September 6, 2003
UP THE CRUSADER-ZIONIST CONCOTION!:
The Future of Iraq and The Arabian Peninsula After The Fall of Baghdad (Amir Taheri, September 5, 2003, townhall.com)
“It is not the American war machine that should be of the utmost concern to Muslims. What threatens the future of Islam, in fact its very survival, is American democracy.”This is the message of a new book, published by Al Qaeda in several Arab countries yesterday.
The book’s title is “The Future of Iraq and The Arabian Peninsula After The Fall of Baghdad.” Its author is Yussuf al-Ayyeri, one of Osama Ben Laden’s closest associates since the early 1990s. A Saudi citizen, Al-Ayyeri, also known under the nom de guerre of Abu Muhammad, was killed in a gun-battle with security forces in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, last June. [...]
What Al Ayyeri sees now is a “clean battlefield” in which Islam faces a new form of unbelief.
This, he labels: “secularist democracy”.
Al Ayyeri asserts that this new threat is “far more dangerous to Islam” than all its predecessors combined.
The reasons, he explains in a whole chapter, must be sought in democracy’s “seductive capacities.” This form of “unbelief” persuades the people that they are in charge of their destiny and that, using their collective reasoning, they can shape policies and pass laws as they see fit. That leads them into ignoring the “unalterable laws” promulgated by God for the whole of mankind, and codified in the Islamic Shariah ( jurisprudence) until the end of time.
The goal of democracy, according to Al Ayyeri, is to “make Muslims love this world, forget the next world, and abandon Jihad.” If established in any Muslim country for a reasonably long time, democracy could lead to economic prosperity which, in turn, would make Muslims “reluctant to die in martyrdom” in defence of their faith.
He says that it is vital to prevent any normalisation and stabilisation in Iraq. Muslim militants should make sure that the US does not succeed in holding elections in Iraq and creating a democratic government.
“If democracy comes to Iraq, the next target {for democratisation} would be the whole of the Muslim world,” Al Ayyeri writes.
The Al Qaeda ideologist claims that the only Muslim country already affected by “the beginning of democratisation” and thus in “mortal danger” is Turkey.
“Do we want what happened in Turkey to happen to all Muslim countries?” he asks. “Do we want Muslims to refuse taking part in Jiahd and submit to secularism which is a Zionist-Crusader concoction?”
Obviously we want almost precisely what happened in Turkey to happen in Iraq, but recall that in Turkey democracy was imposed by the authoritarian regime of a visionary pro-Western leader.
MORE:
Is Iraq Capable of Democracy? [PDF] (Kenneth Pollack and Daniel Byman, Brookings Institution)
Jeez. Maybe the crusaders were right? Nah, they were European Christians fighting innocent Muslims...
Posted by: Tom C., Stamford,Ct. at September 6, 2003 1:44 PMMr. Judd;
I would say that this proves that Al Qaeda is at war with the West because of our virtues, not vices, but those who make that claim seem to view our secular democracy in the same was as Al Qaeda.