The Clash of CIVILIZATIONS AND THE GREAT CALIPHATE
by Larry Abraham, January 29, 2004
The war against terror did not begin on September 11, 2001, nor will
it end with the peaceful transition
to civilian authority in Iraq, whenever that may be. In fact,
Iraq is but a footnote in the bigger context of this
encounter, but an important one none the less.
This war is what the Jihadists themselves are calling the "Third
Great Jihad." They are operating within
the framework of a time line which reaches back to the very creation
of Islam in the seventh centuryed note 1
and are presently attempting to recreate the dynamics which gave rise
to the religion in the first two
hundred years of its existence. No religion in history grew as
fast, in its infancy, and the reasons for the initial
growth of Islam are not hard to explain when you understand what the
world was like at the time of
Muhamad's death in 632, AD.
Remember that the Western Roman Empire was in ruins and the Eastern
Empire, based in Constantinople,
was trying desperately to keep the power of its early grandeur
while transitioning to Christianity as a de facto
state religion. The costs to the average person were large as he was
being required to meet the constantly
rising taxes levied by the state along with the tithes coerced
by the Church.
What Islam offered was the "carrot or the sword". If you became a
convert, your taxes were immediately
eliminated, as was your tithe. If you didn't, you faced death.
The choice was not hard for most to make,
unless you were a very devoted martyr in the making. At the beginning,
even the theology was not too hard
for most to swallow, considering that both Jewry and Christianity
were given their due by the Prophet. There
is but one God-Allah, and Muhammad is His Prophet, as was Jesus, and
the pre-Christian Jewish prophets
of the Torah (Old Testament). Both were called "Children
of the book" - - The book being the
Koran which replaced
both the Old and New Testaments for former Christians and Jews.
With this practical approach to spreading the "word" Islam grew like
wild-fire, reaching out from the Saudi
Arabian Peninsula in all directions. This early growth is what the
Muslims call the "First great Jihad"
and it met with little resistance until Charles Martel of France,
-Ed Note 2 the father of Charlemagne,
stopped them in the battle of Tours in France, after they had firmly
established Islam on the Iberian Peninsula.
This first onslaught against the West continued in various forms
and at various times until Islam was finally
driven out of Spain in 1492 at the battle of Granada.
The "Second great Jihad" came with
the Ottoman Turks. Ed note 3 This
empire succeeded in bringing
about the downfall of Constantinople as a Christian stronghold
and an end to Roman hegemony in all of its
forms. The Ottoman Empire was Islam's most successful expansion of
territory even though the religion itself
had fractured into warring sects and bitter rivalries with each claiming
the ultimate truths in "the ways of the
Prophet By 1683 the Ottomans had suffered a series of defeats
on both land and sea and the final,
unsuccessful attempt to capture Vienna set the stage for
the collapse of any further territorial ambitions
and Islam shrunk into various sheikhdoms, emir dominated principalities,
and roving tribes of nomads.
However, by this time a growing anti-western sentiment, blaming its
internal failures on anyone but themselves,
was taking hold and setting the stage for a new revival known as Wahabism,
a sect which came into full
bloom under the House of Saud on the Arabian Peninsula shortly before
the onset of WWI. It is this
Wahhabi version of Islam which has infected the religion itself , now
finding adherents in almost all branches
and sects, especially the Shiites.
Wahhabism calls for the complete
and total rejection or destruction of anything and
everything which is not based on
the original teachings of the Prophet and finds
its most glaring practice in the policies of the Afghani
Taliban or the Shiite practices of the late
Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran. Its Ali Pasha (Field Marshall)
is now known as Osama bin Laden,
the leader of the "Third Jihad",
who is Wahhabi as were his 9/11 attack teams, 18 of which were
also Saudi.
The strategy for this "holy war" did not begin with the planning of
the destruction of the World Trade
Center. It began with the toppling of the Shah of Iran
back in the late 1970's. With his plans and programs
to "westernize" his country, along with his close ties to the
U.S. and subdued acceptance of the State
of Israel, the Shah was the soft target. Remember "America Held
Hostage"? Ed note 4
Thanks, in large part to the hypocritical and disastrous policies of
the Jimmy Carter State Department,
the revolution was set into motion, the Shah was deposed,
his armed forces scattered or murdered and
stage one was complete. The Third Jihad now had a base
of operations and the oil wealth to
support
its grand design or what they call the "Great Califphate.
What this design calls for is the replacement of all secular leadership
in any country with Muslim majorities.
This would include, Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia, all the
Emirates, Sudan, Tunisia, Libya, Algeria,
Morocco, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Malaysia, Indonesia
and finally what they call the "occupied
territory" Israel.
As a part of this strategy, forces of the jihad will infiltrate
governments and the military as a prelude to taking
control, once the secular leadership is ousted or assassinated. Such
was the case in Lebanon leading to the
Syrian occupation and in Egypt with the murder
of Anwar Sadat, along with the multiple attempts on
the lives of Hussein in Jordan, Mubarak of Egypt and Musharraf
in Pakistan. Pakistan is a particular prize
because of its nuclear weapons. (Please note al Qaeda call for
the Islamic-militant overthrow of Musharraf
in Pakistan on March 25, 2004)
The long-range strategy of the Third Jihad counts on three strategic
goals. First, the U.S. Withdrawing
from the region just as it did in
Southeast Asia, following Vietnam. Second, taking control of the
Oil Weath in the Muslim countries, which would
be upwards to 75% of known reserves; third, using nuclear
weapons or other WMDs to annihilate Israell.
A further outcome of successfully achieving these objectives
would be to place the United Nations as the sole arbiter in East/West
negotiations and paralyze western
resistance, leading to total withdrawal from all Islamic dominated
countries.
Evidence of the Bush Administration awareness of this plan is found
in the events immediately following the
9/11 attack The administration's first move
was to shore up Pakistan and Egypt, believing that these two
would be the next targets for al Qaeda, while Americans focused on
the disaster in New York. The
administration also knew that the most important objective was
to send a loud and clear message that the
U.S. was in the region to stay, not only to shore up our allies but
to send a message to the Jihadists.
The attack on Afghanistan was necessary to break-up a secure al Qaeda
base of operations and put their
leadership on the run or in prison. The war in Iraq also met a very
strategic necessity in that no one knew
how much collaboration existed between Saddam Hussein and the
master planners of the Third Jihad or
Hussein's willingness to hand off WMDs to terrorist groups including
the PLO in Israel. What was known
were serious indications of on-going collaboration as Sadaam
funneled money to families of
suicide bombers atacking the Israelis
and others in Kuwait.
What the U.S. needed to establish was a significant base of operations
smack dab in the middle of the
Islamic world, in a location which effectively cut it in half.
Iraq was the ideal target for this and a host of
other strategic reasons. Leadership of various anti-American
groups both here and abroad understood the
vital nature of theBush initiative and thus launched their demonstrations,
world-wide, to "Stop The War"
Failing this, they also laid plans to build a political campaign inside
the country, with the War in Iraq as a
plebiscite, using a little known politician as the thrust point--
Howard Dean. This helps to explain how
quickly the Radical Left moved into the Dean campaign with both
people and money, creating what the
clueless media called the "Dean Phenomenon".
By building on the left-wing base in the Democrat party and the "Hate
Bush" crowd, the campaign has
already resulted in a consensus among the aspirants, minus
Joe Lieberman, to withdraw the U.S. from
Iraq and turn the operation over to the U.N. And, if past is
prologue, i.e., Vietnam, once the U.S.
leaves it will not go back under any circumstances, possibly
even the destruction of Israel. Should
George W. Bush be defeated in November we could expect to see
the dominoes start to fall in the
secular Islamic countries and The Clash of Civilizations, predicted
several years ago by Samuel
Huntington, would then become a life changing event in all of our lives.
What surprised the Jihadists following the 9/11 attack was how
American sentiment mobilized around
the president and a profound sense of patriotism spread across
the country. Ed Note 5 They were not
expecting this reaction, based on what had happened in the past, nor
were they expecting the determined
resolve of the President himself. I also believe this is one of the
reasons we have not had any further attacks
within our borders. They are content to wait, just as one of their
tactical mentors; V.I. Lenin admonished..
."two steps forward, one step back".
A couple additional events serve as valuable footnotes to the current
circumstances we face: the
destruction of the human assets factor of the CIA during the
Carter presidency, presided over by the late
Senator Frank Church. This fact has plagued our intelligence
agencies right up to this very day with
consequences which are now obvious. And, Jimmy Carter himself,
the one man who must bear the bulk
of the responsibility for setting the stage of the Third Jihad.
Americans should find little comfort in how
the Democrat contenders constantly seek the "advice and counsel"
of this despicable hypocrite.
Lastly, we should not expect to see any meaningful cooperation from
Western Europe, especially the
French. Since failing to protect their own interests in Algeria
(by turning the country over to the first of
the Arab terrorists, Ammad Ben Bella), the country itself is now
occupied by Islamic immigrants totaling
twenty percent of the population.
We are in the battle of our lives,
a battle which will go on for many years possibly even generations.
If we fail to understand what we are facing or falter in the
challenge of "knowing our enemy" the results will
be catastrophic. Imagine a world where al Qaeda regimes control 75%
of the world's oil, have at their
disposal nuclear weapons, legions of willing suicide soldiers,
and our national survival is dependent on the
good graces of Kofi Annan and the United Nations.
There is one final footnote which may be the scariest of all. Either
none of the Democrats currently leading
the drive to their party's nomination are aware of the facts
of the
Great Califphate and Third Jihad
or they do know and they don't care so long as their power lust is
satisfied. But, I can guarantee you one
thing for sure: some of their most ardent supporters are
aware of this and will do anything they can to
bring it about.
ED NOTE 1:
The book of Genesis, chapt. 17,18 and 21 describe the beginnings
of both the Israeli tribe and the
Arab tribe. Isaac was born of God's promise to Abraham.
But, Abraham and his wife, Sarah lost
faith because Sarah had reached menopause without becoming
pregnant. They decided God
needed help in fulfilling his
promise, so they took the Egyptian servant, Hagar to produce
offspring for Abraham. The resulting child, Ishmael became
the father of the Arab tribe, but he
and his mother were cast out of Abraham's home - - Thus
the beginnings of the Arab, Israeli
conflict predates even the birth of Mohammed.
ED NOTE 2:
A Cousin of mine who seriously studies genealogy has created
a genealogy that shows Charles
Martel (Father of Charlemagne) as my ancestor. I don't
know if it is accurate - - but it is interesting
ED NOTE 3:
The leading force in the Ottoman army -- shock troops, if you
will, were the Jannissaries. These
troops were children of Christians that were stolen by the Muslims,
raised in the Muslim faith away
from their parents and trained from childhood as soldiers. Since
they had no family, their only
allegiance was to each other and ALLAH! This made then terribly
efficient warriers.
ED NOTE 4:
During the Carter administration, a plan was hatched and
attempted, to rescue the American
state dept. employees who were held captive by the Iranians.
The plan probably would have
succeded, but had to be aborted because the military had
been so starved for support that not
enough functioning helicopters could
be found to haul the captives to safety. Before the
plan was aborted, several USAF men were killed in a plane
crash. All this was a humiliation
to the USA and contributed to Carter's failure to
be re-elected. Democrats obscured this
fact by a phony claim that Reagan
had made a "deal" with the Iranians to keep the captives
until the day Reagan took office. More likely,
it was the Iranian fear of Reagan that prompted
the release.
ED NOTE 5:
Most ordinary Americans are independent thinkers and do
not care for the idea of our country
being cowed by a foreign aggressor. We proved this in WWs I and
II. The Muslim philosophy
is different. They grow up in religion that dictates and
tend to only respect power. Sadam ruled
by fear, murder and torture. This is why we don't understand
them and they don't understand us.