Not just Osama

"Answering Osama bin Laden's call for a holy war in Iraq, hundreds of followers from at least eight nations have entered the country and are playing a major role in attacking Western targets and Iraqi civilians, U.S. and Iraqi officials say."

This quote is from a Los Angeles Times story that is circulating over the wire: I picked up in the Fort Worth Star Telegram. This is the kind of coverage we get when political correctness prevents people from acknowledging the dimensions of the problem we're up against. I noted below that in Onward Muslim Soldiers I give numerous examples of Muslim spokesmen calling the war on Iraq a defensive jihad many months ago, and telling Muslims that they were obligated to go to Iraq to fight or to do anything they could possibly do to help. Here are some of those listed in the book:
• Sheikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar University in Egypt;
• The Grand Mufti of Syria, Ahmad Kuftaro;
• The influential Indian Imam Syed Ahmed Bukhari;
• Pakistani Mufti Mohammed Jamil Khan;
• Habib Rizieq Shihab of Indonesia’s Islamic Defenders Front (FPI).

Says the article: "The largest group of militants is from neighboring Syria, officials say, while others have come from Jordan, Egypt, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Palestinian territories."

Syria and Egypt. Hmm. And they're all listening just to Osama, not to Tantawi or Kuftaro?

Also these men, among many others, declared that the war in Iraq was a jihad:
• Canadian Imam Gamal Soleiman;
• Parouk Hussin, the leader of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao region of the Philippines.

By saying that the jihadists in Iraq are all answering Osama's call, the piece gives a misleading impression of the extent of militant Muslim sentiment around the world. It's much, much bigger than just Osama.

Posted by Robert at November 9, 2003 8:39 AM
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