Simon Jenkins in the Times is at it again, suggesting that the war in Iraq was cooked up by a 'neo-con' conspiracy to demonise Islam and manufacture a bogus threat to terrify the public. But today he goes further in this truly asinine thinking by claiming that Al Qaeda has never existed. A programme is being screened tonight by the BBC (of course) which from all accounts appears to be a farrago of lies of Michael Moore-esqe proportions. Its thesis is apparently 'the paranoia of fundamentalism'-- that is to say we, not the fundamentalists, are paranoid. And that's because there is apparently no threat from Islamic fundamentalism at all. Sinister politicians have conjured up a nightmare fantasy so that they can gain power by pretending to protect us. Al Qaeda is thus merely a figment of the imnagination of crazed neo-cons. Now this is staggeringly off-the-wall stuff. But so great is the madness now that Jenkins -- who, let us pinch ourselves, is the leading commentator on the house journal of the British establishment -- believes it all. He writes of the programme:

'It traces the evolution of the Iraq occupation to the rise of the American neoconservatives in the 1980s. It sees in the demonising of Islam the neocons’ need for an enemy to replace communism in “binding together the American myth” . They found it in the fragmented Islamist revolutionaries. They supported various Mujahidin groups against the Russians in Afghanistan, then reinvented them as a fictitious “worldwide network of terror in 50 countries” in the aftermath of 9/11.'

No mention of the dominance of Wahhabism and its programme of holy war against Jews and Christians. No mention of the sanctioning of this jihad against the west by important Islamic religious leaders. No mention of the jihadi campaigns of terror and mass murder being waged across the globe. No mention of their explicit statements declaring the aim to destroy western hegemony and reinstate the medieval Muslim caliphate acoss the world. And of course, no mention of the links between Saddam Hussein and these networks of terror.

'The vision of the West as facing daily terrorist armaggedon is being seen for the sham it is'

sneers Jenkins. No mention of the potentially devastating terrorist plots against British cities that have been intercepted by the British security services, as any jounalist who bothers to inquire about such things can discover.

As for al Qaeda, here's what the distinguished scholar Rohan Gunaratna, author of Inside al Qaeda, had to say in that book about the organisation Jenkins claims does not exist. Gunaratna spent five years interviewing more than 200 terrorists inluding al Qaeda members in more than 15 countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. He spoke to al Qaeda's leadership and its rank and file. His book runs to 242 pages of detail about its origins, infrastructure, strategy and goals. He writes:

'Al Qaeda is above all a secret, almost virtual organisation, one that denies its own existence in order to remain in the shadows. This explains why it always uses other names and identities (such as the World Islamic Front for the Jihad Against the Jews and the Crusaders) when referring to its actions, beliefs and statements...'

Its training manual (described in the footnotes as a 'UK government exhibit') states:

'Islamic governments have never been, and never wil be, established through peaceful solutions and cooperative councils. They are established as they [always] have been by pen and gun by word and bullet by tongue and teeth'.

Gunaratna observes:

'As progress in these domestic campaigns -- from Saudi Arabia to Egypt and Algeria -- was slow, a second front was initiated by al Qaeda to target the United States and its allies. Without directly challenging Western military power, economic strength and cultural influence, the Islamists perceive that they cannot bring about change in their home countries because a group of Western countries, led by the USA, steadfastly supports Israel and the unrepresentative Arab regimes of the Middle East'.

Has Jenkins ever read this book, or the many others which contain chapter and verse about the global jihad? But then, those who think like him refuse to acknowledge any fact which punctures their repellent and absurd conspiracy theories about America, Israel and the Jews.

Posted by melanie at October 20, 2004