Islamic Group

GAI

1/30/2007

The name al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, or Gamaat Islamiya as it is sometimes transliterated, is usually translated "the Islamic Group," but it literally means "The Group of Submission." They are most active in Egypt, the United States, Russia, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. The GAI were directly complicit in the murder of Anwar Sadat and in the first World Trade Center bombing. Today, they are part and parcel of al-Qaeda.

The Islamic Group replaced the Muslim Brotherhood as Egypt's largest and most militant terrorist organization. They have been active since the late 1970s. Like al-Qaeda, which they helped spawn, the GAI is highly decentralized. This fact is made especially clear when one considers that their spiritual leader is a guest in an American penal institution.

The Islamic Group began as an alliance jihadist cells whose religious leaders were Salafist (fundamentalist) Sunni Muslims. Their leadership cadre became available when Egyptian President Anwar Sadat released the incarcerated members of the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood who had been imprisoned during Nasser's reign.

The organization's principal founder and spiritual leader is Sheikh Umar Abd al-Rahman (also transliterated Omar Abdel Rahman). He is the blind Islamic cleric incarcerated in the United States in 1996 (currently abiding in a Missouri medical facility for federal prisoners) for his involvement in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Prior to his role as the prayer leader, or imam, of New Jersey's largest Islamic mosque, Sheikh al-Rahman was the senior professor of Qur'anic Studies at Islam's leading university - Al Azhar in Cairo, Egypt. The idea that the same man is both the leader of Egypt's most violent terrorist organization and the world's foremost authority on the Qur'an is hard to explain unless Muhammad's recital promotes such behavior.

The Islamic Group has conducted many savage attacks on Egyptian security forces, government officials, Coptic Christians, and on other perceived opponents of fundamentalist Islam. The GAI also claimed responsibility for the June 1995 attempted assassination of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia.

The group's founders, many of whom were serving prison sentences in Egypt, called for a ceasefire in 1997 so that their fellow jihadists would be freed from prison. But the moment they were released, the GAI massacred a group of tourists in Luxor. And after his comrades had all been freed, Sheikh Rahman also rescinded his support of the ceasefire.

Today the GAI is based in Pakistan and has close ties with Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the terrorist group bin Laden's partner Ayman al-Zawahiri merged into al-Qaeda. As a result, senior members of the Islamic Group signed Osama bin Laden's and Ayman al-Zawahiri's fatwa, or religious order, in February 1998 calling for attacks against the United States.

One of those Islamic Group signatories, Omar Ahmad Ali, published a 2001 book in which he justified terrorist attacks causing massive civilian casualties. And while they hate Christians and Jews, the Islamic Group's most pressing agenda item is to use violent jihad to overthrow of the dictatorial regime of President Hosni Mubarak and to establish an Islamist theocracy in Egypt.

Omar Ahmad Ali Abd al-Rahman was born in 1938 in the small Egyptian village of Al Gamalia on the Nile Delta. He earned admission to an Islamic boarding school and then to Al Azhar University in Cairo, the apex of the worldwide system of Islamic education/indoctrination. He graduated in 1965 and was sent to teach Islam in Fedemin on the outskirts of Fayoum, about 60 miles south of Cairo.

It was there that Rahman first drew the attention of Egyptian authorities. In September 1970, Gamal Abdel Nasser, the Marxist Muslim president/dictator of Egypt died. Jealous of the fact that millions of Egyptians massed reverently in the streets to mourn him, Rahman, who opposed Nasser's secularism, told Egyptians that it was sinful to show any respect for the dead leader because he was an infidel.

For those remarks, Rahman spent eight months in Cairo's 12th century Citadel Prison, where he was detained without charges. Upon his release, the Islamic theologian went to Saudi Arabia, where he served as a professor of Quranic studies in the home of fundamentalist Islam. There he made contact with wealthy Sauds who would later provide his terrorist organization with the capital it would require to slaughter Jews, Christians, and Socialists in Egypt, Afghanistan, Israel, and the United States.

Central to Abdel Rahman's theology is the concept that true Muslims have a duty to kill non-clerical Muslim leaders who do not rule by way of a strict imposition of Islamic law. This Qur'an-based philosophy was initially deployed by Muhammad and then by the Kharij when they assassinated Ali in 660 CE. Ali was Muhammad's cousin, his adopted son, his son-in-law, and the fourth leader, or caliph of Islam. He rose to power in the aftermath of Uthman's murder.

Ali's authority was disputed, so a deal was struck in which the supporters of both rivals to the Islamic throne agreed to remove their leader from power so that a new caliph could be chosen under the edicts of the Qur'an. Ali's followers, who were Shiites, acted in accordance with the agreement, but Muawiyah's followers (the governor of Syria), who were Sunni, did not. So, Muawiyah declared himself supreme ruler of the Islamic world as soon as Ali was moved out of his way.

Miffed by this treachery, the Kharij, a religious and political terrorist organization, was formed. They were fundamentalist Muslims who wanted to impose a pure and authentic interpretation of Islam - one in accord with Muhammad's words and deeds as they were retained in the Hadith and Qur'an. Having lived in the presence of Muhammad, they knew that their prophet's and god's instruction on such matters called for them to kill everyone involved - Ali, Muawiyah, and Muawiyah's deceptive viceroy, so that there would be just one dictator, or caliph, over the entire Islamic community worldwide.

Quoting Quran surah 2:204 and 2:207 out of context to justify the murder of Muhammad's relative, al-Kharij took Ali's life, setting an example future Muslims like Sheikh Abd al-Rahman would follow. Here is a review of that passage in context. If you would like a broader view of it, the surah was detailed in Prophet of Doom's "Anti-Semite" chapter.

Muhammad was now ready to reveal the real reason behind his new religion. He wanted his militants to fight for what he coveted. Qur'an 2.190 "Fight in Allah's Cause those who fight you, but do not transgress limits; for Allah like not the transgressors. (This is the first verse revealed in connection with Jihad, it was supplemented by the 9th Surah.)" Although this verse clearly orders Muslims to fight, the first of many such commands, Islamic apologists use this passage in the Western media to infer that Islamic fighting can only be defensive and moderate. Yet in context, that is not what it says. Just read the next verse: Qur'an 2:191 "And kill them wherever you find and catch them, and drive them out from where they have turned you out; for Al-Fitnah (polytheism, disbelief, oppression) is worse than slaughter." Slaying them "wherever you find and catch them" is clearly offensive, not defensive. So the prior verse has already been canceled, or abrogated in Muslim parlance. And there is no moderation when one says that being religious, unreligious or even being verbally confrontational, is worse than slaughter. Moreover, the parenthetical in verse 190 was added by the Islamic Arabic translators, because they recognized that the 9th surah's instructions on jihad abrogated all notions of restraint.

Eighty percent of the mosques in America and the West were built and are staffed by the Saud warlords wallowing in their OPEC crude. They also provide their terrorist manufacturing facilities with their reading material. The official Qur'an for the English-speaking market bears the stamp of the Fahd Foundation. In it, right below Qur'an 2:190, the Qur'an's first mention of Jihad, you'll find this passage: "Jihad is holy fighting in Allah's Cause with full force of numbers and weaponry. It is given the utmost importance in Islam and is one of its pillars. By Jihad, Islam is established, Allah's Word is made superior (which means only Allah has the right to be worshiped), and Islam is propagated. By abandoning Jihad, Islam is destroyed and Muslims fall into an inferior position; their honor is lost, their lands are stolen, their rule and authority vanish. Jihad is an obligatory duty in Islam on every Muslim. He who tries to escape from this duty, dies with one of the qualities of a hypocrite."

Verse 191 continues with these words: Qur'an 2:191 "Fight them not at the Sacred Mosque, until they fight you there; but if they fight you, kill them. Such is the reward of those who are unbelievers." This is nonsensical. It is not possible for the Muslims of Medina to be defensive fighters if they have marched to Mecca with their weapons.

Qur'an 2:192 "But if they cease/desist, Allah is Forgiving, Merciful." That sounds nice until you realize what they must "cease" doing. One must desist from rebuking Muhammad's claims - in other words, they must become a Muslim to avoid slaughter. Remember, no one was fighting the Muslims when this was handed down. They were the hunters. The Meccans were their prey. To be "forgiven" and not "slaughtered," one had to bow in submission and pay the zakat. They could not oppose Islam in word nor deed, politics nor religion, economically nor militarily.

Qur'an 2:193 "And fight them until there is no more Fitnah (disbelief and non-Islamic behavior, discussion, politics, or religion) and religion and politics is only for Allah. But if they cease, let there be no hostility except against infidel disbelievers." Muslims have been ordered to fight until the only religion is Islam - world conquest. And even when they have overrun the world, there shall be no safe haven for "infidel disbelievers." This is as clear as a swastika.

Qur'an 2:194 "The prohibited month for the prohibited month, and so for all things prohibited, there is the law of retaliation. If any one transgresses the prohibition against you, transgress likewise against him. But fear Allah, and know that Allah is with the pious." That was verbal diarrhea, so let's try another translation: "The forbidden month for the forbidden month, and forbidden things in retaliation. And one who attacketh you, attack him in like manner as he attacked you. Observe your duty to Allah, and know that Allah is with those who ward off (evil)." That was worse - there was no hint of restraint. Maybe a third translation will clear up Islam's "Golden Rule." "The Sacred month for the sacred month and all sacred things are retaliation; whoever then acts aggressively against you, inflict injury on him according to the injury he has inflicted on you." The problem isn't with the translators, it's with the source of inspiration.

At the time this was "revealed," Muhammad had a problem. His henchmen had murdered, robbed, and kidnapped in the pagan sacred month of Rejab. The pagan religion practiced in Arabia during this time forbid violence and thievery in the sacred month. Muhammad couldn't pocket the booty because the offense was so heinous. This handy situational scripture, garbled as it may have been, said, "The pagan month is important because I'm a pagan god but I'm granting Muhammad a special exemption because I('m) like him."

Now that the booty was safely pocketed, it was time to encourage more of the same. Qur'an 2:195 "Spend your wealth in Allah's Cause [just defined as fighting infidels], and be not cast by your own hands to perdition; and do good. Lo! Allah loves the doers of good." The Qur'an finally speaks of love, and wouldn't you know it: Allah loves Jihadists who do good by slaughtering in his cause.

Now that fighting is good, Muslims needed a place to fight, so it was off toQur'an 2:196 "Perform properly (according to the Prophet's Sunnah) the Hajj or Umrah, visiting Mecca for Allah. But if you are prevented then send such gifts as you can afford [i.e. if you can't go and fight, send money so that others can fight], and do not shave your heads until the offering reaches the place of sacrifice.… Fear Allah; He is severe in punishment." Each of these religious practices were pagan before they were Islamic.

There is no hint of violence in the Qur'an passage used by the Kharij to justify the assassination of Ali. Plucked from its context, it would be insufficient to condemn a non-clerical Islamic leader to die.Qur'an 2:204 "And of mankind there is he whose speech may please you (O Muhammad), in this worldly life, and he calls Allah to witness as to that which is in his heart, yet he is the most quarrelsome of the opponents."

The verses which follow, speak of this quarrelsome sweet talker "turning away from Muhammad to make mischief in the land and destroy the crops and cattle. Allah likes not mischief," which the Qur'an describes as un-Islamic behavior.Qur'an 2:206 "And when it is said to him ‘Fear Allah,' he is led by arrogance to crime. So enough for him is Hell, and worst indeed is that place to rest!" A god who wants to be feared cannot be loved. Moreover, Allah is saying that men who turn away from Muhammad's teaching are destructive economically when all evidence is to the contrary. The 50 Islamic nations remain the most impoverish on earth. If it weren't for OPEC and crude, they would all be destitute and bankrupt.

This passage is followed by one of many verses quoted by suicide bombers. It was the second verse deployed by the Kharij terrorists.Qur'an 2:207 "And of mankind is he who would sell himself, seeking the Pleasure of Allah. Allah is full of kindness to His slaves." Islamic Imams interpret this as saying "Allah is kind to those who sacrifice their lives for him, dying fighting in His Cause. They sell their lives in order to receive the reward of virgins in paradise."

This is followed by an edict demanding unquestioned religious submission - something required to manufacture a suicide bomber.Qur'an 2:208 "O you who believe! Enter perfectly in Islam [Arabic for Submission] (by obeying all the rules and regulations of the Islamic religion) and follow not the footsteps of Shaitan (Satan)." Allah (who is Satan) condemning Satan is confusing to those who do not understand how the Adversary operates. The Devil despises the Satanic title because it means "adversary." Satan wants people to believe that he is Allah - God. That is why Allah is endorsing religion, something Yahweh (the real and only God) despises. Satan knows that man's religious schemes are the surest way to lead mankind away from the Creator and to the counterfeit. And it is why the religion of Islam is fixated on deception, destruction, and death.

The second surah continues by telling Muslims to send money even if they can fight:Qur'an 2:215 "They ask you what they should spend. Say: Whatever they spend is good…. Allah is aware of it."

According to Allah, peace is bad and fighting is good. Remember, all comments within the parenthesis were added by the Islamic translators so that Muslims would understand Allah's edicts.Qur'an 2:216 "Jihad (holy fighting in Allah's Cause) is ordained for you (Muslims), though you dislike it. But it is possible that you dislike a thing which is good for you, and like a thing which is bad for you. But Allah knows, and you know not." Another translation reads: "Warfare is ordained for you, though it is hateful unto you." This is an open-ended commandment to fight anyone and everyone who has not surrendered to Islam. How, pray tell, do the "Islam-is-a-peaceful-religion" folks explain…"Jihad is ordained for you?"

Qur'an 2:217 "They question you concerning fighting in the sacred month. Say: ‘Fighting therein is a great/grave (matter); but to prevent access to Allah, to deny Him, to prevent access to the Sacred Mosque, to expel its members, and polytheism and disbelief are worse than slaughter. Nor will they cease fighting you until they make you renegades from your religion. If any of you turn back and die in unbelief, your works will be lost and you will go to Hell. Surely those who believe and leave their homes to fight in Allah's Cause have the hope of Allah's Mercy." The Islamic god must be very small if access to him can be prevented by men. But that wasn't the purpose of this passage. Muhammad wanted the Ansar Helpers or Hypocrites to know it would get nasty if they didn't join the warparty. He wanted fighters, not pacifists. What's more, the last line suggests something that will be made abundantly clear in later surahs: "Fight in my cause and paradise will be yours."

Muhammad had to be certain the Ansar knew that his party was not fun and games, so he had his "god" say:Qur'an 2:219 "They ask you about wine and gambling. Say: ‘In them is great sin, and some profit, for men; but the sin is greater than the profit.'" But if you are willing to "gamble" your soul on Muhammad's scheme, you'll find rivers flowing with "wine."

After polishing his war manifesto and get rich scheme, Muhammad turned his attention to his next favorite subject - women. Qur'anic Laws were dictated that placed women in submissive roles to men just as men had been placed in submission to Muhammad. To enforce his laws, he said: "Big Brother is watching. You'll be punished if you don't obey me."

Then the dark spirit returned to the main theme of the surah: "Fight because our enemies have mocked us and we hate them." The infidels were called a series of childish names and Muhammad convoluted Bible stories to make his crusade appear religious. These twisted portrayals continued through verse 257. A delusional trip down Jewish memory lane followed. Muhammad's twisted story of Abraham was as different from the original account as it was vulgar and insulting. Next, Allah attempted rational religious thought. His stories were moral and Biblically inspired. But sadly, even the more rational passages focused on taxes, of which Muhammad was beneficiary. This led to a rant on interest and a discussion of business contracts starting in verse 275. The motivation: Muslims had borrowed money from the Jews to survive and they didn't want to pay them back. These sections were short on spirituality and long on pent-up rage. And they all served to inspire the Islamic conquest of the world from India to Spain and their unrelenting hunting down of Jews. The people who were not killed were forced to pay an oppressive Islamic tax in submission.

In our journey to understand the Islamic Group, it is important to know that most all Islamic terrorist organizations today are a derivative of al-Kharij - meaning "The One Who Goes Out." The Kharij taught that there was no legitimate law for governing people apart from Allah's Law - known as Sharia Law today. That meant there could be no democracy nor representative government (people's law), no choice, no freedom of religion, no secularism, no free press nor open discussion, no women's rights, and no stopping the killing until the whole world was forced to submit to the politicized religion of Islam. Anyone who did not support their strict imposition of Islamic rule was labeled an infidel, and condemned to die. The Kharij demanded that all Muslims engage in jihad. All peaceful Muslims were labeled "infidel hypocrites" in accordance with the 9th surah.

The Kharij, many of whom knew Muhammad personally, and thus were intimately aware of his words and example, taught that it was permissible to kill women and children in terrorist raids. They went on to say, again in accordance with Muhammad's example, that Muslims had a god-given right to possess and control infidel women, children, and property. They taught that all forms of deception, outright dishonesty, theft, slavery, kidnapping, murder, and terror were justifiable, even necessary, in the advancement of the Islamic religion.

In the context of Islamic history, after governor and caliph Muawihah's death, his son Yazid assumed control of the Sunni portion of the Islamic Empire. He was not, however, accepted by Ali's son al-Husayn, who ruled over the Shiites after his father's murder. Al-Husayn's mother had been Fatmah, Muhammad's daughter, so he was well connected but not wise. On the warpath against Yazid, al-Husayn was killed in Karbala. That is why this city in modern Iraq has become the Shia religious capital. The Golden Dome Mosque was erected in Husayn's memory, because by dying fighting in Allah's Cause, al-Husayn was considered a martyr. It mattered not that he was fighting fellow Muslims because they had been labeled "hypocrites and infidels." And it is upon the alter of making this man a martyr that Shia Muslim terrorize Sunnis today in Iraq, turning the nation into a killing field which has claimed one hundred to six hundred thousand lives, depending upon whose accounting you believe.

The Marijuana Warriors, known as Hashshashin (Hashish Assassins) and called Fedayeen (those Prepared to Sacrifice their Lives), appeared next in the chronology of Islamic terrorist groups. In the 12th century, under the leadership of al-Hassan bin Sabbah, the Sheikh of Alamut, known as the Old Man of the Mountain, the Hashshashin used drugs and prostitutes to seduce Shia Muslims into sacrificing their lives while assassinating political and religious rivals. Their story is detailed under Fedayeen in the Islamic Clubs listing, so we won't repeat it here.

The next notable terrorist ensemble to enunciate the jihadist philosophy on which the blind Sheikh Rahman's Islamic Group's behavior is based, was the 14th-century Islamic scholar and terrorism patriarch Ibn Taimiyyah. This powerful Sunni leader was born in Syria in 1263 CE. He fought the Mongolian Muslims who were devastating the Byzantine Christians and Shia Muslims in Persia. He taught that the Mongolians were bad Muslims and thus infidel hypocrites who must be killed. Ibn Taymiyah issued a fatwah which said that any Muslim who submitted to their authority, helped them or dealt with them, was just like them. Then the Islamic cleric became an Islamic warlord, and savagely assaulted his Muslim brethren. There would be no peace, no dialog, no surrender, and no tolerance under Ibn Taimiyyah's leadership.

Ibn Taymiyah taught that all good Muslims were jihadists who, to retain their standing with Allah in Islam, had to fight and kill bad Muslims, Atheists, Pagans, Christians, and Jews. The Mongols were labeled "bad Muslims" unofficially because their leaders were claiming control of the lands Ibn Taymiyah coveted. Officially, they were labeled insufficiently Islamic in their governance.

This leads us to the next patriarch of Islamic terrorism: Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. He who was born in 1703 in the Arabian Peninsula, and was a student of Ibn Taymiyah. Wahhabist Islam is known today as the most pure and authentic, and thus fundamental form of the religion. Muhammad Wahhab based his Islam on the Salaf, the earliest Muslim ancestors who were the Companions of Muhammad.

The Salaf brought us the Quran, the Sira, Tarikh, and Hadith - Islam's oldest and most authoritative sources. Since Muhammad said that Islam could not change, Wahhab taught that anything which was not officially mandated by Muhammad and Allah had no place in the religion. It is why Wahhabists call themselves "Salafists," and why they are the best, most authentic Muslims.

In direct contradiction to all who apply the "radical" label to the Islam of today's terrorists, the only way for Wahhab or Salaf Muslims to be practicing a corrupted version of Islam, is for Muhammad and his Companions to have gotten Islam wrong. And if that were true, the religion has no basis of any kind. The moment you come to grips with this simple, yet profound, truth, the connection between Islam and terror becomes clear.

Since Wahhabi and Salafi Islam are identical, and since Wahhabi Islam formed the foundation of all Sunni terrorist groups today, including the Islamic Group and al-Qaeda, a review of Salafism is in order. Salafi, or Ancestor, Islam (Submission) is the Islam of Muhammad (Islam's lone prophet and Allah's singular voice). It is the Islam recorded in the Qur'an (Recital from ar-Rahman and Allah as passed along exclusively by the Salaf who were Muhammad's Companions). It is the Islam recorded in the Hadith (Oral Reports from the Salaf regarding Muhammad's words and deeds). It is the Islam recorded in the Sira (Ishaq's Biography of Muhammad as it was conveyed through the Salaf). It is the Islam documented in the Ta'rikh (Tabari's History of Islam's Formation as it was lived by the Salaf).

Salafi Islam forms the basis of all Islamic nations and cultures. Salafi Islam provides the basis for Sharia Law - the most repressive and anti-democratic legal system in the world. All of Islam's rituals, pilgrimages, prayers, and festivals come from the Salaf. Without the Salaf - Muhammad's Companions - there is no Islam. The Qur'an itself is a salaf book. First recited by Muhammad starting around 610 CE, it was retained exclusively in the minds of the Salaf, the first generation of Muslims, Muhammad's Companions. They passed it on orally to the Successors, and they passed it on orally to the Successors' Successors. The first extant written copy of the Qur'an dates to the early 8th century, over 100 years, or four generations of salaf, after it was recited orally.

Based upon polling data from Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Algeria, Lebanon, and the recent Palestinian elections, sixty to seventy percent of Muslims worldwide are Salafists. That means that fundamentalist Islam, the Islam of virtually all terrorists, is not a fringe movement. Salafi Islam is the purest form of the religion. Since it is based entirely upon the oldest and most authentic Islamic sources, it is the antithesis of a corruption. Salafist Muslims surrender to Allah's, Muhammad's, and the Qur'an's authority, so they cannot be "insurgents." Insurgents are those who rebel against authority. While Salafist Muslims hijacked airplanes and turned them into weapons of mass destruction, these terrorists have not hijacked their religion.

Until you come to understand what the five oldest sources reveal about Muhammad, Allah, and Islam (those being the Qur'an, Ishaq's Sira, Tabari's Ta'rikh, and Bukhari's and Muslim's Hadith Collections), you have no chance whatsoever of understanding Islamic terrorism or how to combat it. In fact, like the president of the United States, if you speak out or lash out without first coming to understand Salafi/Wahhabi Islam, you will do far more harm than good. It is why I wrote Prophet of Doom - Islam's Terrorist Dogma in Muhammad's Own Words before composing this terrorist timeline.

Salaf is a term I wish everyone in the world knew. If they did, Islam's most deadly myth would be obliterated. America's politicians, media, scholars, and clerics most all say that "the terrorists are radical Muslims who are practicing a corrupted interpretation of Islam," which they refer to as "radical Islam." The overt and misleading implication is that "true Islam is a moderate, good, and peaceful religion," suggesting that "we are not at war with Islam." Actually, the opposite is true. Islamic terrorists are salafi, and thus they are fundamentalists. They make this perfectly clear during their public statements - especially in Arabic. It is the "peaceful Islamic moderates" who are actually Islamic radicals, having corrupted Islam to suit their sensibilities.

Salaf fundamentalist Islam is the sole motivation for Islamic terrorism. That being irrefutable, it means that every American politician, media spokesperson, scholar, and cleric who speaks on the subject of Islam and terrorism, including the president of the United States, is lying. That being the case, the Iraq war was counterproductive, because America replaced a secular dictator with a fundamentalist Islamic government. Even worse, since America and the West have transferred ten trillion dollars to the Salafi OPEC clerics and warlords who control the Middle Eastern Islamic countries, it means we have financed our own funeral.

If you want more proof regarding the Salafi basis of Islam, and of the authority of Ishaq, Tabari, Bukhari, and Muslim, the original Islamic sources, read the "Islam's Dark Past" Source Material Appendix to Prophet of Doom. I present a scholarly review of Islam's prime reading materials at the outset of that chapter. What you will find is that there are no old, authentic, or reliable non-salaf Islamic scriptures of any kind. Anything that is said about Islam that isn't salaf is thus inaccurate revisionism - a corrupted interpretation, or hijacked version, of the religion.

And that's not good because as I prove conclusively in Prophet of Doom, the salafi sources are universally violent and immoral as was the life of the man whose words and deeds they chronicled. Therefore, Islam is violent and immoral at its core. It is why Muslims kill. It is why Muslims deceive. It is what you need to know about Islam to protect yourself from it.

Returning to the life of the Salaf reformer, in 1744 Ibn Abd al-Wahhab began to attract followers near Najd in central modern day Saudi Arabia. Lacking a base of support, Wahhab's teachings were challenged by Sulayman Ibn Muhammad al-Hamidi of the Khalid tribe. He had become the warlord over Al-Hasa and Qatif. Hamidi threatened to kill Wahhab over a tax collection issue, forcing the patriarch of terror to flee.

Muhammad Wahhab regained his stride after he returned to Najd and persuaded a local warlord to destroy a sacred tomb revered by Muslims, citing the Prophet Muhammad's instructions not to revere the tombs of the dead. He issued a fatwah, demanding that an adulteress be stoned to death, a practice that had become uncommon in Islam but is now practiced throughout the Middle East. Considered the Martin Luther of Islam, Muhammad Wahhab cleansed the religion of its human indulgences and brought the faith back to its roots - its scriptural fundamentals. And like Martin Luther, Wahhab was vehemently anti-Semitic.

Muhammad Wahhab's Salafi understanding of Islam was honed while living in Basra. There, he became known for his debates with the Islamic scholars, and it was in Basra that he wrote Kitab Al Tawhid (the Book of Monotheism). In Basra, Wahhab earned the title: "the Populist Scholar." Over time, Wahhab's teachings came to dominate the Islamic cultures in Iran, Iraq, the Arabian Peninsula, and Syria, but not in Egypt or Turkey where the warlords leagued against him.

Initially, the Islamic scholar terrorized Arabs in partnership with the Al Saud clan. Their jihadists went on to fight the Ottoman Turks to reclaim central Arabia, Mecca and Medina. The "Saud" designation of the Kingdom of "Saudi Arabia," denotes who owns and controls the fiefdom. The name can be traced to the Najd date harvester Muhammad ibn Al Saud who leagued with Wahhab. Their climb to clerical influence and warlord status coincided. Collectively they gave rise to Wahhabism - the fundamentalist, or Salaf interpretation of pure Islam that is endorsed by Saudi Arabia and all Sunni terrorist groups. Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab wrote and preached against leaders and traditions that he deemed contrary to Islam, and Muhammad ibn Al Saud enforced his religious decrees. The Saud "royal" family continues to do this to this very day.

The religious reformer Muhammad Wahhab, and the political jihadist Muhammad al Saud, swore an oath of allegiance in 1744 to establish a state ruled according to Islam, and thus in accordance with Muhammad's decrees and example. Collectively, by word and sword, they demanded that all political power be used to impose fundamentalist Islamic theology with them in control. It was a typical marriage of greedy cleric validating a wannabe king, and a wannabe king offering to fight to impose the religion of the cleric upon the masses. The Catholics were especially adept at this game but with the Reformation, they lost their iron grip. Stuck in time, Muslims still use the marriage of cleric and king to control and fleece their victims.

By 1765, Wahhabism, lesser known as fundamentalist Islam, backed by the jihadist threats of Al Saud, dominated much of the Arabian political, religious, and social landscape. Then after Muhammad ibn Saud died in 1765, his son, Abd al Aziz continued the Wahhabi advance. In 1802, Saudi-Wahhabi Sunni-Salaf mujahideen reached and destroyed the Shia holy city of Karbala, leveling the shrine Shi'ites had built commemorating the assassination of their spiritual forefather Husayn, the martyred grandson of the prophet Muhammad. The following year, the Saudi-Wahhabi jihadists conquered Mecca and Medina, destroying the monuments which had been erected for prayers to Muslim saints. This assault made it impossible Shia Muslims and non-Wahhab Sunnis to fulfill the pillar of Islam which required a pilgrimage to Mecca. So the Ottoman sultan, who was also a Muslim but not a Salaf, ordered the recapture of the religious sites and leagued with Egyptian forces to regain control over Allah's house, the Ka'aba.

Since the teachings of Muhammad Wahhab form the basis of the Saudi educational system and are taught exclusively in every Saudi mosque, including the thousands which have been built in America and Europe, it's important to know how the conflict between the Sunni Wahhabis and their Shia and Turk rivals turned out, and how that led to the modern OPEC state most responsible for fueling terrorism's advance. History tells us that the Egyptians and Turks were universally successful for six years, but that the Al Sauds reestablished their political and religious control, starting with the village of Najd in 1824. They parlayed that into control of Riyadh shortly thereafter. While there was nothing nearing a "state" of Saudi Arabia at the time, the Sauds had sufficient military resources to collect tribute payments from neighboring Arab tribes.

The Wahhab Sauds then minimized the internal rebellions and strife that plagued their intolerant religious, dictatorial political, and ruthless militant rule, by externalizing the enemy - pitting the British and Ottomans against each other. But after a series of assassinations, the Saud clan devolved into competing factions, which inspired infighting and civil war. Their rival, Al Rashid, rose in power as a result. But then in 1891, Muhammad ibn Rashid placed Riyadh under the nominal control of Al Saud leader Abd ar Rahman, even though real control remained in the hands of his own garrison. When the Al Sauds, under ar Rahman, attempted to assert their authority, the Al Rashid clan drove them out of Riyadh, forcing them to take refuge in Kuwait. The Kuwaiti/Saudi alliance is strong to this day.

In 1902, Abd al Aziz, the eldest son of Abd ar Rahman (his full name was Abd al-Aziz bin Abd al-Rahman al Saud) led a small jihadist force on a raid that captured Riyadh from the rival Islamic warlord Muhammad ibn Rashid. With that foothold he cultivated his Wahhabi connections, establishing himself as the Saud warlord to be reckoned with and as a Wahhabi imam, or the most pure, fundamentalist Islamic religious leader. Then Aziz al Saud led a 30-year armed campaign against civilian centers, to capture and control much of the Arabian Peninsula, forging treaties with various tribes by way of bribe and threat. In 1921 his Saud-Wahhabi forces defeated the militants of rival warlord Al Rashid at Hail, and in 1924, they ousted the Egyptian-Ottoman garrisons at Mecca and Medina.

It wasn't until September of 1932 that the United Kingdom, having won control of the Middle East from the Ottoman Turks in World War One, gave Arabia to Abd al Aziz ibn Abd ar-Rahman Al Saud. The peninsula was a gift, or more correctly a bribe, for his performance as a warlord fighting his Muslim brothers on behalf of the Brits (actually it was on behalf of himself but the Brits are easily fooled). He named his fiefdom after himself, calling Arabia "the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia." It wasn't, however, much of a prize, or so it seemed at the time. The Saud-Wahhabi "state" was devastated economically throughout the 1930s. But then geologists discovered the world's largest, best quality, and most easily extracted crude oil deposits. Enter the OPEC cartel in 1960, and the confiscation of British and American oil assets, and fundamentalist Wahhab Islam was fueled and ready to attack the world. And so it would be. Beginning in 1960, and flowing out of Saudi Arabia, jihadist Islam, the Islam of Muhammad, the Kharij, of the Hashshashin Fedayeen, of Ibn Taymiyah, and Muhammad Wahhab, set out to terrorize mankind.

Make no mistake, the Saud warlords ruling the fiefdom of Saudi Arabia are Wahhabist and resolute Salafists. That is why Saudi Arabia is one of the world's leading terrorist manufacturing facilities and the wellhead of terror funding. It is why 85% of the 9/11 suicide bombers were Saudi subjects. Al-Qaeda is Salafist and Wahhabist, and thus is in lockstep with the Islamic educational and religious system entrenched in Saudi Arabia. Osama bin Laden's authority comes from Salafi Islam. Period.

The second most significant contributor to Islamic terrorism is Pakistan, where the dictatorial government of General Musharaf is Salafist as well. Pakistan's mosques and madrassas have manufactured as many, if not more, terrorists than Saudi Arabia. They were responsible for the Taliban - the fundamentalist regime harboring al-Qaeda before the group moved into Pakistan. Taliban chief Mullah Omar was trained in the Binori Mosque Madrassa in Karachi. The head of Pakistan's ISI intelligence service, Lt. General Mahmoud Ahmad, not only provided the funds, arms, and direction to the Taliban, he and they provided direct wire transfers to Muhammad Atta, the 9/11 ringleader, immediately before he murdered 3,000 Americans. Pakistan is the home of Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Shaikh Muhammad, the men responsible for the first and second World Trade Center bombings. Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman's Islamic Group, the organization most responsible for the first World Trade Center bombing, also resides in Pakistan, having left Egypt for a more supportive nation.

The third member of the Salafist Trinity may take you by surprise. It is the Shia mullahs who lord over Iran. Shia Islam is Salafi Islam. All five of Islam's earliest and most authoritative sources, including the Qur'an, are Shi'ite in origin. The Islamic clerics who control Iran are Salafists - as are the poisonous anti-Semitic words which pour out of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's mouth. But the moment you recognize this reality, the false hope you may have of victory in Afghanistan and Iraq dissipates. By way of the Taliban, Pakistan still controls neighboring Afghanistan. And by way of Shi'ite clerics like al-Sadr and the Ayatollah al-Sistani, Iran now controls neighboring Iraq.

Now that you know who influenced the Islamic Group, and understand how the Salaf, Kharij, Hashshashin Fedayeen, Taymiyah, and Wahhab jihadists influenced their spiritual leader and founder, Sheikh Rahman, it's important to recognize that the second most popular Egyptian Muslim group, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, now known as al-Qaeda, announced in 1981 that Sheikh Rahman was also their spiritual leader. It wasn't by accident. By the late 1980s the world's leading Quran scholar had become professor emeritus to the tens of thousands of Muslim Mujahideen fighting in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. Since that war was started and financed by Jimmy Carter, the man responsible for the murder of Anwar Sadat (Jimmy's Camp David buddy) and the first World Trade Center bombing, was on the American payroll.

It was in 1981 after being declared the spiritual leader of the Islamic Group and Islamic Jihad, as well as of the mujahideen, who would become the Taliban and al-Qaeda, that Sheikh Rahman's GAI and Ayman al-Zawahiri's EIJ assassinated Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, calling the Muslim leader "an infidel."

Here is a review of that day and the trial which followed. On October 6, 1981 Egyptian president Anwar Sadat was assassinated through the combined effort of Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the Islamic Group, collectively called al-Qaeda after the merger. The assassination order was issued by the highest ranking Qur'anic scholar on earth, Sheikh Omar Abdel ar-Rahman, head of Qur'anic studies at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt - Islam's leading academic institution.

Egypt's Supreme Court would later exonerate ar-Rahman even though he publicly supported the murder, and had met with the five jihadists convicted and executed for the assassination. His defense was that the Qur'an and Sunnah (the words and example of Muhammad) demanded that good Muslims kill peaceful, hypocritical Muslims. This blind Islamic cleric was then given a visa to enter the United States, where, after receiving a tumultuous welcome by Muslims in America, he not only preached the terrorist message of Islam, he lived it - planning the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

Here is a partial transcript of Sheikh ar-Rahman's trial:

Sheikh Rahman: "Justice should be according to what Allah has set for the Muslims only. Allah's lordship should be acknowledged by all Muslims. The people who carry out Islamic justice are faithful believers who obey Allah's commands and the prophet Muhammad's teachings. Imported laws from infidel countries like the USA and Europe are manmade and are not according to Allah's laws. Anyone who alters or compromises Allah's laws, or who submits to a compromise or alteration is a renegade infidel. The Qur'an orders us to kill renegades. What I am saying is not my opinion, but is what Allah's book says. A Muslim leader cannot be a friend of the Jews or be a supporter of Israel. An Islamic leader must not abandon Allah's law and comply with the laws of the infidels."

Attorney General: "The belief that Allah is the lawmaker and the only judge does not mean that if our Islamic society finds solution according to our social and mental standards of living today that so doing makes it a renegade, infidel society."

Sheikh Rahman: "Disobeying Allah and his law in the name of convenience has only one meaning - it is sinful. Those who do are lost infidels who have abandoned Allah. They are the ones whom Allah commanded the Muslims to kill in Jihad."

Attorney General: "Jihad is not killing. This is not Islam's teaching. Jihad is a spiritual fight against evil, poverty, sickness, and sin. Killing is only from the devil."

[There isn't a single Qur'an verse or Hadith quote which supports this definition. The Islamic scholar, unlike the American media, knew that Egypt's Attorney General was lying.]

Sheikh Rahman: "From where does the Attorney General come up with this understanding? Are there verses in the Qur'an that I don't know about that say jihad is a spiritual fight against evil, poverty, sickness and sin? Perhaps there is a new inspiration from Allah that our Attorney General received recently and the rest of the Muslims do not yet have. Mr. Attorney General, your ideas are from the devil."

[In other words, the Qur'an and Muhammad have a single definition of Jihad. Here it is directly from Islam's second leading academic institution, one financed by the Sauds: "Al-Jihad (the holy fighting) in Allah's Cause (with full force of number and weaponry) is given the utmost importance in Islam and is one of its pillars (on which it stands). By Jihad Islam is established, Allah's Word is made superior (which means none has the right to be worshipped by Allah) and His Religion (Islam) is propagated. By abandoning Jihad (may Allah protect us from that) Islam is destroyed and the Muslims fall into an inferior position, their honor is lost, their lands are stolen, their rule and authority vanish. Jihad is an obligatory duty in Islam on every Muslim, and he who tries to escape the this duty, or does not in his innermost heart wish to fulfill this duty, dies with one of the qualities of a hypocrite" Bukhari's Book of Jihad - Fighting In Allah's Cause, page 580 & The Nobel Qur'an, page 39, in reference to Surah 2:190.]

Attorney General: "If any Muslim society confesses that Allah is the only God and that Muhammad is his prophet, no one has the right to accuse them of being infidels."

Sheikh Rahman: "What you say is not the real truth. Someone can confess that Allah is God and that Muhammad is his prophet, but he can do something against his confession, and this takes him outside of Islam [In other words, there are no moderate or peaceful Muslims.]."

Attorney General: "President Al-Sadat was a great man who sacrificed his life for the love of Allah and the love of his country."

Sheikh Rahman: "Do you know how this man sacrificed his life for the love of his country? He is the same man who declared that all religions are equal. He made the infidels and the grandchildren of the monkeys and pigs [the Qur'anic definition of Jews] equal to the Muslims. He made the world's greatest criminal murderer his dear friend [referring to Begin, Israel's prime minister]. This man who you claim sacrificed his life for Allah broke all of Allah's laws in this country. He even described the Muslim women's veil as a tent. This man insulted Allah when he danced with and hugged women publicly [Sadat danced with Mrs. Carter on national television.] This man led our country to free enterprise and nearly destroyed our economy [Since Islam means submission, and Allah said that there is no choice, there can be no freedoms in an Islamic society, including free-enterprise.]. He led our country to moral and social disaster."

[The Qur'an orders good Muslims to fight non-Muslims until the whole world submits to Allah in Islam. The mastermind of Anwar Sadat's murder not only justified the assassination using the Qur'an and Muhammad's example, he was declared "not guilty" under Islamic law. Worse, the United States government, ignorant of Islam at best, and perhaps complicit in their schemes, allowed this man to enter into the United States and plot its destruction.]

From 1985 through 1990, Abd al Rahman appeared in England, Switzerland, the United States, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and of course, the Sudan. His travels were funded by the Sauds, and his purpose was to promote jihad around the world.

In 1988, the sheik returned to Peshawar, Pakistan, the main mujahideen base on the Afghan frontier. On this visit, he met with Dr. Abdullah Azzam, a Jordanian-born Palestinian and Islamic law scholar who ran the largest recruitment center for Muslim volunteers for the Afghan war. Azzam's recruitment operation became known as al-Qaeda as it flourished with covert U.S. funding. Over the next two years, Abdel Rahman moved in and out of Peshawar, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Back in Egypt in 1989, Rahman was arrested again and put on trial after an anti-Christian riot broke out at the El Shohada Mosque in Fayoum. It had been his preaching during regular Friday prayers which had inspired the violence against the defenseless Copts.

In 1990, Rahman left Egypt for Sudan - the most ruthless Sunni regime on earth. Despite the fact that he was on a list of suspected terrorists barred from entry into America, the blind Quran scholar was given a visa at the United States Embassy in Khartoum. After another pass through Pakistan to meet with fellow Islamic terrorists including Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden, he arrived in New York in July 1990. Greeted by enthusiastic American Muslims, Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman became the leader of New Jersey's largest mosque.

In 1993, Rahman was charged with leading a terrorist group that orchestrated the World Trade Center bombing, the 1990 assassination of Jewish Defense League leader Rabbi Meir Kahane, as well as a foiled plot to blow up the United Nations building, the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, and the Manhattan offices of the FBI. The world's leading Qur'an scholar was convicted on these charges in 1995 and sentenced to life in prison.

On December 14, 2006, Rahman was admitted to St. John's Regional Hospital in Springfield, Missouri due to a medical emergency. Suffering from diabetes, heart ailments, and a newly discovered liver tumor, he has spent much of his imprisonment at the Springfield Medical Center for federal prisoners. During Ramadan of that year, a videotape issued by al-Qaeda in Iraq sought Western hostages to exchange for Rahman's release. According to the FBI, Rahman remains a significant inspirational source for al-Qaeda and violent reprisals are expected in case of his death in prison.

Rifai Ahmed Taha was Omar Adel Rahman's parner in crime with regard to the formation of al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya. Today, he is a close associate of Osama bin Laden. Taha, like Rahman, is a native of Egypt and is a Salaf Sunni Muslim. In 1998, Taha signed bin Laden's famous fatwa which called for attacks on Americans. Over the years, Taha traveled frequently to Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, as a recruiter, fundraiser and spokesperson for GAI and al-Qaeda. Shortly after September 11th, Syria arrested Taha and extradited him to Egypt where he faced the death penalty for his involvement in earlier terrorist attacks. Taha is believed to still be in prison in Egypt and if so, is facing execution.

Nageh Ibrahim was another founding member of al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya (the Islamic Group). In 1984, he was given a long prison sentence for his involvement in the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. He was released in November 2005 as part of a truce agreement between the Egyptian government and GAI. While in prison, he participated in GAI's renunciation of violence to earn his freedom. In 1997, he was one of eight Islamic Group leaders, who tired of being tortured by Egypt's religious police, helped write four books that denounced jihad tactics against foreigners. It was disingenuous however, because immediately thereafter, the Islamic Group massacred scores of foreign tourists at Luxor.

Also in violation of their repudiation of terror against non-Muslims, in 1993, the Islamic Group helped orchestrate the first World Trade Center bombing in New York. They killed seven Americans, including an unborn child. A total of 1,040 other Americans were wounded in their attack. The first Islamic bombing of the World Trade Center cost Americans $500 million. The costs to America from the second Islamic bombing of the World Trade Center would be much more severe.