Mumbai attacks: Jihadists see "invasion" as a triumph
In India, some already call it the "Invasion of Bombay" and their country's 9/11 moment. This is no exaggeration. For, although the deadly raids on India's economic capital did not claim as many lives as 9/11 did in New York, the psychological impact is likely to be as potent.
By Amir Taheri
Last Updated: 9:39AM GMT 30 Nov 2008
The "invasion" showed that Islamic terror is capable of organising military-style operations against major urban centres in "infidel territory".
Since 1993 when they first gathered in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, to discuss global strategy, Islamic terrorists have come up with a number of theories on how to defeat the "infidel" and achieve world conquest.
Osama bin Laden had theorised that the "infidel", led by the United States, would crumble after spectacular attacks designed to cripple its economy, just as the Meccan "infidel" government did when the Prophet Muhammad crushed its resistance with deadly raids, "Ghazwas", against its trade routes.
However, 9/11 did not lead to an "infidel" retreat. On the contrary, the "Great Satan" hit back, destroying the structures created in Afghanistan to sustain global terror.
That persuaded some al Qaeda leaders that a new strategy was needed. Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda's number two, started advocating one in 2003, arguing that the Jihad should first target Muslim countries where it had a chance of toppling the "impious" regimes.
Three years later, another theoretician of Jihad, Sheikh Abu-Bakr Naji, proposed his new strategy. This suggests that low intensity war be extended to anywhere in the world with a significant Muslim presence. India, where Muslims account for more than 15 per cent of the population, and Bombay, where 25 per cent of the population is Muslim, are prime candidates for testing that theory.
Naji's theories are spelled out in his book 'Edarat al-Wahsh' (Governance in the Wilderness). The idea is to render places not under "proper Islamic rule" into wildernesses in which no one is safe. The "infidel" and the "impious Muslim", leaving their homes every morning, should be unsure whether they would return in the evening.
Naji recommends kidnappings, the holding of hostages, the use of women and children as human shields, exhibition beheadings, suicide bombings and countless gestures that make normal life impossible for the "infidel" and "impious Muslims".
Whoever organised the "Invasion of Bombay" must have read Naji with care. ...
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