He rejects the judgment of a U.S. court. He isn’t the only one. My latest in PJ Media:
Saipov said in court: “The judgments that are made here are not important for me. They are not Allah’s judgments.” He added: “The Islamic State [ISIS], in order to impose sharia on Earth, is leading a war.”
This is not something that the U.S. political and media establishment is disposed to hear. They still treat Saipov and other Islamic jihadis as if they were criminals committing criminal acts that have nothing to do with one another; the ideological commonality underlying all the jihad attacks inside the U.S. and all over the world is not important to them, and plays no role in how jihadis are prosecuted.
Saipov is not a conventional soldier, of course, and ISIS is not a conventional army. That is one of the reasons why it has been so hard for the U.S. and the West, since 9/11, to recognize exactly what it is dealing with, and how best to do so.
Yet when Saipov says that ISIS is “leading a war,” he is absolutely correct, and he is also correct that the goal of this war is to “impose Sharia on Earth.” This is abundantly clear when one examines the history of Islam. From its very inception up to the present day, as I show in my new book The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS, the warriors of jihad have targeted every non-Muslim nation they could reach, and made war against it with the intention ultimately of imposing Sharia upon it.
From Spain to India, from Tel Aviv to Timbuktu, from Constantinople to New York City, this imperative has been the same for fourteen hundred years, even as the Islamic empires that put it forward have come and gone.
That imperative remains unchanged today. Muslims including Sayfullo Saipov see themselves as its modern-day champions. Saipov doesn’t respect the judgment of an American court because he sees only the law of Allah as worthy of respect and obedience. He doesn’t see himself as a criminal at all, any more than any soldiers of an army were criminals solely for being soldiers. Yet the U.S., because it has found no mechanism whereby it can recognize its prosecution of jihad terror acts as part of its larger defense against the global jihad, cannot acknowledge that Saipov as a soldier, and so tries him in a civilian criminal court.
Because, however, of the fact that jihad has been for fourteen centuries such a mainstream aspect of Islam’s interaction with the non-Muslim world, one thing that authorities can be absolutely certain about is that Saipov is in no way a singular case. His assumption that a Muslim owes allegiance to no non-Muslim legal authority, but solely to Allah alone, is not some eccentricity or manifestation of Saipov’s “extremism.” It is standard Islam, and has been since the beginning of the religion.
Likewise, his statement about ISIS waging war to impose Sharia doesn’t indicate that ISIS is “extremist,” but actually situates the group within the tradition of the Umayyads, the Abbasids, the Ottomans, and other Islamic polities that devoted a great deal of their time and attention to waging war against infidels and trying to impose sharia upon them.
If our intelligence and law enforcement swamps had been fully drained by this time, agents would be studying Sayfullo Saipov’s words very carefully, and pondering their implications….
Read the rest here.
Bev says
Soon the question is going to be to Islamists , – Do you want to live WITH us, or do you want to LIVE?
Andy says
I remember stating in the late 1990’s that something is not right with the state of affairs in our Western Judeo-Christian civilization world and when I spoke out, I was being called paranoid, bigot, racist and on and on and on…………
Well, needless to say how many thousands of lives later affected (negatively) by this cancer called Islam.
Anyone who has eyes to see and ears to hear could obviously see what Islam is trying to do around the world.
Guy Forester says
Andy:
I have been watching this problem since the 1967 war, and have been amazed at the willful blindness and ignorance of our leaders regarding the threats imposed by these self anointed holy warriors.
Due to some work assignments that included some short locums in the ME, I was able to watch this phenomenon grow and metastasize while our leaders stumble in the dark, apparently clueless as to what to do.
No one, not even Trump, seems to have the rocks to call this what it really is: a war of civilizations; and WE, the WEST, are the targets, not the other way around.
St. Manuel II Palailogos says
What!? I thought ISIS was just an extremist group, I didn’t have a clue they wanted to enforce Sharia. What a surprise!?
Walter Sieruk says
That vicious jihadist Islamic terror truck attack which occurred on October 31, in New York City was both brutal and malicious and filled with murderous intentions. That jihad –minded Muslim was following the Instruction of the “holy book” of Islam, the Quran, which instructs in vicious jihad violence. As, for example,, seen in Surah 9:123. Which teaches “O you who believe! Fight those of the disbelievers who are close to you, and let them find harshness in you.” Running over people with a truck who are non-Muslims is a very effective way of showing them “harshness.” Islam a “peaceful religion” ? Nonsense!
simpleton1 says
I like how this places ISIS in a normal historical context that points out the blood bath of the past 1400 years!
Almost makes it sound benign, exotic east.
Just another normal islamic sharia law regime that all followers of Mohammad, the perfect man, wish for.
After all it would be “only a little bit of sharia” 🙂 . just as a snake would say.
Walter Sieruk says
That jihadist /Muslim whose first name means “The Sword of Allah” who murdered eight people and injured twelve other people in New York City was following the instruction of the “holy book” of Islam, the Quran. For example, the Quran instructs in 9:123 . “O you who believe ! Fight those of the disbelievers who are close to you, and let them find harshness in you…” Maiming and murdering people who are non-Muslim in a jihad truck attack as the jihadist did is a very effective way show non-Muslims “Harshness.” Strange teachings for what some call a “peaceful religion.” Likewise the Quran teaches in 47:4 “When you encounter the disbeliever’s strike off their heads until you make a great slaughter among them…”A truck jihad attack can, for sure, make a greater “slaughter among them than a sword can.” As the Quran also instructs in 2:191. “Kill the disbeliever wherever we find them.”
All the while that jihadist was committing mass murder he was yelling out “Allah Akbar’ meaning “Allah is great” Islam is a false dangerous and deadly religion.
Guy Forester says
I was thinking Gitmo would be a better option for the holy warrior. I will take you up on the tropical paradise, if you can find one.
Guy Forester says
Our so called political and law enforcement leaders remain willfully blind and ignorant of the clash of civilizations now going on. Actually, this is nothing new; these clashes go on continually in human events.
However, our so called leaders have no excuse for being ignorant of what is going on. These are not individual criminal actions, but acts of war with state sponsors. I believe that they refuse to recognize the true nature of the threats to the West for the following reasons:
1. By labeling these attacks as individual criminal actions, our leaders do not need to identify the state sponsors of organized terrorism.
2. By labeling these attacks as individual criminal actions, our leaders do not need to collectively declare war and wage a successful military action against these state sponsors (as was done by Jefferson against the Barbary Pirates and their state sponsors).
3. Instead of going after the state sponsors of terrorism, our leaders mollify the corporate donors that make poop loads of $$$ with lucrative contracts with OPEC members.
4. OPEC members can reward our dear leaders with generous donations to presidential libraries and favored “charities” for not going after our so called friends.
The other truth I have learned after some stints in the ME is that even our so called friends over there launder and censor the info going into these countries to keep the masses ignorant of the real facts regarding the rest of the world. There are many muslims that would like to learn about the Bible, Christianity, and would even leave islam if they could. Unfortunately, to leave is a terminal event. Even if a family comes into the West and then leaves islam, family members left behind may pay the price.
PRCS says
In the U.S., violent jihadists, like any criminal, must be charged and tried for their actions and–if convicted–sentenced IAW our man made laws.
The problem, IMO, is the general reluctance, the failure to cite the crime’s motive during the trial, substituting instead euphemisms and terms (the ever popular, ‘extremist’ as but one example which deflect the public’s attention from the root problem: Islam’s teachings.
The trial is scheduled for October 2019. Let’s hope the prosecutor and judge aren’t so timid in citing that motive–and Saipov’s own statements relative to that.
gravenimage says
Insane that he won’t be tried before then.
gravenimage says
Robert Spencer in PJ Media: NYC Truck Jihadi Says ISIS Is ‘Leading a War’ to ‘Impose Sharia’
…………………
Yes–this is what Jihad *is for*.
James K. says
Hear that, “feminists?” Bet you’re glad to know there are yardsand yards of polyester in your futures: let us know somehow how you like being bound from head to toe. Oh wait, you won’t be allowed to speak!!
Indiana Tom says
Have we seen this article before?
gravenimage says
Indiana Tom, Robert Spencer will often run a story, then run another story on his dealing with the issue in PJ Media.