Is a Global Jihad in our Future?

Non-Arab Islamism is on the Rise

We are in the midst of a multi-faceted Jihad where we have Shiites and Sunnis fighting each other on the one hand and Shiites coopting Sunnis to fight Israel on the other.  We have two of the three largest non-Arab Islamic states competing and cooperating with each other in the fight against Israel.   Iran we all know about, Turkey is becoming more belligerent and Pakistan is training Palestinian terrorists to use tanks.  China is hosting Palestinian groups in order to gain a foothold in the region and a side in the jihad in spite of their putting their own Moslems in concentration camps and Russia is thoroughly involved in both the middle east and sub-Saharan Africa while it has its own Islamist problem. Sub-Saharan Africa’s newest troubles are Jihad caused.   Europe’s Moslems are being radicalized by the day.  Iran is involved in South America. Is global Jihad just around the corner?

Iran is the main actor in the middle east instability tour as they are massively arming their militias in Syria and trying to take control over parts of the Syrian military. According to the Lebanese press only 10% of the hundreds of trucks filled with weapons and manufacturing equipment for drones that make their way from Iran via Iraq to Syria is destined for Hezbollah.  The rest stays in Syria in their attempt to create pressure not only on Israel but on the Syrian government of Bashir Asaad and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.  While Syria is a majority Sunni country, the civil war, with the armed power of Iran and Hezbollah has methodically ethnically cleansed the Sunnis from Syria.  According to this EU study in 2010 Sunnis made up 65% of the total population of Syria and by 2020 they were only 49-52%.   The Alawites, of which Asad belongs control the Army and the government are closer to Shiite than Sunni.  Iran though is not satisfied with Alawite control and is looking to create a fully Shiite state, like in Iran (and like they are trying to do in Iraq).

On the other side of their country the Shiites and  Sunnis in Pakistan and Afghanistan are conducting an active Jihad against each other. Just last week, 40 Shiites were killed by Taliban forces in Pakistan and there are constant border clashes between Iran and Pakistan and Iran and Afghanistan.  

Turkey has now decided that it too is interested in the Jihad game, in spite – or because of? – their NATO membership.  They have threatened to move forces into Lebanon if Israel invades.  This could be just some Erdogan bluster, but it is not out of the realm of possibility that they will send naval vessels to challenge Israel.   If Israel were to attack or sink Turkish naval ships – does that mean NATO is now at war with Israel if Turkey invokes article 5 of the NATO charter?  That might excite some State Department “professionals” who would insist on the US fighting Israel (a war they can finally love), but I can’t imagine that the US military or political class would be too happy with that. 

Turkey is moving in the direction from East-West bridge to Islamic anti-Western power.  As military technology is moving from advanced fighters to more simple, although quite sophisticated drones, they have taken advantage of the two major wars in their neighborhood and America’s unwillingness to win either of them, to develop and sell equipment on the one hand and to try to fill a power vacuum on the other.   They know that Ukraine will never be permitted to win so they have befriended both sides and they fully understand that the current US administration will never allow Israel to win either – allowing them to show off their anti-semitic bona-fides.  And of course they already occupy parts of Syria

But this is not a “national interest” move any more than Iran’s is.  It is simply Jihad against the Jews, Christians and heretics (AKA Shiites for the Sunnis and Sunnis for the Shiites) and the Turks plan on fighting their Jihad in that order- as do the Iranians. 

So we seem to have three Islamic states, all formerly western allies  - Pakistan, Iran and Turkey-  who are adopting Jihad as their national defense policies.  This Jihad also has help from major powers who thrive by creating chaos and knocking the West off balance.  Those powers of course are China and Russia.

Russia this week hosted a four-party meeting in Syria with Iranian, Hezbollah and Syrian military figures.  Amongst the Iranian Revolutionary Guard figures in the meeting were Haj Rasul – responsible for the Syria-Lebanon border and Masallah Fadai, responsible for Damascus.  The Russians, who came with senior military officers,  are demanding that they move their weapons factories from Damascus to the Lebanese-Syrian border where Israelis will be less prone to attack them due to the Russian presence.   Russia is all in with the Iranian Jihad as they see it as weakening America and furthering their goals in Ukraine as well as the middle east.   They are also planning on arming the Houthis and Hezbollah.

The only way to understand anything about what is going on in the middle east and environs is to view it through the lens of Jihad.  No territorial or monetary incentives will end the Jihad as Jihad by its very definition has no end.  There are always Jews, Christians and Heretics to fight and, much like the Nazis, they cannot rest until the pollution that they create is eliminated.  Iran’s ring of fire against Israel is just stage one as they have also managed to have many thousands of Sunni’s killed – Gaza is a two-fer for them.     In Lebanon they are a bit more cautious since they will have to sacrifice Shiite lives in their fight against the Jews.   In Syria, they are planning a total Shiite takeover while ethnically cleansing Sunnis from the country. 

Russia currently will support whatever Iran wants in Syria and Lebanon as they see it as a, so far successful, attempt to rid the region of the US.  But they have a threat from Jihad in Central Asia – as they have already experienced. 

What will Turkey do?  Israel and the Jews are now their number one declared enemy, but how long will they tolerate a powerful Shiite presence (Iran controlled Syria)  on their border?  Will we see, in the not so distant future a Turkish-Iranian war being fought in Arab Syria?  And maybe Iraq, too?  Will NATO have to join in this Jihad of the major Sunni power vs the major Shiite one?  And of course there are the Kurds whom everyone hates (almost as much as the Jews).

China, too in encouraging all that is harmful to the US, has encouraged Hamas and sponsored agreements (albeit temporary) between Hamas and the PA as well as Iran and Saudi Arabia, but it may be involved in the Jihad sooner rather than later.    

While we and many others have written of the dangers to the West of the new China-Russia-Iran axis and China might start a third hot war against the West, could it be that the Islamist Jihad is what the world has the most to fear?  And instead of concentrating on the Arab world and with it the Israeli-Arab problem that has obsessed the Western establishment for the last decades, what if it is actually the non-Arab Islamic world that the West has the most to fear?   Israel (or some in Israel) already know this as Iran has set its first goal as the destruction of Israel and a second Holocaust and Turkey has upped its rhetoric – but the world might be facing nuclear armed Pakistan and Iran fighting each other, too.   Would Turkey try to take over the  nuclear weapons that are in the Incrilik Air Base in their country making all three of these powers nuclear? 

Let us not forget the radicalized Moslem population in the UK and Europe.  The nihilism of radical Islam combined with that of the radical left in Europe could make for an extension of Jihad to the European mainland.  

The best way to stop the current Jihad and the future one would be to stop Iran in its tracks since Iran’s success seems to be what is fueling all the others   But the Western establishment will have a hard time doing that since they can’t manage to lift a finger against a country or movement that is anti-Western (just look at Central and South America) and no one is currently more anti-Western than Iran. 

Is a global Jihad going to happen?   It could be that it will die down as many violent revolutionary movements die down or it could be that it will be spread by various offshoots much as Communism with its Maoism, Leninism/Stalinism, Castroism and many copycats of each one.  These will all be uncontrollable by their very nature and if each is supported by one of the big three non-Arab Islamist powers it could lead to some very interesting times indeed.

I am not naturally an apocalyptic person, but a handful of nuclear armed Islamic countries will make fighting them quite difficult, to say the least – even if the US, China and Russia end up on the same side – which is not a certainty.   China and Russia might support global Jihad assuming it would never cross their border or its areas of influence.  They may not realize that error it until it is too late.  As for the US, if we get a continuation of the Biden-Blinken foreign policy they won’t know it until the Capitol building is turned into a mosque – and even then, they may call for de-escalation from the US military.

I don’t think global Jihad is right around the corner – but it might be the next town over.