increasing number of converts in India, Osama and his generals will now find it easier to deploy foot soldiers in our country to push the frontiers of jihad, writes Kanchan Gupta</b>
I don't speak, of course, to the vultures who seeing the September 11 images scornfully giggle 'Good. Americans-got-it-good'. I speak to the people who, though neither stupid nor evil, delude themselves in pietism or uncertainty or doubt. And to them I say: Wake up, folks, wake up! As intimidated as you are by the fear of going against the stream... you don't understand or don't want to understand that a Reverse Crusade is on march. As blinded as you are by the myopia and the stupidity of the Politically Correct, you don't realise, or don't want to realise, that a war of religion is being carried out. A war they call Jihad..."
Celebrated Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci in The Rage and The Pride
There is a certain predictability to the manner in which we in India respond to Islamist terrorism. The lib-left intelligentsia unleashes a propaganda offensive with the aim of painting the criminals as victims and placing the blame at someone else's door. Every time a bomb goes off, leaving in its wake death and destruction, we get to hear the familiar refrain: Babri demolition, Gujarat riots, poor Muslims. We also get to hear, as we did during the hours following the Mumbai bombings, wide-eyed television news anchors breathlessly asking all and sundry: "Do you think this was a terrorist attack?" Perhaps the anchors hoped to hear someone say, "No darling, it was fireworks to celebrate Italy's victory in the World Cup." Within days of the jihadi attack on Sankat Mochan Mandir on the eve of Holi in March this year, a Hindustani classical music concert was organised and telecast live to show that the outpouring of rage across the country was quite misplaced as the people of Varanasi were busy listening to Hori and Thumri. Similarly, after the slaughter in Mumbai, the emphasis has been on how life in that city has not been affected. Boys will be boys, why bother about a bit of harmless mischief?
Meanwhile, the Government is busy doing what this regime does best: <b>Pretending hurt innocence and slyly pointing fingers at "external forces", darkly hinting at Pakistan's role in the bombings but fighting shy of lifting the veil and exposing Islamabad's nasty face.</b> Instead, colourful stories are being planted of how shadowy Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyeba activists carried out the bombings with the help of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and then "fled the country". What is not being mentioned is that this Government had allowed the ban on SIMI to lapse for six months, allowing the Islamist organisation to regroup and rearm its cadre. And while the Government looks for convenient stories to dilute anger over its abject failure, Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh and Minority Affairs Minister AR Antulay wave away all suggestions of the Mumbai bombings, and the bombings and attacks preceding Terror Tuesday, as manifestations of jihad.
Notwithstanding the crafty propaganda of the lib-left intelligentsia and the cunning disinformation campaign of the UPA Government, the writing on the wall is clear: Global jihad has arrived in India. We have the choice of either reading the message and acting accordingly, or demolishing the wall and pretending that all is fine and such "minor irritants" cannot be allowed to come in the way of the peace process with Pakistan. The enormous human cost, it would seem, is a small price to pay for those of us who, to quote Oriana Fallaci, "don't understand or don't want to understand that a Reverse Crusade is on march", who are "blinded... by the myopia and the stupidity of the Politically Correct," who "don't realise, or don't want to realise, that a war of religion is being carried out. A war they call Jihad".
The holy warriors who carried out the 7/11 bombings in Mumbai, and before that in Delhi on the eve of Diwali last year and in Varanasi on the eve of Holi this year, may be members of local sleeper cells of Lashkar-e-Tayyeba and SIMI, but the battle they are fighting is part of the global war being waged by Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda, at present headquartered in Gen Pervez Musharraf's Pakistan, to establish the primacy and dominance of Islam. With Islamism finding an increasing number of converts in India, and pretended victimhood becoming a convenient cover to unleash manufactured rage on issues ranging from President George Bush's visit to the alleged lampooning of the Prophet by Jyllands-Posten, a Danish newspaper, from India's vote against Iran in the IAEA's board of governors meeting to Western aid agencies refusing to fund Hamas's terror campaign - issues that fit into the larger matrix of pan-Islamism - Osama bin Laden and his generals will now find it easier to deploy foot soldiers in our country to push the frontiers of jihad and expand the theatre of this clash of civilisations.
Moreover, as explained by terrorism expert Alexis Debat in his analysis, Why Al Qaeda is at Home in Pakistan: Terror Organisation Believed to be Drawing Less from Arabs, More from South Asia, there has been a tactical shift in Al Qaeda's campaign. Rather than send in "outsiders" to carry out spectacular attacks - as was done on 9/11 when Egyptian Mohammed Atta led a group of Saudis and other Arabs to implement a plot hatched by, among others, Pakistani Khalid Shaikh Mohammed - it now prefers to use local recruits to the cause of jihad. The message is external, those who carry out the task are from within.
This point is underscored by a factor that is common to the Madrid bombings of March 11, 2004, the London Underground bombings of July 7, 2005, and the Mumbai bombings of July 11, 2006. In all three instances, the attacks were planned and carried out by homegrown jihadis: Moroccan immigrants in Spain, Pakistani immigrants in the UK, and, unless proved otherwise, Indian Muslims in Mumbai. The bombers may have been motivated by "local causes", but the larger cause is that of flying the flag of global jihad. They have inflicted pain on their country to satiate the dark desires of their ideological masters; they have made their country suffer so that pan-Islamists can cheer.
If we are looking for the "external message" that activated "internal" sleeper cells to go on the offensive in Mumbai, we could perhaps find it in Osama bin Laden's April 23, 2006, message broadcast by Al Jazeera in which he ranted against what he described as "a Crusader-Zionist-Hindu war against the Muslims". Elaborating on this point, he declared, "A UN resolution passed more than half-a-century ago gave Muslim Kashmir the liberty of choosing independence from India. George Bush, the leader of the Crusaders' campaign, announced a few days ago that he will order his converted agent (Pakistan President Pervez) Musharraf to shut down the Kashmir mujahidin camps, thus affirming that it is a Zionist-Hindu war against Muslims... It is the duty of the umma with all its categories, men, women and youth, to give away themselves, their money, experiences and all types of material support, enough to establish jihad particularly in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Sudan, Kashmir and Chechnya. Jihad today is an imperative for every Muslim. The umma will commit a sin if it does not provide adequate material support for jihad."
So, we have local issues blending into Osama's global war against non-believers.
Seen against the backdrop of global jihad and as part of the larger matrix of Reverse Crusade, the Mumbai bombings serve Osama bin Laden's blood-soaked cause in more ways than one. Ever since the Twin Tower bombings and the assault on the Pentagon, Al Qaeda has been plotting spectacular attacks in a manner that keeps jihad on the front page, in prime time news bulletins, and high on the collective consciousness of people across the world. So we had the Bali bombings of October 12, 2002; the Madrid bombings of March 11, 2004; the London bombings of July 7, 2005; and, now, the Mumbai bombings of last Tuesday. The latest strike can also be seen as an attempt to escalate Al Qaeda-inspired Islamist terror. We have Hamas and Hizbullah courting retaliatory violence from Israel so that they can justify subsequent acts of terror. In southern Afghanistan, Al Qaeda's new hero Dadullah, known for blood-chilling cruelty that can put Atilla the Hun to shame, is leading a renewed and vigorous Taliban offensive. In Iraq, Islamist "insurgency" continues to overshadow political gains and consolidation of pro-democracy forces. A third factor that needs to be built in to get the larger picture is Al Qaeda's - more so Osama bin Laden's - expected effort to overcome the deaths of two of its generals in recent days: Abu Musab Zarqawi, killed in Iraq on June 8, and Shamil Basayev of Beslan fame, hunted down by Russian troops in Chechnya on July 10. After the Mumbai bombings, Al Qaeda can tell subscribers of Osama bin Laden's venomous ideology that a death here and a killing there of its men mean nothing and cannot stall the onward march of jihadis.
If there is any lesson to be learned from the carnage in Mumbai, it is that we should not delude ourselves in "pietism or uncertainty or doubt". Heed Oriana Fallaci's rage and, "Wake up, folks, wake up!" This is jihad.