Why the Mideast revolts will help Al-Qaeda

[Richard Wiig]

An opinion piece:

Why the Mideast revolts will help al-Qaeda

The rush in the West to proclaim the advance of democracy in the Arab world has led to the propagation of an ill-conceived and dangerous corollary: that the revolts in the Middle East and North Africa also mark the irrelevance of al-Qaeda and other Islamist militant groups.

"Al Qaeda Sees History Fly By," declared the New York Times. "Uprisings Put al Qaeda on Sidelines," asserted the Wall Street Journal. And Western politicians, academics and even intelligence specialists appear to agree that, with peaceful and pro-democratic change afoot in the Middle East, the world has moved beyond al-Qaeda, leaving Osama bin Laden writhing in the dust.

If only that were true. Since bin Laden declared war against the United States in 1996, al-Qaeda's main goals have included the destruction of the Arab world's tyrannies and of Israel. The events of recent weeks only move al-Qaeda closer to those objectives.

Today, the dictatorships of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak in Egypt are gone. Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh is little more than the mayor of his capital city of Sanaa. And Col. Moammar Gaddafi may be on his way out in Libya, unless some knee-jerk U.S.-led intervention saves him by refocusing Libyan and other North African Islamists on what they consider an infidel threat greater than Gaddafi.

As for Israel, the fall of Mubarak - and the unsealing of Egypt's border with Gaza - pose a security disaster equal to the destruction of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq. Israel's two anti-Islamist shields to the east and to the west are now history.

All of this amounts to an enormous strategic step forward for al-Qaeda. That these victories have come with virtually no investment of manpower or money by the terrorist network, and with self-defeating applause from the Facebook-obsessed, Twitter-addled West, only makes them all the sweeter for bin Laden.

Peering into the future, the autocrats' probable successors likewise offer abundant good news for al-Qaeda and kindred groups. In Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen and any other nation with a U.S.-supported tyranny that sinks in the weeks and months ahead, the role of Islamist groups will become larger - and over time perhaps dominant - if only because the populations in play are almost entirely Muslim and because Islamist groups have the most effective nationwide infrastructures to replace the old guard. And most do and will receive funding, openly or covertly, from always generous donors in Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich Sunni gulf states.

Each new regime is likely to host a more open, religion-friendly environment for speech, assembly and press freedoms than did Mubarak and his ilk. So it will be easier for media-savvy Islamist groups - whether peaceful or militant - to proselytize, publish and foment without immediate threat of arrest and incarceration. Indeed, Washington and its Western allies will dogmatically urge the new governments to maintain such freedoms, even as the Islamists capitalize on them.

The Islamists will follow the formulas for gaining power and then governing that are detailed in the Koran and the Sunnah, the prophet Muhammad's sayings and traditions. Western experts have long failed to recognize these documents as Islam's equivalent to the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Federalist Papers. In Egypt, for example, governance based on them would be far more familiar, comfortable and culturally appropriate than anything opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei and his followers could offer.

The blessing of the Arab revolts for al-Qaeda and its allies also can be seen in the opening of prisons across Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. In Egypt alone, the news media are reporting that at least 17,000 prisoners have been freed. Many of those released are not thieves and murderers, but Islamist firebrands that the regimes had jailed to protect their internal security - at times even at the request and with the funding of Washington and its allies. Indeed, many were incarcerated as a result of quiet cooperation between Western and Arab intelligence services; their release is a major setback for these efforts.

So al-Qaeda and like-minded groups are now being replenished by a steady flow of pious, veteran mujaheddin, each of whom will never forget that U.S. and other Western funds helped keep them jailed by Arab tyrants.

The revolts also mean that the United States and its Western allies must take on a far greater share of the counterterrorism operations that they previously conducted with the help of Arab regimes. The days of Mubarak, Saleh, Gaddafi and Ben Ali doing the dirty work for American, European and Israeli counterterrorism efforts are over. Soon it will be U.S. and Western special forces and intelligence services that will be ordered to capture or kill militants in Muslim lands - individuals that our tyrannical friends used to dispose of for us.

How tragic that in the war being waged against the United States by al-Qaeda and its allies precisely because of Washington's relentless intervention in the Islamic world, the U.S. government will now be forced to intervene even more - or sit on the sidelines and watch al-Qaeda build or expand bases from which to threaten U.S. security.

Of course, open and vociferous participation by Islamists in the demonstrations in Cairo, Tunis, Tripoli and elsewhere would have earned a lethal and Western-supported response from Mubarak, Ben Ali and Gaddafi. So al-Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood and other groups simply used a talent that long ago atrophied in the West - the ability to keep their mouths shut. As usual, the West wrongly concluded that silence connotes not strategy, but impotence and irrelevance.

Bin Laden and his peers are counting on the fact that the uprisings' secular, pro-democracy Facebookers and tweeters - so beloved of reality-averse Western journalists and politicians - are a thin veneer across a deeply pious Arab world. They are confident that these revolts are not about democratic change but about who, in societies where peaceful transfers of power are rare, will fill the vacuum left by the dictators and consolidate power. These men also know that the answer to that question will ultimately come out of the barrel of a Kalashnikov, of which they have many, along with the old tyrants' weapons stockpiles, on which they are now feasting.

[Kuffar-Source: WashingtonPost]

[Libertarian Muslim]

These revolts are a positive step towards democracy in the Middle East. Arabs have no taste or want for extremism, they're intelligent and reasonable people and they simply want to live as Americans do, free and able to decide their own future without dictators or foreigners interfering in their lives.

If you don't support that, then I'm not sure you can call yourself someone who stands up for liberty and democracy and expect to be taken seriously.

[BaalChatzaf]

These revolts are a positive step towards democracy in the Middle East. Arabs have no taste or want for extremism, they're intelligent and reasonable people and they simply want to live as Americans do, free and able to decide their own future without dictators or foreigners interfering in their lives.

If you don't support that, then I'm not sure you can call yourself someone who stands up for liberty and democracy and expect to be taken seriously.

Dream on.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Libertarian Muslim]

These revolts are a positive step towards democracy in the Middle East. Arabs have no taste or want for extremism, they're intelligent and reasonable people and they simply want to live as Americans do, free and able to decide their own future without dictators or foreigners interfering in their lives.

If you don't support that, then I'm not sure you can call yourself someone who stands up for liberty and democracy and expect to be taken seriously.

Dream on.

Ba'al Chatzaf

Ever been to the Middle East and spent time with Arabs? With Arab youth? Have you ever heard their dreams and aspirations? I can tell you that I have, and what I stated is what they've told me. What is the problem with them having that? Don't they have as much right to it as you do?

[BaalChatzaf]

Ever been to the Middle East and spent time with Arabs? With Arab youth? Have you ever heard their dreams and aspirations? I can tell you that I have, and what I stated is what they've told me. What is the problem with them having that? Don't they have as much right to it as you do?

No. I have been to ground zero and I know what some Muslim youths can do.

Ba'al Chatzaf

Given what I know I choose the fact over your hyper stimulated hopes.

Fact. Sufficiently motivated Muslims males youths hijack planes and strap on the explosive.

They say Allah Hu Akbar and then they die. Taking many good people with them to Paradise.

The goes your Muslim; different mountain, different god.

Ba'al Chatzaf

Edited March 15, 2011 by BaalChatzaf

[sbeaulieu]

No. I have been to ground zero and I know what some Muslim youths can do.

Ba'al Chatzaf

The key word being "some" and a very small number at that. What you do with those youths or any perpetrators of terror tactics is put them down or put them away. Plenty of good apples in the barrel...

~ Shane

[Libertarian Muslim]

Ever been to the Middle East and spent time with Arabs? With Arab youth? Have you ever heard their dreams and aspirations? I can tell you that I have, and what I stated is what they've told me. What is the problem with them having that? Don't they have as much right to it as you do?

No. I have been to ground zero and I know what some Muslim youths can do.

Ba'al Chatzaf

Given what I know I choose the fact over your hyper stimulated hopes.

Fact. Sufficiently motivated Muslims males youths hijack planes and strap on the explosive.

They say Allah Hu Akbar and then they die. Taking many good people with them to Paradise.

The goes your Muslim; different mountain, different god.

Ba'al Chatzaf

Ah yes.. Another one of those "I learned everything I need to know about Islam on 9/11" people.. The willfully ignorant..

I'm not sure what made you such a bitter and hateful old man but I'm quite sure it' can't be healthy.

[Brant Gaede]

Ever been to the Middle East and spent time with Arabs? With Arab youth? Have you ever heard their dreams and aspirations? I can tell you that I have, and what I stated is what they've told me. What is the problem with them having that? Don't they have as much right to it as you do?

No. I have been to ground zero and I know what some Muslim youths can do.

Ba'al Chatzaf

Given what I know I choose the fact over your hyper stimulated hopes.

Fact. Sufficiently motivated Muslims males youths hijack planes and strap on the explosive.

They say Allah Hu Akbar and then they die. Taking many good people with them to Paradise.

The goes your Muslim; different mountain, different god.

Ba'al Chatzaf

Ah yes.. Another one of those "I learned everything I need to know about Islam on 9/11" people.. The willfully ignorant..

I'm not sure what made you such a bitter and hateful old man but I'm quite sure it' can't be healthy.

Why should over a billion Muslims be held accountable for the actions of 19 (plus their support)?

--Brant

[BaalChatzaf]

Ah yes.. Another one of those "I learned everything I need to know about Islam on 9/11" people.. The willfully ignorant..

--Brant

Because most of them adhere to a religion that can lead otherwise normal people to do monstrous deeds. All it takes is the right stimulus and a horny young man becomes a Jihadi martyr. It is no coincidence that most of the "martyrs" are young men. The power of the libido diverted to evil ends produces evil results.

The young male population that adheres or is converted to Islam is the labor pool of Jihad-Martyr Incorporated.

The underlying cause is the religion.

Ba'al Chatzaf

Edited March 16, 2011 by BaalChatzaf

[Martin Radwin]

Ever been to the Middle East and spent time with Arabs? With Arab youth? Have you ever heard their dreams and aspirations? I can tell you that I have, and what I stated is what they've told me. What is the problem with them having that? Don't they have as much right to it as you do?

No. I have been to ground zero and I know what some Muslim youths can do.

Ba'al Chatzaf

Given what I know I choose the fact over your hyper stimulated hopes.

Fact. Sufficiently motivated Muslims males youths hijack planes and strap on the explosive.

They say Allah Hu Akbar and then they die. Taking many good people with them to Paradise.

The goes your Muslim; different mountain, different god.

Ba'al Chatzaf

Ah yes.. Another one of those "I learned everything I need to know about Islam on 9/11" people.. The willfully ignorant..

I'm not sure what made you such a bitter and hateful old man but I'm quite sure it' can't be healthy.

Why should over a billion Muslims be held accountable for the actions of 19 (plus their support)?

--Brant

You mean you didn't know that collective guilt, the principle that people are morally responsible for everything that any member of their race, religion, or tribal affiliation does, is the central principle of objectivist and all other individualist ethical systems? Since Ba'al is a profoundly individualist thinker who loathes any form of collectivism, isn't it obvious that he should support this ethical principle above all others?

Martin

[Selene]

Wow...

It must suck being a Kenyan with O'biwan as the affirmative action President!

[Richard Wiig]

These revolts are a positive step towards democracy in the Middle East.

Granted, it is a step closer to liberty, but it is still only as good as the values that drive it. It is after all two wolves and a lamb deciding what they're going to have for dinner. Gaza, and in fact the electing of Hitler, is a clear example.

Arabs have no taste or want for extremism,

Aside from the fact that Arabs are individuals who decide on an individual basis, they don't need to want extremism for extremism to flourish, they merely need to offer a more anti-American environment.

they're intelligent and reasonable people and they simply want to live as Americans do, free and able to decide their own future without dictators or foreigners interfering in their lives.

So the meme goes, but there are plenty of intelligent and reasonable people in Turkey too, and Turkey has been moving increasingly towards Islamisation, not liberty.

If you don't support that, then I'm not sure you can call yourself someone who stands up for liberty and democracy and expect to be taken seriously.

Whatever makes you think I don't support more power to the good? That I don't believe the good, at the moment, is a force powerful enough to overcome the forces of religiosity doesn't mean that I don't support it. In fact, the best thing that you can do for the good is look at the situation honestly. Pretending that things are something they are not can only aid the evil.

[Richard Wiig]

Why should over a billion Muslims be held accountable for the actions of 19 (plus their support)?

--Brant

If Objectivism taught that objectivists should martyr themselves in the cause of Objectivism by murdering non-objectivists, and a certain number acted on that, would you disown that part of your chosen philosophy by pretending it doesn't exist, or would you take responsiblity for it and work towards reform? Would it be wrong for those under threat from your philosophy to, not treat you as a criminal who's guilty of murder but, hold you accountable for the flaws in your chosen philosophy? If you have chosen a philosophy that promotes murder, why should you not be held accountable for that? The only reason I can see would be to evade reality which, as we know, by Objectivist standards, is evil.

[Brant Gaede]

Ah yes.. Another one of those "I learned everything I need to know about Islam on 9/11" people.. The willfully ignorant..

--Brant

Because most of them adhere to a religion that can lead otherwise normal people to do monstrous deeds. All it takes is the right stimulus and a horny young man becomes a Jihadi martyr. It is no coincidence that most of the "martyrs" are young men. The power of the libido diverted to evil ends produces evil results.

The young male population that adheres or is converted to Islam is the labor pool of Jihad-Martyr Incorporated.

The underlying cause is the religion.

Ba'al Chatzaf

Not my quote, Bob.

--Brant