Allah's Warriors

"The most dangerous madmen are those created by religion, and people whose aim is to disrupt society always know how to make good use of them."

   - Denis Diderot (1713-1784), French philosopher

Andrew Bolt, a columnist for the Australian Sunday Herald Sun, expresses his concern about the adversaries we face in the Middle East and the manner in which those critical of the war view the threat of terrorism. "What a way to lose a war. Two stories this week prove we'd rather shoot our own leaders than admit we have enemies who would, literally, cut our throats."

To his point, he writes about Fawwaz bin Muhammad al-Nashami, one of the terrorists who participated in the recent attacks in Saudi Arabia where 22 people were murdered. Quoting excerpts from a chilling interview of al-Nashami that was posted on the website Sawt al-Jihad (Voice of Jihad), Bolt tells us of the ruthless, cold-blooded murders committed on behalf of Allah:

"Al-Nashami says he and his 'brothers' shot their way into an oil company compound, where, as police confirm, they killed a British worker and tied his body to their car. He says they drove on until 'the infidel's clothing was torn to shreds and he was naked in the street...and everyone watched the infidel being dragged, praise and gratitude be to Allah.'

The terrorists then stormed a second compound, and found an American infidel. 'I shot him in the head, and his head exploded. We entered another office and found one infidel from South Africa, and our brother Hussein slit his throat. We asked Allah to accept (these pious acts) from us, and from him.'

The terrorists then killed guards at the third compound, where al-Nashami says they found Johansson: 'Brother Nimr cut off his head and put it at the gate, so that it would be seen by all...'

They caught other workers and checked their religion. 'We found Filipino Christians. We cut their throats and dedicated them to our brothers the Mujahideen in the Phillippines. We found Hindu engineers and we cut their throats, too, and Allah be praised...We utilised the time for (teaching) the Koran to the Muslims who remained.' All true, say witnesses.

They then found an Italian hiding on the stairs. 'We...decided that he should call al-Jazeera (the Muslim cable network) and talk to his people and send them a warning about the war of Islam and its people...He spoke (to al-Jazeera) for several minutes. I asked the broadcaster, Did you record that? He said, yes, and then the hero Nimr cut (the Italian's) throat.'

These are terrorists of a movement that some commentators say has reasonable grievances we must discuss. In fact, these are terrorists who have even bloodier mayhem in mind for us."

The second story to which Bolt refers is the one about the interim reports released by the 9-11 Commission and the subsequent misinterpretation and misreporting of the Commission's findings by many in our news media:

"In a little-reported passage, they warn: 'Al-Qaida remains extremely interested in conducting chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear attacks.' ...experts believed 'the trend towards attacks intended to cause ever-higher casualties will continue.'

This week's 9/11 commission reports also said Saddam approached al-Qaida at least three times when it was based in Sudan, and again, it seems, when it was in Afghanistan.

The reports for some reason don't discuss other reported links between Iraq and al-Qaida, but cautiously conclude: 'We have no credible evidence that Iraq and al-Qaida co-operated on attacks against the United States.

This is almost word for word what Bush has long said. Yet ABC TV news said this week's reports prove al-Qaida 'had no links with Saddam Hussein, as suggested by the White House,' and ABC's The World Today added: 'One of the Bush administration's central arguments for going to war with Iraq appears to be in tatters.' "

The debate about this has been raging in the blogworld for some time now. Paul on his weblog, Wizbang, goes into a little more detail than Bolt has if you're interested.

The part of this story that really got my attention was the Fawwaz bin Muhammad al-Nashami interview where he was praising Allah as he dragged the body of one of those he'd murdered behind his car. These Islamists, my friends, are in the midst of what is to them, a "holy" war. And anything they do, no matter how ruthless or inhumane, is okay, because it is "God's" (Allah's) will.

I believe they will stop at nothing to inflict as much harm on us as they possibly can. I believe those who crashed into the World Trade Center and murdered 3,000 Americans on September 11 are of the same ilk, the only difference being their choice of weapons. I do not believe they can be negotiated with, for they have a cause. That cause was recently articulated by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian born terrorist who now threatens Iraqi prime minister Allawi's life: "We will carry on our jihad against the Western infidel and the Arab apostate until Islamic rule is back on Earth."

The world is now in a war, a terrible war, and Iraq and Afghanistan are only two fronts in this conflict. Unless all of us wake up and come to grips with this, no matter who our president is, we are going to see more and more death at the hands of these fanatics. Still unconvinced? Just keep watching the evening news, reading your morning paper and listening to your radio. Everyday, it happens again, and al-Nashawi and his friends have no intention of stopping the killing, and won't, until we make martyrs of them.

Update: James Joyner, at his weblog Outside the Beltway, has more on the Iraq - al Qaeda connections.