Common Folk Using Common Sense

Apologists and Appeasers of militant Islam are already gearing up to protect Islam against any backlash stemming from a rememberance of the brutal attack on 9/11.

So it’s important to remember the events leading up to and including 9/11.

ITEM 1: Omar Ahmad is the founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). He had been the chairman of CAIR‘s board of directors since its founding in 1994, but stepped down from that position in May, 2005.

On July 4, 1998, the San Ramon Valley Herald reported on a public address by Ahmad at a conference on the subject of “How Should We as Muslims Live in America?” 1998, or 2 years before Bush became President – so Ahmad’s statements cannot be viewed as something “President Bush caused or created.” The article reported Ahmad’s remarks as follows:

Muslim institutions, schools and economic power should be strengthened in America. Those who stay in America, he said, “should be open to society without melting (into it),” keeping mosques open so anyone can come and learn about Islam, he said. “If you choose to live here (in America) … you have a responsibility to deliver the message of Islam, he said.” Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faiths, but to become dominant, he said. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth, he said.

ITEM 2: Anyone remember Osama bin Ladin‘s Fatwah against the US? As far as I know this command has not been recended and is still valid today. Seeing how this fatwa came during the Clinton administration it can hardly be “Bush’s fault” as so many want to paint the conflict between militant Islam and the US.

The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies–civilians and military–is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it. This is in accordance with the words of Almighty God, “and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together,” and “fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in God.” We — with God’s help — call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with God’s order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it. We also call on Muslim ulema, leaders, youths, and soldiers to launch the raid on Satan’s U.S. troops and the devil’s supporters allying with them, and to displace those who are behind them so that they may learn a lesson. Published in Al-Quds al-’Arabi on Febuary 23, 1998

ITEM 3: What about Bosnia?

After the breakup of Communist Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina was torn apart by a civil war between Bosnians (Bosnian Muslims), Serbs, and Croats from 1992 to 1995. The war resulted in the deaths of many thousands of persons and the displacement and impoverishment of large parts of the population. A desperate Bosnian-dominated Bosnian government, facing an international arms embargo and outgunned by breakaway Bosnian Serb forces, accepted the help of Iran, as well as several thousand Islamic radicals, mercenaries, and others. The 1995 Dayton Peace Accords, which ended the conflict, required all foreign forces to leave Bosnia.

Most did, but some Islamic radicals remained behind. It is estimated that several hundred former fighters stayed behind in Bosnia after the war and became Bosnian citizens by marrying Bosnian women. Others reportedly received citizenship through bribing Bosnian officials. Some Al Qaeda operatives in Bosnia reportedly had connections to members of Bosnia’s intelligence service, another legacy of Bosnian wartime cooperation with Islamic militants. The experience of the Bosnia conflict has also had an impact on terrorist groups worldwide. Bin Laden and other Al Qaeda figures mention the Bosnian war as a place where Al Qaeda was active, and as an important militant Islamic cause. Terrorist recruiting videos often include footage of combat in Bosnia.

In addition to fighters, Bosnians also received assistance during and after the war from Islamic charities and humanitarian organizations, many of them from Saudi Arabia. Some of these groups served as fronts for Al Qaeda, which used them for planning attacks in Bosnia and elsewhere. In the view of one observer, Saudi Arabia built mosques at which some extremist foreign and Bosnian clerics continue to preach hatred of the United States and Western countries, which may enhance terrorist recruiting efforts.

ITEM 4: Instability in Albania gave a foothold to Al Qaeda in the 1990s. Poor internal security, lax border controls, and high rates of crime produced an environment conducive to terrorist activity. Some foreign Islamic extremists used Albania as a safe haven and gained Albanian citizenship. Some former Albanian officials were thought to maintain links with these foreign extremists. Islamic non-governmental organizations, some of them fronts for Al Qaeda, were established in Albania after the collapse of the Communist regime in 1991. The situation worsened during civil unrest in Albania in 1997, when central authority broke down and large military weapons stocks were looted. Wars in neighboring Kosovo in 1999 and Macedonia in 2001 also had a negative impact on Albania’s stability.

Terrorist threats in the middle and late 1990s caused the temporary closure of the U.S. embassy in Albania and the cancellation of planned visits to Albania by senior U.S. officials. In 1998, Albania and the United States foiled a planned attack on the U.S. embassy in Tirana, raided an Al Qaeda forgery ring, and arrested several Al Qaeda figures.12 Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, some media sources and political leaders from Serbia have alleged that ethnic Albanian “terrorists” continue to maintain links with Islamic terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda.

In 2004, Albania announced the discovery of chemical weapons stocks acquired by the Communist regime in Albania during the 1970s. Albanian officials had not known of their existence until they were discovered by accident in a bunker. Although this cache is now guarded, it had been unguarded during the disorder of the 1990s. Moreover, due to a lack of documentation by the former regime, it is uncertain if there are other unreported stocks. Experts have expressed concern that some of these potentially could have fallen into the hands of terrorists.

ITEM 5: A nitrourea bomb, in excess of 1,000 pounds, with hydrogen cylinders to add impact, was detonated in the now-infamous yellow Ryder Econoline van on the B-2 level of the parking garage of the World Trade Towers in February 1993, causing massive destruction that spanned seven levels, six below grade. The L-shaped blast crater on B-2 at its maximum measured 130 feet wide by 150 feet long. Six people died and 1,042 were injured.

On March 3, a type-written communication was received at the New York Times. The communique claimed responsibility for the bombing of the World Trade Center in the name of Allah.

ITEM 6: The USS Cole (DDG 67) was attacked in the port of Aden, Yemen, on October 12, 2000. 17 young lives were taken. The attack, organized by Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist organization, was carried out by suicide bombers Ibrahim al-Thawr and Abdullah al-Misawa.

ITEM 7: Pan Am Flight 103, a Boeing 747-121, was destroyed as it flew over Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, when 12 to 16 oz of plastic explosive was detonated in its forward cargo hold, triggering a sequence of events that led to the rapid destruction of the aircraft. Winds of 100 knots scattered victims and debris along aN 81 mile corridor over an area of 845 square miles. The death toll was 270 people from 21 countries, including 11 people in the town of Lockerbie.

It was widely regarded as an assault on a symbol of the United States, with 189 of the victims being Americans. Indictments for murder were issued on November 13, 1991, against Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer and the head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines (LAA), and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, the LAA station manager in Luqa Airport, Malta.

On December 5, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a security bulletin saying that, on December 5, a man with an Arabic accent had telephoned the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki, Finland, and had told them that a Pan Am flight from Frankfurt to the United States would be blown up within the next two weeks by someone associated with the Abu Nidal Organization. He said a Finnish woman would carry the bomb on board as an unwitting courier. The caller was off by only two days.

ITEM 8: On June 25, 1996, individuals identified as terrorist members of Hezbollah, exploded a fuel truck adjacent to Khobar Towers Building #131 in the city of Khobar, Saudi Arabia. This eight-story building housed United States Air Force personnel from the 4404th Wing, primarily from a deployed rescue squadron and deployed fighter squadron. In all, 19 U.S. servicemen and one Saudi were killed and 372 of many nationalities were wounded.

ITEM 9: The transformation of the once powerful, majestic Islamic word into fragmented, colonial, neo-colonial, or peripheral states with autocratic governments having little popular support, had a number of adverse effects, not the least of which was to foster the kinds of humiliations, powerlessness and dependencies that foster ressentiment, envy and rage.

Today, between rapid population growth, an obscene inequality generated by world globalization, and autocratic governments, there has been a general economic stagnation. In turn, the poor, the unemployed, and the educated feel thwarted and/or humiliated. They often find solace and comfort in fundamentalist mosques where they embrace politicized, purified versions of Islam. Many Muslims, finding means to transform the present blocked, turn to the “glorious past” to reclaim a glorious future, a future that manifests itself in theocratic governments, unequal treatment of women, harsh penal systems, and deplorable records on human rights.

Thus began today’s gradual rise of fundamentalism and the embrace of anti-modern religious orthodoxies – with the US being the “epicenter” of all things “modern” and also perceived to be the epicenter of all things “non-religious”. Since the US is the “Great Satan” she needs to be destroyed. Islamism is seen as a path to justice and equality against the Western ways of corruption and worship of its false gods, with Islamofascism as the vehicle to accomplish their goals. Although fundamentalism has been widely embraced in the Muslim world, and it often promotes hatred of infidels, the vast majority of fundamentalists do not become terrorists, and not all terrorists in Islamic societies are “holy warriors”. Nevertheless, the world wide rise of fundamentalism, with its division of the world into those who are good and those who are evil, with it assertions of patriarchy and promises of redemption, creates an atmosphere in which terrorism can thrive. Convert or die.

SUMMARY: All of the above happened prior to 9/11. All of the above happened prior to Bush becomming a US President. All of the above will still be here after the 5th anniversary of 9/11. All of the apologies and rationalization of Islamofascism do not take away from the fact that there are thousands of people, possibly millions, that want to see the US conquered and an Islamist state raised from its ashes. They want freedom and secularism removed and strict Sharia imposed. Whether you are liberal, isolationist, or conservative, you are not compatible with what this version of Islamic orthodoxy demands. These people are strong-willed, heavily financed, and well-armed. Neither the Deténte or the Mutually Assured Destruction philosophies of the Cold War will contain a people readily willing to sacrifice their lives to further their goals. These people are on a mission “commanded” from their god to bring the entire planet into Muhammad’s vision of one-world Islam. There is no reasoning, no logical argument, no incentives that will stop them.

The late Ayatollah Khomeini rebuked “Religion of Peace” propagandists back in 1942: “Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war. Those (who say this) are witless.” That term would include quite a few mainstream journalists.

The first bombing of the World Trade Center happened on Bill Clinton’s watch. So did the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen. The president’s staff — and the civil servants who worked for them — witnessed the danger of Al Qaeda close up and personally. Some even lost their lives. Washington dithered and bin Laden’s men kept burrowing deeper and deeper into their plot to attack America on its own soil. In 2001 President Bush and his newly appointed aides had ample warning, including a briefing paper titled ‘Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.,’ and they failed to take it seriously enough. Bush didn’t create this. Clinton didn’t create this. Soviet-American issues did not create this. Europe will not contain this. Appeasement will not stop this. Apologies will not excuse this. This is real, this is jihad, and this is happening today. 9/11 was not the first Islamofascist event, nor will it be the last. How we react to it today, though, will determine how it manifests itself tomorrow.

9/11, Omar Ahmad, CAIR, Osama bin Ladin, Bosnia, Al Qaeda, Albania, Kosovo, Terrorist, World Trade Tower, USS Cole, 103, Lockerbie, Libya, Abu Nidal, Khobar Towers, Islam, Muslim, Islamofascism, jihad

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