Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald discusses the Wahhabi tendency to label the current rulers of Muslim states “Infidels.”
In the Qur’an and Sunnah, it is clear: Infidels are to be despised. Infidels are to be condemned. Infidels do not deserve to keep their own inferior, and outrageous, political and social arrangements. Infidels are Kufr, ungrateful to Allah, wretches. The vilest of creatures (Qur’an 98:6). Islam is “to dominate and not to be dominated.” You may use whatever instruments prove effective, seriatim or in tandem, to ensure the conditions for the spread of Islam.
With all this one cannot disagree.
But, alas, in Saudi Arabia, and in Kuwait, and in the U.A.E., and elsewhere, we find that some people have begun to use the term “Infidel” for their rulers. This is, of course, the principle of takfir, so beloved of the Wahhabis. They seem to think that they can simply call “Infidels” anyone they wish to oppose. And they imply that the House of Al-Saud, or Al-Sabah, or Al-Thani, or Al-thisorthat, are in cahoots with Infidels.
“No,” the denizens of those Houses might respond. “We are not in cahoots with the Infidels. We use the Infidels. There are those who think they can get at us by calling us Infidels. But we are not. Both the Infidels themselves, and apparently these wild men who try to bomb us, are confused, and confused in the same way. We charge the Infidels $60/barrel for oil that they discovered, that they make use of, and that costs us litle more than $1/barrel to lift. We smile, and smile, but we twist them around our little fingers. We use the West for shopping sprees, of every kind. It’s a vast fun-fair-cum-brothel for us. We buy up stock in the major media companies, so we can get on the phone and change a headlline at will. We have bought up, directly but more often indirectly, many of their diplomats and even their intelligence agents. A former C.I.A. station chief, a few dozen diplomats in London, Washington, Paris — we even managed to have the Italian ambassador “˜revert” to Islam recently. It is we who recognize that, for the moment, we are temporarily unable to compete militarily with the Infidels.
“Look at how fantastically we have done. Now the Infidels have spent more than $300 billion in Iraq. For what? At the end, Iraq will still be Muslim. In fact, it will very likely be an Islamic state, far worse for women and non-Muslims than was the regime of Saddam Hussein. Of course there is the little matter of whether Sunnis will regain control of Iraq. We think so, after some turmoil, especaily if the Infidels destroy the Iranian nuclear project and Iran is in turmoil, and then it is the turn of the Sunnis from outside — did you know, by the way, that Sunnis really are the majority in Iraq? — to help put back, not Saddam Hussein (we don’t miss him because he threatened us), but Sunni rulers. Perhaps a nice general, and officers newly equipped with American weaponry left behind for the “Iraqi” army. And instead of the Shi’a in al-Hasa being inspired to revolt, it will be the Arabs of Khuzistan. Call us dreamers, but would Allah really desert the Arabs, and the true Muslims — the Sunni Muslims? Of course not.
“Everywhere in Europe and North America, we see mosques sprouting up. When, in a small town outside Boston, in the town of Billerica, a mosque is built for $15 million, which serves only 100 families, where do you think the money is coming from? Meanwhile, all over the churches are shutting down for want of money. There is a huge mosque, on 7 3/4 acres of land donated by the government of Italy, not a mile from the Vatican. There are mosques in London, in Paris, in Berlin, in Madrid, in every large and small city in Europe. And in America. And they do nothing, nothing at all to stop us. And with the mosques come madrasas. And with the madrasas, comes Da’wa.
“How can we be called Infidels? It is we who are doing the most to spread Islam.
“Make no mistake: we are here for Islam. Our money, our power, our bribes and our frowns, our smiles and our wiles, are all for promoting the cause of Islam. How could it be otherwise? It defines us. It calls us. It makes us everything we have been, everything we want to be. It explains the universe and regulates our lives. And even the most corrupt of us can have his corruption ignored, if in addition to the palaces and call-girls and gambling in Monte Carlo, he has enough left over to fund Da’wa, to fund mosques, madrasas, and propaganda, to participate — through his bulging bank account — in the Jihad.
“Those fanatics who call us “Infidels” are, we know, agents of the Infidels. For who benefits when they kill Saudis or other Muslim Arabs? We have no objection when they kill Infidels in Europe or America or Israel. But for the moment, we want to take advantage of the Infidels who work here. We need the knowledge we can get from them. Killing them now, when they are useful to us, here in the Arabian peninsula, is silly. Why kill the instructors who train our military? Why kill the doctors who help treat Muslims, and increase our numbers? Why kill the people who are the cogs in the Muslim oil machine, the war machine, the mosque-and-madrasa jihad machine? It makes no sense.
“No, kill the Infidels wherever they oppose us. But remember: we are Muslims, the best of men. All of us. The rich and the poor, the Al-Saud princes who prostrate themselves at Friday Prayers, just as does the lowliest street beggar in those Muslim lands where there are still beggars. That makes us one. That makes it okay for us to keep helping ourselves to the country’s wealth. But what’s that among fellow Muslims? Nothing should be allowed to divide us. No one should dare to call us Infidels, and if they do — then it is they who are the real Infidels, and we have plenty of muftis and imams on our payroll who will be happy to say so.”
Translate that into Arabic, print it out (first printing of 100 million copies), and you’ll be all set.
That wasn’t hard, was it?