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If international law enforcement authorities and Western intelligence
agencies had discovered a twenty-year old document revealing a top-secret plan
developed by the oldest Islamist organization with one of the most extensive
terror networks in the world to launch a program of "cultural
invasion" and eventual conquest of the West that virtually mirrors the
tactics used by Islamists for more than two decades, such news would scream
from headlines published on the front pages and above the fold of the New York
Times, Washington Post, London Times, Le Monde, Bild, and La Repubblica.
If that's what you might think, you would be wrong.
In fact, such a document was recovered in a raid by Swiss
authorities in November 2001, two months after the horror of 9/11. Since that
time information about this document, known in counterterrorism circles as
"The Project", and discussion regarding its content has been limited
to the top-secret world of Western intelligence communities. Only through the
work of a gallant Swiss journalist, Sylvain Besson of Le Temps, and his book
published in October 2005 in France, La conquête de l'Occident: Le projet
secret des Islamistes (The Conquest of the West: The Islamists' Secret
Project), has information regarding The Project finally been made public. One
Western official cited by Besson has described The Project as "a
totalitarian ideology of infiltration which represents, in the end, the
greatest danger for European societies."
The
Project is a 14-page document purported to be authored by the Muslim
Brotherhood outlining a long-term plan for an Islamic "cultural
invasion" of the West. The Project is a roadmap for achieving the
installation of Islamic regimes in the West via propaganda, preaching, and, if
necessary, war. The following are the document's principal points:
1: To know the terrain and adopt a scientific methodology for its planning
and execution.
2: To demonstrate proof of the serious nature of the work.
3: To reconcile international engagement with flexibility at a local level.
4: To reconcile political engagement and the necessity of avoiding isolation
on one hand, with permanent education and institutional action on the other.
5: To be used to establish an Islamic State; parallel, progressive efforts
targeted at controlling the local centers of power through institutional
action.
6: To work with loyalty alongside Islamic groups and institutions in
multiple areas to agree on common ground, in order to "cooperate on the
points of agreement and set aside the points of disagreement".
7: To accept the principle of temporary cooperation between Islamic
movements and nationalist movements in the broad sphere and on common ground
such as the struggle against colonialism, preaching and the Jewish state,
without however having to form alliances. This will require, on the other hand,
limited contacts between certain leaders, on a case by case basis, as long as
these contacts do not violate the [Sharia] law. Nevertheless, one must not give
them allegiance or take them into confidence, bearing in mind that the Islamic
movement must be the origin of the initiatives and orientations taken.
8: To master the art of the possible on a temporary basis without abusing
the basic principles, bearing in mind that Allah's teachings always apply. One
must order the suitable and forbid that which is not, always providing a
documented opinion. But we should not look for confrontation with our
adversaries, at the local or the global scale, which would be disproportionate
and could lead to attacks against the dawa or its disciples.
9: To construct a permanent force of the Islamic dawa and support movements
engaged in jihad across the Muslim world, to varying degrees and insofar as
possible.
10: To use diverse and
varied surveillance systems, in several places, to gather information and adopt
a single effective warning system serving the worldwide Islamic movement. In
fact, surveillance, policy decisions and effective communications complement
each other.
11: To adopt the
Palestinian cause as part of a worldwide Islamic plan, with the policy plan and
by means of jihad, since it acts as the keystone of the renaissance of the Arab
world today.
12: To know how to turn to
self-criticism and permanent evaluation of worldwide Islamic policy and its
objectives, of its content and its procedures, in order to improve it. This is
a duty and a necessity according to the precepts of Sharia.
The Project reveals the
enemy's pre-meditated goals and tactics including:
- Establishment of systems for monitoring the Western Media and alerting Muslims
to Islamophobia and international plots against them.
- Keeping the Muslim community "in a jihad
frame of mind" by inciting and inflaming violence, while avoiding open
alliances with known terrorist organizations and individuals to maintain
the appearance of "moderation".
- Cultivation of an Islamist intellectual
community encompassing think-tanks and advocacy groups.
- Using deception to mask the intended goals of
Islamist actions, as long as it doesn't conflict with Sharia
Publication of academic studies legitimizing Islamist positions and
chronicling the history of Islamist movements .
- Instituting alliances with Western
"progressive" organizations.
- Running ideologically-committed Muslims for
positions in democratically-elected institutions such as government, NGOs,
private organizations and labor unions.
- Networking and coordination of actions with
other Muslim organizations. I
- nfiltration and assumption of control of existing
Muslim organizations to realign them towards Muslim Brotherhood's goals.
- Breeding a feeling of resentment towards the
Jews and to refuse any form of coexistence with them.
- Making the Palestinian cause a global wedge
issue for Muslims and adopting the total liberation of PalestineIsrael and the creation of
an Islamic state as a goal. from
- Establishment of [among Muslims in the West] a
parallel society where the group is above the individual, godly authority
above human liberty, and the holy scripture above the laws."
- Building extensive social networks of schools,
hospitals and charitable organizations dedicated to Islamist ideals so
that contact with the movement for Muslims in the West is constant .
- Creating autonomous "security forces"
to protect Muslims in the West .
- Establishment of financial networks to fund the
above.
To date - in spite of
hints and intimations gleaned from Al Qaeda tapes and videos and other Islamist
public attempts at putting their acts of terrorism into perspective - no clearer
document of Islamist intentions has been found.
The Islamist enemy has a
clearly defined plan and set of goals, which, extraordinarily, many Western
politicians prefer to ignore or, worse still, have never come
across.
The Islamists deny the
authenticity of The Project. But can they deny the authenticity of other
similarly hegemonistic plans? One need look no further than Taqiuddin
al-Nabhani, Hizb ut Tahrir's draft constitution, Abdul Alim Musa's As-Sabiqun,
Qutb's Milestones or any of the other documented Islamist lines of attack.
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