{"id":19928,"date":"2014-10-02T05:30:28","date_gmt":"2014-10-02T09:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=19928"},"modified":"2014-10-01T19:23:47","modified_gmt":"2014-10-01T23:23:47","slug":"the-jihadists-mein-kampf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/10\/the-jihadists-mein-kampf\/","title":{"rendered":"The jihadists’ “Mein Kampf”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Foreign affairs columnist David Ignatius draws attention to a book published in 2004 that reads like a playbook of radical jihadists.\u00a0 The Management of Savagery <\/em>by Abu Bakr Naji calls for a strategy of drawing America into paralyzing wars and using shocking violence as a way to expose the weakness of the West and to bring Muslims into the cause.<\/p>\n

From David Ignatius, The manual that chillingly foreshadows the Islamic State \u2013 The Washington Post<\/a>:<\/p>\n

It may not be as revealing as \u201cMein Kampf\u201d or \u201cThe Communist Manifesto.\u201d But people looking for insight into the extremist strategy that inflames the fighters of the Islamic State might begin with a book chillingly titled \u201cThe Management of Savagery.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Published in 2004 by a jihadist who called himself Abu Bakr Naji, the book posits a world in which the superpower halo of the United States has disappeared and the Muslim world within the colonial boundaries known as the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement has descended into chaos \u2014 \u201csavagery,\u201d as the author bluntly puts it.<\/p>\n

Sound familiar? Read on. The book, translated in 2006 from Arabic by William McCants, is a frightening guide to the ultra-violent tactics today embraced by the Islamic State and its leader, who calls himself Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. . . .<\/p>\n

The manifesto proposes that the jihadists draw an overstretched America into a war in which it will eventually become \u201cexhausted\u201d and give up. This strategy requires polarizing the Muslim world and convincing those moderates who had hoped for U.S. protection that it\u2019s futile.<\/p>\n

Naji argues that if the United States overextends itself militarily, this will lead to its demise. \u201cThe overwhelming military power (weapons, technology, fighters) has no value without . . . the cohesion of (society\u2019s) institutions and sectors.\u201d Loss of America\u2019s media reputation as an all-dominating superpower \u201cremoves the aura of invincibility which this power projects, [and reveals] that nothing at all stands in front of it.\u201d. . .<\/p>\n

The key to undermining American power is raw violence, the more shocking the better, he argues. It wasn\u2019t just that this ultra-violence would expose the West\u2019s feebleness but also that it would force Muslims to make a choice. In the disorder of formerly stable Arab lands, the jihadists would make their name through \u201cmanagement of savagery.\u201d Naji even urged his readers to consult books on business administration.<\/p>\n

Naji had special contempt for Muslim softness. \u201cThe ingredient of softness is one of the ingredients of failure for any jihadi action,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt is better for those who . . . are also soft to sit in their homes. If not, failure will be their lot. . . . If we are not violent in our jihad and if softness seizes us, that will be a major factor in the loss of the element of strength.\u201d<\/p>\n

To support his case for brutal tactics, Naji notes that two caliphs who followed the prophet Muhammad \u201cburned (people) with fire, even though it is odious, because they knew the effect of rough violence in times of need.\u201d In another passage, he notes that \u201cwe need to massacre\u201d others as Muslims did after the death of Muhammad. Violence is beneficial, Naji argues: \u201cDragging the masses into the battle requires more actions which will inflame opposition and which will make people enter into the battle, willing or unwilling. . . . We must make this battle very violent, such that death is a heartbeat away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Foreign affairs columnist David Ignatius draws attention to a book published in 2004 that reads like a playbook of radical jihadists.\u00a0 The Management of Savagery by Abu Bakr Naji calls for a strategy of drawing America into paralyzing wars and using shocking violence as a way to expose the weakness of the West and to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,46,49],"tags":[2663,3358,3372],"class_list":["post-19928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-islam","category-terrorism","category-war-2","tag-islamic-radicals","tag-islamic-stateisisisil","tag-jihadists"],"yoast_head":"\nThe jihadists' "Mein Kampf"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Foreign affairs columnist David Ignatius draws attention to a book published in 2004 that reads like a playbook of radical jihadists.\u00a0 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