INSIDE AL-QAEDA'S BRAIN (III)

If you haven't read part I and II of INSIDE AL-QAEDA'S BRAIN, you first might want to read part I here and part II here.

III

This feeling of loneliness and of isolation does not lead to any despair among the faithful. On the contrary. Over and over, Al-Qaeda-members are taught about the year 622. In that year, as the story goes, during the hijrah (the emigration), the prophet Muhammad was thrown out of Mecca by its city council. Muhammad and his followers – who literally were the fist muslims on earth – were banned from Mecca and fled to the city of Medina.

Two years later, the Mecca city council sent its army into the desert (towards a hamlet called Badr) hoping to permanently crush Muhammad and his, by then, army of a few hundred muslims. Although Muhammad was outnumbered by the Meccan attackers, the prophet of Islam won the Battle of Badr. This was of course the best PR Muhammad could have wished for. “Look,” he and his followers said, “God is obviously on our side! How is it otherwise possible that we defeated a much stronger enemy force?” Six years later, Muhammad – backed now by a much larger army – conquered Mecca and safeguarded Islam.

The Battle of Badr plays a crucial role in Al-Qaeda’s philosophy. It isn’t a coincidence that the perpetrators of the attacks of 9/11 were told by the leadership to mumble Badr-related verses from the quran right before hitting their targets
“This battle gives Al-Qaeda enormous inspiration,” according to Yosri Fouda, a journalist for Al-Jazeera and himself a muslim. He wrote a book about two of Al-Qaeda’s top commanders responsible for the preparation of 9/11. He writes: “They view themselves as a small group of fighters who, just like Muhammad, will be victorious against all odds and safeguard Islam.”

But, please, do not view Osama bin Laden as a primitive who still lives in the seventh century. He might be hiding in caves, for ever talking about the year 622 and using horse and donkey as means of transportation, but he isn’t the backward one.

The backward, the ignorant people are you – christians and Jews. Those who keep on living in the past, in a primitive state of rejection of the truth.

You still follow? Let me explain. Al-Qaeda fully understands that there weren’t any muslims before the year 622. Monotheistic, Abraham-inspired religion, starts with Judaism around 5000 years ago. Abraham (Ibrahim in Arabic) is considered a prophet in Islam and by Al-Qaeda.

Then, around 2000 years ago, Jesus showed up. In Islam, he is considered a prophet too (Isa in Arabic). With the appearance of Jesus, Jews should have made the “logical step” of becoming followers of Jesus (in other words, become christians). By refusing to do so, Jews rejected the prophet Isa (Jesus) and clung to their – by now – backward religion. Rejecting Isa turned Jews into ignorant people.

Only a handful of Jews did support Isa (Jesus) and they created, against all odds, a very successful religion called Christianity. No problem with that, Al-Qaeda says. But then, in the year 622, the prophet Muhamamd appeared. As Muhammad is considered the last prophet (and the one who received god's final words - the quran), this moment should have signaled an en masse conversion of christians to Islam. So while Jews made a catastrophic mistake by not accepting Christianity, christians made an, equally, crucial mistake by not converting to Islam. This, In Al-Qaeda’s worldview, makes Jews and christians backward, ignorant people. They, willfully, refuse to see the truth.

Actually, mainstream Islam in the Middle East considers Jews and christians very much the same. The main difference though between Al-Qaeda and mainstream Islam is seen in its response towards kaffirs or non-believers. While Al-Qaeda will actively hunt (and kill) for christians and Jews, the vast majority of mainstream muslims in the Middle East shrug their shoulders and have basically no real problems with local christians and Jews (which isn’t the same as lacking negative feelings towards The West or Israel of course. And there is more: Converting from Islam to any other religion is in all Middle Eastern muslim countries forbidden by law and - in most cases - punishable by death. And muslims will - hardly ever - marry a christian. Same the other way around by the way. "If my daughter ever marries a muslim - I will kill her," a maronite Arab told me recently here in Beirut. Don't forget, this is the Middle East).

That said; even to Al-Qaeda, christians and Jews – being monotheistic religions based on Abraham - are people of the book (mentioned in the quran). This is not the case with Hindu’s, Buddhists or – the worst – communists, secularists or atheists. Members of these religions or ideologies are, principly, Al-Qaeda's biggest enemies. To believe in the wrong god is one thing, to believe in no god, goes beyond their belief. If I ever will be captured by Al-Qaeda (which I sincerely do NOT hope), I’d rather tell them the story of how I attended a christian high school than how I, as a university student, worked for a semi-communist newspaper.

After the weekend: part IV

Harald Doornbos

INSIDE AL-QAEDA'S BRAIN (2)

In case you haven't read part I, it might be a good idea to read yesterdays posting first (just scroll down a little)

II

Because of Bashir Uddin’s silent nature, it makes more sense to take a left and visit Bin Laden’s friend Khalid Khawaja. This former ISI officer and ex-air force man makes up for Bashir Uddin’s absence of words. Because Khawaja, in his mid-fifties, is a talker. Oh, a big talker.

He helped Bin Laden during the jihad against the Russians in Afghanistan. And more recently, in 2001, Khawaja was the mediator between the Al-Qaeda/Taliban regime and a group of infuential Pakistani religious leaders. The aim was to get Bin Laden to leave Afghanistan and avoid, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, an American onslaught on Afghanistan. That mission failed miserably. Since then, Khawaja has been helping Al-Qaeda members and their families in Pakistan who ran into trouble with the law.

Khawaja isn't liked by Pakistan's military any more. Especially because he once was one of them. And his, suspected involvement, in the beheading of the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, hasn't helped either. His open adoration for Bin Laden is a huge embarrassment to Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf. This because Khawaja isn't some kind of village idiot who resides in a remote part of Pakistan. No, Khawaja speaks perfect English, lives in Islamabad and - as stated before - loves to talk to anybody who wants to hear his voice. Every now and then, Khawaja gets arrested, to be release a couple of weeks later.

Khawaja is waiting for me outside the door of his apartment. For some kind of reason, in the hall next to the stairs, somebody has put a table tennis table.

“Oh, the attacks in Madrid [the Al-Qaeda trainbombing in 2004, killing 191, wounding over 1000] were an enormous success,” he begins, “An eye for an eye. The Spanish government has pulled its troops out of Iraq. I’m telling you [With you he doesn't specifically mean me, but the West, or more generally: Unbelievers, h.d.]: This is the beginning of our victory, just like our fight against the Russians in Afghanistan.”

Khawaja goes on: “There will be hundreds of attacks in Europe – another hundred Madrid's. And you can not beat us. We have a superior ideology. Who the hell are you guys? Where do you stand for? Your soldiers don’t have a heart for the matter, they only fight for money, which makes them professional killers. We fight for God and for God only.”

In order to avoid his wife, mother and daughters, we now move to the guest room of the apartment. Khawaja orders a servant to bring tea and cake. In the meantime, I show Khawaja an issue of Newsweek containing a cover story on the Al-Qaeda attack in Madrid. Pictures of total destruction and utter suffering. Images of the dead, the wounded and the shocked. I tell him I see madness, innocent people, terror.

Khawaja doesn’t agree. “The real perpetrators are responsible for this,” he claims, “America, the Jews, Satan.”

As Khawaja looks at the pictures in Newsweek, I ask him:

“What does Europe have to do to avoid such Al-Qaeda attacks in the future?”

“Madrid,” answers Khawaja, “was the result of the battle between the slaves of God and you – the slaves of Satan. Surrender to God and the attacks will stop.”

“But religion isn’t important for us,” I try, “And nobody wants to become a muslim.”

“Look,” Khawaya says, “That is your big problem. That is the power of Satan over you. Islam gives you the right for liberation. Nobody deserves to be ruled by the devil. Accept Muhammad, peace be upon Him, as the last prophet and as the messenger of God. We will help you to reach justice. The time will come that we shall liberate you from your oppressors. We will liberate you from democracy. People do not have the right to rule, that is only to God.”

The battle between good and bad, between God and Satan, truth and lie, and believers and kaffirs – unbelievers – are already central themes in the Quran, let alone in Al-Qaeda’s beliefs. Al-Qaeda considers itself an organisation of hardcore idealists, of Utopians. They only want to do good by implementing God’s laws on earth.

Its members ask themselves often the following question: How is it possible that the rest of the world doesn’t see the truth; doesn’t want to accept God’s will on earth?

Worse even: Many muslims willingly choose the wrong side.

The governments of Saudi-Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Pakistan are all pro-American and serve Satan. Even the Syrian government is satanic. For sure, they might be enemies of the US. But the Syrian government is secular. Just as bad. Or take Iran. Very, very anti-America. But its inhabitants and government are shi’i, not sunni. In other words: Satan-worshippers. Even the Hamas government in Gaza is quickly loosing Al-Qaeda's support. "We caution some of the Islamic groups, among them Hamas, which are risking the bloods of their sons ... to cleanse and purify their jihad of contemporary jihadi pollutants," said Abu Yahia al-Libi in a 90-minute videotape, posted on the net, last Monday. "Patriotism, nationalism, shared unity, the supreme interest and other slogans ... none of these have any space in the religion of Allah the Glorious and the Great," he said, criticizing groups such as Hamas for "abandoning jihad and jumping into the ballot boxes." Another reason for Al-Qaeda's anger at Hamas is this: Hamas gets most of its money from "Satanic Iran". This qualifies Hamas, in Al-Qaeda's eyes, to be branded "heretics".

Sorry for delay, during the weekend: Part 3

INSIDE AL-QAEDA'S BRAIN (1)

The biggest misconception about Al-Qaeda is that its members are politically motivated. Of course, political Islam plays a role (especially in radicalizing future members). But Al-Qaeda is very much a medieval Doomsday cult with surprisingly little politics in it.

If you really want to understand what Al-Qaeda is all about, you have to step away from politics, away from life in the 21st century. Al-Qaeda is all about religion (rigidly imitating the Prophet Muhammad), cultural elements (keeping the Arab world and muslim South Asia as backward as possible) and an immense fear factor (for Western-led globalisation and its effects on the muslim mind).

It may sound a little cheap or simple, but basically Al-Qaeda consists of a bunch of madmen. Please read the follwing article I wrote on Al-Qaeda. It is based on a long article I wrote in 2004 for a Dutch magazine. I've added some new material. Due to its length, I will publish the text in four or five parts (otherwise it gets all too long - nobody will read it). Please find below, part one of:

INSIDE AL-QAEDA'S BRAIN

It may sound strange, but I can visit Al-Qaeda on foot.

Whenever I leave my street in the F-8 sector of the Pakistani capital Islamabad, I can either take a right or left turn. Going right leads me, within 500 meters, to the house of Sultan Bashir Uddin Mahmood, a nuclear scientist who once headed Pakistan’s nuclear programme but started freelancing for Osama bin Laden. Taking a left gets you, within 300 meters, to the apartment of Khalid Khawaja, a personal friend of Bin Laden and a suspect in the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl.

Left or right - a former head of Al-Qaeda’s nuclear unit or a personal friend of Bin Laden? Not an easy choice.

Many times I have taken the right turn and visited Bashir Uddin’s house. But he, a friendly looking elderly man, isn’t the most talkative person in the world. Because not long after 9/11 he was picked up by the ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence agency, after the Americans found out that this nuclear scientist had met Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan (In the meeting Bin Laden had asked Bashir Uddin to build a nuclear device). During weeks of interrogation the ISI made it very, very clear Bashir Uddin should refrain from contact with the outside world. Since his release, he has, more or less, been placed under a light form of house arrest.

But I kept trying to interview him. I would knock on the gate of Bashir Udin’s property, but every time his servants told me to leave. Or I would approach him while Basir Uddin drove his car in or out of his compound. Again to no avail. He never said a word.

Basir Uddin was not only Al-Qaeda’s main nuclear specialist (it kind of helped that he had been the director of a nuclear power plant in Pakistan), but he was a writer too.

Mainly, his topics dealt with three things: God, the sun and pseudo-science. God – because Bashir Uddin was obsessed with God and seemed in love with the prophet Muhammad (He of course had written a book about the prophet). The sun – because, fascinatingly, the bringer of life was basically a star where thousands of hydrogen bombs exploded every second. Bashir Uddin had written a book about his theory that increased sunspots create war and violence in this world. And pseudo-science – because Bashir Uddin strongly believed in a combination of Islam and science, also called Koranic science. For instance, he suggested that energy could be extracted from Jinns (ghosts). This because, according to the Quran, Jinns might appear in the form of fire. And since fire is energy, Bashir Uddin was convinced that Jinns could be used to solve Pakistan’s energy problem. The Jinns, using special energy tapping machines, could as well fight along the Pakistan Army in a war against India.

His theories, especially the one with the Jinns, let other Pakistani scientists to the conclusion that religion had made Bashir Uddin barking mad. They called him professor crackpot.

At one afternoon though, a car stopped in front of my house and somebody stepped out carrying a couple of books. This person approached me and said: “Please take this as a gift from Mr. Bashir Uddin.”

I was given three books, all written in English by Bashir Uddin. One of them was called: Doomsday and life after death. According to the preface, the book is "A systematic study of the complex realities of life, life-after death and Doomsday; the ultimate faith of mankind and of the Earth, the Solar System and the Universe, in the light of the Holy Quran and the latest scientific findings; pointing out new horizons of thought for science; and developing a conprehensive understanding of the future, for believers and non-believers alike."

In the book, Bashir Uddin had written a message for me: “May Allah guide us on the right path”. Below the text, he had placed his signature.

After I received his books, I took a right turn, and visited – again – his house. He just had visited the mosque (something he very frequentely did) and I thanked him for his books. He never said a word. He only smiled and nodded.

Tomorrow part 2

Harald Doornbos