al-Qaeda, now, is without Qaeda

Al Qaeda now is without Qaeda

The base now is without base

As I mentioned in my previous postings regarding our Muslim negative teachings particularly in both sects of Islam that is the Sunni and Shi’a branch of Islam that those negative teachings are causing a serious consequences on the Muslim people in particular and on world peace in general. Furthermore I also believe that those religious flaws in our Muslim teachings and its consequences which are manifested in the behaviors of Muslims today are playing conveniently in the hands of those who wish Islam and its followers harm. And I truly believe that in recent years the symptoms of such teachings are clearly evident through the behaviours of many ordinary Muslims, Muslim scholars, Islamic political movements, Islamic institutions, etc..of both major Muslim schools of thought, Sunni and Shi’a. In respect to the Sunni faith, those symptoms are mainly prevalent and manifested in the behavior and conducts of al Qaeda and its sympathizers, Hamas and Islamic Jihad of Palestine, Abu Sayief of Philippines, Ansarul-Sunna, and many other Sunni Muslim groups. On the other hands we find those negative teachings in respect to the Shi’a faith are mainly prevalent and manifested mainly in the behavior of the young Shi’a leader, Mr. Mu’qtada alsadre and his Mehdi Army, Mr Hassan Nasrallah and his Hizballah party of Lebanon, the Shi’a authority led by Ayatullah Shirazi in Iran ( they are known as al-Shirazis and they hold many Islamic centers worldwide), and many other Shi’a groups-with all due respect to the followers of such groups from both sides, Shi’a and Sunnis who sincerely support the official declared “good causes” which are preached by those groups and who have been victimized by those distorted Muslim teachings. Keeping in mind that listing those groups in this order, alongside al Qaeda does not reflect the seriousness of each group conduct and the damage it causes in the world. In fact I can single out from this list of groups al Qaeda to be the most lethal and dangerous one in comparison to all of the mentioned groups combined. So listing other groups alongside al Qaeda does not necessarily bring anyone of those groups down to the low level which al Qaeda holds.

It is no secret that al Qaeda is a religious group which is belong to the Sunni branch of Islam and a fact that would not be disputed by my Sunni nor Shi’a brothers. In fact many Sunni Muslims may feel proud of al Qaeda’s activities for their alleged struggle against the infidels!!! And the enemies of Islam!!! My intention here is neither to be bias nor to be unfairly critical of the Sunni faith but because this posting is about al Qaeda and that they are being Sunni Muslims therefore I may be emphasizing more, in this post, on the Sunni faith for that reason. However this is not to suggest that the Shi’a branch of Islam has no negative teachings rather they do have such problem but of different type, and details of such negative teachings will not be discussed in this essay, for it is beyond the scope of this attempt.

Since the American intervention in Iraq to remove the regime of Saddam Hussain in 2003, Iraq has become a safe haven for al Qaeda and it was declared as the base for their global Muslim state; by the way just to note here that al-Qaeda leaders did not ask any Iraqi citizen for the establishment of their alleged Islamic state on the soil of Iraq; so much for the principle of freedom which bin laden calls for!!! They were able to establish their bases into the Sunni populated areas of Iraq and consequently began their war of terror against the Iraqi people led by “Abu Mus’ab alzar’qawi” who has become the spiritual symbol for the Palestinian Islamic movement known as “Hamas”-where they have granted him the title “the prince of martyrs”; sure he was a prince but not of “martyrs” rather he was “the prince of death”, and Hamas government in Gaza has declared three days mourning and their state Flag were lowered half staff in his honor.

Our Muslim world today faces too many challenges due to the inherited negative Muslim teachings. I truly believe that the symptoms of those negative teachings are very evident in Muslim behaviors. A classical example of those symptoms can be seen in Iraq to say the least, through the behaviors of the many Muslim groups from both sides Sunnis and Shi’as. Those Muslim negative teachings have devastated our Muslim people throughout the world and particularly in Iraq. It is fair to say that Iraq’s dire situtation are the consequences of our Muslim negative teaching.

Power struggle between al Qaeda and the Sunnis of Iraq

After many years of committing mass murders against the innocents people of Iraq, a power struggle began between the Sunni insurgents(Iraqi Sunnis), and al Qaeda(multinationals Sunni Muslims ) for domination and dispute over many strict perverted religious policies of al Qaeda being imposed on the Suuni population under their control; which included implementing their version of Muslim shari’a laws, such as, assassinations, murdering moderate Sunni tribal leaders, public executions, women stoning, etc… Hence a bloody conflict erupted between them but al Qaeda appeared to be more powerful and organized than the Sunni insurgents of Iraq. Many Sunni tribal leaders rejected al Qaeda’s brutal religious philosophy and began to reconcile with the new Iraqi government and began seeking help to root out al-Qaeda organization which was established in their areas. Then al Qaeda began the war of terror against the Sunni Iraqi insurgents by targeting their tribal leaders who showed interest in joining the new Iraq. As a result of this serious political shift within the vision of the Iraqi Sunni insurgency and their philosophy of dealing with the occupation problem, the Sunni insurgents began forming a new military force to fight back al Qaeda war of terror. Those new military wings of the Sunni insurgents were called ‘the awaking counsels or majalis al-sa’hwa, in coordination with Americans and the Iraqi government.

What title the Iraqi insurgency deserves to earn?

Unfortunately, and it is a clear fact to all that the Sunnis of Iraq were the natural incubator for al-Qaeda in Iraq and they provided them shelter and logistics to commit their mass murders. The Sunni insurgents, with the help of the Arab media, have called themselves as “the honorable resistance” or in the Arabic “al-mu’qawama al-shareefa” There were many Iraqi Sunni politicians in the new government, who has ties to those Sunni insurgence elements, were continuously defending those elements and justifying their methods of armed resistance against the Americans and insist on Iraqi media and the government to refer to them as “the honorable resistance” because they were fighting the occupying forces, as they claim. And all of the Muslims and Arab media were cheering for those groups for many years while the Iraqi Muslim population was being massacred by their relentless attacks on civilian targets for the hope of killing some American soldiers.

What is really interesting here is that those Sunni insurgents emphasized, in the early stage of the war that they are to be called “the honorable insurgency” because they were fighting the occupying forces. But now they are collaborating with the occupying forces against one common enemy; “al-Qaeda” and they assumed a new title that is “the awakening counsels” Now the only thing to conclude from this bizarre evolutionary political process in their vision is that they should have been called initially as “the sleeping counsels” Or if their initial title; “the honorable resistance” were earned because their alleged struggle against the occupiers then their current collaborations with the occupiers , against al Qaeda, should have earned them the title “the dishonourable resistance” at least based on their own logic.

The path of armed resistance or political peaceful path?

Many moderate and peaceful voices in Iraq were trying to call upon those groups to abandon this path of death and destruction and begin joining the new Iraq and to emphasize that the peaceful and political approach is the only viable path towards peace and reconstruction. The main voice of tolerance, which was raised upon the fall of Saddam’s regime, was the voice of Grand AyatuAlla Ali Sistani. Immediately the Sunni insurgency along with their allies “al-Qaeda” condemned him and shed his blood and the blood of the Shi’a of Iraq, and any moderate Sunni Muslim voices-such declarations of death issued by Abu Mus’ab alzar’qawi are well documented. However some moderate Sunni leaders voices were also in favor of Ali Sistani’s call for reconstruction rather than destruction, but unfortunately many of them were assassinated by those Sunni insurgents in collaboration with al-Qaeda agents. Some other Sunni politicians were playing double agent role that is, in the morning they are with the government and during the night they are in the same bed with Sunni insurgents and al-Qaeda. On the other hand we see some of the Shi’a Muslims who are driven by power and domination like their counter part the “Sunni insurgents and al-Qaeda” this group is led by the infamous and the self proclaim Shi’a leader “Mu’qtada alsdr” He had ignored his Grand ayatullah Ali Sistani whom according to the Shi’a doctrine is the appointed supreme leader of all Shi’as in the world including “Muqtada alsadr” But it seems that whenever the a religious decree “fatwa” is issued by Shi’a supreme scholar does not serve the interest of a shi’a follower then such religious ruling is ignored otherwise it is honored. This scenario was clearly obvious when al-Sadr’s Mehdi Army were surrounded by the Iraqi Army during the government of “Ayad “allawi” three years ago, its leader Muqtada has asked for the intervention of Ali Sistani to save him and his Militia from eminent annihilation by the Iraqi Army. So Ali Sistani did intervene and put an end to further bloodshed in the holy city of Najaf, south of Baghdad. I must reiterate here that all Muslims, Shi’a, Sunni, Ismailie, etc.., and non Muslims ought to adopt a vision similar to that of the honourable Ali Sistani’s vision, of peace and tolerance and such vision proved itself so far to be the best approach to deal with the most sensitive socio-political and religious crises.

However, when the Sunnis of Iraq has rejected the domination of al-Qaeda in Iraq, those Sunni insurgents reconciled with American forces; I mean the occupying forces to help them fighting the powerful army of al-Qaeda. The Americans quickly seized this opportunity by providing more advanced weapons, logistics and money. Consequently, this gave birth to the “awaking counsels” which are to fight al-Qaeda in Iraq. This major political shift has definitely changed the balance of power in Iraq. I believe such shift on the part of the Iraqi Sunni insurgency was good for Iraq’s future and it should have happened much sooner than that which would have saved thousands of lives.

Is it legitimate to seek the help of an occupation force or a foreign military power?

There are two possible ways approaches, in my opinion, to the legitimacy of seeking and coordinating with the occupying forces to fight one common enemy, al Qaeda in this case. The first approach is that if coordinating with the occupying forces is deem to be, by the major political parties which are a true representation of the people, as the only viable way to serve the aspirations of all people and preserve lives and their livelihood, and it is to serve the interest of the majority of people and it would alleviates pain and suffering thus coordinating with the foreign forces to achieve a bigger purpose is a legitimate approach. The second approach is that if coordinating with the foreign forces, is utilized to gain personal political advantages and to size power and to enable one group to negate the other political entities and it would create a dictatorship; as was the case with the al Saud in the Arabian peninsula when they have collaborated with British forces to have the upper hand to rule over the entire Arabian peninsula, with an iron fist and maintain power in the hands of a handful corrupted self declared royal family, whom are the main breeders of terrorism, then this approach is not legitimate for any political group and is considered as an unethical option.

This first legitimate approach however was adamantly rejected upon the fall of Saddam’s regime by the Sunnis of Iraq and the Sunnis of the Muslim world. But recently the Iraqi Sunni insurgency have adopted such approach as war tactics and declared it to be a legitimate approach to fight al Qaeda. Now the legitimate question I have here is that if such approach is suddenly become legitimate war tactic for the Sunnis of Iraq the why is it not permissible for other communities for the same reasons. For example the Shi’a community of Iraq considered Saddam’s regime as their enemy, therefore they have welcomed the American intervention and hence they have coordinated with the Americans to bring about change in Iraq. But it seems according to the Sunnis of Iraq this was not a legitimate option for the Shi’as of Iraq. In other words, when the Sunnis of Iraq considered al-Qaeda as their enemy, later on, hence they have turned to and collaborated with the Americans to help them fight al-Qaeda. On the other hands, the Shi’as of Iraq has coordinated with the Americans to remove Saddam’s regime and help them rebuilding Iraq, but they were condemned by the Sunni Muslim world. In simple words, the Shi’as of Iraq have endured more than 35 years of relentless oppression under Saddam’s reign and consequently they have welcomed the American intervention. On the hands, the Sunnis of Iraq have only endured no more than three years of oppression by al-Qaeda war of terror then conscequently the Sunnis of Iraq sought the help of the occupires. It seems the two needs of both sides are legitimate and it merits coordination with any formidable force which is capable of aiding the oppressed, whether this force is an American or not and it is irrelevant of the real intentions and motives of the this foreign force which is being sought by the oppressed community. In fact we find al Qaeda themselves sought the help of the Americans against the Russian Army during the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, whom were called “the mujahideen” at the time. But why is it permissible for the Sunnis to seek a foreign military force, Americans, against their enemy “al Qaeda” and not so to the Shi’as of Iraq in respect to Saddam’s regime. We know that the majority of Shi’a in Iraq has welcomed the American intervention and for this reason their blood were shed by the majority Suuni Muslim scholars. Those scholars were very quick in issuing religious declarations “fatwa” by declaring holy war in Iraq against the Americans, and shedding the blood of anyone who coordinate with the Americans. This religious stand which was adopted by all Sunni scholars and some Shi’a scholars, have caused thousands of lives in Iraq. What I find puzzling here is that when those Sunni communities in Iraq have awaken from their self inflicted comma, and consequently they have formed the “awakening counsels” where they clearly began collaborating and coordinating with the Americans, none of those Sunni scholars; who initially condemned anyone who coordinate with the Americans, make any religious declarations to condemn the Sunni awakening counsels. There is a double standard here which is caused by power struggle and not by any standard of ethics and religious morals.

Now it has become clear to all that most Iraqi Sunni insurgents have rejected al Qaeda and began hunting them down wherever they are found. Consequently al Qaeda has lost their natural incubator in Iraq which was their major strong hold and global strategic power base.

It is important to remember that the rejections of al Qaeda by the majority of the Sunnis of Iraq certainly represent a major and important event in al Qaeda’s theo-political fate in the world. This event is not a mere political development or a temporary setback rather it is a fundamental development which is related to the legitimacy of their theo-political movement. Because this rejection, by Sunnis of Iraq, is not a mere political rejection for al Qaea are not a mere political movement rather they represent a religious ideology combined with a political aspirations and ambitions to dominate the world under their perverted Islamic philosophy. So such rejection is also a rejection of the whole philosophy of al Qaeda that is theological and political.

Furthermore, this recent development of al Qaeda’s major loses in Iraq, in my opinion; represent a major development in the overall philosophy of the Sunni branch of Islam and in the Pan-Arabism in the Middle East. Sunnis’ rejection of al Qaeda ideology in Iraq represents a glimmer of hope in the overall of the Sunni branch of Islam. It is an indication that Sunni Muslims are beginning to recognise those negative Muslim teachings which are inherently imbedded in their doctrine, and they are able to look at themselves in the mirror of truth and consequently were able to see the ugly aspects of those Muslim teachings of hate through the conducts of al Qaeda and the likes.

It is worth mentioning here that the name of al Qaeda is an Arabic term which literally means “the base” and “Qaeda” means “base” without the definite article “the” or “al”, as in Arabic. And since al Qaeda has lost their major base in Iraq therefore they have become without base or without Qaeda, hence, now, al Qaeda is without Qaeda.

Katib

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Muslim authorities and terrorism

Iraq’s dire situtation

Takfeer Phenonmenon