Why do I write about Wahhabi Salafi and Deobandi Takfiris – Alexander Athos
I do not propose to waste my time with roughians who play the man and not the ball. I have better things to do with my time.
However, I pause to counter the accusation in some small circles where I have posted my research that I am anti-Arab or anti-Sunni and make this remark which I trust you will consider with a rational mind free of biased emotion. As I recently remarked to one critic: I am neither anti-Arab nor Anti Sunni, which if you read all my work you would appreciate. In fact the Wahhabi Salafi and Deobandi sect have massacred Sunni as well as Shia Saudi as well as Westerners as my most recent post on Yusuf Bin Sulaiman Bin Abdullah Al-Sulaiman shows: See article
The past 15 years of Terror against or in the West (whether that be in Europe, Asia, America or Canada) has been my primary area of focus. Why?
I don’t want what is shown in this picture (innocents blown up by religious extremists in Kabul) to happen in Greece nor anywhere in the West. I don’t want the extremist religious ideology that justifies murder appearing in my homeland like ISIS do.
I was in London for a short time in 7/7/2005 and narrowly missed being on the trains/bus blown up by radicalized young Muslim men and I needed to know why they did what they did.
I discovered there was a link between them and the Madrid Bombers in 2004 and also to 9/11 and it was not “Islam” nor even Saudi. Even though the majority of 9/11 hijackers were Saudi and Bin Laden and his financial backers were predominantly Saudi, the 7/7/2005 bombers were not Arab, they were English but from immigrant families from the Indian sub-continent. Rather than my research leading me only to Saudi Arabia as the source of radicalization, the facts emerged that there were epicenters of radical Islam of the Wahhabi Salafi Takfiri kind in London, Egypt and Pakistan also.
I tracked, researched and chronicled every major terror event since 2001 and its primary source of funding/support and ideological base to find out what was causing this madness in people’s heads; what was the ideology that drove them to murder, mass murder and suicide terrorism in Allah’s name.
Was the common link Islam? No. Not entirely. I also have Muslim friends and colleagues and know they are good people whose religion does not take them down the same dark paths as the zealots who want to murder for their faith and perceived injustices to it. In fact at university, I often had long talks about religion with Muslim students and we enjoyed eachothers company very much.
I stand toe to toe with them and defend our positions against attacks from fanatics. In fact the worst abuse I ever got was not from Muslims but from so called ‘Christians’ who charged me with not being Christian and from Jewish people because I defended Muslims in general and said the problem was one of fanaticism. That got too close to the bone for some. I got criticized for this piece by the Christians but applauded by the Muslims; for example see article Islam the Religion vs The Wahhabi Salafi-Takfiri Cult which went viral on the internet.
I also get attacked by atheists and non-Christians, especially from the left because of my Christian convictions and perspective. I even get challenged by Orthodox Christians from Russia because I have written about the need for Russian government to follow international law. Sometimes I also get criticized by my American colleagues who think I cut too much slack to the Russians. You cannot please everybody and I write honestly what I feel and understand from my religious, cultural and intellectual perspective. I am not in the employ of any government and the only ‘barrow’ I push is my own and it varies according to the context and circumstances surrounding each piece that I write.
Was the source of religious fanaticism that drives global terror from Sufi Muslims? No.
Here is a selected list of orthodox Sunni scholars who have refuted Wahhabism and warned Muslims of its poisonous ideology. I can only hope that young Muslim men heed his advice and do not drink from the poison Wahhabi well.
Was it Shia Muslims? No. Shia Muslims, (notwithstanding the antipathy at a state level between Iran, US and Israel), have not committed terror attacks to the range or extent of the Sunni extreme cult of the Wahhabi Salafi (the notable exceptions being attacks against the US Marines in Lebanon in 1983, the Jewish Embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992, and a Jewish bus in Bulgaria in 2012 and being involved with narco-terrorism as a means of finance during the embargo and sanction years). See my article . If I were a Jew or an American, I may write differently as obviously Israel Jewish people and American diplomats and soldiers have been the target of Shia terrorism.
Was it Sunni Muslims behind terror attacks against the West? No. Not entirely. Sunni Muslims comprise some 90% of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims. If they were all terrorists or terrorist sympathizers then we would have Westgate shopping Mall atrocities and 7/7 attacks every week in every major Western city in which there is a sizeable Sunni population.
So I learned through study, travelling to Muslim lands, having Muslim friends and discussing terrorism with Muslims and non-Muslims alike that:
- Not all Muslims are the same;
- Not all Muslims are fanatics;
- Not all Muslims hate the West;
- Not all Muslims are terrorists or terrorist supporters and not all Muslims condone terror as justified Jihad;
- Not all Muslims have antipathy to democracy and our Western way of life;
- Not all Muslims go to Syria and the Middle East to rape, pillage ,murder or displace Christians and other minorities, and
- Not all Muslims are part of a Fifth Column of Hizb ut–Tahrir type political zealots who try and advance a Wahhabi Salafi anti-West extremist agenda by stealth, propaganda and subversion.
If they were:
- we would have Westgate attacks every day in every Western country,
- female genital mutilation would be commonplace all over the world not just Africa,
- women would have no rights or education,and non compliant women would have acid thrown in their faces, raped or murdered;
- it would be an offense to ever criticize any practice, action, position or policy that was against our national laws or notions of human rights if it happened to be done by people who say they are Muslim and should thus have freedom to do whatever their religion dictates including taxing discriminatory taxation against Christians and other non-Muslims;
- Churches would be prohibited from showing the cross on their buildings, aircraft, as jewellery, or otherwise offending Muslim sensibilitiessuch as public celebrations of Christmas and Easter (which Christian Celebrations would would be banned), and planes would be falling out of the sky like flies;
- our neighbourhoods would be scene to internecine sectarian violence andintimidation by Sharia Police/militia enforcing extremist Salafi values and look more like the squalor and chaos of Mogadishu or Raqqa than the cosmopolitanism of London, New York or Paris, car bombs would be going off every week in marketplaces, cinemas and public sporting events like they do in Baghdad and Kabul,
- There would be no freedom of the press, no alcohol, no music, no pluralism, no human rights and no Jews. What the fascists in Nazi Germany tried to do in the 30’s and 40’s with goose stepping SS clean shaven blockheads will be accomplished by white robed, sandaled bearded self appointed Salafi scholars radicalizing millions of frustrated Muslim youth, political agitators manipulating political correctness as a tool of aggressive social engineering and Jihadis being the new black shirt enforces of the new orthodoxy and dogma of the clerical fascists.
Clearly however some Muslims do those things on a regular basis and do it as zealots for and self styled representatives of their religion as we see in the News every week and more would if they were radicalized and if Counter Terrorism Laws and budgets were watered down. The common theme of religious fanaticism runs through each sickening terrorist attack.
Nevertheless there was an obvious religious motivation associated with the extremes of Sunni Islam by most of the terrorist attacks over the past 15 years as is evident from the suicide videos, black shahada flags or other declaration of allegiance to ISIS or Al Qaeda, screaming out the war cry ‘Allahu Akbar’ before or after an atrocity is committed, confessions, witness statements, books, emails and telephone transcripts etc.
All these religious trappings one associates with Islam but many Muslims, the great majority disavow these terrorists are true Muslims because terrorism is against that religion’s precepts. So who would use Islamic words of the Sunni side of that great faith but not be true Muslims? Read Muslim scholars who go into the arabic language, culture and ancient Islamic texts. For example In The Great Theft, Khaled Abou El Fadl, one of the world’s preeminent Islamic scholars, argues that Islam is currently passing through a transformative period no less dramatic than the movements that swept through Europe during the Reformation. At this critical juncture there are two completely opposed worldviews within Islam competing to define this great world religion. The stakes have never been higher, and the future of the Muslim world hangs in the balance…Abou El Fadl builds a vital vision for a moderate Islam. At long last, the great majority of Muslims who oppose extremism have a desperately needed voice to help reclaim Islam’s great moral tradition…This explains why despite President George W. Bush’s assurances that Islam is a peaceful religion and that all good Muslims hunger for democracy, confusion persists and far too many Westerners remain convinced that Muslims and terrorists are synonymous…As the second-largest and fastest-growing religion in the world, Islam is deemed by more than a billion Muslims to be a source of serenity and spiritual peace, and a touchstone for moral and ethical guidance. While extremists have an impact upon the religion that is wildly disproportionate to their numbers, moderates constitute the majority of Muslims worldwide. It is this rift between the quiet voice of the moderates and the deafening statements of the extremists that threatens the future of the faith.” The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists Paperback – January 23, 2007 by Khaled M. Abou El Fadl
It must be a religious sect or cult associated with Islam. Some have called ISIS a death cult for example. Yet many of the fighters leaving the West to fight with ISIS do so because of religious zeal and are often pictured with their Muslim brothers pointing to Allah as their motivation. If so which major group is the cult within and what are its characteristics common to all attacks and ideologies associated with those terror attacks? That has been the basis of me research.
I needed to know why we cannot take bottles and sharp objects onto planes now for security reasons. What made the Russian speaking Chechens Tsarnaev Brothers bomb a sporting event and kill little children? Why did Mohamed Merah gun down to little boys aged 5 and 3 in front of their father, then kill him and then put a pistol to the head of a little 8 year old girl and murder her in cold blood. What turns a person supposedly religious into such a monster?
My research found a common thread beyond race or creed, mental state or criminality it was driven by the same radical ideology which I learned from other Muslims (Sunni Shia, Sufi writers) was called properly Wahhabi Salafi Takfiri Jihadi fanaticism. I did not invent the case studies. The terror events are real whether they are:
- pluralist cartoons,
- social commentators,
- journalists,
- law enforcement,
- chocolate shop cafes,
- seaside resorts,
- London Streets,
- Sydney Streets,
- recruitment centres,
- parliaments,
- aircraft,
- airports,
- museums,
- film makers,
- politicians,
- Jewish establishments,
- archeological sites,
- transportation hubs;
- bridges,
- theatres and opera houses,
- elementary schools,
- kindergartens,
- education systems,
- schools for the elites,
- bars,
- drinking water systems,
- mosques,
- shopping centers,
- marathons or
- skyscrapers.
- trains
- cafes
- rock concerts
- fireworks night
- church
Even though not all Salafis are terrorists, most modern terrorists (like the 9/11, Bali Bombers, Madrid bombers and 7/7 terrorist bombers) were Salafi.
The facts present themselves and the answers are self-evident from the facts which you can check. See for example: European Parliament: THE INVOLVEMENT OF SALAFISM/WAHHABISM IN THE SUPPORT AND SUPPLY OF ARMS TO REBEL GROUPS AROUND THE WORLD
It is clear that there are a handful of Radical Islamic groups that propound the Wahhabi Salafi Takfiri Jihadi theology and political subversion and terror message. Like a wasps, nest is attacked rather than chasing the wasps, we must root out dissolve these groups and imprison their members. The Paris attacks of November 2015 did not happen in an ideological vacuum, the attackers became fanatics because of radicalization at mosques and via terror networks such as to Sharia4Belgiumand Dawa FFM and to the banned German extremist group Milatau Ibrahim,that sponsored Wahhabi Salafi hate preachers that radicalized Muslim Youth to hate the West because of the false narrative that the West is trying to destroy Islam and so become Jihadi’s against western targets. See Article.
It has nothing to do with nationality or ethnicity. It has to do with the underlying dogma and it’s not Islam (a broad and rich religion spaning many nations and cultures). It is a sect so fanatical in its beliefs that it will declare even fellow Muslims as Takfir and rape, abuse, expropriate and murder them. In fact the Wahhabi Salafi Takfiri’s murder more Muslims than Christians. The Wahhabi Salafi view about women is that they are property and their misogynistic treatment of them is appalling but their treatment of non-Muslim women in particular is sickening. Wahhabi Salafi fanatic like ISIS enshrine the theology of rape.
“Before an ISIS warrior raped a 12-year-old girl, another ISIS fighter explained that what he was about to do was not a sin. As the girl was not a Muslim, the Quran not only gave him the right to rape her it required it. The little girl was bound & gagged. The fighter prostrated himself in prayer before getting on top of her. When it was over, he knelt to pray again.” See Article ISIS enshrines the theology of rape. http://goo.gl/a8BxNx
My research into terrorism has led me to Wahhabi Sslafi Takfiri sect as the root and common ideology not only of ISIS, Boko Haram, Al Shabab but also of Al Qaeda and its offshoots/franchisees and kindred dogmas such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Khorasan, Caucasus Emirates, Taliban, JI, Abu Sayyaf and innumerable ‘front’ organizations and charities in the West. Their murder, rape and brutal imposition of their version of Sharia law is well documented all over the world.
Why do many of my articles focus on terrorism in and against the West and Christians?
Because I live here and want to protect the West and its citizens and my Christian brothers who are suffering persecution in the Middle East and Africa from the same fanatics. If the Shia, Sufi, moderate Sunni, Jews, Germans, Americans or penguins declare war of terror on my people and start a campaign of terror against my people, I will start writing about them and doing everything in my power to stop them.
So I am only interested in why and how to stop the terrorists against my people (who include Christians abroad and Muslims, and other religions and people of no religion who are my fellow citizens in the West).
The fact is I cannot stop the terrorists on my own. I can only stop narrow mindedness and unhelpful bigotry such as Islamophobia that tars all Muslims with the same brush. Terrorism of the modern epoch is radical religious terrorism drawn from an extreme fanatical sect of Sunnis who can be accurately designated (as the Muslims themselves do) as either Wahhabi or Salafi Takfiri Jihadi).
I analyse facts of each terror event as it happens and try and see commonality and linkages especially what radicalized the person to commit the barbaric act.
It always comes back to the same ideology both by the religious terrorist and their sanctfier ideologue/radical Imam or radical internet propaganda. But in the end, I doubt whether countries can really stop terror in a Museum, on a beach, in a café. Certainly the current wave of predominantly Wahhabi Salafi based terror can only be stopped by the active help of the whole Muslim community working with other citizens in each country. It’s wrong to brush all Muslims with the same brush as many of my co-writers do and denigrate Islam as part of the war on terror. By the same token it is wrong to say that this current wave of terror since 9/11 has ‘nothing to do with religion’. Obviously the Wahhabi Salafi Takfiri Jihadi are very religious, in fact that’s the problem, they are fanatically so.
I have been asked by some, how can I write about Wahhabi Salafi Takfiri Jihadi without ever having been to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and spoken to them face to face.
The answer is why would I need to go to Saudi Arabia to do that.
The Wahhabi Salafi cult is legion and global.
I walk into Wahhabi Salafi Centres and bookshops all the time, talk to the people in them and read their material. I have met with Wahhabi Salafi protesters marching in the street and tried talking with them. It’s not easy but I understand they are very sincere but sincerely wrong. I research their ideologues and read all their books and translated tapes and internet blogs. I have travelled to the Muslim countries however and really like the Muslims that I have met. I read reports and books about them their ideology and their acts. I know them fairly well. Some Salafi’s are just religious and have no political agenda but when mixed with Wahhabi scholars and fired up by ISIS rhetoric, these zealots become fanatics.
I doubt that I would like to do a journalism piece on Wahhabi Salafi Takfiri’s such as ISIS in Syria and end up executed on YouTube. I pray the Wahhabi Salafi false narrative that the West is evil and out to get them is debunked and that we can live in peace, even with zealots.
I, unlike some counter terrorism writers have faith. I have always loved Allah/God and humanity whom He loved so much that He gave everything to redeem it from darkness of war, terror, hatred, injustice and oppression. I can see the world only through my limited understanding of Him and my religious background which is Christian, education and culture which is Western.
I am not perfect and yes, if I were perhaps I could go back hundreds or thousands of years and try and analyse all the darkness in this world, ascribe blame or innocence to wars and horrors and how to stop it happening again. But I have not the time or resources.
I can only focus primarily on what endangers my community and where it comes from today by analysing the facts from the recent past and current events. Sometimes I am so outraged by non-terror savagery that I write about it…for example the need to bring the civil war in Syria to an end and have international war tribunal for war crimes committed by every individual in Assad’s regime guilty of it as well as non-state actors. I have also at times written against other crimes against humanity and the fanaticism that often drives people to commit such crimes.
Each article I write is well researched and sources identified. I do my best.
I am sorry if I caused some Arab or Sunnis offence unless of course they are a supporter of ISIS or other Wahhabi Salafi Takfiri terrorists in which case you deserve to be exposed and prosecuted. But otherwise read my work and in a scholarly way try and join in the discussion with your intellect as well as your passion. If you have a different perspective, then please share it. I am open to learning. I hope you are too. I am sure you have your perspective based on your tribe, religion, ethnicity etc. So please feel free to write away and advance and protect those interests. That’s what a democracy and free speech is all about. Stick to the argument and play the ball and not the man. Just have manners and intelligence and you will be heard and appreciated otherwise you will be ignored.
In the years after the 9/11 attacks, the teachings of 14th century Islamic jurist Ibn Taymiyyah have been propagated by jihadi groups in order to advance their cause. In a recent article, Indian Islamic scholar Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi examined how the teachings of Ibn Taymiyyah spread in India through the writings of Ibn Wahhab, the founder of Wahhabism.
The article, titled “How Did The Extremist, Supremacist, Xenophobic And Violent Theology Of Ibn Taymiyya And Muhammad Ibn Abd Al-Wahhab Spread In India”, was published in Urdu and English by the Indian website www.NewageIslam.com , which advances a pluralist view of Islam. http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/8786.htm
Terror sweeping the world but we are censored by conflict of interest
The (U.K.)Guardian, Alwaleed told an audience in Dubai that it took just one phone call to Rupert Murdoch — “speaking not as a shareholder but as a viewer,” Alwaleed said — to get the Fox News crawl reporting “Muslim riots” in France changed to “civil riots.”Alwaleed managed to fog our perception of them. With a phone call, the Saudi prince eliminated the peculiarly Islamic character of the unprecedented French street violence for both the viewers at home and, more significantly, for the journalists behind the scenes.http://townhall.com/columnists/dianawest/2013/01/11/is-saudi-prince-steering-news-corp-coverage-n1486794/page/full
Athos
August 2015
See
Helter Skelter-Revolution Muslim ‘Salafia Jihadia’
Europe should shut down Saudi Arabia-sponsored media hate networks if it wants to beat Isis
It is wrong to say terrorism of the ISIS kind has ‘nothing’ to do with ‘religion’
KSA and the Wahhabi Salafi Takfiri Terrorist Narrative
http://moderndiplomacy.eu/index.php?option=com_k2&view=itemlist&task=user&id=83:alexanderathos
Source of hate and terror
In the years after the 9/11 attacks, the teachings of 14th century Islamic jurist Ibn Taymiyyah have been propagated by jihadi groups in order to advance their cause. In a recent article, Indian Islamic scholar Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi examined how the teachings of Ibn Taymiyyah spread in India through the writings of Ibn Wahhab, the founder of Wahhabism. The article, titled “How Did The Extremist, Supremacist, Xenophobic And Violent Theology Of Ibn Taymiyya And Muhammad Ibn Abd Al-Wahhab Spread In India”, http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/8786.htm
The 1997 Luxor Massacre has been mostly forgotten, but it deserves to be remembered as a template of the Islamist soul. https://lnkd.in/b3aggWd
We must stand together with our fellow Muslim citizens to stamp out fundamentalist Islamic hate preachers like Abu Heleema, their groups and their false narrative.
Source:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-do-i-write-wahhabi-salafi-takfiri-alexander-athos