As Search Goes On, French Premier Declares War on Radical Islam

THE NEW YORK TIMES: PARIS — Prime Minister Manuel Valls declared Saturday that France was at war with radical Islam, as new details emerged of the harrowing sieges that led to the deaths of three gunmen and four hostages the day before, and as the authorities mounted a frantic hunt for a suspected accomplice who remained on the loose.

“It is a war against terrorism, against jihadism, against radical Islam, against everything that is aimed at breaking fraternity, freedom, solidarity,” Mr. Valls said during a speech in Evry, south of Paris. » | Dan Bilefsky and Maïa de la Baume | Saturday, January 10, 2015

The Bloody Making of a Global Jihadi Movement
THE IRISH TIMES: ANALYSIS : The Soviet war in Afghanistan was criticial in building the contemporary ‘Jihadi International’

The seizure of scores of hostages in the Algerian desert and the emergence of an expansionist “Islamic state” in neighbouring Mali are the latest developments in the global war being waged by militant Muslims, jihadis, against the secular West and its allies, culture and influence in the Ummah, the worldwide Muslim community.

Algeria and France, the former colonial power in the region, responded differently to these challenges. Determined to bring a quick end to the hostage crisis, the Algerian military slew both jihadis and captives.

France, by contrast, intervened in Mali eight months after jihadi rebels had proclaimed independence in the north and only when they threatened the capital Bamako in the south. This response is likely to spur jihadis everywhere to mount fresh operations in a global campaign.

In Islam, jihad is a just war carried out in self-defence, warfare against persecutors and conquerors, and “war in God’s cause”. The Koran provides the basis for legislation governing warfare in Surah (chapter) II, verse 190: “Fight in the cause of God those who fight you, but do not commit aggression, God loves not the aggressors.”

If aggressors and persecutors desist, verse 193 says hostilities should cease. Jihad-motivated Muslims fought Christian Crusaders in Palestine during the 11th-13th centuries and colonial masters during the 19th and early 20th century freedom struggles.

Commanders of the later campaigns are inspirational figures for contemporary jihadis. Three in particular can be mentioned: Abdel Qader who fought the French in Algeria in the 1830s; the Mahdi who staged the 1881-99 revolt against Anglo-Egyptian rule in the Sudan; and slew British Gen Charles Gordon, and Omar Mukhtar who led the 1911-43 Libyan resistance campaign against the Italians.

Sadiq al-Mahdi, great grandson of the Mahdi, remains a major figure on the Sudanese scene while Awad Mukhtar, the grandson of Omar Mukhtar – who was celebrated in a film starring Anthony Quinn – threw in his lot with the 2011 revolt against Muammar Gadafy. No borders » | Michael Jansen | Saturday, January 19, 2013

Amerabia
TOWNHALL.COM: Even Americans knowledgeable about Europe’s growing accommodation to the totalitarian ideology known alternatively as Islamism, jihadism or Islamofascism tend smugly to believe the same thing can’t happen here. Think again. Every day, new evidence appears of similar acts of submission – the Islamists call it “dhimmitude” – on the part of the U.S. government, judges, the press and leading corporations.

Eurabia, meet the United States of Amerabia.

On May 4, an ominous alarm was sounded in a Pajamas Media column by Youssef Ibrahim, a former New York Times reporter. Ibrahim is an astute critic of the Islamists’ steady, tireless and increasingly effective efforts to impose – on Muslims and non-Muslims alike – the repressive theo-political-legal agenda they call Shariah law. He warned that “In the very real war on terror, a noisy squabble over ‘fighting them there so we don’t have to fight them here’ clouds a simple truth: namely, that ‘they’ are here already. Indeed, Islamists are busy constructing a wing of jihad in America’s backyard.” Amerabia >>> By Frank J Gaffney Jr | May 5, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – USA)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardcover – USA)

World War IV: Europe on the Front Line
THE ATLANTICIST: A resurgent fundamentalist Islam is engaged in a global war against the West and the rest of the infidel world. In World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism former Commentary editor in chief Norman Podhoretz calls it WW4.

Republican presidential frontrunner John McCain believes “the transcendent challenge of the 21st century is radical Islamic extremists.” Mitt Romney said the “philosophy of radical jihadism says, ‘We want to kill.’” In stark contrast, Democrats, George Bush and many European leaders talk about combating terrorism – a means, disembodied from any animating ideology or purpose. It is as if in WW2 Roosevelt and Churchill had called for waging war against Panzer tanks. UK Home Secretary Jacqui Smith in a positively Orwellian construction now refers to Islamic terrorism as “anti-Islamic activity.”

21st century Europeans and Americans no longer understand men motivated by and willing, indeed eager, to kill and die for their faith. World War IV: Europe on the front line >>> By Eric Grover*

*Eric Grover is a principal at Intrepid Ventures, providing corporate development and strategy consulting to private and public financial services, processing, technology and payment network businesses, principally in North America and Europe.

Grover’s prior experience includes GE Consumer Finance, Visa International, Bank of America, NationsBank, Transamerica and Intrinsic. His commentaries on financial services, payment networks and processing have been frequently published in the American Banker, Cards International, the Daily Deal, Digital Transactions, Credit Card Management, Cards & Payments, Card Technology, CRM Magazine, and Silicon Valley Business Ink.

Grover has a BA in economics from Amherst College and an MBA in Finance from New York University’s Stern Graduate School of Business.

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)