A Sisters experiences from 1980s Salafi Movement April 3, 2007 70 Comments A sister wrote this prequel and emailed

d it to me. Masha Allah, my original series on the 1990s Salafi movement made it to all corners of the globe and insha Allah will spark some much needed change. However, the sister basically gives a summary of her experiences with the beginnings of the movement in the 1980s: This isnt going to be very eloquent because truth to tell, I am saddened and sickened by the whole subject of salafism/wahabbism. I came across Brother Umar Lees blog a week or so ago and have been hanging out there ever since. Trying to find the logic in many comments, and when I cant, trying to point it out. I should have learned from the past. In truth, it cant be done. I read Br. Umars discourse on The Rise and Fall of the Salafi Dawah in the US. I think he was spot on in his assessments. Br. Umar began with the 1990s, because hes too young to know what US Islamic life was like back in the 80s, pre-salafism as a defined group with a name. But there were groups of brothers exactly like many salafis today, who would help to create, and/or go on to embrace the movement and call it by the name by which it is known today. This isnt a pretty picture, but it is the truth. And in the nearly 25 years since I said my shahada, I am grief-stricken that not much has changed. When I became acquainted with Islam, I was guided to one of the few masjids in town. It was, I guess you could say, the largest congregation and the most ethnically diverse. It was also located in the heart of the universities area, and attracted a variety of Muslims, both immigrant and indigenous, born Muslim and converted, Arab, Asian, African, European and Americanin those days primarily African American. The long and short of it is this: This particular masjid was usually only occupied at prayer time, except for a group of young American, convert men who always seemed to be there. Other members of the congregation were either students or employees, or both. Not this particular group. They were neither. I would come to know most of them as I studied Islam before I said my shahada. And sadly I would come to learn what a blight they were on the Islamic community. They were the source of most of the fitnah and destruction of brotherhood/sisterhood among us. I would first like to say that when one has too much time on his hands, Shaytan uses him as a plaything. Under the guise of Islamic education, this group lounged around the masjid day in and day out. There wore the pre-salafia dress, favoring long white jalabiyahs and turbans instead of the highwaters and kufis preferred nowadays. They went by the name of the Islamic Propagation League. It was their mission to bring Islam to the masses in my city, and correct the aqeedah of those already Muslim. They went out of their way to catch those inquiring about Islamor new shahadashoping to convert them to their own particular brand of Islam. I guess this was one reason for

staying in the masjid all day. If anyone came or called asking about Islam, these brothers were usually the first to pounce on them. They provided dawah on Islam, emphasizing rejection of all things western as tools of the devil. They placed great emphasis on how one was to dress, as western-style clothing was to be abandoned in favor of long robes for the men and full hijab, including niqaab, which they pushed as fard, for the women. There was precious little talk of tawheed, the pillars of Islam, etc. The emphasis was on outward appearances, even down to rejecting your birth name and choosing an Arabic one. They were my second encounter with Muslims. My first was a man I had met at a party at the university, a Nigerian student who patiently answered all my questions about Islam once I discovered he was a Muslim. My only knowledge of Islam in those days what that Allah was an idol in the desert and women were oppressed. Alhamdulilah he set me straight, and guided me to the location of the masjid, and providing me with a number to someone eager to help me whom he described as part Arab, part European. But on my first visit I encountered the Islamic Propagation League, of which this Arab/European kid was a part, and very nearly left Islam before I embraced it. Im not sure what the token white guys qualifications were to have been known around the masjid as someone schooled enough to give dawah. I think he just seemed a bit more acceptable as he was white and a fluent English and Arabic speaker. It came to be known that white convertsand there were many women especiallywere a prized commodity to those slackers who lay in the masjid all day. They tried to snag us at all costs. Somehow they believed the addition of a white feather in their caps would give their group legitimacysomething it was sorely lacking. They often complained that the Arab brothers stole the white women away. I dont know about that, but after listening to dawah lessons from both sides, with the exception of one lecture, I was much more impressed with the Arabs. Why? Because they concentrated on those concepts I mentioned abovetawheed, the five pillars, and cardinal beliefs. They werent about damning the West and telling me I needed to get myself into mandatory niqaab and start calling myself Aisha or something. My first Islamic outfits were sewn by me, long, loose flowing robes and the veils included niqaab. I thought I was doing the right thing. It wasnt until I met other members of the mosque that I learned niqaab was optional. I thought it was pretty and rather exotic-looking, but I was relieved because my family wasnt having any part of my conversion to Islam, especially the clothes. So when I left the house on the way to the masjid, in jeans and a t-shirt, changing into Islamic clothing on the way, I was at least relieved to know that showing my face wasnt a sin. During my studies, I was also made privy to the kind of life-style these pre-salafis were leading. They were all, with the exception of one, married to black women and on the prowl for a second or third wifepreferably a white one. Their families lived on welfare because it was haram to work for the kuffar. The kuffar would not allow you to wear a

turban and jalabayih to work, so you couldnt work for them, as Islamic clothing for men was wajib. It was not haram however to take charity from the kuffar. So these families existed on full welfare, which back in those daysbefore Clintons welfare reformwas a bundle. You could very easily raise a family on cash allotmentswhich by the way increased with the birth of each new child, food stampsagain increased with each new birth, medical care, WIC and free housing or ridiculously low monthly payments via a section 8 housing allowance. Most of these brothers lived better than others who had jibs for a living. They werent getting all that help, and struggled to make ends meet. It was suggested to me that I might like to become the wife of one of these fine brothers. I politely declined, not just because I was uninterested in living on welfare, but because I couldnt get with the polygamy aspect, being that not only was it illegal, but I would have to lie and pretend I wasnt married to my husband. This is how the welfare department in our city came to call the Muslim women on the welfare role the Holy Whores because they were often dressed in all black and niqaab and having children (as far as the state was concerned) out of wedlock. The second and subsequent wives could not be legally married to their spouse, and the government didnt give a damn about or recognize a so-called Islamic marriage. And so the Holy Whores were born and I wasnt eager to join their ranks. My polite refusal was met with scorn. I was refusing a life with a decent Muslim man just because I thought myself above welfare and being known as a whore. Well, truth to tell, I was. I think theres no shame in that. To make a long story short, I accepted Islam during a Friday evening halaqa for the brothers at the masjid. My pre-salafi acquaintances were also in attendance. As was my future husbanda moderate Arab. Once my future husband asked about marrying me, we were sort of doomed. The American slackers had lost another white woman to an Arab mansomething that apparently happened all too often. I guess my marriage to him was the straw that broke the camels back. Because from then on, that group had it in for us. My husband and I became very active in the masjid and in dawah. I was affiliating myself more with the Arab sector than I was the African-American groupmainly because I saw a better Islam and sensible work/study ethic from the Arabs. Because I was white, it often fell to me to meet other white women who were interested in Islam. I would share my own experiences with them while my husband shared the nuts and bolts of Islamic teachings. Im not going to get into the specifics of what happened to us - because that would jeopardize my anonymity - but we were put-down, taunted, accused of heinous things at every turn from a small band of these lazy devils masquerading as righteous Muslims. No matter that the greater Islamic community stood behind usthese pre-salafis were relentless. They would not let up on us in their quest to make our lives a living hell.

After one particularly horrible incident, we decided to leave the city. We couldnt take the pressure any longer. But I kept in touch with many from my first community, including a few AfricanAmerican sisters who knew this group, but were not a part of it. Upon hearing news from home, I was always so glad we had left. It was a constant string of gossip coming my waythis one had taken a third wife and divorced the other two. That one had caused a fight in the masjid between Arabs and blacks and the police had to be called. Another family had been set up in what would eventually morph into a rape charge against a very decent Muslim man and his family who had given shelter to a homeless ex-prostitute sent in as a decoy pretending to be interested in Islam. The list of atrocities committed by these pre-salafis was endless. The funny thing is, in this town there was a totally African-American masjid, but the imam there would have none of their pre-salafi antics or dawah. He had forbidden them the opportunity to take up residence in his masjid. He was a decent, working class man who cared very well for his family. About 20 years later, upon his death, the masjid was taken over by salafis. What was once one of the oldest and most revered AfricanAmerican masjids in the country is now a joke. Over the years, even 20 years lateras self admitted followers of the salafi dawah, some members of the original group, were still making problems. Their wives still gossiping about people who had lived there ages ago, and trying to break up marriages and families of 20 years duration. Good deeds, if done by the persons still hated by the salafis, were turned into very near crimes against Islam. It continues to this day. What happened to the original group? Basically they traded in their jalabiyahs and white turbans for highwaters and kufis. Their beards are down to waists, they reek of jasmine oil and henna, and their women dress like the beloved black crows of the Sunnah. But their hearts seem to be equally black. Most if not all have long since left that city, and formed or joined some infamous large salafi communities on the East Coast. Many got free trips to study Islam abroad and came back throwing around a few Arabic words in fus-hah and calling themselves sheikhs. Their second generation children are leaving the deen and are losing their own children to the dunya. They want no part of this extremist cult. To this day you will find salafis gathered in person or on the internet, still discussing trivia to the point of insanityLike the ruling regarding a particular sheikh who made a mistake in prayer, or the ruling on a particular community member who committed a sin. Hours and hours, days, weeks, months, volumes written on one single errorhow to deal with it, discuss it, benefit from it, distance from it, ostracize the offender, etc, etc, etc. Is this the Islam I envisioned when I took my shahada? No, and Alhamdulilah by the grace of Allah I never got sucked into it.

So the rise and fall of the salafi movement in the USA is a reality. Its probably much worse actually then Brother Umar has indicated. There is a hadith of the Prophet (saw) that saysWhat starts on wrong is wrong. The beginning of the salafi movement in the USA started with groups of men who were not willing to do their Islamic duties to Allah, themselves or their families, preferring instead to laze around the masjid in the name of knowledge. From my viewpoint, none of that has changed. The salafi dawah started on wrong, and will remain so. Unlike Islamno sects, no labels, no bullwhich will flourish and one day glorify hard-working, true believing Muslims, everywhere. Categories: Rise and Fall of Salafi Movement No problems here! February 13, 2007 214 Comments

Denial (d-nl) is a defense mechanism in which a person is faced with a fact that is too painful to accept and rejects it instead, insisting that it is not true despite what may be overwhelming evidence Some brothers have disparaged my rise and fall series as exaggeration, that I am unqualified to speak on this topic (my own experiences?? are THEY more qualified to speak on MY experiences?? Should I ask for a fax from overseas, from someone who has never lived in the US to explain MY experiences to me??) and even one implied that I was lying (the only lie is with those who know these things but prefer to keep it undercover in order to keep this dysfunctional culture alive) This is part of the culture of denial that has taken root in the Muslim community. These people are trying to tell me that I have not seen what I have seen with my own eyes! They are trying to tell me that I have not seen people that I know personally whose lives have been destroyed. They are trying to tell me to fall into their groupthink and thought reform and toe the line and tell me that things are still pristine and that all these social problems that I have seen with my own eyes are a figment of my imagination. They want to tell you that the sisters pawned off to lunatics, the drug addictions, the criminality, the boycotting and all of that was all a figment of my overactive imagination. No problems here! He is only imagining that we have problems! You get that?? I am only imagining that the brothers that get married 10 plus times exist and want to keep this culture in tact to take advantage of it. I am supposed to know that a daiee that gets married and divorced 20 times is a natural thing. Instead of addressing problems, we have to shoot the messenger or trivialize them as not being from the duaat. Im supposed to be a bobbleheaded yes man devoid of personality. The way to take care of a person pointing out problems is public personality execution so that other dissenters will not speak up.

No one is taking pleasure in pointing out problems, but to deny them is damaging! Extremely damaging. It creates an inverted universe where happiness = saddness personality = groupthink living in a bubble=real life Anyone have any idea how frustrating it is for someone to tell you that what you have seen is NOT what you have seen? I am a part of the team and want to help solve problems and destroy this culture of denial and pretentiousness that has formed in the Muslim community, but we cant help dig ourselves out of this hole if we are going to continue to shoot the messenger, deny problems and insist on staying the course Categories: Rise and Fall of Salafi Movement Tagged: salaf, salafee, Salafi Clarification and more thoughts February 5, 2007 25 Comments After completing the ten-part rise and fall of the Salafi Dawah in America series I wanted it to marinate for a while and for readers to be able to voice their opinions on what had been written and their own observations. Before giving further comments, I received numerous emails asking me to clarify the title of these posts. After thinking about it, I should have called these posts The Rise and Fall of the Salafi Movement in the US. Anyone who actually reads my posts should not get the idea as some from all sides of this issue have that I was saying that the dawah itself was inherently false. I was not saying that. The Dawah of Islam is true in all times and all places but it was high-jacked by people (some of whom posted in the response of the last post) that wanted to spread thought reform and injustice for all. This ultimately brought the entire movement down. The mistakes and zealousness of the TROID/SP/QSS elements does not stop truth from being truth for all times. There was no vision on how to deal with social problems other than BLASTING a brother for his faults, making him/her feel like crap and boycotting them. This methodology of blasting and boycotting was a failure and this is what I was referring to along the failure to deal with it and adjust to the post 9/11 world. I hope that this makes things clear. To the brothers that were attacking Ali At-Timimi, you all need to be for real. He never abused sisters like some of those that attacked him. To proceed, masha Allah there was a lot of interesting discussion on the topic by those who were intimately involved in the dawah and those who looked in from the outside. I have been deeply moved by the comments of the sisters, many of whom were deeply hurt and abused by brothers that were supposed to be following the minhaj of the Salaf and that issue, of the dysfunctional marriages within the American-Muslim community in general, and the Salafi community in particular, represents dirty laundry that needs to be aired. Some have come to me and said that maybe these issues dont need to be discussed in such a public format while recognizing that these problems exist. Others are still in denial. It is my assertion that if these issues are not discussed here they will not be

discussed anywhere and people will be left to cry to themselves at night and think that they are all alone. This and other forums will, Insha Allah, be a means to improve this situation instead of continuing to ignore it. There is a loneliness to being a Muslim in America, and there is a depression that permeates those that follow the Sunnah that Muhammad Al Shareef attributes to the fact that we are living a dual existence as Muslims in behaving and speaking one way around Muslims, another way around our coworkers and fellow students (and to add my own view possibly even a third way around our families). Marriage If we cannot talk about these problems for fear of other people witnessing the conversation then the problems will often go unattended to. Marriage is an issue that came to think about after reading the comments. I have known for some time that there were speakers in Salafi circles who had been married and divorced 20 times and that it was very common for brothers to be married 10 or 15 times. Just as these brothers did in the streets before they were Muslims, they left a trail of children that they are not taking care of and abandoned women behind as they talked the talk but didnt walk the walk. In the comments to the series we have heard the pain of these sisters who were sincere in the deen, devout in their practice, and had a love of the Sunnah; but were abused by a community that did not take the interests of sisters to heart. Many of these abused sisters have left the deen, and may Allah guide them back to the Haqq, and many, masha Allah, have remained in the deen. One sister commented that problems began when marriage became a joke and can anyone argue that did not occur when you had speakers who would come in town for lectures and marry a sister they met that night and consummate the marriage only to never see the sister again? Does anyone believe that the young Muslim children from such relationships do not have a positive Muslim male role-model in their lives? If they are not getting it from their fathers they are surely not getting it from the public schools they probably go to or their non-Muslim grandparents. The next time they will get attention from Muslim men will be when they girls are being chastised for wearing revealing clothes as teenagers and the boys are out on the streets. If the community is going to go into a positive direction then it is going to have to address the problem of marriage and family in the community. It must no longer be acceptable for brothers and elders in the community to prey on sisters. We must also recognize that those of us who are converts, and come from dysfunctional homes and backgrounds of poverty, more than likely have never seen a functional marriage up-close and that we will need classes and counseling on this issue. People will say this is not from the Sunnah, and will say what counseling did the Sahabah get, and that is all good, but the fact of the matter is that game has entered the community in the form of brothers that have been raised to believe skills in the art of deception are a virtue and that Islam is just another thing to game and play with and

therefore it is more important to look and talk like a believer then actually behave and believe like one. Can anyone be surprised that a brother from a broken-home, who barely knows has father, watched his mother get beaten by multiple boyfriends, and has two or three babymammas enters Islam and gets divorced ten times and has a few Muslim kids he isnt taking care of? Is sitting around and loitering in Yemen for a few months supposed to stop this behavior? Or can he just listen to some CDs or lectures while driving around checking out girls wearing tight-jeans and saying subhannallahu akh, Id like to get that in hijab and that will teach him how to be a good husband? Then again, maybe he can go and listen to a lecture in person from one of the lecturers who is skilled in the art of hit and run Muslim marriages. If the community is going to go into a positive direction then it is going to have to address the problem of marriage and family in the community. It must no longer be acceptable for brothers and elders in the community to prey on sisters. We must also recognize that those of us who are converts, and come from dysfunctional homes and backgrounds of poverty, more than likely have never seen a functional marriage up-close and that we will need classes and counseling on this issue. This IS something of benefit! What these brothers need are classes and time to develop and they dont need to be rushed into marriage by the community and need to be taught that contrary to what they heard on the streets it is possible for a man to go without sex for a little while and this is what separates us from the animal kingdom. When we enter the deen we need to be reprogrammed, and this goes for those who came from educated backgrounds as well, just as what is in the streets is false, what you have learned at college in many of your classes and the media represents another falsehood. The sisters are not perfect, far from it, and just as the brothers learned the wrong things coming up so did the sisters, and thus has made many of them less than desirable. However, they have clearly taken the brunt of the beating amongst the community and whatever problems they have I am sure sisters can address. The Future of the Dawah Several months after I had taken shahadah I was with the Jamaat-Tabligh in Chicago and a brother from New York told me since you are now a Muslim it is a must that choose a madhab and I had never heard the word madhab and asked him what it meant and he gave me a brief explanation and told me of the 4 different schools of thought. Without knowing anything I looked at him and said I want to follow the madhab of the Prophet and the same one as the Sahabah. I couldnt understand how it could be mandatory for a Muslim to follow a madhab when they came about after the Prophet (s.a.s.). Allah blessed me with that understanding at a primitive stage in the deen and it was reinforced over the years by teachers of mine such as Sheikh Abdul-Rahman Basheer, Sheikh Ali alTimimi and Abu Muslimah. Today I still hold true to that, and seek to follow the dawah of Ibn Taymiyyah.

Unlike any other group in the ummah that has a beginning and a founder after the Prophet Muhammad (sas) the founder of this dawah is the Messenger of Allah (s.a.s.) and in following the dawah of the Salaf we are seeking to go back to the root and remove man made traditions, cultural baggage, and superstitions to call to and strive for what is pure. Because of the fact seek to go back to the root, and not let the teachings and traditions of men supercede what the earliest generations were upon, we are strangers in this world. Despite what problems may exist within the community, and what we had to go through as highlighted in this series, it is that desire for purity in religion that I still strive for and I know many of you do as well. The enemies of the Salafi Dawah, and the callers to the ways of culture and tradition and modernism and any other ism that is at odds with the Sunnah, should not delight, this deen, as taught by the Messenger of Allah (sas) has been preserved until the Day of Judgment when all else shall vanish. Categories: Rise and Fall of Salafi Movement Tagged: salaf, salafee, Salafi The rise and fall of the salafi dawah in the US (Final, Comments Open) January 31, 2007 498 Comments Previously: Part One: The Beginning Part Two: The Competition for Converts Part Three: The Brotherhood Part Four: E.O. and its satellites Part Five: Northern Virginia/DC area Part Six: The Decline Part Seven: Boycotting and Excommunication Part Eight: Social Breakdown Part Nine: Post 9/11 COMMENTS ARE NOW OPEN

Final Thoughts When IANA and other such organizations dissolved after 9/11, the remaining reasonable and moderate American brothers had no place to go and for all purposes especially with all the fitnah of brothers being arrested and basically went into hiding and are quietly going on with their lives observing the social anarchy from afar. I have found brothers that were formerly active in the salafi movement brothers that at the time had big untrimmed beards and exclusively wore thobes with small trimmed beards, a suit and tie on and wanting nothing to do with the movement. Some were even very anti-salafi.

It also did not help matters when some groups that were opposed to the salafi movement as a whole took the opportunity to scapegoat them after 9/11.

As to the TROID side, they continued to shrink in influence, and have become sort of a punch line. They are the ones associated with salafiyah when other Muslims think of salafis. Mention the word Salafi to a Muslim what often comes to mind is a criminal who marries several times. They thought it to be unbeneficial to address social issues and those very issues ate away at them like acid. They thought it better to leave these issues but it never left them.

TROID began to lose influence as the tabloid style emails ceased and they ran out of people to character assassinate. Plus people just got tired. They cant put together any conferences outside of Philly and Newark, where even in those places they are also waning in influence. There is no real solid movement in place. Even if one visits a lot of the old salafi websites, one will find that they havent been updated in months or sometimes, years. This has contributed to the end of the cut and paste era. And Salafis are almost nowhere to be found in the post 9/11 intellectual debate.

As to the remnants of the IANA side of things, some have retooled, run away from the old salafi movement, and have an entirely different focus. These groups do not

concentrate on converts anymore and disown the title salafi for themselves because they do not want to be associated with the legacy of TROID for good reason.

Texas Dawah and the Al Maghrib Institute are two examples of such organizations that are pretty balanced and have run away from the salafi label like the plague. I hear that Texas Dawah puts on a pretty good program, but they along with Al Maghrib target the college aged (18-25) middle class, children of immigrants. We converts are largely an afterthought in their programs. Converts are welcome to come, but they are not considered in the programs. Some converts that have been around this crowd have even gotten the feeling that they are a pet convert and shy away.

Texas Dawah for example had over 3,000 attendees at their last conference, but I would be surprised if even 1% of that number were converts. Again, this is not to say that they reject converts, but it is clear that they dont speak to our issues in their conferences. This is in contrast to the old days when you had large numbers of converts at the old salafi conferences. A crowd of 3,000 would have close to 1,000 converts and several speakers that were themselves converts. Gatherings in East Orange could draw 2,000 people in which 95% were converts. That is just not the case now. No one considers us anymore.

I attended an Al Maghrib class in New Jersey and immediately felt out of place as a convert, because I knew that this program though very good for its audience was not for people like me. The crowd was overwhelmingly first or second generation immigrants and middle to upper class young individuals that were either in college or just graduated. Again, nothing wrong with that, but we are left in the cold. Double weekend classes or a once a year conference does not compare to an everyday movement that was a way of life.

I spoke to Muhammad Al Shareef, and I could tell that he just couldnt relate with a person like me. This is not a criticism of him, as I enjoyed his class in an abstract way but I could tell that there was not only a convert/non-convert divide, but a class and social divide. The problems of people like me are not even conceptualized much less thought about, thus many are still in the streets with no place to go. (Another issue is that you cant rule out the barrier that the fees for the Al Maghrib)

This is why I feel that these new organizations are too limited in their scope to be anywhere near the old days. They are concentrating on the second generation youth nothing wrong with that but there are many others out there.

There is little to no talk of community building, raising children, dealing with nonMuslim family and non-Muslim in-laws, cleaning up and reviving neighborhoods, or things of that sort that are of importance to converts. The converts are left with a choice of being left in the cold to observe from the outside as forgetten about relics from a past era or to assimilate completely into the immigrant world and resolve to leave their American identity behind.

If organizations such as Texas Dawah or Almaghrib ever decide that they want to deal with converts, then they will have to take on social problems in order to be affective and not declare them to be of no benefit

At one time, things were great, and seemed to be on the move. Then things fell apart as the over zealous element was never put into check and ultimately destroyed everything. There are still brothers floating around that seem to think that it is still 1996, but they are isolated. I feel sorry for brothers like this when I see them, because usually they were not around during the good times and do not know that what they are doing is a dead end, especially without the social support that was around in the 90s.

As it stands, the movement is a shell of what is used to be. The Islamic Center of America in East Orange seems abandoned compared to how it used to be. In the DC area, there is no fervor amongst the handful of Salafis that are remaining. There are some who remember those days, go to the masjid and pray and do good deeds and in their homes still enjoy the knowledge. Jamatul Al Qawee was taken over by the TROID element and is barely functional via a handful of isolated, triumphalist brothers. There are a few remnants at the Dar as Salaam masjid in Maryland, who have also run away from the salafi movement. Everything else is a faded memory.

Across the country, the salafi masjids folded one by one, until they are nothing more than a handful of sad isolated brothers in a few cities that even now do not realize that the world has moved on without them. They are in for a rude awakening.

The brothers and sisters across the country are left alone left to pick up the devastating pieces and try to carry on their lives left to try to fill the huge void in their chests. left try to live instead of simply exist left to wait to wander with no place to go.

Isolationism was such a big mistake and that is why I am opposed to it. Even though I look upon those days with fondness I am left feeling very cynical, jaded and scarred.

Comments are now open Categories: Rise and Fall of Salafi Movement Tagged: salaf, salafee, Salafi

The Salafi Threat

By Aniruddha Bahal "So after the truth, what else can there be, save error?" [Quran 10:32]----abridged from the book: The 'Wahhabi' Myth "The 9-11 tragedy was perpetrated by al Qaida, the vanguard of a violent Muslim revivalist social movement, which I call the Global Salafi Jihad. The movement has its roots in Egypt. It is the violent culmination of Muslims' attempts to come to terms with their fallen glory. Western cultural, social and technical achievements have eclipsed past Muslim grandeur and now challenge core Islamic beliefs. Over the past three centuries, revivalist Islamic movements have tried to answer this challenge. One of their answers is to return to pure and authentic Islam, as practiced by the Prophet and his companions. To them, "Islam is the answer" and only a recreation of the practices of the devout ancestors, salaf in Arabic, will bring glory and prominence back to Muslims. Salafists advocate a strict interpretation of the Quran and they view with skepticism any later innovation, for it might be a heretical corruption of the original message."--------Marc Sageman author of Understanding Terror Networks and adjunct professor of psychology at Penn's Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict testifying to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.

Since the Russian withdrawal from Afghanistan there has been a gradual growth of the Salafists around the globe. They are everywhere enthralling the masses with strains of Islam that are a tempting alternative to the dismal picture of development in their societies. They promise correcting the current bafflement of the people by taking a route to an ancient form of Islam practiced by the Prophet and the first two generations succeeding him. The Salafis hold the view that the further we move from the time of Prophet Mohammed the more impure Islam has become due to the clever innovations in religious matters. The Salafis reject all schools of law, going a step ahead of even the hardline Wahabbis (who follow the Hanbali school of law).

The Salafis diffuse the landscape in a wide arc from Europe to Algeria to Indonesia preaching hatred for the west, specially the US, and giving calls for arms besides attracting the ire of government forces even in the Islamic states. A few examples:

* Hamed al-Ali, a Salafist preacher in Kuwait calls Osama Bin Laden's recent tape telecast just before the US election as a timely reminder of the choice Muslims face. Says he, "Just as Mr Bush says that people must be for or against his war on terror, Muslims must be for the jihad or for the "Zionist-crusader enemies of Islam."

* Algerian security sources mounted an air and ground military operation against a stronghold of the Salafist Brigade for Combat and Call in the Babour mountains in eastern Algeria. The sources said the mountain stronghold contains the Salafist leadership. The Algerian military has been pounding Salafist positions since Sept. 12. So far, more than 180 Islamic insurgents have been reported killed in the Satif province in the largest Algerian counter-insurgency operation ever.

* Salafi-Jihadists recently posted a recording by the Islamist Arab fighter Abu-Omar Al-Seif on the Chechen website www.qoqaz.com. Abu-Omar Al-Seif calls for help from Muslims to the Mujahideen in Chechnya in preparation for battle against the Russians following the election of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The message also advised Islamists in Saudi Arabia to direct attacks at American troops in Iraq rather than clashing with the Saudi regime.

* Dyab Abou Jahjah , the Salafi leader of the Dutch-Belgian Arab European League (AEL) has come out in support of killing Dutch troops serving in Iraq. In an interview with Flemish newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws, he says: "I consider every death of an American, British or Dutch soldier as a victory." There are currently 1,376 Dutch soldiers

serving on peacekeeping duties in southern Iraq and two have been killed since the mission started in the summer of 2003. The troops are scheduled to return home in March 2005.

*A new radical Islamic organization called the Jam'iya al-Salafiya al-Mujahida has recently joined the opposition forces active against American forces in Iraq. It has many points in common with the Al-Qaeda headed by Bin Laden. It rejects any and every ideology not based on Islam including democratic parties, nationalist parties (Ahzab Wataniya) including Arab nationalists (Qawmiya), communists, Baathists, and socialists. All are viewed as "deviations from Islam". Al-Salafiya also opposes any Islamic parties that cooperate with regimes that are based on the infidel "religion" of democracy, and considers participation in parliamentary elections as forbidden.

The above is just a sprinkling. In fact, the Salafi movement's initial indignation was directed against the Islamic regimes themselves for being insufficiently Islamic. Lead by the Egyptian Salafists, Qutb and Faraj their fury is against some Muslim states for refusing to impose Sharia, the strict Quranic law and true Islamic way of life. The leaders of these states, according to the Salafis, deserve death and their regimes deserve a violent overthrow because their repressive nature obstructs the Salafi way. The main

concern is to reinstate Islam at home, the "close foe," before defeating the "distant opponent," US-Israel. Subsequently, as this strategy became somewhat controversial as it meant taking on "Muslim Brothers" it evolved into another, the foremost exponent of which became Osma Bin-Laden. Says Sageman: "First proclaimed by Osama bin Laden in his 1996 fatwa.It reverses the previous strategy. Now the priority is fighting the "far enemy," the West and specifically the U.S. and Israel, before turning against the "near enemy," which survive only because of Western support. This strategy has evolved from ending the U.S.'s "occupation" of the Holy Land to engaging it anywhere, as best articulated by Ayman al Zawahiri . The goal is to establish a Muslim state, reinstate the fallen Caliphate and regain its lost glory. As the United States would never allow this to happen, the global jihad must defeat this country."

The Global Salafist ideology, of course, incubated in the conservative Saudi Arabian atmosphere and piggy-backed abroad on Saudi oil money, which no government institution was monitoring. Says Dr. Anthony Cordesman, military analyst for ABC and a Professor of National Security Studies at Georgetown, quotes a US diplomat in a report (Saudi Arabia: Opposition, Islamic Extremism, And Terrorism paper) in GulfWire, "The rulers of Saudi Arabia today do not face major political challenges from domestic progressives, human rights

advocates, or democratic reformersnor from the local versions of socialists, Marxists, ethnic or liberal political groupings that inhabit other Arab landscapes. Saudi ruling challenges come, instead, from an Islamic environment that the rulers themselves have created, shaped, and maintained. It is a remarkable Saudi phenomenon that a regime unrivalled across the Islamic world in its conservatism presides over a body politic that for the most part is even more conservative."

A study conducted by Sageman on 130 members of the Global Salafi Jihad is more instructive. Says Sageman: "They are a heterogeneous group. Three large patterns emerged: about 60% come from core Arab countries, mostly Saudi Arabia and Egypt; 30% from Maghreb Arab countries and 10% from Indonesia. In terms of socio-economic status, two thirds came from solid upper or middle class backgrounds. Most of the rest came from the "excluded" Maghreb immigrants, or second generation in France, as well as Western Christian converts. They came from caring intact families. The Indonesians were uniformly religious as children, 60% of the Core Arab children were, but almost none of the Maghreb Arab children. As a group, the terrorists were relatively well educated with over 60% having some college education. Only the Indonesian group was almost exclusively educated in religious schools. Most had good occupational training and only a quarter were considered

unskilled with few prospects before them. Three quarters were married and the majority had children. I detected no mental illness in this group or any common psychological predisposition for terror."

But, interestingly, a common mindset in the Salafi brigade is an anti-Shia feeling most recently illustrated by the exchange of prisoners between Israel and the Hezbollah on January 29, 2004. The consequent triumphant imagery of Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah, created much resentment in parts of the Arab world, particularly in West Bank and Gaza. The sternest vocal attacks against Hezbollah's deal, however, emanated amidst Saudi Jihadi-SALAFI elements. The Lebanese Shiite group has never been popular among the Salafi preachers of Global Jihad, given their fundamental hatred towards Shiaism.

The current conflict of interests in Iraq between the Shia majority and the Sunni minority has provided an extra edge to the enmity. Since the establishment of the Coalition Provisional Authority and the installation of the Allawi government in Iraq, Salafi web sites and forums on the Internet have stepped up their attacks against the Shias. There are also severe criticisms of Iran on their websites alongwith growing attempts by Saudi Salafi scholars and laymen to link the Shiites to Jews, both in history, and in present times.

It should be recalled that in the last two decades, with the flowering of extreme strains of Islam there emerged an unhealthy competition between Iran and Saudi Arabia as to which state was `more' Islamic. The beef between the Salafis and the Shias also colors the Salafi leadership as personified by groups headed by Zarqawi and Bin Laden.While both men follow the strict code of Salafi Islam, which considers Shias as the spoilers, Bin Laden prides himself on being a figure above the `fray' so to speak and has made strategic alliances with Shia groups, meeting several times with Shia militants. Zarqawi, by contrast, favours butchering Shias, calling them "the most evil of mankind . . . the lurking snake, the crafty and malicious scorpion, the spying enemy, and the penetrating venom". Zarqawi's terror group is, in fact, the prime suspect for the multiple bombings near the Shia religious shrine in Karbala and also in Baghdad which killed 143 worshippers in March, 2004.

Adds Gilles Kepel, author of The War for Muslim Minds: Islam and the West, about Zarqawi: "The pamphlets of Abu Musab alZarqawi, now circulating in Iraq, similarly view the Ottoman failure to capture Vienna in the siege of 1683 as a crucial setback in the Muslim effort to Islamicise Europe one they attribute to contemporaneous Shi'a betrayal of the Ottomans in Iraq. For such people, the reconquest of

Europe is the completion of a centurieslong task."

But it's not as if all is lost. There are many positives. The strongest, according to some, coming from the very fact that in a strict religious interpretation religious Salafism itself might be the biggest bulwark against terrorism.

According to a recent report issued by the International Crisis Group (ICG) titled "Why Salafism and Terrorsim mostly do not mix", the strictest Salafis in Indonesia are religious and not political activists. The report lists several Indonesian Salafi organizations like the at-Turath network, the Indonesian Council of Islam Propagation, the Institute for Islamic Sciences and Arabic etc

It also goes onto say that for genuine Salafis it is not allowable to organize a rebellion against a Muslim state, no matter how dictatorial or unjust it may be. It's because of this that the traditional Salafis are opposed to the so called Salafi movements like the Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) and the Darul Islam movement because they split Muslim societies by promoting rebellion against the Indonesian state. They also deflect attention from the actual study of the faith besides indulging in innovative practices like oath-taking to a leader (a practice indulged in by Osama Bin Laden as well) which is considered

un-Salafi.

The ICG report says that whereas people like Muklas, one of the Bali bombers, claim to be salafi they don't belong to a broad based movement and therefore don't pose the same security risk as they are sometimes said to be.

The ICG goes on to argue: "Pure Salafis are a more potent barrier against jihadis like the JI than pluralist or moderate muslims. If Salafi jihadis believe they are making bombs to destroy the enemies of Islam, strict Salafis may have more success in convincing them, using the same texts, that their interpretation is wrong."

A common trait in all these pseudo-Salafis, to use a much aligned Indian adjective, is to be strict and partial in their interpretation of the Koranpicking quotations which suit them or of which a sufficient ambiguity can be created to gain advantage from.

Even the Salafi-Jihadist ideology of Abu-Omar by failing to adapt to or reconcile differences amongst different ethnic groups and cultures has lead to a rejection of the same by Chechen nationalists. But while the oratory of the Salafis might not attract many people to their world view it is enough to energise young Sunni Iraqis to derail

efforts to fostering democracy.

The French muslim reaction to the kidnapping of two French journalists, Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, in Iraq on 20 August 2004 is also illustrative of some hope. Says Gilles Kepel: "A socalled "Islamist army", after buying them from the group of thugs responsible for their seizure, announced they would behead the journalists unless France rescinded its secular ban on the wearing of the hijab (and other religious apparel) in French schools. The "army" was convinced that this would mobilise the masses of the umma in their favour, and were supported in this expectation by various French Islamists on Arabic speaking satellite TV. Much to their dismay, French people of Muslim descent regardless of the degree of their Devotion adamantly denied the kidnappers the right to speak in their name, and affirmed a primary solidarity with the journalists, not to whoever claimed to speak in the name of Islam."

Another resource to be tapped with discretion is Iran. Says Mahan Abedin, editor of Terrorism Monitor, and who is currently researching a book on Iranian intelligence services: "The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 did not come as a surprise to the Iranian intelligence community, primarily because they had been engaged in their own covert war against the Taliban and its international

Islamist allies for many years. Indeed, under different political circumstances, Iranian intelligence could have provided valuable help to the U.S. in the war against Salafi Islamist terrorism. Iran's Ministry of Intelligence & National Security (VEVAK) and the intelligence directorate of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) arguably have a better understanding of Wahhabi/Salafi terrorist networks and their institutional and ideological roots in Saudi Arabia than most other major intelligence organizations. They have gained such knowledge through the penetration of Wahhabi missionary/terror groups in Pakistan, which has been a priority for Iranian intelligence over the past 20 years. This priority stems not only from Iran's self-perceived responsibility to protect Pakistan's Shi'a community, but more importantly from a desire to pre-empt Saudi-sponsored Wahhabi subversion amongst Iran's tiny Sunni minority."

Abedin goes on to add that even before the emergence of the Taliban, the VEVAK, the Iranian intelligence agency, designated Salafi/Wahhabi terrorism as the primary threat to Iranian national security in 1994 and, contrary to unsubstantiated reports in Arab and western media, has never had any friendly contacts with the al-Qaeda.

Experts also put much hope by the Algerian example where the initial

allurement of the people with the Islamists weakened after the accesses of the Salafis. And that this could happen in Iraq as well, eventually. Says Kepel: "The example of Algeria in the 1990s is relevant here. Until 1996, militant Armed Islamic Group (GIA) or Islamic Salvation Front (FIS)movements controlled large parts of Algeria, and the regime seemed doomed; then, for disputed reasons military security operations, infiltration activities and other provocations, the internal dynamics of the GIA the Islamists suddenly seemed to have alienated the bulk of the Algerian population. They even lost support among those who had previously voted for them. Today in Iraq, there are daily images of hostages being beheaded as traitors, of corpses of policemen in the rivers a spectacle of horror designed to convince that jihad is on the rise and that the US will never prevail. Yet jihadi Islamism in Iraq can draw on only the 17% of the population who are Sunni Arabs. The Iraqi Kurds and Shi'a are beyond their reach."

On a more operational level, military strategists are in favour of a more pro-active policy than has been forthcoming so far. Says General Abizaid, the second highest ranking US military officer in Iraq: "The key is to treating people who contribute money to the Salafist movement no differently than people who carry out beheadings. The truth of the matter is we have to be bold in our discussion and we

need to make liable the people who are financially contributing to this organisation as the criminals they are."

Abizaid goes on to add: "What makes this element so dangerous today I think is really two things that are new to the modern world. Number one is the speed in which information can be transmitted, and the way it can be transmitted without regard to borders. Number two is the potential ability of a movement like this to obtain weapons of mass destruction. Though Al Qaeda and other groups have moved no closer to obtaining weapons of mass destruction, but they would surely use them if they did. It's a very, very dangerous problem for the entire international community, and that's why it is so important that people cooperate against it."

Ultimately, however, it's for progressives in the Arab world to put their views forward more aggressively to counter the Salafi menace. They have to not only advance a more secular ethos, but also question the vision of Salafi organizations which are resisting of modernity of any kind. We need intellectuals like Dr Amr Isma'il. A progressive Egyptian thinker Dr.Isma'il's articles are regularly published on the secular Arab website www.rezgar.com. Says he in one of them: "Why are we the only nations in the world that still use religion, Islam, and the name of Allah in everything - in politics, economics, science,

art, and literature. We kill in the name of Allah, blow up cars in the name of Allah, and slit throats in the name of Allah and Islam, and then we protest when others depict the Muslims as terrorists. We do not ask ourselves why no other religious group perpetrates these acts of atrocity, and when a terrorist country like Israel does so, it does not say it is killing in the name of the Lord or in the name of Allah, but claims it is doing so out of self-defense. Why Allah is [held responsible] for our bad deeds and for our desire for revenge... Why don't we act like [Israel] and say that these acts are for self-defense or for defense of the homeland, without bringing Allah and Islam into it? We have reached a crossroad If we want Islam as a political solution, not as a religion ... we must be strong and admit honestly that Islam - according to the belief of groups of political Islam that follow bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri's organization stands in utter contradiction to democracy in its true meaning... Let all the political Islamic groups, and first and foremost the 'Muslim Brotherhood,' cease their policy of concealing [their real opinions] and show their true faces [and reveal] that they are trying [to bring] an Islamic rule that at best will be no different from Iran, and at worst, [no different] from the Taliban..."

Such an approach might also help in distinguishing between pure

religious movements and ones that use religion to chase a demented approach to political change.

(Cobrapost News Features) Sufi Journeys journeys of an aspiring and struggling sufi Tuesday, May 30, 2006 Saudi Government Questions its Wahhabi Roots Saudi Arabia has practiced a strict Wahhabi form of Islam for centuries, but Islamic extremism has led to religious questioning. By Kate Seelye RIYADH, Saudi Arabia--Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Islam and a nation where religion and government are deeply entwined and where faith and identity are virtually identical. But since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, religion in Saudi Arabia-especially the kingdom's rigidly conservative Wahhabism strain of Islam--has come under increasing criticism both inside and outside of the country, with some critics maintaining it contributes to extremism and terrorism. Others, however, such as cleric Sheik Abded Muhsin al-Ubakyan, reject the criticism, arguing Saudis are simply following the true path of Islam as preached by the 18th century religious reformer Mohammed Abdel Wahhab. "He came and found people worshipping idols, graves and trees," Ubakyan told the PBS program "Religion & Ethics Newsweekly." "'This is not Islam,' Abdel Wahhab came to say. 'This is wrong,' and (he) returned people to the correct understanding of Islam." Wahhab formed an alliance with local tribal leaders--the al Sauds--around the desert town of Dirayah. Out of that 18th century political and religious union, modern Saudi Arabia was born. The religious followers of Wahhab gave the ruling family religious legitimacy, and in return the clerical establishment was given nearly free rein in determining Saudi social and religious policy. The result is a very conservative interpretation of the Quran with religious police enforcing the country's strict social codes, including rigid gender separation at work as well as in restaurants, banks and other public establishments. "In modern society, there is corruption that results from the mixing of men and women," Ubakyan said. "From desire comes adultery, illegitimate children, and sexual disease." Wahhabism also decrees that Islam is the only recognized religion and non-Muslims are banned from public worship or evangelizing. Some Wahhabi clerics preach against

tolerating other faiths, as well as Muslim sects that don't share their interpretation of the Quran. "Anyone who is not a Muslim is an infidel, no matter what religion he is," said Suleiman al Duwaish, a cleric and religious scholar. "We also recognize the difference between which of these infidels deserve to be cursed and those who don't," he added. "God himself differentiated between Jews and Christians. While both being infidels, Christians are closer to Muslims than the Jews and less of an enemy than them as well." Traditionally, it has been taboo to criticize the religious establishment, and most Saudis have enormous respect for their spiritual leaders. But a series of deadly al-Qaida attacks in the last several years have begun to change both government and popular attitudes. Some, like religious reformer Khaled al Ghannami, a former Wahhabi, believe that Wahhabism nurtures extremism. "Those teachings encouraged people to come up with ideas that this country must be pure, that nobody else who is not Muslim should set foot in this land, and that everyone who comes here (who is not Muslim) ... can be killed just for being there," Ghannami said. The government has launched a campaign to combat terrorist militancy. Posters and billboards urge citizens to report terrorists, and Saudi King Abdullah has accused extremists of hijacking Islam. He has called on clerics to be more moderate in their preaching and initiated a series of national dialogues to discuss extremism, problems facing young people and the role of women--one of the touchier issues facing Islam. The government has also ordered a revision of the school curriculum, including stripping textbooks of hostile references to other religions. The Ministry of Islamic Affairs is three years into an evaluation of the country's mosques and spiritual leaders, some of whom have been disciplined. "There is some misunderstanding with some of the imams, and when we interviewed them and talked to them, they changed their ideas," said Abdullalah Allheedan, assistant deputy minister for Islamic Affairs. "We found some of them who are followers of the extremist ideas, and these people were fired." Allheedan says the extremist militancy is not homegrown but came from the outside, mostly from young people who joined militants for "jihad" in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya. While the U.S. government, a reluctant critic of its close ally, says the Saudis have taken steps to fight domestic extremism, many critics in the kingdom believe it should do far more. "They would have to, for example, reform education, reform the media, reform internal policy and open the floor" for other ideas," said Khaled al Dakhil, a political sociologist at King Saud University in Riyadh. "They don't have to do anything with the Wahhabis but open the floor (up) for other interpretations, other discourses, religious and otherwise. That will give you the leeway, the freedom to move." But Dakhil said Saudi authorities are reluctant to challenge the clerics' dominance for fear it would undermine their legitimacy as rulers and the stability of the state. "Maybe they are afraid that if you increase the pace of change, if you really challenge the religious

authorities, you will get into a clash with the society, and that might cause disintegration, chaos," he said. While the government is cautious on making changes, some citizens--especially women-are forging ahead. Samar al Mogren, for example, is the local news editor of Al Watan newspaper and is the first Saudi woman to oversee a mixed gender news department despite the religious restrictions against mixing men and women in the workplace. "It's my right as a woman to live my life as humanly as possible in my country and to fulfill my ambitions and my dreams without having to leave," she said. [from Beliefnet.com - http://www.beliefnet.com/story/185/story_18554_1.html] Posted by sufijourneys at 1:59 PM Saudi Salafi Scholars: Women not allowed near the Kaaba Retweet Author: MR Filed under: Islam, News Date: Sep 2,2006 | 02:06 AM Sorry sisters, you cant pray near the Kaaba. Well make a special area for you guys to pray, inshaAllah, just not so close to the Kaaba. Women face curbs in Makka mosque Religious leaders in Saudi Arabia want to impose restrictions on women praying in the Grand Mosque in Makka, one of the few places where male and female worshippers intermingle. But women activists in the kingdom, the birthplace of the religion and where a strict interpretation of Islam is imposed, say the idea is discriminatory and have vowed to oppose it. At present, women can pray in the immediate vicinity of the Kaaba, a cube-shaped structure inside the mosque, believed to have been built by Ibrahim (Abraham) seen by Muslims as a prophet and his son. Muslims walk around this seven times according to rites first established by Ibrahim and re-established by Prophet Muhammad. Plans by the all-male committee overseeing the holy sites would place women in a distant section of the mosque while men would still be able to pray in the key space. Not final Osama al-Bar, head of the Institute for Haj Research, said: The area is very small and so crowded. So we decided to get women out of the sahn [Kaaba area] to a better place where they can see the Kaaba and have more space.

Some women thought it wasnt good, but from our point of view it will be better for them We can sit with them and explain to them what the decision is. The decision is not final, he said, and could be reversed. Pushing and shoving is common in the tight space around the Kaaba where thousands of pilgrims crowd mainly during haj. Worshippers can walk round the Kaaba at any other time as well. The plans are likely to provoke a furore among Muslim women in countries whose traditions are less strict. Muslims say it is a basic right to be able to pray as close as possible to the Kaaba. It is towards the Kaaba that Muslims around the world turn when praying. Discrimination Suhaila Hammad, a Saudi woman member of a body of world Muslim scholars, said: Both men and women have the right to pray in the House of God. Men have no right to take it away. Men and women mix when they circumambulate the Kaaba, so do they want to make us do that somewhere else too? This is discrimination against women. The Grand Mosque is one of the few places where men and women pray together, although technically there are separate spaces for each gender throughout the vast complex. Religious police charged with imposing order ensure that women do not pray outside the prescribed areas. Hatoun al-Fassi, a historian, said the move to restrict womens prayer in the mosque would be a first in Islamic history. Perhaps they want women to disappear from any public prayer area and when it comes to the holy mosques thats their ultimate aim, she said. She said that the religious authorities have already restricted womens access at Prophet Muhammads burial place in Madina. Source: Women face curbs in Makka mosque

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Salafi 12/12/2006 Salafi (Ancestor) Islam (Submission) is the Islam of Muhammad (Islam's lone prophet and Allah's singular voice). It is the Islam recorded in the Qur'an (Recital from arRahman and Allah), in the Hadith (Oral Reports from the Salafi regarding Muhammad), the Sira (Biography of Muhammad), and Ta'rikh (History of Islam's Formation). Salafi Islam is indistinguishable from Sunnah (Example of Muhammad that is the basis of all Islamic nations and cultures). Salafi Islam provides the entire basis of Sharia Law - the most repressive and anti-democratic legal system in the world). Based upon polling data

from Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Lebanon, and the recent Palestinian elections, sixty to seventy percent of Muslims worldwide are Salafists. That means that fundamentalist Islam, the Islam of virtually all terrorists, is not a fringe movement. Salafi Islam is the purest form of Islam, based entirely upon the oldest and most authentic Islamic sources, so it is the antithesis of a corruption of the religion. Salafist Muslims surrender to Allah's, Muhammad's, and the Qur'an's authority so they are the opposite of insurgents(meaning those who rebel against authority). While Salafist Muslims highjacked airplanes and turned them into weapons of mass destruction, the terrorists have not highjacked their religion. Until you come to understand what the five oldest sources reveal about Muhammad, Allah, and Islam (those being the Qur'an, Ishaq's Sira, Tabari's Ta'rikh, and Bukhari's and Muslim's Hadith Collections) you have no chance whatsoever of understanding Islamic terrorism or how to combat it. In fact, like the president of the United States, if you speak out or lash out without first coming to understand Salafi Islam, you will do far more harm than good. It is why I wrote Prophet of Doom - Islam's Terrorist Dogma in Muhammad's Own Words before composing this terrorist timeline. The Saud Wahhabi warlords oppressing the indoctrinated fiefdom of Saudi Arabia are resolutely Salafists. That is why Saudi Arabia is one of the world's leading terrorist manufacturing facilities. It is why 85% of the 9/11 suicide bombers were Saudi subjects. Al-Qaeda is Salafist and Wahhabist, and thus is lock step with the Islamic educational and religious system entrenched in Saudi Arabia. Al-Qaeda (the Base) is a spiritual religious association and not an organization based upon race, geography, or infrastructure. Osama bin Laden's authority comes from Islam. Among al-Qaeda's four founding fathers you will find a Saudi, a Pakistani, a Palestinian, and an Egyptian. The second most significant contributor to Islamic terrorism is Pakistan, where the dictatorial government of General Musharaf is Salafist. Pakistan's mosques and madrassas have manufactured as many, if not more, terrorists than even Saudi Arabia. They are responsible for the Taliban - the fundamentalist regime harboring al-Qaeda before the leadership actually moved into Pakistan. Taliban chief Mullah Omar was trained in the Binori Mosque Madrassa in Karachi. The head of Pakistan's ISI intelligence service, Lt. General Mahmoud Ahmad, not only provided the funds, arms, and direction to the Taliban, he and they provided direct wire transfers to Muhammad Atta, the 9/11 ringleader, immediately before he murdered 3,000 Americans. Pakistan is the home of Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Shaikh Muhammad, the men most believe conceived the first and second World Trade Center bombings. The third member of the Salafist Trinity may take you by surprise. It is the Shia mullahs who lord over Iran. Shia Islam is Salafi Islam. All five of Islam's earliest and most authoritative sources, including the Qur'an, are Shi'ite in origin. The Islamic clerics who control Iran are Salafists - as are the poisonous anti-Semitic words which pour out of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's mouth. But the moment you recognize this reality, all hope of victory in Afghanistan and Iraq dissipates. By way of the Taliban, Pakistan still controls neighboring Afghanistan. And by way of Shi'ite clerics like al-Sadr and the Ayatollah al-Sistani, Iran now controls neighboring Iraq. A salafi is a "fundamentalist" Muslim. Salaf's literal translation from Arabic to English is "predecessors" and thus it is reasonably synonymous with the biblical concept of "disciple." A Salafi is a good and true Muslim. Those who disregard the Salaf are,

according to the Qur'an (read the 9th and 33rd surahs), "hypocrites" and "pretenders" who have ceased to be Muslims. This is the opposite of what people in America and the West are being told about Islam and terrorism. So that there isn't any doubt regarding who a Salafi is, let's turn to the most authoritative source on Islamic terminology. According to The Concise Encyclopedia of Islam, a salaf is: "a first generation Muslim, considered by later generations to be the most authoritative source for Islamic practice and guidance. The comments of these first Muslims are used to elucidate questions whose solutions are not explicit in the Qur'an and in the Sunnah. The salaf cover three generations: that of the Companions of the Prophet, that of the Tabi'um, or Successors who knew the Companions, and that of the Taba'at-Tabi'in, or the Successor's Successors. Each generation's testimony is less authoritative. The Wahhabis do not accord a special validity to the opinions and practices of any authority after the Tabi'un, and regard all practices introduced after that time to be unwarranted innovation.". Salaf is a term I wish everyone in the world knew. If they did Islam's most deadly myth would be obliterated. America's politicians, media, scholars, and clerics most all say that "the terrorists are radicals who are practicing a corrupted interpretation of Islam." The overt and misleading implication is that "true Islam is good and peaceful religion," suggesting that "we are not at war with Islam." Actually, the opposite is true. Islamic terrorists are salafi, and thus they are fundamentalists. They make this perfectly clear during their public statements. It is the "peaceful Islamic moderates" who are actually Islamic radicals, having corrupted Islam to suit their sensibilities. The moment a person comes to understand that salafi, or fundamentalist Islam, is the religion presented in Muhammad's Qur'an, Ishaq's Sira, Tabari's History, and Bukhari's Hadith (all brought together in Prophet of Doom), they will instantly understand that salaf fundamentalist Islam is the sole motivation for Islamic terrorism. That being irrefutable, it means that every American politician, media spokesperson, scholar, and cleric who speaks on the subject of Islam and terrorism, including the President of the United States, is lying. That being the case, the Iraq war was counterproductive, because America replaced a secular dictator with a fundamentalist Islamic government. Even worse, since America and the West have transferred 10 trillion dollars to the Salafi OPEC clerics and warlords who control the Middle Eastern Islamic countries, it means we have financed our own funeral. Let me give you an example of how bad all this really is. In 1744, the salafi Islamic fundamentalist Wahhab signed an oath of allegiance with a regional Islamic warlord named Muhammad ibn Al Saud. The current Saudi kings and princes are his grandchildren. In their sworn oath, they agreed to establish a state, and then a world, ruled according to Islam, and thus in accordance with Muhammad's words and deeds as they were passed along by the Salafs. In 1932, Great Britain established this fiefdom by giving the Arabian Peninsula to the Saud fundamentalist Islamic warlords. Since that time they have done more to manufacture terrorists than any regime in the world. And today it's too late to deal with them because the Salafi OPEC thugs now control so much American currency and so many American companies, should they withdraw their investment in dollars and stock, America would instantly be plunged into a depression far more severe than 1929.

The Qur'an itself is a salaf book. First recited by Muhammad starting around 610 CE, it was retained exclusively in the minds of the Salaf, the first generation of Muslims, Muhammad's Companions. They passed it on orally to the Successors, and they passed it on orally to the Successors' Successors. The first extant written copy of the Qur'an dates to the early 8th century, over 100 years, or four generations of salaf, after it was initially recited orally. If you want more proof that Ishaq, Tabari, Bukhari, and Muslim are also salaf, and thus original Islamic sources, read the "Islam's Dark Past" Source Material Appendix to Prophet of Doom. I present a scholarly review of Islam's prime reading materials at the outset of that chapter. What you will therefore find, is that there are no old, authentic, or reliable non-salaf Islamic sources. Anything that is said about Islam that isn't salaf is thus inaccurate revisionism - a corrupted interpretation, or hijacked version, of the religion. I've partially demonstrated here, and I prove conclusively in the book, that the salafi sources are universally violent and immoral. Therefore, Islam is violent and immoral. It is why Muslims kill. It is why Muslims deceive. It is what you need to know about Islam to protect yourself from it.

Translated Meaning: Ancestor

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