ISIS's Ramadan Killing Spree: Joseph Klein, Frontpage, July 5, 2016— ISIS is celebrating the Muslim holy month of Ramadan with multiple massacres.
Islamic State’s Global Reach: Wall Street Journal, July 4, 2016— Not a month has passed since Islamic State killed 49 people at an Orlando, Fla., nightclub, and less than a week since it murdered 45 at the Istanbul airport, and now Islamic State is taking credit for two more massacres…
Turkey’s War and Our Own: Max Boot, Commentary, June 29, 2016— There were multiple tragedies that occurred on Tuesday at Ataturk airport in Istanbul.
Palestinian Terrorism and Muslim Hypocrisy: An Open Letter from a Muslim Woman: Nadiya Al-Noor, Times of Israel, July 1, 2016— While millions of children got out of bed on the morning of June 30, 2016, excited for summer vacation, one child did not.
Bombings in Saudi Arabia Cap A Deadly Week of Global Terror: David Francis, Foreign Policy, July 4, 2016
This July Fourth, America Should Declare Independence from Palestinian Terror: Rabbi Abraham Cooper & Harold Brackman, Fox News, July 1, 2016
The Angry, Alienated Sunnis on a Boomerang: Burak Bekdil, Hurriyet Daily News, July 1, 2016
Bangladesh and the Jihadists: Wall Street Journal, June 15, 2016
Joseph Klein
Frontpage, July 5, 2016
ISIS is celebrating the Muslim holy month of Ramadan with multiple massacres. ISIS’s followers are heeding the message released by ISIS’s spokesman, Abu Muhammed al-Adnani, before Ramadan began. Jihadists must attack to “gain the great reward for martyrdom in Ramadan,” he declared. ISIS looks to the example of Prophet Muhammad himself who defeated his enemies in Mecca in the Battle of Badr, which took place during Ramadan.
In the last week alone, ISIS followers have struck in several cities – Istanbul, resulting in at least 44 deaths, the Bangladesh capital of Dhaka that left 22 dead, and most recently Baghdad, where a suicide bombing on a busy shopping street killed at least 200 people including dozens of children. On the penultimate day of Ramadan, ISIS even struck inside Saudi Arabia. It has reportedly taken credit for a suicide attack in Medina, Islam’s second holiest city.
The Baghdad attack, which occurred in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood, was the deadliest single bombing attack in the Iraqi capital in years. In taking credit for the massacre, ISIS warned in its statement that “the raids of the mujahedeen [holy warriors] against the Rafidha [Shiites] apostates will not stop.” The attack laid bare the folly of President Obama’s decision against military advice to pull out all U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011. It also revealed gaping holes in the Iraqi government’s security measures for the capital. Baghdad residents were so disgusted that they jeered and threw objects at Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi‘s convoy when he visited the devastated area to inspect the damage.
The Ramadan spree of jihadist killings began early in the Muslim holy month when on June 8th ISIS-affiliated Palestinian terrorists struck Tel Aviv, killing four people. They “belonged to the largest Palestinian cell linked to ISIS to be uncovered so far by Israeli security services,” according to DEBKAfile. The plan, DEBKAfile reported, was to have originally included “a mass-murder shooting attack on a crowded train.”
Four days after the Tel Aviv attack, the Orlando massacre was carried out by an individual who had regularly attended a radical Islamic mosque and pledged his allegiance to ISIS during the shooting. Two illegal immigrants from Tunisia, who were ISIS followers, stabbed a 26-year-old transgender man in Brussels the day before the Orlando attack. A man claiming allegiance to ISIS stabbed a police official and his companion to death in France a day after the Orlando attack.
President Obama points to recent territorial losses suffered by ISIS in Iraq and Syria, including their retreat from Falluja, as a sign that his policies are working. He boasted that “we are making significant progress. This campaign at this stage is firing on all cylinders.” Secretary of State John Kerry claimed, following the Istanbul airport attack, that ISIS was “desperate” and “know they are losing.” The president and secretary of state are operating in an alternative fantasy world of their own. Their statements represent the desperate gasps of an administration watching helplessly as ISIS’s global jihad expands at a terrifying rate.
CIA director John Brennan has a firmer grasp of the reality of the threat we are facing. “We still have a ways to go before we’re able to say that we have made some significant progress against them,” Brennan said last week at a meeting of the Council on Foreign Relations. “As the pressure mounts on ISIL,” he added, using an alternative acronym for ISIS, “we judge that it will intensify its global terror campaign to maintain its dominance of the global terrorism agenda.” They have “tens of thousands of individuals that are scattered not just in the Middle East but also to West Africa, to Southeast Asia, and beyond.”
ISIS’s well-coordinated attacks in several countries in one week demonstrate both its reach and tactical sophistication. ISIS is fighting a multi-level guerilla war, relying simultaneously on a combination of direct attacks in countries where it still controls some territory, geographically dispersed cells with trained, well-armed fighters ready to strike soft civilian targets at the direction of ISIS’s leadership, and radicalized individuals inspired by ISIS’s social media propaganda and by supportive imams at local mosques. ISIS’s use of encryption technologies to conceal its communications sharply reduces the effectiveness of electronic surveillance. Its unpredictability in the choice of soft civilian targets amongst an enormous number of possibilities complicates any preventive security measures.
“Crusaders” in the West, Shiite “apostates,” Sunni “hypocrites,” particularly those who form alliances with the “Crusaders,” and all nonbelievers world-wide are targets of ISIS. They do not recognize any distinctions between civilians and combatants, only between “true” Muslims and infidels. Jihad is their continuous “holy” war waged by “true” Muslims to kill or subjugate the infidels and establish global Islamic rule.
The Nazis could not be defeated by pinprick attacks. Neither can ISIS. It is time to level its command and control centers, arms depots and logistical facilities in and around its de facto capital of Raqqa to the ground. And then destroy the ground zero of ISIS’s mythological “end of days” battle with the infidels by completely destroying the Syrian town of Dabiq. It is time to give ISIS its final battle and bring their own days to an end.
Wall Street Journal, July 4, 2016
Not a month has passed since Islamic State killed 49 people at an Orlando, Fla., nightclub, and less than a week since it murdered 45 at the Istanbul airport, and now Islamic State is taking credit for two more massacres: On Friday in Bangladesh, at a cafe in Dhaka’s diplomatic quarter, and on Sunday in a public market in Baghdad.
As usual with Islamic State, the Dhaka attack was distinguished by savagery and propaganda. Seven terrorists stormed the cafe Friday night and demanded that patrons recite verses of the Quran. Those who failed—nine Italians, seven Japanese, two Indians and possibly one American—were tortured and hacked to pieces. The killers spent the night posting their atrocities on social media and lecturing Muslims on Western moral pollution. Six of the seven were killed when authorities stormed the cafe the next morning, and one was captured. Police identified the attackers as Bangladeshis, mostly well-educated and from wealthy families. So much, once again, for the theory that poverty and hopelessness are the cause of terrorism. Islamic State is a religious and ideological movement of Muslim fanatics.
The attack also made nonsense of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s failure to acknowledge that international jihadists are recruiting and carrying out terrorist attacks in Bangladesh. As we noted last month (“Bangladesh and the Jihadists,” June 16), Ms. Hasina’s administration has sought to blame the murder of 40 secular activists, intellectuals and religious minorities over the past three years on Islamists connected to the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
That has resulted in the arrest of thousands of BNP activists in security sweeps. But the government has mostly missed the rise of such local jihadist groups as Ansar al-Islam, also known as Ansarullah Bangla Team, which use social media to radicalize young, middle-class men and are believed to have links to terror groups abroad. Five of the attackers were already on a wanted list, meaning the government is at least beginning to look in the right places. Another 120 Islamists were arrested in a sweep last month.
Bangladesh has made significant economic strides by becoming a global hub for the garment industry. Killing foreigners who work for that industry—several of the Italians killed Friday were garment entrepreneurs—is no doubt part of Islamic State’s strategy of making the Muslim world a no-go zone for tourism and investment. South Asia is home to hundreds of millions of Muslims, which is all the more reason for Bangladeshi authorities to be clear-sighted about the nature of the expanding threat they face.
The Dhaka attack is also a reminder that Islamic State is spreading globally at a much faster rate than the U.S. is defeating it in its Syrian and Iraqi heartland. The Baghdad bombing on Sunday targeted a spot popular with families and young people, and the jihadists used flammable materials that spread fires, killing at least 151 and wounding 195. The jihadist threat is global and growing, and it cannot be adequately fought, much less won, until an American President is honest about the danger.
Max Boot
Commentary, June 29, 2016
There were multiple tragedies that occurred on Tuesday at Ataturk airport in Istanbul. The most immediate concerned, of course, the 41 people who were killed by three suicide bombers. The larger tragedy is the damage done to Turkey’s image of itself as a modern, secular European power.
The very airport that was struck is named after Kemal Mustafa Ataturk, the great strongman who created the modern Turkish state out of the ruins of the Ottoman Empire. The sultans lorded it over much of the Middle East. Ataturk sought to turn his back on their legacy and largely succeeded. He even banned the fez because it was not the kind of hat that Europeans wore. Thanks in large measure to the efforts of Ataturk and his successors, Turkey had modernized and secularized. Istanbul reestablished its reputation as one of the world’s great cosmopolitan cities–a destination for the ordinary tourists and the jet set alike.
But while Ataturk could change many things about Turkey, he could not change its geographic location. The state he created continues to straddle Europe and Asia, with all of the problems of the Middle East on its doorstep. It was likely one of those problems–the growth of the Islamic State in next-door Syria and Iraq–that caused the terrible explosions at Ataturk airport. Much as Turkey would aspire to join the rest of Europe, it is being dragged into the maw of the Middle East.
This is yet another tragic consequence of the world’s failure to stop the killing in Syria. As long as that country remains in chaos, extremist groups such as ISIS will find a safe haven there, refugees will spill over the borders (nearly 2 million Syrians have found their way to Turkey), and terrorists will come in their wake. The ultimate responsibility for this terrible state of affairs must, of course, rest with Syria itself. Much of the blame must lie with its dictator, Bashar Assad, whose scorched earth campaign to hold onto power has been responsible for the vast majority of the estimated 400,000+ deaths in the five-year-old Syrian civil war.
The role of Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in contributing to the chaos has been more minor but real. So eager was he to see Assad go that he allowed Syrian resistance groups to operate on Turkish soil. He was even said to have turned a blind eye to the flow of ISIS recruits into Syria. To show where his priorities lie, his air force has been bombing the very Kurdish fighters in Syria that Washington has been supported as an anti-ISIS force. Yet at the same time, Erdogan has opened Incirlik air base to the United States to use as a launching pad for aircraft to bomb ISIS.
It is easy to criticize Erdogan for an incoherent policy, but there is plenty of incoherence to go around. Things might have worked out differently if Erdogan had a partner in the United States who was willing to work with him to topple the Assad regime and bring some peace and stability to Syria. But that has not been the case. President Obama has talked tough about getting rid of Assad and making him adhere to a “red line” on chemical weapons use. But when push comes to shove, Obama has always prioritized his desire to stay out of the Syrian civil war over his desire to end it.
Indicative of Obama’s policy has been the U.S. failure to do more to train and arm Syrian rebels. Last fall, the head of Central Command caused major embarrassment for the administration by revealing that there were only “4 or 5” U.S.-trained rebels in the field. (This did not count those covertly trained by the CIA.) On Monday, the administration had to concede the figure is now up to only 100, which officials spun as an achievement because they have given up training ordinary fighters and are now intent only on training a small number of tactical air controllers.
If you redefine your goals downward sufficiently, sooner or later you will achieve them–but that doesn’t mean that the U.S. is anywhere close to achieving any meaningful results in Syria. This is something that 51 State Department diplomats recognized when they signed a cable of protest against U.S. policy, which has depended on Secretary of State John Kerry engaging in feckless negotiations with no meaningful threat of action to back him up.
Unfortunately as long as the administration continues to look the other way at the mess in Syria, there will be more refugees and more terrorist attacks–and more ripple effects. As I have argued previously, those ripple effects include quite possibly Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, which was prompted in part by fears of Syrian refugees flooding the continent.
It is well past time for the U.S. to come up with a serious Syria policy that is aimed at overthrowing not just ISIS but other violent extremist groups, such as the al-Nusra Front and the Assad regime itself, and bringing peace to that tortured land. That is not an easy policy to implement today; it would have been much easier five years ago. But that doesn’t mean that it is impossible, as long as the occupant of the Oval Office has the will to do something. Clearly, the incumbent president does not, so as long as he remains in office, Syria will continue to bleed–and that blood will lap over on foreign shores, including our own.
PALESTINIAN TERRORISM AND MUSLIM HYPOCRISY:
AN OPEN LETTER FROM A MUSLIM WOMAN
Nadiya Al-Noor
Times of Israel, July 1, 2016
While millions of children got out of bed on the morning of June 30, 2016, excited for summer vacation, one child did not. A young Israeli girl, 13-year-old Hallel Yaffe Ariel, was brutally murdered in her own bed by a 17-year-old Palestinian terrorist. He broke into her house and stabbed her to death. Another life lost to senseless violence. Another poor soul taken too early from this world. But few Muslims in this world will be mourning her death, because Hallel was an Israeli Jew.
I am a Muslim, and I know that when it comes to Palestinian terrorism, too many Muslims are hypocrites. I have seen firsthand the casual, destructive anti-Semitism that plagues the Muslim community. I have heard it from the mouths of our religious leaders, from our politicians, and even from our otherwise peaceful, liberal Muslim activists. I have witnessed in horror the desperate attempts to justify Palestinian terrorism from people who I once respected. Why? Why do we decry all other types of terrorism, but bend over backwards to legitimize violence against Israeli Jews?
We blame it on “Zionism.” We blame it on “occupation.” We blame it on “apartheid.” We lap up the tired, anti-Semitic lies fed to us by Al-Jazeera: “Israelis cut off the water supply!” “Israelis are going to destroy the Al-Aqsa mosque!” We’re not even willing to admit that Israel is a country. We call it “Palestine.” We refuse to call violence against Israelis “terrorism,” and we hypocritically scream, “Resistance is not a crime!”
Let me tell you something. Stabbing pregnant women in the stomach is not “resistance.” Shooting people at a cafe is not “resistance.” Driving your car into pedestrians is not “resistance.” Bombing a bus is not “resistance.” Breaking into a woman’s home and murdering her in front of her children is not “resistance.” And stabbing a little girl to death in the one place where she was supposed to be safe is certainly not “resistance.” Terrorism is not resistance. Terrorism is an unjustifiable crime.
Muslims around the world are constantly decrying ISIS and most terrorism in the name of Islam. I know Muslims who are interfaith activists, peace advocates, doctors, gay rights activists, and more. We sincerely hate ISIS and terrorism with a passion. We’ll stand up against the persecution of Christians, atheists, Hindus, Shias, Ahmadis, and anyone else who is persecuted. We will sob to the heavens if a Palestinian is killed, but when it comes to Palestinian terrorism against Jews, we either turn a blind eye to it, or we twist the story to make the terrorists into the victims. This is unacceptable.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said, “If you say… ‘Violence in London isn’t justified, but suicide bombs in Israel are a different matter’ – then you too are part of the problem.” He is absolutely right. Terror is terror, even when it’s against Israelis. Do not try to justify or make excuses for the terrorism that happens much too often in Israel. Innocent people are being killed. Their lives are just as important as those killed in Paris, Brussels, Nigeria, Turkey, Pakistan, Jordan, Indonesia, Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq, or Syria. Their deaths are no more deserved.
Of course we must condemn instances where injustices are committed by the Israeli government or any other government or authority of any sort. Of course we must affirm the right to life of Palestinians, but one life is not worth more than another. An Israeli life lost is equal to that of a Palestinian. Tragedy is not a competition. We must mourn for both, and fight to prevent the loss of both. We must decry all terrorism committed. We must not bend over backwards to try to justify it. We must not blame innocent people for being slaughtered, or justify the actions of the terrorists who slaughter them. If we justify acts of terrorism, it is an indication that we do no really believe in peace.
When you make excuses for terrorists, you support terrorism. Period. Until we stand against terrorism in all its forms, against terrorists from every background, we Muslims are hypocrites. Allah does not love hypocrites. The world lost a beautiful little girl on Thursday. We must not let Hallel’s death be ignored. We must fight anti-Semitism in all its forms, and that includes fighting against Palestinian terrorism. This was a terrible tragedy, and we must work to prevent it from happening to someone else’s child. In the words of my friend Afshine Emrani, an Iranian-American, “Dear God. Help us. We are not supposed to say Kaddish for a bat mitzvah girl.”
Bombings in Saudi Arabia Cap A Deadly Week of Global Terror: David Francis, Foreign Policy, July 4, 2016—A suicide bombing on Monday hit Saudi Arabia’s city of Medina, close to the Prophet’s Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites, killing at least four people and wounding another. This occurred hours after a similar attack near the U.S. consulate in Jeddah, where a suicide bomber was killed and two police officers were hurt.
This July Fourth, America Should Declare Independence from Palestinian Terror: Rabbi Abraham Cooper & Harold Brackman, Fox News, July 1, 2016—America’s birthday is upon us. Hot dogs, apple pie, family and fireworks. But this July Fourth, Hallel Yaffa’s family will be sitting Shiva. The young American-Israeli teenage girl died of multiple stab wounds while she slept in her bed, killed by a 17-year-old Palestinian terrorist who had praised Adolf Hitler on his Facebook page.
The Angry, Alienated Sunnis on a Boomerang: Burak Bekdil, Hurriyet Daily News, July 1, 2016 —“Terrorism is like a boomerang… which will come back and hit you,” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan warned the countries of the European Union on June 24. “If you [the EU] abet terrorists [and]… give them financial support, you will have worse days.” Five days later, the boomerang came back and struck – not precisely EU soil, but Istanbul.
Bangladesh and the Jihadists: Wall Street Journal, June 15, 2016—Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina vowed last week to track down the murderers of more than 40 writers, activists and religious minorities over the last three years. Her government’s detention of 120 suspected Islamist militants is an important statement of resolve.
