The Obama administration says that they were “caught off guard.” John Kerry has repeatedly said that “no one expected” what happened in Iraq. So they got Syria wrong. They got Libya wrong, They got Egypt wrong. They got the Hamas-Fatah unity government wrong. They got Afghanistan wrong. They got Boko Haram wrong.
And it’s safe to say that the Obama administration got it wrong in the homeland, especially when they scrubbed jihad and Islam from counter-terror training material. And Obama’s DoJ refused to prosecute Muslim Brotherhood groups (like CAIR, ISNA, ICNA, MSA, etc.) named as co-conspirators in the largest terrorist funding trial in our nation’s history.
So it’s safe to say that the Obama administration got it wrong importing whole Muslim communities from jihad countries. Importing jihad. Importing hostile invaders.
It's time for a little history of Jimmy Carter's "hard won lessons."
Ever heard of the Wahabi Islamic Religion? I have and remember when I first heard about it in November, 1979. Jimmy Carter was in office and it was day three of the Iranian hostage crisis when all Hell broke loose behind the scenes in another country. It foretold our huge Islamic terror mess we are in today! ...Oh really?
What some call regular mainstream "Moderate Muslims" it's as if that modifier means being anything different than "Radical Muslims." That would be significant if they really would be standing up to protest but instead are just quietly standing by while watching their Radical Muslim brothers do harm and create tumult in general, but read on...
We hear a lot of qualifying statements about “moderate Muslims” when “radical Islam” is mentioned. Now, certainly, one can imagine that the majority of Muslims, are most likely people who just want to get on with their lives and that in western countries in particular, many keep a low profile and just live their lives with a low current of religiosity. Like people everywhere, they are trying to get through the day, and not start a revolution or ignite a war. Even so, some are sympathetic to radical concerns or issues, even if they are not entirely seized with passion for the cause. So, their moderate passive attitudes really just feed the heated passions of radical Islamists which just encourages them even further.
Other Muslims are completely against radicalism, but 'stay on the down low' and don’t make waves. Then, there are the Muslims who become leaders and actually attempt to impress some kind of moderate change on the current situation within Islam. Many of these high-profile moderates or liberal Muslims don’t get as much press as the radicals, but they do exist, and often they live their lives under threat of death from their co-religionists.
So, ever heard about the origins of 'Wahabi Islam' from Saudi Arabia spreading to the rest of the world? Apparently, the Saudi royal family has been exporting Wahabi for some time, over 35 years now, into Europe, Canada and the USA — partially to free themselves from an imminent threat to their own power.
This saga began with the 1979 siege on Mecca and the royal family by Wahabists and a deal actually forged with the royal Saudi Arabian family. I knew about Wahabi, but I certainly have since learned more about its spread worldwide and the influence of so many radical Imams, even in places like the United States. Remember that San Diego, CA Imam, Anwar Al-Awlaki, who was American-born and radicalized as a Muslim cleric that was finally killed by U.S. forces in Yeman with a 2011 targeted drone strike?
In the court of the Great Mosque at Mecca the Kaaba contains the sacred black stone. It is a small 11 x 15 inch fragmented remnant encased in a silver frame in one corner of the Kaaba which is a cube shape block stone structure, about 30 feet in diameter. Muslims believe that the first human being, Adam, originally received the black stone from God and used it as part of an altar for worship.
The goal of the Hajj, the Islamic pilgrimage, in a rite called tawaf, which they perform three times during the hajj, they circumambulate the Kaaba counterclockwise seven times. ...Each time pilgrims pass the black stone they recite a prayer from the Qur’an: 'In the name of God, and God is supreme.' If they can, pilgrims approach the Kaaba and kiss it ...or they make a gesture of kissing the Ka’ba each time if they cannot reach it." It is the compass point, toward Mecca, in which Muslims turn to in praying around the world.
You think the 2013 Oscar's Best Picture Award for Argo about the 1979 Iranian U.S. Hostage Crisis was exciting? Well, they left out a powerfully interesting parallel storyline - read about it below in the book review!
On November 20, 1979, worldwide attention was focused on Tehran, where the Iranian hostage crisis was entering its third week. The same morning—the first of a new Muslim century—hundreds of gunmen stunned the world by seizing Islam’s holiest shrine, the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Armed with rifles that they had smuggled inside coffins, these men came from more than a dozen countries, launching the first operation of global jihad in modern times.
Led by a Saudi preacher named Juhayman al Uteybi, they believed that the Saudi royal family had become a craven servant of American infidels, and sought a return to the glory of uncompromising Islam. With nearly 100,000 worshippers trapped inside the holy compound, Mecca’s bloody siege lasted two weeks, inflaming Muslim rage against the United States and causing hundreds of deaths.
Despite U.S. assistance led by Jimmy Carter, the Saudi royal family proved haplessly incapable of dislodging the occupier, whose ranks included American converts to Islam. In Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini blamed the Great Satan—the United States —for defiling the shrine, prompting mobs to storm and torch American embassies in Pakistan and Libya. The desperate Saudis finally enlisted the help of French commandos led by tough-as-nails Captain Paul Barril, who prepared the final assault and supplied poison gas that knocked out the insurgents.
Though most captured gunmen were quickly beheaded, the Saudi royal family responded to this unprecedented challenge by compromising with the rebels’ supporters among the kingdom’s most senior clerics. The Saudi royal family was helping them nurture and export Juhayman’s violent brand of Islam around the world - "Wahabi Islam."
This dramatic and immensely consequential story was barely covered in the world press in the pre-CNN, pre–Al Jazeera days, as Saudi Arabia imposed an information blackout and kept foreign correspondents away. Yaroslav Trofimov now penetrates this veil of silence, interviewing for the first time scores of direct participants in the siege, including former terrorists, and drawing on hundreds of documents that had been declassified on his request.
Written with the pacing, detail, and suspense of a real-life thriller, The Siege of Mecca reveals how Saudi reaction to the uprising in Mecca set free the forces that produced the attacks of 9/11, and the harrowing circumstances that surround us today.