New York Times, 21 July 2010: A 20-year-old Virginia man who had made threatening statements about the television show “South Park” was arrested on Wednesday and charged with supporting the Shabab, a Somalia-based terrorist group, after he allegedly tried to board a flight to Africa with his infant son.
The man, a Muslim convert from Fairfax County, Va., named Zachary A. Chesser, had been in e-mail contact with Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born radical cleric now hiding in Yemen, prosecutors said. Mr. Chesser was briefly in the news in April after he posted on the Internet a statement that the makers of “South Park” might be killed for portraying the Prophet Muhammad in a bear suit.
In an unrelated case on Wednesday, another American convert to Islam, Paul G. Rockwood Jr., 35, of King Salmon, Alaska, admitted that he had been radicalized by reading Mr. Awlaki’s tracts on the Web and had prepared a list of 15 people he believed should be killed for “desecrating Islam.” . . .
. . . . The terrorism-related charges against two Americans, both devotees of Mr. Awlaki, are part of a marked increase in homegrown extremism in the United States, often influenced by radical material on the Internet. According to Justice Department statistics, 19 American citizens were charged in international terrorism cases in 2009 and 15 more so far this year. In case after case, investigators have discovered the writings and recordings of Mr. Awlaki. . . .
Alaskan Builds Terror Hit List; Pleads Guilty (KTVA-11, 21 July 2010)
. . . . Federal agents say the husband, 35-year-old Paul Gene Rockwood, Jr., aka “Bilal”, created a hit list of people he wanted to see executed. Prosecutors tell CBS 11 News that no one from Alaska was on the list, however, the list may have included American servicemen.
According to court documents, Rockwood was living in Virginia when he converted to Islam around the beginning of 2002. Shortly after converting, he began following the teachings of cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is known for promoting violent Jihad ideology. Prosecutors say while studying of al-Awlaki’s teachings, Rockwood developed a “personal conviction that it was his religious responsibility to exact revenge by death on anyone who desecrated Islam.”
Prosecutors also say between 2002 and 2006, Rockwood began researching people to execute. Rockwood then moved to King Salmon in 2006, where court documents say he continued studying al-Awlaki’s violent ideologies, “Constraints on the Path to Jihad” and “44 Ways to Jihad.” . . . .
Jihadist hit list leads to terrorism case (Anchorage Daily News, 21 July 2010)
A King Salmon weatherman and his British-born, stay-at-home wife on Wednesday became the first people to face a domestic terrorism case in Alaska when they were charged — and pleaded guilty — to lying to the FBI about a jihadist hit list. Red-bearded Paul Gene Rockwood Jr., 35, a convert to Islam and a follower of a radical, anti-American cleric, faces an eight-year prison sentence — the maximum — under his plea deal. Nadia Piroska Maria Rockwood, 36, a dual U.S. and British citizen, is set to get five years probation, which she will be allowed to serve in Great Britain.
The blue-eyed couple admitted in back-to-back hearings in U.S. District Court that they misled counterterrorism agents in Anchorage about the source and nature of an assassination list containing the names of about 15 people in the Lower 48 they deemed enemies of Islam. Charging documents filed by the U.S. Attorney’s office said Paul Rockwood drew up the hit list based on websites he read while a federal employee in King Salmon and considered shooting his targets or sending them package bombs. . . .
Documents:
- ALASKA MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO MAKING FALSE STATEMENTS IN DOMESTIC TERRORISM INVESTIGATION (DOJ press release, 21 July 2010)
- US v Paul Rockwood, Plea Agreement (.pdf)
Middle East Quarterly, 21 June 2010: All states use education as a medium to encourage responsible behavior in their children, at least in part to develop a law-abiding, civic-minded citizenry. Authoritarian regimes have a history of distorting this trust, often turning schools into places of indoctrination for a state or religious ideology.
The Palestinians have, for some time now, created an educational system exemplifying this indoctrinational approach: Their textbooks deny Jewish and Israeli legitimacy within historic Palestine, demonize Jews and Israelis, discourage compromise or negotiated peace, and glorify violent struggle to achieve what are often termed “Palestinian aspirations.” Since coming to power through elections in early 2006 and following its military coup in Gaza in June 2007, Hamas has continued this path of indoctrination, utilizing its popular children’s website, Al-Fateh. . . .
. . . . This may be surprising in view of the cardinal importance Hamas attributes to the education of children and youth as a means of achieving its ideological and political goals. Article 15 of the Hamas charter states:
It is necessary that scientists, educators, and teachers, information and media people, as well as the educated masses, especially the youth and sheikhs of the Islamic movements, should take part in the operation of awakening. It is important that basic changes be made in school curriculum to cleanse it of the traces of ideological invasion that affected it as a result of the Orientalists and missionaries who infiltrated the region following the defeat of the Crusaders at the hands of Salah al Din (Saladin) . . . .
. . . . In an analysis of 159 issues published between September 2002 and October 2009, four major themes recur:
- hatred and contempt for the West,
- annihilation of Israel and its Jewish inhabitants,
- demonization of the Jews, and a
- cynical form of indoctrination that aims to turn children into future suicide bombers . . . .
. . . . Al-Fateh does not merely exhort children to take up arms to kill Israelis and become jihad fighters, it indoctrinates them to seek shahada or martyrdom. Suicide bombings are idealized as an expression of devotion to Islam and as a sought-after pleasure, enabling the shahid to ascend immediately to paradise. Terrorist attacks and suicide bombings are highly praised and their perpetrators glorified.
To overcome the youngsters’ natural reservations about committing suicide, the site also systematically and cynically exposes the readers to graphic images of torn limbs and dead bodies in order to desensitize them to violence and death.[47] Similarly, the last wills and testaments of suicide bombers are used to sway youngsters and prepare them psychologically to “follow in the footsteps of the fighters in order to liberate this land from the impurity of the contemptible Jews … know[ing] clearly that my blood will be shed and my organs scattered.”
Al-Fateh publishes scores of jihadist testimonies such as this from the will of suicide bomber Isma’il al-Ma’aswabi, who detonated a car bomb killing two Israeli soldiers:
Love of jihad and martyrdom rules my life, my soul, my feelings and my heart … It is difficult for the soul that has tasted the sweet taste of jihad, the suffering in which is delicious … to rest anywhere else than Paradise …Whereas I am living in Paradise … do not be sad my brothers as I am a shahid in Paradise …and I will see you there with God’s help.
The religious justification for this act of self-destruction is made explicit for young readers in the following passage:
Muslims who have been slain are in Paradise, and [the Jews] who have been slain are in Hell. They [the Muslims who were killed] have been granted martyrdom, which is the Muslims’ hope and goal in this world. They died because their time had come, and had the Jews not killed them, they would have died [anyway]. But God wanted Paradise for them, so He granted them martyrdom … Be reassured my beloved one, that at the moment of their martyrdom they do not feel pain at all. They feel as if they are only pricked by a needle. . . . .
♦ CI CENTRE COURSE: 163–Dying to Kill Us: Understanding the Mindset of Suicide Operations
Powerline, 2 June 2010: Andrew McCarthy is the former Assistant United States Attorney who prosecuted the Blind Sheikh and his friends for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. After he secured convictions, he recounted what he had learned along the way in Willful Blindness: Memoir of the Jihad
. . . . AM: “The problem is that those who say Islam is the problem have the better case. I was first struck by this sad fact during our terrorism trial in 1995, when I had to get ready to cross-examine the “Blind Sheikh,” Omar Abdel Rahman. Though he ended up opting not to testify, I still had to prepare. Back then I thought that if what we were saying as a government were true – if these terrorists were lying about Islam and perverting its doctrine in order to justify mass-murder attacks – then surely I should be able to locate three or four places where the Blind Sheikh had misstated the Koran and the other species of Muslim scripture. I searched high and low, but there were none.
To be sure, Islamic scriptures say a lot of things, and some of them are admirable. Good faith contentions can surely be made that passages terrorists cite need to be considered in conjunction with other passages they omit. (That’s a weak argument, by the way, but not a risible one.) But the point is that where the Blind Sheikh cited scripture, he did it quite accurately. Moreover, he is not, as we’d like to have it, a lunatic; he is a renowned doctor of Islamic jurisprudence graduated from al-Azhar University in Egypt – the seat of Sunni learning and one of the oldest and most respected academic institutions in the world. His construction of Islam, however frightening, was literal and cogent.
Islam is not a religion of peace and Islamic doctrine is not moderate. There is, for those willing to pierce political correctness and grapple with fact, an undeniable connection between Islamic doctrine’s commands to violence and domination, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the often savage acts and the civilizational campaign carried out by Muslims against the West. For that reason, Islam is very problematic. There is, however, the other side of the coin: there are hundreds of millions of Muslims who, quite clearly, are moderate, tolerant people. These Muslims either reject terrorism (at least in the form of sneak attacks that kill civilians in the U.S.) or they don’t see terrorism as having anything to do with them. Thus, people who don’t want to grapple with Islamic doctrine point to these tolerant, moderate Muslim individuals and demand that we deduce that Islam, too, must be moderate and tolerant – regardless of what its scriptures say. . . . .
Poliical Islam/Bill Warner, 31 May 2010: Sharia law is Islamic law. Sharia is the basis for every demand that Muslims make on our society. When schools are asked to give up a room for Islamic prayer, that is asking us to implement Sharia law. When a Muslim wears a head scarf, that is in obedience to Sharia law. When our newspapers would not publish the Danish Mohammed cartoons, our newspapers were submitting to the demands of Sharia law. When demands are made for our hospitals to treat Muslim women in special ways, that is Sharia. When our textbooks have to be vetted by Muslim organizations before they are used in our schools, that is in accordance with Sharia law.
The attack on the World Trade Center was done in adherence to the rules of war, jihad, found in Sharia law. Sharia law is the basis for the religious, political and cultural life of all Muslims. Sharia law is being implemented more and more in America and yet there is no knowledge about what Sharia actually is since public, private or religious schools do not teach it.
THE GOOD NEWS
The easiest way to learn about Islam is through Sharia law. Through learning about Sharia you are introduced to the Koran and Mohammed in a practical manner. It is easy to learn when you can see the direct application and examples.
When you know Sharia, Islam suddenly makes sense, it all fits together. Most people think Islam is complicated or even impossible to understand, but when you understand its principles, Islam is very, very logical. It is based on different views of humanity, logic, knowledge, and ethics. Once you understand the principles and logic, you not only can explain what and why something is happening, but you will be able to predict the next step in the process.
UNDERSTANDING THE REFERENCE NUMBERS
Before you can understand Sharia, you have to learn about three books that are the basis of Sharia. Each ruling or law in Sharia is based on a reference in the Koran or the Sunna, the perfect example of Mohammed (found in two texts-Hadith and Sira). Each and every law in Islam must come from the Koran and the Sunna. We know the Sunna by knowing about the personal details of Mohammed’s life. We know how he cleaned his teeth and which shoe he put on first. We know the Sunna because we have the Sira and the Hadith.
You probably think that the Koran is the bible of Islam. Not true. The bible of Islam is the Koran, the Sira and the Hadith. These three texts can be called the Trilogy.
The Koran is a small part, only 14% of the total words, of the doctrine that is Islam. The text devoted to the Sunna is 86% of the total textual doctrine of Islam. Islam is 14% Allah and 86% Mohammed.
Sharia is nothing more than a condensation and extrapolation of the Koran and the Sunna. Therefore, it is impossible to understand the Sharia without some understanding about the doctrine found in the Koran, Hadith and the Sira. Turn to any page after this chapter and you will find that most of the paragraphs have an index number.
The classic Sharia law text is the Reliance of the Traveller, N. Keller, Amana Publications. (Yes, the correct spelling is Traveller with a double l.) It is a 1,200 page book devoted to such subjects as: political control of non-Muslims, prayer, jihad, wills and estates, punishment, court rules, and land use. It covers legalities and theology.
Here is a typical paragraph:
08.0 APOSTACY FROM ISLAM
08.1 When a person who has reached puberty and is sane, voluntarily apostatizes from Islam, he deserves to be killed.
[Bukhari 9,83,17] Mohammed: “A Muslim who has admitted that there is no god but Allah and that I am His prophet may not be killed except for three reasons: as punishment for murder, for adultery, or for apostasy.”
The o8.1 is an index number in the Sharia law text, The Reliance of the Traveller. The text is divided into divisions, a, b, c, … This particular law is found in division o; section 8; subsection 1. With the index number, o8.1, you can read the source, The Reliance of the Traveller.
We not only have the law, apostates (people who leave Islam) should be killed, but we have the supporting doctrine found in a hadith, a sacred text used along with the Koran. A hadith is what Mohammed did or said. This particular hadith is by Bukhari, the major collector of Mohammed’s stories. Notice the index number–9,83,17. This is like a chapter and verse index so that you can go and read the original. All of the Hadith, including Bukhari, can be found on many university Internet sites.
Here is a Sharia law supported by the Koran:
09.0 JIHAD
Jihad means war against Kafirs to establish Islam.
Koran 2:216 You are commanded to fight although you dislke it. You may hate something that is good for you, and love something that is bad for you. Allah knows and you do not.
Here we have the Sharia defining what jihad is and then gives its foundational reference for the authority. Again, you can verify the accuracy of the Koran verses and the original reference, 09.0, in the Reliance of the Traveller.
There is one last type of reference to a supporting document.
DEALING WITH A REBELLIOUS WIFE
m10.12 When a husband notices signs of rebelliousness…
Ishaq969 … Men were to lay injunctions on women lightly for they were prisoners of men and had no control over their persons.
Here we have the usual Sharia reference number, m10.12, which allows you to read the original reference. The Ishaq index number, 969, is a margin note reference that allows you to look in the Sira (Mohammed’s biography-The Life of Muhammad, A. Guillaume) and verify the truth of the reference.
BELIEVABLE AND AUTHORITATIVE
This is fact-based knowledge based upon critical thought and analysis. What you see here can all be independently verified for yourself. This is a very different approach than asking a Muslim or an “expert” in the media. If a Muslim or any expert says something about Islam that disagrees with the Koran or Sunna, then the expert is wrong. If the expert says something that agrees with Koran or Sunna, then the expert is right, but redundant.
Once you know Koran and Sunna, you don’t need anybody else.
POLTICAL ISLAM
The largest part of the Trilogy is not about how to be a good Muslim. Instead most of the text is devoted to the unbeliever. The Koran devotes 64% of its total words to the unbeliever and the Trilogy, as a whole, devotes 60% of its text to the unbelievers.
Islam is NOT a religion. It is a complete civilization with a detailed political system, religion and a legal code-the Sharia. Mohammed preached the religion of Islam for 13 years in Mecca and got 150 Arabs to convert to Islam. He went to Medina and became a politician and a war-lord. After 2 years in Medina, every Jew was murdered, enslaved, or exiled. He was involved in an event of violence on the average of every 6 weeks for the last 9 years of his life. Mohammed died without a single enemy left standing.
This was not a religious process, but a political process. Jihad is political action with a religious motivation. Political Islam is the doctrine that deals with the non-Muslim. Mohammed did not succeed with his program of religion, but his political process of jihad triumphed. Sharia law is the political implementation of the Islamic civilization.
The political nature of Islam is what creates the major difference between Sharia and Jewish religious law, halaka. Jewish law has nothing to say about non-Jews and explicitly says that the law of the land trumps halaka.
Sharia has a lot to say about Kafirs and how they are to be treated, subjugated and ruled. Sharia claims political supremacy over the Constitution.
There is nothing good for non-Muslims in the Sharia. This is why every unbeliever has a reason to know Sharia law, especially those in politics, policy, regulation and legal matters. Sharia law is about the unbeliever as well as the Muslim. Islam’s attitudes and actions about unbelievers are political, not religious. Even though Sharia violates every principle of our Constitution, it is being implemented today, since Islam is seen as only as a religion.
MUSLIMS AND SHARIA
Non-Muslims call Muslims that seem nice, moderate Muslims. This use of the word “moderate” is not based on Islam. A moderate Muslim is one who follows the Sharia. As much as they follow the Sharia, they are a Muslim. To the degree they don’t follow the Sharia, they are a failure at being a Muslim.
The Sharia is based on the perfect, unchanging Koran and Sunna. Therefore, the Sharia is perfect and unchanging. If every Muslim in the world wanted to change a single letter of the Koran, the Sunna or the Sharia, they could not. How can perfection be improved? How can an eternal text be changed? Since the Sharia is nothing more than a codification of perfect, unchanging, universal texts, it is a perfect, unchanging and universal legal code.
AP, 30 April 2010: The Jordanian doctor who killed seven CIA employees in a suicide attack in Afghanistan has called on Muslims in a posthumous message to carryout suicide bombings and become martyrs.
In an audio message posted on militant websites Friday, Humam Khalili Abu-Mulal al-Balawi also urges his fellow Muslims to wage jihad, or holy war, against the West. He says that despotic leaders in Islamic nations have discouraged Muslims from jihad, which al-Balawi laments has become little more than an adventure in the eyes of many Muslims.
Al-Balawi says on the tape that he recorded the message Dec. 29, 2009. He blew himself up a day later at a CIA facility in Afghanistan.
Al Qaeda tape allegedly of suicide bomber who killed 7 CIA officers (CNN, 30 April 2010)
. . . . The audio message, which was produced by as-Sahab, al Qaeda’s media arm, is played over a picture of Al-Balawi and English subtitles with on-screen text that reads: “A message that was delivered on the night before his martyrdom operation against the American intelligence in Khost.”
For nearly 30 minutes, the speaker in the message makes various arguments addressing those who are “undecided” and “hesitant” to join the armed fight, or jihad, against Western forces in Muslim lands.
In the message titled “O Hesitant One, It Is An Obligation,” the speaker talks about “heroic stories,” sometimes using personal references such as, “I lived among you for such a long time.” In other passages, he speaks to those who may have “hidden” love for jihad. Near the end of his message, the speaker challenges those “undecided brothers” by appealing to their “manhood and chivalry.”
“We shall send you coded messages” through media outlets to continue the call for jihad, he said. . . .
♦ CI CENTRE COURSE: 361–The Global Jihadist Threat Doctrine
♦ CI CENTRE COURSE: 163–Dying to Kill Us: Understanding the Mindset of Suicide Operations
♦ CI CENTRE COURSE: 562–Counterterrorism Asset Validation Course
