“Lone Wolf” or Jihadi?
14 years ago America sent its military heroes overseas to defend us from Jihad.
Today, local police officers and sheriff’s deputies are being tasked with protecting military personnel and installations here in the United States from Jihad.
This is a profound shift in the nature of the war which is, unfortunately, lost on the vast majority of Americans, including our elected and appointed officials.
The global Jihadist insurgency has clearly become embedded in America and it is likely to get worse before it gets better. And the tip of the spear in this phase of the war is not our military. It’s not even the FBI or the bureaucratized counterterrorism apparatus known as the Department of Homeland Security. The tip of the spear is now state and local law enforcement.
Who took down the Chattanooga shooter? It wasn’t the FBI or the Marine Corps. It was the Chattanooga PD.
Who apprehended the Tsarnaev brothers in Boston? It was the Boston police.
Who defended the Draw Mohammad Cartoon event in Garland, Texas by shooting and killing the two heavily armed Jihadis? A traffic cop.
The war has clearly changed and I’m not at all sure that Americans are prepared to deal with it.
The term “lone wolf” has become popular in US counterterrorism vernacular over the past few years in the wake of the repeated acts of Jihad perpetrated inside the United States.
But as counterterrorism expert John Guandolo points out, the term lone wolf does not exist in Islamic doctrine, but individual jihad does:
Much of the media and even our elected officials seem to take comfort when a Jihadi turns out not to have a formal affiliation with a known terrorist organization.
There is no reason for comfort. In fact, the fact that individuals are carrying out acts of jihad is indicative of a “Revolutionary Jihadist Climate” in at least a segment of the Islamic community here in the US. This is a very dangerous situation. It is much more difficult to anticipate and prevent terrorist acts being carried out by individuals on their own initiative, as opposed to attacks carried out by terrorist cells at the direction of leaders of known organizations.
This revolutionary jihadist climate is borne out by the results of the recent poll conducted by The Polling Company for the Center for Security Policy:
- 29% of the Muslims polled believed that, “It is legitimate to use violence to punish those who give offense to Islam by, for example, portraying the prophet Mohammed.”
- 25% believe that violence against Americans here in the United States can be justified as part of the global jihad.
- 19% of Muslim respondents said that the use of violence in the United States is justified in order to make shariah the law of the land in this country.
One reason we are seeing the types of attacks we are seeing in the West, such as Chattanooga, Garland, Paris, Ottawa and Sydney is because of specific calls from the Islamic State for such attacks.
Below is an excerpt from a communication released by the Islamic State in September of 2014:
You must strike the soldiers, patrons, and troops of the tawāghīt [those who do not rule by that which Allah has revealed]. Strike their police, security, and intelligence members, as well as their treacherous agents. Destroy their beds. Embitter their lives for them and busy them with themselves. If you can kill a disbelieving American or European – especially the spiteful and filthy French – or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war, including the citizens of the countries that entered into a coalition against the Islamic State, then rely upon Allah, and kill him in any manner or way however it may be. Do not ask for anyone’s advice and do not seek anyone’s verdict. Kill the disbeliever whether he is civilian or military, for they have the same ruling. Both of them are disbelievers. Both of them are considered to be waging war (the civilian by belonging to a state waging war against the Muslims). Both of their blood and wealth is legal for you to destroy, for blood does not become illegal or legal to spill by the clothes being worn.
The best thing you can do is to strive to your best and kill any disbeliever, whether he be French, American, or from any of their allies.
If you are not able to find an IED or a bullet, then single out the disbelieving American, Frenchman, or any of their allies. Smash his head with a rock, or slaughter him with a knife, or run him over with your car, or throw him down from a high place, or choke him, or poison him. Do not lack. Do not be contemptible. Let your slogan be, “May I not be saved if the cross worshipper and taghūt (ruler ruling by manmade laws) patron survives.”
If you are unable to do so, then burn his home, car, or business. Or destroy his crops.
If you are unable to do so, then spit in his face. If your self refuses to do so, while your brothers are being bombarded and killed, and while their blood and wealth everywhere is deemed lawful by their enemies, then review your religion.
Unfortunately, individual Muslims are now acting on these types of calls.
It is important to realize, however, that this is not a new phenomenon. Jihadi ideologues have instructed their followers in Jihad as an individual obligation for all Muslims extensively for many years. Here are some examples (after reviewing these quotes, can there be any doubt as to why we are seeing more frequent Jihadi attacks here in the US?):
And ulema [Muslim legal scholars] have throughout history unanimously agreed that the jihad is an individual duty…On that basis, and in compliance with Allah’s order, we issue the following fatwa to all Muslims: The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies—civilians and military—is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it…We, with Allah’s help, call on every Muslim who believes in Allah and wishes to be rewarded to comply with Allah’s order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it.
Osama Bin Laden
Ayman al-Zawahiri, Amir of the Jihad Group, Egypt
Abu-Yasir Rifa’I Ahmad Taha, Egyptian Islamic Group
Mir Hamzah, Jamiat ul Ulema-e-Pakistan
Fazlur Rahman, Jihad Movement in Bangladesh
23 February 1998
Indeed, every person should according to Islam prepare himself/herself for jihad, and every person should eagerly and patiently wait for the day when Allah will call them to show their willingness to sacrifice their lives. We should ask ourselves, is there a quicker way to heaven? Only Islam can save mankind from itself. And jihad on the individual and international scale will be a necessary part of this process of change.
Dr. A.M.A. Fahmy
International Islamic Forum
1949
Jihad is an obligation from Allah on every Muslim and cannot be ignored or evaded.
Hasan al-Banna
Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood
1949
The establishment of an Islamic State is obligatory. If that state cannot be established without war, then that becomes an obligation also. So it is obligatory for every Muslim to seriously strive for the return of the caliphate.
Jihad becomes an individual duty in three situations:
- First, when two armies meet.
- Second, when the infidels descend upon a country.
- Third, when the Imam calls upon people to fight.
Know that when jihad is an individual duty, there is no requirement to ask permission of parents to wage jihad.
The Neglected Obligation
Muhammad Al-Salam Faraj
Leader of Jamaat al-Jihad, Egypt
1981
The Book commands Muslims to wage their war with the spirit of a religious duty and obligation. This Quranic injunction adds new facets and depths to the concept of a total war. It makes a Muslim citizen answerable both to the state and to Allah in the fulfillment of this divine obligation.
The Quranic Concept of War
Brigadier General S.K. Malik, Pakistani Army
1979
There is agreement among scholars that when the enemy enters an Islamic land or a land that was once part of the Islamic lands, it is obligatory on the inhabitants of that place to go forth to face the enemy. But if they sit back, or are incapable, lazy, or insufficient in number, the individual obligation spreads to those around them. Then if they also fall short, it goes to those around them, and so on and so on, until the individually obligatory nature of jihad encompasses the whole world. The individually obligatory nature of jihad remains in effect until the lands are purified from the pollution of the disbelievers.
The obligation of jihad today remains an individual obligation on all until the liberation of the last piece of land that was in the hands of Muslims but has been occupied by the disbelievers.
Join the Caravan
Abdullah Yusuf Azzam
“Father of Global Jihad”
Founding member of Al Qaeda
1987
Individual jihad has recurred throughout Islamic history. In the time of the Crusades…groups of mujahideen responded to the crisis. Many isolated expeditions and groups carried out the obligation of jihad.
Individual jihad using the method of urban or rural guerilla warfare is the foundation for sapping the enemy and bringing him to a state of collapse and withdrawal. It will pave the way for the desired strategic goal.
What mandates these methods as a strategic opinion is the imbalance of forces between the resistance and the large invading alliance of unbelievers, apostates and hypocrites.
We fight them for the sake of incidents to cause political pressure and psychological collapse, so that they leave our lands. Carrying out a small operation every month against the enemy will have more of an impact on him than a big operation every year or two.
Toward a New Strategy in Resisting the Occupier
Muhammad Khalil al-Hakaymah
Al Qaeda Chief of External Operations
Killed by US air strike in Pakistan in 2008
Successful jihad will only happen within an ummah [Islamic nation or community] in which the fighting creed is firmly established and clarified. This must happen in order to attain the “Revolutionary Jihadist Climate” that will spontaneously give rise to instruments of resistance.
Violent jihad is as an individual duty obligatory upon every Muslim. All the ulema have said this…”
The Call to Global Islamic Resistance
Abu Musab al-Suri
Al Qaeda propagandist
Captured in Pakistan 2005
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