A Soldier's Perspective

Al Qaeda Calls for…Jihad?!

An image of Zawahiri from the recently released jihad video on Al Jazeera. I think he's testing us with the image of the WTC behind him!

What?! Al Qaeda is calling for jihad?! STOP THE PRESSES, This is important!!

Sensing another opportune time to be legitimate, Al Qaeda is again calling for a world-wide jihad against Israel. In a tape recently released by the terror group, it's #2 moron Ayman Zawanotahero says that Islam must "reign from Spain to Iraq." I think they're even planning a world tour and concert with a theme song of the same name.

"It is a Jihad for the sake of God and will last until (our) religion prevails … from Spain to Iraq," Zawanotahero said. "We will attack everywhere." Spain was controlled by Arab Muslims until they were driven from power at the turn of the 16th century.

I think the key phrase there is "driven", just as they were from everywhere else they show their ugly face. The problem is that they breed all this hatred and disrespect for others AND think they can do something about it. It takes more than a few well-placed bombs to take back what was taken in the first place.

This is a great time for a brief history lesson, which I hope Zawanotahero is paying attention to. You see, Islam wasn't in Spain first. Islam wasn't in Spain until the Arab expansion into Europe in the 7th and 8th centuries from Syria (of all places, though Syria was a great place in Biblical times) and Northern Africa. This initially set the area BACK as huge amounts of technology and learning were lost, trade languished and people returned to local agrarian (farming) communities.

It became a terror in its own right to Christian neighbours with its own "al-jihad fil-bahr" (holy war at sea), raiding shipping and coastal settlements for the purposes of looting and enslavement. Yup, these "holy" fighters stole and enslaved. Only after many centuries of infighting and constant battle, the region started to flourish under Muslim rule.

Muslim Spain was wealthy and sophisticated under Islamic rule. Crops and farming techniques introduced by the Arabs, including new irrigation practices, led to a remarkable expansion of agriculture, which had been in decline since Roman times. The problem was that, unlike many other areas conquered by Muslims (Afghanistan to name one), Arabs weren't able to convert the population to Islam. For about 450 years, the Christians slowly took their land back piece by piece. The Muslim conquerors were relatively few in number and so they tried to maintain good relations with their subjects. Notice that I didn't say "took the land from them". I said "took their land BACK." Zawanotahero must've forgotten this.

AQ is just upset that it no longer has the political clout it once had. The group is no longer a viable, mass destruction organization. This is something that the U.S. and U.K. militaries can be largely thanked for. No other nations have brought AQ to its knees the way we have. They are reduced to using audio and video clips spread throughout the internet and on television to even talk to people. For such an "awe-inspiring" organization, they can't even show their faces without worrying about an American bullet going through their forehead or a bomb decimating their porta-potties.

"The shells and rockets ripping apart Muslim bodies in Gaza and Lebanon are not only Israeli (weapons), but are supplied by all the countries of the crusader coalition. Therefore, every participant in the crime will pay the price," Zawanotahero said.

"We cannot just watch these shells as they burn our brothers in Gaza and Lebanon and stand by idly, humiliated," he added.

Supposedly, this is his tenth message this year. Bin Laden has issued five messages in a particularly active year of messages from the top AQ leadership. And yet, we still own Afghanistan and Iraq!