Posted on 10/26/2001 10:30:29 AM PDT by J. Semper Paratus
Militant Group: Crowd Gathering for Holy War
Friday, October 26, 2001 PESHAWAR, Pakistan — An Islamic cleric's call for a holy war against the United States has inspired thousands of people, some armed, to stream to a northwestern town in hopes of joining the fight in Afghanistan, according to militant leaders.
Sufi Mohammad, an influential cleric, had encouraged Muslims in Pakistan's turbulent North West Frontier Province to convene near his religious school and contribute to a jihad, or holy war, against the United States.
Mohammad said that on Friday thousands of people were heeding his call and traveling in convoys across the province, a predominantly Pashtun area with close ties to Afghanistan.
The cleric, leader of a group called Tehrik Nifaz Shariat Mohammadi Malakand, or Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Laws, guessed that 10,000 people are making the journey. He said that many of these people are heavily armed, some transporting rocket-propelled grenades and other lethal equipment.
However, in recent weeks, militants' claims of support have often proved to be greatly exaggerated. There was no way to immediately verify how many people were on the road to join him.
"This is a strange occasion of world history," Mohammad said Friday. "For the first time, all the anti-Islamic forces are united against Islam."
He said the "prime duty of every Muslim everywhere in the world is to fight" U.S. forces in Afghanistan. "We are fulfilling that," he said.
Many of the militants are anticipating operations by American ground troops in coming weeks.
Mohammad said that elderly men and young children are also answering the call, but that they have been turned away.
The Pakistani government's decision to support the United States in its fight against terrorists inside Afghanistan has outraged many Muslims in that country. Some militant leaders have called for holy war against the United States, and at least hundreds have responded in recent weeks, with some leaving for Afghanistan.
Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's government has said it will deploy forces to act swiftly against anyone who does anything "against the national interest."
Mohammad, however, said the government should not stand in the way of holy warriors but instead should "take part in the jihad."
He said many of his followers planned to head for the Afghan border on Saturday morning from an area near the town of Medan, the location of his madrassa, or religious school.
Their first stop will be Afghanistan's Kunar province, which is adjacent to Pakistan's North West Frontier province. Pashtuns on the Pakistan side have a tradition of vehemently defending their interests, sometimes resorting to arms to do so.
"We are against violence," Mohammad said. "But we will fight for our faith, for Islam."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Because of the dynamics in the religion itself, those who are following a more modernized pathway have been dethroned from any ability to, 'speak for Islam', and the Radicals, properly called 'Fundamentalists' must demonstrate their Islamic purity with extremist interpretations of Islamic law. Because of the domination of all modes of Islamic communication by the fundamentalists, modern Islam has become shackled by the chains of the 8th century.
In October, 1968, Sheikh Muhammad Abu-Zahra, an Egyptian Muslim professor summed up the need for not underestimating the depth of Islam's striving for the west's destruction:
"Jihad is not confined to the summoning of troops and the establishment of huge forces. It takes various forms. From all of the territories of Islam there should arise a group of people reinforced with faith, well equipped with means and methods; and then let them set out to attack the usurpers, harassing them incessantly until their abode is one of everlasting torment... Jihad will never end... It will last to the Day of Judgment."
Islam is culturally in direct opposition to the American ideal of the individual freedom of each citizen. Islamics are bound by a law governing mankind which states that the 'Sharia', or the learned, pious believers in Islam MUST control the average Islamic follower, telling them what to do. The Sharia are the spiritual guides and leaders who are mandated by the Koran to rule. Islam functionally controls from 'top-down', religion-based monopolism.
Contrast that with the American Constitution which holds that all human beings are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with inherent unalienable rights. Individual citizens are their own sovereign, and associate themselves into governments creating laws for the common good. The American Constitutional power structure is from the individual up.
When Islam associates with these western ideas, and what is culturally speaking, the siren song of greater freedom placed in front of the individual, it cannot compete. Islamic individuals will react to freedom as any others professing other philosophies will do: With increasing westernization of any who are touched by the West.
So, Islam has retreated from the West for self preservation... because the onslaught of freedom is fatal to the religion foundationally.
Radical, fundamentalist Islam must destroy modern western culture or change.
The battle is incontrovertable.
We, as westerners must face the truth... Fundamentalist Islam... the Dominant power in Islam, must be defeated in all out war. Yet, due to the perceived tenets of some in Islam, we have forever lost our former American lives. Unless the philosophy of Islam changes with the allowing of the modernists into the places of power in the religion, we will always face uneducated Islamicists who will think that their pathway to the virgins in Heaven is lubricated by the blood of Americans.
Not only Pakistani Pashtus but other Muslim groups are going to join in this battle against the West, as to do otherwise is to commit philosophical suicide.
Lets block the entrance to Heaven by the blood of the Pig. Perfect an aerosol pig blood weapon yet? Be great to pump into caves and caverns. Or deliver from above during riots.
Yep! and while you're at it, wear some uniforms, quit hiding like cowards among civilians. If you are brave enough to declare war against us, then be brave enough to stand and fight, and not hide behind women and children.
This is not going to be easy. We will lose many, many people. Don't count the body bags when they come back.
Let 'em in, quick! It will take less bombs if we can get them all in one place at one time. And bombs do start to get expensive after a while.
It would be about time already !
They don't want them killed in combat because they have a special use for them -- especially the young children.....
You dont seem to have much confidence in our troops.
Good. Easier to taregt when they are collected in the same area.
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