Serious and Rising Threat to Israel: Unilateral Declaration of a Palestinian State by Summer 2011

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Palestinian President Salam Fayyad says his state will be ready by summer 2011. (photo: Agence France Presse)

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A serious new threat to the peace and security of Israel and the people of the epicenter is rapidly emerging — the prospect that the Palestinian leadership will unilaterally declare their own independent, sovereign state as early as the summer of 2011, and attempt to divide Jerusalem, and that the world will try to force Israel to accept this new state rather than require the Palestinians to sit down and negotiate a fair and just arrangement that both sides can accept.

Make no mistake: a unilateral declaration by the Palestinians is not a recipe for peace. It is a recipe for war. Over 450,000 Israelis live in the West Bank. They are not going to quietly accept a Palestinian government in Ramallah deciding their fate. Nor will these Israeli settlers allow the Palestinian police to  forcibly remove them from their villages, towns and cities. Especially Jerusalem. They will fight back. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be under enormous domestic political pressure to back these Jewish citizens with the force of the Israeli military, and should violence intensify, he would likely order the IDF into battle. The results would not be pretty, and the Palestinian people would pay a heavy price.

World leaders, therefore, should be putting enormous pressure on Palestinian leaders to sit down to direct negotiations with the Israelis and find a peaceful solution through diplomacy, lest violence result. Sadly, that’s not what is happening. Instead, world leaders are putting enormous pressure  on Israeli leaders to cut a fast deal with the Palestinians or face the prospect of Palestinian state being imposed upon them.

Bible prophecy makes it clear that the nations of the world will, in the last days, divide up the land of Israel. But the Scriptures are also crystal clear that the nations will face the judgment of Almighty God for doing so. “For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and bring them to the Valley of Jehoshaphat ["the Lord judges"]. Then I will enter into judgment with them there on behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; and they have divided up My land.” (Joel 3:1-2).

My colleagues and I will be teaching more about the threats and judgment outlined in the Book of Joel during the 2011 Epicenter Conference in Israel next May. Please make plans to join us. In the meantime, allow me to continue to outline the nature of this threat of the “unilateral option.”

In 2009, Palestinian President Salam Fayyad developed a detailed plan to have a Palestinian state ready within two years, and he has been building the political and economic infrastructure ever since. In April of 2010, during an exclusive interview with Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, Fayyad said that ”the birth of a Palestinian state will be celebrated as a day of joy by the entire community of nations….The time for this baby to be born will come, and we estimate it will come around 2011. That is our vision, and a reflection of our will to exercise our right to live in freedom and dignity in the country [where] we are born, alongside the State of Israel in complete harmony.”

By the fall of 2010, several governments — including Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay and Turkey — had announced immediate or imminent recognition of a Palestinian state that hadn’t even been declared yet. Other countries are hinting that they, too, are ready to support the “unilateral option” soon. Top officials in the European Union, for example, are pushing an initiative for the E.U. to formally recognize an independent Palestinian state by the summer of 2011.

Making matters worse, I believe it is increasingly possible that the Obama administration will also back such an initiative. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in November that she opposed a unilateral declaration by the Palestinians, noting, “We do not support unilateral steps by either party that could prejudge the outcome of such negotiations.” But given how aggressively the White House and State Department are pushing for a Palestinian state — and how poor relations between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu have been in 2009 and 2010 — U.S. support for the “unilateral option” is a real and serious threat.

Indeed, Members of Congress — both Democrats and Republicans — are so concerned that the Obama administration will support the “unilateral option” that on December 16th they voiced their opposition to such an approach. “The United States House of Representatives unanimously on Thursday approved a resolution opposing unilateral declaration of Palestinian state,” reported Haaretz. “The resolution introduced by Rep. Howard Berman, Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, slams Palestinian efforts to push the international community to recognize a state in such a manner as ‘true and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians can only be achieved through direct negotiations between the parties.’ The resolution calls on the U.S. administration to ‘deny recognition to any unilaterally declared Palestinian state and veto any resolution by the United Nations Security Council to establish or recognize a Palestinian state outside of an agreement negotiated by the two parties.’”

Such a unilateral move by the Palestinians, combined with widespread (and likely enthusiastic) international support would undermine six decades of attempts by the international community to reach a negotiated settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Indeed, a unilaterally declared Palestinian state would violate U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which calls for ”a peaceful and accepted settlement.” How could the settlement be “accepted” if it wasn’t negotiated and agreed upon by both sides? A unilateral declaration would also violate Resolution 242′s call for ”secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force.” How could the borders between Israel and the Palestinians be “secure and recognized” if they are not recognized by the Israelis?

Moreover, Resolution 242 doesn’t call on Israel to withdraw from” all of the territories” it acquired in the Six Day War of June 1967, only for the “withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories” acquired in “the recent conflict.” In other words, based on a negotiated peace, Israel might withdraw from all of the territories, or only part of the territories. The key was for the Israelis and the Palestinians to have “secure” borders “free from threats or acts of force.”

Such a unilateral move by the Palestinians would also violate U.N. Security Council Resolution 338, which called for an immediate cease-fire after the 1973 Yom Kippur War and for “negotiations [to] start between the parties concerned under appropriate auspices aimed at establishing a just and durable peace in the Middle East.”

Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and President Fayyad have been resisting true, reasonable, direct negotiations with Israel for months. They are simultaneously moving with confidence towards a unilateral declaration of their state and the division of Jerusalem. Why? Because they know they already have widespread international support. As noted above, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos announced in February 2010 that their two governments were likely to formally recognize an independent Palestinian state in pre-1967 borders within 18 months, regardless of whether Israelis and Palestinians reach a negotiated agreement. Moreover, Kouchner and Moratinos began urging the European Union as whole to recognize a Palestinian state by the summer of 2011.

“The issue before us at the moment is the building of a reality,” said Kouchner. “France is training Palestinian police, businesses are being created in the West Bank… It follows that one can envision the proclamation soon of a Palestinian state, and its immediate recognition by the international community, even before negotiating its borders….If by mid-2011, the political process has not ended the [Israeli] occupation, I would bet that the developed state of Palestinian infrastructure and institutions will be such that the pressure will force Israel to give up its occupation.”

Let us continue to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, not the division of Jerusalem. Let us pray for the Lord to restrain the Palestinian leadership from making such a disastrous move, and pray that the Lord would restrain world leaders from encouraging the “unilateral option.” At the same time, we need to realize that eventually the land of Israel will be divided by the nations. The only true hope of peace and reconciliation is through the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, changing the hearts of Israelis and their neighbors and enemies and drawing them to Himself. Let us be praying, earnestly, therefore, towards that end.

AT-A-GLANCE: MOMENTUM BUILDING FOR A UNILATERALLY DECLARED PALESTINIAN STATE

• 2009 — Palestinian President Salam Fayyed issues detailed plan to have a Palestinian state ready in two years
• July 2009 — Javier Solana, E.U. Foreign Policy Chief, calls on the U.N. to recognize a Palestinian state by a certain deadline, even if negotiations break down.
• February 2010 –France and Spain indicate they are seriously considering formally recognizing an independent Palestinian state in pre-1967 border by the summer of 2011.
• April — Palestinian President Fayyad tells an Israeli newspaper that the Palestinian state will be ready to be born in 2011.
• December 4 — Brazil announces that it is formally recognizing an independent Palestinian state
• December 6 — Turkey announces it will also soon formally recognize a Palestinian state
• December 6 — Argentina announces it will formally recognize a Palestinian state
• December 22 — Bolivia announces will formally recognize a Palestinian state

December 23 — Uruguay announces that it will formally recognize a Palestinian state

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Not a prayer till then…

Psalm 107:13
Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses.

Not a prayer till then. While there was any help below they would not look above. No cries till their hearts were brought down and their hopes were all dead – then they cried, but not before.

So many a man offers what he calls prayer when he is in good case and thinks well of himself, but in very deed the only real cry to God is that which is forced out of him by a sense of utter helplessness and misery.

We pray best when we are fallen on our faces in utter helplessness. Speedily and willingly He sent relief.

THEY WERE LONG BEFORE THEY CRIED, BUT HE WAS NOT LONG BEFORE HE SAVED.

They had applied everywhere else before they came to Him, but when they did address themselves to Him, they were welcome at once. – C.H. Spurgeon.

Troubles are permitted often to bring men in humble prayer to God. When they have neglected to seek His face He permits trouble to awaken in them a consciousness of their need of Him.
- Daily Meditations for Prayer

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Covert War in Iran Focus on Newsweek Cover Story

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>> Visit The Joshua Fund’s all-new website, including my new video blog with a “Year End Assessment of the Iranian Threat”

Coverage of the covert war inside Iran to stop the mullahs from getting the Bomb is growing. Earlier this fall, I posted two stories on the covert war underway inside Iran, based on reports in the New York Times, AP, and the BBC.

• Sept 29: Covert war underway in Iran to sabotage nuclear facilities
• Nov 29: Are covert actions in Iran working?

More recently, Newsweek devoted an entire cover story to the topic, which I commend to your attention. Excerpt from the Newsweek cover story: The covert operations that target Iran’s nuclear program suddenly came to light with explosive violence and stunning implications for the future of warfare on Nov. 29. On that Monday morning, dawn had just broken over a bustling Tehran so deeply shrouded in smog that many commuters wore face masks to protect against the fumes and dust in the air. On Artesh Street, among rows of new and half-finished apartment blocks, the nuclear physicist Majid Shahriari was working his way through rush-hour traffic with his wife and bodyguard in his Peugeot sedan. A motorcycle pulled up beside the scientist’s car. Nothing extraordinary about that. But then the man on the bike stuck something to the outside of the door and sped away. When the magnetically attached bomb went off, its focused explosion killed Shahriari instantly. It wounded the others in the car but spared their lives. A clean hit. Only a few minutes later and a few miles away, in a leafy neighborhood in the foothills of the Alborz Mountains, again a motorcycle pulled alongside the car of another scientist, Fereydoun Abbasi Davani. A longtime member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Abbasi Davani was named specifically in a United Nations sanctions resolution as ‘involved in nuclear or ballistic missile activities.’ Sensing what was about to happen, he stopped the car, jumped out, and managed to pull his wife to safety before the bomb went off…..”

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Prophetic: End Times > An Update: The Kurds

From KHouse.Org

Prophetic > End-Times > The Kurds

Whether it’s Bosnia or Chechnya, we’re becoming increasingly aware of conflicts involving the Muslim world. Reports on the tensions in the Middle East and Central Asia also frequently mention the Kurds. There is much going on in the Islamic world that bears prophetic implications for the Biblically sensitive observer.

A People Without a Country

The Kurds live in contiguous areas of Iran, Iraq, and Turkey, with a dream of forming their own independent country of Kurdistan (“Land of the Kurds”). They number approximately 10 million, including those in Armenia and Syria. They have a traditional reputation for military prowess and have been successful mercenaries and professional soldiers in many armies. Saladin, the famed Kurdish warrior of the 12th century, fought against Richard I of England in the Third Crusade and created the Ayy’bid Dynasty of Egypt (1169-1250 a.d.). Earlier there had been brief Kurdish dynasties in the 10th and 12th centuries.

The Kurds are a growing problem in the Muslim world, having suffered a tradition of abuse and disenfranchisement in each of the countries they have resided.

Kurdish nationalism has been reflected in frequent uprisings against the Ottoman and Persian governments. After World War I, the Treaty of S’vres (1920) provided for an autonomous Kurdistan, but that treaty was never ratified. Uprisings in Iraq and in Iran have continued, and the indigenous Kurdish population has continued in refugee/guerilla status through out the region.

The Kurds in Iran

The Kurds appear to have descended from the Medes of ancient history who joined with the Persians and conquered Babylon in 539 b.c. This Medo-Persian Empire was the second of the four great empires predicted in the visions of Daniel Chapters 2 and 7. The Medes, an Indo-European people, settled in the plateau land of northeastern Iran as early as the 17th century b.c. The ancient country of Media had their capital city at Ecbatana (modern Hamadan).

Cyrus II (“the Great”) was part Persian and part Mede: His mother was Mandane, a daughter of Astyages, king of Media (585- 550 b.c.). When his father, Cambyses I, died in 559 b.c., Cyrus inherited the throne of Ansan and, after unifying the Persian people, he captured his father-in-law Astyages, took the capital city of Ecbatana, and welded the Persians (with the Medes as honored but subservient subjects) into a unified nation. His capture of Babylon is detailed in Daniel Chapter 5. The Medes disappear from history to re-emerge as the mountain people known today as the Kurds.

The president of Iran, Hashimir Rafsanjani, has announced his “Grand Design” to unite the Islamic World into an Islamic Crescent.¹ Now in possession of nuclear weapons, their agenda cannot be ignored.

The Kurds in Turkey

Turkey, too, is struggling with a militant Kurdish population, and is annoyed with Syria not honoring their agreement to liquidate the Kurdish rebel bases in Lebanon and Syria. Israel has also opposed helping Turkey’s actions against the Kurdish rebels, and this is presently a barrier to better cooperation between the intelligence services of the two countries.²

The Kurds in Iraq

The Kurds comprise approximately 18% of Iraq’s population. Iraq created an administrative district called Kurdistan in 1974, comprising three northwestern governorates of Iraq that border Turkey to the north and Iran to the east.

Saddam Hussein has continued to oppress the Kurds in Iraq, even using chemical weapons against their civilian population in recent years. (No wonder the Kurds will enthusiastically participate in the ultimate destruction of Babylon.)

Their Prophetic Destiny

The ultimate destruction of Babylon is prophesied in Isaiah 13 & 14 and Jeremiah 50 and 51. Isaiah 13:17 alludes to “the Medes” as participants in Babylon’s destruction, (and this is one of the reasons some scholars have assumed that this refers to the fall of Babylon in 539 b.c.). However, both Isaiah and Jeremiah describe a destruction “like Sodom and Gomorrah,” and after which it is never to be inhabited, etc., all of which is yet future and appears as a climactic event in the Book of Revelation.

1. For background on the origin and goals of Islam, see our Briefing Package,The Sword of Allah.
2. For more background on Turkey, see Personal UPDATE, 12/94, pp.2-3; 1/95, pp.2-3.

The Sword of Allah – The Origins And Movement of Islam

• Do you know that Islam is the fastest growing religion on the Planet Earth?
• With their oil revenues and their possession of nuclear weapons, their aggressive agenda cannot be ignored.

Islam – Understand the history, destiny and aggressive agenda of the fastest growing religion on the planet.

The Rise of Islam – The World’s Fastest Growing Religion

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Prophetic: Rapture > A Concluding Review: The Harpazo

From KHouse.Org

Prophetic > Rapture > The Harpazo

Concluding our brief series of articles on our “Blessed Hope,” ¹ there would seem to be seven harpzs (“raptures”) in the Bible: Enoch,² Elijah,³ Philip, ⁴ Paul,⁵ John⁶ and Jesus,⁷ and, of course, the Body of Christ, ⁸ the Church.  (In fact, the very Greek term, harpoz, is employed in four of these references.⁹)

Since Paul highlights that the mystery of the Church was his privilege to reveal in the New Testament,¹⁰ it is fashionable to assume that it would be futile to expect any references to the Rapture of the Church in the Old Testament.  However, here are some provocative passages for your personal consideration:

Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.  -Isaiah 26:19-21

Who are to enter which chambers?  How long are they to be hidden?  (Compare this with John 14:1-3 and come to your own conclusions.)

And there are others:

Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD’S anger. – Zephaniah 2:3

For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock. -Psalm 27:5

But to me, the most provocative are the consistent patterns – or “types,” metaphors, and similes – in the Old Testament:

Pattern is Prologue

It is interesting to notice the patterns that seem to be suggested in the Biblical text.  One of the greatest judgments on the Planet Earth was, of course, the flood during the days of Noah.  It is obvious that there were three groups of people facing that judgment:

1)  Those that perished in the Flood;
2)  Those who were preserved through the Flood, by means of the ark; and
3)  Those who were removed prior to the Flood, namely, Enoch.¹¹ (It can be argued that he was only one person, but so is the Church!¹² It was G. H. Pember who first suggested that Revelation 12:5 might be a reference to the Church.)

Enoch is, for many reasons, one of the most intriguing characters in the Old Testament.  There are also several provocative Jewish traditions regarding Enoch.  He is regarded as having been born on the day the Jews observe Hag Shavout, the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost.  What is also interesting is that, by tradition, he is also believed to have been “translated” (or “raptured”) on his birthday.   Since the Church was “born” on this day,¹³ one wonders if we, too, will be “raptured” on its birthday!¹⁴

(As some pre-tribbers love to point out, Enoch wasn’t “mid-flood” or “post-flood,” he was “pre-flood.”)

We all have enjoyed the famous confrontation between Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel’s three friends in the fiery furnace in Daniel 3.  Many prophecy buffs view Nebuchadnezzar and the forced worship of his image as a “type” of the Antichrist, and the three Jewish young men as a foreshadowing of the 144,000 miraculously preserved through the “furnace” of the tribulation.  That leaves a provocative question: Where was Daniel himself?  Who might he represent as a type?

Some prophecy buffs see the use of a threshing floor as an idiom alluding to the tribulation.¹⁵ The marvelous romance of Ruth, who becomes the Gentile bride of Boaz, her Kinsman-Redeemer, is seen as an anticipatory type of the Church and her Redeemer.  In the critical threshing floor scene in chapter 3, where is Ruth?  At the feet of her Redeemer.¹⁶ Interesting.

In Genesis 22, Abraham left the donkey and the two young men at the foot of the hill as he and Isaac went up to the top of Moriah for the famous offering of his son.  After the episode concludes with the substitution of the ram, it lists those that then returned to Beersheba:

So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba.
Genesis 22:19

Where’s Isaac?  Obviously, Isaac also returned with Abraham and the two young men.  But we are fascinated that the Holy Spirit appears to have edited the person of Isaac out of the record from the time he was offered until he is united with his bride two chapters later!¹⁷ We believe this was deliberate to have the narrative fully conform to the type.

One, of course, should not build doctrine from “types,” metaphors, or similitudes.  But we feel they can be instructive and illuminating.

For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. -Romans 15:4

I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets. – Hosea 12:10

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. -2 Timothy 2:15

The legendary John Walvoord used to joke that when he got to heaven, one of the first things he planned to do was to conduct a course on “Remedial Eschatology.”  But he admitted that he “wouldn’t enjoy it as much because he would have lost his sin nature by then!”

He recently was called home to be with the Lord he served so faithfully for so many years.  I wonder how he and Walter Martin are getting along

*   *   *

For a more comprehensive review of this controversial topic, see our video, The Rapture: Christianity’s Most Preposterous Belief.

1. Titus 2:13.
2. Genesis 5:24; Hebrews 11:25.
3. 2 Kings 2:1, 11.
4. Acts 8:39.
5. 2 Corinthians 12:2-4.
6. Revelation 4:1.
7. Mark 16:19; Acts 1:9-11; Revelation 12:5.
8. 1 Thessalonians 4:17.
9. Acts 8:39; 2 Corinthians 12:2-4; 1 Thessalonians 4:17; Revelation 12:5.
10. Ephesians 3:3:3-6.
11. Genesis 5:24.
12. 1 Corinthians 12:12,27; Ephesians 33:6, et al.
13. Acts 2:1ff.
14. See our briefing package, The Feasts of Israel, for a review of the prophetic implications of each of the seven feasts of the Torah.
15. Jeremiah 51:33; Isaiah 41:15, 16; Micah 4:12, et al.
16. See our briefing package, The Romance of Redemption, or our Expositional Commentary on the Book of Ruth for a more comprehensive review of the typological implications in this marvelous love story.
17. Genesis 24:62.

Ruth and Esther – MP3 Commentary – Chuck MisslerChuck Missler’s commentary on Ruth and Esther now in MP3 format, with commentary notes in Adobe PDF format. All on one CD-ROM. Click for more information – MP3 on CD-ROM

Rapture Questions Continue: Our Blessed Hope – Chuck Missler

Pattern is Prologue: The Rapture, Part 2: The Wedding Model – Chuck Missler

Pattern, not Just Prediction: Midrash Hermeneutics – Chuck Missler

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Prophetic: Rapture > Pattern is Prologue: The Rapture Part 2: The Wedding Model

From KHouse.Org

Prophetic > Rapture > The Wedding Model

The Wedding Model

In this second article in our series on the Rapture, we will explore another reason why we favor a “pre-tribulation” view of the Harpz, the “snatching up” of the Church.

All through the Gospels, Jesus relied on the ancient Jewish wedding pattern for many of His parables,¹ climaxing in His promise in the Upper Room in John 14 (as reviewed in our previous article). Many of us miss the full import of these allusions if we aren’t familiar with the model of ancient Jewish wedding practices.

Jewish Wedding

The first step, the Ketubah, or Betrothal,² was the establishment of the marriage covenant, usually when the prospective bridegroom took the initiative³ and negotiated the price (mohair) he must pay to purchase her.⁴

Once the bridegroom paid the purchase price, the marriage covenant was established, and the young man and woman were regarded as husband and wife. ⁵ From that moment on, the bride was declared to be consecrated or sanctified – set apart – exclusively for her bridegroom.⁶ As a symbol of the covenant relationship that had been established, the groom and bride drank from a cup of wine over which the betrothal had been pronounced.⁷

After the marriage covenant was established, the groom left his bride at her home and returned to his father’s house, where he remained separated from his bride for approximately 12 months.⁸ This afforded the bride time to gather her trousseau and prepare for married life. ⁹

During this period of separation, the groom prepared a dwelling place in his father’s house to which he would later bring his bride. At the end of the period of separation, the bridegroom came – usually at night – to take his bride to live with him. The groom, the best man, and other male escorts left the father’s house and conducted a torch-light procession to the home of the bride. ¹⁰ Although the bride was expecting her groom to come for her, she did not know the time of his coming.¹¹ As a result, the groom’s arrival was preceded by a shout,¹² which announced her imminent departure to be gathered with him.

After the groom received his bride, together with her female attendants, the enlarged wedding party returned from the bride’s home to the groom’s father’s house,¹³ where the wedding guests had assembled.

Shortly after their arrival, the bride and groom were escorted by the other members of the wedding party to the bridal chamber (huppah). Prior to entering the chamber, the bride remained veiled so that no one could see her face. ¹⁴ While the groomsmen and bridesmaids waited outside, the bride and groom entered the bridal chamber alone. There, in the privacy of that place, they entered into physical union for the first time, thereby consummating the marriage that had been covenanted approximately one year earlier. ¹⁵

After the marriage was consummated, the groom came out of the bridal chamber and announced the consummation of the marriage to the members of the wedding party waiting outside.¹⁶ Then, as the groom went back to his bride in the chamber, the members of the wedding party returned to the wedding guests and announced the consummation of the marriage. ¹⁷

Upon receiving the good news, the wedding guests remained in the groom’s father’s house for the next seven days, celebrating with a great wedding feast.¹⁸

During the seven days of the wedding feast, the bride and groom remained hidden in the bridal chamber¹⁹ (Cf. Genesis 29:21-23, 27-28) for the seven days of the huppah.²⁰ Afterwards, the groom came out of hiding, bringing his bride with him, but with her veil removed so that everyone could see her.

The Ultimate Bride

The New Testament portrays the Church as the Bride of Christ in Ephesians 5:22-33 (Paul even quotes Genesis 2:24 as the union at the Parousia of the Bridegroom in v.31!); cf. Romans 7:4; 2 Corinthians 11:2; James 4:4. In the opening verses of John 14, the marriage covenant is confirmed. ²¹ Paul continually reminds us of the purchase price ²² and the covenant²³ by which we, the Bride, are set apart, or sanctified.²⁴

Ecclesiology vs. Eschatology

It is this distinctive nature of the Church that is often overlooked by students of prophecy: it is more a matter of ecclesiology than eschatology.

One thing that seems to highlight this distinctiveness is the strange remark Jesus made regarding John the Baptist:

Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. -Matthew 11:11

What does that mean? Jesus goes on to explain,

For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. – Matthew 11:13

It is John the Baptist that closes the Old Testament, not Malachi. ²⁵ A profound distinction appears to be drawn between the saints of the Old Testament and those of the New.

One of the challenges in fully appreciating Paul’s epistles is the need to understand the staggering and distinctive advantages afforded the Church, in contrast to those of the Old Testament saints.²⁶ And it is this role as the Bride of the Bridegroom that is emphasized in the parables and in the Book of Revelation.²⁷

The Departure of the Bridegroom

The Bridegroom has departed, and His return to gather His Bride is imminent.²⁸ He has gone to prepare a place for you and me. (He has been at it for 2,000 years! It must be a spectacular abode!)

This very doctrine of “imminence” is taught throughout the New Testament and is a cornerstone of the “pre-tribulational” view: there is no event which is a prerequisite condition for His gathering of His Bride.

The Great Tribulation

There are those who believe the Church will go through the Great Tribulation. In exploring this issue, it is essential to distinguish between persecution, which clearly has been the lot of the Church for 19 centuries, and “the Great Tribulation” of eschatological significance. The persecution – and tribulation – of the Church was clearly promised to us:

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. -John 16:33

The source of this tribulation is the world and, of course, Satan. However, “the Great Tribulation” of eschatological significance is quite another matter.

For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. -Matthew 24:21

The context here is clearly Israel.²⁹ Jesus is quoting from the Old Testament:

And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book -Daniel 12:1

Note that “thy people will be delivered”: the focus of the “Great Tribulation” is Israel. That is why it is called “the time of Jacob’s Trouble”:

Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. -Jeremiah 30:7

Jesus (in the Old Testament) explains:

I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me earnestly. ³⁰ -Hosea 5:15

To “return,” He must have left His place! The offence referred to is singular and specific: their rejection of Him. In “their affliction” they will ultimately repent and He will respond.³¹

The Great Tribulation also involves more than the wrath of the world or the wrath of Satan: it involves the indignation and wrath of God. ³² In contrast, the Church has been promised:

For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,-1 Thessalonians 5:9

And,

Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. -Romans 5:9

And, specifically,

Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour [time] of temptation [trial], which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. -Revelation 3:10

Peter also emphasizes,

The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: -2 Peter 2:9

Here, Peter is using the judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah “as an example,”³³ as Jesus also did,³⁴ in which the prior removal of Lot was a precondition before the angels could do their work.³⁵

A complete study of this issue involves careful and diligent study of both the Church (ecclesiology) as well as the eschatology (end time aspects) of the Great Tribulation, which, of course, far exceeds the focus of this brief review. It requires precise definitions of the terms used, and great care to understand how each of the elements of the revealed truth relate to each other.

But the fundamental doctrine of imminence has to be forfeited with any view that requires the Great Tribulation – or any other precedent event – to occur prior to the Rapture.

Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. -Luke 21:36

Are you going to escape these things that shall come to pass? If so, how? Or are you relying on the notion that the Lord is “delaying His coming?” ³⁶ This could be a very dangerous presumption. Do your homework. It is important.

* * *

See our briefing package, The Rapture: Christianity’s Most Preposterous Belief.

1. Cf. Matthew 22:1-14 and Matthew 25:1-13 for notable examples.
2. The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Isaac Landman ed., Universal Jewish Encyclopedia Co., Inc. New York, 1948, pp. 7, 372.
3. David R. Mace, Hebrew Marriage, Philosophical Library, New York, 1953, p.167.
4. The Universal Jewish Enclopedia, p.372.
5. The Jewish Encyclopedia, Isidore Singer ed., Funk and Wagnalls Company, New York, 1907, III, pp.126,127. Cf. Mal 2:14; Mt 1:18-19.
6. George F. Moore, Judaism, Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA, 1946, II, p.121.
7. The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, p.373.
8. Ibid., p.372.
9. Ibid.
10. The Standard Bible Encyclopedia, James Orr ed., Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids MI, 1957, III, p.1998.
11. Emma Williams Gill, Home Life in the Bible, Broadman Press, Nashville TN, 1936, p.20.
12. James Neil, Everyday Life in the Holy Land, Cassell and Company, Limited, New York, 1913, p.251.
13. J. Jeremias, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Vol IV, ed. by Gerhard Kittel, trans. and ed. by Geoffrey W. Bromiley, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids MI, 1967, p.1100.
14. The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, ed. Isaac Landman, Universal Jewish Encyclopedia Co., Inc., New York, 1948, pp. 10, 399.
15. The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, p.373.
16. Cf. Psalm 19:5; John 3:29.
17. The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, pp.5, 504.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
21. 1 Corinthians 11:25.
22. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.
23. 1 Corinthians 11:25-26.
24. Ephesians 5:25-27; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 6:11; Hebrews 10:10; 13:12.
25. Luke 16:16.
26. Ephesians 3:3ff.
27. Matthew 22:1-4; 25:1-13; and Revelation 18.23; 19:7-9; 21:2, 9; 22:17.
28. Cf. Matthew 9:15; Mark 2:19, 20; Luke 5:34, 35; John 3:29; Revelation 18:23.
29. Matthew 24:16, 20.
30. KJV: “early.” The word is shachar, to seek, seek earnestly, look early or diligently for.
31. See our briefing pack, The Next Holocaust and the Refuge in Edom, for a detailed review of Isaiah 63, et al.
32. Revelation 6:16, 17; 11:18; 14:10, 19; 15:1, 17;16:1, 19; 19:15.
33. 2 Peter 2:6.
34. Luke 17:28-37.
35. Genesis 19:22.
36. Matthew 24:48-51.

Rapture Questions Continue: Our Blessed Hope – Chuck Missler

A Concluding Review: The Harpazo – Chuck Missler

Your Questions Answered By Chuck Missler This Generation Shall Not Pass… – Chuck Missler

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Prophetic: Rapture > Our Blessed Hope [Rapture Questions continue:]

From KHouse.Org

Prophetic > Rapture > Our Blessed Hope

We continue to receive many questions concerning the “Rapture” of the church and its apparent contrast with the “Second Coming” of Jesus Christ. Where does this strange view come from? Is the term “rapture” even in the Bible?

Clearly, the idea of the Rapture can be considered the most preposterous belief in Biblical Christianity. It reminds me of the famous quote by Dr. Richard Feynman, speaking of quantum physics:

I think it is safe to say that no one understands quantum mechanics… in fact, it is often stated of all the theories proposed in this century, the silliest is quantum theory. Some say that the only thing that quantum theory has going for it, in fact, is that it is unquestionably correct.

The situation regarding the doctrine of the Rapture is painfully similar.

The Harpz

The mysterious event known as the Rapture is most clearly presented in Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, in which he encourages the grieving Christians that, at the “great snatch,” they will be reunited with those who have died in Christ before them.

But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. -1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

In verse 17, the English phrase “caught up” translates the Greek word harpz, which means “to seize upon with force” or “to snatch up.”

There are those who claim that the word “rapture” isn’t in their Bible. That’s because they aren’t using the Latin translation:

…deinde nos qui vivimus qui relinquimur simul rapiemur cum illis in nubibus obviam Domino in aera et sic semper cum Domino erimus.. -1 Thessalonians 4:17 (Latin Vulgate) ¹

The Latin equivalent of the Greek harpz is the Latin verb rapio, “to take away by force.” In the Latin Vulgate, one of the oldest Bibles in existence, the appropriate tense of rapio appears in verse 17. (Raptus is the past participle of rapio, and our English words “rapt” and “rapture” stem from this past participle.)

At the Rapture, living believers will be “caught up” in the air, translated into the clouds, in a moment in time, to join the Lord in the air.

The Promise

This will be the fulfillment of the promise which our Lord confirmed at the Last Supper:

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. -John 14:1-3

This thrilling promise wasn’t given to everyone, only to His believers. (Judas had already left by then.)

This appears to parallel the promise of the bridegroom in the pattern of the ancient Jewish wedding, where, after the ketubah, the engagement, but before the huppah, the formal ceremony, the groom departed to prepare a new home for his bride, usually an addition to his father’s house. The bride was kept in a state of expectancy pending his return-often in the middle of the night, as a surprise.

(The huppah, the wedding ceremony, was followed with a seven-day celebration, etc.)

The Process

The anticipation of a bodily resurrection after life on this earth pervades the entire Bible. In the oldest book of the Bible, Job declares:

For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me. -Job 19:25-27

Yet, when our Lord comes to gather His church, there will be a generation alive at that time. In his discussion of the Resurrection in his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul again deals with this astonishing event:

Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? -1 Corinthians 15:51-55

(From quantum physics considerations, I suspect that this transformation, “in the twinkling of an eye,” will occur digitally in 10-43 of a second.) ²

The Imminent Gathering

Clearly, the Bible teaches us to expect Him at any moment. This is called the Doctrine of Imminency: it is next on the program and may take place very soon.

(The word “imminent” should not be confused with “immanent,” which, in theological contexts, means that God is not only transcendent, or far above us, but that He is always with us and active on our behalf. Nor should it be confused with “eminent,” which is a title of honor reserved for persons of outstanding distinction.)

Imminency expresses hope and a warm spirit of expectancy, ³ which should result in a victorious and purified life. ⁴ Believers are taught to expect the Savior from heaven at any moment. ⁵

Paul seemed to include himself among those who looked for Christ’s return. ⁶ Timothy was admonished to “keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.” ⁷ Jewish converts were reminded that “yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry.” ⁸

Some have concluded that the expectation of some were so strong they had stopped work and had to be exhorted to return to their jobs, ⁹ and have patience. ¹⁰

Two Events?

There are many that hold to the view that emerged in the Medieval church (Catholic and Protestant) that the “Second Coming” of Christ and the “Rapture” are somehow the same. Yet there seems to be a number of indications that these are distinct and separate.

In contrast to the imminent gathering of His church, there are numerous passages that deal with precedent events which must transpire prior to the “Second Coming” to establish His kingdom on the earth. Some of the passages referring to the Rapture and the Second Coming are summarized at the the table below.

Why So Many Views?

There are, of course, many differing views, especially regarding matters of eschatology – the study of “last things.” This diversity derives from several factors: the disciplines associated with hermeneutics – the theory of interpretation – as well as the need to integrate an understanding of the entirety of God’s revealed plan of redemption: “the whole counsel of God.”

The need to relate the various elements of end-time events, such as the Great Tribulation, the events surrounding the Seventieth Week of Daniel, the Millennium, and other related issues, requires precise definitions and diligent study. We will address many of these in our subsequent articles in the hopes that they will prove helpful in understanding these issues and assisting you in formulating your own views regarding these challenges. (We will discover that some of the principal controversies are more an issue of ecclesiology than eschatology! But more of this next time.)

These are not “peripheral” issues (as they may have seemed in the past). We believe we are being plunged into a period of time about which the Bible says more than it does about any other period of human history-including the time that Jesus walked the shore of the Sea of Galilee and climbed the mountains of Judea! It is the most exciting time to be alive! But if we are to be diligent stewards, we need to carefully revise our priorities to match His!

* * *

1. Bonifatius Fischer, Biblia Sacra: Iuxta Vulgatam Versionem, Ed. quartam emendatam., Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, 1969.
2. For a discussion of the physics of immortality, see our briefing package, From Here to Eternity.
3. 1 Thessalonians 1:10.
4. 1 John 3:2,3.
5. Philippians 3:20; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 9:28; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 4:18; 5:6; Revelation 22:20; et al.
6. 1 Thessalonians 4:15,17; 2 Thessalonians 2:1.
7. 1 Timothy 6:14.
8. Hebrews 10:37.
9. 2 Thessalonians 3:10-12.
10. James 5:8.

Pattern is Prologue: The Rapture, Part 2: The Wedding Model – Chuck Missler

A Concluding Review: The Harpazo – Chuck Missler

Questions Continue: The Great Snatch? – Chuck Missler

Byzantine Text Discovery: Ephraem The Syrian – Chuck Missler

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The Eschatological Epistles: 1st and 3rd Thessalonians

From KHouse.Org  Archives

Prophetic > Rapture > 1st And 3rd Thessalonians

Paul’s two epistles to the believers in Thessalonica are the two most important eschatological epistles in the New Testament. (“Eschatology” is the study of the last things, or end-time prophecy.) What is astonishing is that these two epistles remind their recipients of things which they were taught by Paul during the first few weeks he was with them . Paul taught them all about the “End Times” during their initial indoctrination into the faith: the Rapture, the Antichrist, the Great Tribulation, and the Second Coming!

(Since Paul’s second letter to them was in response to a forgery that was apparently in circulation, so we have indulged in a bit of whimsy by calling it “3rd Thessalonians.”)

Background

Thessalonica was the capital of Macedonia Secunda. It was founded in 315 B.C. by Cassander, son-in-law of Philip of Macedon and one of Alexander’s four key generals, who named it after his wife Thessalonike, the half-sister of Alexander the Great.

It was a strategic location: it had a natural harbor at the head of the Thermaic Gulf, and it was situated on Via Egnatia , the main route between Rome and the East. Thessalonica was almost made the capital of the world; at this time it was the second most important city in Greece. It was the most populous town of Macedonia, and was practically the capital of Greece, Illyricum, and Macedonia. (Perhaps 200,000 lived there in Paul’s day.) Cicero was in exile here in 58 B.C.

Antony and Octavius (the future Augustus) were here after their victory at Philippi. In gratitude for their cooperation in the struggle against Cassius and Brutus, Thessalonica was made a free city like Athens. No Roman soldiers were stationed in it; government was in the hands of a people’s assembly, from whom the “Apolitarchs” (magistrates) were chosen. Kingdom preaching would make them fearful of losing their privileges of “free” status.

Corinth

After founding the church at Thessalonica, Paul had gone to Corinth for two years,¹ and he writes both of his Thessalonian letters from there, perhaps within only a matter of months of visiting them.

Timothy had been left in Philippi, and joins Paul in Berea and travels with him to Athens. Paul sent him back to Thessalonica. This first letter of Paul’s was in response to Timothy’s report upon rejoining Paul in Corinth.²

Ist Thessalonians

This letter is among the earliest New Testament documents, written less than 20 years after Christ’s resurrection. (Some believe the letter to the Galatians was written before Acts 15.) Every chapter has references to the Second Coming.

The most famous declaration in this letter is on the “Rapture” ³ (so called from the Latin Vulgate, rapiemur; the Greek is arpazw harpazo: to seize, carry off by force; to claim for one’s self eagerly; to snatch out or away).

“3rd” Thessalonians

Paul’s second letter apparently followed his first by not many months. The Thessalonians were really upset. It was in response to, among other things, a letter “as if from Paul,” apparently a forgery, ⁴ and so Paul wrote to settle their unrest, which concerned the same issues that plague most prophecy discussions today.

Persecutions had begun. Pliny, the Elder, wrote:

It was in Thessalonica that the first Gentiles were killed in the Roman Empire. The local Roman governor in that part of the country said that every Christian had to bow before a statue of Augustus Caesar. He had been deified and statues of Caesar were erected everywhere. Christians who didn’t obey the edict were persecuted.

Until then, most of the persecution of Christians had come from the Jewish leadership, but now Rome had gotten into the act. It was in Thessalonica that they dreamed up the procedure of offering a cask of wine on the altar to Venus or Caesar, and then publicly taking it out to the marketplace, sprinkling all the vegetables, meat, and other goods, announcing that it had been dedicated to the god. Anyone who bought or ate any of it thereby worshiped a false god. Christians, who stopped buying in the marketplace as a witness, immediately became marked. The first crucifixions, the first burnings, and the first great persecutions of Christians then began.

Prompted by, among other things, the circulation of a spurious letter, apparently an intentional forgery as if from Paul, the Thessalonians began to fear that they were already in the Day of Lord.

Day of the Lord ⁵

This is the traditional Jewish expression for the day when God would intervene in history to destroy His enemies and establish His Kingdom. ⁶ In that Day, Christ will rule with a rod of iron over the entire earth⁷ and will administer absolute justice.⁸ (See our recent briefing package, Thy Kingdom Come).

So why were they upset? They apparently thought that the Great Tribulation had begun. Why would that have upset them if they were destined to be raptured after the tribulation? They would be excited that their redemption was drawing near. However, they had been taught by Paul – and he reconfirms this in his letter we know as 2nd Thessalonians – that they were to be raptured before the Great Tribulation. They were upset because they thought it had now started and they either had been mistaught or they had missed it!

Chapter 2 is the heart of this epistle. It is one of the most important prophetic passages in the New Testament. It deals with an eschatological error from the belief that the Day of the Lord was already present and many other aspects of the Great Tribulation. Paul warns them (and us, too) against deception. Two events must occur before . Two verbs, emphatic by position, serve to distinguish the two events.

First: an apostasia ; falling away; the deliberate abandonment of a formerly professed position or view; a defection; a rejection of a former allegiance.⁹ The word was used to denote a political or military rebellion. ¹⁰ In the Septuagint, it is used to describe a rebellion against God.

Second: the “Restrainer” had to be removed. A key issue is the identity of “the Restrainer.” A careful exegesis of the Greek text makes it clear that Paul was referring to the Holy Spirit as He indwells the believer in this unique period we call “the Church.”

(This is too complex to detail in this brief article. It is more a matter of ecclesiology – the mystical Body of Christ-than eschatology. We invite you to explore it our expositional commentary on I & II Thessalonians, now available in MP3 CD-ROM format.)

Eschatology

The Rapture is not a doctrine to argue about: it is a doctrine to live . Some believe He is coming after the Tribulation. Some believe that He is coming before; some believe He is coming during. How does your interpretation affect your life? Does it do anything for you? If your view has no effect on your life, then you might reconsider what you really believe.

* * *

I and II Thessalonians – MP3 Commentary – Chuck MisslerLearn about these two epistles of Paul, which are the most important eschatological epistles in the New Testament. Click for more information – MP3 on CD-ROM

1. Acts 18:11 & 18.
2. 1 Thessalonians 3:6-7; Acts 18:5.
3. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17.
4. 2 Thessalonians 2:2.
5. “Day of Christ” is incorrect: Day of the Lord is correct.
6. Cf. Joel, Zechariah, Isaiah, Amos, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Malachi, Zephaniah, et al.
7. Psalm 2:9; Revelation 2:27
8. Isaiah 11:1-12; Zephaniah 3:14-20, et al.
9. There are experts who point to grammatical and lexigraphic justifications for regarding this term as also referring to the harpazo , but we are not building our case on these.
10. Josh 22:22. In NT: Acts 21:21; 1 Tim 4:1; 2 Tim 3:1-9; 4:3-4; Heb 3:12.

In Defenso Fedei: The Rapture Myth – John Loeffler

Questions Continue: The Great Snatch? – Chuck Missler

Byzantine Text Discovery: Ephraem The Syrian – Chuck Missler

Israel’s New Year Begins: The Feast of Trumpets – Chuck Missler

Your Questions Answered By Chuck Missler This Generation Shall Not Pass… – Chuck Missler

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The wish accomplished would prove our ruin

Matthew 6:11
Give us this day our daily bread.

To wish and pray for the advantages of life is not forbidden. Our Saviour hath so far countenanced it, as to command us to pray that God would give us our daily bread; that is, as His words have already been understood, that He would bestow what is necessary for the sustenance and comfort of life.

Yet the very sound of the words retrenches every superfluous and extravagant wish. Not for riches and honours, for great advancement or long life, or for numerous and flourishing families, has He given us any encouragement to pray.

Foreign are such things to the real improvement, foreign very often to the true happiness of man.

Foolishly they may be wished for when the wish accomplished would prove our ruin…

But this we may lawfully pray, that, as far as God seems meet, He would make our state comfortable, and our days easy and tranquil, and that He would save us from falling into any severe and extreme distress. – Hugh Blair

- Daily Meditations for Prayer

-

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Middle East Islamism in the European Arena

From Gloria-Centre.Org./Meria

Volume 6, No. 3 – September 2002

MIDDLE EAST ISLAMISM IN THE EUROPEAN ARENA

By Reuven Paz

An important new development has been the extension of Middle Eastern movements and ideologies to other parts of the world, especially Europe. This article evaluates how these groups and their ideas are extending the reach of Middle East politics to other parts of the world. This has been particularly true of the “jihad movement,” generally associated with Usama Bin Ladin but involving many other forces and doctrines. This change is also having a feedback into Middle Eastern issues which must now be taken into account in analyzing the region.

The development of new forms of Islamist movements and ideologies, often called the jihadist movement, has brought Middle Eastern doctrines and political groupings to other parts of the world, notably Europe. This factor was both made more visible and intensified by the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on America and subsequent events. Wide-ranging investigations uncovered a large infrastructure of radical Islamist terrorist cells, groups supporting violence, and sympathizers for these viewpoints.

For many decades, of course, Western ideas and organizations have been transferred to the Middle East, but now this process has become a two-way street. Those who study the Middle East must now also take into account events, leaders, organizations, and doctrines which have their feet solidly planted on European soil while their thoughts and actions are in large part aimed at Middle Eastern outcomes. Indeed, as will be shown below, the growth of Islamist movements in Europe is in part due to the conscious efforts and ideological justifications of their Middle Eastern counterparts.

On one level, this new feature can be related to the familiar realm of exile politics. Many of these groupings are in fact created and influenced by individuals or political organizations which seek to have a direct influence on events in the Middle East. At the same time, though, there is an attempt to mobilize and shape the activities of European Muslims to make them a factor in the region?s political issues. These Middle Eastern activities range from the development of radical Islamist websites–now based in such countries as Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Poland(1)–to the development of entire political parties and intended “second fronts” in fighting Middle Eastern conflicts.

Equally, there is a question of how Muslim identity in Europe will relate to Middle Eastern issues. There are many factors involved in this process. A Muslim intelligentsia has slowly emerged to call for recognition of the Muslim presence, triggering debates in European public opinion. Coordination among Muslims in Europe is perhaps encouraged by the unification of Europe itself. Religious solidarity also bridges ethnic and national divisions among them. Another aspect is an Islamist tendency paralleling that in the Middle East, what the French scholar Olivier Roy has called the phenomenon of “born-again Muslims.” There is also, of course, a more moderate “liberal” Islam which parallels the historical trend of Christianity in Europe but its influence on Muslim publics in Europe seems relatively weak. The biggest-selling books in Islamic bookstores are those dealing with Islam?s fundamentals in accordance with Salafi trends in the Arab world.

Three distinct but interrelated trends have an impact on European Muslims as they do on Middle Eastern Muslims. First, there is traditional Islam, which is accepted in some form or another by the relatively silent majority of Muslims. Second, there is the politicized doctrine of Islamic movements that seek a state governed by Islamic law (Shari?a). These groups recruit support through political efforts alongside social welfare and cultural activities. The most important of this trend is the Muslim Brotherhood. Finally, there is radical Islamism which demands fulfillment of violent jihad as a duty, rejecting rival interpretations and making war on governments even when their rulers are Muslims.

THE CULTURE OF GLOBAL JIHAD

The term Global Jihad characterizes the latest trend among Middle Eastern Islamist groups. While previously emphasis was usually put on revolutions within specific countries trying to overthrow their societies and regimes, priority was now to be put on a direct struggle against the United States, Israel, and at times European states.

Among the important elements inspiring this development were:

–The failure of revolutionary movements to attain victory through staging revolutions in different Arab states.

–Difficulties for both individuals and societies in coping with Western modernization and its values, both for Muslims living in the West and those in Arab societies affected by it.

–Relative ignorance on the part of many young Muslims regarding elements of Islam as a result of spreading secularism. This allowed them to accept claims that certain heretical ideas were actually the only proper form of Islam.

–The growing transnational links among different parts of the Muslim world, both in the greater Middle East area and among intermingled Muslims in Europe. This is partly the product of improved Western technology, especially communications.

–A series of conflicts which seemed to pit Muslims against non-Muslims in such places outside the Arab world as Afghanistan, Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo, Chechnya, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Kashmir.

–The collapse of the Soviet bloc and discrediting of Communism and the renewal of old nationalist ideologies and conflicts.

–The failure of Arab nationalism to solve the problems of their societies or to win victories over foreign foes.

–The shift of the center of gravity of Islamist activity from the Arab world to the margins of the Middle East or to Europe following the success of Arab governments to counter this radical phenomenon in their homelands.

–The liberal attitude of European governments which accepted Muslim immigrants or refugees and tolerated their religious and political activities without trying to impose on them a set of demands for assimilationist conformity.

–The belief among some Islamist elements that focusing on an external enemy, which is defined as the eternal fight between God and the Devil, right and wrong, light and darkness–in Islamic terms between al-Haqq and al-Batil–would bring them victory.

In many ways, this new approach can be called a counter-globalization in which Islam rather than Westernization is to be the dominant force. The battle is to be waged by a “brotherhood of the oppressed” (Mustadh`afin) against Western conspiracies and the “betrayal” of secular-oriented Muslim societies and nationalist regimes.

One of the best definitions of Global Jihad was written by Omar Abu Omar, alias Abu Qutadah, a Palestinian living under the protection of political asylum in London since 1993 and one of the phenomenon?s main ideologues. The Jihad movements are “those groups and organizations that were established in order to eliminate the evil (Taghutiyyah) heretic (Kafirah) regimes in the apostate countries (Bilad al-Riddah), and to revive the Islamic government that will gather the nation under the Islamic Caliphate.”(2)

In addition, Abu Omar claims true Jihad movements differ from other Islamic groups in Muslim countries that “seek political legitimacy of the ?heretic? regimes.” They do not seek to reform the existing regimes but to eliminate them. What is most important, he continues, is not armed struggle in itself but having “the comprehensive civilizational view that comes from the perception of the true unity [of Allah] (Tawhid)?the unity of serving (`Ibadah) and following (Ittiba`) the Lord.” Its vision is of a future “world totally controlled by Islam.”

Abu Omar suggested in 1994 a new term to illustrate these themes, the “Jihad movement of future hope” (Al-Harakah al-Jihadiyyat al-Amal). He defined this as “a movement of Salafi worldview, perceptions, doctrines, and way.” It would be “totally cleansed from any remains of the wrong Sufi doctrine; does not belong to any school or trend besides that of the Qur?an and Sunnah.” He did not think the existing movements had achieved this goal “but they are in the right path.” To do so, the movements “should open new arenas for the Jihad outside their countries.” This required unity to wage the battle under a single commander, whom all other leaders should serve.

A short while after the September 2001 attacks in the United States, a Palestinian Islamist scholar published a paper entitled, “The Great Qur?an predicts the destruction of the United States, and the drowning of the American army.”(3) The West under U.S. leadership, has moved, says the author, through a process of “Pharaohization,” based on the Qur?anic story (of Biblical origin) of the evil Pharaoh. Egyptian Islamist groups at times referred to Presidents Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar al-Sadat, and Husni Mubarak as the “Pharaoh.” Thus, this terminology provides a useful symbol of the movement?s transformation of the enemy from an internal to a foreign foe.

The author writes that, according to one Qur?anic verse,(4) Pharaoh was only the first of his kind, a series that would continue in each generation until the day of resurrection. The present Pharaoh is the United States. But Pharaoh is not the only force oppressing Muslims today. There is Haman, too. According to the author, “The two of them are two poles of evil, oppression, and corruption. Therefore, no one should wonder if Haman in our days is the United Kingdom, such as Pharaoh is the United States.” Haman is Great Britain, which was also responsible for the oppression of Muslims “in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, and the rest of the Muslim world.” In combating this evil, the author continues, “The one who represents these days the eternal truth is Sheikh Usama bin Ladin.”

The conclusion is that the end of the United States is very close. Indeed, “the United States will not exist to see the year of 2004!” And, since the last Qur?anic chapter to mention Pharaoh is The Dawn (Al-Fajr), the author says that “the destruction of the United States is going to be the dawn of the Muslim believers.” Western civilization might view such writings as nonsense. Yet this kind of literature became popular in Islamic circles following the September attacks, similar to the phenomenon that happened at the time of Iraq?s 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the war that took place the following year.

This booklet was the start of a series of books, articles, religious rulings, and other forms of writings published primarily in numerous websites over the Internet. That source has become increasingly important in shaping the Jihadist movement. The most prominent of them have been two books that might serve also as fatwa–Islamic rulings–for the supporters of Global Jihad. One is “The base of legitimacy for the destruction that occurred in America,” by the Saudi radical scholar Abd al-Aziz bin Salih al-Jarbou`, published in November 2001.(5)

The other was by the above-mentioned Palestinian radical scholar, Omar Abu Omar, who dropped out of sight from London in January 2002, and following their investigations, was later accused by the Spanish authorities of being the political leader of al-Qa`ida in Europe. He was also linked also to the attack on the old Jewish synagogue in the island of Jerba in Tunisia in April 2002 in which 18 people, most of them German tourists, were killed. In June 2002, the official spokesman of al-Qa?ida, the Kuwaiti-born Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, announced his group?s responsibility for the operation.(6)

In April 2002, Abu Qutadah?s fatwa, “The Islamic Legal Perception of the September 11^th Events,” was placed on one of the radical websites of the Global Jihad culture.(7) His main motive in legally justifying the September attacks was to present them as part of a religious war between the Muslims and the West:

And when we define it as a religious war, this is because the West does not want to let Islam exist in the form of a state and power. Yes, they always repeat that they are not against Islam, but what Islam is the one they support and not against? This is the false so-called moderate Islam, the kind of Islam that accepts the submission to America and to the West and is glad to live in accordance with their way of life. It grants America the legitimacy to spread its hegemony over the entire world, with no protest or resistance. Yes, they want the kind of Islam that approves the service of the American Muslim in the military forces in order to fight another Muslim from the Muslim world. They want an Islam that does not prohibit what Allah and the Prophet forbade, and the kind that does not deny their civilization, and their political, economic, and social values.

The conflict is therefore, not just between this interpretation of Islam and Western culture, but also between the two different Islamic interpretations of culture and worldview. Hence, it is not only a threat to Western or European societies, but to Muslim communities in the West including Europe, as well.

The general culture of a Global Jihad movement is not unique to a certain state, language, or community, though it has been dominated by Arab thinkers and activists. Even the pro al-Qa`ida Islamist groups in non-Arab parts of the Muslim world–such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Chechnya, western China, or Pakistan–use mainly Arabic in their messages and even in their websites. Moreover, despite their conscious internationalism, the Egyptian, Saudi, Algerian, Palestinian, Yemeni, and other Arab elements in this culture of Global Jihad, cannot really release themselves from focusing on conflicts in their homelands. Global Jihad then, even for European-based groups, constantly becomes oriented toward Middle Eastern issues and struggles.

This factor is illustrated in the book by the Egyptian Islamist, regarded as the right-hand man of Usama Bin Ladin, Ayman al-Zawahiri. The book Knights Under the Prophet?s Banner was at least partly written after the September attacks.(8) Zawahiri, who is also the leader of the Egyptian Jihad group, argues that the Jihad movement is the best way of promoting a revolution within Egypt and for coping with that movement?s past failures.

THE WEST AS A BASE FOR MIDDLE EAST ISLAMISM

The effort to develop a Western base for Middle East Islamist groups, free from the repressive activities of Arab regimes, is rather ironic since the movement is based on the notion of Jihad as a religious duty, a war aimed at a perceived Global cultural conspiracy against Islam as a religion, culture, and way of life.

This interconnection is also furthered by an emerging doctrine of the “non-territorial Islamic state.” This doctrine views Muslim communities as a kind of loose-knit Islamic state, though without the Islamic territorial and religious mission of reestablishing a califate. Islamic scholars in the United Kingdom have long provided a basis for this view by emphasizing the cultural, economic, and political consolidation of these Muslim communities.

Long before the establishment of groups like al-Qa?ida, Islamic and Islamist movements regularly spoke of a conspiracy against Islam and advocated attacks on the United States, Israel, and Western culture. Anti-Western and anti-Jewish feelings have long proliferated in the Muslim world. What has been new, however, was the new movement?s success in translating that doctrine into actual terrorist activity. The success of these efforts was, in turn, based on recruitment and preparation in European Muslim communities and by fund-raising among Muslims in the United States.

While only a small minority have joined or given direct support to violent Jihadist groups, what is equally significant is the ability of these ideas? advocates to plant their notion of a global cultural war in Arab and Muslim societies, convincing many in the region that Islam is under attack. Thus, concepts synonymous in Western political culture with terrorism or political violence–such as Jihad, Takfir (refutation or excommunication), Istishhad (Martyrdom, including by suicide), and Shahid (Martyr)–are now viewed by many in the Islamic world as religious duties.

What is especially remarkable is that these concepts would not have been accepted, or were viewed quite differently, only a decade or so ago in Muslim societies and less than two decades ago in even Islamist circles. Today, the central feeling among most Islamists–from those who carry out terrorist acts to those who provide a supportive atmosphere for such activity–is that of being under siege. Thus, all means of self-defense are justified in their eyes, particularly when these means are granted religious legitimacy.

Rather than undermine such notions through experience with the realities of Western society and intentions, the interaction in the West between Muslim immigrants from various countries, cultures and ideologies, has greatly facilitated the growth of this doctrine. Such interaction has promoted both solidarity and a shared sense of a global threat to Islam and the Muslims. These factors have in turn led to the doctrine of the culture of Global Jihad and to the brotherhood felt by its adherents. As the worldwide investigation of the September 11 attacks and the Al-Qa?ida terrorist network has shown, this new doctrine resulted in a new operational development–the establishment of multinational and multi-organizational militant and terrorist cells among Muslim immigrants in the West. Apparently, some of these cells in Europe were just as responsible for planning and carrying out terrorist attacks as their commanders and leaders in Afghanistan.

TERRORISTS OF ALIENATION

Another emerging development among Islamist groups is the radicalism brought on by social ills and alienation–that is, terrorism motivated primarily by elements such as xenophobia (both by and against Muslims), growing unemployment, economic circumstances, difficulties in coping with Western modernization, the changing and dismantling of traditional values and family ties, and so forth. For example, in an unsigned 1991 article appearing in its main journal, the Palestinian Hamas, usually identified with purely Palestinian concerns, offered the following introduction of sorts to the doctrine of Global Jihad:

The whole world is persecuting you and the satanic powers ambush you. The whole world is your front, and do not exclude yourself from the confrontation? The life of misery [keeps] you from the meaning of life and [turns] your life into death. You live as a dead man . . . We stand today in a crossroad: life or death, but life without martyrdom [is] death. Look for death and you are given life.(9)

This rhetoric would clearly appeal to those already afflicted by a sense of hopelessness or resentment. The implicit alienation in such statements becomes all the more striking when one considers that the September 11 hijackers lived in relative comfort in the United States or Europe for long periods of time before carrying out their operation, yet were apparently undeterred from their plans. Of course, other groups of immigrants are susceptible to social ills as well. Yet, the growing Islamist activity among Muslim immigrants, along with their shared notion of Global struggle against the West, have encouraged a more rapid spread of radical doctrines among younger Muslim generations, and mainly among those of Arab origin.(10)

Furthermore, the profiles of many of the people arrested in the West following the September 11 attack–most on suspicion of links to Al-Qa?ida–are quite different from those of the typical Arab extremists in Afghanistan or Chechnya. The former are generally more educated and familiar with Western culture. Yet, instead of using this familiarity for personal benefit and for greater integration with Western culture–as the predecessors of this social type did in the past–these “terrorists of alienation” hold on to their hostility and exploit the weaknesses of the societies in which they reside.

This process is not new in the Arab and Muslim worlds. Some university students and graduates have always tended to adopt radical Islamic positions and fight the regimes of their homelands as a result of their strong social awareness. In many cases they view themselves as social elites who must sacrifice themselves for the sake of their society. This sense does not change when they live outside their homelands.

Their radical positions are also a result of more recent interpretations of various radical Islamist trends that developed in the 1960s and 1970s. During this period, under the influence of the Egyptian ideologue Sayyid Qutb, social justice–or in Qutb?s words Al-`Adalah al-Ijtima`iyyah–became the key criterion by which Islamists began to judge their ruling elites and to accuse some of facilitating Western culture?s conspiracy against Islam. Therefore, some of these radicals did not necessarily fit what was then the profile of the typical Islamist–that is, one whose religious observation is total.

This sense of social mission is equally visible among Islamists who have left their homelands. Many such emigrants have sought to preserve in entirety their homeland culture, unlike previous generations which did their best to adopt, or at least adapt, the cultures of their new environments. This element has in turn facilitated the globalization of the Jihad. At the root of this phenomenon lies the inability of many individual Muslims to cope with the technological, cultural, social, or economic aspects of Western modernization. Rather than any of a host of potential alternative scapegoats, this failure is then blamed on the secular cultures and ideologies that have influenced various modern Middle Eastern regimes. Since orthodox Islam is identified with Islamic establishments whose source of power is these secular regimes, many Muslims now support those who represent the opposite culture: the radical activists who oppose the national state and its interpretation of Islam.

Aside from these direct efforts of Islamist involvement to expand their influence, their success in both the Muslim world and the West is due to changes in what can be called the Islamic “atmosphere”–that is, the often indirect framework of support created by groups that are not connected to political violence or terrorism, some of whom even publicly condemn such methods. These groups, mostly of the school of the Muslim Brotherhood or Sufi groups, carry out the vast majority of political, social, cultural and educational work in the name of Islam, both in Muslim countries and among Muslim communities in Europe and in the West. They may transmit attitudes and interpretations of Islam in which more extremist and violent Islamist groups thrive; they serve as a greenhouse of sorts for radical groups and for the growth of views hostile toward the West or Western culture.

Such behavior is not restricted to the realm of ideas. Some groups also provide–not necessarily consciously or deliberately–an infrastructure of educational and cultural institutions, printed materials, and financing which also encourage support, provide cover, help recruiting, or even fund the operations of terrorist groups. Within Arab countries, Islamic social work has long been a form of social protest against either secular Muslim regimes or Western societies.

A number of specific Middle Eastern religious scholars have paved the way for justifying the export of the Middle East to the West, and in particular of Islamist thinking to Muslim communities there. Hasan al-Turabi in Sudan and the Tunisian Rashed al-Ghanushi who lives in exile in London, led a line of thought accepting Arab and Muslim emigration to Europe. But they were determined to create, or recreate, those communities in their own ideological image. In this respect, the development of the doctrine of the “non-territorial Islamic state” was a useful tool. The unspoken notion, however, was that the capital of this “non-territorial Islamic state” would remain in the Middle East and that the communities in the West would be subordinate to its needs and standpoints. They rejected any idea of compromise with cultural or political Western values by the new communities.(11)

In attempting to isolate Muslim groups in Europe from the majority population around them, these thinkers and movements not only indoctrinated them with Islamist views but also created new and radical interpretations of Islamic behavior. These had appeal to some youngsters whose knowledge of traditional normative Islam was deficient precisely because they had grown up in non-Muslim societies. For example, the doctrine of Takfir–excommunicating their secular or non-Islamic environment–was based on radical interpretations of orthodox Wahhabism.

An example for this new radical trend could use a recent fatwa of the Saudi radical scholar Abd al-Mun`im Halimah Abu Basir on “The Rule of Seeking Political Asylum in the Infidel World.”(12) According to him “This question has occupied a growing number of Muslim youth, which hate the [idea of] living in Western countries” and fear “losing their religion and belief” there but must seek refuge there in order to save themselves “from killing and torture” by Arab regimes. Moreover, he continues, they know that “Islamic law orders immigration from the infidel world to the Islamic one.” Yet he justifies such emigration: “Since there is no true Islamic country in our times that could secure Islamic life in safety? he is allowed in case of emergency to immigrate to the infidel world?.But he should purify himself as much as possible from the heretic culture of that world.”

Following the September attacks in the United States, Abu Basir, one of the leading scholars supporting the ideology of al-Qa`ida, published a book of Islamic rulings on issues of immigration.(13) In his book of rulings, Abu Basir uses the Islamic principle of “the necessities allow the prohibited.” Just as Muslims can drink wine or eat pork in order to save them from starving, so they can immigrate to the Western “infidel countries” to save themselves from the oppression of the governments of their homelands. But he goes even further: immigration is allowed also “in order to enforce the Muslims and weaken the infidels. One of the goals of immigration is the revival of the duty of Jihad and enforcement of their power over the infidels. Immigration and Jihad go together. One is the consequence of the other and dependent upon it. The continuance of the one is dependent upon the continuance of the other.”

CONCLUSIONS

Understanding the ideology and practice of the culture of Global Jihad and its movements is no longer simply a matter of looking at individual groups attempting to topple regimes in their homelands. Until recently, one could still differentiate between such groups and other Islamic trends, such as the various factions of the Muslim Brotherhood, The Khilafah groups of the Islamic Liberation Party, and the Salafiyyah groups in various parts of the Muslim world. Yet the changes that have been wrought on the Islamic map over the past few decades and during the post-September 11 anti-terrorism campaign, may lead at least part of the next generation of Muslims to seek more solidarity with the forces that lead the culture of Global Jihad.

The apparent “headquarters” of the Global Jihad movement can shift from Afghanistan to somewhere else. If in the past this center was transferred from the Arab world to Afghanistan and Central Asia, Western success in post-September 11 campaigns in those areas may lead to another shift: to the heart of the West, to marginal regions (e.g. the Philippines), or to both. But a search for such a central location detracts from an understanding of the relationship between this broad movement and those ideologues and groups in the Middle East which provide its basic justifications, support base, and often its recruits as well.

During the Middle Ages and later periods, Muslims tended to view the campaigns of Christian Crusaders as something akin to their own Jihad–that is, as a clearly spiritual duty that did not distinguish between religion and politics. The perception of the Crusader era as a triumphant phase in Islamic history has been revived and emphasized in the last few decades by Islamist movements. When Bin Laden named his front the “World Islamic Front for the Jihad against the Jews and the Crusaders,” his meaning was clear to the entire Muslim World as providing both a definition of enemies and a belief in ultimate victory.

Historically, one could argue, anti-Western feeling in the Muslim Middle East has arisen from a failure to cope with the effects of Western modernization. The growth of Western military power, economic systems, technology, new ideas, and organizational methods, often defeated Middle Eastern societies, throwing them on the defensive. In the current era, this situation continues, though often with a more important role for cultural products. Apparently, the West keeps advancing in power and even world hegemony, while the Arab and Muslim world–despite oil wealth and Arab nationalism–have been unable to respond effectively.

The continuous sense of retreat felt by many Muslims during the second half of the twentieth century brought impatience that led to violence. Over the past few years, the doctrine of long-term social revolution–expounded by the Muslim Brotherhood in the Arab World and by Jama`at-I-Islam in India, Pakistan, and the non-Arab Muslim World–lost much of its appeal for these Muslims. They were searching for an immediate improvement in their social conditions and therefore readily adopted the notion of Jihad as a more effective–and unifying–response than revolutions in specific local countries.

Being opposed to the existing states, the Jihad movement is not generally speaking state-sponsored. Focusing on direct and immediate revolutionary activity, the movement?s main groups (or factions of other groups which support it) have purposefully avoided and neglected social welfare activity. To the extent that Hamas and Hizballah are involved in this broader movement, they are exceptions on both of these points. Since their violence is directed mainly against Israel, they have attracted support from Arab states and from Iran. They have also engaged in extensive social welfare work to mobilize their respective constituencies.

Again, it should be emphasized that despite the shift of some Islamist groups to more global activity, their goal still remained the establishment of what they perceive as the true Islamic state in the heart of the Muslim world. Since the hardcore of the Global Jihad movement is composed primarily of Arab Islamists, the loss of the Afghan base might bring them back to square one: their homelands. This is what Zawahiri proposed in his book of memoirs summing up the experience of the Islamist movement since the 1980s. He wrote:

The jihad movement must come closer to the masses, defend their honor, fend off injustice, and lead them to the path of guidance and victory. It must step forward in the arena of sacrifice and excel to get its message across in a way that makes the right accessible to all seekers and that makes access to the origin and facts of religion simple and free of the complexities of terminology and the intricacies of composition.

The jihad movement must dedicate one of its wings to work with the masses, preach, provide services for the Muslim people, and share their concerns through all available avenues for charity and educational work. We must not leave a single area unoccupied. We must win the people’s confidence, respect, and affection. The people will not love us unless they felt that we love them, care about them, and are ready to defend them?.

Consequently, a new topic for those researching the Middle East, as well as Europe, should be to examine these emerging leaders, movements, and doctrines in comparison and with regard to their interaction to Middle Eastern counterparts. This should include the development of these movements during the 1990s; the social evolution of the immigrant communities; the growing role of internet websites as a central source and means of communication for radical Islamists; and the new phase of certain Islamist forces on Global Jihad.

While linked to problems of terrorism and threat evaluations, this study should be conducted on its own merits–without ideological preconceptions–in order to provide the most accurate possible picture of this new phenomenon as well as its links to the Middle East.

NOTES

1. Some of the main websites are: <http://www.jehad.net> or <http://www.aljihad-online.has.it> registered in Italy and Sweden; <http://www.alneda.com> is registered in Singapore and maintained from Malaysia, though in the recent months this website changed its address several times. The updated address (as of the end of June 2002) is <http://www.drasat.com> which is used also by the supporters of the Taliban; <http://www.almaqdese.com> registered and maintained in London; <http://www.aloswa.org. registered and maintained in Malaysia; <http://www.attawhid.com> registered and maintained in Warsaw, Poland; <http://www.sahwah.net> registered in Mecca, Saudi Arabia; <http://www.erhap.com> registered in Mecca, Saudi Arabia; and several other websites of various Islamist Saudi scholars that give the Wahhabi legitimacy to al-Qa`idah and its followers. Above all is the website of the main ideological direction of the global Jihad ? <http://www.azzam.com> — registered and maintained in London by Azzam Publication.
2. Omar Abu Omar “Abu Qatada al-Filastini” and “Shumuliyat al-Ru?ya al-Hadhariyyah wa-Fardiyyat al-Jihad,” in Maqalat Bayn Minhajayn (Articles between two Doctrines). The book is a collection of 98 articles he wrote in 1994, in which he presented his worldview. There is no information whether it has been published in hard copy. The articles were available on-line in a former website of Abu Omar, which was closed after September 2001, as well as on other Islamist closed websites. It is not available on his present website. The author possesses the whole book in a downloaded version from his closed website.
3. Sheikh Salah al-Din Abu Arafeh, Al-Qur?an al-`Azim yunabbi? bi-damar al-Wilayat al-Muttahidah wa-gharq al-Jaysh al-Amriki, Jerusalem, September 2001, no publisher.
4. Surat al-Zakhraf, 56.
5. Abd al-`Aziz bin Salih al-Jarbou`, Al-Ta?sil limashrou`iyyat ma jara li-amrika min tadmir, 23/8/1422H (10 November 2001). See on-line in<http://www.almaqdese.com> and other similar websites. The website is of “The platform of Tawhid and Jihad,” of the radical Jordanian-Palestinian Sheikh Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi. 18 books and articles of Al-Maqdisi were found by the German police in Hamburg, in the apartment of Muhammad Atta who led the September attack in the United States.
6. The announcement was first published as an audio recording in <http://www.drasat.com> in June 22, 2002. The next day it was broadcast on Al-Jazirah TV, and on June 24th, a written version was placed on <http://www.aloswa.org>.
7. Omar Abu Omar Abu Qutadah, Al-Ru?ya al-Shar`iyyah li-ahdath 11 Aylul, (The view of Islamic law on the events of September 11th), April 2002. See on-line in <http://www.aloswa.org>
8. Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, Fursan tahta rayat al-nabbi, published in Al-Sharq al-Awsat, December 2-12, 2001.
9. “`Ars al-Shahadah,”Filastin al-Muslimah, no. 9 (September 1991), p. 63.
10. On this issue, see a good article by Murad Wilfried Hofmann, “Muslims as Co-Citizens of the West? Rights, Duties, and Prospects,” Islam On-Line, March 26, 2001. Available on-line at: <http://www.islamonline.net/English/contemporary/2002/05/article3.shtml>
Murad Hofmann is a Christian German who converted into Islam. He served as the German ambassador to Morocco.
11. See for example: Mahmoud Abd al-Nasir, “Preserving the Islamic identity in the West,” Nida?ul Islam, vol. 18 (April-May 1997). Available on-line in <http://www.islam.org.au>
12. Abd al-Mun`im Mustafa Halimah Abu Basir, Hukm al-isti?naf li-talab al-luju? al-siyas ifi dar al-kufr. Available on-line in <http://www.aloswa.org/book/lojoa.zip>
13. Abd al-Mun`im Mustafa Hlimah Abu Basir, Al-Hijrah, masa?il wa-ahkam (Immigration: questions and rulings), December 9, 2001. Available on-line in <http://www.abubaseer.com>

Dr. Reuven Paz is a Senior Fellow at the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and director of its Project for the Research of Islamist Movements.

MERIA Journal Staff

Publisher and Editor: Prof. Barry Rubin
Assistant Editor: Yeru Aharoni.
MERIA is a project of the Global Research in International Affairs
(GLORIA) Center, Interdisciplinary University.
Site: http://www.gloria-center.org/ – Email: info@gloria-center.org

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