The Scorpion's Shadow - III

Friday, January 3, 2003
By: Tashbih Sayyed

Islamists belong to many different sects and groups. They subscribe to different schools of thought. And as such are often observed competing with each other in a race for winning as many adherents as possible for their particular causes. But on one issue they are united - the destruction of democratic values as represented by the United States of America, The agreement on a common enemy has given Al-Qaeda the much dreaded strength and penetrating ability. All the feuding factions of Islamists are united under the umbrella of Al-Qaeda. Saudi Arabian Wahabbis under Osama bin Laden, Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood under Ayman al Zawahiri, Khomenites, Hezbullah and all the others have joined hands in a 'Jihad' to establish an Islamic State.
Some times when one group is caught committing a politically incorrect act, its rival Islamist groups find it in the interest of the common cause to distance themselves from the guilty party. That's what happened when some Islamists criticized Saudi Arabia's regime on hearing that one of the prominent Islamist organizations has accepted a $500,000 donation from a Saudi prince. No body was fooled by this criticism. Middle East experts point out that it was just another example of Islamist divisions - Muslim Brotherhood versus Wahhabis, just as Soviet Communists used to criticize Maoists.

The Americans should not be fooled by this criticism of Saudi Arabia. According to the Los Angeles Times report, the gift to the Council on American-Islamic Relations from Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, comes at a time when the Saudi royal family's spending on Muslims in the United States has been the subject of new questions. The news of the $500,000 donation to CAIR came at a wrong time. The disclosure that Saudi Princess Haifa al Faisal, the wife of the Saudi ambassador to the United States, apparently gave thousands of dollars to two Saudi nationals in San Diego, who then provided funds to two of the Sept. 11 hijackers was still a hot issue in the media, fanning concerns on Capitol Hill over Saudi financial support of Muslims here. Moderate Muslims are also calling it everything from immoral to a "strategic mistake" that would fuel criticism of American Muslims as Saudi mouthpieces.

So naturally, Islamists who did not follow the Saudis anyway, could not allow themselves to be stigmatized by a Saudi connection. They did not waste any time in coming out with the criticism that Saudi Arabia is a corrupt, dictatorial, fascist state that is an embarrassment to Islam and Muslims. But their criticism of Saudi rulers did not fool any one. Osama bin Laden too criticizes the Saudi rulers. Moderate Muslims are waiting for the day when these Islamists will accept that Osama bin Laden or Ayman al Zawahiri's terrorism is an embarrassment to Islam and Muslims.

But these Islamist whether they are Saudis or Egyptians will never condemn the Islamist terrorism. Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri are supplementary and complimentary to each other. Some experts say that Egyptian connection is much more lethal than the Saudi connection. They insist that the Muslim Brotherhood is the brain behind Al-Qaeda. The agreement on the "common enemy" is still in tact. And despite the criticism of the Saudi regime, all the Islamist factions are still working together to prepare a ground for an Islamist take over of America.

An environment in which a Muslim feels insecure and fears for his life, property and future works in favor of Islamist totalitarians. A scared or insecure soul looks for protection. Saudi funded Islamist organizations understand this very well. They take advantage of this sense of insecurity. The scared person is offered protection if he or she supports these organizations that claim to be American Muslim civil rights and advocacy groups. What he or she does not know is that these so called American Muslim civil rights and advocacy groups are only fronts for anti-American forces.

Like a desert scorpion, Wahabbis are experts in mixing with their surroundings. And like a shadow they assume the shape and form of anything that they lay over. In the US they are taking advantage of its freedoms. Here, they are exploiting a long tradition of civil rights movement. They are pretending to be advocacy groups. But in reality they are working for their foreign masters. Their main objective is to spread anxiety, despair and fear among Muslims by playing up imagined civil rights injustices against them. They use their advocacy cover to create a distrust about the intent of American security concerns.

Their modus operandi is very simple. First they create a situation, usually by committing acts of terror against innocent citizens, that provoke non Muslims to comment or react against the religion of Islam. Since the perpetrators of the terror are invariably Islamists and no Muslim leader ever comes out in condemning them, the non Muslim commentators, naturally, say things that reflect their disappointment and frustration about the faith that perceivably encourages such barbarism. Like when Christian evangelist Franklin Graham said that terrorism is part of "mainstream" Islam and claimed the Quran, Islam's revealed text, "preaches violence."

"Muslim advocacy groups" use these statements to convince innocent Muslims that their religion is under attack, they are not safe and their future is under threat in a Western society. When Franklin Graham appeared on Hannity's nationally-syndicated radio program where he rightly claimed that Muslim leaders have failed to condemn terrorism, the Saudi funded "civil rights groups" demanded that "Mainstream political leaders and religious figures must speak out against the growing demonization of Islam by extremist right-wing commentators and by representatives of the evangelical Christian community." They said, "Defamatory attacks on other faiths can only lead to a spiral of distrust and intolerance that will divide our society along religious lines." Moderate Muslims could not agree with the Islamists.

They pointed out that these "advocacy groups" never apply the same principals and standards of moral conduct on their own Islamists control societies. They never acknowledge that under the sponsorship of their master Saudi Arabia, things are being said against Jews and Christians that are much more venomous and provocative. Islamists have never demanded from Saudi Kings an apology for the blasphemies against Jews, Christians and Hindus.

True Muslims all over the world have noted with growing concern that Wahabbis, working under a very scientific and deliberate plan, are pushing this world toward a clash of religions. They are creating a social and cultural environment in which non-Muslims will react as violently against the Muslims living amongst them as the extremist Muslims react in their societies. In India, Hindus have been forced to attack Muslims in reaction to their extremist ways. Commenting on the killings of Christians in Nigeria by Muslim mobs recently, a non-Muslim American said to me, "Perhaps that's what we should do to the Muslims, every time, any one, any where in the Muslim world says or does anything against Christianity, Judaism or Hinduism.

American Islamic civil rights and advocacy groups, it seems, have already succeeded in creating such a polarization in the US. Recent attacks on Islam and its Prophet can be cited as an example of this growing alienation of non Muslims. Islamist advocacy groups never condemn the vicious manipulation of Quraa'n, Hadith (sayings and deeds of Prophet Muhammad) and Muslim history that is transforming Muslims into terrorists. But are always quick to say that Christian and Jews are demonizing Islam. American Muslims who do not share the extremist agendas of these "civil rights and advocacy groups" have told me time and again that Muslims must learn to stand up against anti-American elements within our fold. This 5th column, if left unchecked, will one day, make it impossible for Muslims to live in peace in civilized societies.

I am observing a growing awareness in the Muslim community here in the US about the agents of HAMAS, Hezbullah and Al-Qaeda who are operating under the cover of advocacy groups. Muslims do not want to be identified with these elements any more. For instance moderate Muslims doubted the sincerity of one of such advocacy groups when it demanded an apology from an elected official in North Carolina who said university students in that state should not be required to read a book about the Quran, Islam's revealed text, because Islam is "evil." They called me to write against such tactics. They wanted me to demand from these "civil rights advocates" to first condemn those terrorist Islamists, who in the first place, are responsible for bringing a bad name to Islam's holy book by spreading terrorism in its name.

There are Muslims who want these advocacy groups to go to Saudi Arabia and ask Wahabbi autocrats to stop their clerics from spreading hatred against other religions. According to Prince Naif Ibn Abdul Aziz, Saudi Minister of Interior, there are more than 50,000 imams at the Kingdom's mosques who follow the official line of thinking. He said, 'If they deviate from this line and persist doing so, they will have to find other jobs.'

Because of Wahabbi control over mosques, Muslims feel that the hate filled rhetoric from Islamist commentators, Islamist religious leaders and mosque sermons are getting out of hand and are poisoning the minds of many ordinary Americans. Only unconditional and the strongest possible statements from these "advocacy group leaders" will put these people on notice that anti-US campaigns will not be accepted in a true Muslim society.

The world knows that these advocacy groups cannot condemn Wahabbi rhetoric as they are funded by the Saudi kingdom. Their agenda is to bring US down from within. Reports in the media that one such group has accepted a $500,000 donation from a Saudi prince only confirmed an open secret. Every body in the Muslim community knows that there are thousands of individuals, organizations and advocacy groups, who are funded by Saudi Arabia just to destroy our freedoms. The revelation caught many people by surprise as up until now, Saudis and the "advocacy groups" have been successful in making sure that they are not caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

Last week, Saudi Princess Haifa al Faisal, the wife of the Saudi ambassador to the United States, denied giving thousands of dollars to two Saudi nationals in San Diego, who then provided funds to two of the Sept. Eleven, hijackers. But how about her close advisors who recommended these persons to receive the funds. It does not matter if the princess did not know. The Saudi royal families with their extensive and elaborate system of intelligence know 'who is who' in their kingdom.

No body can deny that 15 out of 19 terrorists that attacked our country were Saudis. This is also a fact that instead of outright condemning such a barbaric act, Saudi rulers and Saudi lobbies said that US had it coming. They blamed the United States. Saudi propaganda brain washed the whole Muslim world into believing that Jews, CIA and Israel were actually responsible for attacks on New York and Washington. Muslim world under the influence of Saudi doctrine considers Osama bin Laden as their hero. Many wonder as to how can a group which is funded by Saudis can claim that it has US interests at heart? How can those who support Wahabbism can say that they do not want the destruction of Western civilized values as represented by America?

To be continued...