He has a doctorate in Islamic studies and yet is waging violent jihad in order to restore the caliphate? How could this have happened? Are greasy Islamophobes in charge of Islamic studies at Baghdad university? John Esposito, call your office! Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi — Dr. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi — is a misunderstander of Islam who is fostering the spread of Islamophobic stereotypes! He must be stopped at once! Call out Daniel Martin Varisco! Get Reza Aslan on the phone! Send Faisal Abdul Rauf to Mosul! This Islamophobia must be nipped in the bud!
“Leader of Iraq insurgents is jihad’s rising leader,” by Mariam Karouny, Reuters, June 11, 2014:
BEIRUT (Reuters) – The leader of radical Sunni fighters who have made rapid military advances in Iraq is the rising star of global jihad, driven, Islamist fighters say, by an unbending determination to fight for and establish a hardline Islamic state.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, commander of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), now controls large parts of eastern Syria and western Iraq, a vast cross-border haven for militants in the Sunni Muslim core of the Middle East.
Despite his power – and a $10 million U.S. reward for information leading to his capture – little is known about a man who for his own survival has shunned the spotlight.
Fighters from ISIL and its rivals who spoke to Reuters praised Baghdadi as a strategist who succeeded in exploiting turmoil in Syria and Iraq’s weak central authority after the U.S. military withdrawal to carve out his powerbase.
He has proved ruthless in eliminating opponents and showed no hesitation in turning against former allies to further his ambition of creating an Islamist state.
Enemies, even those from rival radical groups who broadly share ISIL’s religious ideology, are fought and defeated. Captured fighters – and non-combatants – are usually shot or decapitated, their deaths recorded in grisly videos which inspire fear and revulsion among opponents.
“In short, for Sheikh Baghdadi, each religion has its state except Islam, and it should have a state and it should be imposed. It is very simple,” said one of his non-Syrian members, speaking from inside Syria.
SYRIAN EXPANSION
According to the U.S. reward notice, which depicts a round-faced, brown-eyed man with closely cropped beard and short dark hair, Baghdadi was born in the Iraqi town of Samarra in 1971.
He got a doctorate in Islamic studies at Baghdad university, jihadi websites say, and after years of fighting with al Qaeda groups became leader of its Islamic State in Iraq in 2010.
A year later, sensing opportunity when the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad erupted, Baghdadi sent an aide across the border to expand al Qaeda’s foothold there….
“He is becoming very popular among jihadis. They see him as someone who is fighting the war of Islam,” said a Nusra Front fighter from the Syrian city of Aleppo, adding bitterly that Baghdadi’s supporters “cannot see the damage he is inflicting”
“He has received letters expressing loyalty from Afghanistan and Pakistan as well,” the Nusra fighter said. “Sheikh Zawahri is trying but I think it is too late.”
From Nusra’s perspective, Islamists in Syria have “entered a cycle of blood and nobody will come out of it,” he added.
To his followers, Baghdadi represents a new generation of fighters working to fulfill the next stage of bin Laden’s dream, moving from Qaeda – which can mean ‘base’ in Arabic – towards the fully fledged radical state.
“Sheikh Baghdadi and Sheikh Osama are similar. They always look ahead, they both seek an Islamic state,” said a Syrian ISIL fighter….
mariam rove says
Qaeda – which can mean ‘base’ in Arabic … did not know that it could mean “Base”. But its main translation is “The order” M
islamisdeath says
Oh whats the fuss its just a few radicals nothing to get your panties in a wad about. My gosh most muslims are not like this.
Sound familiar? Marching our way with all the help imam obama can give them.
Budvarakbar says
Never forget GWB’s total BS statement: “Islam is a religion of peace!”
islamisdeath says
How could I? W started this mess and the O took it and ran with it! Sadly O is playing for the opposition. He is running towards the other teams goal.
devonoagon says
“In short, for Sheikh Baghdadi, each religion has its state except Islam, and it should have a state and it should be imposed. It is very simple,” said one of his non-Syrian members, speaking from inside Syria.
really??? is this guy forgetting that islam controls most of northern Africa, the middle east and southeast asia??? and pockets of Europe, north and south America, the Philippines, Australia, etc????
St. Michael Defend Us says
Yes, I thought there were already 57 islamic countries?
nacazo says
not islamic enough!
John C. Barile says
A modern nation-state just couldn’t be, couldn’t be, Islamic enough.
voegelinian says
The nation-state is a modern Western invention, with roots back to the reconfiguration and slow dissolution beginning in the 16th century of the mosaic of kingdoms of medieval Christianity.
When the West began its long spectacular ascent on every level (culturally, technologically, scientifically, politically, philosophically, morally) and as a consequence began expanding globally beginning in the same 16th century, it soon enough (after a few skirmishes here and there in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia) horned in on and occupied the majority of the Muslim world which had never known the political systems of the West. In the long subsequent administration of these regions under the aegis of Western Colonialism, many Western frameworks were superimposed upon Muslim world. The mapping out and carving up of the Muslim world climaxed in earnest in the wake of the two World Wars of the 20th century.
Note: This long saga of Western Colonialism was by and large a good thing for the Third World that was its oyster — and even good (at least temporarily) for the Muslim regions it affected (e.g., Algeria, Lebanon, Egypt, Indonesia, etc.). But, of course, the sociopolitical pathologies of Islamic culture were far too morbidly fanatical for Western values to do any deep and lasting good, and so the 21st century is seeing the Muslim world finally get its shit together to try to definitively throw off the structural yoke of the legacy of Western Colonialism, so that they may restore the full-blooded misery & mayhem that is the Hell on Earth called Islam.
Budvarakbar says
And Detroit, working on Memphis — just about have parts of Stupidattle — probably have settlements very near wherever anyone of you live — not to mention the little mosques on the prairie in Canada — all brought to you by the internationalists and the rotten to the core – US government!
Peter Buckley says
“He has proved ruthless in eliminating opponents and showed no hesitation in turning against former allies to further his ambition of creating an Islamist state.”
Now who does that remind you of……..?
Ashley says
OT: Just caught this nugget on a twitter feed: BREAKING: U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is scheduled to arrive back in the U.S. overnight, senior defense officials tell NBC News.
John C. Barile says
The Islamic Lenin? Stalin? Pol Pot?
Angemon says
““In short, for Sheikh Baghdadi, each religion has its state except Islam, and it should have a state and it should be imposed. It is very simple,” said one of his non-Syrian members, speaking from inside Syria.”
Which state(s) in the world abide(s) by christian and/or jewish law as prescribed in the OT and NT? And which state(s) abide(s) by islamic law as prescribed in the quran and ahadith? Even if there were no states abiding by islamic law, such a state “should be imposed“? Really? There’s no way to spin that one into something harmless.
Buraq says
Recently, Benny Gantz, chief of the IDF made a cryptic remark about the thousands of jihadi clowns circling Israel and getting closer. There might be something very nasty about to happen to Islam’s traveling circus.
Think drones, long range strikes at troop concentrations, and general mayhem that fast-tracks lots of them to Islam’s bordel in the sky.
Jihad can blow up in your face – if you’re not careful!
Twostellas says
First off, aren’t there 57 of them already, and growing? Secondly, it’s the definition of insanity…doing the same thing over and over, getting the same result? Never enough Islam, just like communism, ‘if we just did it more it would be right!’ . It never ends, and it’s always the same miserable result. Without the rest of the world to help these idiots feed, clothe, give modern medicine, pull oil from the ground and actually be efficient, come to the rescue when they are on the receiving end of Jihad, they wouldn’t survive!
RichardL says
Can someone explain who released al Baghdadi from a US prison? And why? Was it Barack Hussein Obama? I cannot find any info on this. I year later he is runs a major Muslim terror group.
eib says
The nation-state is a Western invention.
Muslims have no business wanting one. The way I see it they’re just as effective in their violence as tribes.
The Ummah dominates several nation-states in the world. I have no idea what this idiot is asking for. He obviously doesn’t know the history of his tradition and the nations they have conquered and held through force for MILLENNIA!
eib says
The nation-state is a Western invention.
Muslims have no business wanting one. The way I see it they’re just as effective in their violence as tribes.
The Ummah dominates several nation-states in the world. I have no idea what this idiot is asking for. He obviously doesn’t know the history of his tradition and the nations they have conquered and held through force for more than a Millennium.
epistemology says
This doctor in Islamic studies doesn’t say anything different about Islam than Robert. Muzzies want to rule the world, they hate Jews, share the Nazi ideology etc.
But Robert has no idea about Islam, because he got his doctorate in early Christianity. How preposterous muzzies are! If stupidity had a name, it would be called Islam.