{"id":788,"date":"2012-05-16T16:09:14","date_gmt":"2012-05-16T16:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com.108-166-28-151.mdgnetworks.com\/wordpress\/?p=788"},"modified":"2013-02-25T16:12:05","modified_gmt":"2013-02-25T16:12:05","slug":"mexican-jihad-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/mexican-jihad-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexican Jihad"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n

Gatestone Institute<\/em><\/p>\n

As the United States considers the Islamic jihadi threats confronting it from all sides, it would do well to focus on its southern neighbor, Mexico, which has been targeted by Islamists and jihadists, who, through a number of tactics \u2014 from engaging in\u00a0da’wa<\/em>, converting Mexicans to Islam, to smuggling and the drug cartel, simple extortion, kidnappings and enslavement \u2014 have been subverting Mexico in order to empower Islam and sabotage the US.<\/p>\n

According to a 2010 report, “Close to home: Hezbollah terrorists are plotting right on the US border<\/a>,” which appeared in the\u00a0NY Daily News<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Mexican authorities have rolled up a Hezbollah network being built in\u00a0Tijuana<\/a>\u00a0… closer to American homes than the terrorist hideouts in the\u00a0Bekaa Valley<\/a>\u00a0are to Israel. Its goal, according to a Kuwaiti newspaper that reported on the investigation: to strike targets in Israel and the West.\u00a0Over the years, Hezbollah \u2014 rich with Iranian oil money and narcocash \u2014 has generated revenue by cozying up with Mexican cartels to smuggle drugs and people into the\u00a0<\/em>U.S.<\/em><\/a>\u00a0In this, it has shadowed the terrorist-sponsoring regime in\u00a0Tehran<\/a>, which has been forging close ties with\u00a0Hugo Chavez<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0Venezuela<\/a>, who in turn supports the narcoterrorist organization\u00a0FARC<\/a>, which wreaks all kinds of havoc throughout the region.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another 2010 article appearing in the\u00a0Washington Times<\/a><\/em>\u00a0asserts that, “with fresh evidence of Hezbollah activity just south of the border [in Mexico], and numerous reports of Muslims from various countries posing as Mexicans and crossing into the United States from Mexico, our porous southern border is a national security nightmare waiting to happen.” This is in keeping with a recent study done by Georgetown University, which revealed that the number of immigrants from Lebanon and Syria living in Mexico exceeds 200,000. Syria, along with Iran, is one of Hezbollah’s strongest financial and political supporters, and Lebanon is the immigrants’ country of origin. Just like only 19 jihadists were necessary to cause the devastation of September 11, 2001, only a handful of these 200,000 are necessary to wreak havoc north of the border.<\/p>\n

A jihadist cell in Mexico was recently found to have a weapons cache of 100 M-16 assault rifles, 100 AR-15 rifles, 2,500 hand grenades, C4 explosives and antitank munitions. The weapons, it turned out, had been smuggled by Muslims from Iraq. According to\u00a0this report<\/a>, “obvious concerns have arisen concerning Hezbollah’s presence in Mexico and possible ties to Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTO’s) operating along the US-Mexico border.”<\/p>\n

As far back as 2005, an article entitled “Islam is gaining a Foothold in Chiapas<\/a>” showcased the inroads of Islam in Mexico:<\/p>\n

Long a bastion of Catholicism, southern Mexico is quickly turning into a battleground for soul-savers. Islam, too, is gaining a foothold and the indigenous Mayans are converting by the hundreds. The Mexican government is worried about a culture clash in their own backyard\u2026 Muslim women in headscarves have become a common sight\u2026.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To appreciate the significance of the fact that Muslim headscarves “have become a common sight” in Mexico, consider the words of former jihadist Tawfik Hamid, who personally knew al-Qaeda leader Ayman Zawahiri. In his book,\u00a0Inside Jihad<\/a><\/em>, he writes: “The proliferation of the hijab [Muslim headscarves] is strongly correlated with increased terrorism\u2026. Terrorism became much more frequent in such societies as Indonesia, Egypt, Algeria, and the UK after the hijab became prevalent among Muslim women living in those communities.”<\/p>\n

After discussing an increase in converts to Islam, the article continues by saying: “It’s a development that is beginning to worry the Mexican government.\u00a0Indeed, the government even suspects the new converts of subversive activity and has already set the secret service onto the track of the Mayan Muslims. Mexican President Vincente Fox has even gone so far as to say he fears the influence of the radical fundamentalists of al Qaeda<\/em>” [emphasis added].<\/p>\n

Kidnappings, as part of a drug cartel or as part of a jihadist operation, which legitimizes crimes such as kidnapping and child slavery, have become increasingly common. To convert non-Muslims to their cause, Islamists also whip up \u2014 and then exploit \u2014 a sense of “grievance” against the “white man.”<\/p>\n

In addition, according to counterterrorism experts in this\u00a0report<\/a>, Islamic terrorists blend in better with Mexicans than with Europeans, thereby enabling them to sneak into the US across the southwest border.\u00a0This Muslim cleric<\/a>, for example, discusses how easy it is to smuggle a briefcase containing anthrax from Mexico into America, thereby killing at least some 330,000 Americans in a single hour.<\/p>\n

Similarly, Michael Braun, formerly assistant administrator and chief of operations at the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA),\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0that the Iran-backed Lebanese group has long been involved in narcotics and human trafficking in South America; however, it is relying on Mexican narcotics syndicates that control access to transit routes into the US. Hezbollah relies on “the same criminal weapons smugglers, document traffickers and transportation experts as the drug cartels.”<\/p>\n

Only a few months ago, Washington announced that FBI and DEA agentsdisrupted a plot<\/a>\u00a0to commit a “significant terrorist act in the United States,” which was tied to Iran with roots in Mexico. The increased violence \u2014 including beheadings, Islam’s signature trademark \u2014 is even more indicative that Islamists are well ensconced in Mexico’s drug cartel.<\/p>\n

The threat is not limited to Hezbollah; back in 2006, according to\u00a0ISN<\/a>, “Mexican authorities investigated the activities of the Murabitun [a\u00a0da’wa<\/em>, or missionary-outreach, organization named after historic jihadists along Spain’s borders] due to reports of alleged immigration and visa abuses involving the group’s European members and possible radicals, including al Qaeda.”<\/p>\n

Even innocuous reports, such as this\u00a0Muslim article<\/a>, are cause for concern: “Today, most Mexican Islamic organizations focus on grassroots\u00a0da’wa<\/em>. These small organizations are most effective at the community level, going from village to village and speaking directly to the people.” Although this may not sound problematic, the strain of Islam being spread by many of these\u00a0da’wa<\/em>organizations is the radical, “Salafist,” anti-American variety.\u00a0Here<\/a>, for instance, is a popular Egyptian TV cleric saying that while Muslims must never smile to non-Muslims \u2014 who, as “infidels,” are by nature the enemy \u2014 they are free to do so if the Muslim is engaged in\u00a0da’wa<\/em>, trying to win over the infidel into the fold of Islam, especially if the potential convert can help empower Islam in any way.<\/p>\n

These are but a few of the many reports on Islam in Mexico. The evidence that many Islamists in Mexico are plotting against the US, using all means \u2014 such as drug trafficking, which is not forbidden in Sharia law if it serves to empower Islam \u2014 is overwhelming.<\/p>\n

Under various methods \u2014 from the violent to the subversive to the exploitative \u2014 Islam allows Muslims to lie and commit other duplicitous acts in the furtherance of Islam.\u00a0Taqiyya<\/a><\/em>\u00a0[dissimulation] permits Hezbollah and other Islamists to engage in Mexico’s drug cartel, just as “pious” members of the Taliban in Afghanistan pursued the heroin trade. Aside from sheer violence, justified as “jihad,” or holy war, tactics pursued by Mexico’s Islamists include:<\/p>\n