THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XII, Issue # 108, June 25, 2010
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
FAISAL SHAHZAD, JIHADI, EXPLAINS TERRORISM
By Dr. Daniel Pipes
A JIHADI'S FORTHRIGHT STATEMENT OF THE DEADLY PURPOSE OF ISLAMIST TERRORISM: FAISAL SHAHZAD'S CLEAR
STATEMENT OF ISLAMIST INTENTIONS & GOALS SINGLEHANDEDLY UNDERMINES THE EFFORTS OF THE OBAMA
ADMINISTRATION TO IGNORE THE DANGERS OF ISLAMISM & JIHAD. ISLAMIST IDEOLOGY, WITH ALL ITS ANGER, HATE &
DEADLY ASPIRATIONS, TRULY DOES MOTIVATE THE TERRORIST ENEMIES OF AMERICA & OTHER CIVILIZED SOCIETIES.
FULL STORY:
Jaw-dropping U.S. Court testimony by Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square bomber, singlehandedly undermines
Obama administration efforts to ignore the dangers of Islamism and jihad.
Shahzad's forthright statement of purpose stands out because jihadis, when facing legal charges, typically save their skin
by pleading not guilty or by plea bargaining. Consider a few examples:
Naveed Haq, who assaulted the Jewish Federation building in Seattle, Washington, pleaded not guilty by reason of
insanity.
Lee Malvo, one of the Beltway Snipers, explained that "one reason for the shootings was that white people had tried to
harm Louis Farrakhan." His partner John Allen Muhammad claimed his innocence to the death chamber.
Hasan Akbar killed two fellow American soldiers as they slept in a military compound, then told the court:
"I want to apologize for the attack that occurred.
I felt that my life was in jeopardy, and I had no
other options. I also want to ask you for
forgiveness."
Mohammed Taheri-azar, who tried to kill students on the University of North Carolina campus by running over them in a
car and issued a series of jihadi rants against the United States, later experienced a change of heart, announced himself
"very sorry" for the crimes he committed, and asked for release so that he can "re-establish myself as a good, caring and
productive member of society" in California.
These efforts fit a broader pattern of Islamist mendacity; rarely does a jihadi stand on principle. Zacarias Moussaoui,
9-11's would-be twentieth hijacker, came close: his court proceedings began with his refusing to enter a plea (which the
presiding judge translated into "not guilty") and then, one fine day, pleading guilty to all charges.
Shahzad, 30, acted in an exceptional manner during his appearance in a federal court in New York City on June 21, 2010. His
answers to Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum's many inquisitive questions ("And where was the bomb?" "What did
you do with the gun?") offered a dizzying mix of deference and contempt. On the one hand, he politely, calmly, patiently,
fully, and informatively answered about his actions. On the other, he, in the same voice, justified his attempt at
cold-blooded mass murder.
The judge asked Shahzad after he announced an intent to plead guilty to all ten counts of his indictment, "Why do you
want to plead guilty?" -- a reasonable question given the near certainty that guilty pleas will keep him in for long years
in jail. He replied:
"I want to plead guilty and I'm going to plead guilty
a hundred times forward because – until the hour the
U.S.A. pulls it forces from Iraq and Afghanistan and
stops the drone strikes in Somalia and Yemen and in
Pakistan and stops the occupation of Muslim lands
and stops killing the Muslims and stops reporting
the Muslims to its government – we will be attacking
[the] U.S.A., and I plead guilty to that."
Shahzad insisted on portraying himself as replying to American actions: "I am part of the answer to the U.S. terrorizing
[of] the Muslim nations and the Muslim people, and on behalf of that, I'm avenging the attacks," adding that "We
Muslims are one community." Nor was that all; he flatly asserted that his goal had been to damage buildings and
"injure people or kill people" because "one has to understand where I'm coming from, because … I consider myself a
mujahid, a Muslim soldier."
When Judge Cedarbaum pointed out that pedestrians in Times Square during the early evening of May 1, 2010, were
not attacking Muslims, Shahzad replied: "Well, the [American] people select the government. We consider them all the
same." His comment reflects not just that American citizens are responsible for their democratically elected government
but also the Islamist view that, by definition, infidels cannot be innocents.
However abhorrent, this tirade does have the virtue of truthfulness. Shahzad's willingness to name his Islamic purposes
and spend long years in jail for them flies in the face of Obama administration efforts not to name Islamism as the enemy,
preferring such lame formulations as "overseas contingency operations" and "man-caused disasters."
Americans – as well as Westerners generally, all non-Muslims, and anti-Islamist Muslims – should listen to the bald
declaration by Faisal Shahzad and accept the painful fact that Islamist anger and aspirations truly do motivate their
terrorist enemies. Ignoring this fact will not make it disappear.
© Daniel Pipes 2010
Originally Published in National Review Online, June 25, 2010
Republished with the Permission of Daniel Pipes
Reprinted from the Daniel Pipes Mailing List, June 25, 2010
URL: http://www.danielpipes.org/8536/faisal-shahzad-jihadi-explains-terrorism
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
The Islamist Fifth Column -- America's Internal Enemies:
Disloyalty, Subversion, Sedition, & Treason
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Dr. Daniel Pipes, a Ph.D. in Islamic History (Harvard University, 1978), is Founder and Director of the Middle East Forum,
Founder of Campus Watch, Taube Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, a
signatory of the Project for the New American Century, a former board member of the U.S. Institute of Peace, a former
adjunct scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Golden Circle supporter of the U.S. Committee for a Free
Lebanon, a former member of the U.S. Department of Defense Special Task Force on Terrorism and Technology, and a
former lecturer at the U.S. Naval War College, Harvard University, the University of Chicago, and the University of
Pennsylvania. Dr. Pipes was the Director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute from 1986 to 1993.
Author or co-author of eighteen books, Dr. Pipes is a regular columnist for National Review Online, Front Page
Magazine, the New York Sun, and the Jerusalem Post. His analyses of world trends and of forces and
developments in the Middle East have appeared in numerous North American newspapers, including the Washington
Post, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. He frequently appears on American network
television, as well as at universities and think tanks, to discuss the Middle East, Islam, and the Islamist threat to the
U.S.A. and the West. He also has appeared on BBC and Al Jazeera, and has lectured in approximately
twenty-five countries.
Dr. Pipes is a Polish-American Jew whose parents fled Poland in 1939, immigrated to the U.S.A., and assimilated well into
American society and culture. His father is Richard Pipes, an American historian specializing in Russian and Soviet history
and serving as Professor of History at Harvard University from 1950 until his retirement in 1996. During the Cold War, the
worldview of Richard Pipes was strongly anti-Soviet and anti-Communist.
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