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May 23, 2012
Tony Pugh: More private colleges offering tuition discounts
Mary Beth Franklin: How to Choose the Right Annuity for You
Tina Susman: The wig wasn't enough: Man gets 13 years for posing as his dead mom
The Kosher Gourmet by Emma Christensen:A simple way to do fish right
May 22, 2012
Warren Richey: Can US group challenge overseas surveillance act? Supreme Court to decide
Thomas M. Anderson: Walking Away From a Mortgage
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon: Enjoy a celebration of the most rich and layered flavors: Black bean, sweet potato and quinoa chili
May 21, 2012
Mark Clayton: Cybersecurity: How US utilities passed up chance to protect their networks
Howard LaFranchi: NATO summit: Who will foot the bill for long-term Afghanistan security?
Chris Farrell : Earn Dividends in Emerging Markets with This WisdomTree ETF
Stephen Whiteside, Ph.D. : Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: Social anxiety disorder --- or just shy?
Guy Jackson : Victim's father regrets death of Lockerbie bomber
The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali: Famed chef's veal shoulder farsumagru: A festive meat course for late spring
May 18, 2012
Rabbi Berel Wein: Striving: The People of the Book's Book for (All of) the People
Steven Goldberg: 5 Great Stock Picks and the Exchange-Traded Fund that Owns Them
Mary Pickett, M.D.: Ask the Harvard Experts: Don't be forced into gluten-free lifestyle based merely on a doctor's false-positive test
The Kosher Gourmet by Carolyn Malcoun: DIY healthy lunchbox treats: HOMEMADE FRUIT BARS for kids and brown-bagging adults alike
May 17, 2012
Warren Richey: Teacher fired for being unwed and pregnant can sue religious school, court rules
Josh Mitnick: Netanyahu's 'centrist' coalition is already proving it's anything but
Steven Goldberg: Earn Dividends in Emerging Markets with This WisdomTree ETF
Amina Khan: Research links coffee to lower death rates
The Kosher Gourmet by Faith Duran : Cheesy Potato Breakfast Casserole with Cheddar and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
May 16, 2012
Carmen Terzic, M.D., Ph.D. : Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: A variety of exercises can help improve balance
Melissa Healy: National strategy on Alzheimer's disease aims to halt it by 2025
The Kosher Gourmet by Joyce White : GOODNESS GRACIOUS: GREENS! 4 winning recipes that are no longer just for down-home folks (Includes expert tips & techniques)
May 15, 2012
Kristen Chick: Obama administration resumes arms sales to Bahrain despite serious unresolved human rights issues. Activists feel abandoned
Pat Mertz Esswein: Homes are now affordable again and mortgage rates are low. What you need to know before you buy
Kathy Kristof: Our Practical Investor Fights Inflation with These 6 Investments
Sue Hubbard, M.D.: The Kid's Doctor: Lactose intolerant young child? Check again
The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Hunt: Spread a Little Excitement with EXOTIC CONDIMENTS (4 RECIPES)
May 14, 2012
Lisa Gerstner: How to Protect Your Identity, Finances If You Lose Your Phone
Harvard Health Letters: Heart disease and dementia
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon: MANGO COCONUT OAT MORNING MUFFINS are a bright but hearty delight
May 11, 2012
Jessica L. Anderson: Get the Best Deal on a Used Car
Jett Stone: Forget face-lifts and fake knees. Scientists have seen the fountain of youth --- and it's broccoli
The Kosher Gourmet by Chef Mario Batali: The famed chef's vegetable dish that tastes true to the season: FAVAS AND SUGAR SNAP PEAS WITH POTATOES AND TARRAGON
May 10, 2012
Sergei L. Loiko: Putin sends warning to U.S., NATO in Victory Day speech at Red Square
Mary Rourke: How being a 'mentch' got Vidal Sasoon his start and fighting in Israel's War of Independence provided him with confidence and a strong sense of his own identity
Jeff Bertolucci: Get Home Phone Service for Less Than $10 a Month
The Kosher Gourmet by Betty Rosbottom: Gleaming with its golden, crimson, and snowy white hues, this silken smooth and creamy STRAWBERRY ORANGE TRIFLE looks impressive, but is easy to prepare
May 9, 2012
Sharon Palmer, R.D. How you can reduce your risk -- or delay -- chronic diseases associated with aging
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Jewish World Review
July 11, 2005
/4 Tamuz 5765
We Are the World
By
Efraim Karsh
The London bombings had little to do with Iraq — and everything to do with the radical Muslim agenda to make Islam the world's reigning religion. We ignore that fact at our own peril
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Together, Tony Blair and George Bush were the driving forces behind the Iraq war. So it was hardly surprising that the obscure European-based Al Qaeda cell that claimed responsibility for attacks specifically linked the operation to Iraq — and warned Italy and Demark to pull their forces out or face the same threat of terror. As a result, many will interpret this bombing as a response to British involvement in Iraq — just as many, including Spanish leaders themselves, interpreted the Madrid bombings of last year as a response to that country's role in the Iraq war.
In fact, the 7/7 bombings had little to do with Britain's international behavior or Middle Eastern policies. Rather, the attacks had everything to do with America's position as the preeminent world power, one which blocks radical Muslim aspirations. As such, the United States and its allies — Britain chief among them — are a natural target for aggression. Osama bin Laden's war is not against America per se but is instead a manifestation of the radical Muslim agenda to make Islam the world's reigning religion.
This Islamic imperial ambition did not disappear with the destruction of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I. To this very day Muslims and Arabs unabashedly pine for the restoration of Muslim Spain (or Andalusia as it was commonly known) and consider their 1492 expulsion from the country a grave historical injustice — as if Spain's Muslim rulers were its rightful owners and not colonial occupiers living thousands of miles from their ancestral homeland. After September 11, bin Laden specifically noted "the tragedy of Andalusia," while in March 2004, the perpetrators of the Madrid bombings mentioned revenge for the loss of Spain as one of the atrocities' "root causes."
Indeed, even countries that have never been under Islam's imperial rule have become legitimate targets. As Europe's Muslim population grew rapidly in the late twentieth century through immigration, higher child birth, and conversion, prophesies of Islam's dominance in the West have become commonplace. In the late '80s various Islamist movements in France, notably the Union de Organizations Islamiques de France (UOIF), began to view the growing number of French Muslims as a sign that the country had become part of the House of Islam. This message has been echoed by the extensive network of mosques, schools, and charities established by the Muslim Brotherhood across Europe over the past fifty years.
Even such quintessentially moderate Islamic scholars as Zaki Badawi, longtime director of the Islamic Cultural Center in London, a hub of interfaith dialogue, have acknowledged the persistence of Islam's imperial dream, albeit in far more tempered language. "Islam endeavors to expand in Britain," he said. "Islam is a universal religion. It aims to bring its message to all corners of the earth. It hopes that one day the whole of humanity will be one Muslim community."
If this message sounds familiar, it should: Christianity's universal vision is also sweeping. But by the eighteenth century, Christian Europe had lost its religious messianism. It lost its imperial ambitions by the mid-twentieth century. By contrast, factions within Islam retain their imperial ambitions to this day.
This vision is by no means confined to a disillusioned and obscurantist fringe of Islam. In the historical imagination of some Muslims, bin Laden represents nothing short of the new incarnation of Saladin, the legendary warrior who destroyed the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1187. According to this view, the war for world mastery is a traditional, indeed venerable, quest and is far from over. In the words of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founding father of the avowedly imperialist regime in Iran:
The Iranian revolution is not exclusively that of Iran, because Islam does not belong to any particular people. ... We will export our revolution throughout the world because it is an Islamic revolution. The struggle will continue until the calls "there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah" are echoed all over the world.
Within this grand scheme, the Iraq war, or for that matter the Palestine question, is but a single element, and one whose supposed centrality looms far greater in Western than in Islamic eyes.
Tony Blair is unlikely to give any ground in Iraq. But he may well endeavor, as he has before, to insert himself in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. This would be an assured recipe for disaster. Radical Islamists view the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as simply one part of the larger holy war to establish the House of Islam. Should Blair's eagerness to promote Israeli-Palestinian peace, without insisting on the dismantling of terror networks as required by the Oslo accords and the roadmap, be seen as a response to the London bombings, it will send the wrong message: that terrorism works.
In any event, none of this will address the underlying problems raised by the 7/7 attacks. Only when radical Islamists reconcile themselves to the reality of state nationalism and forswear their expansionist ambitions will Osama bin Laden and other aspiring Saladins finally lose their momentum and their influence. When that day comes, Muslims will at last be able to look forward to a better future.
In steering America through September 11, President Bush famously drew courage and inspiration from British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. One can only hope that Tony Blair will now show the same resolve. He can start by acknowledging the obvious: This attack was about bigger things than just Iraq.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading." Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Efraim Karsh is the head of the Mediterranean Studies Programme at King's College, University of London. He wrote this piece for The New Republic. Comment by clicking here.
© 2005, The New Republic
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