“The terrorists’ aim in Mumbai was precisely this – to get the Pakistani army to withdraw from the western border and mount operations on the east,” said Ahmed Rashid, a journalist and author who has written extensively about militancy in the region.
“The terrorists are not going to be sitting still. They are not going to be adhering to any sort of cease-fire while the army takes on the Indian threat. They are going to occupy the vacuum the army will create.”
~~~A Swat militant boasted that “we are doing our activities wherever we want, and the army is confined to their living places.”
“They cannot move independently like us,” said the man, who was reached over the phone and gave his name as Muzaffarul Haq. He claimed the Swat militants had no al-Qaida or foreign connections, but that they supported all groups that shared the goal of imposing Islamic law.
“With the grace of Allah, there is no dearth of funds, weapons or rations,” he said. “Our women are providing cooked food for those who are struggling in Allah’s path. Our children are getting prepared for jihad.”
AP writer, Nahal Toosi writes today of a newly expanded control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan by Taliban militants. It is especially worrisome since this is new territory outside their normal operational control. The 2000 approx fighters – both Afghan and Pakistani – have managed to overwhelm what residents did not flee by a campaign of violence, beheadings and fear.
In some places, just a handful of insurgents can control a village. They rule by fear: beheading government sympathizers, blowing up bridges and demanding women wear all-encompassing burqas.
They have also set up a parallel administration with courts, taxes, patrols and checkpoints, according to lawmakers and officials. And they are suspected of burning scores of girls’ schools.
In mid-December, Taliban fighters killed a young member of a Sufi-influenced Muslim group who had tried to raise a militia against them. The militants later dug up Pir Samiullah’s corpse and hung it for two days in a village square – partly to prove to his followers that he was not a superhuman saint, a security official said on condition of anonymity.
A lawmaker and the senior Swat government official said business and landowners had been told to give two-thirds of their income to the militants. Some local media reported last week that the militants have pronounced a ban on female education effective in mid-January.
Locals blame a truce with the militants by the regional government officials. The truce fell apart within two months, and the militants were allowed to regroup.
Yet the Pakistan government – at any level – fails to learn their historic lessons. There is no negotiating with the global Islamic jihad movement. And if they offer to talk? Beware… they are either buying time to reorganize, or distracting the world from another arena in their global strategy for an Islamic rule state.
The Muslim world grows more complex daily as factions continually morph their relationships… at one time standing for a common cause, and at others waging war on each other for power and control.
For the global Islamic jihad movement, the underlying cause remains the same: a world under Shariah law. And the militants do not believe this can be achieved thru parliament, and actually oppose those that wish to achieve the same goal in this method.
From a Nov 2008 article by Sartaj Khan, Behind the Crisis in Swat comes a complex history of generations of class warfare: Khans, Pakhtun, Sayyeds and Mians. Enter a new social element to the area… three militant groups – Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) [Sufi Mohammad, former JEI], the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) [now headed by Baitullah Mehsud] – all expressing the desires of the middle class and landless under the guise of “Islamism”.
The TNSM built its support on the criticism of two issues vital to society: the judicial system imposed on the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (PATA) and the corrupt electoral and political system of Pakistan. The TNSM rejected electoral politics. Sufi Muhammad saw no hope in society’s Islamisation through parliament and opposed the Islamic parties that want to bring changes through parliament. In a speech in Kalam, he said: “There is no room for the vote in Islam and the concept of democracy which some religious political parties are demanding is wrong.”
This concept of democracy being un’Islamic is not new, and in fact has been repeated over and over by others…. including Bin Laden, The Islamic Army in Iraq, the Army of the Mujahideen, and other senior Taliban leaders.
Now… I told you that story to tell you this:
The more one reads of this segment of Islam, the more one understands that truces and negotiations are nothing more than a sign of weakness to be exploited for the next battle’s gain. And this struggle for power via Shariah law is not limited to Sufi, Wahhabi, Shia or any single sect. The common simplistic view of the ill-informed westerner (i.e. Shia good, Sunni-bad or AQ the enemy, others okay) must go away.
They are defined by their goals and their alliances.
This is a global battle of Shariah law v western, Arab, or Muslim democracy
Now these jihad movements have increased their controlled territory in Pakistan. The tribal areas regional govt’s are powerless. The PPP/PML-N govt is weak, ill-focused and too willing to talk instead of rein in the militants. Pakistan’s Army instead amasses on the Indian border – another US ally – allowing the more dangerous enemy’s foothold to increase in the NWTA.
In the meantime – in another part of the Muslim world – “Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a religious decree on Sunday that said anyone killed while defending Palestinians in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip against Israeli attacks would be considered a martyr.”
A group of influential conservative Iranian clerics launched an online registration drive on Monday seeking volunteers to fight against Israel in response to its air assault on the Gaza Strip. About 3,550 people registered Monday with the Combatant Clergy Society’s Web site. The weeklong online campaign gives volunteers three options on ways they can fight Israel: military, financial and propaganda.
The group, which has considerable political and economic power in Iran, did not provide further details on the program including how it would contact the volunteers or implement the program.
Lest ye believe the assault against Israel is not just territorial, Hamas is quick to label it jihad. From circa Mar 2007:
The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas rejected on Monday criticism by al Qaeda’s second-in-command and said it was still committed to Israel’s destruction despite a power-sharing deal with the Fatah faction.
“We will not betray promises we made to God to continue the path of Jihad and resistance until the liberation of Palestine, all of Palestine,” Hamas said in a statement, in a clear reference to Israel as well as to the occupied West Bank.
In an audio recording posted on the Internet on Sunday, al Qaeda’s Ayman al-Zawahri accused Hamas of serving U.S. interests by agreeing to respect past Palestinian peace accords with Israel in a recent Saudi-brokered unity government deal with moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah.
The enemies of the west, of freedom of choice, of democracy aimed at the US and our allies is amassing on many fronts. They assail Israel directly, recruiting help from other Muslim states. They do so while the disengaged and disbelieving world sits back and tut tuts Israel… saying “use restraint”.
They assail other US allies, India and Pakistan – by setting them against each other, and undermining Pakistan’s structural weakness in government from within.
And while many are blind to the intrinsic threads and goals of these different battlefronts, it is dangerously unwise to recognize this global theatre of a small segment of Islam.
It’s integral to national security that our new POTUS can see this global strategy by the enemy – one that doesn’t only go by the name of “al Qaeda” and live along the Afghan/Pakistan border. The goals of Iran/Hamas/Hezbolla cannot be realistically separated from Pakistan/Afghanistan.
It’s even more important that this POTUS learn from the continued failed truces with those who prefer to die before compromising with the west and democracy. If our new POTUS is incapable of seeing this, these groups will start succeeding on each of their individual battle fronts. Iran/Hamas/Hezbollah will accomplish annihilating Israel, and the jihad movements will fell apostate Muslim governments and instill Shariah law in a boundless Caliphate from Spain to China.
And only after the smoke has cleared from those battles will they turn on each other for ultimate control. But by then, the US will have few allies left… as we have deserted them in their time of need.
Vietnam era Navy wife, indy/conservative, and an official California escapee now residing as a red speck in the sea of Oregon blue.
Obama will never understand that because he is not smart enough and I personally beleive that he is on their side. To understand the real threat of the global Islamic jihad movement, you have to see this video that explains it very clearly:
FITNA
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3369102968312745410
Mata note: Craig’s link is to Geert Wilder’s film about the Quran. Courtesy embed below. Seen a few times, and was good to watch again. About 16 minutes in length.
Thanks Mata for embedding the video. I would suggest “Simply done” to watch it carefully, since Hamas is a terrorist group.