by Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n
National Review Online<\/em><\/p>\n I<\/span>n an unprecedented effort to rally popular support, al Qaeda is apparently trying to refashion its image from an ultra-conservative, radical Islamist group with clear and precise goals \u2014 the ultimate being to implement\u00a0sharia<\/i>\u00a0law around the globe \u2014 to what the liberal West has long had a soft spot for: a romanticized revolutionary movement of the \u201cCh\u00e9\u201d variety, fighting to overthrow oppression and exploitation (which, as the usual story goes, are products of U.S. greed and aggression).<\/p>\n Speaking to the many \u201cunder-privileged\u201d of the world in his most recent interview, al Qaeda\u2019s Ayman al-Zawahiri declares: \u201cThat\u2019s why I want blacks in America, people of color, American Indians, Hispanics, and all the weak and oppressed in North and South America, in Africa and Asia, and all over the world, to know that when we wage jihad in Allah\u2019s path, we aren\u2019t waging jihad to lift oppression from Muslims only; we are waging jihad to lift oppression from\u00a0all<\/i>\u00a0mankind, because Allah has ordered us never to accept oppression, whatever it may be\u2026This is why I want every oppressed one on the face of the earth to know that our victory over America and the Crusading West \u2014 with Allah\u2019s permission \u2014 is a victory for them, because they shall be freed from the most powerful tyrannical force in the history of mankind.\u201d<\/p>\n American blacks, however, are Zawahiri\u2019s primary targets. For a traditional Arab Sunni who despises everything borne of the West, Zawahiri spends an inordinate amount of time praising and quoting Malcolm X \u2014 who, though a convert to Islam, was still very much a by-product of the U.S. Zawahiri\u2019s interview even portrays video-clips of the political activist preaching about freedom and fighting: \u201cAnytime you beg another man to set you free, you will never be free. Freedom is something you have to do for yourself. The price of freedom is death.\u201d Also included is a lengthy excerpt where X delineates the differences between \u201chouse-negroes\u201d (an epithet Zawahiri later applies to Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice) and \u201cfield-negroes\u201d (\u201creal men\u201d who fight and kill to avenge their honor). Based on this unexpected \u201cAfrican-American\u201d interlude, it is clear whom Zawahiri has in mind for an audience: probably characters like D.C. sniper John Allen Muhammad, who went on a shooting spree randomly murdering Americans shortly after 9\/11.<\/p>\n Commenting on the U.S.\u2019s many crimes against nature, Zawahiri next tries to evoke the sentiments of a radically different segment of the world\u2019s population: environmentalists. Unlike the former groups, they are generally white and affluent. \u201c[The U.S.] went out and ruined for the entire world, the atmosphere and climate with the gases emitted by its factories,\u201d says Zawahiri. Indeed, years ago Osama bin Laden himself used this tactic when complaining about the failure of the U.S. to sign the Kyoto protocols: \u201cYou [the U.S.] have destroyed nature with your industrial waste and gases more than any other nation in history.\u201d (As if al Qaeda, which has little regard for life or limb, could truly care about the environment.)<\/p>\n A<\/span>t any rate, what does this ostensibly disparate group of people \u2014 third worlders, environmentalists, and disaffected American blacks \u2014 have in common? They all harbor \u201cleftist\u201d sentiments that can be easily exploited and turned against the U.S., which is precisely what al Qaeda is trying to do.<\/p>\n What of Zawahiri\u2019s talk of \u201clifting oppression from all mankind\u201d and al Qaeda\u2019s desire to \u201cfree\u201d humanity from \u201cthe most powerful tyrannical force in the history of mankind\u201d? Is he serious? Actually, yes, he is.<\/p>\n The seeming contradiction stems from the Western notion of \u201cfreedom\u201d and \u201coppression\u201d and radical Islam\u2019s different view of those two terms. For radicals in al Qaeda, the dichotomy between \u201cfreedom\u201d and \u201coppression\u201d is wholly founded on whether\u00a0sharia\u00a0<\/i>law is made supreme in the world; that is, whether every single man, woman, and child \u2014 both Muslim and non-Muslim \u2014 lives under the mandates of Islamic law. If they do, they are considered \u201cfree\u201d; if not, as the case is today, the mass of humanity is considered \u201coppressed.\u201d<\/p>\n Osama bin Laden himself makes this clear in one of his more arcane documents written for Muslim eyes only: \u201cMuslims and especially the learned amongst them, should spread\u00a0sharia<\/i>\u00a0law to the world \u2014 that and nothing else. Not [secular] laws under the \u2018umbrella of justice, morality, and rights\u2019 as understood by the masses. No, the\u00a0sharia<\/i>\u00a0of Islam is the foundation.\u2026For practically everything valued by the immoral West is condemned under\u00a0sharia<\/i>law\u2026. As for [the concept of] oppression, the\u00a0only<\/i>\u00a0oppression is to forsake them [Americans] in their infidelities, and not launch a jihad against them till they submit to the faith \u2014 as the Prophet did with them.\u201d (Al Qaeda Reader<\/i>)<\/p>\n Zawahiri is obviously being disingenuous. \u201cBlacks in America, people of color, American Indians, Hispanics, and all the weak and oppressed in North and South America, in Africa and Asia, and all over the world\u201d certainly do not have\u00a0sharia<\/i>\u00a0law in mind whenever Zawahiri sings praises about freedom and the need for the world to unite and lift off the yoke of Western oppression. This is especially the case since\u00a0sharia<\/i>\u00a0law specifies a number of draconian restrictions and double-standards for all those who choose not to convert: second-class\u00a0dhimmi<\/i>\u00a0status for Christians and Jews (in accordance to Koran 9:29); death for polytheists \u2014 those whom Zawahiri would otherwise implore for aid in Africa and Asia (in accordance to Koran 9:5).<\/p>\n Contrary to Zawahiri\u2019s promise, then, radical Islam\u2019s \u201cvictory over America and its \u2018Crusading\u2019 allies\u201d would definitely\u00a0not<\/i>\u00a0be a \u201cvictory for them,\u201d the non-Muslim peoples of the world.<\/p>\n \u00a92007 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Zawahiri invokes the language of social justice. by Raymond Ibrahim National Review Online In an unprecedented effort to rally popular support, al Qaeda is apparently trying to refashion its image from an ultra-conservative, radical Islamist group with clear and precise goals \u2014 the ultimate being to implement\u00a0sharia\u00a0law around the globe \u2014 to what the liberal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[227,758],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1qh","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2532,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/al-qaedas-zawahiri-bigger-threat-than-osama\/","url_meta":{"origin":5473,"position":0},"title":"Al Qaeda’s Zawahiri, Bigger Threat Than Osama?","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 17, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim Bloomberg Now that Ayman Zawahiri has assumed leadership of al Qaeda, it is important to end the widespread perception that he is a dour intellectual who is disconnected from young, would-be jihadists. The fact is, Zawahiri is a wily,dangerous\u00a0and imposing leader who should be considered no less\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egypt"","block_context":{"text":"Egypt","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/egypt\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6973,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/al-qaeda-the-defender-of-christians\/","url_meta":{"origin":5473,"position":1},"title":"Al Qaeda: The Defender of Christians?","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 4, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0RaymondIbrahim.com\u00a0 Muslim persecution of Christians is the \u201cAchilles Heel\u201d of the global Islamic movement\u2019s image\u2014the surest way of exposing its supremacist and intolerant elements and one of the main reasons the major media and establishment rarely report or address it. The logic (fully explained here) can be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Islam"","block_context":{"text":"Islam","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/islam\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3265,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/islam-and-innocence\/","url_meta":{"origin":5473,"position":2},"title":"Islam and Innocence","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim Jihad Watch Just recently, a high ranking Pakistani cleric, one Munib ur-Rehmen,asserted\u00a0that \u201cIslam does not allow anybody to take lives of innocent people by any means.\u201d However, when he was grand mufti, two years earlier, he alsosaid\u00a0that \u201ctruly Islamic\u201d states must kill the apostate from Islam. Considering\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Raymond Ibrahim"","block_context":{"text":"Raymond Ibrahim","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/raymond-ibrahim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2431,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/mubarak-deceived-israel-as-muhammad-deceived-infidels\/","url_meta":{"origin":5473,"position":3},"title":"Mubarak Deceived Israel as Muhammad Deceived Infidels?","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim Hudson New York In light of ousted president Hosni Mubarak's ongoing trial, Western readers may be surprised to learn who some of Mubarak's staunchest defenders are: Salafi Muslims, that is, those Muslims who practice the 7th-century Islam of Muhammad, often referred to as \"radicals.\" Sheikh Mahmoud Amer,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egypt"","block_context":{"text":"Egypt","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/egypt\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6321,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-return-of-al-qaeda-and-jihad\/","url_meta":{"origin":5473,"position":4},"title":"The Return of Al Qaeda and Jihad","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/\u00a0FrontPage Magazine With the ousting of Muhammad Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, al-Qaeda has been vindicated and the terror-jihad exonerated, in the opinion of many Islamists, that is. 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