MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

Significant numbers of respondents in ‘moderate’ Islamic countries adhere to many not-so-moderate views …

By Bernardo Cervellera – “Radical Islam has always been present in Islam, but it has emerged in recent decades thanks to the Muslim Brotherhood (founded in Egypt in 1928) and with the support from the Saudi Wahhabi ideology. It supposes a literalist interpretation of Islam and a return to the origins of Islam – that of Mohammed and the four caliphs – as a way to reaffirm the dignity of the Muslim communities in the world.

Their enemies are the corrupt Islamic governments (almost all) the atheist and colonial West, the State of Israel, and finally Christians, often banded together with the West, although the Islamists often target the Christian communities who were present in the Middle East long before Muhammad.

The choice of violence and terrorism seen as a religious act in praise of Allah that purifies the world by destroying the enemies of Islam is linked to the Islamic world.

What weight does this interpretation of Islam have?

A survey by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion published by AsiaNews [1] March 4, 2009, showed that at least 30% of respondents in several Muslim countries – Egypt, Palestine, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Jordan and Morocco – supported the use of bombs and murder to achieve political and religious purposes.

A large majority supported the goal of al Qaeda to ‘push the U.S. to remove its bases and its military forces from all Islamic countries’. These include 87% of Egyptians, 64% of Indonesians, 60% of Pakistanis.

Other aims of al Qaeda also received wide support. Among these, ‘the strict application of sharia law in all Islamic countries and the unification of all Islamic countries into a single Islamic state or Caliphate’ received the support of 65% of Egyptians and 48% of Indonesians, 76% Pakistanis and Moroccans. ‘Keeping Western values out of Islamic countries’, another of the organization’s goals gained the support of 88% in Egypt, 76% in Indonesia, 60% in Pakistan and by 64% in Morocco.” Read more.