Only a “Suspect,” and one more is here

Interviewed at FrontPage Magazine today is Walid Phares, a Lebanese who has lived in the U.S. since 1990 and is now a U.S. citizen and a professor of Middle East Studies at Florida Atlantic University. Phares is rather jargony and takes a long time to say anything. But he finally does make some powerful points. Namely, the jihadists are here, among us, and jihad is going to get a lot worse. But what does he propose doing about that? Experienced VFR readers can guess. Below are excerpts from the interview with my occasional comments.

FP: Expand a bit more for us on what it is that the West does not understand about the threat it faces.

Phares: Today’s Jihadism uses history and theology as roots for their mobilization and action, but the Jihadists have developed plans as of the 1980s and 1990s which have been taking shape in the Middle East and within the West before and after 9/11.

The West was misled by its own elites in reading and understanding the threat. Hence, I argue in my book Future Jihad, that they have at least one decade lead ahead of the West, if not more.

On 9/11, most Americans didn’t understand that they were attacked in a War waged against them as of the 1990s. Since 2001, the Government has been attempting to catch up with the Jihadist penetration of the country, albeit with limited successes. The infiltration of the system is deep and wide for any federal government to address without a full fledge public awareness. And this is where the battle is today: the ability of Americans to understand the threat and to support policies that can win the conflict.

Then he finally says something clear: they’re here, and it’s going to get worse:

The 9/11 design will be topped and bypassed by today’s Jihadi strategic planners. I invite readers and analysts to look hard at the cases of terror arrests within the West, but also in the greater Middle East. Those planning strikes of aggression in the US, Canada, the UK and other countries in Europe, are what we call “home-grown,” but with an ideology which is Jihadi in nature.

Future Jihadism will be native and lethal, if not addressed quickly by the international society in general and America’s leadership in particular. Future terrorists will be citizens, protected by laws, and attempting to create domestic crisis, while the Mohammed Atta and Ziad Jarrah of the world were “aliens” who had been simply successful in infiltrating the security system.

Then this:

FP: What are some of the predictions you made that have come true?

Phares: Let me mention a few:

[1] Penetration of the system: Jihadists will be trying to penetrate the U.S. system: Multiple cases have shown that they have attempted to infiltrate the U.S. military, intelligence and other agencies. In the chapter “Mutant Jihad,” I predicted the rise of the so-called second generation (homegrown) Jihadists in America and the West. The capture of these cells have shown that most members were citizens, born in the country and speaking the language, etc.

[2] That Wahabi funds have been and continue to be used to take the control of Middle East studies in the United States. Emir Talal Bin al Waleed offered 40 million dollars to US universities lately. (Chapter: The Clash of Strategies)

[3] That al Qaeda wanted to crumble the US national security in 2001 and to pull American task forces from the region. It still project to do so: documents captured on terrorists (Abu Musaab As Suri) demonstrated this objective. (Chapter: The Road to 9/11)

[4] Chapter 13 (the scariest) shows what type of Future Jihad is in the making: establishment of urban Jihadi units within each city, etc. The arrests in UK and the US showed that this trend is now happening.

then this:

Hence yes, theoretically a future Jihad can be stopped if we can consolidate the will within the West and provide the resources to Muslim dissidents around the world. These measures can stop the holy wars of the future waged against democracies and free societies. But do we have the energies to implement such a revolution in the War on Terror? I am not sure yet. Citizens in the West who have understood the challenge will rise to the level of decisions needed to win the Jihadi wars of the future. But a failure in public education will lead to a disaster in the coming years. For the Jihadists’ relentlessness has proven itself several times.

Then this:

The public can only be ready for what the government and establishment ready it for. The war with the Jihadists is not a private enterprise, but a state business. Homeland security for example should not be limited to respond to disasters and to find the Jihadi terrorists, just before they trigger the bombs. A sound Homeland Security must begin by educating the public as to the nature of the enemy, its ideology, its strategies and tactics.

But how will education help us?

Phares concludes:

This is how you should prepare the nation to face future Jihadism, not by avoiding a national debate on the real issue under the pretext that Jihadism is some sort of theological matter. Precisely, the enemy wants you to believe that Jihadism (the enemy’s profound nature) is just a matter of academic and theological debate. It would be the equivalent of having the propagandists of the IIIrd Reich convincing the Allies, that Nazism is a cultural issue. The West cannot avoid future Jihad unless it rises to a level of an advanced understanding of the enemy’s ideology and tactics. And unless that new well-prepared international society equips itself with all the necessary tools, including education and outreach to fellow resisters in the East, the clash with future Jihadists is unavoidable and will last longer.

Phares has gone on for 2,000 words talking about a worsening infiltration of America by jihadists and terrorists who he says are certainly going to do much worse things than the 9/11 attack. He says we have to do much more than just stop the terrorists the moment before they strike. And what is it he tells us to do? EDUCATION AND OUTREACH. He’s warning us about a vast and increasing fifth column of jihadists inside America, and he does not say a single word about restricting, ending, or reversing the immigration of Muslims into America.

He’s just another Usual Suspect, blowing it out his ear, getting us all alarmed about a mortal threat to our society, and giving us absolutely NOTHING to do about it.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at March 20, 2007 06:36 PM | Send