Donald Trump’s new national security advisor, Lt. General H.R. McMaster, has made troubling remarks — such as “the Islamic State is not Islamic” — that one expects from the D.C. establishment. However, a hearty endorsement that he gave to a 2010 book suggests that the totality of McMaster’s views on security issues are worse than simply parroting politically correct memes on Islam.
The book in question is Militant Islamist Ideology: Understanding the Global Threat. Written by CDR Youssef Aboul-Enein, it was published by the Naval Institute Press in 2010. I read and reviewed it back in 2012 and found its claims — many of which the Obama administration followed to disastrous results — to be incorrect and problematic.
For starters, Aboul-Enein asserts that only “militant Islamists” — ISIS types who behead, crucify, massacre, and burn people alive — are the enemy. “Non-militant Islamists,” however, are not:
It is the Militant Islamists who are our adversary. They represent an immediate threat to the national security of the United States. They must not be confused with Islamists [p.2].
This theme, which the author often expresses in convoluted language — at one point urging readers to appreciate “the divisions between Militant Islamists and between Militant Islamists and Islamists” (p.176) — permeates the book. In reality, all Islamists share the same ultimate goal of global Islamic hegemony. They differ only in methodology — not in their view of us as the enemy to be crushed.
“Non-militant Islamists,” chief among them the Muslim Brotherhood, see incremental infiltration and subtle subversion of infidel Western states as more effective than outright terrorism, as one notorious Brotherhood memo clearly states.[1]
We’ve already seen the outcome of cooperating with “Non-militant Islamists” during the Arab Spring. The Obama administration cast aside decades of standard U.S. policy and support for secular Arab autocrats and made cozy with the Muslim Brotherhood. What followed is well-known: the Arab Spring quickly turned into the “Islamic Winter.” This culminated with the rise of the Islamic State, in large part due to Obama’s policies, both active (aiding Islamic terrorists by portraying them as “freedom fighters” in Libya and Syria) and inactive (pulling all U.S. forces out of Iraq despite the warnings and disposing of a 30-year ally of the U.S., the secularist Mubarak, for the Brotherhood in Egypt).
Aboul-Enein further recommends American forces adopt a Sharia-compliant respect for Islam and Muslims. For example, he suggests that if an American soldier ever desecrates a Koran, U.S. leadership must not merely relieve him of duty, but offer “unconditional apologies” to Muslims, and emulate the words of Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Hammond, which Aboul-Enein quotes as exemplary: “I come before you [Muslims] seeking your forgiveness, in the most humble manner I look in your eyes today, and say please forgive me and my soldiers,” followed by kissing a new Koran and “ceremoniously” presenting it to Muslims.
Not only is such a double-standard un-American — would a serviceman be punished for the “desecration” of any other religious book? — but the very idea that supremacist Muslims can be won over through servile and fawning appeasement is antithetical to reality, if not human nature. Abject behavior breeds contempt and encourages more Muslim aggression and demands.
Here are a few more examples of Aboul-Enein’s false claims, distortions, and general oddities, though one could go on and on:
- He writes (p.142) that “when Muslims are a persecuted minority Jihad becomes a fard kifaya (an optional obligation), in which the imam authorizes annual expeditions into Dar el Harb (the Abode of War), lands considered not under Muslim dominance.” This is wrong on several levels. A fard kifaya is not an “optional obligation” — an oxymoron if ever there was one — but rather a “communal obligation.” Moreover, Aboul-Enein is clearly describing Offensive Jihad, which is designed to subjugate non-Muslims and is obligatory to wage whenever Muslims are capable, not “when Muslims are a persecuted minority,” which in Islamic jurisprudence is a Defensive Jihad and fard ‘ain (i.e., individual obligation).
- He says (p.75) that the Arabic word for “terrorist” (irhabi) is nowhere to be found in the Koran or Hadith– without bothering to mention that the verb form of that word (tirhibun), “terrorize,” abounds in Islamic scriptures (e.g., Allah himself calls on Muslims to “terrorize” Islam’s opponents in Koran 8:60).
- He asserts (p.65) that “militant Islamists dismiss ijmaa [consensus] and qiyas [analogical reasoning]” two tools of Islamic jurisprudence. This is simply false. Groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS regularly invoke ijmaa (for instance, the consensus that jihad becomes a personal duty — fard ‘ain — when infidels invade the Islamic world) and justify suicide attacks precisely through qiyas (see The Al Qaeda Reader, p.138).
- After rightfully admonishing readers not to rely on skewed or biased accounts of Islam and Muhammad’s biography, he repeatedly recommends (e.g., pgs. 20, 213, 216) the writings of Muslim apologist extraordinaire Karen Armstrong, whose whitewashing of all things Islamic is notorious.
Such are the claims, distortions, and recommendations of a book that McMaster wholeheartedly endorsed in 2010 as “excellent” and “deserv[ing] a wide readership,” a book that claims “[t]errorist organizations use a narrow and irreligious ideology to recruit undereducated and disenfranchised people to their cause” — yet another tired apologia that has been repeatedly debunked. [2]
Over a year ago I closed an article for Hoover Institution’s Strategika with the following sentence:
Time will tell whether the next [American presidential] administration will remain willfully ignorant of the nature of its jihadi enemy — which is fatal in war according to Sun Tzu’s ancient dictum, “know your enemy” — or whether reality will trump political correctness.
The pun remains truer than ever: If the recommendations of Militant Islamist Ideology are truly reflective of the views of Trump’s new national security advisor on U.S. security and Islam — especially this notion of cooperating with “Nonmilitant Islamists” — then it seems we are going right back to being “willfully ignorant” of reality.
[PJ Media]
———————————
[1] Excerpt follows: Understanding the role of the Muslim Brother in North America:
“The process of settlement is a “Civilization-Jihadist Process” with all the word means. The Ikhwan [meaning Muslim Brotherhood] must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and “sabotaging” its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”
“Without this level of understanding, we are not up to this challenge and have not prepared ourselves for Jihad yet. It is a Muslim’s destiny to perform Jihad and work wherever he is and wherever he lands until the final hour comes, and there is no escape from that destiny except for those who chose to slack.”
[2] Here is McMaster’s entire endorsement, as it appears on the back of the book’s jacket cover:
“Terrorist organizations use a narrow and irreligious ideology to recruit undereducated and disenfranchised people to their cause. Understanding terrorist ideology is the first and may also be the most important step in ensuring national and international security against the threat that these organizations pose.
Youssef Aboul-Enein’s book is an excellent starting point in that connection. Militant Islamist Ideology deserves a wide readership among all those concerned with the problem of transnational terrorism, their ideology, and our efforts to combat those organizations that pose a serious threat to current and future generations of Muslims and non-Muslims alike.”
vladkoval says
Oh, I know that now the fake “Christianblood” will come and start his whining about that, and telling that unlike Obama, Trump, McMaster – Putin blablabla))) Therefore I will remind him something in advance ))
vladkoval says
Oh, that’s even better! Putin speaks out against IS at opening of Moscow’s biggest mosque – ISIS is not Islam, says Putin.
Angemon says
Here’s the English transcription of that speech, from the Kremlin’s official page:
http://en.special.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/50351
Man, and I thought Obama was bad…
Pastor C says
I never thought I could ever feel worse, than I already did, about this dimwitted McMaster guy.
However, after reading this article, I now question who (within this present administration) is sufficiently empowered, informed and courageous enough to purge our government and her military of this Islamic scourge.
Increasingly, I am resigned to the fact that when all hell breaks loose it’s every man for himself.
Pastor C says
I never thought I could ever feel worse, than I already did, about this dimwitted McMaster guy.
However, after reading this article, I now question who (within this present administration) is sufficiently empowered, informed and courageous enough to purge our government and her military of this Islamic scourge.
Increasingly, because of the pandemic ignorance of our political and religious leaders, I am resigned to the fact that when all hell breaks loose it’s every man for himself.
Angemon says
“We have a problem with a poisonous, deadly species of butterfly. But not with the caterpillars of the same species, just with the butterflies”. Doesn’t make any sense, does it?
common sense says
Aha funny! So it’s ok to let the caterpillars cacoon in your yard just watch out when they become butterflies. Got it, we’re all safe now and I feel better, I’m going back to watch some sesame street now. (Sarc)
Carolyne says
In fact, Muslim women are indeed cocoons, producing their babies year after year and eventually outnumbering civilized humans.
Arthur says
The government has set up several “de-metamorphosis” programs to turn butterflies back into caterpillars.
UNCLE VLADDI says
Excellent simile, thanks!
Mockingjay says
– What is most baffling about all this is that policies can be – and are – based on just ONE single book, on ONE person’s opinion on a subject, and NO other and differing views are EVER again taken into account.
I’m truly baffled.
tony46 says
The swamp still stinks.
.
TR says
“The Obama administration cast aside decades of standard U.S. policy and support for secular Arab autocrats and made cozy with the Muslim Brotherhood. What followed is well-known: the Arab Spring quickly turned into the “Islamic Winter.” This culminated with the rise of the Islamic State, in large part due to Obama’s policies, both active (aiding Islamic terrorists by portraying them as “freedom fighters” in Libya and Syria) and inactive (pulling all U.S. forces out of Iraq despite the warnings and disposing of a 30-year ally of the U.S., the secularist Mubarak, for the Brotherhood in Egypt).”
The Obama Administration came into power already cozy with the Muslim Brotherhood. Obama’s mentors and associations within the Weatherman Marxists, who back in the 1960’s were referring to Islamic Terrorists as “Freedom Fighters” way back then. Their bonding together in mutual support was a long planned out joint effort seemingly benefiting the Muslim Brotherhood more than the Marxist SDS. They were continuously brought into the USA for Conferences.
somehistory says
The book the moslim wrote, if read at all, needs to be read backward…everything it says needs to be understood as lies to cover over the evils and dangers of the beast of islam.
Thanks, as always, to Mr. Ibrahim, for explaining and translating the gibberish so we can see and understand it for what it really is.
It is just so amazing that people will be intelligent enough to seek a specialist in heart disorders when they have the need, or a cancer specialist, or even an air conditioning guy who knows the ins and outs. But when it comes to islam, they seek those who either don’t know and understand islam, or they seek those who lie their fool heads off so the *militants* can have ease of cutting them off.
I would be so very easy to get the help they need from Mr.Spencer, Mr. Ibrahim, or Ms. Geller, and others who would readily share their vast knowledge, and yet, they foolishly go to the beast itself for protection and help. One may wonder, but only for a little time, why they listen to the beast as opposed to the truth.
Revelation 13
common sense says
-“He who lies down with dogs will get up with fleas”-
McMaster is FOS. Our own extremely brave US operatives in the field that never fire a shot while infiltrating enemy and gathering intelligence do the most damage paving the way for our soldiers.
davej says
More of the same wishful thinking about Islam. Western politicians and even military leaders cannot bring themselves to accept that the “extremists” are actually normative to Islam and have the quiet support of the Muslim majority.
They hope this view will avoid having to go to war against an entire religion. They are wrong because this is not primarily a religion, it is a conquering totalitarian force that seeks to win using a combination of infiltration, intimidation and demographics. It is historical, fervent, relentless, brutal and fixated; it will never back down or reform. There is an endless supply of preachers, jihadists and would-be martyrs.
Sooner or later people will learn that it is a matter of Submit or Die and no amount of appeasement or denial will save them.
Carolyne says
Actually, it is very difficult to understand that a portion of our species act as Muslims do, beheading, raping, marauding, etc. But not to understand it and admit it will bring sure defeat.
sam says
Just when you think you make some progress against Islam we appoint these ignorant people to power to protect us so islam wins again. For such a stupid ideology like Islam to make so much headway in the world, I have to give it to muslims that their submission to evil Islam is remarkable although stupid.
Berengaria says
GENERAL
MCMASTERS IS & WILL ALWAYS BE A DEM IN UNIFORM, (AN APOLOGIST FOR MUSLIM ATROCITIES).
Most of the Officer Corps of our Military has been filled with “MOSLEM APOLOGISTS FOR ISLAM”.(DEMS IN UNIFORM).
Pray that they are FOUND OUT BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE.
putridislam says
I thought Trump was looking for a replacement for him. In any case, the person who posted the video of Putin shocked me. I believed Putin knew much better than to spout the same nonsense the rest of the libs were spouting. It’s the world leaders against the people. Lovely.
Arthur says
Look for his sequel, “12 Steps to Dhimmitude”
NabiRasch says
Never personally saw any evidence that Donald was the Churchill presently needed–for one thing, he was prone to waffling.But he was at least brash enough to break through, expose the pathologically endemic rot. Hopefully one or two of his guys will have a plan. Unfortunately what would catalyze things right now is a typical Islamist incident.
Carolyne says
While President Trump may not be the Churchill you had hoped for, consider the alternative–Hillary Clinton; the person who, along with Obama, is the architect of the “Arab Spring” which brought on the “Arab Winter.”
Stan Lee says
Other General officers either retired or active of the General officer corps, know who/what McMaster really stands for. His first selection for a woman to be his second in charge was a bust, he could not have missed the reputation she made for herself. I cannot believe Gen. McMaster was aware of her assets and short-comings, but still he demonstrated that he had concluded she was qualified.
She’s gone now, I think it was a C.Y.A. maneuver on McMaster’s part, but I have concluded based upon a choice he made, plus the fact that he has disagreed with Trump in the first place on issues, but was chosen by Trump because two military types before McMaster declined to serve in the Trump administration and TRump may have rushed a decision in McMaster’s case.
That is not a reflection that Trump is too difficult a President to follow, but it is an indicator that many General officers who served while Obama was President were able to avoid being “cashiered” by cooperating with the Obama regime’s requirements of active military flag officers.
McMaster should be replaced before much more of military nature requires tough calls that Pres. Trump would expect of military types high in his administration.
PRCS says
McMaster works for President Trump.
He will continue to spout that nonsense until his boss tells him to knock it off.
That obviously will not happen so long as our new president believes our enemy is “radical Islamic terrorism”.
DiploNerd says
Apologizing and kissing the Qur’an would be a disaster. First, it would be a confession. In Islam, if you confess, then you are requesting your punishment in this world instead of in the next. They will kill him.
Second, the kuffar (infidels) are najis (filthy). That filth transmits through wetness. For many Muslims, a Kafir shouldn’t even TOUCH a Qur’an. Kissing it would be a horrible desecration, as any saliva getting on it would be filth.
Third, calling for that guilt to be spread to his fellow soldiers, well, that’s just stupid.
Carolyne says
When George W Bush established Guantanamo as a military prison, our personnel were instructed to not touch the Koran with their bare hands, but to wear white gloves in order, one supposes, not to defile it with dirty Kuffir hands. I feel this was a lap in the face to our military serving there and actually an admission by the US that we are not worthy to touch this vile book. I expect this is still the rule, but if it is, it should be stopped immediately and if there is a Koran there at all, it should be handed to the adherent as would be any other book.
Insofar as the Muslim philosophy that non-Muslims are dirty, I have actually never seen a Muslim who looked as if he had showered recently. Never stand downwind of one And never, ever apologize to one of them for anything. To them, it is a sign of weakness which means they have gotten the submission they demand.
Linda Rivera says
…the recommendations of Trump’s new national security advisor…. it seems we are going right back to being “willfully ignorant” of reality.
This is NOT willful ignorance of reality! It is a Deliberate and Very WICKED MALICIOUS DECEPTION!
UNCLE VLADDI says
General McDisaster.
Was Steve Bannon asleep when Trump made this appointment, or what?!