Judith Bergman: Jihad in Brussels/Turki Al-Dakhil: Islam’s pirates/Maria Dubovikova: Why is Europe an ISIS target

Jihad in Brussels
Judith Bergman/Gatestone Institute/March 24/16

“Islam belongs in Europe…. I am not afraid to say that political Islam should be part of the picture.” — Federica Mogherini, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
The Western narrative represents a complete refusal to examine the doctrines of Islam, out of fear of offending Muslims. This is not a purely European phenomenon. The Obama Administration ordered a cleansing of training materials that Islamic groups deemed offensive.
One crucial aspect of sharia that the West refuses to internalize is the injunction to perform jihad, both violent and non-violent.
“[T]he most important factor is Belgium’s culture of denial… Observers who point to unpleasant truths such as the high incidence of crime among Moroccan youth and violent tendencies in radical Islam are accused of being propagandists of the extreme-right, and are subsequently ignored and ostracized.” — Teun Voten, a Dutch cultural anthropologist who lived in a Muslim area of Brussels between 2005 and 2014.
Federica Mogherini, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said on June 24, 2015, at a conference aptly named “Call to Europe V: Islam in Europe”:
“The idea of a clash between Islam and ‘the West’… has misled our policies and our narratives. Islam holds a place in our Western societies. Islam belongs in Europe…. I am not afraid to say that political Islam should be part of the picture.”
Nine months later, the ignorance, willful blindness and sheer incompetence regarding even the most basic tenets of Islam, which Mogherini betrayed in her statement has reaped yet another lethal result. What she said is fairly representative of the view aired in public by the European political and cultural establishment.
Thirty-one people were killed and around 300 wounded in Brussels on March 22, in the bombings of Brussels airport and Maalbeek metro station, at the heart of the European Union itself. ISIS took responsibility for these latest terrorist attacks
Mogherini, at an official press conference in Jordan, broke down in tears during her comments on the day’s terrorist attacks. But the pain she, as one of the highest-profile representatives of the EU, exhibited on behalf of the many killed and wounded in Europe, is self-inflicted. It is Europe’s immunity to facts that has led directly to the current state of utter chaos in European security matters.
Predictably, ISIS tried to justify the attacks by claiming that Belgium was targeted because it was “a country participating in the international coalition against the Islamic State” — despite Belgium having participated only in a limited bombing campaign in Iraq that ended nine months ago. Clearly, the Iraq campaign had nothing to do with the Brussels attacks, but served as a useful excuse because this kind of reasoning feeds into the dominant narrative in Europe, as expounded by Federica Mogherini.
The current Western narrative represents a persistent and unfaltering refusal to examine the doctrines of Islam, out of fear of offending Muslims. This refusal is not a European phenomenon. The White House ordered a cleansing of training materials that Islamic groups deemed offensive as far back as five years ago. In 2013, the Washington Times also reported that countless experts on Islamic terrorism were banned from speaking to any U.S. government counterterrorism conferences, which include those of the FBI and the CIA. Government agencies were instead ordered to invite Muslim Brotherhood front groups.
Western political and military establishments, as well as media and cultural elites, refuse to examine the political and military doctrines of Islam, and make them a subject of honest intellectual inquiry. When they are facing an enemy that uses these very doctrines as its reason for being, this refusal can only be described as gross malfeasance and reckless endangerment.
The political and cultural elites regularly communicate a deep fear that the fight against terrorism, if taken too far, may compromise the very democratic values and freedoms that this fight is meant to preserve. What they ignore is the irony that, by abdicating the right freely to inquire about — and discuss — the nature of Islam, they have already compromised the most fundamental democratic value: freedom of thought, expressed by freedom of speech.
Political Islam is indeed already very much a part of the picture in Europe, but not quite in the way Mogherini imagined it.
The political and military doctrines of Islam — the political Islam to which Mogherini so casually refers — are codified in Islamic law, sharia, as found in the Quran and the hadiths. Unlike prevailing misconceptions on Islam, these doctrines are not, in mainstream Islam, subject to mitigating interpretations.
The Islamic injunction to perform jihad, both violent and non-violent, seems an aspect of sharia the West refuses to internalize. CIA director John Brennan, in a 2010 speech to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, when he was deputy national security advisor for homeland security, described jihad as,
“a holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam, meaning to purify oneself or one’s community, and there is nothing holy or legitimate or Islamic about murdering innocent men, women, and children.” This is simply not true. As Dr. Majid Rafizadeh writes, the Quran is not open to interpretation:
“The Qur’an has descended, word for word, from the creator Allah, through Muhammad. This is accepted throughout the entirety of the Islamic word… a true Muslim, who represent[s] the real Islam, should be the one who follows and obeys Allah’s words (from the Qur’an) completely. As a result, anyone who ignores some of the rules is not, and cannot be, considered a reflection of Islam, a good Muslim, or even a Muslim.”
Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah Nasr, a scholar of Islamic law and graduate of Egypt’s Al Azhar University, explained in November 2015 why the prestigious institution, which educates mainstream Islamic scholars, refuses to denounce ISIS as un-Islamic:
“The Islamic State is a byproduct of Al Azhar’s programs. So can Al Azhar denounce itself as un-Islamic? Al Azhar says there must be a caliphate and that it is an obligation for the Muslim world. Al Azhar teaches the law of apostasy and killing the apostate. Al Azhar is hostile towards religious minorities, and teaches things like not building churches, etc. Al Azhar upholds the institution of jizya [extracting tribute from religious minorities]. Al Azhar teaches stoning people. So can Al Azhar denounce itself as un-Islamic?”
Yusuf al-Qaradawi is an extremely influential Islamic cleric and jurist. He is the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, president of the European Council for Fatwa and Research, and the host of a popular Al-Jazeera TV program about sharia. Qaradawi has stated that, “the shariah cannot be amended to conform to changing human values and standards. Rather it is the absolute norm to which all human values and conduct must conform.” Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, also an Islamist leader, has repeatedly rejected Western attempts to portray his country as an example of “moderate Islam.” He states that such a concept is “ugly and offensive; there is no moderate Islam. Islam is Islam.”
The jihadists who carry out terrorist attacks in the service of ISIS are merely following the commands in Quran 9:5, “Fight and kill the disbelievers wherever you find them…” and Quran 8:39, “So fight them until there is no more fitna [strife] and all submit to the religion of Allah.”
Of course, not all Muslims adhere to this view of sharia. Many devout Muslims, including Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, have said they wish to reform it.
There is, however, a persistent refusal by many in the West to acknowledge that sharia is the doctrine with which jihadists justify the war they wage on the West. This refusal is a most dangerous form of dishonesty; it has arguably already cost hundreds of lives on both American and European soil.
Unless Islam is radically reformed, and progressive Muslims are supported in a serious way (instead of bypassed in favor of Muslim Brotherhood fronts and other questionable organizations), these kind of terrorist attacks — and worse — could well become even more common throughout the West.
The infantile refusal of many government leaders to face the hard facts about the nature of Islam’s tenets, as opposed to indulging in fanciful utopian fantasies, will not change the plans of jihadists; it will only embolden them.
There is now speculation that the terrorist attacks in Brussels might have been revenge for the arrest of Salah Abdeslam, who was apprehended last week as a suspect in the Paris terrorist attacks of November 13, 2015. This speculation misses the point. This time, the excuse is the arrest of a high-profile terrorist; with the next attack, the excuse will be something else. There is never any shortage of things that “offend” jihadists. The heart of the matter, however, is the criminally negligent way in which European and American officials deal with the fundamental issue of the doctrines of Islam.
In a revealing article published November 21, 2015, Teun Voten, a cultural anthropologist who lived in the Muslim majority Molenbeek district of Brussels between 2005 and 2014, asks himself how Molenbeek became the jihadi base of Europe. His answer:
“…the most important factor is Belgium’s culture of denial. The country’s political debate has been dominated by a complacent progressive elite who firmly believes society can be designed and planned. Observers who point to unpleasant truths such as the high incidence of crime among Moroccan youth and violent tendencies in radical Islam are accused of being propagandists of the extreme-right, and are subsequently ignored and ostracized.
“The debate is paralyzed by a paternalistic discourse in which radical Muslim youths are seen, above all, as victims of social and economic exclusion. They in turn internalize this frame of reference, of course, because it arouses sympathy and frees them from taking responsibility for their actions. The former Socialist mayor Philippe Moureax, who governed Molenbeek from 1992 to 2012 as his private fiefdom, perfected this culture of denial and is to a large extent responsible for the current state of affairs in the neighborhood. “Two journalists had already reported on the presence of radical Islamists in Molenbeek and the danger they posed — and both became victims of character assassination.”
This terror-enabling culture of willful ignorance and denial continues up until today — compounded by the lack of a central and unified security authority in Brussels. The city has 19 mayors, one for each borough assembly — as exemplified by the current mayor of Molenbeek, Françoise Schepmans.
One month prior to the Paris attacks, Schepmans received a list “with the names and addresses of more than 80 people suspected as Islamic militants living in her area,” according to the New York Times. The list was based on information from Belgium’s security apparatus, and included three of the terrorists behind the Paris attacks, including Salah Abdeslam. “What was I supposed to do about them? It is not my job to track possible terrorists,” Mayor Schepmans said. “That is the responsibility of the federal police.”
Federica Mogherini, the EU’s de facto foreign minister (posing at left with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif) said last year, “Islam belongs in Europe…. I am not afraid to say that political Islam should be part of the picture.” Françoise Schepmans (right), mayor of the Molenbeek district of Brussels, received a list with the names and addresses of over 80 suspected Islamic militants living in her area. “What was I supposed to do about them? It is not my job to track possible terrorists,” she said. “That is the responsibility of the federal police.”
This lack of accountability can only exacerbate an already dire situation. Far more damning, according to reports, is that Belgian authorities had accurate advance warnings that terrorists planned to launch attacks at Brussels airport and in the subway — yet they failed to act. This extremely lax approach to security appears to be a widespread problem in the Belgian — and probably European — political and security apparatus.
If there is to be any hope of fighting the terror threats against the West, and actually bringing public life back to a semblance of normality, at an absolute minimum the politics of willful ignorance, political correctness, and denial will have to go.
**Judith Bergman is a writer, columnist, lawyer and political analyst.
© 2016 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Islam’s pirates
Turki Al-Dakhil/Al Arabiya/March 2 4/16
It was a bloody day for Belgium. Explosions left dozens killed and over 140 wounded. Europe went on a state of alert and French President Francois Hollande called for urgent meeting in Paris. This hideous aggression dealt a huge blow to the country. If initial statements made by the Belgian attorney general are to be believed, the number of victims is expected to rise. These attacks in the heart of Belgium were meant to avenge last week’s arrest of Salah Abdeslam, a key suspect in last year’s Paris attacks. For a long time, Belgium has been vulnerable to terror cells operating within the country. The country has been a major base for activities of armed organizations operating across Europe. The cell of Tarek Maaroufi – which assassinated the Afghan military and political leader Ahmad Shah Massoud on September 9, 2001 – was also based in Brussels.
Fundamentalists’ hub
The area of Molenbeek in Belgium has been known to be the fundamentalists’ headquarter from where they have been active in planning assassinations in and outside Europe. The leader of the deadly Paris attacks was Abdulhamid Abaoud, a 27-year-old man of Moroccan descent, who has also operated from Syria.A study by the Economist magazine in 2014 showed that Belgium is the western country to have provided the largest proportion of fighters to Syria and Iraq compared to its population. The study showed that there are 22 extremist Belgians for each 1 million. In Denmark, it is 17 extremists for every million while in France it is 11 extremists for each 1 million. All in all, Belgium, whose population is estimated at 11 million, has 250 extremist fighters in Syria and Iraq. It is frightening to see this bright continent which has enlightened the world with arts, sciences and law, witness such a horrible day as it comes under

Why is Europe an ISIS target?
Maria Dubovikova/Al Arabiya/March 2 4/16
The terrorist attacks that targeted Brussels, the capital of Europe, carry several significant messages. It came right after the arrest of the mastermind of the Paris attacks – carried out on November 13 last year – which suggests that terrorists are proving to be unstoppable no matter how much efforts are made to catch them. For each fighter getting killed or captured, there are two that surface. This also suggests that this group of individuals don’t really need a leader and can carry out acts of terrorism more or less on their own. Terrorists are trying to undermine peace and security in Europe to derail its social development, target the center of the Union and end their liberty. They believe this will impact the future of Europe and dramatically weaken the West. At least that is what these terrorists aspire for. They are also intent on sending a strong message that they have a presence inside these countries and that they are in a position to strike at any time. This message is strengthened by the fact that they have managed to carry out attacks despite very high security measures. For months since the Paris attacks, Belgium has been living under the threat of terrorism. Yet the security agencies have failed and terrorists have managed to spread fear and panic. Responsibility for what has happened must be shared by many players. Those who are behind and responsible for these attacks are not just based in Belgium but have global presence and are also linked to each other.
ISIS propaganda materials always address its target audience. They highlight the “humiliating condition” of Muslims living in other countries. They also emphasize that Muslims have had to flee their homelands as life there had become unbearable due to outside intervention and that imperialistic policies of invading countries have destroyed the Muslim world.
Such messages are available in high quality visually attractive media packages and are delivered by means of colorful ISIS magazines, video messages and other components of ISIS media machine. They find resonance in the minds of the migrants, even those belonging to the second generation. Belgium adopted the most dangerous model of multiculturalism in which newcomers to their land, who had lost their natural surroundings, were not proposed to integrate socially, mentally, or culturally under the pretext of show of respect for their culture. Their minds, in the absence of a foundation of their own culture and without a firm background of their motherland, become susceptible to this propaganda. Brussels and Belgium have mostly been indifferent to what is happening with its Muslim communities. Extremist literature is sold openly in their bookshops. Activities taking place inside mosques and those of the preachers have not been monitored in the manner they should have been or have been entirely neglected. Belgium adopted the most dangerous model of multiculturalism in which newcomers to their land, who had lost their natural surroundings, were not proposed to integrate socially, mentally, or culturally under the pretext of show of respect for their culture. Apparently this respect didn’t include their dignity and equality of all inside the society. This problem is more or less common in other European societies. The West’s inadequate and shortsighted policies have brought the Middle East region to the brink of collapse, leading to conditions that give rise to extremism of all kinds based primarily on the immense hatred toward “non-believers”, as ISIS propaganda labels the West.
Failed policies
By continuing the same policy in the Middle East and trying to fight terrorism using insufficient means the West is aggravating the situation. This is causing migrant influx to Europe, which gets infiltrated by ISIS fighters. The process is perpetuated by the same failed policies on adaptation and assimilation fronts. All these put together make the current refugee problem a truly explosive mixture. In the current circumstances, Russia’s traditional “I told you so” position has a major significance for the Western counterparts. It is true that most of its predictions over the Western policies in the Middle East have come true. However, its own current policy now raises deep concerns and questions and it is time for all the sides to unite the forces to fight the terrorist and extremist threat. Russia could be an important element here taking into account its own experience of tackling terrorism and extremism on its territory.
Uniting forces should not only mean cooperation but also understanding that all lives matter. This approach of the whole world mourning victims of terrorism in the West is unacceptable. The lack of adequate response toward terrorist attacks killing tens and hundreds in the Middle East and the tragedies in Europe leave a feeling that most of the world still considers non-western world as one of another kind where lives are far less valuable than that of the “civilized Europeans”.Such an approach shows deep lack of trust and gives new alibi to extremists and their propagandists. The world should stand strong and united in its fight against extremism and work with the Muslim community on measures to counter the ISIS propaganda. We are all in one boat and if we start to sink nobody will survive.