Gestating Jihad in America
Book review:
RAISING A JIHADI GENERATION
Understanding the Muslim Brotherhood
Movement in America
By John Guandolo
Lepanto Publishing, 2013
97 pages, $11.69
The book Raising a Jihadi Generation is promoted as "a handbook for law enforcement, intelligence, and military professionals," written by an author with an extensive military and investigative background who is a recognized expert in the subject matter. Yet only two of the 13 sections of this short and readable book apply specifically to law enforcement. The bulk of this book presents an interesting, informative, and to-the-point explanation of the long-term threat of the Muslim Brotherhood Movement in America.
The book stresses the fact that Islam is much more than a religion in the Western sense. It is an all-or-nothing "complete way of life" that encompasses cultural, military, political, and religious aspects, all uniformly governed by Islamic Law (Sharia). Guandolo explains:
Islamic Law is real law. It is the basis for constitutions in Muslim nations around the world. There is no Islamic Law that does not require jihad as 'warfare against non-Muslims' until all of the world is claimed for Islam...
Under Islamic Law, non-Muslims must ultimately convert or submit to Islam, or be killed.
In Islam, the entire world is divided into the Dar al-Islam (house of Islam) and the Dar al-Harb (house of war), and, therefore, jihad is a permanent state until the Dar al-Harb is eliminated and the entire world is brought under the Dar al-Islam, ruled by Islamic Law.
Information warfare
Guandolo observes that while our government is oriented toward the threat of terrorism - that is, kinetic warfare - we are engaged in a war that is defined by the enemy themselves as information warfare. The result is a manifestation of political warfare with the concealed objective of subverting our political, educational, religious, and media institutions. Physical jihadi violence is at this point in time secondary to the agenda of information warfare.
Our inability to understand the strategy of Information Warfare cripples our ability to effectively engage the enemy - indeed, even our ability to recognize who the enemy is. Guandolo states:
The Information War in the West is driven by front groups posing as peaceful Muslim organizations, led by the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). The Muslim Brotherhood was created in Egypt in 1928 to (1) implement Islamic Law worldwide and (2) re-establish the Caliphate. Al Qaeda and the MB have the same objective - the difference in achieving them is timing and tactics.
The agenda of conquest
The Muslim Brotherhood came to the U.S. in the 1950s and settled in Illinois, Michigan, and Indiana. As a result, Chicago is now the Hamas hub in America, and Plainfield, Indiana, is home of the Islamic Society of North America. As is more commonly known, Detroit and Dearborn, Michigan, are centers of Muslim Brotherhood activity.
The book effectively documents the far-reaching structure of the Muslim Brotherhood. It references the Brotherhood document, "An Exploratory Memorandum," which lists 29 related organizations, including the Islamic Society of North America, Muslim Students' Association, and North American Islamic Trust. There are now an estimated 2,000 Muslim Brotherhood affiliates working to overthrow the U.S. government.
Why focus on the U.S.? According to a U.S. Government Trial Brief in U.S. v Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), "The United States was fertile ground for fundraising and propaganda, offering the essential Constitutional protections which afforded the freedom to operate." Incidentally, HLF was convicted in 2008 of sending over $12 million overseas to the Hamas terrorist organization.
The Muslim Brotherhood settled in small groups who grew their infrastructure over time, conducting Dawah - the requirement under Islamic Law for Muslims to "call" non-Muslims to Islam prior to waging jihad. In 1989, the Muslim Brotherhood produced a key book, Methodology of Dawah Hallah in American Perspective by Shamin Siddiqu. The six stages of conquest are illuminated as:
1. Dawah
2. Organization (Jama'ah)
3. Training (Tarbiya)
4. Peaceful resistance
5. Migration (Hijrah)
6. Final stage of armed conflict
According to a Muslim Brotherhood "Concept of Operations" document uncovered by the FBI in 2004, the phases to take over a country proceed as follows:
1. Discreet and secret establishment of elite leadership.
2. Gradual appearance on the public scene, establishing a shadow government.
3. Escalation, prior to conflict.
4. Open public confrontation through exercising political pressure. Training in weapons.
5. Seizing power to establish an Islamic Nation.
Clearly, this long-term strategy does not embody religious, societal, or legal coexistence. Guandolo notes:
Current Islamic sources teach Islamic Law is diametrically opposed to the U.S. Constitution. This is not a First Amendment issue, and it is not a "religious" issue. The enemy seeks to impose foreign law (Sharia) in the U.S. challenging Article 6 of the U.S. Constitution which states "The Constitution...shall be the supreme law of the land."
Language and Islamic Law
In Information Warfare, the use (and misuse) of language is paramount. Guandolo points out that words and phrases used by Islamists often have Islamic interpretations that are the complete opposite of Western meanings, and that the resulting obfuscation is often deliberate. Specifically, under Islamic Law:
"Justice" means "The Justice provide to people living under Islamic Law."
"Freedom" means "Freedom from man-made or secular laws."
"Peace" means "When the entire world is subordinated to Islamic Law and living under the global Islamic State (Caliphate) with an Islamic Ruler (Caliph)... there will be Peace on Earth.
"Human Rights" means "The 'rights' afforded to people living under Islamic Law...the entire Muslim world understands the term 'human rights' only as Islamic Law understands it, and no other source of law can define 'human rights' outside of Islamic Law (Sharia)."
Thus it becomes clear how Islam can call itself the "religion of peace" while waging a phased war of conquest and dominance.
Guandolo observes that Islamic Law allows for, and in some cases obliges, Muslims to lie to non-Muslims if doing so furthers the cause of Islam.
It is also important to understand the concept of Abrogation in Islamic Law. Guandolo states that "simply put, abrogation means that anything revealed to Muhammad chronologically later in the Koran abrogates or overrules anything which came earlier." The order of the Koran is crucial to Islam "...because peaceful verses revealed to Muhammad in Mecca were abrogated (overruled) by the verses commanding warfare which came chronologically later in Medina."
Specific examples are provided of verses such as "Let there be no compulsion in religion (2:256)" which were abrogated by verses such as "Fight and slay the unbeliever wherever you find them and lie and wait for them in every stratagem of war (9:5)."
The book analyzes various tenets of Islamic Law, observing that, regarding relations with non-Muslims, "It is a permanent command in Islam for Muslims to hate and despise Jews and Christians and not take them as friends." Guandolo explains that jihad is a permanent obligation on the Muslim community until the entire world is made the Dar al-Islam. Raising a Jihadi Generation is a must-read. It is a very succinct synopsis of a very real and long-term threat to America and to the entirety of Western Civilization.