Barry Rubin: Solomon’s Wisdom on Revolutionary Islamism and Terrorism

Solomon’s Wisdom on Revolutionary Islamism and Terrorism

by Barry Rubin


Hussein Solomon is a South African professor who is the leading expert on revolutionary Islamist terrorism in his own country and Africa generally. He has just finished a book, Global Jihad: The South African Front. Equally interesting, though, is the background to his work.

In the book he explains why he is so intent on this subject. Solomon describes how he was affected by an August 1998 terrorist attack on Planet Hollywood in Cape Town in which two people were killed and others injured or even crippled.

He writes:

The people who perpetrated such an act of barbarity called themselves Muslim and attempted to justify the act as a blow against the Great Satan–the United States of America. But, the political mandarins of Washington were not hurt by this outrage. It was ordinary men, women and children enjoying dinner and pleasant conversation who were now held in death’s unyielding grasp or maimed. …
I was both angry and sad. Angry that fellow Muslims would perpetrate such an atrocity and saddened that other Muslims would countenance such behavior.

Mideast Media Sampler 1/3/12: Being Palestinian Is A Good Career Move, The Virtue of Islamism

by DG:

1) A good career move

A few recent occurrences are worth considering.

• Elder of Ziyon showed that Max Blumenthal is unreliable. Blumenthal, in fact, has been quoted by Arthur Brisbane and Patrick Pexton, ombudsmen of the New York Times and Washington Post respectively. This isn't the first time that Blumenthal has been caught lying. On the other hand Brisbane and Pexton are charged with insuring the integrity of the newspapers they serve. Why did they use Blumenthal as a source.

Barry Rubin: Middle East: We're Going to Have a Revolution and We Can Do it the Hard Way or the Easy Way

Middle East: We're Going to Have a Revolution and We Can Do it the Hard Way or the Easy Way

By Barry Rubin

“Along the Paris streets the death-carts rumble, hollow and harsh. Six tumbrils carry the day’s wine to La Guillotine. All the devouring and insatiate Monsters imagined since imagination could record itself, are fused in the…Guillotine.”
– Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities


Do I have to draw you a picture of how Islamism is just pretending to be moderate and plans to fundamentally transform the society in countries like Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Turkey? Well, I’ll let the most respected Muslim Brotherhood theologian, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, do it for me.

Let me underline the fact that when Qaradawi answers a query millions of people listen. Egyptian military officers and their families watch his show raptly and so do many others. And Qaradawi isn't just talking for the sake of talking. He is teaching the revolutionary strategy of seizing all power for all time and imposing all of the Sharia on all of the people. Qaradawi is Lenin in a turban, as was Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who did a little number on Iranian politics after the same people who are telling us now that the Brotherhood is moderate were telling us then that the Iranian Islamists were moderate.

If only government officials, journalists, and “experts” would read and comprehend things like this they might understand what’s happening in the Middle East and how their policy is headed for disaster.

“Gradualism,” Qaradawi explains, “is one of the laws of nature that Allah Almighty has created. It is also needed in applying the rulings of the Sharia to make a change in people’s life.”