Al Qaeda Reader

Just released today by Broadway/Doubleday: The Al Qaeda Reader, by Raymond Ibrahim, with an introduction by Victor Davis Hanson. From a review at Amazon:

This extraordinary collection of the key texts of the al-Qaeda movement—including incendiary materials never before translated into English—lays bare the minds, motives, messages, and ultimate goals of an enemy bent on total victory. Al-Qaeda’s chilling ideology calls for a relentless jihad against non-Muslim “infidels,” repudiates democracy in favor of Islamic law, stresses the importance of martyrdom, and mocks the notion of “moderate” Islam.

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of these works is how grounded they are in the traditional sources of Islamic theology: the Koran and the teachings of the Prophet. The founders of al-Qaeda use these sources as powerful weapons of persuasion, reminding followers (and would-be recruits) that Muhammad and his warriors spread Islam through the power of the sword and that the Koran is not merely allegory or history but literal truth that commands all Muslims to action.

Raymond Ibrahim is a historian of the Middle East and Islam. He works for the Near East section of the African and Middle Eastern division of the Library of Congress, where he discovered many of the never-before-translated Arabic texts that make up the bulk of The Al-Qaeda Reader.

Comments

[Gina]

It makes you wonder if it will ultimately be better to have this ugliness brought to light, or if, at least in the short term, it will only continue to inspire and inform the wannabes.

[Stuart Koehl]

Given the chronic inability of the West to recognize and respond effectively to the enemy, anything which throws light onto these creatures who fester in darkness under the rocks serves a useful purpose. "Know the enemy as you know yourself"--Sun Tzu.

[Joe Long]

Yes, I think this is like a burglary manual: burglars already know their own methods, so its publication is a public service.

I suspect that believers have an insight into Islamism which is denied our modern secular fellows: actually believing something ourselves, we can clearly imagine the implications of other sincerely held-beliefs. I get the impression sometimes that people without a consciously-held belief system of their own, really have trouble understanding that many Moslems take their scriptures seriously and are liable to act in accordance with them.

("All religions are basically alike" usually means "I don't hold with any of them and can't be troubled to distinguish among them" - an attitude fraught with temporal as well as eternal implications.)

[Nick Milne]

But clearly these documents are simply the work of an Islamophobe (or Islamophobes) with an axe to grind against a perfectly harmless faith tradition, informed by irrational suspicion and hatred that are themselves the product of a lack of understanding and, I am confident, a sense of Eurochauvinism. We must condemn such wrong-headed prejudice where it stands and educate the authors of these intolerant and racist documents.

:D

[Bobby Winters]

>>We must condemn such wrong-headed prejudice where it stands and educate the authors of these intolerant and racist documents.
<<

No one's believed that since the third plane went down on 9-11.

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>No one's believed that since the third plane went down on 9-11.<<<

Sarcasm alert, Bobby.

[Bobby Winters]

Oh yes, I caught it. :D

[GL]

Given the chronic inability of the West to recognize and respond effectively to the enemy, anything which throws light onto these creatures who fester in darkness under the rocks serves a useful purpose. "Know the enemy as you know yourself"--Sun Tzu.

So true. Sadly, today's Neville Chamberlains (a/k/a, the Democratic Party and much of Western Europe and Nanada, and, sadly, a growing number of Republicans) will probably treat it as his generation treated Mein Kampf, with the same sad results. As a father of a soon-to-be six-year-old boy, I find that a frightening thought.

[Stuart Koehl]

But I present as proof positive that we are now on the path to victory, the following clip from "Jihad--The Musical":

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=eeDDb5VYwbY

Really, Check it out if you loved "The Producers". Either version.

[Joe Long]

My understanding is that "Mein Kampf", in its perennially best-selling Arabic edition, translates the titular "Kampf" ("struggle") as "jihad."

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>My understanding is that "Mein Kampf", in its perennially best-selling Arabic edition, translates the titular "Kampf" ("struggle") as "jihad."<<<

Well, that's what "jihad" means--struggle. And throughout Islamic history, the prevalent understanding of the meaning of "struggle" has been armed struggle for the purpose of bringing about the submission of the Dar al-Harb to the Dar al-Islam. Which, for the benefit of others, means the submission of the "World of War" to the "World of Submission". That is, of "us" to "them".

Islam is interesting in that it really doesn't care whether or not people convert to it, only that the infidel is subordinate to the Muslim, and that the entire world be subject to Islamic law (Sharia). If that doesn't sound appetizing, now would be a good time to stand up and be counted.

[GL]

Stuart,

Thanks for the YouTube link. Whether the video is a good sign may depend on whether the chap singing makes it to his next birthday, but it was pretty funny.

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>Thanks for the YouTube link. Whether the video is a good sign may depend on whether the chap singing makes it to his next birthday, but it was pretty funny.<<<

In 1685, the Turks were at the gates of Vienna, and no laughing matter. A century later, Mozart was writing "The Abduction from the Seraglio", Turkish fashion and music was all the rage, and Turkey was the "Sick Man of Europe". That the Viennese in Mozart's time could laugh at the people who a century earlier had them cringing in terror shows how quickly fortune can shift.

In World War II, everybody looked upon Hitler as the bogeyman. But not after Chaplain (and especially not after Moe Howard) shoved a good lampoon up his nether fundament. To be able to laugh at the enemy is the first step towards losing one's awe of the enemy, and that is the first step towards victory. Now, if only we had some modern-day Spike Jones to write the anti-Jihad equivalent of "Der Fuhrer's Face". And, just so the crowd at the New York Times and Daily Kos don't feel left out, a modern Noel Coward to write "Let's Not Be Beastly to the Mullahs".

[Nick Milne]

And, just so the crowd at the New York Times and Daily Kos don't feel left out, a modern Noel Coward to write "Let's Not Be Beastly to the Mullahs".

Does Monty Python qualify as "modern?"

[DGP]

>>We must condemn such wrong-headed prejudice where it stands and educate the authors of these intolerant and racist documents.<< No one's believed that since the third plane went down on 9-11

Oh, but they do believe it. I've heard such things shouted in public gatherings, even by non-Muslims.

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>Oh, but they do believe it. I've heard such things shouted in public gatherings, even by non-Muslims.<<<

One reason to ignore a problem is the realization that recognition would require you to do something about it.

[Judy Warner]

When I went to a counterdemonstration in Washington in March, the anti-war crowd that we were countering had many, many signs and t-shirts proclaiming themselves Truthers -- that is, they tell the "truth" about 9/11, that it was a plot by the Bush administration. In at least one survey, a third of Americans agree that is a possibility.

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>When I went to a counterdemonstration in Washington in March, the anti-war crowd that we were countering had many, many signs and t-shirts proclaiming themselves Truthers -- that is, they tell the "truth" about 9/11, that it was a plot by the Bush administration. In at least one survey, a third of Americans agree that is a possibility.<<<

What's easier: admitting that your entire worldview is out of kilter, requiring you to rethink all your most closely held political and philosophical beliefs? Or blaming it all on Bushitler?

[J Kevin]

Actually, the word Jihad appears 80 times in the Qu'ran, and 75 times, it refers to internal struggle, and the greatest Jihad is the struggle with oneself. So, I would suggest that the recent scholarly work by Michael Bonner, Jihad in Islamic History in the Princeton Series.

Also, just heard this author os C-Span book notes, and it appears as though he is still taking a rather simplistic approach to Islamic theology and law. There were quite a few different schools of thought on Jihad for example, in fact dividing themselves in the earliest history of Islam, into four different schools or madhhabs. I would also recommend the dissertation by Khalid Yahya Blankenship called "The End of the Jihad State The reign of Hisham Ibn 'Abd al-Malik and the Collapse of the Umayyads".