In the late 19th century, a charismatic jihadist named Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Sayyid ibn Abdallah, who called himself "the Mahdi", swept across Sudan, routing the "infidel" forces of the Egyptian rulers, and arriving in 1884 at the gates of Khartoum. There, an equally charismatic British general named Charles Gordon led the city's defense by native troops. The city held out for nine months before falling. Gordon was speared, his head cut off and put on a tree, where people could throw rocks at it.
The Mahdi instituted a Shari'a state before dying of natural causes and was succeeded by a disciple.
It took 13 years, but the outraged British population got their vengeance. A punitive force under General Horatio Kitchener defeated the Mahdist forces at Omdurman, killing more than 10,000 warriors against a loss of 48 men. The jihadists' faith and primitive weapons were no match for Kitchener's machine guns and artillery.
In retaliation for Gordon's death and to break the Mahdi's spell, Kitchener destroyed the Mahdi's ornate tomb, exhumed the body, cut off the Mahdi's head, threw his bones into the Nile, and for a time, (much to Queen Victoria's horror), kept the Mahdi's skull as a souvenir.
The Mahdi instituted a Shari'a state before dying of natural causes and was succeeded by a disciple.
It took 13 years, but the outraged British population got their vengeance. A punitive force under General Horatio Kitchener defeated the Mahdist forces at Omdurman, killing more than 10,000 warriors against a loss of 48 men. The jihadists' faith and primitive weapons were no match for Kitchener's machine guns and artillery.
In retaliation for Gordon's death and to break the Mahdi's spell, Kitchener destroyed the Mahdi's ornate tomb, exhumed the body, cut off the Mahdi's head, threw his bones into the Nile, and for a time, (much to Queen Victoria's horror), kept the Mahdi's skull as a souvenir.
That was the end of violent jihadism in North Africa for a century.
The death of Osama bin Laden, another charismatic who preached death to the "infidels", (hopefully) has a similar disheartening effect, especially if followed by the relentless and, if necessary, brutal use of targeted force against radical Islamic terrorism/terrorists.
From Charles Martel at Tours in 732, to Sobieski at Vienna in 1683, and to Kitchener at Omdurman nothing has had a greater calming effect on the Muslim world than decisive defeat. Yes, Osama bin Laden's animosity might have been, in part, aroused to start and inspire other Moslem radicals like him to go on jihad against the "infidels" by the 15th-century Spanish reconquest of el-Andalus, but hopefully his animus fully dies with him. Now, the radicals in the Muslim world must decide whether their (terrorist) war should continue.
A raid like last Sunday's --- (by the way, a tip of the hat and a world of thanks to the peerless US Navy SEALs and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment helicopter pilots) --- will, hopefully, go a long way to pacify non-jihadists, who must by now understand that they are no match for American power and resolve, and will only suffer more and greater losses should the radicals continue their current conflict between radical Islam versus the West.
It doesn't have to come down to a Kitchenerian slaughter. All that the Islamic world needs to accept and understand is that its modern-day Mahdi is not coming to help them.
It may be true that thousands of Muslims viewed bin Laden (at least initially) as "the Great Sheikh", who struck a few blows against the "infidels", but many more millions more have not. If those millions of non-radical/non-extremist and truly peace-loving Muslim voices have been stilled by fear or indolence in the past, the death of Osama bin Laden, hopefully, will free them and given them more courage to speak out now and put sense in the heads of their misguided, irrational, extremist Muslim jihadists---compatriots, friends, and relatives.
Millenarian sects tend to falter when their confidently apocalyptic predictions fail to materialize. Now that bin Laden "sleeps with the fishes" -- the perfect end to a jumped-up gangster -- it is hoped that his version of jihad will die with him.
Unlike the British, we in the USA have never had the slightest desire to occupy Muslim countries. If Muslims want to come to the USA and accept the American way of life (which obviously means: adapting to the American values & way of life and with absolutely no jihad and no Shari'a whatsoever!), that is absolutely fine.
From her earliest days, America -- the Land of Freedom -- has been threatened by kings, emperors, popes, potentates, pashas, and modern day self-proclaimed "Mahdis". But every one who has tried to crush America and the American spirit has failed.
The cheers and jubilations in Washington D.C., New York City, and other places in the USA following the announcement of bin Laden's death Sunday night were right on the money because another arrogant thug has joined the world's "trash heap" of human history's insolent and warp-minded megalomaniacs and misfits---viz: King George, Hitler & the Nazis, Mussolini & the Fascists, the Soviet Communists, et al.
This is not American jingoism; this is American justice!
By Michael A. Walsh—The New York Post
The death of Osama bin Laden, another charismatic who preached death to the "infidels", (hopefully) has a similar disheartening effect, especially if followed by the relentless and, if necessary, brutal use of targeted force against radical Islamic terrorism/terrorists.
From Charles Martel at Tours in 732, to Sobieski at Vienna in 1683, and to Kitchener at Omdurman nothing has had a greater calming effect on the Muslim world than decisive defeat. Yes, Osama bin Laden's animosity might have been, in part, aroused to start and inspire other Moslem radicals like him to go on jihad against the "infidels" by the 15th-century Spanish reconquest of el-Andalus, but hopefully his animus fully dies with him. Now, the radicals in the Muslim world must decide whether their (terrorist) war should continue.
A raid like last Sunday's --- (by the way, a tip of the hat and a world of thanks to the peerless US Navy SEALs and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment helicopter pilots) --- will, hopefully, go a long way to pacify non-jihadists, who must by now understand that they are no match for American power and resolve, and will only suffer more and greater losses should the radicals continue their current conflict between radical Islam versus the West.
It doesn't have to come down to a Kitchenerian slaughter. All that the Islamic world needs to accept and understand is that its modern-day Mahdi is not coming to help them.
It may be true that thousands of Muslims viewed bin Laden (at least initially) as "the Great Sheikh", who struck a few blows against the "infidels", but many more millions more have not. If those millions of non-radical/non-extremist and truly peace-loving Muslim voices have been stilled by fear or indolence in the past, the death of Osama bin Laden, hopefully, will free them and given them more courage to speak out now and put sense in the heads of their misguided, irrational, extremist Muslim jihadists---compatriots, friends, and relatives.
Millenarian sects tend to falter when their confidently apocalyptic predictions fail to materialize. Now that bin Laden "sleeps with the fishes" -- the perfect end to a jumped-up gangster -- it is hoped that his version of jihad will die with him.
Unlike the British, we in the USA have never had the slightest desire to occupy Muslim countries. If Muslims want to come to the USA and accept the American way of life (which obviously means: adapting to the American values & way of life and with absolutely no jihad and no Shari'a whatsoever!), that is absolutely fine.
From her earliest days, America -- the Land of Freedom -- has been threatened by kings, emperors, popes, potentates, pashas, and modern day self-proclaimed "Mahdis". But every one who has tried to crush America and the American spirit has failed.
The cheers and jubilations in Washington D.C., New York City, and other places in the USA following the announcement of bin Laden's death Sunday night were right on the money because another arrogant thug has joined the world's "trash heap" of human history's insolent and warp-minded megalomaniacs and misfits---viz: King George, Hitler & the Nazis, Mussolini & the Fascists, the Soviet Communists, et al.
This is not American jingoism; this is American justice!
By Michael A. Walsh—The New York Post
No comments:
Post a Comment