Posted by Christopher W. Holton
The latest from the brilliant Mark Steyn…
http://www.steynonline.com/7293/the-barbarians-are-inside-and-there-are-no-gates
Terror Trends BulletinPosted by Christopher W. Holton
The latest from the brilliant Mark Steyn…
http://www.steynonline.com/7293/the-barbarians-are-inside-and-there-are-no-gates
posted by Christopher W. Holton
Excellent and sobering analysis by Andrew McCarthy, author of multiple books on Jihad and prosecutor of the Blind Sheikh…
By Christopher W. Holton
Paris has become the top Western target for Jihad.
It can no longer be denied that France is in the throes of the global Islamic insurgency. Today, a coordinated, multifaceted attack eerily reminiscent of the 2008 Mumbai, India attack by Lashkar e Taiba, resulted in the deaths of at least 160 people.
The attack involved small arms and grenades and nearly simultaneous attacks in 7 different locations around Paris.
What most people do not realize is that these attacks are but the latest in a string of attacks going back to the infamous Charlie Hebdo attack 10 months ago. Everyone remembers Charlie Hebdo, but few in America realize that there have been several small-scale Jihadi incidents across France both before and after Charlie Hebdo, all of which are indicative of a revolutionary Jihadist atmosphere developing in the country.
France has been targeted because it has been the most active nation fighting Jihad in recent years, effectively decimating Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in Mali and carrying out air strikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
It is absolutely imperative that the West stand with France with more than just symbolism. Now is not the time for candlelight vigils and peace rallies. Now is the time when NATO must take the threat from the Islamic State seriously. France is a NATO nation and has been attacked by a foreign power. That means that the North Atlantic Treaty must be invoked and activated.
It is time for the full weight and force and the North Atlantic Alliance be brought to bear to end the caliphate once and for all–no matter what it takes to do so.
By Christopher W. Holton
Senator Ted Cruz has filed a bill to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).
We congratulate Senator Cruz for this long overdue move. Way back in 2007 the Bush administration was petitioned to designate the Muslim Brotherhood but they failed to do so.
Not only is the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization, it is the forerunner of all modern-day Sunni Jihadist terrorist organizations.
There is a common misconception that the Muslim Brotherhood swore off violence years ago, but that myth stems from an agreement decades ago between the MB and the Egyptian government. The MB agreed not to target the Egyptian government with violence, but they never gave up all violent Jihad. That explains why their Palestinian wing, HAMAS, is one of the most savage, barbaric terrorist organizations on the planet.
Andrew McCarthy has complete details in a great column over on National Review:
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/426726/ted-cruz-muslim-brotherhood-terrorist-organization
By Christopher W. Holton
On Wednesday, 4 November, Faisel Mohammad of Santa Clara, California went on a “stabbing spree” at the University of California at Merced in Sacramento. He stabbed 4 people before he was shot dead by police.
So far, press reports are littered with the usual “he was a quiet guy” garbage about Mohammad and the Sheriff of Merced County, Vern Warnke, who obviously knows zilch about Islamic doctrine and clearly hasn’t been paying much attention to Jihad in recent months, is insistent that this attack had nothing to do with “religion” or “politics,” but was the result of a personal vendetta because Mohammad was angry about being kicked out of a study group.
There are some facts that Sheriff Warnke is actively ignoring.
For example, the Islamic State issued a tweet acknowledging Mohammad’s attack and wishing that allah would allow him entrance into paradise. Last week this same Twitter account associated with the Islamic State posted tweets with videos calling for stabbing attacks.
We have now seen this over and over, the Islamic State, using both social media and internet bulletin boards and chat rooms, have made specific calls for acts of individual Jihad in the West and Jihadis are surfacing to carry out such attacks.
Stabbings have recently become the method of choice by Jihadis in Israel, with dozens of stabbings being carried out by Muslims. Does Sheriff Warnke even bother to watch the news?
In addition to this evidence, police have found a “manifesto” written by Mohammad and what does it contain?
• 5 references to praise for allah over two pages.
• A statement in which Mohammad said he wanted to behead someone. This is pure Jihadi doctrine, as anyone who has been paying attention the past several years knows.
The repeated denials by public officials in this country about the central role of Islamic doctrine in acts of violence are both irresponsible and obnoxious.
We are seeing the development of a “revolutionary Jihadist climate” as described by Jihadi ideologue Abu Musab al-Suri:
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…”
Denying that individual acts of Jihad are exactly what they are is contributing to the slumber that this nation finds itself in and we will pay a dear price for it.
By Christopher W. Holton
The Islamic State continues to expand its murderous influence around the world, particularly in Africa.
Previously, Boko Haram of Nigeria pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.
Now, a faction of Al Shabaab in Somalia has also pledged allegiance to the caliphate.
Western news media seems to be treating this as if it is a positive sign of division in the ranks of Jihadis.
We have a different view.
As of our last count, 36 Jihadist groups from the Philippines to west Africa have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. Meanwhile, we have seen multiple Islamic State-inspired attacks in the West, including here in the United States. This is something that never occurred much before the Islamic State arrived on the scene. Al Qaeda, for example, never inspired such widespread support and acts of individual Jihad.
Having part of Al Shabaab, which has members in the US and has carried out deadly attacks targeting Westerners outside of Somalia, pledge allegiance to the Islamic State escalates the potential for acts of violent Jihad in Africa and America.
By Christopher W. Holton
Al Shabaab of Somalia and the entire horn of Africa is one of the deadliest Jihadist organizations in the world. They do not get as much scrutiny as they should because of the primary location of their operations, but it should be noted that Al Shabaab members have been arrested and convicted in Maine, Minnesota and California over the years.
They are perhaps most infamous for their bloody massacre of shoppers at a mall in Nairobi, Kenya a few years ago.
Terror Trends Bulletin has covered Al Shabaab for several years now. Here is our archive of Al Shabaab articles dating back to 2010:
https://terrortrendsbulletin.com/category/al-shabaab/
Al Shabaab made the news today by issuing a new warning when they called on their followers to carry out attacks on Israel and Jews around the world. Here is the primary message of the communique:
You are justified to spill their blood & take wealth of every Jew, they will find no safety, they are all targets whether armed or not.
This warning comes as Jihadists have apparently stepped up violence in Gaza and the West Bank in Israel with everything from a rash of knife attacks to rock and bottle throwing–so far.
Al Shabaab also reportedly captured a high-level Somali military leader in an operation earlier today:
https://www.enca.com/africa/top-somali-millitary-commander-kidnapped-al-shabaab
While African countries in the region have stepped up operations against Al Shabaab in recent months, the Jihadist group remains a persistent and dangerous threat as reported by the excellent Long War Journal:
Shabaab continues to remain a persistent threat despite being pushed out of its major urban strongholds of Mogadishu, Kismayo, and other large cities and towns in southern and central Somalia. It still controls large rural areas in southern Somalia, and uses these safe havens to launch large-scale assaults in the country, even with a major African Union mission present. Shabaab has also increasingly been able to mount attacks across the border into neighboring Kenya.
http://www.matthewaid.com/post/130807153691/al-shabaab-remains-a-persistent-threat-in-somalia
Here is a graphical depiction of Al Shabaab attacks in Somalia, showing just how active the Jihadist group has been. Note the attacks in neighboring Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti:
Readers may recall from our article on David Cameron last week that the UK is sending 70 British army advisers to Somalia to battle against Jihad there. Al Shabaab is well aware of the plan and has threatened to behead any captured British troops.
We wish the British troops happy hunting and know that Somali Jihadi barbarians are no match for them on the battlefield:
by Christopher W. Holton
The mantra from the Obama administration has always been that there is no connection between Islam and violence.
In a move eerily reminiscent of re-education programs of monstrous communist regimes from Stalin to Mao to Pol Pot, Obama even had US federal law enforcement training programs purged of any and all materials that point out the aspects of Islamic doctrine which are violent.
Even the Pope has adopted the same mantra, with the astonishingly ignorant claim that “authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Quran are opposed to every form of violence. {Emphasis added}
The problem is, no one who promotes such nonsense has actually bothered to study Islamic doctrine.
But we don’t have to go back over 1400 years of Islamic doctrine to view the evidence of a connection between Islam and violence. All we have to do is to visit the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) web site and view videos of Islamic clerics delivering sermons in mosques encouraging their flocks to commit acts of terrorism and violence. There are scores of such videos.
It’s one thing for a Christian religious leader or an ignorant Western politician to proclaim that there is no connection between Islam and violence. But when actual Islamic clerics make that connection for us, there is absolutely nothing left to prove.
Either our political and religious leaders are lying to us, or they are ignorant. No other possibility exists.
Here is link to a 5-minute video clip that MEMRI posted 2 days ago of an Islamic cleric at a mosque brandishing a dagger (it actually looks like a bayonet to me) during his sermon and encouraging the worshippers to stab Jews. In view of the recent rash of stabbing attacks against Israeli citizens by Muslims, this cannot be dismissed as mere symbolism…
It is highly likely that Rolando del Torchio was abducted by Jihadists. First of all, the abduction occurred on Mindanao, a hotbed of Jihadi violence for many years. Second, this poor man is a former Catholic missionary; missionaries have been especially targeted by Jihadists in the Philippines for many years.
This abduction shows the futility of negotiating with Jihadists. The Philippine government has been attempting to appease the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) for years, so splinter groups and other independent Jihadist groups have carried on with campaigns of terror.
Even if MILF was willing to honor a truce with the Philippine government (highly doubtful), they are but one group of Jihadists operating in the Philippines. It is more likely than not that the Jihadist insurgency in Mindanao will escalate, rather than decline…
Unknown gunmen seized Rolando del Torchio, a former PIME missionary, in Dipolog City (Zamboanga del Norte, Mindanao), where he owned the ‘Ur Choice Bistro Café’, an eatery near the Andres Bonifacio College.
Rolando Del Torchio, 57, comes from Angera (Varese, Italy). Ordained a missionary with the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) in 1984, he worked in Naples for a few years and was then sent to the Philippines, to Sebuco on Mindanao, not far from where he was kidnapped.
As a missionary, he worked hard to defend the rights of farmers and tribals against landowners, often putting his own life at risk. In 2001, he asked to live outside the Institute, remaining in Zamboanga del Norte. Subsequently, he left the priesthood for personal reasons.
Nothing is known about the kidnappers. Several Muslim guerrilla groups operate on the island of Mindanao. Some are engaged in talks with the Filipino government. Others abduct foreigners or locals for financial gain or to pursue their struggle against the authorities.
PIME has been present in Mindanao since the 1970s. One of Rolando Del Torchio’s colleagues, Fr Fausto Tentorio, was killed in 2011. Two other missionaries have been killed on the island. Private armed guards murdered Fr Tullio Favali in Tulunan, in the Diocese of Kidapawan, in 1985. Fr Salvatore Carzedda, who was involved in talks with Muslims, was assassinated in Zamboanga in 1992.
Two more missionaries have been abducted. Fr Luciano Benedetti was kidnapped in 1998 by a Muslim group but was released after about two months. A splinter group from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) seized Fr Giancarlo Bossi in 2007 and released him after two months in captivity.
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?art=35523&l=en