No, he is not an American agent!

Abu Dharr

Caution! This article is not written for the rationally disabled or for those who are reproach-free.

In the past month, the world was abuzz with the announcement of the American president that US forces had killed Osama bin Laden (OBL). We seriously doubt that Osama bin Laden was killed at the time, in the manner, or at the place they officially said he was. Many alternative news media have done the job of debunking and repudiating the official US version of Osama’s death. At this point, we take a moment to look beyond statements of the ruling class in Washington, at this Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda political widget.

Before OBL and al-Qaeda sprang into the public mind (this was in the early to mid-1990s) there was an Islamic leadership and an Islamic heroic sacrifice that had Washington and Tel Aviv politically hypnotized and militarily confounded — and that is the Islamic Revolution and its political administration in Iran. All Euro-American and Ziono-American policies were for more than a decade preoccupied with policies and in fact haunted with strategies of how to diminish or defeat in a conclusive manner the first burst of Islamic self-determination in the contemporary world.

Their proxy in Baghdad failed through a long and drawn out war to bring the Islamic Revolution and the Islamic purpose in Iran to its knees. Parallel to that, the Zionist military in occupied Lebanon was taking a beating at the hands of Hizbullah and the Islamic resistance until they finally had to withdraw their occupation forces in ignominy (May 2000). The ruling elites in Washington and Tel Aviv were sitting on thorns as they watched their incompetence and deterioration unfold from an ascending Iran to an aspiring Hizbullah. The new set of anti-American and anti-Zionist circumstances demanded a “stroke of genius”. Enter the Taliban and al-Qaeda. To refresh one’s memory, Afghanistan for a decade and a half (1979–1995) was swarming with mujahidin from many corners of the earth, particularly those who marched there from Arabia to the cadence of an American-Arabian master plan for jihad to defeat the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

Tens of thousands of mujahidin were all over Afghanistan fighting valiantly against the brutal Soviet occupation not knowing they were being used by the Saudis, who themselves were being used by the Americans, who in turn were being used by the climactic interests of the Yahud. As long as these credulous and trusting warriors in Afghanistan were fighting the evil empire they were heroic mujahidin in the political literature of Arabia and America, until finally the Soviets were defeated. Now that the Soviets were out of Afghanistan, what do you do with a reserve of hardened combatants who were on the warpath in Afghanistan? Combatants who were motivated to take on an Islamic enemy militarily? Behold the kickoff of al-Qaeda and OBL. To set the stage for that we had tens of thousands of Taliban (religious students) acting like professional soldiers, experienced commanders, and competent armed forces moving from Pakistan into Afghanistan at a time when the Afghans were slugging it out against themselves (remember the major polarized “Islamic” forces around Ahmad Shah Mas‘ud and Gulbuddin Hikmatyar?)

Well now there was a new kid in town. The Taliban became the rulers of Afghanistan with the support and recognition of three US satellite nation-states: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In this Taliban enclave we had the bourgeoning of al-Qaeda and its leader OBL. Let us make it very clear that many if not all the Islamic foot-soldiers in al-Qaeda and to a lesser extent in the Taliban are sincere and single-minded Muslims. In their heart they went out on a course of jihad for the sole purpose of raising the banner of Islam high and eminent. The problem with them was not in their heart and motivation; it was in their mind and cognition. Little were they aware of the fact that they were pawns on a global chessboard of duplicity, chicanery, and enmity.

What were the consequences of this “Emirate of Afghanistan”, an emirate whose emotions were running ahead of its mind? In the first instance, we had the implementation of “Shari‘ah” in what may be described as a premature manner. Remember, Afghanistan was a country devastated by war; hunger and poverty were rampant and all around. Families were torn apart and dislocated. State institutions were not present. A civil war was still brewing. And in the middle of all this, without any forethought, the Taliban-al-Qaeda duo began implementing Islamic law on a population that is living at a sub-society level and with social and economic conditions that are akin in some aspects to the society in Madinah and Arabia when ‘Umar (d) suspended “legality” to relieve people who were living at the survival level. But you can’t tell that to these emotionally charged but rationally bereft officials. Then came their oddball and madcap act in which they blasted the stone chiselled image of the Buddha. As if all the previous Muslim generations dating all the way back to the days of the sahabah did not discover this “idol” but these Taliban and al-Qaeda types did. And boom! Even a delegation of Muslim scholars headed by none other than Shaikh Yusuf al-Qardawi could not convince them otherwise. These emotions-first, thoughts-last types were passionately programmed to “enjoin what is good and forbid what is evil” as they saw it, and only as they saw it — as they are al-fi’atu al-najiyah (the saved and redeemed faithful) — in reference to their oft-quoted hadith about the Ummah disintegrating into 73 groups all of them condemned except one.

And to further prove their mettle, they went to Mazar-e-Sharif to kill Shi‘i Muslims there and to make sure they kill Iranian Shi‘i Muslims, some of whom had “political immunity” — if that ever was any consideration in their vocabulary and definition of rawafid! These Zionist and imperialist, well-monitored specimens of “Islamic Fundamentalism” passed their test with flying colors. They proved that they have what it takes to plunge the whole Muslim world into a dark age of obscurantism and Islamic civil wars that will extend imperialism’s looting of Muslim resources and Zionism’s occupation of Islamic lands. Before the grand performance of 9/11 there had to be some feats-of-camouflage. So we had the American embassy bombing in Africa and the USS Cole attack off the coast of Yemen. As this imperialist and Zionist media-sponsored presentation of OBL and al-Qaeda eclipsed to a large extent the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the Islamic liberation in Lebanon the show went on and the denouement took place on 9/11. OBL, after initially denying any involvement, emerged as an iconic hero or sensational villain to all those who also had their emotions trumping their thoughts. And the rest is history as they say.

Having said all of the above — and there is much more that you can fill in with the information that a Muslim mind can glean — we do not for one moment mean to say that OBL and those with him were CIA agents or imperialist toadies. Such is the role of Turki and Bandar among a cabal of Saudi others. Rather OBL in ways that were unknown to him became an executor of necessary movements that would justify imperialist wars and occupations. In his wildest dreams he probably never knew that he was being set up and prompted to do, more or less, exactly what he and his vacuous brethren-in-arms were doing. This is what happens when individuals are brought up in the tedious and deadening religious climate of an American Saudi Arabia. Uncommon and remarkable as it is, we have a person (OBL) who deep down inside of himself thinks that he is taking on the enemies of Islam — and this is attested to by his sermons and statements — while at the same time he becomes the imperial instrument in setting off a chain of events that are needed by imperialists and Zionists to justify their military occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq and their political movements to unseat rulers who are outdated and no longer useful in the broad imperialist schemata of things.

The takfiri soul of the salafi body of Saudi sponsored zealots was used to the hilt by Zionists and imperialists in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Persian Gulf, and elsewhere to bleed the Muslim body into imperialist submission. There are many Muslims around the world who cannot see how manipulative-prone other Muslims become when they have not thought through their God-given responsibilities. The Saudi kingdom by taking the Muslim mind out of the Qur’an and Sunnah has provided imperialism and Zionism with diehards who think they are doing Allah’s (swt) will, not realizing they are undeclared proxies of the enemies they are purportedly fighting against.


Say, “Shall We tell you who are the greatest losers in whatever they do? [It is] they whose efforts have gone astray in this world’s life, and who nonetheless think that they are doing good works: it is they who have chosen to reject their Sustainer’s power illustrations and encounter.” Hence, all their [good] deeds come to nought, and no weight shall We assign to them on Resurrection Day (18:103–105).


The Islamic Revolution and Islamic liberation have weathered this attack from within — by the Saudi regime directly and by the Israeli and American regimes indirectly.

Has the Arab Spring wilted before its blossom?

Zafar Bangash

Expectations for rapid change in the Muslim East have not materialized despite two long-entrenched dictators in Tunisia and Egypt respectively being driven from power in quick succession. What has prevented change in places like Yemen, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Syria, that the people in Tunisia and Egypt were able to achieve in short order? Are conditions in these societies so different than in Tunisian and Egypt to frustrate change? Let us be clear: there are few representative governments anywhere in the Middle East. The two examples in the region are those of Turkey and Islamic Iran. The other wall-to-wall Middle Eastern dictatorships have managed to fight off challenge to their rule, which General Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak were unable to do.

At the outset we must acknowledge the undoubted courage of the people participating in the uprisings. They managed to shed their fear of the dreaded security forces. Fear has been a powerful instrument in the hands of all oppressors throughout the ages. There is also no doubt that the ubiquitous security and intelligence forces have acted with absolute ruthlessness to crush any attempt at dissent. But this was also the case in Tunisia and Egypt. Thus, in order to understand fully what is afoot we need to look a little deeper. Both in Tunisia and Egypt, the militaries refused to obey the dictators’ orders to open fire on unarmed civilians. When the police forces failed to quell the protests, the dictators were forced to flee. The credit for all the uprisings belongs to the people of Tunisia who were the first to take a stand. Their example has been emulated by people elsewhere.

We must also recognize that the conditions in each society are not identical. Further, there is external interference both in support of the dictators as well as against them. Again, this represents a curious paradox. For instance, in the case of Libya and Syria, external powers are actively backing the people’s movements. In Libya, the West led by Britain, France, Italy and the US, has gotten involved directly. They have now overstepped their original dubious mandate given by the UN Security Council to impose a no-fly zone over Libya ostensibly to prevent the Libyan government from attacking the rebels from the air. The Libyan government immediately declared a ceasefire and offered to negotiate with the rebels but the West was not interested. Since the March 17 no-fly resolution, Western planes have bombed Libyan ground formations, their equipment, oil installations and even residential areas. At the end of April, Colonel Muammar Qaddafi’s house was attacked killing his youngest son and three grandchildren. How does this advance enforcement of the no-fly zone? This was an act of cold-blooded murder perpetrated by Western forces. NATO attacks on residential areas have continued unabated as reported in this edition of the Crescent International. While Western forces have not intervened in the same manner in Syria, there is active support for the rebels there and money and guns are being supplied by the Saudis, Lebanese and Israelis.

The West’s policy toward Libya and Syria stands in sharp contrast to its behaviour in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. In all three cases, the West has not only maintained a studied silence but has actually supported suppression of peaceful protesters. This is most shocking in the case of Bahrain where peaceful protesters including women and children have been attacked and killed. Even medical personnel have not been spared because they treated those that had been injured during the protests. Entire neighbourhoods have been placed under curfew while armed thugs of the regime have gone about arresting and dragging youth from their homes as well as vandalising their properties and cars. Even masjids have been destroyed and copies of the Qur’an desecrated. Women have been raped. Such crimes have evoked little reaction from the West or its human rights organizations that are quick to denounce those they do not like. Why the double standards?

Saudi Arabia managed to both crush the meek attempts at uprising as well as bribe others into silence. The Saudi regime has also used its court ‘ulama’ to issue “fatwas” to declare uprisings against the ruler as “haram”. One is forced to ask: what ayat of the Qur’an or what hadith of the noble Messenger (pbuh) support such contention? If per chance, this is true, then why has the Saudi regime joined in the assault on Qaddafi’s regime and why is it supporting the uprising in Syria?

So we see that there is more at work than meets the eye. Many of these dictators quickly re-adjusted their policies once they had overcome the shock of the overthrow of Ben Ali and Mubarak. In fact, it is known that Saudi king Abdullah was upset with US President Barack Obama for allowing the overthrow of Mubarak who was a major lynchpin of the US-crafted order in the region. After Mubarak’s removal, the new dispensation in Egypt announced on May 26 that the Rafah crossing with Ghazzah would be opened so that the long-besieged and oppressed Palestinians can get much needed supplies of food, medicine and cement and steel to rebuild their homes.

It is clear that rulers like Qaddafi, the two Abdullahs and Ali Abdullah Saleh in Yemen will fight back to retain power. Saleh also has the support of the Americans because he is seen as a bulwark against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Whether there is any substance to this claim is open to debate but Saleh has convinced the Americans that he is their man to fight the al-Qaeda “menace”. Thus, while the regimes are fighting back, the West’s hypocrisy stands exposed as does the brutal nature of these regimes. Finally, the lack of leadership of all these movements is a major cause for concern. They can and are being manipulated. That is why Islam lays so much emphasis on leadership.

While one must extend every support to the people’s movements in these countries, it must be admitted that change will not come about easily or without huge cost. The dictators are fighting back and will show no respect for people’s rights or lives. They never have in the past; why should they behave differently now that they are fighting for their lives?