There are many causes for the current surge of Islamic terrorism we see today. The role of Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabism has been widely discussed since 9/11 as well as the role of the Iranian Islamic revolution. In a previous essay I discussed the role of the Islamic media in brain-washing simple Muslims. I genuinely believe that the West has played, and is still playing an essential role in promoting Islamic terrorism. It sounds bizarre to believe that the West can provide such support to groups whose ultimate ambition is to destroy the Western civilization. Bizarre may it be, but it is true.  

It is important to emphasize that the root problem of Islamist Terrorism is embedded in the violent nature of Islam. But Islam is not new; it has been with us for over 1400 years. History tells us that Islamic atrocities peak only when Radical Muslims prevail. Examples are the atrocities against the tribes of Bani Nadeer and Bani Quraiza, committed during Mohammed’s time, then the atrocities against the Arab tribes who left Islam after Mohammed’s death during what is known as the Redda Wars. A more recent example is the atrocities of the Turks against the Armenians at the end of the First World War.  

The peculiar thing about the current wave of global Islamic terrorism is that it is taking place despite the lack global Islamic dominance. In fact, the Islamic Ummah currently, appears to be at the bottom of the list of nations in terms of scientific, technological and industrial achievements. Straightforward thinking will not expect today’s backward and corrupt Muslim Nations to have any influence on the far more advanced West. But they do, thanks to the politically correct, apologetic and liberal left groups. 

These groups are playing a dangerous game that can only lead to more Islamist terrorism and more bloodshed and could put an end to the western civilization, as we know it currently. In a sense, they (these leftist groups) are worse than the terrorists themselves, because of the valuable moral support they give to the terrorists that actually fuels more terrorists’ attacks. The Islamic threat was dormant during most of the twentieth century and only flourished recently as a result of their campaigns. The political motivation of these leftist groups cannot be excused and they have to be blamed for allowing the Islamic violent ideology to thrive and become the menace that it is today.

 A lesson from recent history 

A pertinent question here will be: 

Why the Islamic terrorism did not rise during most of the last century? 

It is ironic that the current wave of Islamic extremism came after a period when many Muslim nations were seen to be heading towards a new age of secularism. In the heart of the Middle East where Islam was born and where most of the current Islamic movements originated, the scenario looked very different about a century ago. The Arabs noblest cause was actually to get rid of, rather than establish Islamic khilafa! Both the Arabs and the Turks saw the Ottoman’s Islamic Khilafa as an icon of backwardness. 

There were enthusiastic movements to liberate the Arabs from the dark ages associated with the Ottoman’s Islamic khilafa. There were many attempts to modernize Al-Azhar, the prestigious Islamic university. From the turn of the century there was a proliferation of secular writings in various Middle Eastern countries as well as active women’s liberation movements. In the social field it was unusual to see in the streets of big cities a woman with a scarf or a man with a long Islamic beard. 

On the other hand there were other Muslim groups who were moving backwards. For example, the Muslim Brotherhood movement was founded in 1928 with the slogan ‘Allah is our God, Islam is our religion, Quran is our book and jihad is our way’. It is generally accepted that this movement has given birth to most of the radical Islamic organisations we see today. Remember, this was in 1928 and a long time before the creation of Israel in 1948, which says something to those who argue that it (Islamic Terrorism) all has to do with Israel and America!

The Saudi Influence

Saudi Arabia was formed in 1932 after a lengthy civil war and after its inception adopted the strict Wahhabi sect of Islam. This coincided with the discovery of oil and a wealth on a scale never known to the Arabs before. The Islamists’ had the Saudi financial and political muscle behind them but were largely unsuccessful thanks to the wave of nationalism that dominated the Middle East at the time.  Nasser of Egypt seized power in 1952 and quickly became the undisputed nationalist leader of the Arab world. He refused to be influenced by the Islamists, which frustrated the Muslim Brotherhood movement who responded by plotting to assassinate him in 1954. That assassination attempt failed but signalled a crack down on the Islamic movement and the imposition of complete ban on its activities.  

Nasser built a very influential propaganda machine and made sure that his voice is heard everywhere in the Arab world. He also started a big modernization programme for Al-Azhar promoting Egypt as a leading country in the Islamic world. The political and social climate was not simply suitable for the Islamic extremism to thrive. Ironically those were the years when Saudi’s most powerful leader, King Faisal, ruled the country.  

The important keywords from the above passage are: crack down and propaganda machine. The lesson to be learned is that the combined power of Saudi Arabia and the Muslim Brotherhood movement put together were not enough for Islamic extremism to rise in the Middle East. That was the time when Muslim extremists were left to the mercy of other fellow Muslims who knew Islam very well and how the Islamic mind works.  

Islam speaks only one language, the language of fear. Muslims are best controlled by a policy of intimidation and rewards, which is the policy adopted by Allah in the Quran. Allah speaks the Islamic language fluently, which is why He never stops talking about Hell and Paradise. Muslims cannot comprehend things unless put to them in plain Islamic language. Speak to Muslims about freedom and you get anarchy; speak to them about democracy and you get corruption; give them tolerance and you get terrorism. But if you crack down on them you get discipline! This is an amazing observation that even the most radicals of Muslims can behave like soft little lambs when they are under real threat. Has any one of us ever heard of Muqtada Al Sadr of Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s rule? I can bet that none of us ever heard of him. This man had his father killed by Saddam’s regime but his fear kept him quiet under Saddam’s rule. But observe how, during the current American rule, he has managed to emerge as a warlord with his Mahdi Army. All the thanks (or no thanks) go to the Americans—they have helped to rear and nurture this Islamist Terrorist. 

The Role of the West 

Are we witnessing the end of the Western civilization?

During the last few decades the West opened wide its gate to Muslim immigration from all backgrounds. Some of those Muslims were genuinely seeking good opportunities and started good lives, and many integrated well in their adopted countries. The Islamic movements, like Hizbul Tahrir and the Muslim Brotherhood were quick to take advantage of the favourable political and social climate in the West and started sending waves of their extremist members to seek political asylum. Soon the West was swarming with known extremists some of whom are convicted terrorists who fled their own countries.  

The West provided those Islamists with all their needs: shelter, money and the means to spread their message of terror and hate. The Islamists were very quick seizing control of the rapidly growing network of mosques and Islamic centres financed by Saudi Arabia. They embarked on an unrelenting brainwashing process to radicalise the rest of the Islamic communities. Muslim communities in the west locked themselves in isolated colonies where they only see Muslims, visit Muslims and befriend other Muslims. This Islamization of the society was so powerful that it resulted in a process of disintegration of those Muslims previously well integrated in their societies. 

The arrival of early Muslims to the west may have been random; indeed many of them may have never harboured the intention to rule or enforce their Islamic laws. Soon, they became well-grouped and organized by richly-financed organizations which knew very well how to make use of the west’s democracy and freedom of speech and how to recruit, to their advantage, the politically correct and liberals of the west. Radical Muslims think of immigration to the West as a jihad in itself, which brings to memory the example set by Mohammed in 622AD when he immigrated to Yathreb and made use of the political divisions among its chiefs to seize power. Muslims organizations in the west operate with that piece of history in mind. They follow the example of Mohammed and call themselves Al Muhajeroon which is the name given to Mohammed and his Meccan companions.  

One of the fundamental beliefs to all Muslims is that they are in a state of continuous perpetual jihad until all other religions are eliminated and Islam rules the world. They have the assurance from Allah that victory will be on their side and they have the commitment to Allah to maintain the jihad. Muslims make no secret of their intentions to rule the world and have no doubt about how to achieve that. Muslims are constantly reminded with a Hadith that says every Muslim is on an Islamic frontier and has to defend it. Islamic organizations in the West were successful in getting their message through to the rest of Muslim society. Muslims in the West are no more sporadic individuals; they became a united front. The recent events in Denmark, Britain, France and many other countries around the world prove just that. Muslims have now perfected the art of continuously moaning and complaining and playing the victims role. They murder, they torture and kill in thousands but never apologize. Their usual response: why are you blaming Muslims or Islam?

Islamists made an even more important use of the West by making it a platform from which they can launch their attacks everywhere in the world. From the West they managed to reach Muslims in other Islamic countries with the intention of recruiting them to serve their cause and fulfil their Islamic obligation to Allah; that is: eliminate everything that is not Islamic; and that truly includes everything! The West did a serious harm to other Islamic nations by allowing the Islamists to spread their influence to those nations; we now see signs of Islamic militancy in countries like Tunisia and Turkey, previously known to be moderate. 

Muslim extremists have been making use of the West for few decades, they started by testing the water and found that the west only responds with tolerance and politeness, which when translated to their Islamic language comes to mean weakness. They started to hit harder and harder and watched the response. They realized that the West is crippled by its laws and its politically correct liberal lefts. They discovered that the West is not willing to put a fight. They hit the west very hard and loud on 9/11, soon they attacked the west in Sydney, Bali, Istanbul, Madrid, and London and everywhere they could reach. That was enough to wake up the dead, but not enough to wake up the politically correct liberals who are still in denial even of the existence of the Islamic threat. 

Another major achievement of the Islamic organizations in the west is the missionary role.  Many Westerners couldn’t resist the money-temptation and fell into this trap by publicly promoting Islam as a divine religion, while others converted to Islam for various reasons. What matters here is that each convert has given a tremendous moral boost to the Muslims. Islamists used those conversions extensively in their public relations to make ordinary Muslims cling even more to their religion and make those who were considering leaving to think again. Those conversions were seen by Muslims as surrendering of the enemy and an ultimate sign that Islam is the straight path to Allah and every Muslim must follow its teachings carefully. 

Despite their obvious hatred, Muslims harbour a feeling of inferiority towards the Christian West. So any positive remark made by a Christian regarding Mohammed and Islam is always welcome as it boosts their confidence in Islam. From its early days, this had been an inherent inferiority complex in Islam. After 1400 years, Muslims are still taught how the infidel Al Waleed Ibn Al Mughira positively described the Quranic style, or how some Jews expressed their admiration of Mohammed’s knowledge. Other positive remarks made by some western writers in recent centuries have been inscribed well in the history of Islam as proof of authenticity. Even if we accept that all those stories were true, which is doubtful, the fact that none of those infidels actually embraced Islam doesn’t ring a bell in Muslims’ minds.  

The current Islamic regimes who were under the threat of Islamic terrorism in their respective countries adopted policies to combat this menace in an effective way. Sadly, the west’s policies have made those effective measures largely ineffective. The spread of Islamic extremism was successfully resisted by many Middle-Eastern countries. Unfortunately, the rise of Islamic extremism was undoubtedly laid by the liberal and democratic policies of the west. The behaviour of the Islamists and their dress code only became acceptable in many Middle Eastern countries after they had taken roots in the west.  The successes made by the Islamists in the west were echoed in other Islamic countries. Middle-Eastern countries which still ban hijab, like Tunisia and Turkey are under increasing moral pressure to lift the ban, the usual argument is if they can wear it in the West why not here? We must not forget that hijab is a political instrument used by the Islamists to show their strength in the street, the more of it the stronger the message they give to the world about their popularity.  

The bottom line is: the successes made by the Islamists in the west have nothing to do with the strength of their case. This has much to do with the support they received from the liberal left groups in the west.