Islam and Terrorism (17 page)

Shokri Moustafa appearing before the Egyptian court.

Moustafa’s book declared there was not much difference between the existing governments of Israel, the United State, and European countries. They are all heathen and the enemy of Allah according to Moustafa, and they should be fought through jihad until they submit to Islam completely.
⁶

In 1977 when the Egyptian government carried out the death sentence on Moustafa and some of his leadership, they were thinking that it would be the end of the movement. This was not the case. Radical groups flourished in Egypt in the 1970s and 1980s due to a variety of reasons. It was all leading to another attempt to overthrow the government.

Chapter 16

RECRUITING FOR HOLY WAR

Terrorist Group Controls Egyptian Universities

I
N THE EARLY
1970s the Egyptian government released many of the members of the Muslim Brotherhood Movement from the prisons. President Sadat thought that their activity would counteract the influence of the Soviets and communism in Egypt, which it did. But at the same time the movement expanded, gained power, and became dangerous to the Egyptian government as well.

A new group called
al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya
, known as the Islamic Group Movement, or IGM, in English, was formed. Its strategy was to recruit and disciple young men from the high schools and colleges.

Many of the older generation that were released from the prisons worked as mentors for the new generation. These mentors were former professors from Al-Azhar University.

R
ECRUITING AT
M
Y
U
NIVERSITY

When the new Islamic Group Movement started, its leaders followed the first two steps of Qutb’s plan. They started camps all over to prepare their members spiritually and mentally. They filled their camps with recruits from the universities of Egypt. These groups had complete control of the campuses of the major universities in Egypt.

The routine of the camps was for new members to
come in for three to seven days to pray, fast, and study the Quran and the history of Islam. They focused their study on Muhammad’s life and how he led jihad and applied the Islamic law. The leaders of these groups brainwashed the students to believe that they were the only hope of Islam and that it was the time to get Islam back on the right track toward establishing an Islamic nation worldwide.

At the time I was living in Al-Azhar dorm in Nasser City in Cairo. This dorm had thirty-five hundred students from all over the country.

The Islamic Group Movement members utilized the campus mosque for their daily prayers, and in between prayers they worked hard to recruit and disciple new students into the movement. One day we were all at the mosque for prayer when an IGM leader stood up and said, “There is a secret Christian group that rents apartments near the dormitories. They are against Islam, and they are forcing female students to have sex with Christian men.” Then he gave them the apartment numbers. The students were shocked and emotionally boiling.

He continued, “There is also a little shop near the entrance to the girl’s dormitory. It is selling pens, paper, and snacks. This shop is distributing pornography magazines for free to the Muslim girls. This Christian group is trying to get the girls out of Islam.”

A fire was lit in the heart of every student. “Christians! Doing this to our girls? We will go and destroy them!”

Hundreds of students stampeded to the shop. They doused it with gas and burned it to the ground. Then they went to the apartments and destroyed them too.

The mob of students returned to the dorm at lunchtime but refused to eat. They destroyed thirty-five hundred meals and kicked the workers out of the building. Then
they locked the doors and rioted, running around the building shouting, “
Allah o akbar!
” (Allah is great!)

For three days the dormitory was locked down. There was no eating, no going to classes. But some students did not support this movement. To escape, they had to scale the wall around the dormitory and run back to their homes. I was one of those students. The standoff did not end until the president of the university and a government secretary met with the leader of IGM at the university.

Later the minister of national security came to campus and declared that no Christian group was seducing the female students. This helped many students to recognize that groups like the IGM were just violent people who were trying to create an enemy to fight. They just wanted to show their power to society.

S
PIRITUAL
L
EADERSHIP

Once a year the movement organized national rallies. The different university campuses united to hear people such as Sheikh Abed Al-Hamid Kishk, Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, or other leaders and icons of Islam inspire the movement. Year after year this movement spread its wings over Sudan, Tunisia, Algeria, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and many other countries.

Sheikh Kishk and Sheikh Abdel Rahman made an incredible impact on the minds of the young men during that time.

Sheikh Abed Al-Hamid Kishk

Sheikh Abed Al-Hamid Kishk was one of the most eloquent leaders of Islam in Egypt and the Arab world. Sheikh Kishk had a very aggressive voice and special talent of utilizing the old classical Arabic language to hold
the audience in the palm of his hand. He used his talents to deliver many political messages to thousands of young, thirsty minds. He controlled the minds of the audience almost like magic; he made them cry and laugh in the same breath.

Kishk was well known for his impudent and sassy tongue, and he attacked the government and those in high positions many times. Sheikh Kishk used cassette tapes to invade the Arabic world, breaking all the geographic barriers with his radical messages.

Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman

Sheikh Abdel Rahman was my professor for “freshman Quran” at Al–Azhar. He is now serving a life sentence in the United States for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. But before he came to the United States, he had an even greater impact on the Middle East.

As a graduate and professor of Al-Azhar University, he has his doctorate of philosophy in interpretation of the Quran and Islamic law. Sheikh Abdel Rahman became the spiritual authority and leader for today’s radical groups.

His leadership was the perfect model for these radical terrorist groups as seen in the following characteristics:

•   He did not compromise the Quran.

•   He did not have any relationship with the government and did not submit to its laws and authority.

•   He was a teacher of the Quran and Islamic law, which made many young Muslims trust him and obey his commands, even to kill.

•   He led jihad according to the Quran and believed in building an Islamic nation according to Islamic law. He was willing to give his life for the cause.

While these two men were recruiting and building support to overturn Egypt, another nation in the Middle East actually succeeded in doing so. It would provide inspiration and support for many radicals. This country was Iran.

Chapter 17

INSPIRED BY IRAN

A Truly Islamic State Is Born

I
N
1979 I
RANIAN
Shiite Muslims started their Islamic movement. They were against Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi and his government. The spiritual leaders of the country supported this movement to overturn the government.

Prior to this time fundamentalist Iranian Muslims did not express their beliefs. They were in tremendous fear of the government. They followed the
Al-Tokiya
method of hiding their faith: “Inside I hate you, but outside I pretend to be your friend.”
Al-Tokiya
meant that the Muslims behaved in a way that pleased the government, not according to their beliefs.

The rebellion started after many of the Shiite Muslims regained the spirit of martyrdom that was buried inside of them. They remembered how al-Husayn, the son of Ali ibn Abi Talib and the grandson of Muhammad, went to fight his enemy even though he knew he would be killed. The Iranian spiritual leaders reminded the Shiites of the history of martyrdom. Immediately Iranian Muslims started to abandon
Al-Tokiya
and to adopt the spirit of Shiite martyrdom.

At the same time and from a distance Ayatollah Khomeini was leading this movement through cassettes. From a French village called Le Château, Khomeini recorded on cassette tapes his teaching, beliefs, and plan
for the new Islamic revolution and sent them to the people of Iran. These cassettes brainwashed millions of people. An Italian writer wrote a book about the Iranian revolution and called it
The War of Cassettes
.

Thousands of Iranians were killed in this revolution. Iranian history had never recorded such a powerful revolution before.

The revolution overthrew the government and succeeded in establishing an Islamic government. Ayatollah Khomeini was flown from France back to Iran. He bowed down twice outside the aircraft before the flight to Tehran and thanked Allah. Through reporters and media he sent a message to the Shiites in Iran and to the world that “no one can defeat a nation that receives Allah’s orders and obeys them.”

Millions of Iranians received him at his arrival at Tehran’s airport. The city was shaken by the sound of them shouting, “
Allah o akbar
!”—Allah is great. They carried Khomeini on their shoulders all the way to a graveyard called
Al-Ferdose
, where all the martyrs of the revolution were buried. Khomeini stated, “No more
Al-Tokiya
after today.” He meant that the Shiite Muslims now had the power to practice their beliefs with no fear of a government or any other power in this world.

R
EACTION AT THE
U
NIVERSITY

Those historical days had a great impact on Islam and the world. At the university members of the Islamic Group Movement used what happened in Iran to rebel against the Egyptian government. They violently protested classes in all universities in Egypt, including Al-Azhar University.

Thousands of students shouted out in support of
Khomeini. This protest included great numbers of students who had never been a part of the Islamic Group Movement before. This occasion was a great opportunity for new recruits.

The protest snowballed out of control throughout Egypt. The number of the protesters grew to be a major threat to the Egyptian authorities.

The Islamic Group members led thousands to shout against the government. They declared that Islam should take over Egypt, just like in Iran. “Oh Sadat, oh you coward, you are the puppet of the Americans,” they shouted.

They cried out against the nation of Israel too: “Patience, patience, all ye Jews: Muhammad’s military is on their way back to you.”

I
RAN
E
XPORTS
I
TS
R
EVOLUTION

The Iranian revolution supported many Islamic radical groups in the Arab nations and around the world. The leadership of the Iranian revolution said they were getting into a new business. They were going to export their best product to the entire world—true Islamic law and revolution.

In the years since the revolution Iran has supported all of the Islamic fundamentalist groups that have terrorized the world. One of the earlier groups that Iran planted and supported was Hizbollah. This was a Shiite group in Lebanon whose mission was to overturn the government there and establish an Islamic nation. Lebanon was a country that was led by the Christian majority.

Iran also supported the establishment of the Islamic nation in Sudan. Hasan al-Turabi, the leader of
Al-Jepha Al-Islamia
, overturned the Sudanese government and
established an Islamic nation there. Iran’s support of Islamic movements traveled across many countries, including Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, and many other Arab countries.

I
RAQ
S
TRIKES
I
RAN

Fear and terror struck the Arab countries of the Gulf. They were threatened by the Iranian project of exporting revolution into their countries. Saddam Hussein, the ruler of Iraq, had no intention of sharing his authority with fundamentalist Muslims or anyone else. He led the regional defense against the Iranian revolution and invaded Iran. All the Arab countries and the rest of the world supported him.

The Iraqi military invaded 30 percent of the Iranian homeland. The Iranians took advantage of this opportunity to defend their home and become martyrs in the name of Allah. It took two years of war for the Iranians to kick the Iraqi military out of their land. The Iranians did not stop at the border. They took the war into Iraqi soil for six more years.