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"Mr. Libi possessed one skill that Al Qaeda’s leaders had been lacking: religious scholarship. Perhaps with this in mind, Al Qaeda is featuring Mr. Libi, who spent two years in Africa studying Islam..."
How did he get it so drastically wrong? Why, if Islam teaches peace and tolerance as Western analysts, both Muslim and non-Muslims, constantly insist, did this man spend two years studying Islam and then join Al-Qaeda?
I keep asking this question, as regular Jihad Watch readers will no doubt be aware. I am sorry to belabor the point, but it is an important question, and it still has not been answered. Its implications are many. One of the principal implications involves Muslims in Western countries. How many have also studied Islam in the way Al-Libi has, and believe it mandates violence against unbelievers and Islamic supremacism? Is anyone even attempting to check immigrants for this -- as difficult as that may be to do? What programs have Western Muslim groups instituted to teach against this ideology within Muslim communities, given that they profess to oppose it?
"Rising Leader for Next Phase of Al Qaeda’s War," by Michael Moss and Souad Mekhennet for the New York Times (thanks to Mackie):
On the night of July 10, 2005, an obscure militant preacher named Abu Yahya al-Libi escaped from an American prison in Afghanistan and rocketed to fame in the world of jihadists.The breakout from the Bagram Air Base by Mr. Libi and three cellmates — they picked a lock, dodged their guards and traversed the base’s vast acreage to freedom — embarrassed American officials as deeply as it delighted the jihadist movement. In the nearly three years since then, Mr. Libi’s meteoric ascent within the leadership of Al Qaeda has proved to be even more troublesome for the authorities.
Mr. Libi, a Libyan believed to be in his late 30s, is now considered to be a top strategist for Al Qaeda, as well as one of its most effective promoters of global jihad, appearing in a dozen videos on militant Web sites in the past year, counterterrorism officials said. At a time when Al Qaeda seems more inspirational than operational, Mr. Libi stands out as a formidable star whose rise to prominence tracks the group’s growing emphasis on information in its war with the West.
“I call him a man for all seasons for A.Q.,” said Jarret Brachman, a former analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency who is now research director of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. “He’s a warrior. He’s a poet. He’s a scholar. He’s a pundit. He’s a military commander. And he’s a very charismatic, young, brash rising star within A.Q., and I think he has become the heir apparent to Osama bin Laden in terms of taking over the entire global jihadist movement.”
The secrecy that envelops Al Qaeda’s leadership structure makes such estimates speculative, other analysts noted. But one Islamist insider said that in addition to youth and charisma, Mr. Libi possessed one skill that Al Qaeda’s leaders had been lacking: religious scholarship. Perhaps with this in mind, Al Qaeda is featuring Mr. Libi, who spent two years in Africa studying Islam, in as many of the videos as the group’s top leaders, Mr. bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri.
“Bin Laden is an engineer and Zawahri is a medical doctor,” said Dr. Muhammad al-Massari, a Saudi dissident who lives in London. “So it is important that they also present someone who has the role of scholar.”
Posted by Robert at April 5, 2008 9:45 AM
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So Libi studied Islam in Africa for two years.
It's amazing how so many muslims mis-understand Islam, while lot's of infidels seem to understand it just fine.
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at April 5, 2008 12:44 PM
Two years, Hmmmmmm. What is that good for? A Bachelors degree in Death?
The Skunks have certainly been breeding. Only in the Islamic Paradox could something so foul, smell sweet.
Posted by: flowerknife_us at April 5, 2008 1:50 PM
“Bin Laden is an engineer and Zawahri is a medical doctor,” said Dr. Muhammad al-Massari, a Saudi dissident who lives in London. “So it is important that they also present someone who has the role of scholar.”Gee, Osama and Ayman lacked the Islamic credentials for the leadership, and needed someone else for that very role? al Libi must be some poohbah to outshine these 2 in their expertize on Islam.
Seriously, how many people would approach Osama for his engineering, as opposed to his Islamic, expertize? Same question re: Ayman and his 'practice'.
Posted by: Infidel Pride at April 5, 2008 2:31 PM
Heretic! Only mohamet (pbuh/poobah) can be the grand poobah. (pbuh) = (poobah). Do you doubt it? I, nabi ZK have spoken (again).
nabi ZK
...whatever...
Posted by: zonie kafir at April 5, 2008 5:22 PM
“Bin Laden is an engineer and Zawahri is a medical doctor,” said Dr. Muhammad al-Massari, a Saudi dissident who lives in London. “So it is important that they also present someone who has the role of scholar.”
By "scholar" he means "islamic scholar". A "scholar" who believes that muhammad is uswa hasana, al insan, al kamil and must be emulated in all respects and deeds. And since uswa hasana was a paedophile, mass murderer, rapist and a looter, these deeds are the way to go for such a "scholar".
Scholar.
at April 6, 2008 4:08 AM
Dear All,
Bear me repeating it here that we need to under stand Islam. The first and foremost will be that we should bear in mind that Islam has not come as rival of other religions. Rather Islam confirms and validates the previous divinely teachings [1] and offers higher degree guidance in accordance with the universal divinely plans of God Almighty which has been destined for the future of the mankind. A higher education is never against the basic or primary educations [2]; rather they are interdependent in bringing the improvement and enlightenment in the society.
It has always been difficult for the humans to shed and shake the adopted myths because humans by nature love and relish to remain restrained and bound by mysteries and illusions. And if these myths happen to be religious myths like in Judaic and Christianity; it is more so difficult in leaving those self imposed mythical confinements because these myths are also influenced and rightly or wrongly, very strongly guarded by the religious zealots and their other supporting groups with vested interests.
The preset mind and preconceived ideas eventually result in creating more distances and keep us bound to the old ruts and restrict in thinking without prejudice.
Let’s build the bridges; not the barriers and find the common terms.
-----------------------------
Love for all, Hatred for None
[1] Primary Teachings contained in the books of Torah, the Bible and other Holy Books of former denominations in relegion.
[2] As imparted by Judaic and Christianity previously.
at April 6, 2008 6:42 AM
Mythologies in spin
Whether Bin Laden or his Lieutenant Zawahri with their team operating from the wilderness of Afghanistan where even getting a can of coke may be a job of the day; are they the stooges implanted or pestered by west to serve western interests…. or…… they are the old Afghan war stung US proxies turned, arch US rivals as it is widely portrayed That they stand there against the exploitation and oppression of western forces who are in occupation of Arab lands and beyond?
No body really can figure this out while we all live in a so called controversial and falsely created ‘mists and myths’ of ‘Global war on terrorism’ by the US Neocons with the aim to exploit and facilitate western economic interests in the areas and also to exterminate any one who so ever comes in the way of spreading the US hegemonic adventurism.
-------------------------------
Love for all, Hatred for None
at April 6, 2008 8:13 AM
Ladies and gentlemen
observe, in the corner of the jihadwatch tavern, nursing a mug of camel's milk (since beer and wine are forbidden him) our resident Mad Hatter, A Khokar, peddling the usual mad hattery, the nonsense and lies and bizarre conspiracy theories that are so terribly prevalent in the Islamosphere, due to its suppression of free inquiry and its contempt for the faculty of reason.
Islam declared war on the rest of the world in the 7th century, and the Islamosphere has only ever ceased from that war when too weak (due to the social, ecological and political collapse that it tends to produce within its domains) or divided (by its own violent internecine quarrels) to pursue it, or when confronted by a determined and implacable resistance from non-Muslims (e.g. the Knights of St John of Malta; the heroic Rajputs and Sikhs of India). That is the reality of history.
Ibn Ishaq (author of the official Life of Mohammed that Muslims regard as authoritative), 204 - “‘Men, do you know what you are pledging yourselves to in swearing allegiance to this man [Muhammad]?’ ‘Yes. In swearing allegiance to him we are pledging to wage war against all mankind.’”
See Raymond Ibrahim, 'An Al Qaeda Reader' in order to see that the jihadis use upon Western (and non-western) Useful Idiots whatever fashionable arguments [e.g. post-colonialism, anti-globalism, 'resistance to oppression'] they think will serve to 'split the camp' of the Infidels and create division and confusion. They do not themselves believe in those arguments for two seconds together - it is merely a ploy, casting dust in our eyes, trying to dupe the disaffected or foolish among our ranks into acting as traitors.
Meanwhile, among themselves and to their Muslim audiences they have an entirely different discourse, purely Islamic, rooted in Quran, Sira and Hadith and the classic ancient and modern interpretations of same, all of it motivated by raw, violent, arrogant Arab/ Muslim supremacism - "Islam is to dominate, and not be dominated".
The aggression is not a 'reaction' to anything the non-Muslim world has done to Muslims, unless one accepts the mad idea that the mere existence of non-Muslims, and their natural human preference for their own belief systems and polities and laws, is such an unenendurable 'offence' to Muslim sensibilities that the 'offenders' must be violently attacked and destroyed and the 'offence' thus...expunged.
Tawfiq Hamid, writing of his high school education in Egypt, mentions seeing films about Jihad:
"In secondary school I watched films about the early Islamic conquest. These films promoted the notion that "true" Muslims were devoted to aggressive jihad."
Furthermore, his Islamic classes at high school taught him contempt for Christians:
"I remember one particularly defining moment in an Arabic language class when I was sitting beside a Christian friend named Nagi Anton. I was reading a book entitled Alshaykhan by Taha Hussein that cited the Prophet Muhammad's words: "I have been ordered by Allah to fight and kill all people [non-Muslims] until they say, 'No God except Allah.'"
"Following the reading of this Hadith, I decisively turned toward Nagi and said to him, 'If we are to apply Islam correctly, we should apply this Hadith to you.' At that moment I suddenly started to view Nagi as an enemy rather than as a longtime friend.
"What further hardened my attitude on this matter was the advice I received from many dedicated Muslim fellow students, who warned me against befriending Christians.
"They based their counsel on the following verse: "O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends: They are but friends to each other. And he amongst you that turns to them [for friendship] is of them [an infidel]. Verily Allah guideth not a people unjust" (Koran 5:51).
"In view of this verse and the previous one, I felt obliged as a Muslim to limit my relationships with my Christian friends. The love and friendship I once felt for them had been transformed into disrespect, merely because I wished to obey the commandments of my religion. "
['Love for all, hatred for none', eh??? Liar liar pants on fire.]
"The seductive ideas of my religious studies had diluted the influence of my secular upbringing. By restricting my contact with Christians, I felt that I was doing a great deed to satisfy Allah."
Then he met up with Jemaah Islamiyah while at University; and encountered Zawahiri:
"At one afternoon prayer session, an imam I had never met before gave a sermon. He was one of the fiercest speakers I had ever heard. His passion for jihad was astonishing.
"He advocated complete Islamic dominance, urging us to pursue jihad against non-Muslims and subdue them to Shari'a - the duty of every true Muslim. His rhetoric inspired us to engage in war against the infidels, the enemies of Allah."
Posted by: dumbledoresarmy
at April 7, 2008 8:15 PM
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