THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIII, Issue # 122, May 15, 2011
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
OSAMA BIN LADEN: CHICKEN OR EGG?
By Raymond Ibrahim
WHICH CAME FIRST, THE TERRORIST LEADER OSAMA BIN LADEN OR THE ISLAMIST JIHAD AGAINST NON-MUSLIMS?
DID OSAMA BIN LADEN "CREATE" THE IDEA OF JIHAD, OR DID THE CENTURIES-OLD DOCTRINE OF JIHAD, SUPPLEMENTED
BY KORANIC VERSES TO "STRIKE TERROR INTO THE HEARTS OF INFIDELS," CREATE THE OSAMA BIN LADEN PHENOMENON? THE
FLAWED ANALYSIS OF COMMENTATORS IN THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA OF THE WEST: HOW TERRIBLY MYOPIC OF
MAINSTREAM MEDIA ANALYSTS TO CONCLUDE THAT THE DEATH OF BIN LADEN -- OF ONE MAN -- CAN, IN ANY WAY,
SHAPE OR FORM, ELIMINATE THE THREAT OF JIHAD, WHICH HAS A 1,400-YEAR LINEAGE -- INABILITY OR UNWILLINGNESS
OF THE MOST CELEBRATED PUNDITS OF THE WEST TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN CAUSE & EFFECT -- HOW MANY MUSLIM
CHARISMATIC LEADERS & IDEOLOGUES HAVE COME & GONE, ONLY FOR THE JIHAD TO RAGE ON?
FULL STORY:
To posit the significance of Osama bin Laden's demise, we must first decide which came first the chicken or the egg?
Quaint as it is, this question is fundamentally an inquiry into the nature of cause and effect. In our context, did Osama
bin Laden "create" the idea of jihad, or did the centuries-old doctrine of jihad supplemented by Koranic verses to
"strike terror into the hearts of infidels" (8:12) create him?
It is clear what the mainstream media would have us think. Take CNN alone; its national security analyst Peter Bergen
maintains: "Killing bin Laden is the end of the war on terror. We can just sort of announce that right now." Insisting
that the "iconic nature of bin Laden's persona" cannot be replaced, Bergen suggests: "It's time to move on."
Another CNN analyst, Fareed Zakaria, assures us that, even if politicians including President Obama aren't saying it yet
(you know, "to be cautious"), "the truth is this is a huge, devastating blow to al-Qa'ida, which had already been
crippled by the Arab Spring. It is not an exaggeration to say that this is the end of al-Qa'ida in any meaningful sense of
the word."
Rather than limit his analysis to pithy, sensationalist phrases and buzz words the tools of the trade of op-ed writing
the ambitious Zakaria undermines his own position by actually trying to argue in historical and existential terms:
"Al-Qa'ida was an idea and an ideology, symbolized by
an extremely charismatic figure in Osama bin Laden.
History teaches us that the loss of the charismatic leader
of the symbol is extraordinarily damaging for the
organization.
With the death of bin Laden, the central
organizing ideology that presented an existential
seduction to the Muslim world and an existential threat
to the Western world is damaged beyond repair.
That
existential threat is gone."
Indeed, nothing could be further from the truth. How many Muslim "charismatic leaders" and ideologues have come and
gone, only for the jihad to rage on?
Consider the Islamist leaders of this century alone: Hassan el-Bana and Sayyid Qutb, founder and chief ideologue of the
Muslim Brotherhood, respectively; both were killed, yet, over fifty years later, the Brotherhood the parent
organization of many jihadist organizations, including al-Qa'ida is today more dominant than ever, and may well take
over Egypt.
Then there is the immensely "charismatic" Ayatollah Khomeini the original poster-boy of radical Islam, who
transformed once secular Iran into an Islamic fundamentalist theocracy. Over twenty years after his death, Iran is more
radical than ever, and on its way to becoming a nuclear power with eschatological visions of glorious "martyrdom."
One can go on and on. For example, after Hamas' spiritual leader and founder, Sheikh Yassin, was assassinated, far from
fizzling, Hamas grew in strength, to the point that it now runs the Palestinian Authority.
El-Bana, Qutb, Khomeini, and Yassin are a meager sampling of Islamist leaders that have come and gone in this century
alone. Were one to go further back in time, the continuum of history would unequivocally prove the existentialist nature
of the threat: "Charismatic ideologues" like Ibn Abdul Wahhab (18th. Century), Ibn Taymiyya (14th. Century), and
Ibn Hanbal (9th. Century) have preached the jihad throughout the centuries; and any of these Muslim leaders would
make bin Laden look like a sissy.
Indeed, if one doesn't mind being labeled an "Islamophobe," one could trace jihad back to the origins of Islam in the 7th.
Century, to the prophet Muhammad, who proclaimed: "I have been commanded to fight against people, so long as they
do not declare that there is no god but Allah."
Yet, all of them including the revered prophet of Allah came and went. And still the jihad rages on.
Ayman al-Zawahiri, now al-Qa'ida's de facto leader, once summarized this phenomenon well. Asked in an interview
about the status of bin Laden and the Taliban's Mullah Omar, he confidently replied:
"Jihad in the path of Allah is greater than any individual
or organization. It is a struggle between Truth and
Falsehood, until Allah Almighty inherits the earth and
those who live in it. Mullah Muhammad Omar and
Sheikh Osama bin Laden may Allah protect them
from all evil are merely two soldiers of Islam in the
journey of jihad, while the struggle between Truth
[Islam] and Falsehood [non-Islam] transcends time
(The Al Qaeda Reader, p.182).
How terribly myopic of mainstream analysts to conclude that the death of bin Laden of one mancan, in any way,
shape or form, eliminate the threat of jihad, which has a fourteen-hundred year lineage. It is a sign of the times that the
media's most celebrated "experts" cannot or will not distinguish between cause and effect.
For our purposes, then, clearly the "chicken" (the cause, the idea) came first, producing many "eggs" (the effects, the
believers). Even as we crack and fry up another jihadi-egg an admittedly large one, bin Laden the jihad-chicken
runs wild, producing batches of eggs around the globe, while the establishment refuses to acknowledge its existence.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Raymond Ibrahim, a historian of Islam, Islamism and the Middle East, is the Associate Director of the Middle East Forum,
a guest lecturer at the National Defense Intelligence College, and the editor of The Al-Qa'ida Reader, a collection
of tranlations of key texts and documents of the Islamist movement. Ibrahim's translations of the religious texts and
political propaganda comprising this collection help readers comprehend the origins, development, history, and serious
danger of the Islamist war doctrines of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Founders of Al-Qa'ida and
implacable enemies of the U.S.A. and the West.
The foregoing article by Raymond Ibrahim was originally published in Pajamas Media, May 12, 2011, and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to
define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-ΰ-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
(URL: http://www.meforum.org/2903/osama-bin-laden-chicken-or-egg )
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
May 15, 2011
Return to Top of Page
Go to the WEBSITE INDEX
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Public Issues & Political Controversies
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
Most Recent Articles
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Volume XIII, 2011
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Subject Matter Highlights
Return to POLITICAL EDUCATION Homepage
CONTACT & ACCESS INFORMATION
This is not a commercial website. The sole purpose of the website is to share with interested persons information regarding civics,
civic and social education, political science, government, politics, law, constitutional law and history, public policy and political
philosophy and history, as well as current and recent political developments, public issues, and political controversies.
POLITICAL EDUCATION, CONSERVATIVE ANALYSIS
POLITICS, SOCIETY, & THE SOVEREIGN STATE
Website of Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr.
Government, Politics, Public Policy, Legal Issues, Constitutional Law, Government & the Economy, Cultural Values, Foreign Affairs,
International Relations, Military Defense & National Security, Geopolitics, Terrorism & Homeland Security, American National Interests,
Political Systems & Processes, Political Institutions, Political Ideologies, & Political Philosophy
INDEX FOR THE ENTIRE WEBSITE
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity