Sunday’s N.Y. Times had a front-page article titled “Al Qaeda Sees History Fly By.”  This article is so naïve that it makes me want to cancel my subscription.  I suppose the true culprits are the editors who let such an affront to good journalism make it to the Times, let alone its front page.  What this article is referring to, of course, is the idea that all the uprisings across the Arab world are generated by ordinary people who have become fed up with authoritarian rule.  Al Qaeda has not been present in this process.  So far.  And that’s the problem.  What’s naïve is the foolish thought that they won’t be.

Al Qaeda doesn’t initiate uprisings.  It undermines them.  It destroys their good intentions from within, turning them to putrid rot.  One of the books on my website page “Steve’s Bookshelf,” The Al Qaeda Connection, by Paul L. Williams, shows exactly how this is done.  Think about the Russian revolution and the Bolsheviks, the Cuban revolution and the Castro boys, the Venezuelan populists and Chavez—despotic tyrants step in and thwart popular uprisings.  The ubiquitous metaphor “jumping from the frying pan into the fire” too often applies.  World history is filled with good intentions led astray and thwarted by despots and power oligarchies.  Our own American revolution with its many lofty ideals was driven more by greedy businessmen not wanting to share the profits with a tyrannical British monarch.

The problem with the Arab world is even more critical.  The people there share a history common to many Third World groups—they have little experience with democracy.  Democracy in action is chaotic.  When it is at its best there are multiple interest groups trying to be heard, a compromise is brokered, and peace reigns for a blessed few moments in time.  The second step is critical and is fast disappearing even in the U.S. where our democracy is being replaced by an oligarchy led by the ruling elites.  The local movements throughout the Arab world are united in purpose only until the despot is dethroned.  Then chaos will reign and the power vacua must be filled.  Due to lack of experience, the most organized group will often win—and that’s al Qaeda.

I’m not talking about traditional al Qaeda leaders.  People tend to focus on these decaying husks of humanity.  Bin Laden and the other doddering old fools that everyone is after are not the problem.  I’m talking about all the young zealots who have graduated summa cum laude from the madrasas and are ready to lead Arabs to a new Middle Eastern caliphate, or die trying.  From this cesspool of firebrands and hate mongers new despots will emerge, criminally insane people who will make el-Qaddafi seem like a pussycat.  It’s all a process that al Qaeda knows very well—these people are revolutionaries, probably the worst cutthroats (literally) that human history has known—and they will step in to fill the power vacua that the mass exodus of current despots leaves behind.

It’s hard to eradicate pestilence.  We got rid of smallpox.  Polio still hangs on.  Al Qaeda is more like an air-borne and skin contagious Marburg or Ebola.  It must be eradicated.  There are no redeeming qualities to be found in radical jihadist fundamentalism.  But it will infect a young and vibrant political movement the minute it lets down its guard.  Power goes to the organized.  It’s hard to maintain it in the middle of chaos.  Perhaps we can help our Arab brethren do so, but they look upon us and see hypocrites, people who supported the very despots they’re overthrowing.  It always seems Americans are continuously saying, “Practice what we preach, not what we do.”  Maybe the smart ones among our Arab brethren will go their own way, independent from us and al Qaeda.  One can only hope.

The ideology of al Qaeda is clear.  This is not Islam but madness.  Religion is used as an excuse to exploit, to reduce men to dogs, and to raise madmen to power.  Everyone who goes against the official party line that would take us straight back to the Dark Ages of Sharia dominance in the Middle East is fair game to be attacked by the jihadists who have risen to power.  There are no exceptions.

Be afraid, very afraid.  Orwell’s vision of hell may be only a dim and fond memory if al Qaeda makes the in-roads that I’m fearing.  I suggest you read up on Sharia law as interpreted by al Qaeda.  It is a murderous tool in the hands of the religious and fanatical despot.  Even a fascist can’t like it.  I’m sure you won’t either.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011 at 6:46 am and is filed under Fundamentalism, Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.