The ongoing refusing to face squarely and articulate the ideology that motivates a great deal of contemporary terrorism dooms to failure any attempt to formulate a strategy to counter that terror threat.
“NATO launches Counter-Terrorism Reference Curriculum,” NATO, June 12, 2020:
NATO today (12 June 2020) launches its first ever Counter-Terrorism Reference Curriculum (CTRC). It supports interested Allies and partner countries in enhancing their capacities to develop national skills and improve counter-terrorism strategies.
The Curriculum will also serve as a reference document to address partner nation defence educational institution requirements and will provide helpful guidelines for relevant existing NATO courses. Drawing on historical examples, the CTRC provides an overview of terrorist ideologies, motivations and methods, as well as contemporary counter-terrorism practices and potential future projections.
The NATO Counter-Terrorism Reference Curriculum is the result of close cooperation between the Defence Education Enhancement Programme (DEEP) and NATO`s Counter-Terrorism Section, as well as the Partnership for Peace Consortium. Over 100 experts from nations across five continents, including from Tunisia, Jordan and Mauritania, as well as multiple international organizations contributed to the writing, drafting, and editing of the final product.
Launching the Curriculum, Dr. Antonio Missiroli, NATO’s Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges stated: “Security challenges like terrorism are not diminishing because of the global pandemic. Terrorism undermines our safety and the very values that underpin and inspire our societies. The Alliance is committed to address this threat with all available means. Supporting improved awareness, strengthening resilience and building counter-terrorism capacity of both Allies and partners are all part of this effort, and the CTRC perfectly fits these objectives. I would like to thank all those who helped make this Curriculum possible, including the United Nations, the European Union and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).”…
OTTER says
The fear of Islam is global. If you mention Muslim and Islam, they will kill you. Simple as that. And that works. As Robert Spencer often says, there is a global pandemic of cowardice. All have succumbed except a few brave souls like Spencer. Can’t say enough to appreciate the work that you do Robert! You are so worthy of admiration. I hope your work is not too late.
janicevanguilder says
Amen!
Uma Maheswar Nakka says
Amen!
gravenimage says
+1
James Lincoln says
Hear, hear!
Miguel Ángel says
Same here Sir, I had never heard of Robert Spencer or jihadi watch until investigating sexual abuse commited by muslim migrants in my city. I am so thankful for Roberts work. I have no hate in my heart but these leftist anti british and American Islam lovers are destroying our heritage for these jihadists. Thank god for spencer speaking out.
gravenimage says
+1
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
As Robert Spencer often says, there is a global pandemic of cowardice.
The act of willful ignorance is how that cowardice is operated.
To take an unrelated example, we maintain willful ignorance in the now accepted belief that the Chinese were careless and let an pathogen escape from the lab, and then , and then covered it up with the complicity of the WHO.
But that’s not what happened. What really happened is the Chinese were working on a biological weapon, they were careless and let an awful pathogen escape from the lab, and then proceeded to intentionally infect the world. The pandemic was created on purpose by the Chinese. From January 1 to January 28, about 10,000 Chinese flew to the U.S. every day. They knew that this would create an epidemic in America, which was (and is) to the CCP’s competitive advantage.
China has gained so much from causing the pandemic some are now thinking (but not talking) about the likelihood that they’ll do it again.
Same as with the Moslems.
Wellington says
Rather like the nonsense put forth under Obama, i.e., the Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) program, whereby it is not mentioned that Islam accounts for the vast amount of violent extremism in the world and whereby a moral equivalency plane is assumed whereby Far Right extremists (quite few in numbers and respecting committed atrocities) are as much a threat (actually far more per this stupidthink) than the hundreds of millions of Muslims who are extremists, such Muslim extremists being either Muslims supporting fellow Mo extremists or actually engaging in extremism themselves, per what Islam in its theological blueprint demands from all Muslims. (N.B., Many Muslims are not ready to support or carry out the many despicable Islamic directives, of which there are many {e.g., death for apostasy, as to be found in Sura 4:89, and the sanctioning of the rape of non-Muslim women, as to be found in Suras 4, 23, 33 and 70} but it is imperative to realize that lazy Muslims, so-so Muslims, even silly, sincere Muslims who argue that Islam is something noble and good, should NEVER be allowed to distract from what Islam really intends for all the world—or how sick it really is)
Anyway, “merely” more politically correct idiocy, this time courtesy of NATO. Meanwhile, over 37,000 documented Islamic terrorist attacks have occurred just since 9/11 versus, what, a few dozen, a hundred or so, non-Islamic terrorist attacks done in the name of some other stupid ideology over the same time period? And yes, I wish to be very clear, completely unambiguous, I do most definitely consider Islam a stupid ideology. Unfortunately, it also has been able to masquerade as a major religion of the world and massive deception by Muslims, and massive ignorance by non-Muslims defending Islam, keeps this longest-lived lie alive.
But back to NATO. If it had any real guts and accurate knowledge (it doesn’t), it would have kicked out Turkey many years ago. PRECISELY to the extent this has not happened, then precisely to this very extent does putrid political correctness, moronic multiculturalism and continued ignorance of what Islam has in mind for all the world function as a continual indictment of NATO at present, which was originally (and nobly) constructed to preserve and extend freedom. No way Turkey under Erdogan is doing this. And no way Islam in general has ever preserved or extended freedom.
Farce all around. A given. It continues unabated.
Jim Keiper says
Very well put Wellington!!$
gravenimage says
NATO launches Counter-Terrorism Reference Curriculum, no mention of Islamic jihad
………………
How utterly insane is this? They didn’t even use some sort of euphemism like “Islamic extremism”.
Complete willful ignorance.
AleX says
Title: ”NATO launches Counter Terrorism Reference Curriculum, no mention of Islamic jihad’
That leaves the experts with the age-old jihad dilemma: the martyrs from Caodong School of Chan Buddhism or the Oomoto mujaheed of the Shinto.
Adam says
Sure glad my betters are in charge.
NATO has a plan, it just has nothing to do with liberty or a strong U.S.A.
Mark Spahn (West Seneca, NY) says
https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_176304.htm
is the linked-to article. It is only five paragraphs long and is remarkably uninformative.
[1] Is this Counter-Terrorism Reference Curriculum (CTRC) a public document? If so, where can it be found?
[2] The Jihad Watch headline says it makes no mention of Islamic jihad. Where does this information come from? The NATO article says “the CTRC provides an overview of terrorist ideologies, motivations and methods.” Is Islamic jihad not listed among these terrorist ideologies in its Table of Contents? Which terrorist ideologies *are* listed?
gravenimage says
Mark, you can see that the story does not in fact mention Islamic Jihad, or even some sort of euphemism for it.
Mark Spahn (West Seneca, NY) says
Exactly; “the CTRC provides an overview of terrorist ideologies, motivations and methods”, but the article about it mentions not a single terrorist ideology. Is this because the CTRC overview lists none, or because the article reports none? How in the world did the Jihad Watch headline writer learn that the CTRC makes “no mention of Islamic jihad”? Did the headline writer even *see* the text, or at least the Table of Contents, of the CTRC?
Roger Woodhouse says
Perhaps NATO had a different kind of ‘terrorism,’ in mind when they drew up this plan.?Everything except Islamic .
mortimer says
USEFUL DEFINITIONS FOR NATO COMMANDERS
JIHADISM is a political ideology that claims jihad is the highest deed in Islam and the one that is most rewarded by Allah, therefore, jihad is the most recommended deed in Islam, even more recommended than Islamic prayer. All actions that help the subjugation of society under discriminatory Sharia law may be called jihad. Jihad can be performed in four chief ways: 1) jihad of the pen 2) jihad of the tongue 3) jihad of the sword 4) jihad of money.
Just because a Muslim is not violent, doesn’t mean he is not a jihadist.
Jihadists see violent struggle as necessary to eradicate obstacles to restoring Allah’s rule on Earth and defending the Muslim community or ummah against infidels and apostates. If the umma is threatened by an aggressor, they hold that jihad is not just a collective obligation (fard kifaya), but an individual duty (fard ayn) that must be fulfilled by every able Muslim, just like ritual prayer and fasting during Ramadan.
ISLAMISM a political project to reorder society under discriminatory Sharia law. Islamists aim to reorder government and society in accordance with Islamic law, for the benefit of Muslims and to the detriment of non-Muslims.
ISLAMISM is served and promoted by JIHADISM.
A recent study by Thomas Hegghammer of the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment identified five prominent objectives of JIHADISM:
1- Changing the social and political organisation of the state. For example, the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and the former Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) fought a decade-long war with Algeria’s security forces with the aim of toppling the government and creating an Islamic state.
2- Establishing sovereignty on a territory perceived as occupied or dominated by non-Muslims. The Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (Soldiers of the Pure) is opposed to Indian control of Kashmir, while the Caucasus Emirate wants an Islamic state throughout the “Muslim lands” in the Russian Federation.
3- Defending the umma from external – non-Muslim – threats. This includes jihadists focused on fighting what they call the “near enemy” (al-adou al-qarib) in confined areas – such as Arabs who travelled to Bosnia and Chechnya to defend local Muslims against non-Muslim armies – and “global jihadists” who target the
“far enemy” (al-adou al-baid), which in most cases is the West – many of whom are affiliated to al-Qaeda.
4- Correcting other Muslims’ moral behaviour. In Indonesia, vigilantes escalated from using sticks and stones to attack people in the name of upholding morality and curbing Islamic “deviance” to using guns and bombs.
5- Intimidating and marginalising other Muslim sects. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (Soldiers of Jhangvi) has for decades carried out violent attacks on Pakistani Shia, whom they consider heretics who should be killed. Iraq has also been plagued by inter-sectarian violence between Muslims label one another as ‘deviants’.
All Muslims are jihadists ‘of the tongue’ when they dissemble or cloak the motive and methods of jihad in order to keep the kafirs unaware and unprepared for jihad when jihad leaders decide to launch it.
James Lincoln says
All true, mortimer.
Not likely to gain any traction at the NATO headquarters, however…
gravenimage says
Good post.
libertyORdeath says
“Drawing on historical examples, the CTRC provides an overview of terrorist ideologies, motivations and methods…”
How can this be true without addressing the ideology and motivations of a group that commits more than 5 terror attacks per day?
I also love that they just had to show us how diveserve and not racist they are by conspicuously mentioning the supposed “experts” from Tunisia, Jordan and Mauritania.
libertyORdeath says
Yet again, the blind are leading the blind
Merri-joy says
What is Dr Sajjan M. Gohel’s backgeound? He is the author of the Counter Terrorism Curriculum!
Will he be truthful and put Islamic Jihad in the bulls eye?
gravenimage says
I am wondering this as well.
Merri-joy says
NATO needs to immediately expel Turkey, ‘cos they will be giving the enemy insider information!
Merri-joy says
It would be really great if Mr Spencer could have a lot of imput into the Counter Terrorism Curriculum
gravenimage says
+1
Giacomo Latta says
Even army generals are so cowed by political correctness that if the expression counter-terrorism is no longer acceptable we won’t even have an army that does that.