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AL QUAEDA: The next goal is to liberate SPAIN from infidels
JCPA ^ | 10-11-07 | Jonathan D. Halevi

Posted on 10/16/2007 6:42:39 AM PDT by Traianus

IS "PALESTINE" the only "OCCUPIED TERRITORY" of MUSLIM WORLD? According to AL QUAEDA, the ANSWER is NO....

by Lt. Col. (res.) Jonathan D. Halevi Published October 2007

Vol. 7, No. 16 11 October 2007

Al-Qaeda: The Next Goal Is to Liberate Spain from the Infidels

Lt. Col. (res.) Jonathan Dahoah-Halevi

* Large parts of the Iberian Peninsula were under Islamic rule from 711 until 1492, with the final eviction of the Moors from what they called al-Andalus, and the memory of Islamic rule in Spain has become increasingly part of the discourse in radical Islam.

* Osama bin Laden has written: "We request of Allah...that the [Islamic] nation should regain its honor and prestige, should raise again the unique flag of Allah on all stolen Islamic land, from Palestine to Andalus." Bin Laden's mentor, Abdullah Azzam, established that the Islamic obligation to wage jihad in order to recover lost Islamic territories applies to Andalusia.

* Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, the spiritual head of the Muslim Brotherhood, has written that while Islam was twice evicted from Europe - from al-Andalus and from Greece - it is now in the process of returning.

* A children's magazine published by Hamas, the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, called on Palestinian children to restore the city of Seville to Islamic rule as well as the rest of what was once Islamic Spain.

* Israel, therefore, is a small link in the greater confrontation between radical Islam and the West. Accepting the Arabs' terms for a Middle East settlement, or even going so far as "liberating" Palestine from Israeli rule, will not be the last stop in the radical Islamic journey being led by the Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaeda, which share the vision of spreading Islam all over the world.

* Indeed, for the West, Israel constitutes a dike against the great wave of radical Islam. The very same principle invoked for waging war against Israel - recovery of what was once Islamic territory - is being applied to Spain, the Balkans, Southern Russia, and India. European pressure on Israel to make political concessions that endanger its security will only bring closer the next stage of Islam's offensive, this time aimed at the heart of Europe.

Al-Qaeda Recalls Islamic Rule in Spain

Historically, large parts of the Iberian Peninsula were under Islamic rule from 711 until 1492, with the final eviction of the Moors from what they called al-Andalus. Despite the passage of over five hundred years, the memory of Islamic rule in Spain has become increasingly part of the discourse in radical Islamic circles.

Ayman al-Zawahiri, deputy of Osama bin Laden in the al-Qaeda leadership, in a new tape publicized on 20 September 2007, referred to the global aspirations of the Islamic Revolution:

O, our Muslim nation in the Maghreb [North Africa], zone of deployment for battle and jihad! The return of Andalus [today's Spain] to Muslim hands is a duty for the [Islamic] nation in general and for you in particular. You will not be able to achieve this except by purifying the Islamic Maghreb of the French and the Spanish who have once again returned, after your fathers and grandfathers had expelled them unsparingly in the way of Allah.

Earlier, in December 2006, al-Zawahiri made a passing reference to "Spain's occupation of Ceuta and Melilla," two small enclaves on the North African coast that are under Spanish sovereignty.

This is not the first time al-Qaeda leaders have referred to the Iberian Peninsula as occupied Muslim territory to which the commandment of jihad applies until it is liberated and Islamic rule is imposed there. On 29 September 1994, Osama bin Laden wrote to Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Baz, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia: "All in all, we request of Allah...that the [Islamic] nation should regain its honor and prestige, should raise again the unique flag of Allah on all stolen Islamic land, from Palestine to Andalus, as well as Islamic lands that were lost because of the treachery of leaders and the helplessness of the Muslims."1

This view is deeply embedded in the thinking of those Islamist leaders who served as an ideological wellspring for al-Qaeda. Bin Laden's mentor, Abdullah Azzam, established that the Islamic obligation to wage jihad in order to recover lost Islamic territories applies to al-Andalus.2

Sheikh Safar al-Hawali, who was one of the most powerful Islamist preachers in Saudi Arabia, wrote a letter to President George W. Bush on October 15, 2001 - after the 9/11 attacks - in which he explained: "Imagine Mr. President, we still weep over Andalusia and remember what Ferdinand and Isabella did there to our religion, culture and honor! We dream of regaining it."3

It should not be surprising that these repeated references in jihadist circles to al-Andalus have had an impact on how new al-Qaeda affiliates have defined their long-term goals. These groups do not work in a vacuum; the Saudi Gazette reported in March 2005 that there are four million descendents of refugees from Muslim Spain currently living in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. In Morocco, the fall of Granada and al-Andalus is commemorated by many of these descendents.4

The theme of al-Andalus appears among jihadi organizations in a variety of ways. In a January 2007 speech, Abu Musab Abdul Wadud, the commander of the Algerian Salafist Group for Prayer and Combat (GSPC), addressed Algerian Muslims as the grandchildren of Tariq bin Ziyad, who crossed the Straits of Gibraltar in 711 with an Islamic army and conquered most of the Iberian Peninsula.5 GSPC cells have been known to have operated across Spain in the last number of years.

More recently, in June 2007, Islamist websites announced the establishment of "Ansar al-Islam in the Muslim Sahara, Land of the Veiled Ones."6 The organization promised to win back al-Andalus, as well as declaring war on the current North African regimes: "Our raids will not encompass just the Muslim Sahara, but will go beyond it....Al-Andalus is before our eyes, and with Allah's help we will take back the Land of Islam and what was plundered from our forefathers, no matter how long this takes."7

One website announcing the formation of the group featured a map showing "The Great Islamic Caliphate" which it sought to advance, stretching from Spain across North Africa and the Middle East to India and Western China.

The Muslim Brotherhood Views Spain as Part of the Islamic Homeland

This view is also held by the Muslim Brotherhood, whose doctrine calls on the Muslims of the world to rise up and unite in the struggle to liberate parts of the "Islamic homeland" that have fallen into the hands of the "infidels," "enemies of Allah," and "enemies of humanity." Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, the spiritual head of the Muslim Brotherhood, has written that while Islam was twice evicted from Europe - from al-Andalus and from Greece - it is now in the process of returning.8

omeya

The fall of Andalus is mentioned in the speeches of Muslim Brotherhood leader Muhammad Mahdi Akef in one breath with the loss of Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan.9 Akef believes Islamic goals should be achieved through jihad and armed struggle against any foreign rule that occupies Islamic land. In a letter of 26 August 2004, Akef sets forth this strategy in detail under the heading, "Liberating Parts of the Homeland Is an Obligation under Islamic Law:"

[One must develop] the culture of resistance in dealing with the invasion [of Muslim territory], and this is a culture of the occupied and oppressed peoples, for whom Allah has permitted jihad and resistance as a means of achieving liberation....The culture of resistance to occupation and invasion exists on all levels: intellectual, military and economic. The experience in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan has proved to everyone that resistance is not an imaginary strategy, a false option or impossible. It is a feasible option when the will of the members of the nation is united, they reinforce each other, and coordinate their words, weapons and faith to confront the occupier, whether it comes with weapons or bombards us with its ideas, its values or its invalid morality. 10

It should come as no surprise that two years ago a Hamas children's magazine called on Palestinian children to restore the city of Seville to Islamic rule as well as the rest of what was once Islamic Spain.11 According to its charter, Hamas is the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and, therefore, reflects the parent organization's viewpoints on global issues, like the recovery of al-Andalus.

Israel Is the Front Line in the Defense of Europe from Radical Islam

Israel, therefore, is a small link in the greater confrontation between radical Islam and the West. Accepting the Arabs' terms for a Middle East settlement or even going so far as "liberating" Palestine from Israeli rule will not be the last stop in the radical Islamic journey being led by the Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaeda, which share the vision of spreading Islam all over the world and establishing a global organizational infrastructure under a new caliphate to make this possible.

Indeed, for the West, Israel constitutes a dike against the great wave of radical Islam. The very same principle invoked for waging war against Israel - recovery of what was once Islamic territory - is being applied to Spain, the Balkans, Southern Russia, and India. Gustavo de Aristegui, a conservative Spanish parliamentarian, has disclosed that former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer once said that if Israel were to fall and be defeated, the next in line would definitely be Spain.12

European pressure on Israel to make political concessions that endanger its security will only bring closer the next stage of Islam's offensive, this time aimed at the heart of Europe. The fate of Spain and other European states will be no different from that of Israel. Neither the Spanish withdrawal from the Coalition's war against the Iraqi insurgency, nor proposals for a Spanish dialogue with Hamas, have abated in any way the anti-Spanish hostility coming out of radical Islamic movements in recent years. It emanates from a long-term historical grievance.

Al-Qaeda regards the large Muslim communities in Europe as a strategic hinterland for when the time is right. There is no point in pursuing reconciliation and dialogue with a worldwide terror organization that preaches the ideology of ethnic cleansing and genocide. This is an existential struggle over the nature of the world, pitting dark religious fanaticism against democracy and humanism. Israel can serve as a crucial front line in the defense of Europe. Moreover, the more Israel is accepted as a legitimate part of the Middle East, with full peace treaties with its neighbors, this will serve as a powerful indicator that the forces behind the current radical Islamic wave against the West, as a whole, are receding and going into a period of decline.

Notes

1 http://www.alarabnews.com/alshaab/GIF/26-10-2001/Ben%20laden.htm

2 Gilles Kepel, Jihad: The Trail of Radical Islam (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002), p. 222.

3 Patrick Sookhdeo, Understanding Islamic Terrorism (Wiltshire: Isaac Publishing, 2004), p. 159.

4 "Saudi Daily: Andalusian Muslims Recall Mass Exodus," MEMRI Special Dispatch Series, No. 873, March 4, 2005, http://memri.org/bin/opener.cgi?Page=archives&ID=SP87305

5 "Speech by Abu Musab Abdel Wadoud, Commander of the Algerian Salafist Group for Prayer and Combat (GSPC)," Global Terroralert, January 3, 2007, http://www.globalterroralert.com/pdf/0107/gspcwadoud0107.pdf

6 "The ‘Ansar Al-Islam in the Muslim Sahara' Group Declares Jihad Against the North African Regimes and Promises to Take Back Muslim Spain," MEMRI Special Dispatch Series, No. 1653, Islamic Websites Monitor No. 118, July 3, 2007, http://memri.org/bin/opener.cgi?Page=archives&ID=SP164307

7 Ibid.

8 http://www.islamonline.net/fatwa/arabic/FatwaDisplay.asp?hFatwaID=2042

9 http://www.ikhwan.net/vb/showthread.php?+=21095

10 http://www.daawa-info.net/letter.php?id=8

11 http://www.al-fateh.net/arch/fa-66/ana.htm

12 Aaron Hanscom, "A Fatwa in Spain," FrontPageMagazine.com, September 4, 2006, http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID={715C1193-821F-47F0-8332-1FA10C86CEB6}

* * * Lt. Col. (res.) Jonathan D. Halevi is a senior researcher of the Middle East and radical Islam at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He is a founder of the Orient Research Group Ltd. and is a former advisor to the Policy Planning Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Spain02


TOPICS: War on Terror
KEYWORDS: alandalus; alfateh; alqaeda; antiisraelfascism; arabs; caliphate; fateh; hamas; islam; islamofascism; jihad; moops; muhammadsminions; muslims; palestinians; religionofviolence; saintmartin; stopislamization; waronislamism
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1 posted on 10/16/2007 6:42:43 AM PDT by Traianus
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To: Traianus
...hint, stay off trains in Spain
2 posted on 10/16/2007 6:44:59 AM PDT by Doogle (USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated)
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To: Traianus

Shouldn’t be hard to do the Spaniards showed that under the present leadership terrorism is acceptable.


3 posted on 10/16/2007 6:46:30 AM PDT by ontap (Just another backstabbing conservative)
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To: Traianus
"The Iberian Peninsula was a fairly easy conquest for the Muslim armies.
Usually three interpretations have been advanced to explain it.
The Middle Ages saw it as the punishment of God for a society that had lost its ways.
St. Boniface in 746 pointed a finger at the spread of homosexual practices
as the cause of the loss of Spain to the Muslims. Modern historiography
has moved away from the medieval interpretation and seen the collapse of
Spain due to the internal decay of the Visigothic kingdom or as the
logical development of the Muslim policy of conquest.
Recently the Spanish scholar Pedro Chalmeta has combined the two interpretations."

"Spain fell because it was a state in "a deep crisis that affected the efficacy
and stability of its political, military, juridical, ecclesiastical, economical,
and social structures".... The Kingdom of Toledo had experienced in the
forty years before the invasion a series of rebellions and upheavals that
resulted in the disintegration of central authority and misgovernment
at every level. .... The government complicated matters with increasingly
harsh taxation and the devaluation of gold coins. It is not surprising that the
economic difficulties were reflected in the deterioration of quality of life.
Abortions became common; babies were left to die or were sold into slavery.
".... While the poverty level increased among the middle and lower classes,"

the rich tended to become richer as they extended their lands and gained legal control
over the poor, who often lost free status to become serfs. At the same time,
poverty pushed many to become bandits, others to seek safety as hermits
in locations far away from inhabited centers, others to seek spiritual refuge
in ancient cults from the pagan past, and others to choose the ultimate act
of despair, suicide.... Lack of loyalty and misbehavior were present at
all levels of life, even among the privileged people. The aristocrats were
ready to betray the loyalty that they had sworn to the crown; the kings
were unable to check the rapacious policies of their tax collectors and
of the nobility.... It was a condition that called either for disintegration
of central power or for the reception of any benevolent invader
who promised a better world."

"BARBARIANS, MARAUDERS, INFIDELS - The Ways of Medieval Warfare",
Antonio Santosuosso, Westview Press, Perseus Books Group (2004)

4 posted on 10/16/2007 6:46:42 AM PDT by Diogenesis (Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum)
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To: Traianus

Madrid’s decision to pull its troops from Iraq unless the UN took over probably had nothing to do with Spain becoming a target. /s


5 posted on 10/16/2007 6:48:08 AM PDT by badpacifist (They say your head can be a prison Then, these are just conjugal visits.)
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To: Traianus
No worries. Spain has already folded once. Spain will be easy for them. Just like England, Holland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and France have been. Spain will be child’s work for the murderers of Izzzlum.
6 posted on 10/16/2007 6:50:21 AM PDT by RetiredArmy (The Marxists Dimocrats & Bush are destroying America. America is dying slowly, but surely.)
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To: badpacifist

In fact they’re still operative in AFGHANISTAN and LEBANON (UNIFIL)....


7 posted on 10/16/2007 6:50:38 AM PDT by Traianus (YES I GOT HIM! BASHAR IS 666....)
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To: Traianus
According to Spanish leftists, Islamacism isn't a problem so, good luck to them.

Call someone who gives a crap when you start losing Queen Isabella's gains.

8 posted on 10/16/2007 6:51:14 AM PDT by Psycho_Bunny (Islam is a clown car with guns.)
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To: RetiredArmy

...Not so good thought to think about LA CORUNA as a new MURMANSK for ISLAMIC ATOMIC SUBMARINE LAUNCHERS ISN’T IT??


9 posted on 10/16/2007 6:54:19 AM PDT by Traianus (YES I GOT HIM! BASHAR IS 666....)
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To: Traianus

Hang tight, there will be Izzzlumic sub bases in England, Holland and on the French coasts also.


10 posted on 10/16/2007 6:55:29 AM PDT by RetiredArmy (The Marxists Dimocrats & Bush are destroying America. America is dying slowly, but surely.)
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To: Traianus

I wish people would stop the illiteracy of putting a u after the q in transliterated Arabic words. If folks can’t stand a q without a u, they could transliterate the gutteral k sound from Arabic as kh. The first consonant in the Arabic word for ‘base’ sounds like briefly clearing your throat, not like the first sound in quick.


11 posted on 10/16/2007 6:57:26 AM PDT by The_Reader_David (And when they behead your own people in the wars which are to come, then you will know. . .)
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To: RetiredArmy

Hang tight, there will be Izzzlumic sub bases in England, Holland and on the French coasts also.

YES BREST & BORDEAUX, PROBABLY....


12 posted on 10/16/2007 7:00:27 AM PDT by Traianus (YES I GOT HIM! BASHAR IS 666....)
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To: Traianus

Coming soon to a country near you........


13 posted on 10/16/2007 7:01:03 AM PDT by ridesthemiles
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To: Traianus

Dear Mr. Editor:

“There, (in Spain) the Muslims represented an advanced, regionally dominant and self-confident civilization. Like many Westerners today, they had the magnanimity of the mighty.”

Muslim Spain was Christian Spain for nearly 700 years before being conquered by Islamic Armies in the 8th Century. That is the way the Islamic Religion has been historically spread, though military invasion and occupation. Treatment of conquered people has the same goal, the minimizing of other religions and conversion of the indigenous people. Among other rules for non Muslims in Muslim Spain; Christians and Jews could not bear arms — Muslims could; Christians and Jews could not ride horses — Muslims could; Christians and Jews had to get permission to build or fix places or worship — Muslims did not; Christians and Jews had to pay certain taxes which Muslims did not; Christians could not proselytize — Muslims could; Christians and Jews had to bow to their Muslim masters; Christians and Jews had to live under the laws set forth in the Koran, not under either their own religious or secular law; Christian’s and Jew’s word in a court of law was not equal to a Muslim’s Word; Christian and Jewish families had to give up a son for conversion and military service in Muslim armies and the most beautiful and largest Christian Churches were converted to Mosques. And the list goes on.

Today, 1300 years later, a Christian or Jew living in an Islamic country will still have to live nearly under these very same laws.

Maybe the Danes don’t want to live like Christians and Jews once did (and do) in an Islamic society.

Regards,

2banana


14 posted on 10/16/2007 7:03:12 AM PDT by 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - they want to die for islam and we want to kill them)
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To: Traianus

The sound you hear is Ferdinand and Isabel spinning in their graves in Granada. I there no one in Spain today who will step forward and defend Christendom?


15 posted on 10/16/2007 7:04:19 AM PDT by 3AngelaD (They screwed up their own countries so bad they had to leave, and now they're here screwing up ours)
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To: Traianus
In other words, they are getting their collective butts kicked in Afganistan and Iraq, so they are going to close up shop and head for an easier target...A country that already surrendered to them when they bombed a train or two.

Makes sense to me. Just like the Japs after they got creamed at Midway said that it was just a diversion for their real goal of the Aleutions.

16 posted on 10/16/2007 7:08:57 AM PDT by Redleg Duke ("All gave some, and some gave all!")
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To: ridesthemiles

DITTO at that time (I’m Italian) we’ll be probably fightin’
an harsh battle between Sicily and Calabria (Former Muslim Land too)


17 posted on 10/16/2007 7:09:16 AM PDT by Traianus (YES I GOT HIM! BASHAR IS 666....)
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To: Traianus

And they thought voting in the socialists would make everything better. We’ll probably do the same thing next year.


18 posted on 10/16/2007 7:20:26 AM PDT by JZelle
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To: Doogle

I guess based on Spain’s wimpiness over the last several years they figure they have an easy mark

See how Spain likes abandoning the USA when the doodoo hits


19 posted on 10/16/2007 7:25:20 AM PDT by uncbob (m first)
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To: Traianus

The lesson of the history of al-Andalus is, that if you stand up to Muslims they will fold like the phonies they really are.


20 posted on 10/16/2007 7:42:09 AM PDT by DManA
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