Category Archives: Europe

A Holiday Message from the UK Foreign Office

1 DecamTue, 04 Dec 2018 11:30:22 -06002018-12-04T11:30:22-06:0011 2009 – 11:30

posted by Christopher W. Holton

The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office has issued a dozen identically worded advisories for European nations.

The nations for which the advisory was issued are Poland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Spain, Belgium, Denmark, and France.

The advisory text reads:

“May be increased security in place over Christmas & New Year period, including at Christmas markets & other major events that might attract large crowds; remain vigilant & follow advice of local authorities”

It’s worth mentioning that there is no reference whatsoever to what has caused this advisory to be issued. The answer of course is Islamic jihad. Acts of violent jihad, particularly individual acts of violent jihad, have become part of the European landscape over the past decade.

In addition to car bombings and firefights, there are vehicle rammings, seemingly random acts of knife jihad, sexual assaults by roving gangs and acid attacks.

This violence has escalated with the onslaught of so-called “migrants” into Europe from Islamic-dominated regions of the world, notably, southwest Asia, the Middle East and parts of Africa.

As a result, a new aspect of Christmas has appeared. To go along with peace on earth and goodwill toward men, in Europe we now have barricades surrounding Christmas celebrations, heavily armed soldiers in full kit always close to Santa and Nativity scenes and the occasional attack.

There is something that was left out of the UK Foreign Office advisory:

There was no mention of the UK of course, which is understandable because the Foreign Office only handles foreign affairs, not domestic policy.

On the other hand, there can be no doubt that the United Kingdom is under the same intense threat from jihad as the 12 European nations mentioned in its dispatches. But who is issuing advisories for travelers to the UK?

By terrortrends | Also posted in Christmas threats, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Islamic Jihad, Italy, Jihad, Kidnapping & Hostage-taking, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Vehicle Jihad | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Is Europe Under Siege? The British Foreign Office Seems to Think So

1 NovpmThu, 30 Nov 2017 16:00:53 -06002017-11-30T16:00:53-06:0004 2009 – 16:00

by Christopher W. Holton

Foreign_and_Commonwealth_Office_Logo

Over the past few weeks several threatening messages from the Islamic State and Al Qaeda have appeared in social media and elsewhere. The threats have primarily been directed at European cities during the holiday season.

President Trump and Prime Minister May have entered into a pointless Twitter battle over the threat from Jihad and their respective views on how to address it.

Against this backdrop, the British Foreign Office has issued travel bulletins for its citizens traveling to the following 10 countries:

• Czech Republic

• Denmark

• The Netherlands

• Austria

• Germany

• Italy

• Belgium

• France

• Switzerland

• Sweden

The Foreign Office issued the exact same bulletin for each country:

“There may be increased security in place over the Christmas and New Year period, including at Christmas markets and other major events that might attract large crowds; you should remain vigilant and follow the advice of local authorities”

We find it ironic that, given the number of Jihadi attacks–vehicle jihad, knife jihad, and bombings–in Great Britain over the past 2 years or so, that the British wouldn’t add their own country to the list of nations for which they have issued travel bulletins.

We’d say that London and other parts of Britain are at least as dangerous as places in Switzerland, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark and the Czech Republic.

What all this adds up to is what the British government is telling travelers, but won’t come right out and say it, is that there is a severe threat of Jihad all over Europe.

If you want to feel safe this holiday season, head to Tahiti for that white Christmas experience.

By terrortrends | Also posted in Great Britain, Jihad, Uncategorized, United Kingdom | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

More on the Jihad Threat this Christmas and New Year’s Season

1 NovamThu, 30 Nov 2017 10:54:29 -06002017-11-30T10:54:29-06:0010 2009 – 10:54

by Christopher W. Holton

Christmas-markets_shutterstock_224875129_resized

Both the Islamic State and Al Qaeda have issued audio, video or online threats to attack the West this Christmas.

These threats focus on European population centers, such as Paris and London, and New York City in America, though the possibility of Jihadi attacks in other places in the West can certainly not be discounted. History has shown that places as diverse geographically as Brussels, Berlin and San Bernardino have all been targeted, especially at Christmas time.

Lone Wolf or Individual Jihad?

The possible attacks in the West could take the form of organized, planned attacks directed from Jihadi leaders overseas or inside Europe or America, or they could be carried out by individuals “inspired” by Jihadist ideology.

Ironically, very often, Western media and officials seem to take some form of weird comfort when a deadly attack ends up being the work of an individual jihadi, as opposed to an organized cell or affiliate of a known terrorist group.

In reality, the opposite should be the case.

First of all, none of the Jihadist groups–Islamic State, Al Qaeda, HAMAS, Hezbollah, the Taliban, Boko Haram, Al Shabaab, Lashkar e Taiba, Ansar al-Sharia, Abu Sayyef, Jemaah Islamiyeh–issue membership cards or wear uniforms. So a case can be made that classification of an attacker as “inspired” or “directed” could be a distinction without a difference.

But there is a difference between a cell such as the 19 hijackers who carried out the September 11 attacks after training and planning conducted by Al Qaeda’s leadership and infrastructure, and the husband and wife team who shot up a Christmas party of people they knew and worked with in San Bernardino. (Though it is vital that we understand that their acts are based on the same Islamic doctrine and they are tied together by the same Jihadist ideology.)

So which flavor of Jihadi is more dangerous?

If you’re on the receiving end of an attack, it makes no difference to you, but by casualty count, the cell would appear to pose a greater threat. On the other hand, the inspired attacks seem to happen much more frequently.

A case can be made that individual Jihadis pose a greater challenge for our intelligence and law enforcement communities.

Cells have to be organized, trained and communicated back and forth with. All of this provides opportunities for detection and even infiltration.

Individual jihadis don’t offer any of these potential vulnerabilities. One can infiltrate a cell, especially one in which members are using cell phones and email to contact each other and leaders elsewhere. How does one infiltrate one guy, like the Chattanooga, Tennessee shooter, the Orlando shooter or the Uzbeki vehicle jihad attacker in New York City?

If the individual jihadi isn’t communicating with others and no one is aware of his or her plans, how are our intelligence and law enforcement assets supposed to detect them “left of bang” (before the attack)?

Unfortunately, here in the West, and the U.S. in particular, we have failed to even properly identify the nature of the threat. A popular term in Western vernacular to describe the threat of individual jihad is the term “lone wolf.”

The term “lone wolf” does not appear in Islamic doctrine, nor is it part of any Jihadist group ideology.

What is part of Islamic doctrine and Jihadist ideology is the concept of Jihad as an individual obligation. So what we have been seeing around the world are acts of individual jihad based on Islamic doctrine and Jihadist ideology. Given the basis for these attacks, they are not “senseless violence.” We can explain and understand these attacks based upon Islamic doctrine and Jihadist ideology.

Most importantly, the wave of individual jihadi attacks in recent years is all part of plans articulated by Jihadi ideologues:

Successful jihad will only happen within an ummah [Islamic nation or community] in which the fighting creed is firmly established and clarified. This must happen in order to attain the “Revolutionary Jihadist Climate” that will spontaneously give rise to instruments of resistance.

 Violent jihad is as an individual duty obligatory upon every Muslim. All the ulema have said this…”

The Call to Global Islamic Resistance
Abu Musab al-Suri
Al Qaeda propagandist
Captured in Pakistan 2005

We are now seeing this “Revolutionary Jihadist Climate” in the West as evidenced by the rise of seemingly spontaneous acts of Jihad carried out by individual Muslims with no known direct contacts with Jihadist organizations.

It is this threat that we are most likely to see this Christmas.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from your Local Jihadi

Warnings in Jihadist literature and on Jihadi social media aren’t meant to give us a heads up. They are meant to inspire individual Jihadis to rise up and attack, in this case during the Christmas season. If recent history is any indication, we will see an act of deadly jihad somewhere in the West as a result of these communications.

The Christmas and New Year season is a particularly high-risk period as it offers unusually large numbers of potentially high-value and high-casualty targets, not just in places like New York, London, Paris and Berlin, but in just about every major city in the West.

The holiday season brings large crowds at sporting events, Christmas celebrations and ceremonies, churches, parks, restaurants and other gathering locations. In addition, the holiday season is also characterized by high volumes of leisure travel leading to large numbers of travellers in airports and train depots. The vast number of potential targets makes it virtually impossible for homeland security and law enforcement agencies to deploy enough personnel to successfully prevent every possible attack.

The Western holiday season is particularly attractive to Islamic jihadists because any successful attack, even a minor one, becomes a propaganda victory that can inspire others to follow suit and aid in Jihadist organization recruitment (despite what the U.S. government has said, Jihadis don’t recruit based on the prison at Gitmo; they recruit based on their successful attacks).

Jihadists have repeatedly demonstrated their will and capacity to plan and execute attacks during high-profile events. The Nice (July 216), Berlin (December 2016) and Manchester (May 2017) attacks show how individual jihadis and small cells can successfully carry out mass-casualty attacks. Despite their resounding defeats in Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State continues to benefit from supporters in the West, which means there is a greater risk of terrorist attacks in the West during the holiday season.

We are most likely to see vehicle jihad using large trucks, knife jihad (stabbings) and shooting attacks, but improvised explosive device (IED) attacks are certainly also a possibility using pressure cookers (Boston marathon bombing), fertilizer and diesel fuel (1993 World Trade Center bombing) or propane tanks (failed Time Square VBIED attack).

This is why intelligence services and foreign service offices continue to issue bulletins almost on a daily basis for Europe. As Christmas nears, we should expect to see such alerts issued for major events in the U.S. as well.

By terrortrends | Also posted in airport security, Al Qaeda, Christmas threats, France, Great Britain, Homegrown Jihad, Homeland Security, IEDs, ISIS, Islamic State, Jihad, New York, Possible terror attack, terrorist plot, Uncategorized, United Kingdom, Vehicle Jihad | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (2)

Reminder: Why All The Jihadi Attacks? Why Now?

1 ApramFri, 21 Apr 2017 09:57:25 -06002017-04-21T09:57:25-06:0009 2009 – 09:57

by Christopher W. Holton

Way back in February of 1998, Osama Bin Laden declared a Jihad against Jews and Crusaders in a written document entitled the “World Islamic Front Statement.”

In that document he specifically stated:

The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies — civilians and military — is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it

Despite this, with just a few notable exceptions over the years, few Muslims answered Bin Laden’s call to kill Americans.

Bin Laden was of course killed by U.S. Special Operations forces in May 2011.

Since then, we have seen many more attacks here in the U.S.

Why? If Osama Bin Laden was not able to inspire Muslims to attack and kill Americans, why are we seeing so many such attacks in recent years? Such as:

• The 15 April 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.

• The Orlando night club massacre on 12 June 2016.

• The San Bernardino massacre on 2 December 2015

• The Chattanooga massacre on 16 July 2015

• The failed Garland, Texas attack on 3 May 2015.

• The Queens, New York hatchet attack on police officers standing on a street corner on 23 October 2014.

• The Philadelphia attack on a police officer sitting in his squad car on 7 January 2016

• The Moore, Oklahoma beheading of a grandmother at the hands of a Muslim co-worker on 26 September 2014

• The 28 November 2016 terrorist vehicle attack on Ohio State University campus.

• The September 17-19 2016 bombings in New York and New Jersey.

• The Fresno, California shooting on 18 April 2017.

These are just a few of the incidents in recent years, here in the United States, that have, unfortunately, been categorized as “lone wolf” terrorist attacks by our recalcitrant news media.

In fact, the term “lone wolf” does not exist in Islamic doctrine. What DOES exist in Islamic doctrine is the fact that Jihad is an individual as well as a collective obligation.

What we are seeing are in fact individual acts of Jihad–acts of war, not criminal acts. We continue to deny this at our peril. There is a doctrinal basis for the enemy that is waging war against us. This form of warfare does not require formal ties between fighters or units (organizations) waging the war.

The concept of Jihad being an individual obligation is longstanding and has its basis in mainstream Islamic law (Shariah). We can see this from a widely-read and used text of Shariah sold annually at the convention of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the largest Muslim organization in the United States, which was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorism financing prosecution in U.S. history: the U.S. v the Holy Land Foundation. In that trial, ISNA was identified as a Muslim Brotherhood front group. Interestingly, ISNA’s Canadian wing was shut down in 2013 for funneling money to a Jihadist terrorist group in Kashmir.

The name of the Shariah text is A Summary of Islamic Jurisprudence by Dr. Salih Al-Fawzan and published by Al-Maiman Publishing House in Saudi Arabia. Al-Fawzan is a member of the Board of Senior Ulema in Saudi Arabia and also a member of the Permanent Committee for Fatwa and Research in the kingdom.

IMG_0137

Volume One of this work has a chapter devoted to Jihad. On page 473, the basis in Shariah for individual Jihad is explained in detail and reveals for us why we are seeing this escalation of attacks:

For a Muslim, there are certain cases in which jihad is an individual duty:

1) When a Muslim is present at the battlefield, it is obligatory for him to fight and he is prohibited to leave the battlefield and flee.

2) When enemies attack a Muslim country…

3) When a Muslim is needed to help his fellow Muslims fight their enemies.

4) When a Muslim is called by the ruler (or the one in authority) to fight in the Cause of Allah, for the Prophet (PBUH) said:

Whenever you are called for fighting in the cause of Allah, you should go immediately.

As you can see, these four circumstances are quite broad and all could be interpreted as existing right now. But numbers 2, 3 and 4 are particularly relevant right now and serve as the doctrinal basis for why Muslims have suddenly begun rising up in violent Jihad in the West:

• The Islamic State has called on Muslims to wage Jihad because the Islamic State is under attack. This applies to 2 and 3 above.

• Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed caliph of the Islamic State has issued calls on Muslims in the West to rise up in Jihad. This applies to 4 above and is the key difference between the days of Bin Laden and today.

Bin Laden may have been admired by many Muslims, but he never declared himself as a Caliph and his calls for Jihad were mostly ignored. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s calls are being answered because he has declared himself as the Caliph and many Muslims recognize him as such. That is why were are seeing acts of individual Jihad that we mostly did not see before.

And that is why the U.S. and the West cannot tolerate the existence of the Islamic State over the long-term. It has become the flame attracting moths. It will only gain more legitimacy and strength if it is allowed to persist. In short, it must be destroyed.

 

HERE ARE TWO IMPORTANT PASSAGES THAT APPLY TO WHAT WE ARE SEEING TODAY. The news media and our elected officials seem to take comfort when an attacker was “merely inspired” by the Islamic State (ISIS) and were not directed by the Islamic State. The opposite should actually be the case, as reflected by the two remaining passages below from two important Jihadi ideologues:

Individual jihad has recurred throughout Islamic history. In the time of the Crusades…groups of mujahideen responded to the crisis. Many isolated expeditions and groups carried out the obligation of jihad.

Individual jihad using the method of urban or rural guerilla warfare is the foundation for sapping the enemy and bringing him to a state of collapse and withdrawal. It will pave the way for the desired strategic goal.

What mandates these methods as a strategic opinion is the imbalance of forces between the resistance and the large invading alliance of unbelievers, apostates and hypocrites.

We fight them for the sake of incidents to cause political pressure and psychological collapse, so that they leave our lands. Carrying out a small operation every month against the enemy will have more of an impact on him than a big operation every year or two.

Toward a New Strategy in Resisting the Occupier
Muhammad Khalil al-Hakaymah
Al Qaeda Chief of External Operations
Killed by US air strike in Pakistan in 2008

Successful jihad will only happen within an ummah [Islamic nation or community] in which the fighting creed is firmly established and clarified. This must happen in order to attain the “Revolutionary Jihadist Climate” that will spontaneously give rise to instruments of resistance.

Violent jihad is as an individual duty obligatory upon every Muslim. All the ulema have said this…”

The Call to Global Islamic Resistance
Abu Musab al-Suri
Al Qaeda propagandist
Captured in Pakistan 2005

These two passages reflect what we are seeing today, not just in the USA, but even more so in Europe, as evidenced by the March 2017 London parliament shooting and the 20 April 2017 police shooting on the Champs Elysees.

Over a decade ago Al-Hakaymah called for frequent, small-scale attacks rather than big 9/11 type attacks. What we are seeing today was clearly part of the Jihadists’ plans.

Again, well over a decade ago, Al-Suri foresaw an environment in which individual Jihadis would rise up spontaneously in resistance without specific direction and planning from a higher, central authority. Again, that is clearly what we are seeing today.

This “Revolutionary Jihadist Climate” spontaneously giving rise to instruments of resistance is NOT something to take comfort in at all. It is problematic for law enforcement and the intelligence community and dangerous for Americans.

A terrorist cell connected directly in some way to Al Qaeda leadership can be detected, infiltrated and taken down as it communicates with and receives orders from commanders overseas. But individual Jihadis or Jihadi couples who have the intention of carrying out attacks are much more difficult to detect and are very nearly impossible to infiltrate.

The “Revolutionary Jihadist Climate” spontaneously giving rise to instruments of resistance is a relatively new, dangerous phase in the global Jihadist movement.

By terrortrends | Also posted in 5th Column, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Al Qaeda, Boston Marathon bombings, Caliphate, Holy Land Foundation, Homegrown Jihad, ISIS, Islamic State, Jihad, knife jihad, New York, Osama Bin Laden, San Bernardino terror attack, Tsarnaev brothers, Uncategorized, United Kingdom | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

While America’s Politicos Party, the Global Jihad Escalates

1 JulpmMon, 25 Jul 2016 14:12:28 -06002016-07-25T14:12:28-06:0002 2009 – 14:12

by Christopher W. Holton

The U.S. news media has been almost completely entranced by the pontificating and posturing at the conventions of its two major political parties the past week or so. This has prevented them from covering the fact that events overseas demonstrate that the global Jihadist movement is NOT on its heels and NOT on the run. Nor is it contained.

First, on Thursday, 21 July, a British airman narrowly escaped an abduction at knifepoint outside Royal Air Force Station Marham. That particular base is home to a RAF squadron of Tornado bombers that deployed to the Middle East and conducted air strikes against the Islamic State.

RAFMarhamandCrest

The RAF airman was jogging along a road near the base when he was accosted by two men driving a vehicle along the same road. Fortunately, he was able to fight off his attackers who then fled. The attackers were described as “Asian,” which is a horribly misleading British media euphemism for Middle Eastern or Pakistani/Indian, and NOT Oriental as most people associate with the term Asian today.

The British military has been on alert for an attack against personnel inside the UK since Fusilier Lee Rigby was beheaded outside Woolwich barracks, in southeast London by two Jihadis.

There are now reports that the vehicle driven by the two attackers was observed making “dry runs” near the base before the attempted snatch operation.

Jihadi communiques have mentioned this type of attack repeatedly and the Islamic State and Al Qaeda have both issued calls for attacks on military personnel in the West and for attacks using knives and other edged weapons.

Then, on the same day, it was announced that Brazilian authorities had arrested 10 people in an apparent plot to carry out an Islamic State-inspired attack on the upcoming Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro.

2016-rio-olympics759-1

The group of ten were described as a “disorganized cell” that was communicating with each other online to plan attacks. The Brazilian federal police moved in on the Jihadis when they began to make plans to purchase firearms.

While the media has sought to downplay the significance of this development, it should be pointed out that 10 “disorganized” people with firearms can create a lot of death and destruction.

The federal police are concentrating their monitoring on the infamous “tri-border” region that we have covered before. This is a nearly lawless region with a large Muslim population which has been known to be a haven for HAMAS, Hezbollah and Al Qaeda members in the past.

The lawless "Tri-Border Area" in South America

The lawless “Tri-Border Area” in South America

In a related development, a Brazilian Jihadist group calling itself “Ansar al-Khilafah Brazil” pledged allegiance to the Islamic State last week as well, signaling an intention to target the Olympics, which are defended by 85,000 police and military personnel.

In addition, the SITE Intelligence Group reports that Jihadists have been broadcasting advice for individual Jihadis via social media and mobile devices to carry out attacks during the Olympics, including the use of toy drones.

As if all this was not enough, the world’s attention then swung to Germany, where a series of 4 attacks has initiated that country into the group of Western nations targeted directly by individual Jihadi attacks.

The first attack came on 19 July in the form of an axe attack on train passengers, not unlike the Jihadi attack in Queens, New York in October 2014:

https://terrortrendsbulletin.com/2014/10/23/breaking-possible-jihadi-attack-in-nyc/

The attacker in Germany was a 17-year old Afghan refugee. Three people were injured in the attack and the Afghan Jihadi was shot dead by German police.

Riaz Khan Ahmadzai, who attacked passengers on a German train on 19 July

Riaz Khan Ahmadzai, who attacked passengers on a German train on 19 July

But the Jihadi violence was not over in Germany. Even before the next attack however–and we believe that this is significant–the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade issued a travel advisory for Germany, warning that the threat of terrorism in Germany “remains high and further attacks are likely.”

What did the Australians know that the rest of the world was ignoring?

Within a few hours of the Australian bulletin, the news broke that shots had been fired at a shopping center in Munich.

After much initial confusion, it was discovered that a German-Iranian had killed 9 innocent victims and wounded 16 others with a pistol.

German authorities are still trying to distance this attack from any Jihadist motive, but their efforts are almost sure to fail. Multiple witnesses claim they heard the shooter shout “Allah u Akbar” during the course of the attack. The fact that the shooter was unknown previously to German security and intelligence services and was not a member of a known terrorist group is of no comfort whatsoever in this new age of individual Jihad.

Moreover, there is some evidence to indicate that the Germans are just plain wrong about the shooter, one Ali Sonboly.

Munich Shopping Mall Shooter's Facebook Page

Munich Shopping Mall Shooter’s Facebook Page

Note that the image above prominently features the Turkish flag, not the Iranian flag and at least one observer makes the point that Sonboly was probably Syrian, not Iranian…

http://shoebat.com/2016/07/23/the-munich-massacre-is-a-complete-coverup-the-munich-shooters-facebook-including-his-family-background-shows-he-is-not-iranian-but-a-syrian-islamist-pro-turkey/

Again in Germany, yesterday, 24 July, a Syrian refugee carried out a machete attack outside a kebab restaurant in Reutlingen, Germany. Once again, German officials downplayed any possible Jihadist motive in the attack, which left a 45 year old Polish woman dead. But the fact that it occurred in the midst of a rash of similar attacks and that it involved an edged weapon, something the Islamic State has specifically recommended in communiques, is beyond merely suspicious. Reports linking the two romantically do not explain the other two individuals the Syrian wounded in the attack.

The dead victim of the machete attack in Germany on 24 July 2016

The dead victim of the machete attack in Germany on 24 July 2016

Fortunately a good samaritan driving a BMW ran over the machete wielder before he could make his escape.

Then, just hours after the machete attack, an Islamikaze bomber set off an IED outside a music festival in Ansbach, Germany, killing himself and injuring 15 others. Once again, the attacker was a 27-year old Syrian refugee. He had tried to gain access to the music festival but was refused admission. He then set off his bomb. Had he been able to get into the music festival, casualties would almost certainly have been greater.

image

This time the German officials could not deny the Jihadist motive. A search of the man’s living quarters and belongings uncovered a video in which he pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and the Islamic State’s media arm, Islamic State Amaq, confirmed the attack as a martyrdom operation carried out by an Islamic State soldier in response to its calls to target the Western coalition fighting against it.

Germany is still on edge and its Interior Ministry has ordered increased security for airports and train stations (but not music festivals or restaurants evidently).

If all this was not enough, the most horrific Islamic State attack of all came on the 23rd of July in Kabul, Afghanistan, where 3 Islamikaze bombers attacked a protest killing 80 and wounding 236…

We can only hope that the elected leaders here in America recognize the frenetic pace of Jihadi activity worldwide and realize their duty to make defeating Jihad the number 1 national priority.

By terrortrends | Also posted in Afghanistan, Brazil, Failed terrorist attack, Germany, Great Britain, Homegrown Jihad, ISIS, Islamic State, Islamikaze attack, Jihad, Rio Olympics, South America, Suicide Bombing, Terrorist attack, United Kingdom | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (1)

France Slowly Emerges from Denial and Starts Shutting Down Mosques

1 AprpmFri, 01 Apr 2016 15:12:49 -06002016-04-01T15:12:49-06:0003 2009 – 15:12

by Christopher W. Holton

The French are slowly waking up from their denial.

At some point America will come to a crossroads on this same issue. If a mosque is found to be involved in material support for terrorism in the US, it should NOT be protected by the 1st amendment of our constitution.

And make no mistake, it is in fact in the mosques that recruitment and organization for Jihad is occurring. Despite what the so-called mainstream media’s narrative claims–namely that “radicalization” occurs simply over the internet and social media–an honest review of history indicates that it is mosques that serve as the outposts for Jihad around the world.

There is evidence to support this.

In France this week, security agencies shut down three mosques. One was in Lagny-sur- Marne, a suburb of eastern Paris. Nine Muslims associated with that mosque were placed under house arrest and 22 others from barred from leaving France.

According to USA Today, in that investigation, police seized a 9mm handgun, a computer hard drive that was hidden behind a wall, as well as jihadist propaganda materials. Police also discovered documents about an unregistered Quranic school.

In addition, two other mosques, one in Gennevilliers in the northwest suburbs of Paris and one in Lyon, were closed by French police. Moreover, four Muslim “prayer rooms” in the Nice area in the south of France have also been shut down. It is worth noting that these so-called “prayer rooms” are very common throughout the West and are often operated in strip malls and in store fronts and private homes.

The Germans have been shutting down mosques for a few years now and, as of yet, they haven’t been hit by a Paris or Brussels-style attack.

Back in December, they shut down a mosque in Stuttgart that was involved in recruiting for the Islamic State:

http://www.dw.com/en/german-police-raid-stuttgart-mosque-linked-to-islamic-state/a-18924893

“Through the association, donations have been collected for terrorist groups and fighters recruited for the Syrian conflict. In addition, the association and its members glorify jihad and religiously motivated terrorism.”

The German police confiscated computers, data storage devices, cell phones and documents in that raid.

In December 2014, the German police shut down a mosque in Bremen on charges that it too was recruiting for the Islamic State.

But the most notorious mosque in Germany was probably the Al-Quds Mosque in Hamburg. That mosque served as a meeting place for some of the September 11th hijackers and was finally shut down in 2010 after German authorities uncovered an Al Qaeda plot to launch terrorist attacks across Europe. Several members of the mosque had been recruited to travel to Pakistan and Afghanistan to train to participate in Jihad.

Contrary to what you may read or hear from pundits here in the U.S., the role of mosques in the U.S. is not much different from what we have seen in Europe.

The first indication of that came back in the 1990s as detailed in the book “Willful Blindness” by former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy. That book details the conviction of Omar Abdel Rahman, also known as “The Blind Sheikh,” who preached at three different mosques in the New York area. Educated at the prestigious Al Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, Rahman issued a fatwa in the U.S. that declared it lawful to rob banks and kill Jews in the U.S.. His sermons condemned Americans as the descendants of apes and pigs.He called on Muslims to assail the West, cut the transportation of their countries, tear it apart, destroy their economy, burn their companies, eliminate their interests, sink their ships, shoot down their planes, kill them on the sea, air, or land.

Rahman recorded his sermons in Brooklyn on cassette tapes and sent them to Egypt as the spiritual leader of Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya, a Jihadist terrorist group based there.

Rahman was eventually convicted in 1995 of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to life in prison.

This was certainly not the only example of an Imam preaching Jihad and recruiting for Jihad at a mosque.

Anwar al-Awlaki was a U.S.-born Imam who went on to become the head of AQAP–Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Before that, however, he served as an Imam at the Denver Islamic Society (where he was caught encouraging a member to travel to Chechnya to fight the Russians), the Masjid Ar-Ribat al-Islami mosque in San Diego, as well as the notorious Dar al-Hijrah mosque near Falls Church, Virginia, where he preached to at least two of the September 11 hijackers and an Army doctor named Nidal Malik Hasan, aka the Fort Hood shooter.

Anwar al Awlaki. This New Mexico native became the Imam of choice for Al Qaeda, essentially leading the organization's operations in Yemen.

Anwar al Awlaki. This New Mexico native became the Imam of choice for Al Qaeda, essentially leading the organization’s operations in Yemen.

Al-Awlaki fled the US after serving as the Muslim chaplain at George Washington University and actually delivering sermons to the Congressional Muslim Staffers Association at the U.S. Capitol. He met his demise in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in 2011.

Then there is the case of Abu Mansoor Al-Amriki, also known as Omar Shafik Hammami. He grew up in the quiet gulf coast town of Daphne, Alabama, served as the president of the Muslim Students Association at the University of South Alabama and went on to become a Jihadi fighter with Al Shabaab in Somalia. While this man was not an Imam himself, it is extremely suspicious and interesting that his father, a Syrian immigrant, served for a time as an Imam in Daphne as well.

Omar Hammami of Alabama

Omar Hammami of Alabama

Another case in which the son of an Imam became a Jihadist terrorist is that of Adnan Gulshair el-Shukrijumah, the son of Gulshair Muhammad el-Shukrijumah, the Imam at the notorious Masjid Nur al-Islam mosque in Brooklyn, who made a career on the payroll of the Saudi government preaching Islamic supremacism and Jihad. The elder el-Shukrijumah also preached sermons at Masjid al-Farooq mosque in the same area of Brooklyn, which served as the religious base of operations for Ramzi Youssef and the other 1993 World Trade Center bombers. After all of this activity, the entire family moved to Florida where the elder Gulshair served as Imam at the Masjid al-Hijrah mosque.

Former Florida and New York resident Adnan Shukrijumah

Former Florida and New York resident Adnan Shukrijumah

The younger Gulshair did not follow in his father’s footsteps as an Imam preaching and recruiting for Jihad. He decided that joining Al Qaeda was the way to go. He rose in the ranks of Al Qaeda before being killed in a counterterrorism raid in Pakistan in December 2014.

It should be pointed out that the Imam fathers of these Jihadis denied any knowledge of how their sons could have found their way into Jihad…uh huh.

Finally we have the case of Carlos Bledsoe, also known as Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, named for his Imam as the Islamic Center of Nashville, who was recruited for Jihad in Nashville and sent to Yemen to a Jihadi training camp, before returning to the U.S. to murder U.S. Army Private Andy Long in Little Rock, Arkansas, as depicted in the movie “Losing Our Sons.”

abdulhakim_muhammad_bkgrnd

If you haven’t seen that movie, you should, especially for the audio and video footage of Imams at mosques preaching violent Jihad.

What all this means is that Jihad isn’t just happening over the internet and social media. The French and the Germans evidently are starting to understand that, according to Islamic doctrine, mosques are not the same as churches in the West. In addition to places of worship, mosques are also the equivalent of the town hall, court house, school, community center…and the national guard armory.

Will our own bureaucratized counterterror apparatus ever wake up to this reality?

By terrortrends | Also posted in 5th Column, Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), al Shabaab, Al Shahab, Alabama, Anwar Al-Awlaki, France, Germany, ISIS, Islam, Islamic Jihad, Islamic State, Jihad, Muslim Students Association, New York, Nidal Malik Hasan, Omar Hammami, Paris Jihadi attack | Tagged , , | Comments (2)

The Invasion of Europe: The Latest from Pat Condell

1 SeppmTue, 29 Sep 2015 17:55:32 -06002015-09-29T17:55:32-06:0005 2009 – 17:55

By terrortrends | Also posted in Illegal Immigration, Jihad | Tagged | Comments (0)

Entire French Family Heads to Syria to Join the Jihad

1 OctpmWed, 08 Oct 2014 18:16:33 -06002014-10-08T18:16:33-06:0006 2009 – 18:16

Though it is too easy to dismiss this kind of thing as “crazy,” there can be no doubt that the report below is indicative of a sick culture.

People do not have to follow the doctrine laid out by a religion if that doctrine is so obviously toxic to human decency. Nevertheless, the Islamic doctrine of Jihad is 1400 years old, it is something that millions of Muslims follow and it’s not just a few “crazies.”

An investigation is being conducted by French DGSI anti-terror police after reports that eleven members of one family including the grandmother and six-month-old baby, have left the country bound for Syria in the hope of joining the Islamic State.

dgsi

There are already believed to be hundreds of French nationals fighting for the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

Three generations of this particular family from Nice in the south of France left for Turkey, from where they planned to cross the border into Syria, just as thousands of other Jihadis from around the world have done. (Turkish authorities have long turned a blind eye to the flow of Jihadi recruits through and from their country.)

The family members include the grandmother, her three children, their partners and their children – the youngest of which is said to be six months old.

This is not the first from France of a family leaving together to join the jihad.

In September, a husband and wife from Orleans, France left with their three-year-old daughter to fight for the Islamic State.

In an interview with French television the couple, who left everything behind, said they wanted to join the “great heros” in the fight against the “infidels”.

At least 150 French nationals are known have joined Islamic State fighters but some estimates claim that hundreds more have left France to fight jihad in Syria.

According to a report in The Local, a French English-language news site, the jihadis hail “from varied backgrounds, dispelling widely-held beliefs that most are disadvantaged, lost youths, experts say.”

http://www.thelocal.fr/20141008/eleven-members-of-french-family-leave-for-jihad

 

By terrortrends | Also posted in 5th Column, France, ISIS, Islam, Islamic Jihad, Islamic State, Jihad, Syria | Tagged | Comments (0)

A Couple of Random Thoughts on Islamic Jihad

1 SepamThu, 04 Sep 2014 10:04:45 -06002014-09-04T10:04:45-06:0010 2009 – 10:04

1. There are now reports that as many as 800 French Muslims are fighting with the Islamic State. This figure is added to an estimate of 300 from the US, 500 from the UK, 400 from Germany, 150 from Australia and 130 from Austria. There is a report of 22 from one mosque in Denmark alone. Estimates indicate that fully 10% of IS fighters are Turks, which would put the number at 2,000.

Little Tunisia says that 1,300 of its citizens are fighting with IS. There are of course known Chechans, Malaysians and Indonesians fighting for IS (a mosque in Indonesia was distributing IS recruiting literature).

And let’s not forget that Boko Haram, Abu Sayyaf and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula have all pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.

This isn’t happening spontaneously. All of these Jihadis didn’t just all of a sudden visit a web site and decide to drop everything and head to Iraq and Syria.

There is an Islamic Underground in the West that was activated to get recruits and support for IS, a 5th Column. It is efficient and robust, because Muslims by the thousands have answered this call to head to an area many couldn’t find on a map to participate in Jihad.

Moreover, the way that the Obama administration and the US State Department keep referring to IS as a “regional” problem is positively maddening and frightening. It is nothing of the such and denying the Islamic State’s global reach is no small matter.

2. de Tocqueville compares Islam to Christianity:

From Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville, 1840.

“Mahommed professed to derive from Heaven, and he has inserted in the Koran, not only a body of religious doctrines, but political maxims, civil and criminal laws, and theories of science. The gospel, on the contrary, only speaks of the general relations of men to God and to each other — beyond which it inculcates and imposes no point of faith. This alone, besides a thousand other reasons, would suffice to prove that the former of these religions will never long predominate in a cultivated and democratic age, whilst the latter is destined to retain its sway at these as at all other periods.”

de Tocqueville nailed Islam way back in 1840. The question is, will his prediction of the outcome prove correct? Or will Western weakness and recalcitrance result in an outcome tragically different from what he forecast?

Alex de Tocqueville

Alex de Tocqueville

 

By terrortrends | Also posted in 5th Column, Homegrown Jihad, ISIS, Islam, Jihad | Tagged | Comments (2)

HOLTON: The Enemy Knows We’re In A World War, But We Don’t

1 AugamWed, 20 Aug 2014 11:58:38 -06002014-08-20T11:58:38-06:0011 2009 – 11:58

Excerpt and LINK from my guest article in The Hayride…

The Islamic State is not simply an Iraqi problem or a Syrian problem. IS has metastasized into a worldwide organization with 20,000 recruits from Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Somalia, the U.S., Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Spain, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Germany. Even worse, Jihadists from Boko Haram in Nigeria, Abu Sayyef in the Philippines, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in Northwest Africa and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula from Yemen have all pledged allegiance to IS.

There can no longer be any doubt that the global Islamic insurgency that some have been warning about for some time, amounts to a world war. Nevertheless, policymakers here in the U.S. continue to ignore or deny this reality.

Over the period of a generation, the West has allowed itself to be thoroughly infiltrated by a savage and barbaric belief system. This is evidenced by the global base of recruitment that the Islamic State has been able to take advantage of and the numerous public displays of support for IS in the West.

http://thehayride.com/2014/08/holton-the-enemy-knows-were-in-a-world-war-but-we-dont/

 

 

By terrortrends | Also posted in 5th Column, Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Anwar Al-Awlaki, Boko Haram, Carlos Bledsoe, Chechnya, Egypt, Genocide, Germany, Great Britain, Homegrown Jihad, Homeland Security, Hostage taking, India, Indonesia, Iraq, ISIS, Islam, Islamic Supremecism, Jihad, Kidnapping & Hostage-taking, Lebanon, Libya, Muslim Brotherhood, Obama, Pakistan, Philippines, Salafi Islam, September 11th attacks, Sharia, Shariah, Suicide Bombing, The Netherlands, Turkey, Uncategorized, United Kingdom, Yemen | Tagged , , | Comments (0)