In other words, al-Qaida should not have survived the 16 years since 9/11.

So why has it?
 

The ties that bind

A fighter from the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front holds his group flag in front of the governor building in Idlib province, north Syria. Twitter/via AP

Much of the credit goes to al-Qaida’s extraordinary ability to both form alliances and sustain them over time and under pressure.

In my forthcoming book “Alliances for Terror,” I examine why a small number of groups, such as al-Qaida and IS, emerge as desirable partners and succeed at developing alliance networks.

Understanding terrorist alliances is critical because terrorist organizations with allies are more lethal, survive longer and are more apt to seek weapons of mass destruction. Though terrorist partnerships face numerous hurdles and severing al-Qaida’s alliances has been a U.S. objective for over a decade, the fact is that these counterterrorism efforts have failed.

It was allies that enabled al-Qaida to survive the immediate aftermath of 9/11. The Afghan Taliban stood by al-Qaida after the attack, refusing to surrender bin Laden and thereby precipitating the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. Fleeing, al-Qaida was able to turn to allies in Pakistan to hide its operatives and punish the Pakistani government for capitulating to U.S. pressure to crackdown on the group.

It was alliances that helped al-Qaida continue to terrorize. In October 2002, for example, al-Qaida’s ally in Southeast Asia, Jemaah Islamiyah, struck a bar and a nightclub in Bali, killing more than 200 and injuring more than 200 more, to brutally commemorate the first anniversary of 9/11.

And it was alliances that allowed al-Qaida to project viability. With the “prestige” that came with conducting 9/11, al-Qaida was able to forge more of them and indeed create affiliate alliances in which partners adopted its name and pledged allegiance to bin Laden.

Al-Qaida’s first and most notorious affiliate alliance, al-Qaida in Iraq, was formed in 2004 with Jordanian jihadist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Using the standing he accrued through his role in the insurgency in Iraq, Zarqawi then helped al-Qaida acquire its second affiliate in 2006, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb. Then, in 2009, al-Qaida designated its branch in Yemen and Saudi Arabia as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. Its alliances spanned the Middle East and helped it to project power, despite the U.S. war on terrorism.
 

A lower profile

While al-Qaida still sought affiliates, by 2010, it modified how its alliances work.

Al-Qaida forged an alliance with al-Shabaab in Somalia, but did not publicly announce it or ask al-Shabaab to change its name. Bin Laden justified to al-Shabaab’s leader the shift to a less visible form of alliance as a way to prevent an increase in counterterrorism pressure or a loss of funds from the Arabian Peninsula. He privately expressed concerns that al-Qaida’s name “reduces the feeling of Muslims that we belong to them, and allows the enemies to claim deceptively that they are not at war with Islam.” Bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, saw the move as bin Laden capitulating to members of al-Qaida who worried about “inflating the size and the growth of al-Qaida.” After bin Laden’s death, Zawahiri publicly announced al-Qaida’s alliance with al-Shabaab, though al-Shabaab still did not adopt al-Qaida’s name.

Though al-Qaida’s alliance arrangements have varied, these relationships have helped it to survive the loss of its founding leader in 2011 and the ascent of a far less capable leader. Zawahiri’s rise to the helm of the group was the consequence of an alliance, specifically between his original Egyptian group, al-Jihad, and al-Qaida. The alliance culminated in a merger in 2001, with Zawahiri becoming bin Laden’s deputy and successor.

However, Zawahiri lacks bin Laden’s cachet or diplomatic savvy. He is a better deputy than a leader. His poor handling of the strife between jihadist group al-Nusra in Syria and its parent organization, the Islamic State in Iraq (previously al-Qaida in Iraq and now IS), led to the alliance rupture between al-Qaida and its affiliate in Iraq.

Though al-Qaida had an acrimonious break with IS, it gained al-Nusra as an affiliate in the central conflict in the Sunni jihadist movement: Syria. As was the case with al-Shabaab, this alliance with al-Nusra did not include a rebranding and was initially kept secret. In addition, al-Nusra subsequently changed its name, an effort to gain more legitimacy within the conflict in Syria by publicly distancing itself from al-Qaida, though seemingly with al-Qaida’s consent.

Al-Qaida has not acquired another affiliate since the alliance rupture and rise of IS as a rival in 2014. It organized existing members into a new branch, al-Qaida in the Indian subcontinent, that year. The branch in South Asia reflected al-Qaida’s success at expanding beyond its predominantly Arab base, particularly in Pakistan.

Critically, with the exception of IS, al-Qaida’s alliances have been resilient over time. This is true despite ample reasons for its partners to abandon ties, such as the heightened counterterrorism pressure that comes with affiliation to al-Qaida; the death of its charismatic leader; and the Islamic State’s efforts to court al-Qaida allies. Even the Afghan Taliban remains unwilling to sever ties, even though doing so would eliminate one of the major reasons that the United States will not withdraw from the “forever war” in Afghanistan.

There is a window now for the U.S. to damage al-Qaida’s alliances: It has a weak leader and major rival. But that window may be closing as the Islamic State’s so-called caliphate crumbles and al-Qaida grooms bin Laden’s son as its future leader.
 

Tricia Bacon, Assistant Professor of Justice, Law & Criminology, American University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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Data on violent incidents in the US reveal that focus on Islamist extremism since 9/11 may be misguided

A woman holds a flag as she looks out over the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

On a Tuesday morning in September 2001, the American experience with terrorism was fundamentally altered. Two thousand, nine hundred and ninety-six people were murdered in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania. Thousands more, including many first responders, lost their lives to health complications from working at or being near Ground Zero.

The 9/11 attacks were perpetrated by Islamist extremists, resulting in nearly 18 times more deaths than America’s second most devastating terrorist attack – the Oklahoma City bombing. More than any other terrorist event in U.S. history, 9/11 drives Americans’ perspectives on who and what ideologies are associated with violent extremism.

But focusing solely on Islamist extremism when investigating, researching and developing counterterrorism policies goes against what the numbers tell us. Far-right extremism also poses a significant threat to the lives and well-being of Americans. This risk is often ignored or underestimated because of the devastating impact of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

We have spent more than 10 years collecting and analyzing empirical data that show us how these ideologies vary in important ways that can inform policy decisions. Our conclusion is that a “one size fits all” approach to countering violent extremism may not be effective.

By the numbers

Historically, the U.S. has been home to adherents of many types of extremist ideologies. The two current most prominent threats are motivated by Islamist extremism and far-right extremism.

To help assess these threats, the Department of Homeland Security and recently the Department of Justice have funded the Extremist Crime Database to collect data on crimes committed by ideologically motivated extremists in the United States. The results of our analyses are published in peer-reviewed journals and on the website for the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism & Responses to Terrorism.

The ECDB includes data on ideologically motivated homicides committed by both Islamist extremists and far-right extremists going back more than 25 years.

Between 1990 and 2014, the ECDB has identified 38 homicide events motivated by Islamist extremism that killed 62 people. When you include 9/11, those numbers jump dramatically to 39 homicide events and 3,058 killed.

The database also identified 177 homicide events motivated by far-right extremism, with 245 killed. And when you include the Oklahoma City bombing, it rises to 178 homicide events and 413 killed.

Although our data for 2015 through 2017 are still being verified, we counted five homicide events perpetrated by Islamist extremists that resulted in the murders of 74 people. This includes the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando, which killed 49 people. In the same time period, there were eight homicide events committed by far-right extremists that killed 27 people.

These data reveal that far-right extremists tend to be more active in committing homicides, yet Islamist extremists tend to be more deadly.

Our research has also identified violent Islamist extremist plots against 272 targets that were either foiled or failed between 2001 and 2014. We are in the process of compiling similar data on far-right plots. Although data collection is only about 50 percent complete, we have already identified 213 far-right targets from the same time period.

The locations of violent extremist activity also differ by ideology. Our data show that between 1990 and 2014, most Islamist extremist attacks occurred in the South (56.5 percent), and most far-right extremist attacks occurred in the West (34.7 percent). Both forms of violence were least likely to occur in the Midwest, with only three incidents committed by Islamist extremists (4.8 percent) and 33 events committed by far-right extremists (13.5 percent).

Targets of violence also vary across the two ideologies. For example, 63 percent of the Islamist extremism victims were targeted for no apparent reason. They just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, often visiting symbolic locations or crowded venues such as the World Trade Center or military installations.

In contrast, 53 percent of victims killed by far-right extremists were targeted for their actual or perceived race or ethnicity. Far-right extremists, such as neo-Nazis, skinheads and white supremacists, often target religious, racial and ethnic, and sexual orientation and gender identity minorities.

Motives and methods

There are also differences in violent extremists across demographics, motives and methods. For instance, data show that guns were the weapon of choice in approximately 73 percent of Islamist extremist homicides and in only 63 percent of far-right extremist homicides. We attribute these differences to far-right extremists using more personal forms of violence, such as beating or stabbing victims to death.

We have also found that suicide missions are not unique to Islamist extremists.

From 1990 to 2014, we identified three suicide missions in which at least one person was killed connected to Islamist extremism, including the 9/11 attacks as one event. In contrast, there were 15 suicide missions committed by far-right extremists.

Our analyses found that compared to Islamist extremists, far-right extremists were significantly more likely to be economically deprived, have served in the military and have a higher level of commitment to their ideology. Far-right extremists were also significantly more likely to be less educated, single, young and to have participated in training by a group associated with their extremist ideology.

Threat to law enforcement and military

Terrorists associated with Islamist and far-right extremist ideologies do not only attack civilians. They also pose a deadly threat to law enforcement and military personnel. During the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, 72 law enforcement officers and 55 military personnel were killed by members of Al-Qaida. On April 19, 1995, 13 law enforcement officers and four military personnel were killed when the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was bombed by an anti-government far-right extremist in Oklahoma City.

Outside of these two events, Islamist extremists are responsible for the murders of 18 military personnel in three incidents, and seven law enforcement officers were killed in five incidents between 1990 and 2015. Far-right extremists have murdered 57 law enforcement officers in 46 incidents, but have never directly targeted military personnel.

Far-right extremists, who typically harbor anti-government sentiments, have a higher likelihood of escalating routine law enforcement contacts into fatal encounters. These homicides pose unique challenges to local law enforcement officers who are disproportionately targeted by the far right.

Moving forward

The events of 9/11 will continue to skew both our real and perceived risks of violent extremism in the United States. To focus solely on Islamist extremism is to ignore the murders perpetrated by the extreme far right and their place in a constantly changing threat environment.

Some have even warned that there is potential for collaboration between these extremist movements. Our own survey research suggests this is a concern of law enforcement.

Focusing on national counterterrorism efforts against both Islamist and far-right extremism acknowledges that there are differences between these two violent movements.

Focusing solely on one, while ignoring the other, will increase the risk of domestic terrorism and future acts of violence.

Both ideologies continue to pose real, unique threats to all Americans. Evidence shows far-right violent extremism poses a particular threat to law enforcement and racial, ethnic, religious and other minorities. Islamist violent extremism is a specific danger to military members, law enforcement, certain minorities and society at large. It remains imperative to support policies, programs and research aimed at countering all forms of violent extremism.

(This story is republished from The Conversation. The original story may be read here).

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Thousands of people have visited the memorial site, conspiracy theories continue to proliferate and for many the sense of loss is still visceral. After 15 years, the terrorist attack that destroyed the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York continues to capture the imagination.

Over these 15 years, a diverse range of artistic and cultural responses have attempted to understand and give meaning to the events now known as 9/11. One medium that has had substantial critical attention has been the novel. And we can learn much from this attention. The ways in which these novels were anticipated, criticised and frequently linked to debates about the wider role of fiction in society evoke compelling questions about how we now see the attacks.

In some ways, the high profile critical debates that surrounded these novels and placed so much importance on them, actually reinforced George W Bush’s assertion that “on September 11 night fell on a new world”. And in doing so, some argue that they undercut the complex prehistories and aftermaths of 9/11, giving it inflated importance in the world narrative.

Writing terror

Even before there were such novels, the apparent need for literary interpretations of the attacks reflected just how incomprehensible they felt for many. And perhaps because 9/11 was such a visual spectacle, newspapers and magazines sought literary authors – experts at exploring the human condition through the written word – to interpret or narrate the trauma.

Early essays by Ian McEwan, Don DeLillo, Martin Amis and John Updike spoke to other popular non-fiction responses, like the New York Times’ sombre Portraits of Grief profiles that appeared throughout the autumn of 2001. These literary authors also reflected on the difficulty of writing fiction about “unimaginable” events. This, of course, stoked anticipation for the inevitable 9/11 fiction to come: how would authors attempt to represent the “incomprehensible”?

Twin tower to twin couple.

When novels from DeLillo, Claire Messud, Jay McInerney and Ken Kalfus arrived, critics were quick to note striking similarities. These novels, all of which appeared between 2006 and 2007, focused on the ways privileged white New Yorkers dealt with trauma. And all of them did so through marriage or relationship narratives.

Discussing these novels in an article titled The End of Innocence, Pankaj Mishra asked with incredulity: “Are we meant to think of marital discord as a metaphor for post-9/11 America?” For Mishra, it was particularly galling that DeLillo – who has been so insightful about terrorism – was “retreating like McInerney and Kalfus into the domestic”.

Scholarly articles by Richard Gray and Michael Rothberg followed, similarly criticising those same novels for their “failure” to engage with otherness and the geopolitics of 9/11. Gray was trenchant: “The crisis is in every sense of the word, domesticated.”

Mishra, Gray and Rothberg all felt that fiction should be doing things that the mainstream media and US government responses were not – offering nuanced articulations of the geopolitics of the war on terror and the rise of fear and xenophobia in the US and the West.

But this position was challenged by scholars such as John Duvall and Robert P Marzec, who pointed to canonical novels like Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway (1925) and Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises (1926), which registered the traumas of World War I precisely in this way – through domestic settings. Perhaps the strongest response came from Catherine Morley, who criticised the Mishra, Rothberg and Gray perspective that “fiction is no more than a political tool”.

Clearly, the debate about the 9/11 novel evoked larger ideas about what fiction is for and how it should deal with crisis or catastrophe in the 21st century.

A defining moment?

However polarised the debate became, both sides ascribed great importance to the 9/11 novel – and in doing so they also reinforced the idea of 9/11 as a defining moment. In 2008, this was pointed out by Zadie Smith. Discussing a new novel by Joseph O’Neill, Smith sardonically criticised the disproportionate interest in the 9/11 novel:

It’s the post–September 11 novel we hoped for. (Were there calls, in 1915, for the Lusitania novel? In 1985, was the Bhopal novel keenly anticipated?) It’s as if, by an act of collective prayer, we have willed it into existence.

The reference here to the Lusitania sinking and the Bhopal chemical disaster in India, which took the lives of many more people than 9/11 did, is pointed. Smith is clearly voicing a suspicion that the intense attention attached to the 9/11 novel is linked to an American exceptionalism that shrouds other moments, events and perspectives in contemporary history.

Recent books like Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist, O’Neill’s Netherland and Amy Waldman’s The Submission have answered the calls of Mishra, Gray and Rothberg in their more politically engaged or international narratives.

In many ways, they have also retained aspects of the earlier texts and we can certainly now see the 9/11 novel as a genre. Marriages and relationships are at the centre of all of these novels and they also continue to explore the way privileged Americans absorb and respond to trauma.

Perhaps the book that most clearly aligns with Zadie Smith’s position, though, is Thomas Pynchon’s Bleeding Edge. Bleeding Edge goes the furthest in challenging the singular importance attached to 9/11 in its intertwined historical narrative, weaving in the significance of the collapse of the dotcom bubble in 2000 and a history of the internet’s transition from an anarchic to a completely corporate space.

It is certainly the case that the reception and debates around the 9/11 novel have been as informative as the novels themselves. The genre continues to provide food for thought on how we remember the attacks.

(Arin Keeble is Lecturer in English Literature, Nottingham Trent University)

This article was first published on The Conversation

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पिछले दिनों जब किसी ने अमेरिकी ट्वीन टावर्स की तस्वीरें चस्पा करते हुए यह सुझाया कि मुस्लिमों के बगैर यह दुनिया कितनी हसीन होती तो उसे करारा जवाब मिला। दुनिया में मुस्लिमों के योगदान की चर्चा करते हुए उस नासमझ को हकीकत की तस्वीर दिखाई गई।

अमेरिका में  9/11 के हमले के बाद से पूरी दुनिया में इस्लामफोबिया यानी इस्लाम का डर बढ़ता जा रहा है। पिछले दो साल के दौरान आईएसआईएस की करतूतों ने इसे और हवा दी है। न्यूयॉर्क यूनिवर्सिटी के प्रोफेसर इयान ब्रेमर ने एक ट्वीटर मैसेज में दलील दी है कि आईएसआईएस के सभी लड़ाकों को मिला लें तो यह गिनती दुनिया भर की मुस्लिम आबादी की 0.00625 फीसदी बैठती है। लेकिन चंद लोगों की करतूतों के लिए पूरी मुस्लिम आबादी को कठघरे में खड़ा किया जा रहा है और लोगों के मन में इस्लाम के प्रति डर बिठाया जा रहा है। ऐसा करके दुनिया के मुस्लिमों पर एक सामूहिक अपराबोध थोपने की कोशिश हो रही है। 
 
अमेरिका के ट्वीन टावर्स पर 11 सितंबर के हमले की 15वीं बरसी आने वाली है। इस बीच, किसी यूजर ने सोशल नेटवर्क प्लेटफॉर्म टंबलर पर एक तस्वीर पोस्ट की। तस्वीर में ट्वीन टावर्स को दिखाते हुए लोगों से मुस्लिमों के बगैर दुनिया की कल्पना करने की अपील की गई थी। लेकिन मुस्लिमों के प्रति नफरत भरे इस कड़वे पोस्ट पर वारपाथ यूजर नाम से पोस्ट करने वाले शख्स की ओर से उतना ही धारदार जवाब मिला। वारपाथ यूजर नाम से किए गए पोस्ट में उस शख्स ने मानव सभ्यता में मुस्लिमों के योगदान की लंबी सूची चस्पा करते हुए लिखा- ठीक है, आइए मुस्लिमविहीन दुनिया की कल्पना करें। कर सकेंगे। देखते ही देखते यह पोस्ट सोशल मीडिया पर वायरल हो गई। यूजर ने सवाल किया था क्या मुस्लिमों के बगैर ये चीजें आपको नसीब हो पातीं। ये वे चीजें हैं, जो मुस्लिमों के योगदान के तौर पर गिनाई गई हैं-

कॉफी, कैमरा, एक्सपेरिमेंटल फिजिक्स, शतरंज , शैंपू, सिंचाई, इत्र, स्पिरिट, क्रैंक साफ्ट, इंटरनल कम्बशन इंजिन, वाल्व पिस्टन, कांबिनेशन ताले। स्थापत्य कला में किए गए प्रयोग (नोंक वाली स्थापत्य शैली- यूरोप में गोथिक शैली में बनाए गए गिरिजाघरों के निर्माण में इसी शैली को अपनाया गया। इससे भवन मजबूत बने। खिड़कियां ऊंची की गईं। गुंबदों के इस्तेमाल का आइडिया आया और गोल टावरों के निर्माण की प्रेरणा मिली)।
 
सूची में और भी कई चीजें हैं। मसलन- सर्जरी में इस्तेमाल होने वाले औजार, एनिसथीसिया, पवन चक्की, काउ पॉक्स का इलाज, फाउंटेन पेन, संख्या पद्धति, बीजगणित, त्रिकोणमिती, आधुनिकी क्रिप्टोलोजी, तीन कोर्स का खाना ( सूप, मांस या मछली, फल या नट्स) , क्रिस्टल कांच, कालीन, चेक (चौखाने कपड़े) , जड़ी-बूटी के बजाय सौंदर्य और ध्यान लगाने के लिए बाग लगाने की कला, रसोईघर, यूनिवर्सिटी, प्रकाश विज्ञान, संगीत, टूथब्रश, अस्पताल, स्नान, लिहाफ, समुद्री यात्रियों का कंपास, सॉफ्ट ड्रिंक, ब्रेल, कॉस्मेटिक्स, प्लास्टिक सर्जरी, कैलिग्राफी, कागज और कपड़ों का निर्माण।
 
पोस्ट के मुताबिक, मुस्लिमों ने ही पहले पहल यह जाना कि प्रकाश की किरणें आंखों में आती हैं न कि आंखों से बाहर जाती हैं। अब तक ग्रीस के लोगों का यह मानना था कि आंखों से ही रोशनी निकलती है। इसके बाद इसी सिद्धांत के आधार पर मुस्लिमों ने कैमरा ईजाद किया।
 
ये मुस्लिम ही थे, जिन्होंने ईस्वी सन 852 में आकाश में उड़ने की कोशिश थी। यह अलग बात है कि आसमान में उड़ने का श्रेय राइट बंधुओं को मिला और इसी से विमानों के उड़ने का रास्ता साफ हुआ।
 
आधुनिक रसायनशास्त्र (केमिस्ट्री) की नींव भी जाबिर इब्न हय्यान नाम के एक मुस्लिम ने रखी थी। उन्होंने ही कीमियागिरी को आधुनिक रसायनशास्त्र में बदला। हय्यान ने ही रसायन शास्त्र की विभिन्न प्रक्रियाओं जैसे – डिस्टिलेशन (आसवन), प्योरिफिकेशन (शुद्धिकरण), ऑक्सिडेशन (ऑक्सीकरण) इवोपोरेशन ( वाष्पीकरण) , फिल्टरेशन ( निथारने की कला) का ईजाद किया। उन्होंने ही सलफ्यूरिक और नाइट्रिक एसिड की खोज की।
 
रोबोटिक्स के जनक भी मुस्लिम शख्स थे। अल-जजारी को रोबोटिक्स का जन्मदाता माना जाता है। एक मुस्लिम शख्स ने ही हेनरी-पंचम के किले का स्थापत्य (आर्किटेक्ट) तैयार किया था। एक मुस्लिम ने ही आंखों से मोतियाबिंद निकालने में इस्तेमाल होने वाली खोखली सूई ईजाद की थी। यह तकनीक आज भी इस्तेमाल की जाती है।
 
टीकाकरण की खोज भी मुस्लिम ने ही की थी। जबकि काउपॉक्स का इलाज खोजने का श्रेय जेनर और पाश्चर को दिया जाता है। पश्चिम का इसमें योगदान इतना भर है कि वे इस तरीके को तुर्की से अपने यहां ले आए थे।
 
मुस्लिमों ने गणित में काफी योगदान दिया। बीजगणित और त्रिकोणमिती जैसे विषयों को मुस्लिमों ने ही खोजा था, जो बाद में फिबोनिकी और दूसरे गणितीय संकल्पनाओं के आधार बने।
 
मुस्लिमों ने गैलिलियो से 500 साल पहले यह पता लगा लिया था कि पृथ्वी गोल है।
पोस्ट में कहा गया है- …. तो दोस्तो, मुस्लिमों की योगदान की सूची में अगर और भी चीजें जोड़ी जाएं तो यह अंतहीन हो जाएगी।

वारपाथ की पोस्ट में कहा गया है- मेरे ख्याल से मुस्लिमों के बगैर दुनिया की कल्पना करने की अपील का आपका मतलब आतंकवादियों से खाली दुनिया की कल्पना से है।  बिल्कुल, मैं आपकी इस अपील से मुतमइन हूं। निश्चित तौर पर दुनिया इस गंदगी के बगैर ज्यादा अच्छी होगी। लेकिन कुछ लोगों की करतूतों कि लिए पूरी कौम को जिम्मेदार ठहरा देना अज्ञानता है। एक तरह से यह नस्लीय भेदभाव फैलाना है। कोई भी इस बात से सहमत नहीं होगा कि टिमोथी मेकवेह (ओकलाहामा विस्फोट) या आंद्रे ब्रेविक (नार्वे हत्याकांड) या फिर सांसद रहीं गिफोर्ड के सिर पर गोली मारने (इस कांड में 6 लोगों की हत्या हो गई थी और 12 घायल हुए थे) वाले हत्यारों की करतूतों के लिए पूरी ईसाई कौम या गोरे लोगों को जिम्मेदार ठहराया जाए। जिस तरह इन हत्याकांडों के लिए पूरी ईसाई कौम को दोषी नहीं ठहराया जा सकता, उसी तरह चंद सिरफिरों की करतूतों के लिए डेढ़ अरब मुस्लिमों को कठघरे में कैसे खड़ा किया जा सकता है।
 

The post कॉफी की चुस्की और टूथपेस्ट की ताजगी न होती अगर मुस्लिम न होते appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The meme that enraged the user ‘whatpath’ to respond

Islamophobia has been growing in the West since the 9/11 terror attacks and in the last two years ISIS has been doing all it can to fuel the flames. All ISIS members taken together add up to a miniscule 0.00625 (of the global Muslim population), according to a Twitter message put out by New York University professor, Ian Bremmer. Yet, Islamophobes hold all Muslims responsible for the misdeeds of a few. This is what the notion of “collective guilt” is all about.

In the run-up to the 15^th Anniversary of 9/11, someone posted a picture of New York (with the twin World Towers in tact) asking people to “imagine a world without Muslims,” on the social networking platform Tumblr. Enraged by this blatant hate-Muslim post, a Tumblr with user name ‘whatpath’ sarcastically responded with “Yes, lets imagine a world WITHOUT MUSLIMS, shall we?” Warpath’s long list of Muslim contribution to human civilisation, listed below, has since gone viral: 

Yes, let’s imagine a world WITHOUT MUSLIMS, shall we?

Without Muslims you wouldn't have:

• Coffee
• Cameras
• Experimental Physics
• Chess
• Shampoo
• Perfume/spirits
• Irrigation
• Crank-shaft, internal combustion engine, valves, pistons
• Combination locks
• Architectural innovation (pointed arch -European Gothic cathedrals adopted this technique as it made the building much stronger, rose windows, dome buildings, round towers, etc.)
• Surgical instruments
• Anesthesia
• Windmill
• Treatment of Cowpox
• Fountain pen
• Numbering system
• Algebra/Trigonometry
• Modern Cryptology
• 3 course meal (soup, meat/fish, fruit/nuts)
• Crystal glasses
• Carpets
• Checks
• Gardens used for beauty and meditation instead of for herbs and kitchen.
• University
• Optics
• Music
• Toothbrush
• Hospitals
• Bathing
• Quilting
• Mariner's Compass
• Soft drinks
• Pendulum
• Braille
• Cosmetics
• Plastic surgery
• Calligraphy
• Manufacturing of paper and cloth

It was a Muslim who realized that light ENTERS our eyes, unlike the Greeks who thought we EMITTED rays, and so invented a camera from this discovery.

It was a Muslim who first tried to FLY in 852, even though it is the Wright Brothers who have taken the credit.

It was a Muslim by the name of Jabir ibn Hayyan who was known as the founder of modern Chemistry. He transformed alchemy into chemistry. He invented: distillation, purification, oxidation, evaporation, and filtration. He also discovered sulfuric and nitric acid.

It is a Muslim, by the name of Al-Jazari who is known as the father of robotics.

It was a Muslim who was the architect for Henry V's castle.

It was a Muslim who invented hollow needles to suck cataracts from eyes, a technique still used today.

It was a Muslim who actually discovered inoculation, not Jenner and Pasteur to treat cowpox. The West just brought it over from Turkey

It was Muslims who contributed much to mathematics like Algebra and Trigonometry, which was imported over to Europe 300 years later to Fibonnaci and the rest.

It was Muslims who discovered that the Earth was round 500 years before Galileo did.

The list goes on………..

Just imagine a world without Muslims. Now I think you probably meant, JUST IMAGINE A WORLD WITHOUT TERRORISTS. And then I would agree, the world would definitely be a better place without those pieces of filth. But to hold a whole group responsible for the actions of a few is ignorant and racist. No one would ever expect Christians or White people to be held responsible for the acts of Timothy McVeigh (Oklahoma bombing) or Anders Breivik (Norway killing), or the gun man that shot Congresswoman Giffords in head, wounded 12 and killed 6 people, and rightly so because they had nothing to do with those incidents! Just like the rest of the 1.5 billion Muslims have nothing to do with this incident!

The post A World Without Muslims? No Coffee, No Toothpaste, No Algebra, No… appeared first on SabrangIndia.

by Thomas Kidd

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 spawned a spate of conservative Christian reflections on the essential characteristics of Islam. Figures from Christian Broadcasting Network’s Pat Robertson to Colorado Springs pastor Ted Haggard pointed to the inherently violent nature of Islam. Liberty University’s Jerry Falwell said on 60 Minutes that "Muhammad was a terrorist", a glib comment that set off riots among Asian Muslims and earned him a fatwa from an Iranian cleric calling for Falwell’s assassination. As recently as 2006, even Pope Benedict XVI generated a major controversy by making disparaging comments about Islam’s violent history. One might think that these Christians’ views simply represent angry reactions to the horrific violence of 9/11 and ongoing jihadist terror. But a closer look reveals that American Christians have deep-rooted views of Islam as a violent, demonic religion.

Pastor Aaron Burr Sr (the president of the College of New Jersey at Princeton and the father of the politician Aaron Burr who killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel) expressed widespread Anglo-American Protestant sentiment in a 1756 sermon in which he discussed "the false prophet and grand impostor Mahomet". According to Burr, the early medieval period represented a dark night for the Christian church for two primary reasons: the rise of the Catholic papacy and the spread of Islam. Muhammad brought Arabia under his control by violence, as he taught his followers that Islam should be "propagated by the sword and that it is meritorious to die for it". Misery, woe and ignorance followed in Muhammad’s wake and compounded the sufferings of god’s true church in the world.
 

Obeisance with the Holy Koran
 

Since the colonial era, conservative American Christians have maintained a conflicted attitude towards Muslims. They have portrayed Islam as having malevolent origins but they have also kept faith that Muslims would eventually convert to Christianity. Despite the overwhelming difficulties of Muslim evangelisation, anecdotal accounts of Muslims becoming Christians were steady-sellers in colonial and antebellum America. Probably the most famous Muslim conversion narrative in the 19th century was the account of Abdallah and Sabat, told in a sermon by British pastor Claudius Buchanan. This compelling, tragic tale of the Arabian friends’ journey to faith in Christ was printed in various forms throughout Britain and America from the early 19th to the early 20th century.

Conservative Christians have hardly lost their taste for Muslim conversion stories, as demonstrated by books like Bilquis Sheikh’s I Dared to Call Him Father (1978). In this autobiography, Sheikh, a Pakistani noblewoman, recounted her conversion to Christianity following a series of dreams and visions about Jesus. The book defined the ideal Muslim conversion for a generation of Christians. It has been translated into many different languages, including Arabic, Chinese, Finnish and Amharic (a Semitic language spoken in Ethiopia), and it remains in print today.

Despite their hopes for Muslim conversions, American Christians have also anticipated that Islam would meet its demise in the end times when Jesus would return to earth and establish his kingdom. In early America, many Protestants believed that Islam and Roman Catholicism would be destroyed simultaneously. Some even saw the two as the eastern and western Antichrists. The expectation of Roman Catholicism and Islam’s downfall and the imminent return of Christ led to bold date setting in the early 19th century, capped by the forecasts of William Miller and his followers who expected the end to come in 1843.

Jesus’s failure to appear at the appointed hour helped to transform standard Anglo-American interpretations of Bible prophecy and by the early 20th century "dispensational" theology had become dominant in conservative circles. Dispensationalists began to anticipate the re-establishment of the state of Israel where the final battle between good and evil would transpire. The founding of Israel in 1948 and the subsequent struggle between Israel, the Palestinians and the Arab states has become the frame for many conservative Christians’ interpretation of prophetic scenarios.

There remains a common expectation among American Christians of Islam’s coming downfall. Many now interpret the mysterious description of the attack by "Gog and Magog" against Israel in Ezekiel 38 and 39 as forecasting a time when Arab Muslims would unite with Russians to destroy Israel. Their attack would be miraculously foiled in a hail of fire and brimstone and this event would set the stage for the rise of an atheistic Antichrist who would launch a genocidal campaign against the Jews. This would lead to the final battle of Armageddon and the return of Christ to earth.

The attacks of September 11, 2001 inaugurated a sharply heightened interest in Islam among American Christians and in time we may also see that it generated lasting departures in prophetic interpretation, as some conservatives have begun to put Islam squarely at the centre of end times theolog

The attacks of September 11, 2001 inaugurated a sharply heightened interest in Islam among American Christians and in time we may also see that it generated lasting departures in prophetic interpretation, as some conservatives have begun to put Islam squarely at the centre of end times theology. Some have even begun to argue that the messianic Mahdi expected in some Muslims’ beliefs actually represents the Antichrist.

Despite some post-9/11 novelties, the history of conservative American Christian thought regarding Islam is largely a story of continuity, not change. Although they have often seen Islam as an inherently violent, malevolent religion, traditional Christians have also maintained persistent hopes of mass Muslim conversions to Christianity. Those who did not convert would ultimately fall before a returning Christ in the last days. Although the details may have changed over time, their convictions about the end of days have helped assure many American Christians that their god, the father of Jesus, would triumph in the end.

(Thomas Kidd is associate professor of history at Baylor University and senior fellow at Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion. His latest book is Patrick Henry: First Among Patriots, Basic Books, 2011. This article was published on History News Network on March 15, 2009.)

Courtesy: History News Network; http://hnn.us

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