His dream of united Muslim Pakistan which was a lie from inception to the present, began unraveling in a few years. Many Muslims who migrated from India and were called Mohajirs sparked resentment from the provincial natives of Sindh and Punjab. The migrant Muslim business community from Kutch, Gujarat and Saurashtra concentrated in Karachi, the only premier business city of Pakistan, by expertise, greater capital or questionable business ethics, dominated the commerce and aspired to greater political power, planting the seeds of discord. These have flourished and led to militancy, armed intimidation and violent conflict. The leader of the Mohajirs, at one time left the country and sought asylum in the UK.

From its birth, Punjab was the most populated and fertile of the four provinces. Baluchistan was the largest, richest in natural resources and with the lowest population density and a small population. The Northwest Frontier province and the FATA were the least industrialized, mostly tribal, more religious and mainly Pashtun, like their brethren across the artificial Durand line frontier with Afghanistan. In NWFP, FATA and Baluchistan, local customs, laws and the writ of local chiefs trumped government writ, authority or law. Sindh is mainly arid, but like fertile Punjab dominated by landlords with a culture of feudalism and oppression of the poor serfs who constitute the majority in both provinces.

The unfair division of the Indus waters and the shoveling of federal pork in favor of Punjab, led to resentment in Sindh. The control of commerce in its capital Karachi by non-Sindhi Mohajirs fueled the unrest even more. The Punjabi dominated central government and armed forces mistreated the distant stepsister Bengali speaking East Pakistan, even more badly. The reduction in general mortality with better healthcare unaccompanied by economic improvement left no reason to practice birth control and the population of India and both Pakistans grew rapidly. East Pakistan soon became more populous than West Pakistan with greater representation in parliament. It also had mainly one political party which held the majority in the single parliament of both Pakistans.

This would have required making Bengali speaking Mujibur Rahman the prime minister of all of Pakistan. As in India, language, caste and religion have always been the factors responsible for lack of progress of South Asian nations. Other equally important factors are the ignorance of the leaders and the electorate and the prominent and conspicuous lack of integrity, character and decency which is ubiquitous in all politicians of all parties and all nations in the subcontinent. As everyone knows that eventually led to the rape and massacre of nearly a million East Pakistanis by the West Pakistani armed forces with the connivance of America, and the birth of Bangladesh, by India as the midwife.

The homeland of all Indian Muslims began fragmenting with civil strife between Mohajirs and Sindhi Muslims. Very soon an obscure Muslim sect called Ahmadis were terrorized legally as non-Muslim infidels. More recently violence against Christians and Shia Muslims became the norm even though Jinnah, the founder was a Shia. Once again American support for the fanatic General Zia was responsible for promoting this mayhem to defeat the USSR invasion of Afghanistan which the Carter administration precipitated to embroil the Soviet Union in its own Vietnam. Saudi Arabia was an equal donor to obscure the un-Islamic lifestyle of its ruling king and princes. The net result was Al Qaeda and Taliban, the Frankensteins now out to destroy America. It led to an even greater problem for perpetually foolish and shortsighted America, a nuclear armed Pakistan and the Khan Walmart for nuclear weapons.

Pakistan military�s cozy relationship with zealot religious fanatics is what led to the Talibanization of Afghanistan and now the border with Afghanistan and spreading to its heartland. The resignation of Musharraf was the result of his policy of being seen as a stooge of America. In reality he was no American ally, but a shrewd liar who clandestinely supported the terrorists of Taliban and even Al Qaeda, while milking America to strengthen the Pakistani economy and military to fight India. The ruling political parties are at loggerheads with one another. Sharif and his Punjab based party wants revenge on Musharraf and reinstatement of the illegally fired judges. Zardari and his PPP majority are afraid that a reinstated judiciary may reopen the corruption charges which Musharraf pardoned him for. The combined parties have no ability to oversee the military and the rogue ISI intelligence agency, both of which still decide the country�s foreign policy and have total control over the nuclear arsenal.

America is now lost and does not know who to turn to. Its objectives are to prevent conventional terror attacks on itself, prevent the terrorists from gaining access to Pakistani nuclear weapons and assure a safe supply route for its forces occupying landlocked Afghanistan, which is its base for accessing Central Asian oil and gas. America�s newfound love for Georgia, Ukraine, Poland etc. is also based on accessing Central Asian energy via safe pipelines and surrounding Russia with anti-missile defenses to achieve full spectrum nuclear dominance. ABMs are not defensive weapons, but first tier offensive ones. They allow the possessor to preemptively strike another nuclear power, destroying the bulk of its nuclear arsenal. The remaining few second strike weapons which survive the preemptive first strike can be effectively neutralized thus escaping Mutual Assured Destruction, the stalemate strategy that prevented nuclear war in the cold war era.

Pakistan now faces an insurgency in NWFP, FATA and Baluchistan, a restive Sindh, widespread terrorist attacks, a deteriorating economy, rampant inflation, a disillusioned America in economic difficulties, unwilling to write blank checks and a divided, corrupt civilian government, a military with poor morale and increasing casualties and an angry and hungry population. NATO and America will tire of expense and casualties in a year or two and the Taliban will eventually form a Pakhtunistan. Baluchistan will secede with Iranian help as will Sindh with India�s help. A landlocked nuclear Punjab as a remnant of Pakistan will be effectively marginalized. This time Iran will ensure a satellite Shia state in western Afghanistan, the newly antagonized Russians will promote the merger of the northern and eastern parts into Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. From India�s standpoint, it is not a totally bad idea, as the corrupt, weak and inept government of Karzai is unsustainable and consumes a lot of Indian aid. The Russian response to Georgia was a shot across the bow to America and its inane interference in Russia�s near abroad.

Unfortunately for America, its own blunders and its retarded ineducable leaders are hell bent on destroying the nation as articles by Andrew Bacevich, Kevin Phillips, Pat Buchanan and Ted Galen Carpenter from the right, George Monbiot, Noam Chomsky and Chalmers Johnson from the left and veteran national security professionals like Flynt and Hillary Mann Leverett emphasize. America is in retreat in Latin America (Venezuela, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia), stalemated in the Middle East (Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Syria) and stopped cold in the Caucasus by Russia. In India we have a similar problem. The ruling Tarzana, her Little Nkima and her coterie of multiparty apes have reignited the conflagration in Kashmir, while the shortsighted BJP stands ready to add fuel to the fire for political gains in the elections next year. In America Darth Vader, his pet G2B2 and the chest thumping Neocon troglodytes indulge in arson around the world and the democrats cheerfully appropriate funds fueling the fire and demagogue to win the next election. 

Posted via email from Jay’s Blogs

  On Jan. 24, a voice purported to be that of Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the botched attempt to bring down Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day. The short one-minute and two-second audio statement, which was broadcast on Al Jazeera television, called the 23-year-old Nigerian suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab a hero and threatened more attacks. The voice on the recording said the bombing attempt was in response to the situation in Gaza and that the United States can never dream of living in peace until Muslims have peace in the Palestinian territories. The speaker also said that attacks against the United States would continue as long as the United States continued to support Israel.

  While the U.S. government has yet to confirm that the voice is that of bin Laden, Al Jazeera claims that the voice is indeed that of the al Qaeda leader. Bin Laden’s health and welfare have been the topic of a lot of discussion and debate over the past several years, and many intelligence officials believe he is dead. Because of this, any time an audio recording purporting to be from bin Laden is released it receives heavy forensic scrutiny. Some technical experts believe that recent statements supposedly made by bin Laden have been cobbled together by manipulating portions of longer bin Laden messages that were previously recorded. It has been STRATFOR’s position for several years that, whether bin Laden is dead or alive, the al Qaeda core has been marginalized by the efforts of the United States and its allies to the point where the group no longer poses a strategic threat.

  Now, questions of bin Laden’s status aside, the recording was most likely released through channels that helped assure Al Jazeera that the recording was authentic. This means that we can be somewhat confident that the message was released by the al Qaeda core. The fact that the al Qaeda core would attempt to take credit for a failed attack in a recording is quite interesting. But perhaps even more interesting is the core group’s claim that the attack was conducted because of U.S support for Israel and the treatment of the Palestinians living in Gaza.

Smoke and Mirrors
During the early years of al Qaeda’s existence, the group did not take credit for attacks it conducted. In fact, it explicitly denied involvement. In interviews with the press, bin Laden often praised the attackers while, with a bit of a wink and a nod, he denied any connection to the attacks. Bin Laden issued public statements after the August 1998 East Africa embassy bombings and the 9/11 attacks flatly denying any involvement. In fact, bin Laden and al Qaeda continued to publicly deny any connection to the 9/11 attacks until after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. These denials of the 9/11 attacks have taken on a life of their own and have become the basis of conspiracy theories that the United States or Israel was behind the attacks (despite later statements by bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, that contradicted earlier statements and claimed credit for 9/11).

  In the years following 9/11, the al Qaeda core has continued to bask in the glory of that spectacularly successful attack, but it has not been able to produce the long-awaited encore. This is not for lack of effort; the al Qaeda core has been involved in several attempted attacks against the United States, such as the attempted shoe-bomb attack in December 2001, dispatching Jose Padilla to the United States in May of 2002 to purportedly try to conduct a dirty-bomb attack, and the August 2006 thwarted plot to attack trans-Atlantic airliners using liquid explosives. Interestingly, while each of these failed attempts has been tied to the al Qaeda core by intelligence and investigative efforts, the group did not publicly claim credit for any of them. While the group’s leadership has made repeated threats that they were going to launch an attack that would dwarf 9/11, they simply have been unable to do so. Indeed, the only plot that could have come anywhere near the destruction of the 9/11 attacks was the liquid explosives plot, and that was foiled early on in the operational planning process — before the explosive devices were even fabricated.

  Now, back to the failed bombing attempt on Christmas Day. First, the Yemeni franchise of al Qaeda, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), has already claimed responsibility for the attack, and evidence strongly suggests that AQAP is the organization with which Abdulmutallab had direct contact. Indeed, while some members of AQAP have had prior contact with bin Laden, there is little to suggest that bin Laden himself or what remains of al Qaeda’s core leadership has any direct role in planning any of the operations conducted by AQAP. The core group does not exercise that type of control over the activities of any of its regional groups. These groups are more like independent franchises that operate under the same brand name rather than parts of a single hierarchical organization. Each franchise has local leadership and is self-funding, and the franchises frequently diverge from global al Qaeda “corporate policies” in areas like target selection.

  Furthermore, in an environment where the jihadists know that U.S. signals-intelligence efforts are keenly focused on the al Qaeda core and the regional franchise groups, discussing any type of operational information via telephone or e-mail from Yemen to Pakistan would be very dangerous — and terrible operational security. Using couriers would be more secure, but the al Qaeda core leadership is very cautious in its communications with the outside world (Hellfire missiles can have that effect on people), and any such communications will be very slow and deliberate. For the al Qaeda core leadership, the price of physical security has been the loss of operational control over the larger movement.
Taking things one step further, not only is the core of al Qaeda attempting to take credit for something it did not do, but it is claiming credit for an attack that did little more than severely burn the attacker in a very sensitive anatomical area. Some have argued that the attack was successful because it has instilled fear and caused the U.S. government to react, but clearly the attack would have had a far greater impact had the device detonated. The failed attack was certainly not what the operational planners had in mind when they dispatched Abdulmutallab on his mission.

  This attempt by the al Qaeda core to pander for publicity, even though it means claiming credit for a botched attack, clearly demonstrates how far the core group has fallen since the days when bin Laden blithely denied responsibility for 9/11.

The Palestinian Focus
Since the beginning of bin Laden’s public discourse, the Palestinian cause has been a consistent feature. His 1996 declaration of war and the 1998 fatwa declaring jihad against the West and Israel are prime examples. However, the reality of al Qaeda’s activities has shown that, to bin Laden, the plight of the Palestinians has been less an area of genuine concern and more of a rhetorical device to exploit sympathy for the jihadist cause and draw Muslims to al Qaeda’s banner.

  Over the years, al Qaeda has worked very closely with a number of militant groups in a variety of places, including the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat in Algeria, Jemaah Islamiyah in Indonesia and the East Turkestan Islamic Movement in China. However, while one of bin Laden’s mentors, Abdullah Azzam, was a Palestinian, and there have been several Palestinians affiliated with al Qaeda over the years, the group has done little to support Palestinian resistance groups such as Hamas, even though Hamas (as the Palestinian offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood) sprang from the same radical Egyptian Islamist milieu that produced al-Zawahiri’s Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ), which al-Zawahiri later folded into al Qaeda.

  Jihadist militant groups such as Jund Ansar Allah have attempted to establish themselves in Gaza, but these groups were seen as problematic competition, rather than allies, and Hamas quickly stamped them out.
With little help coming from fellow Sunnis, Hamas has come to rely on Iran and Iran’s Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah, as sources of funding, weapons and training. Even though this support is flowing across the Shiite-Sunni divide, actions speak louder than words, and Iran and Hezbollah have shown that they can deliver. In many ways, the political philosophy of Hamas (which has been sharply criticized by al-Zawahiri and other al Qaeda leaders) is far closer to that of Iran than to that of the jihadists. With Iran’s help, Hamas has progressed from throwing rocks and firing homemade Qassam rockets to launching the longer range Grad and Fajr rockets and conducting increasingly effective irregular-warfare operations against the Israeli army.

  Hezbollah’s ability to eject Israel from southern Lebanon and its strong stand against the Israeli armed forces in the 2006 war made a strong impression in the Middle East. Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas are seen as very real threats to Israel, while al Qaeda has shown that it can produce a lot of anti-Israeli rhetoric but few results. Because of this, Iran and its proxies have become the vanguard of the fight against Israel, while al Qaeda is simply trying to keep its name in the press.

  Claiming credit for failed attacks orchestrated by others and trying to latch on to the fight against Israel are just the latest signs that al Qaeda is trying almost too hard to remain relevant.

Posted via email from Jay’s Blogs

The Islamic arch in the making 
By Ioannis Michaletos | Blog 

Over the 1990’s one of the most popular theories regarding the changing nature of the Balkan affairs, was the existence of the “Islamic arch” or the “Green traverse” stretching from Turkey up to Croatia that would unite all the Balkan Muslim communities into a single force, subject to control by either Turkey or the Middle Eastern Sunni powers and the Shiite Iran as well.The years after 9/11 many of such Islamic networks that were also connected with international terrorism, were disband. Moreover this particular theory faded away from the mainstream media, although it is still a reality that is being pursued by various Islamic circles.

Sarajevo July 21, 2008: Bosnian Muslims celebrate the arrest of Karadzic by waving Turkish flags.

This present article will briefly provide the most important events of this Balkan Islamic arch project that are related to terrorism.Diary of events since 2003
November 2003: Al Qaeda strikes Istanbul with bombs that targeted two Synagogues, a British bank and the UK Consulate. The brain behind the attack has the Syrian citizen Louai al-Sakka, who was also planning to blow up two Israeli cruise ships but he was arrested on August 2005 and subsequently it was found that he maintained close links with Bosnian extremist Islamic circles.
July 2005: A group of Bosnian Muslims were arrested in Italy because on April that year they tried to place explosives during the funeral of late Pontiff John-Paul II.
August 2005: The fugitive Moroccan terrorist Abdelmajid Bouchar was arrested in Serbia after he escaped from Spain where he took part in the bombing attacks in Madrid in March 2004. He was in contact with radical Muslims in the Balkans over the previous years.
October 2005: The Bosnian security forces arrested Bosnian Muslims that were in procession of plastic explosives and were preparing a terrorist attack in Western Embassies in Sarajevo. The group was revealed that was in contact with the Al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
December 2005: United Nations sources in Pristina indicate that North African terrorists may have allocated themselves in Kosovo with the assistance of local collaborators.
September 2006: In Oslo the Pakistani citizen named Arfan Qadeer Bhatti was arrested because he was planning the bombing of the American and Israeli Embassies in the Norwegian capital. Himself was an associate of the Kosovo Albanian heroin smuggler Princ Dobrosi and has visited numerously the Balkans.
December 2006: In Trevizo-Italy Bosnian Muslims and Albanians were arrested, because they were smuggling weapons from Turkey and were also related with terrorist organizations.
February 2007: A group of Bulgarian Muslims -Including a proselyte woman- were arrested by the Bulgarian authorities due to their collaboration with Wahhabi groups in order to arm Chechen terrorists. They were also planning to impose Sharia law once the group took a hold in the Muslim communities of the country.
March 2007: The Serbian police uncovers a crypt in the Sanjak region containing heavy armaments (Rockets, bombs, machine guns, grenades, communication systems) that belonged to a group of local Wahhabis.
November 2007: The FYROM police uncovers stashed weapons capable of arming a small army of a 1,000 men in a remote village near the borderline with Kosovo. The arms belonged to an Albanian paramilitary group from Kosovo that included in its ranks radical Muslims.
December 2007: The Albanian government and its Ministry of Economics announced that it outlaws the operation of several Islamic charities and forbids the transaction of certain foreign citizens with local institutions.
Some of the names and organizations banned are:
Saad Rashed Mohammad Al-faqih (Provided support to Al Qaeda)
Anshori Abdullah Anshori (Jemaah Islamiya related)
Abd Al-Hamid Sulaiman Al-Mujil (Director of the outlawed NGO, IIRO Eastern Province (IIRO-EP) of Saudi Arabia)
All Sayyid Muhamed Mustafa Bakri ( Al Qaeda member and chemical weapons expert)
Dieman Abdulkadir Izzat (He took part in the assassination attempt against the Iraqi Prime Minister in 2004 in Germany)
Elehssan” (Cover organization for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad)
“Lashkar-e- Tayyiba” (The armed terrorist wing of the Pakistani radical group, Markaz-ud- Dawa-wal-Irshad)
December 2007: Bosnian Muslims and a Turk were arrested in Germany, because they were planning terrorist attacks against the country’s transportation system
March 2008: Five Wahhabis in Bosnia were arrested carrying heavy armaments and were aiming at attacking Christian Churches during the coming Easter Period.
May 2008: In Skopje the Albanian Imam Halim Bekiri was arrested because he was receiving funds from the Kuwaiti based outlawed organization Revival Islamic Heritage Society, in order to facilitate the infiltration of Wahhabis in the Balkans.
June 2008: Ten Islamic extremists were arrested in Bosnia transferring illegally obtained weapons to Croatia in order to arm terrorist cells in Central Europe. All of them were revealed that maintained links with Mujahedeen fighters from the 1990’s wars in Ex-Yugoslavia
July 2008: A TIR truck from Iran heading towards Kosovo was stopped for inspection on the FYROM-Kosovo borderline. Officially it was carrying diesel but it was reveled that it contained a chemical substance. Ten border guards were sent to the hospital with signs of contamination.
A similar case was recorded with a truck from FYROM to Greece in May the same year.

Seized weapons

July 2008: Abu Hamza in Bosnia, one of the main Mujahedeen figures of the ’90’s, stated in the media that he received assistance from the Turkish intelligence (MIT) during the war against the Serbs and Croats in Bosnia, in order to arm his Islamic fighting units.All the above are just a very synoptically note of all the incidents that have occurred over the past few years in the region where the Islamic arch is supposed to have been formed.
It has to be noted also that:
During the “cartoon demonstrations”, the Muslims communities in FYROM, Sanjak and Bosnia revealed intense dynamism and made numerous riots in the respective regions.
It is a well known fact that the Balkan radical Islamists have an articulate propaganda system composed by companies that issue magazines, record music and create websites, aiming at spreading mostly Wahhabi values.
Over the past five years numerous Byzantine era Churches have been attacked in Albania by “unknown assailants” whilst there have been incidents of threats being issued against Christian citizens in the form of graffiti in walls or notes placed in their cars and houses.
In FYROM, Wahhabism exorcism has been recorded and youth festivals have been trashed by radicals in Bosnia and Sanjak as well.
Female circumcision is also being performed by radical Muslims in the Balkans and Imams from North Africa and the Middle East have allocated themselves in the region.
Moreover Turkey’s mutation into an Islamic state is in process and the Christian communities in Bulgaria, FYROM are decreasing due to their very low birth rates. In Kosovo the non-Muslim population was eradicated and in Albania the majority of Eastern Orthodox and Catholics has emigrated. In a sense the Balkans are being formed into a semi-Muslim region where the radical element is pretty strong and increasing.
Although populations such as the Albanians are still in a pre-modern level and that means they group themselves on kinship ties rather on cultural or religious ones, that will inevitably change in the coming generations due to the entrance of the region in a more “Westernized” social environment and then the societal divisions that are being examined are going to surface with dire consequences.
More pressing is the issue of Bosnia-Herzegovina that is already divided between three groups (Serbs, Croats, and Muslims) with the first two resenting the primal position that Muslims have attained.
As the Balkans enters into Europe they tend to drift away and that is the irony of history.

Posted via email from Jay’s Blogs

  On Jan. 4, 2010, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) adopted new rules that would increase the screening of citizens from 14 countries who want to fly to the United States as well as travelers of all nationalities who are flying to the United States from one of the 14 countries. These countries are: Afghanistan, Algeria, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
Four of the countries — Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria — are on the U.S. government’s list of state sponsors of terrorism. The other 10 have been labeled “countries of interest” by the TSA and appear to have been added in response to jihadist attacks in recent years. Nigeria was almost certainly added to the list only as a result of the Christmas Day bombing attempt aboard a Detroit-bound U.S. airliner by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian man.

  As reflected by the large number of chain e-mails that swirl around after every attack or attempted attack against the United States, the type of profiling program the TSA has instituted will be very popular in certain quarters. Conventional wisdom holds that such programs will be effective in protecting the flying public from terrorist attacks because profiling is easy to do. However, when one steps back and carefully examines the historical face of the jihadist threat, it becomes readily apparent that it is very difficult to create a one-size-fits-all profile of a jihadist operative. When focusing on a resourceful and adaptive adversary, the use of such profiles sets a security system up for failure by causing security personnel and the general public to focus on a threat that is defined too narrowly.
Sketching the face of jihadism is simply not as easy as it might seem.

The Historical Face of Terror
One popular chain e-mail that seemingly circulates after every attack or attempted attack notes that the attack was not conducted by Richard Simmons or the Tooth Fairy but by “Muslim male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40.” And when we set aside the Chechen “Black Widows”, the occasional female suicide bomber and people like Timothy McVeigh and Eric Rudolph, many terrorist attacks are indeed planned and orchestrated by male Muslim extremists between the ages of 17 and 40. The problem comes when you try to define what a male Muslim extremist between the ages of 17 and 40 looks like.
When we look back at the early jihadist attacks against the United States, we see that many perpetrators matched the stereotypical Muslim profile. In the killing of Rabbi Meir Kahane, the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing and the thwarted 1993 New York Landmarks Plot, we saw a large contingent of Egyptians, including Omar Abdul-Rahman (aka “the Blind Sheikh”), ElSayyid Nosair, Ibrahim Elgabrowny, Mahmud Abouhalima and several others. In fact, Egyptians played a significant role in the development of the jihadist ideology and have long constituted a very substantial portion of the international jihadist movement — and even of the core al Qaeda cadre. Because of this, it is quite surprising that Egypt does not appear on the TSA’s profile list.
Indeed, in addition to the Egyptians, in the early jihadist plots against the United States we also saw operatives who were Palestinian, Pakistani, Sudanese and Iraqi. However — and this is significant — in the New York Landmarks Plot we also saw a Puerto Rican convert to Islam named Victor Alvarez and an African-American Muslim named Clement Rodney Hampton-el. Alvarez and Hampton-el clearly did not fit the typical profile.
The Kuwait-born Pakistani citizen who was the bombmaker in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing is a man named Abdul Basit (widely known by his alias, Ramzi Yousef). After leaving the United States, Basit resettled in Manila and attempted to orchestrate an attack against U.S. airliners in Asia called Operation Bojinka. After an apartment fire in Manila caused Basit to flee the city, he moved to Islamabad, where he attempted to recruit new jihadist operatives to carry out the Bojinka plot. One of the men he recruited was a South African Muslim named Istaique Parker. After a few dry-run operations, Parker got cold feet, decided he did not want to embrace martyrdom and helped the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service special agents assigned to the U.S. Embassy orchestrate Basit’s arrest. A South African named Parker does not fit the typical terrorist profile.
The following individuals, among many others, were involved in jihadist activity but did not fit what most people would consider the typical jihadist profile:

  Richard Reid, the British citizen known as the “shoe bomber.”
Jose Padilla, the American citizen known as the “dirty bomber.”
Adam Gadahn, an al Qaeda spokesman who was born Adam Pearlman in California.
John Walker Lindh, the so-called “American Taliban.”
Jack Roche, the Australian known as “Jihad Jack.”
The Duka brothers, ethnic Albanians involved in the Fort Dix plot.
Daniel Boyd and his sons, American citizens plotting grassroots attacks inside the United States.
Germaine Maurice Lindsay, the Jamaican-born suicide bomber involved in the July 7, 2005, London attacks.
Nick Reilly, the British citizen who attempted to bomb a restaurant in Exeter in May 2008.
David Headley, the U.S. citizen who helped plan the Mumbai attacks.

As reflected by the list above, jihadists come from many ethnicities and nationalities, and they can range from Americans named Daniel, Victor and John to a Macedonian nicknamed “Elvis,” a Tanzanian called “Foopie” (who smuggled explosives by bicycle) and an Indonesian named Zulkarnaen. There simply is not one ethnic or national profile that can be used to describe them all.

An Adaptive Opponent
One of the big reasons we’ve witnessed men with names like Richard and Jose used in jihadist plots is because jihadist planners are adaptive and innovative. They will adjust the operatives they select for a mission in order to circumvent new security measures. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, when security forces began to focus additional scrutiny on people with Muslim names, they dispatched Richard Reid on his shoe-bomb mission. And it worked — Reid was able to get his device by security and onto the plane. If he hadn’t fumbled the execution of the attack, it would have destroyed the aircraft. Moreover, when Khalid Sheikh Mohammed wanted to get an operative into the United States to conduct attacks following 9/11, he selected U.S. citizen Jose Padilla. Padilla successfully entered the country, and it was only Mohammed’s arrest and interrogation that alerted authorities to Padilla’s mission.
But their operational flexibility in fact predates the 9/11 attack. For example, some of the operatives initially selected for the 9/11 mission were Yemenis and could not obtain visas to the United States. Since Saudis were able to obtain visas much easier, al Qaeda simply shifted gears and decided to use Saudis instead of Yemenis.
Pakistan-based militant groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and Harkat-ul-Jihad e-Islami likewise sought to fool the Danish and Indian security services when they dispatched an American citizen named David Headley from Chicago to conduct pre-operational surveillance in Mumbai and Denmark. Headley, who was named Daood Gilani at his birth, legally changed his name to David Coleman Headley, anglicizing his first name and taking his mother’s maiden name. The name change and his American accent were apparently enough to throw intelligence agencies off his trail — in spite of his very aggressive surveillance activity.
Most recently, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) showed its cunning when it dispatched a Nigerian, Abdulmutallab, in the Christmas Day attack. Although STRATFOR was among the first to see the threat AQAP’s innovative devices posed to aviation security, there is no way we could have forecast that the group would conduct an attack originating out of Nigeria using a Nigerian citizen. A Saudi or Yemeni, certainly; a Somali or American citizen, maybe — but a Nigerian? AQAP’s use of such an operative was a total paradigm shift. (Perhaps this paradigm shift explains in part why U.S. officials chose not to act more aggressively on intelligence they had obtained on Abdulmutallab that could have prevented the attack.) The only reason Nigeria is on the list of 14 countries now is because of the Christmas Day incident, and there is no reason that jihadists couldn’t use a Muslim from Togo, Ghana, or Trinidad and Tobago instead of a Nigerian in their next attack.
Jihadist planners have now heard about the list of 14 countries and, demonstrating their adaptability, will undoubtedly try to use operatives who are not from one of those countries and choose flights that originate from other places as well. They may even follow the lead of Chechen militants and the Islamic State of Iraq by employing female suicide bombers. They will also likely instruct operatives to “lose” their passports so that they can obtain new documents that contain no traces of travel to one of the 14 countries on the list. Jihadists have frequently used this tactic to hide operatives’ travel to training camps in places like Afghanistan and Pakistan.

  Moreover, jihadist groups have no lack of operatives from countries that are not on that list. Jihadists from all over the world have traveled to jihadist training camps, and in addition to the large number of Egyptian, Moroccan and Tunisian jihadists (countries not on the list), there are also Filipinos, Indonesians, Malaysians and, of course, Americans and Europeans. Frankly, there have been far more jihadist plots that have originated in the United Kingdom than there have been plots involving Nigerians, and yet Nigeria is on the list and the United Kingdom is not. Because of this, a British citizen (or an American, for that matter) who has been fighting with al Shabaab in Somalia could board a flight in Nairobi or Cairo and receive less scrutiny than an innocent Nigerian flying from the same airport.

  In an environment where the potential threat is hard to identify, it is doubly important to profile individuals based on their behavior rather than their ethnicity or nationality — what we refer to as focusing on the “how” rather than the “who”. Instead of relying on pat profiles, security personnel should be encouraged to exercise their intelligence, intuition and common sense. A U.S. citizen named Robert who shows up at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi or Amman claiming to have lost his passport may be far more dangerous than some random Pakistani or Yemeni citizen, even though the American does not fit the profile requiring extra security checks.

  The difficulty of creating a reliable and accurate physical profile of a jihadist, and the adaptability and ingenuity of the jihadist planners, means that any attempt at profiling is doomed to fail. In fact, profiling can prove counterproductive to good security by blinding people to real threats. They will dismiss potential malefactors who do not fit the specific profile they have been provided.

Posted via email from Jay’s Blogs

Meir Dagan

 

Meir Dagan is legend. 

This intense miniature bull of a man, a son of Russian survivors of the holocaust, may single-handedly be keeping the Middle East a safer place.  Dagan leads the most effective and mysterious intelligence agency in the world, Israel’s Mossad, which has that reputation because of him.

This weekend, the official Egyptian newspaper, Al-Ahram, wrote an unusual story praising Dagan’s accomplishments.  It is unusual because Israel has historically been “coy” about Dagan’s exploits and because Egypt is not necessarily a friend to Israel.  Al-Ahram calls Dagan “the Mossad Superman.”

Here is a portion of the Al-Ahram article filed by debkafile.com, which indicates how respectful Egypt is of its Israeli opponent, Dagan.

“He is credited with putting its Iran’s nuclear program well behind schedule by several years. 

The paper assigns him a possible role in stirring up opposition unrest in Tehran in the six months since Iran’s dubious presidential election, as well in the Iranian nuclear scientist’s assassination on Jan. 11. Dagan is also described as aiding the international campaign against Tehran by damaging leaks to world media for blackening the Islamic regime, its leaders and its methods. 

In Syria, says al-Ahram, Dagan succeeded in scaling down Syria’s military capabilities, notably by masterminding the destruction in Sept. 2007 of the North Korean plutonium plant under construction at Deir ez-Zor in northern Syria. 

In other words, were it not for Dagan and his audacious exploits, the Middle East might be a different place today with Iran and Syria the unchallenged regional superpowers, says the Egyptian newspaper. 

After various military/government assignments, Meir Dagan, was first appointed Mossad director in 2002 by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. His term of office has been extended twice, by Ehud Olmert and Benjamin Netanyahu, Sharon’s two successors as prime minister. He is 65. 

In 2008, one of Israel’s leading television stations named Meir Dagan its “Man of the Year.” The award was strongly criticized by liberals within the Jewish state as glorifying violence.  In the past, Dagan’s doings have been strictly censored by Israeli government officials. 

The “Man of the Year” award panel that year offered a fascinating glimpse  of  Meir Dagan and Mossad:

Major Gen.Yossi Ben Hanan spoke about how Dagan once killed a terrorist with his own hands, though of course he did not specify how, and reminisced about how they had once traveled together in the Far East. National Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer added: “I recommend that you don’t get too close to him – I suggest your story had best be favorable.”

Later the panel made intimations about his doings in the past year: The killing of senior Hezbollah leader Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus, a few more mysterious and unnecessary killings and, of course, the bombing of the alleged nuclear site in Syria, operations that they said should make Meirke deserving of “at least 10 Israel Prizes.  Indeed, our man of the year is a declared killer. Whether by box-cutter or car bomb, his craft is killing.

As Iran grows ever nearer full nuclear military capability, Egypt’s “hat tip” to Meir Dagan may indicate how Middle Eastern alliances may be shifting.  What consequences Iran may suffer for its nuclear aggressions will surely ripple to its neighbors or allies. 

Middle East news website Al Majlis says the favorable article about Dagan could not have been written in a government newspaper without the permission of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak:

Mubarak clearly wanted to send a message to the countries and organizations that Dagan allegedly undermines.

It’s a reflection of the deepening tension between the Egyptian government and other prominent actors in the Arab world, particularly Hamas, which has clearly frustrated Cairo with its refusal to sign a reconciliation deal with Fatah.

Having an enemy call you a fearsome “superhero” capable of extraordinary acts is most surely a sign of respect in the machismo of Middle East culture.  Chances are, Muslim leaders bent on terrorism do not consider a leader who has a low golf handicap or who bows at the waist to them to be a “superhero” capable of extraordinary acts. 

Because of this fact, it could very well be that America’s safety also depends on the intrepid leader of Israel’s Mossad. 

May Meir Dagan stay strong and safe and live long.  L’ Chaim.

Posted via email from Jay’s Blogs

Posted via email from Jay’s Blogs

‘’Muinuddin Hasan al-Husaini al-Sijzi Chishti was well known for his miracles and asceticism and was endowed with all the merits of perfection. He had high status and was a great healer. He was a Saiyid by true descent. There is no doubt about his genealogy. He wore the cloak of poverty (faqr) and discipleship from Imam al-Awliya Usman Harwani. Through his coming to Hindustan, the way (tariqa) of Islam was estabished there. He destroyed the
darkness of unbelief and ‘shirk’ which had prevailed there since time immemorial through revealing clear reasons and arguments. For this reason Muinuddin is called Nabi-ul-Hind (the prophet of India). For seventy years his ablution was not broken without him washing before prayer. On whomsoever his propitious glance fell, that man was immediately brought to Allah. Whenver a sinner came into his illuminated presence, he immediately repented. (accepted the true faith of Islam). ‘’Each time he finished reading the Quran, a voice came from the unseen world saying, O Muinuddin ! your recitation has been accepted.”

‘’Although it has been stated that Muinuddin could produce any amount of gold through his miracles, it is certain that he had no dearth of money. It is related that in the kitchen of Muinuddin so many meals were cooked every day that all the impoverished people of the whole city could eat their fill. The servant in charge of this used to go every day before the saint for the expenses. He used to stand with his hands joined in respect. Muinuddin used to take a corner of his prayer rug aside and reveal sufficent treaure. He used
to tell the servant to take enough gold from this treasure to cover the kitchen
expenses for that day.”

‘’It is told that once when he went to perform the pilgrimage to the holy tomb of the Prophet Muhammad, one day from the inside of the pure and blessed tomb a cry came : ‘’Send for Muinuddin.’’ When Muinuddin came to the door he stood there and he saw that presence speak to him. ‘’Muinuddin, you are the essence of my faith; but must go to Hindustan. There is a place called Ajmer, to which one of my sons (descendants) went for a holy war, and now he has become a martyr, and the place has passed again into the hands of infidels. By the grace of your footsteps there, once more shall Islam be made
manifest, and the Kafirs be punished by God’s wrath.’’

Accordingly Muinuddin reached Ajmer in Hindustan. There he said :

‘’Praise be to God, May He be exalted, for I have gained possession of the property of my brother. Although, at that time there were many temples of idols around the lake, when the Khwaja saw them, he said : ‘’If God and His Prophet so will, it will not be long before I raze to the ground these idol temples.’’

Then follow many stories of the Khwaja over coming those Hindu deities and teachers who were strongly opposed to his settling down there. Amongst such people was a disgruntled employee of Rai Pithaura (Prithvi Raj Chauhan). The Khwaja recomended his case to Rai Pithaura who turned down the request.

It appears that shorn of miracles the story simply is that the Khwaja came to India determined to eradicate idolatry and paganism and establish Islam in its place. He met a lot of resistance from the local governor of Rai Pithaura and even by Rai Pithaura himself. With the help of the immense treasure at his disposal and having converted many gullible Hindus to his faith, he became strong enough to invite Rai Pithaura to convert to Islam. Having
failed to persuade him the Khwaja went to Ghazni or sent a message inviting Sultan Shihabuddin Ghori to attack India. Shihabuddin made unsuccessful invasions. Rai Pithaura always allowed him to go back unmolested after his defeat. Ultimately, however, he defeated Prithvi Raj Chauhan and killed him. Muinuddin has a unique position as pioneer of Islam in India in spite of strong opposition of the Hindus. This theme appears throughout in the Siyar al-Awliya where Muinuddin is credited with the Islamic conquest of India.

Having settled his opposition and converted Jogi Ajaipal to Islam, Muinuddin moved into the formers temple which was later converted into his Dargah. There is evidence in the Siyar al-Aqtab, to suggest it. Sculpted stones, apparently from a Hindu temple, are incorporated in the Buland Darwaza of Muinuddin’s shrine. Tradition says that inside the cellar is an image of Mahadeva in a temple on which sandal used to be placed every day by a
Brahman. The shrine still employs a Hindu family to prepare the sandal which is now presented on the grave of Muinuddin. At the least, it serves as a useful explanation to his followers of why Muinuddin, elsewhere portrayed as a powerful evangelist (Missionary of Islam), is buried on ground sacred to the Hindus.

The ‘Siyar al-Arifin’ sums up the life work of this prince of saints, the refuge of the poor and a fore runner of Hindu-Muslim unity. ‘’Through his (Muinuddin) coming to Hindustan the ‘way of Islam’ was established here. He destroyed the darkness of unbelief. Because of his coming….the darkness of unbelief in this land was illumined by the light of Islam.’’ Amir Khurd includes two verses which contrast the situation in India before and after Muinuddin’s arrival :
Before, entire India was ignorant of the orders of religion and law.
“All were ignorant of Allah and His Prophet. None had seen the Kaba. None had heard of the greatness of Allah’’ After Muinuddin arrived in India, ‘’Because of his sword, instead of idols and temples, there are Mosques, Mimbars and Mihrabs in the land of unbelief. ‘’In the land where the sayings of the idolaters were heard, there is now the sound of Allah-Akbar.’’

Yet, almost every Prime Minister and President of India has humbled himself at the Mazar of this slaughterer of Hindus and destroyer of their temples. Recently Sushma Swaraj, M. P. disclosed in the Parliament that Mr. Ram Bilas Paswan, Railway Minister who professes to be an atheist has also been to this Mazar to seek its blessings. Is it igorance, blind faith or political exhibitionism? Who can say?

Conversions Galore
The daily average of votaries staying at the Khanqah of Syed Adam Bannuri (d. 1643) as one thousand. They took their meals at the Khanqah. A great throng of men, including hundreds of theological doctors, followed the saint wherever he went. It is stated in Tazkira-i-Adamiya that 10,000 (ten thousand) persons formed his entourage during his visit to Lahore in 1642.

Seeing the phenomenal popularity of Syed Bannuri, Emperor Shah-Jehan became so apprehensive that he thought of a plan to send him out of India. He sent to him a large sum of money and then suggested that as possession of money made the Haj pilgrimage obligatory for a Muslim he should waste no time in proceeding to the Hejaz to discharge the duty. The saint, thereupon, migrated from India.24

Hazrat Mujadid’s celebrated son and spiritual deputy, Khwaja Mohammad Masoom (d. 1668) had as many as 9,00,000 (nine lakhs) disciples who did the Bai-at and repentance at his hand. Of them, 7,000 rose to be his Khalifas. It is recorded about Shah Ghulam Ali in Sir Syed Ahmad Khan’s ‘Asar-ul-Sanadeed’ that ‘’not less than 500 destitute persons used to live in his Khanqah. All of whom were fed and clothed by him.

25‘’Unprecedented scenes of popular enthusiasm were witnessed during the missionary tours of the famous divine and spiritual leader of the 19th century, Syed Ahmad Shaheed, as also during his journey to Calcutta, while on his way to Arabia for the Haj. In many of the towns that fell on Syed Saheb’s route few persons were left who did not offer baiat and repentance at his hand. At Allahabad, Mirzapur, Varanasi, Ghazipur, Azimabad, (Patna) and Calcutta, specially, his disciples must have run into lakhs. The limit was that at Varanasi, the indoor patients of the Sadar Hospital sent to him a petition begging that since they were unable to move out he might condescend to visit them in the hospital so that they could take the baiat. About a thousand persons became his disciples every day during his two months stay at Calcutta. From morning till late at night a stream of men and women would pour in where he was staying. There was hardly any time left for Syed Saheb to attend to his personal needs. When it became impossible to administer the vow to
everyone individually, it was arranged for the aspirants to collect in a large house where Syed Saheb went and initiated them into the fold. Seven or eight turbans were unrolled on the ground when he went there, and the apirants were told to hold them at different places, while one end of them was held by Syed Saheb himself. He then taught them the fundamentals of the faith and read out the oath in a loud voice like Azan which they repeated, and thus, the ritual was completed. This was done seventeen or eighteen times each day.

  Islamization of Kashmir
Kashmir is a typical example of Islamization, both by sword and by the Sufis. Amongst the Sultans who used force to Islamize Kashmir the most notorious is Sikandar-but-Shikan (Iconoclast).” About this Sultan (1389-1431) Kalhan in his “Rajtarangini” says : ‘’The Sultan forgeting all his royal duties took pleasure day and night in destroying idols. He destroyed the idols of Martand, Vishnu, Ishan, Chakravarty and Tripureshwar. Not a forest, a village or a town or a city escaped where the Turushk and his Minister Suha left any temple undestroyed.’’

But the real credit of Islamizing Kashmir goes to the Sufis. Sikandar was a passing phase having lived only 42 years. Conversion by Sufis was a continuous process almost imperceptible which lasted centuries. Sikandar’s conversions were caused by utter terror. Sufis created conditions where Hindus voluntarily came to them and got converted.
Amongst the Sufis who played a major role in converting Hindu Kashmir to Muslim Kashmir, Shaikh Nuruddin popularly known as “Rishi Nur” holds a high place.

Burning Down of Charare Sharif
On the night of 10-11 May, 1995 his mausoleum known as “Charar-e-Sharif” was burnt down by the Muslim terrorists. The Indian press, as usual, described it as ‘’the sacred Dargah of Sufi Saint Nuruddin Nurani’’ (India Today), ‘’Symbol of secularism, a most valuable symbol of cultural identity’’ (Front Line), ‘’Abode of Rishis’’ (The Economic Times), without going into the antecedents of this secular symbol of cultural identity. The communist leader Indrajeet Gupta described him as ‘’the symbol of communal unity.’’ As a
senior communist leader he should have known about the role of these Sufi saints who de-stablished Russia. Bennigsen considered an expert on Soviet Islam says ‘’These Sufi orders are among the most intractable and dangerous adversaries of the Sovet regime because (they) the only authentic anti-Soviet mass organisation movement in the Muslim reforms of U.S.S.R…… nucleus for communal and even national movements in the Muslim regimes.27
‘’In the Caucasus, Sufi orders had organised most of the Muslim resistance to Russian rule, before disappearing after 1928. They turned up after World War-II in a less political form, concentrating their energies on mystical pursuits…..This is the appropriate posture for periods when Islam is recouping its forces for another round against infidels.’’ 28 The final result of Sufi activites was a break up of the U. S. S. R., liberating the Central Asian Muslim States, the revolt spreading from Azarbejan-a Muslim state of U. S. S. R. Shaikh Nuruddin was initated into the order by Ali Hamdani. In order to know Shaikh Nuruddin, it is therefore necessary to know his pir Syed Ali Hamdani.

As the name suggests, Ali Hamdani belonged to Hamdan in west Iran. In order to contribute to the Islamization of infidel India, Syed Ali Hamdani sent one of his disciples Syd Tazuddin to Kashmir to find out the conditions there. Syed Tazuddin was well received by the then Sultan Shahabuddin (1354-73). The Sultan gave him facilities for making his Khanquah at a place 9 miles north-west of Shrinagar. It is now known as Shahabuddin Pura. Having received a favourable report regarding the possibilities of proselytization in Kashmir, Hamdani reached there in 1381 A.D. alongwith a force of seven hundred disciples.
Mir Saiyed Ali Hamdani was imbued with the searing missionary zeal……took the form of temple demolition and the forced conversion of many Kashmiris.

The first conversion that he affected was of the Brahman priest of Kali Mandir Shrinagar. The then Sultan Qutubuddin on persuasion by Hamdani destroyed the temple and allowed Hamdani to build his Khanquah on that site. The seven hundred disciples of Hamdani spread over the whole of Kashmir, constructed their Khanquahs in different places and made them
centres of converting Hindus to Islam. In this work, they were convertly and overtly helped by the Muslim Sultans.

Hamdani lived in Kashmir for 3 years, after which he died on his way to Mecca. Nuruddin belonged to the Silsila of Syed Ali Hamdani. The destruction of temples and building of Khanquahs by Hamdani and his disciples had created some sort of a reaction in the Hindu public against the Sufis. Shaikh Nuruddin, therefore, chalked out a different course. At that time, a Shiv devotee lady of the name of Lal Didi or Lal-Ded was roaming about in Kashmir singing devotional songs. She had earned great fame, love and respect of the Kashmiri people. Shaikh Nuruddin projected himself as a similar mendicant. In Brahmin Kashmir, Rishi was the highest appellation used for Hindu seers who had reached the final stage of communion with God. Nuruddin styled himself and his disciples as Rishis to take advantage of this Hindu psyche. The Rishis of old used to clad themselves in striped tiger skins. This school of Rishis adopted a similar dress made of sriped woollen cloth.

The principal disciples of Nuruddin were Bamuddin, Jainuddin, and Latifuddin. All these three were Brahmins by birth and had been converted to Islam by Shaikh Nuruddin. Brahmins were the natural teachers of the Hindu society and enjoyed great respect. A converted Brahmin was, therefore a very great force on converting his erstwhile Hindu followers to Islam which was projected as a divine faith. The credit of converting Hindu Kashmir to Muslim Kashmir of today is shared equally by Sultans like Sikander-But-Shikan and Sufis like Hamdani and Rishi Nuruddin whose mausoleum was burnt down by the terrorists to embarass the government of secular India and which the government of India promised to restore at a cost of crores of rupees collected as revenue, mainly from the Hindus.

(Concluded)

  Reference
1. S.Athar Abbas Rizvi : A History of Sufism in India Vol.II, p-425.
2. K.S.Lal : The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India, p-120.
3. Ibid., p-119.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. S.Athar Abbas Rizvi Ibid, Vol.I, p-110.
7. Ibid, p-109.
8. Ibid
9. Ibid
10. Ibid
11. Elliot and dowson : History of India by its own Historians Vol. II; p-534.
12. Ibid
13. Ibid
14. S. aTHAR aBBAS rIZVI : iBID, P-314
15. S. aTHAR aBBAS rIZVI : iBID, P-427
16. Ibid, vol.-II, p-426
17. Ibid, p-427
18. Ibid, p-426
19. Ibid
20. K.S.Lal : Ibid, p-202
21. Ibid, p-234
22. Ibid, p-236
23. Ibid, p-237
24. S.Abul Hasan Ali Nadvi : Muslims in India, p-52-53
25. Ibid, p-53
26. Ibid, p-43-54
27. Daniel Pipes : In the Path of God, p-269
28. Ibid.

Posted via email from Jay’s Blogs

Two such graves in Lucknow have recently (post partition) become famous and now attract thousands of Hindu devotees who have contributed most of the money for their expansion and decoration.

Khamman Pir Baba of Lucknow
One of these is known as the Mazar of Khamman Pir Baba at the Charbagh Railway Station, Lucknow. It is awkardly situated between the Railway lines. One day every week, the normal work of the Railways is entirely dislocated. Thousands of people keep crossing the lines to reach it. This man was a companion of Salar Masud and was killed by Hindus in the
battle and buried where he lies today.

Shaheed Quasim Baba of Lucknow
Another grave is that of Shaheed Qasim Baba near Dieklusha, in Lucknow cantonment. He too was a comapnion of Salar Masud Ghazi and was killed at the place where his grave exists today. God knows how many Hindus he and his companion ‘saints’ killed for refusing to accept Islam? The news item in Dainik Jagaran Lucknow dt. 25.7.94 shall therefore always stand a historical monument of Hindu ignorance or political opportunism along with the shrine of Salar Masud at Bahraich, Muinuddin Chisti at Ajmer, Nizamuddin at Delhi
and thousands of others who contributed significantly to the Islamization of India.

According to this report, Mr. Moti Lal Vora, then Governor of U. P., after offering the ceremonial Chadar at the Mazar of the said Shaheed Quasim Baba told the people gathered there that ‘’The noblest message for the benefit of humanity given by Rishis, Munis and Sufi saints is not confined to any country, religious, group or community. Hazrat Shaheed Quasim Baba too, for the liberation of human society, went beyond the narrow boundaries of religion, community, language and territory when he preached love, unity and humanism.’’ His Excellency expressed happiness that the U. P. Chief Minister, Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav had got a road constructed upto the Mazar and provided it with water and electric supply.

  Addressing the same gathering, Mr. Mulayam Singh said that ‘’This 900 years old shrine is worshiped by people belonging to all religions and faiths. This is an excellent example of our Ganga Yamuni composite culture. It is our determination to fulfil the edict of Shaheed Baba to achieve National Integration, communal harmony, mutual love and brotherhood.’’ The
cantonment land near the shrine has been transfered to the shrine.

The photographs and news items regarding similar functions at the Mazar of Muinuddin Chisti at Ajmer, and Nizamuddin Aulia at Delhi where our Presidents, Vice-Presidents and Prime Ministers, in order to prove their secularism and great respect for the Islamic faith, flock to offer ceremonial Chadar and gifts, frequently appear in national news papers.
These cruel fanatics who offered only “death or Quran” to innocent teachers, peasants, women and children, are presented by Hindu dignitaries as Rishies, Munies and Saints, excellent example of National Integration and Communal harmony who promoted Hindu-Muslim brotherhood.

How does one explain this phenomenal-ignorance, political opportunism or chicanery?

  Coming back to Salar Masud Ghazi, when he had entered India, the Hindu rulers had asked him what was the justification for invading a land without any provocation? Masud had replied in words which should remove any doubts regarding the purpose of such unprovoked invasions by Muslims from across the border. He said : ‘’The land belongs to Allah. He gives it to any one of His slaves whom He wants to favour; my ancestors’ belief is this ‘’To convert Kaffirs to Islam is a duty. If they refuse, they should be killed.’’ (11)
When he reached Delhi fresh reinforcements from Ghazni helped him in defeating Mahipal the then ruler. A large number of Hindus and Musims were killed. Masud recruited 5000 to 6000 local mercenaries and crossed the Ganga near Kannauj whose Raja, a vassal of Mahmud Ghaznavi helped him.

Masud, continuing his ‘’Islam or death’’ March reached the holy tank at Satrik in Distt. Barabanki, U. P. where he made his head quarter. From Satrik he sent his commanders in all directions. While bidding them goodbye he said : “We commit you to the care of God. Wherever you go persuade Hindus to accept Islam. If they do, be kind and considerate to them otherwise slay them”.12 Thereafter, they embraced each other and departed on their mission.

The Muslim historian applauds : ‘’What a scene? What a friendship? What a firmness of belief ? For the propagation of the true faith of Islam without caring for their personal aggrandizement or safety, to jump into the sea of Kufr.’’13 Salar Masud was killed in a battle by the Pasi Raja Suhal Dev, and buried in Distt. : Baharich, U. P. where he died. His body was later on dug up and buried perhaps by Muslim Sultan Mohd. Bin-Tughlak in the famous sacred place of Hindu pilgrimage Suraj Kund. The prefix and suffix of Shaheed and
Ghazi attached to his name tell the tale of his life devoted to forcibly converting and killing thousands of Hindus, and ultimately getting killed in this effort.

  Saiyed Athar Abbas Rizvi in his monumental book ‘History of Sufism in India’’ (2 vol.) aptly comments : ‘’To the Hindus who consider him a saint of miraculous powers, the number of their bretheren he killed or Islamized was then, as it is now, meaningless.’’14 They worship him ! And those, who are unable to travel to the tomb at Bahraich, worship at one of the many symbolic graves scattered from Punjab to Eastern Bengal. These symbolic graves represent events of Salar Masud’s life, and are worshipped with fervour equivalent to
that of the one at Bahraich.

  Bale Miyan of Nauchandi, Meerut
Mention may be made here of one such important Mazar namely that of Bale Miyan near the famous Nauchandi temple at Meerut (U. P.) It appears that a fierece battle was fought here when the troops of Masud attacked the temple. The Hindus fought and killed the cmmander and many others. The main grave (perhaps of the commander) has been called the Mazar of Bale Miyan (i.e. Masud), whose real grave is in Bahraich. Small graves near by
appear to be of the Muslim soliders. Recently, the Muslim M.P. of the area has spent Rs. 4 Lakhs of secular public money out of his discretionary grant for development works to construct a hall at the Mazar. The Hindu temple hardly 100 ft. away across the road stands neglected and forlorn because any attempt to add a hall to the. Hindu temple will be against the secular character of the Indian Government.

  Some Sufi orders devoted several years of their lives to the practice of Yoga and ascetic exercises in the wilderness so that the fame of their ability to perform miracles and supernatural feats helped them to convert their Hindu visitors. It is believed that impressed by these stories of actual performance of miracles (and supernatural powers), Hindus became their disciples and ultimately converted to Islam. Not only did they convert many animists, Buddhists and Hindus in India but their activities extended from there to
Sumatra and Jawa, converting their Hindu, Bouddh and tribal population to
Islam.15

  Suhrawardiya, Shaikh Jalalu’d-Din Tabrizi, Makhdum Jahaniyan and his brother, Raju Qattal were some of the very active propagaters of Islam. The sufis trained in the Khanqah of Shaikh Alaud-Daula Simnani, Mir Sayyad Ali Hamadani and his son and sucessor, Mir Muhammad, considered the conversion of Hindus to Islam as one of their main objective.16 The extent of Islamization of Hindu India by these Sufis is indeed astounding. In this brief
essay, we shall mention only a few cases as illustrations of their work.

Badauni claims that Shaikh Dawud of Chati converted fifty to a hundred Hindus each day in Punjab and Sindh. Despite Akbar’s prohibition against forced conversion, Shaikh Dawud’s successor, Shah Abul Maali and Sufis in other Qadriyya Khanqahs never hesitated in using force in their proselytizing mission. Even Mulla Shah converted a large number of Hindus to Islam.17

The Rashidiyya Khanqahas of the Qadiriyyas between Jaunpur and Bihar, in areas sparsely populated by Muslims, were more actively engaged in proselytization. Diwan Abdur Rashid’s disciples and descendants also established Khanqahs through out Bengal. The support given to the Qadiriyya Khanqah of Shaikh Niamatullah Qadiri and his successors by Prince Shah Shuja, and later by Aurangzeb, helped to invigorate their proselytizing activities
resulting in that area becoming Muslim majority area.

Shaikh Jalal of Sylhet and his Turkistani disciples Khwajgan and the Naqshbandiyyas of Central Asia, some of whom would devote a few years of their lives fighting against kafirs before converting them to islam, were all imbeded with missionary fervour. The Sufis of the Shattariyya, Qadiriyya and the Naqshbandiyya orders who began establishing their Khanqahs during the fifteenth century were deeply aware of the proselytizing traditions of their ancestors in Persia and Central Asia, and brought their knowledge to bear
upon Indian conditions in order to gain converts.18

Bengal to Malwa
They established their Khanqahs from Bengal to Malwa and later on their disciples established Khanqahs as far away as Gujarat.(19) There is a similar story of another Sufi Shaikih Jalaulddin Tabrizi. He was living at Lakhnauti in Bengal. There he established a Khanqah and attached many lands and gardens to it. Then he shifted to Devtalla. There a Kafir Hindu or Boddh had erected a large temple and a well. The Shaikh demolsihed the temple and constructed a Takiya (Khanqah) over it. He converted a large number of Kafirs (Hindus and Boddhs). However, the Shaikh’s memory is treasured by Hindus and Muslims alike. Dev Talla came to be known as Tabrizabad and attracts large number of pilgrims.
After consolidating the proselytizing work in Bengal Jalaluddin shifted to Badaun in U. P. There also he converted large number of Hindus to Islam.

The credit of Islamizing East Bengal which later opted for Pakistan goes to Sufi orders.
One Raja Ganesh occupied the throne of Bengal in 1409 A. D. He sought to establish his authority by getting rid of prominent ulema and Sufis who were creating trouble in the Hindu State. Qutbul Alam Shaikh Nurul Huq wrote to Sultan Ibrahim Sharqi to come and save the Muslims of Bengal. IbrahimSharqi responded to the call, and Raja Ganesh, finding himself too weak to face the challenge, appealed to Shaikh Nurul Huq, the very person whom he wanted to get rid of, for help. The latter promised to intercede on his behalf, if
he became a Musalman.

  The helpless Raja was willing but his wife refused to agree. Ultimately a compromise was made by the Raja offering to retire from the world and permitting his son, Jadu to be converted and ascend his throne. On Jadu being converted and enthroned as Jalaluddin Shah, Shaikh Nurul Huq induced Sultan Ibrahim to withdraw his armies (20).

  The converted Raja Jadu, now Jalaluddin Muhammad forcibly converted hosts of Hindus to Islam during his reign of seventeen years (1414-1431). Dr.Wise writes that : ‘’The only condition he offered were : Koran or Death…..Many Hindus fled to Kamrup and the Jungles of Assam, but it is nevertheless probable that more Muhammadans were added to Islam during his reign of seventeen years (1414-31) than in the next three hundred years”.
And Barbosa writes that : ‘’It is obviously an advantage in the sixteenth century Bengal to be a Moor (Mussalman) in as much as the Hindus daily become Moors to gain the favour of their rulers.21 If a Raja of the stature of Ganesh could not face up to the Ulema and the Sufis, smaller Rajas and Zamindars were still worse placed. Petty Rajas and Zamindars were converted to Islam with their wives and children, if they could not pay their revenue or tribute in time. Such practice appears to be common throughout the whole country as instances of it are found from Gujrat to Bengal.22

  Contrary to general belief, in place of being kind to the Hindus as saints should be, the Sufis wished to Hindus to be accorded a second class citizenship if they refused to be converted. Only one instance, that of Shaikh Abdul Quddus Gangohi (Saharanpur U. P.) need be cited because he belonged to the Chishita Silsila considered to be the most to tolerant of all Sufi Groups. He wrote letters to Sultan Sikandar Lodi, Babur and Humayun to reinvigorate the Shariat and reduce the Hindus to payers of land tax and Jiziyah. To Babur he wrote. ‘’Extend utmost patronage and protection to Ulema and mystics (Sufis)…that they should be maintained and subsidized by the state.. No non-Muslim should be given any office…Further more, in conformity with principles of the Shariat, they should be subjected to all types of indignities and humiliations.’’(23)
The list of atrocities commited upon the Hindus for forcing them to convert to Islam, is endless.

  (To be continued)

Posted via email from Jay’s Blogs

Jafar Makki in his letter No. 28, dated 19th December 1421, states that the main aspects of conversion to Islam were fear of death, fear of enslavement of the family, economic incentives (rewards, pension and war booty), the superstitious bigotry of the ancestral faith of the converts and lastly, persuasive preaching.1 In the entire history of Muslim rule in India, we see the play of this process.

Rulers, zamindars and employers, who had the sword, the whip and the wealth, used fear of death, fear of enslavement of the family, economic incentives(rewards, pensions and war booty). The Sufis and Ulema on the other hand, employed persuasive preaching and superstitious bigotry as their instruments of proselytization. Both the processes worked simultaneously, many times giving each other a helping hand.

Islamization of india was the main aim of the invaders, Sultans and Kings and Sufis alike. Hindu soldiers and Rajas, who resisted the process, could be mercilessly trampled upon by elephant or beheaded and their dependents enslaved. Amir Khusrau writes that under Jalaluddin Khilji (1290-96) “Whatever a live Hindu fell into the hands of the victorious king was pounded to bits under the feet of the elephants. The Mussalam captives had their lives spared”.2 It was, however, not possible to behead the entire Hindu population which
stubbornly refused to convert. Therefore, Hindus were given the alternative of living as Zimmies on payment of a tax(Jizia), which normally was an alternative offered to Christians and Jews only. Even so, the Hindus, as Zimmies, became second class citizens in their
own homeland.” “The main object of levying the jizia is the subjection of infidels to
humiliation; and during the process of payment, the Zimmi is seized by the collar and vigorously shaken and pulled about in order to show him his degradation”.

  3“Death awaited them at every corner, because, being idolators they could be given a
choice only between Islam and death.”4 The purpose was to give the Zimmi some time to see the light of Islam in course of time and accept it. Sufis and the Ulema have often resented and be-moaned for this kind of “mild treatment” of the Hindus by Muslim rulers. Amir Khusrau-the “Secular Sufi Saint” much advertised as such by Door Darshan writes: “Happy Hindustan, the splendour of religion, where the law finds perfect honour and
security. The whole country, by means of the sword of our holy warriors, has become
like a forest denuded of its thorns by fire….. Islam is triumphant, idolatory is subdued.

Had not the law granted exemption from death by the payment of poll-tax(Jizya), the
very name of Hindu. root and branch, would have been extinguished.”5In peace time too, the process of enslavement went on un-abated. Hindu peasents, unable to pay heavy taxes, were driven away as slaves and sold to recover the tax. It was not uncommon to see the families weeping and wailing during the march to the slave market. All such slaves sooner or later, became Muslims because they were sold only to Muslim buyers. In North India, Mohd. bin Quasim entered with sword to convert Hindus to Islam in 712 A.D. His acheivement in the way of converting to Islam, is described in books. With his return back, Hindu Sindh soon reverted to its old religion badly shattered, but alive.

Jihad in the Path of Allah
Mohd. Bin Quasim left Sindh, but he had sown the seed of Islam in the fertile land of India. The Muslims who had established their colonies at Debal, Mansura, Multan and Uch etc. flourished. With the rise of Fatimid Shia Caliphate from 909 to 1171, Multan became their dependency.

Mansura,Capital of Sindh also accepted their lordship. Ismailis, who were a sect of Shias, were enthusiastic missionaries who unhesitatingly modified their esortic system to suit their converts. According to 14th and 15th century legends, Ismaili propagandists evolved a belief for Hindu converts that Ali, the husband of Fatima, daughter of Prophet Mohammad, was the 10th incarnation of Vishnu, that Adam was another aspect of Siva and that
Mohammad was in fact Brahma.6 When Sindh came under Muslim control, many Brahmins, holding high government offices, embraced Islam in order to retain their position. A large
number of Buddhists who had acted as fifth columnists against their Hindu rulers and were extremely hostile to Brahmin domination converted to the faith of their conquerors. 7 Muhammad Bin Qasim is believed to have induced several chieftains to accept Islam and for reasons of expediency some responded favourably.8 The Raja of Asifan in the Punjab is said to have converted to islam, after persuasion by some Muslim merchants who as a class had always been enthusiastic proselytizers.9 The Quran was translated in local
language. As a result of these efforts, by 774 A.D., Sindh had some leading Muslim literary figures well known in the Islamic world.10 Meanwhile, Islam had spread and established itself firmly in Transoxiana area. Many Sufis had migrated to that area from Persia, Iraq, Arabia etc.

Sufi literally means a person clad in woolen cloth. They were so-called because they dressed themselves in this way, said to be the way of the Prophet and his companions. In principle, Sufis believed in attaining God bymeditation, fasts and singing. His praises and achieving a state of ecstasy by singing and dancing not unlike the practice of some Hindu saints.

Many scholars find great similarity between these practices of Sufis and the advocacy by some of them of the exercises of breadth control (Pranayam) so highly praised in Hindu Yoga Shastra. They ascribe this similarity to the fact that ancient Hindu thought and ideas on mysticism had continually aroused interest in the Khurasan region, and these naturally fused with the mystical experiences of Muslim Sufis there. However, one thing must be made clear at this juncture. All Sufis are ardent Muslims having absolute faith in the Prophet, his traditions, Quran and Shariah. So, although their form and conduct of recollection (Jap) and meditation (Dhyan) were often different, there was no hostility among them, and they adhered strictly to the basic tenets and frame work of Islam, which
of course held proselytization a very meritorious and pious work.

Mahmud of Ghazni repeatedly invaded India from 1001 to 1025 A.D. During these raids and after, many talented and adventorous Sunni Sufis from the trans-oxania area came to india and settled here. So that by the middle of the century, Sufis had well penetrated upto Punjab and spread their tentacles there and in the adjoining areas. As is common in Hindu India, stories of miraculous powers of these Sufis were spread by gullible Hindus themselves.

Corrupted Hindu religion, after the Mahabharat had taken to sacrificial rituals involving slaughter of large number of animals and self mortification.
This gave rise, as a reaction, to the extremely non-violent religions of Jainism
and Buddhism.

Buddhism, supported and encouraged by powerful Kings, like Ashok, spread peacefully and quickly even beyond the frontiers of india to Tibet, China, Japan, Korea, Afghanistan, Ceylon, Burma and South East Asian countries of Indonesia, Malaya etc. The enormous Royal aid to Boddh Sanghs attracted innumerable indolent young men and women to these Sanghs. As a result, corruption grew. Aadi Shankaracharya and other Hindu saints
challenged these religions in public religious debates. Some powerful Hindu Kings having come to the throne helped. Buddhism, gradually retreated from India, the land of its birth, but Hinduism, due to its absorbent character, accepted the saintly Buddha as one of the incarnations of Vishnu and his principle of Ahinsa and shankar’s Mayawad(illusionism). In this process, it forgot and neglected the agressive and robust national militantism of the
Vedas.

While the spiritual body of Hindus was thus in convulsion, its political body was also ailing. There was no central authority, only small independent states were perpetually at war with each other. In these circumstances, they had no time to gain knowledge of the upto date military strategy, training and arms which had developed outside India.

The weakness of Hindu India in the political field, led to its defeat at the hands of vigorous and seasoned armies of Islam under Mahmood of Ghazni. It was at this critical juncture that Sufism penetrated India un-unoticed.

Hinduism by now, had become victim to all kinds of superstitious bigotry, believing in good and bad spirits, miracles and miraculous power of mendicants, Gurus, Tantriks and Aghoris, a cancer which will end only at its death. The Hindu religious psyche was therefore, quite
ready to believe the fantastic stories of miracles performed by the newly arrived saints (Sufis) from across the frontiers. Consequently they flocked to them in large numbers for amulets, blessings and recommendations. Their conversion to Islam was then only a matter of time. The Sufis thus adopted a much easier path for conversions. Forced conversion involved a lot of blood shed of the Muslim soldiers. It also left behind a lot of bitterness. People so converted lapsed into infidelism as soon as the Muslim power waned as happened in Sindh after Mohd. Bin-Quasim’s departure. The Sufi method achieved conversions in a pleasant and peaceful manner without leaving behind any bitterness and chances of relapse.

Between the sixteenth and the eighteenth century, conversions of Hindus to Islam did occur on a considerable scale, due to the successful proselytizing techniques used by the new Sufic orders which had considerable experience of this kind of work in Persia, Iraq and Central Asia. A large number of conversions that are taking place in India today are also due to the activities of these the Sufis, dead and alive.

Although Sufis were not averse to taking up the sword and participating in Jihad, mostly they called upon the Muslim Sultans for this purpose. They themsleves presented to the gullible and ignorant Hindus a face of devotional singing, dancing, renunciation and penance with which the latter was so familiar and which appeared to him, the signs of divinity in such Sufis.

(To be continued)

Posted via email from Jay’s Blogs

  This book has been written by Purushottam and is published by Hindu Writers’ Forum, New Delhi. This a very interesting book and I m posting excerpts of the book in a series to share with all.

Introduction
It is awfully propagated that Sufism is full of spiritualism and mysticism and could be a very effective means of promoting ‘Hindu-Muslim unity’ and social harmony, while the fact is otherwise.

Sufism-Another Face of Islamic Proselytization
A close examination of the history of Islamic proselytization activities in India proves that Sufism through its missionary activities complemented the conversion of Hindus to Islam. Sufism, on one hand supported the Muslim invaders and Sultans in their political activities
and reckness killings of the Hindus on the other hand, influenced the gullible Hindus through their drama of spiritualism and mysticism.

They did not object to the genocide of the Hindus and enslaving and selling their children and women by the cruel Muslim invaders. Almost all Sufi masters were silent spectators of to the murderous mayhems and reckless plunder of temples and by the marauding
hordes across the subcontinent. They did not object to senseless mass killings of the Hindus and destruction of Hindu temples. Most Sufis came to India either accompanying the invading armies of Islamic marauders or followed them in the wake of sweeping
conquests by the soldiers of Islam. For example : (1) Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti was accompaned to Ajmer in 1233 and (2) Khwaja Qutubuddin to Delhi in 1236 both by Shihabuddeen Ghauri, (3) Shaikh Fariduddin came to Pattan (now in Pakistan) in 1265 and (4) Shaikh Nizammddin Auliya of Dargah Hazarat Nizamuddin came to Delhi in 1335 accompanying a contingent of the Muslim invaders. It may be pointed out here that all Sufis supported Quran and Sharia. the great Sufi master of the eleventh century, Al-Qushairi (1072AD) had unanimously declared that there was no discord between
the aims of the Sufi Haqiqa and the aims of the Shariah.

Similarly the great Sufi saint Al-Hujuri said that ”There is no God save Allah” are the utlimate truth and the words “Muhammad is the apostle of Allah”, are the indisputable law for the Sufis. In brief, the Sufism and Islamic Ulema represent the same two aspects of the Islamic faith which are universally accepted by all the Muslims. Throughout the Muslim rule, all Sufis enjoyed full confidence, royal favour and support of the cruel rulers. According to well-known historian, Dr. K. S. Lal : “Hand in hand with the proselytizing efforts of the 
rulers was the work of Sufis and Maulvis. From the time of Muhammad bin Tughdaq (1326-1351) to that Akbar (1556-1605), Bengal had attracted rebels, refugees, Sufi mashaikh, disgruntled nobles and adventures from North India.

  Professor K. R. Quanungo has noted that the conversion of Bengal was mainly the work of Barah-Auliyas. Prof. Abdul Karim has also referred to militant Sufi proselytization.” (Social
History of Muslims in Bengal, pp. 136-138).

In this context, Dr. I.H. Qureshi writes :
“The fourteenth century was a period of expansion of Muslim authority in Bengal and the adjoing territories. A significant part was played in this process by the warrior saints who were eager to take up the cause of any persecuted community. This often resulted (in clash) with the native authority, followed, almost invariably, by annexation.” (The Muslim Community of the Indo-Pakistan Subcontinent (610-1947), pp. 70-71.
They (Sufis) acted mostly as peaceful missionaries, but if they saw that the espousal of some just cause required military action, they were not averse to fighting. The Sufis did not adopt the Ismaile technique of gradual conversion….. They established their Khanqahs and shrines at places which had already a reputation for sanctity before Islam. In brief, the Sufi Mashaikh converted people by both violent and non-violent means, occupied their places of worship and turned them into Khanqahs and mosques to make Estern Bengal specially a Muslim land.”

“Muslim rulers, soldiers and Sufi Mashaikh left the high and low hardly any choice in the matter. The lower classes of course were more vulnerable…..”In conclusion it may be emphasised that even when historical forces had been divided the country into a number of independent states consequent on the break-up of the Delhi Sultanate, the work of proselytization continued unabated. Small regions could be dealt with in detail and severe Muslim rulers, orthodox-Ulema and Zealous Sufis worked in the effectively.” (Indian Muslims : Who Are They pp. 58-59, 70).

In the following pages, the author Shri Purushottam has explicitly established that Sufis systematically worked hand in hand with the Muslim rulers, their armies and Sunnie and Shia Ulemas in the garb of Sufi spiritualism and mysticism.
I hope this series of articles will help in understanding the true colours of the Sufis’ activities during the last thirteen centuries.
K.V.Paliwal
President
Hindu Writers Forum

Posted via email from Jay’s Blogs