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Islamist Terrorism - A History · World Ablaze with George Fontes

• 0:00
  Welcome to another 15 minutes or less on World Ablaze.
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  If you're hearing this episode on the World Ablaze podcast,
• 0:08
  these are showing up as bonus episodes.
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  You could also listen to these episodes
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  on the actual 15 minutes or less on World Ablaze podcast.
• 0:18
  Now, if you're only consuming these or listening to these in audio,
• 0:21
  I highly encourage you to watch the video versions.
• 0:24
  There's a little bit more going on.
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  I dropped some nuggets of information in terms of imagery
• 0:28
  and maybe even additional video content to support what it is that I am talking about.
• 0:33
  And you can see those on Rumble or on YouTube.
• 0:37
  And I'll leave those links for the episode in the show notes themselves
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  so that you're easily able to go ahead and click those.
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  Now, as far as Spotify is concerned, I always upload the video version if I have it.
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  So if you're not using Rumble or YouTube, but you're watching video podcasts on Spotify,
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  it will be available there as well.
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  Now, this episode, the focus is going to be on terrorism.
• 1:01
  Why?
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  Well, this whole thing was prompted by a discussion, a back and forth I had on X,
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  in where people were literally blaming the U.S. for terrorism in the Middle East.
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  The narrative, the talking points these days,
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  is that the U.S. is responsible for all extreme Islamist terrorist organizations.
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  If it wasn't for the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, for example, in 2001,
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  when the U.S. declared war against terrorism,
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  or the invasion of Iraq, or the war of Iraq, however you want to look at that,
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  that these groups wouldn't exist, that we wouldn't have terrorism.
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  It's all because of the United States of America,
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  that these terrorist organizations
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  rear their ugly head
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  and are now waging terror
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  across the planet.
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  Well, I'm here to call
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  bullshit on that.
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  I'm going to go ahead
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  and do my best
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  as these are supposed to be
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  15 minutes or less.
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  I'm going to do my best
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  to condense the information
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  that I found.
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  I'm going to deliver
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  the facts and data.
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  Now, I'm not going to go
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  as deep as I'd like to
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  and probably not as deep
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  as you may want to,
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  But I think we're going to do a good job in explaining the situation and the history of terrorism in the Middle East.
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  I had to write this out.
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  So from here on, it may look like I'm reading from a teleprompter or something.
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  I pretty much am.
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  I read my computer screen.
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  I wanted to make sure that I got my points how I wanted them.
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  I didn't leave anything out.
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  I didn't overdo it, but I still got enough data and enough facts across to support what it is that I'm going to say.
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  So here we are.
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  Terrorism in the Middle East.
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  Let's go through the history.
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  Now, the first known Islamic group to have members labeled as terrorists were the Harajit
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  or Karajit.
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  So there isn't really an English pronunciation for the group.
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  So I'm really going to say Karajit.
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  So the Karajits were the original group that had members that became extreme Islamist terrorists.
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  Okay.
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  Their views are that of a strict interpretation of the Quran.
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  They believed in opposing any leader or caliph and that was deemed to be a sinner and did not abide by strict Islamic or Sharia law The extremists Karajites or Karajites terrorized and waged war against other Muslims
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  Now, when was all this?
• 3:38
  Now, that is the question.
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  And this is where it gets interesting.
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  You see, this extreme form of Islamic terrorism, this started in the period between 656 CE through 1258 CE.
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  And so, well before the U.S. was ever even a blip on the radar, well before the U.S. ever became a nation,
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  the United States of America never even was a thought at that point.
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  Islamic terrorism.
• 4:10
  Well, let me correct that as well.
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  Extreme Islamist terrorism has been around for a long time.
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  They didn't pledge death to the West because the West wasn't an issue, but rather persecution
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  and death to those that weren't extreme enough, except now they turn their attention to not
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  only their fellow Muslims, but also against Western civilization.
• 4:34
  So, terrorism based on an extremist view of Islam has been practiced by various groups in the Middle East for around 1,300 years.
• 4:49
  For those to say that the USA is to blame for the terrorist organizations such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda and the Taliban is just simply false.
• 4:59
  Period. It's false.
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  And it's just a propagandist message used to divide the West and recruit more members to join these militant jihadist groups.
• 5:10
  So, Islamic terrorism was waged against other Muslims and people of the Middle East well before, as I stated earlier, the United States of America ever came into existence.
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  Yet, this is important to note that one of the first wars ever fought by the USA outside
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  of its own land was against the Muslim Barbary pirates.
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  And that was between 1801 and 1805.
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  And then again, in 1815 and 1816.
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  Those wars, however, they were not religious wars, but they were that of extortion and
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  economic gain through the capture and ransoming of US ships and crew.
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  So this is during the time where the United States was entering into the global economy through trade, through merchant missions and trips to where there were trading goods, our own as well as purchasing.
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  And the Barbary pirates at that time were capturing United States ships.
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  They were taking cruise hostages and they were holding for ransom.
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  So this was the first war against anybody that would be deemed Muslim or had an Islamist view outside of America.
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  But again, at that time, the focus of the Barbary pirates was not a religious one.
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  It wasn't a religious war whatsoever.
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  It was literally piracy.
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  Now, there are some that believe modern-day terrorist organizations are the result of U.S. involvement.
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  and funding of terrorist organizations in Afghanistan So people believe that where it all started Our involvement in Afghanistan paved the way for extreme Islamist terrorist organizations
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  While this view has become popular by those
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  with an anti-American point of view,
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  this belief is false.
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  And nothing more than propaganda.
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  So let's unpack what happened in Afghanistan
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  and why the U.S. got involved.
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  It all started with the Russian or really the former USSR, Soviet Union.
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  You see, there was a time when Afghanistan was going down a path
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  that veered away from its Islamic roots as a means of governance.
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  Attempts at secular reform in Afghanistan started in the 1920s under King Amanullah.
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  I think I pronounced that correct.
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  Let me say it again.
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  Amanullah.
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  I believe that's right.
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  So for many years, Afghanistan was under the rule of monarchy until it became, now get
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  this important factor, it became a communist nation in 1978 with heavy Soviet backing.
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  That's right.
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  You see, before 1978, they were neither communists nor were they an Islamist state.
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  Afghanistan was ruled by a monarchy.
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  They were nationalists, but they were not an Islamic state.
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  So interestingly enough, they became a communist nation.
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  They were even viewed as a satellite nation of the Soviet Union at the time.
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  So this is where the U.S. gets involved.
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  And before I get to that point, I also want to point out that the Soviet Union
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  actually invaded Afghanistan to fight off rebels
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  and keep the communist government of Afghanistan in power.
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  The Soviet occupation actually remained in effect from 1978 to 1989.
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  And Afghanistan remained a communist nation until 1992.
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  So during this period is when modern extreme Islamic groups began to emerge
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  or rather really reemerge.
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  Now, this is also the period in time
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  where the U.S. gets involved with Afghanistan,
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  right around this time here.
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  But they did so by supporting Afghan rebels
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  and fighting against the Russian occupation
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  and to overthrow the then-communist government of Afghanistan.
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  So the question remains,
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  is the U.S. responsible for modern-day Islamic terrorist groups?
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  answer is still no.
• 9:38
  No, they're not.
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  The U.S. did, however,
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  arm and fund Afghan rebels.
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  And some of the money and weapons
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  did make their way
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  into the hands of extreme Islamist terrorists.
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  But it was not directly done so by the U.S.
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  You see, at the time,
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  it's important to note that
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  the U.S. really didn't
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  understand the landscape.
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  They didn't know all the relationships.
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  They didn't understand
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  the culture or the religious faith.
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  So they got Pakistan involved to help broker this or manage what was going on And unfortunately at the time Pakistan while they were helping to basically divvy up or spread the aid around
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  that the US was providing in terms of money and weaponry, they did tend to favor certain groups
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  that had jihadist ties. And so that's how some of this money and weaponry did get to some of these
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  terrorist organizations. It wasn't through the U.S. directly working with them or directly funding
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  them. It was due to Pakistan's involvement at the time and being the liaison between the U.S.
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  and these Afghani rebels. Now, before I move on, I also want to point out that the,
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  reemergence of extreme Islamic groups started in the late 1960s.
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  So the truth is that extreme Islamist terrorists existed in the Middle East in one form or
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  another for over 1,300 years.
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  That's right, over 1,300 years.
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  and most of the terror was aimed at other Muslims
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  in an effort to subjugate and control the Arab world.
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  It wasn't until the U.S. war on terror was declared in 2001
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  that groups like Al-Qaeda and ISIS
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  made it a part of their mission to destroy America and the West.
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  Although the U.S. war on terror was a direct retaliatory action
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  to the terror attacks by al-Qaeda on U.S. soil on September 11, 2001.
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  So, did the U.S. create terrorist organizations in the Middle East?
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  Now, although many rebels supported by the U.S. did splinter off to form terrorist organizations,
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  they weren't the reason these terrorist organizations came to be or even existed.
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  They've already been there.
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  They were already reemerging in the 60s.
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  In fact, they never really truly died out.
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  They just didn't have any power.
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  So the other question, did the US fund terrorist organizations?
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  Again, no.
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  Although under the Obama administration, 400 million was given to Iran as part of a $1.7
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  billion settlement, which ended up in Iran releasing US hostages.
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  The use of terrorism as a tool to gain power and control has been used in the Middle East, as I said, for over 1,300 years.
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  And well before the founding of the United States of America, these terrorist groups use an extremist view of Islam to mold impressionable minds and gain recruits to fight in their jihadist wars.
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  The U.S. is not infallible, but the U.S. is not the reason extreme Islamist terrorist groups exist.
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  They were already here.