Sufi Muslim violence, and the Prince of Wales

Submitted by Doc Tater (United States), Mar 17, 2008 at 17:22

Ianus is referring to a "transcript of a TV interview given by Sheik Mohammed Nazim al Haqqani, Mufti of Turkish Cyprus and Grandsheik of the Most Distinguished Naqshabandi Order of Sufis, in Cyprus Jan. 24, '94." In that transcript, with the grandiose bragging that is so characteristic of Muslims who get to be Muftis and Grandsheiks, he claims that Charles, Prince of Wales, is a good old boy Muslim, and basically says to other Muslims "consider him one of us".

Ianus, things are rather grim in jolly old England these days, "Londonistan" and all that, and I do appreciate the way your tendency to hyperbole focuses peoples' attention on issues. You, old friend, may have assumed wrongly that co-commentators and readers have a solid understanding of today's Sufi Islam as it really is.

I'll attempt to correct that I think there are several points that need to be made here: 1) A bragging mufti often makes claims that are not fact, or that distort fact, which should go without saying by now, but it still seems to need repeating;

2) It was 1994, and I have to wonder how "polite" and non-confrontational Charles was trying to be during the times that Sheik al Haqqani was referring to;

3) Charles may have unintentionally given the impression that he was Muslim or a Muslim appeaser when his intention was merely trying to show how broad-minded and liberal he could be as Prince, and not be somebody who was going to became so controversial or divisive that he broke from the gentle, firm, parsimonious, non-controversial posture Elizabeth II has tried to maintain during her reign, to preserve the crown and to protect England;

4) Prince Harry seems to have rather enjoyed blowing away the insurgents in Iraq, Sufi and otherwise, with that .50 cal M2 Browning machinegun he was firing in that video that showed him in the field in Iraq (if you hit a person with a round from a .50 cal BMG, the effect is quite dramatic, out to a range of a mile and a half, or thereabouts);

5) Prince William and Prince Harry are in the succession to the crown of England, bypassing Charles. William and Harry seem to be quite aware of the dangers of Islam, from what I can tell; 6) People in the UK and in the USA still have this astonishingly distorted, naïve and optimistic view of Sufi Islam that holds them to be cheerful and benign little cultural oddities, spinning around and being cute, artistic, ethereal and harmless. So I'd like to share some information about the violent jihad that Sufis are now involved in, which some people following this Web site probably don't have a clue about. I'll refer now about the Naqshabandi (also spelled Naqshbandi) Order of Sufis, and I'll share excerpts from an article on the Jamestown Foundation Web site, that many of you may not be aware of. I find www.jamestown.org to be particularly informative when I want to know what sect of Islam is up to what mischief in some part of the world.

http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2373883, an article by Abdul Hameed Bakier entitled Ex-Baathists Turn to Naqshbandi Sufis to Legitimize Insurgency,

"The "Men of the Army of al-Naqshbandia Way" (Jaysh Rajal al-Tariqah al-Naqshbandia, or JRTN) is a Sunni jihadi group that first announced insurgency operations against the Coalition in Iraq in December 2006 in response to the hanging of Saddam Hussein (, December 30, 2006). Since then, the Naqshbandi army has claimed numerous attacks against the Coalition, posting links to video clips of these attacks in various jihadi forums. Like some other insurgency groups, JRTN publishes a monthly magazine promoting the group's ideology and enumerates its operations against Coalition forces while soliciting donations (, December 28, 2006).

"The magazine (from JRTN) includes other articles pertinent to Naqshbandi insurgency operations in Iraq, including a section on religious questions concerning jihad in Iraq sent by adherents of the faith and answered by Naqshbandi religious authorities. Three articles in the latest edition of the magazine help form a better perspective of the extent of JRTN's insurgency in Iraq: "Chronology of JRTN's jihadi operations against the Coalition in November 2007"

I'll refer to 2 of them.

In one, "The Naqshbandia army claims to have carried out jihadi operations against the Coalition in Baghdad, al-Anbar, Ninawa, Diyala and Salah al-Din provinces, where they launched over 17 rocket attacks using Katyusha, Grad and Iraqi-made Tariq rockets, five mortar attacks, 14 road bombs, four sniper attacks and two massive assaults with light weapons on U.S. military bases. In regular military fashion, the JRTN attributes these attacks to platoons and detachments attached to certain brigades of the JRTN.

Abdul Hameed Bakier cites a third article in the JRTN magazine: "Guerrilla War of Attrition":The writer of this article, identified as Major General Ahmad al-Naqshbandi, acknowledges U.S. might and the inability of the mujahideen to directly confront and defeat U.S. forces. Therefore, the mujahideen must aim to wage a war of attrition to wear out U.S. forces through protracted guerrilla tactics.

1)Concentrate on attacking small, soft targets instead of hard targets even if they are attackable in order to avoid heavy casualties. The loss of large numbers of jihadis is unsustainable as it takes a long time to replace them. The preference in this phase is to rocket-attack the enemy from distant points.

2. Exert more effort in training and gradually gain fighting skills while observing the occupiers' tactics, reactions and weaknesses. The longer jihadis hold their ground, the better the chances are of overcoming the threshold of their fear of the enemy.

3. Widen the jihadi base to prolong resistance operations, consequently prevailing over the enemy.

"It is a common (mis-)perception that Sufism is a non-violent form of Islam, guiding its adherents away from political confrontation toward a more spiritual facet of the religion. Hence, Sufism was tolerated by totalitarian regimes such as in Iraq and—in some cases—practiced by the statesmen in such regimes. It is apparent from the regular military terminology used in the Naqshbandia magazine that ex-Iraqi military officers are the main core of JRTN and are using the Naqshbandia order to legitimize their insurgency. Although Sufism is in stark contrast with Salafism, both sects push their religious differences aside to unite against a non-Muslim enemy. However, any Sufi-Salafi alliance is not expected to survive in the absence of a common enemy, possibly even emerging as a new and bitter conflict in strife-torn Iraq."

In summary, I've presented information that summarizes the violent jihad that is such an important part of the modern Naqshbandi Order of Sufi Islam, in case any fence-sitting liberals still think Sufi Muslims are peaceful and harmless.

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