Fighting Terrorism Ideologically 

By: Ali Sina 

The war we are waging against Islamic terrorism is the war of ideologies. Anyone who listened to Al Qaida's demand knows that they are waging this war to topple our democratic governments and replace them with Khilafat. All they want is to convert us to Islam or make us subservient to it. (Quran 9:29)

Therefore the Islamic terrorism must be fought not just militarily but also ideologically.  

Islamic terrorists are growing like Mushroom. Each one of them can take tens or hundreds of us and no matter how many of them we kill more will just grow from beneath the rocks.  

Firstly finding them and destroying them before they destroy us is close to impossible and secondly they are manufactured much faster than we can eliminate them.  

It does not take a rocket scientist to realize we are losing and they are winning.  

It is not because of lack of education; Al Zawahiri is a doctor. It is not because of poverty; Bin Laden is filthy rich. It is not about land; Israel has not grabbed any land from Malaysia, Pakistan, Britain or America and yet the good Muslims in these countries and all over the world want the destruction of Israel. So the hypothesis that if we educate the Muslims and make their lives better they will not become attracted to terrorism is false. Quite the contrary, the Islamic terrorism started when Saudi Arabia became rich. Most of the terrorists come from middle class and they are well educated.   

Also the Islamic terrorism is not about Israel occupying Palestine. This is just an excuse. Even if we allow the Muslims to massacre all the Jews, the Islamic terrorism will not end. It will be invigorated and will come for the rest of us.  

Appeasing the terrorists is insanity. Winston Churchill said, “Appeaser is one who feeds the crocodile hoping it will eat him last”.  

The problem is that fighting them also is impossible. As someone said, they have to be lucky just once but we have to be lucky every time.  

And the fact is that they are winning. Just count how many innocent people they killed only in this new century across the world and how many of them we captured or killed during this same time. Mr. Bush’s claim that we are making them retreat is wishful thinking. For every man they lose, we lose hundreds. next it could be you or your loved ones. And they do not come by hundreds or thousands but by millions. You do the math to see who will be left standing when the dust settles.  

I am not trying to be a fear monger but let us be real. We can’t win this war just by our military might. Our funds will run out and the terrorists will only grow in number.  Fighting an enemy that you can't see is costly. It costs us billions while it cost them nothing. Soon we will be reduced to poverty. The funds that had to be used for our health, education, infrastructure and old age pension will be spent for self defense. This will slow down our growth and our economy will enter into a big depression.  This war cannot be won just militarily. And this is a reality that we would neglect at our own peril. Our resources are not unlimited, but their hatred for us is. 

A few of us have been fighting this battle on ideological grounds. But what just a few people can do? This is not even like the fight of David against Goliath but rather the fight of a few ants against an army of elephants. Make it hyenas because they are ready to shed our blood at sight if they could catch us.   

The truth is that the ideology of the terrorists is the same ideology of the “moderate Muslims”. We are just fooling ourselves if we believe that there is a peaceful Islam and a warring Islam. Islam is Islam and when a Muslim goes to practice it he becomes a terrorist. 

If we want to end the Islamic terrorism, we have to end Islam. The more we hide our heads in the sand and pretend we do not see what is going on, the more lives will be lost.  

Even though I believe since Islam is not just a religion but a political movement bent to conquer the world, topple the democracies and establish the Khalifat, it is the duty of the governments to combat it, I understand their reluctance to fight Islam head on. But this does not mean they should not fight this ideology of terror, camouflaged as religion that has declared war on them and their people covertly.  

We need to reach the Muslim youth and tell them the truth about Islam. They must see Islam is not a religion and all Muhammad's promises of virgins are lies. It is better to help them out of Islam than killing them as terrorists.  Yes this is very doable. Just look at Iran today and compare it to the Iran of 25 years ago. We need to have Internet sites in all the languages for those Muslims who can access the Internet. But the majority can't and sites such as this are banned in many Islamic countries. We need to have radios broadcasting in all the languages spoken by the Muslims.  

This is the cheapest way to fight Islamic terrorism and it is the most effective one. This tree must be withered from the root or it will continue yielding terrorists.