in this issue . . . Question Formulation Guidelines: Part II   Fit for Retirement: Psychological Survival for Law Enforcement Officers   The Domino Effect of Islamic Terrorism

Asking questions is one of the first language skills a child develops. However, almost all of our question asking skills are developed under the assumption that the person answering our question will tell the truth. Consider questions that might be asked around a family's dinner table: "Ryan, do you need a ride home from the dance or are you getting a ride with someone else?"; "Ben, how did your French test go?"; "Mom, Clare didn't call when I was gone, did she?" When there is a low probability of deception, how a question is formulated is relatively unimportant as long as the other person understands what is being asked.

This is not the case when interviewing a suspect, witness or victim who is motivated to withhold information. Under that circumstance, the investigator needs to phrase questions in such a way that the question will not invite deception and, if the person chooses to lie to the question, the question should stimulate behavior symptoms indicative of that fact. Too often, however, investigators formulate interview questions relying on rules learned for asking conversational questions and may be unaware of how important question formulation is in the role of detecting deception. As an example, each of the questions in the preceding paragraph are improperly phrased for detection of deception purposes. This web tip, as well as next month's, will offer basic guidelines with respect to proper formulation of interview questions.

Avoid asking compound questions

A compound question combines two inquires within a single question. For example, an employee suspected of stealing money from a safe may be asked, "Did anyone ever give you the combination to the safe, or did you ever find it written down somewhere?" If the employee answers "No" the investigator does not know if the employee is denying both areas of inquiry or just one of them. Assume that the employee was never given the combination to the safe but did discover it written down on a wall calender. When answering "No", the employee is telling part of the truth, and therefore, may exhibit very few behavior symptoms suggestive of lying. Contributing to the apparent truthful behavior symptoms will be the suspect's natural tendency to psychologically focus on that part of the question to which he is telling the truth (not being given the combination).

However, had the investigator separated these two areas of inquiry, quite different behaviors may be elicited as the following dialogue illustrates:

Q: "Did anyone ever give you the combination to the safe?"

A: "No, never." [ direct eye contact, on time]

Q: "Did you ever find the combination written down somewhere?"

A: "Did I find it written down? No." [laughs, and covers eyes with hand]

Compound questions are often asked as a matter of efficiency. The investigator realizes that he needs answers to two questions, e.g., "Did you touch your daughter's bare vagina or did she have any contact with your bare penis?" and combines the inquiries to shorten the interview. The additional time spent in separating the two issues, however, may provide valuable behavioral information.

Avoid broadly worded questions

It is the inexperienced parent who asks their child, "How was school today?" The child inevitable responds, "Fine" or "Not bad" and the parent assumes that the child turned in all homework on time and received passing grades on all tests. The seasoned parent will sit down with their child and ask specific questions; "What was your grade on the history exam?"; "Did you turn in your chemistry assignment?"; "How much more work do you have to do on your social studies project?" These specifically worded questions are much more likely to elicit meaningful responses. These examples introduce an axiom of lie detection: It is much easier to lie to a broadly worded question than a question that addresses a specific activity.

Assume that a suspect is guilty of embezzling $12,500 by stealing auxiliary cash funds and writing fictitious reimbursement checks to make the books balance. During an interview this suspect may be asked, "Did you steal any money from the company?"and the suspect is likely to answer, "No I did not." The answer is obviously a lie but the embezzler may exhibit minimal behavior symptoms of deception because of the broad wording of the question. A possible reason for this is that the question is anticipated and does not stimulate an emotional connection to the crime; the closer a question relates to a suspect's crime, the more emotional weight it will hold.

A much more productive line of questioning would be to ask the suspect a series of specifically worded questions concerning the embezzlement scheme. Examples of these include:

"Have you ever taken money for yourself from the auxiliary cash fund?

"Have you left the company with any money that did not belong to you?"

"Have you spent any money stolen from the company?"

"Have you written any checks to a fictitious account?"

"When we contact the people to whom the reimbursement checks were written, will they tell us that they received the checks?

Text books addressing interviewing skills emphasize the importance of asking the right question. What is the right question? Often we do not know until it is asked, but it is never a broadly worded question. A prime example is a preemployment screening interview. If a job applicant is simply asked, "In the last two years have you used any illegal drugs?" almost every applicant will respond, "No". However, if the interviewer asks more specific questions about drug usage, often admissions or at least deceptive behavior, will result as the following dialogue illustrates:

I: "In the last two years have you tried heroin?"

A: "Gosh no."

I: "How about some of the social drugs like cocaine, acid or speed?"

A: "Nope"

I: "In the last 2 years have you experimented with marijuana?"

A: "Not on a regular basis."

I: "When is the last time you experimented with marijuana?"

A: "Quite a while ago."

I: "Did you have any in the last 24 hours?"

A: "Oh gosh no. It was last weekend."

The previously mentioned axiom warrants repetition: It is psychologically much easier for a suspect to lie to a broadly worded question than one which specifically addresses his act of wrong-doing.

Be aware of the importance of question syntax

With the previous guideline in mind, prior to conducting a formal interview, the investigator should prepare a list of specific questions to ask a subject relative to the crime. As an example, consider a homicide case in which the victim (Bob) was killed December 17th. Bob was killed near a farmer's field several miles from his residence. He was shot three times with a .22 caliber weapon. On the day of his death, Bob received a $1000 loan which was given to him in cash but not found on his body.

In preparing for this interview the investigator would want to elicit answers to the following questions:

Did you see Bob at all on December 17th?

Were you present when Bob was shot?

Did you steal Bob's money?

Did you shoot Bob?

Was Bob inside your car on December 17th?

Did you meet with Bob outside of town?

On December 17th were you near the farmer's field?

Were you present when a gun was fired on December 17th?

Do you have access to a .22 caliber gun?

Did you fire a .22 caliber gun on December 17th?

However, if the questions are asked in the order presented, the investigator is setting himself up for failure. In the above example, if the investigator starts by asking the suspect, "Did you see Bob at all on December 17th?" and the suspect answers "No", he is committed to deny the next four questions on the list. In fact, given this denial to the first broad question, an investigator would not even ask the remaining questions within this area of inquiry. Consequently, the investigator is relying on a single assessment of the suspect's behavior relative to his commission of the crime; and that assessment is to a broad question which, as previously stated, is the easiest type of question to lie to.

As previously stated, an investigator is much more likely to detect deception if multiple questions are asked relative to the suspect's possible involvement in a crime or act of wrong-doing. The guideline to follow is that these questions should be arranged from the most narrow inquires to the broadest inquires. With this in mind, the following question syntax presents itself in this homicide case:

Did you shoot Bob?

Were you present when Bob was shot?

Did you steal Bob's money?

Did you meet with Bob outside of town?

Was Bob inside your car on December 17th

Did you see Bob at all on December 17th?

On December 17th were you near the farmer's field?

Did you fire a .22 caliber gun on December 17th?

Were you present when a gun was fired on December 17th?

Do you have access to a .22 caliber gun?

A suspect questioned about this homicide can answer "No" to each of these question without committing himself to a denial to the subsequent questions. This greatly increases the investigator's ability to elicit significant behavior symptoms of guilt or innocence for two reasons. First, it permits the asking of specific questions which are more psychologically difficult to lie to than broadly worded questions. Second, there is an accumulative effect of increased anxiety when a deceptive suspect has lied to several questions within a particular area. By the time the investigator asks broader questions, such as "Did you see Bob at all on December 17th?" or, "Do you have access to a .22 caliber gun?" the suspect is more likely to tell the truth. These acknowledgments, of course, provide important information about the suspect's opportunity and access to commit the crime.

During an actual interview, these questions would not be asked in this specific sequence, but would be separated by the asking of less threatening questions to gain general background information or clarification. The point being made here is that the sequence in which key investigative questions are asked during the course of an interview is critical, and requires preparation.

Credit and Permission Statement: This Investigator Tip was developed by John E. Reid and Associates Inc. Permission is hereby granted to those who wish to share or copy the article. For additional 'tips' visit www.reid.com; select 'Educational Information' and 'Investigator Tip'. Inquiries regarding Investigator Tips should be directed to Janet Finnerty johnreid@htc.net. For more information regarding Reid seminars and training products, contact John E. Reid and Associates, Inc. at 800-255-5747 or www.reid.com.  

  

by David M. Schiff

This article is dedicated to the many officers I‘ve counseled over the past 30 plus years who have experienced degradation of their emotions along with their souls, friends, family, and love of the job. My thanks goes to the wise authors who have distributed their wisdom through their books and training to help many in our profession more safely navigate the path to a healthy and satisfying retirement. They include Massad Ayoob (The Killing Experience), Anthony Stone, Ph.D. (Fitness for Duty), Dr. K. Gilmartin (Emotional Survival), Lt. Col. Dave Grossman (On Combat), Ander-son, Swenson, and Clay (Stress Manage-ment for Law Enforcement Officers), and George Thompson, Ph.D. (Verbal Judo).

Many who enter the law enforcement profession as a uniform patrol officer travel a path through one of the most professionally toxic environments in our country. It is a path on which they will encounter corruption in many forms, change of assignments at the whim of others, intimate experiences with the horrors of life through man‘s in-humanity to man, attacks from vicious criminals and the media, lawsuits and threatened lawsuits from violators they‘ve arrested, and betrayal by their command staff.

Along this path, the new officer generally starts out with an innocent, idealistic dream of being a cop, followed by the thrills of entering and completing the academy and FTO, then the excitement of viola-tor interactions, fights, arrests, and convictions. Then, slowly and insidiously many will descend along a path of losses (not necessarily in the following order) – the loss of non-LEO friends, spouse(s), children, a zest for life, almost all that was fun, love of THE JOB, a relationship with their God, a healthy body, pride, money, and finally life (either literally or as a living death).

So, the goal is to help target harden our new officers so that along their career they can pass through the toxic environment of their law enforcement profession to retirement and maintain tactical dominance over not just sudden violent encounters but over the peer pressure of corruption, undeserved and random change to undesirable assignments, but also the struggle to intimately communicate with family and non-LEO friends, and to sustain a positive view of the world and their zest for life along with a healthy mind and body with which to enjoy a rewarding, healthy, and satisfying retirement.

In the academy we teach survival skills to stay physically alive on the street: defensive tactics, situational awareness, weapon skills, mechanics of arrest, pursuit driving, prisoner search, building clearance, and others. We also teach a bunch of other job survival skills: report writing, testifying, evidence handling, tactical and interpersonal communication, ethics, the law, crisis intervention, and more. What we don‘t teach them are the tactics for psychological spiritual survival: how to relate intimately with a spouse or life partner, how to raise and stay connected with children as they grow, how to keep having fun with hobbies and outside interests, how to deal with both major losses and successes, and how to manage their physiology through sleep, nutrition, and exercise as they change shifts or work 10-12 hour shifts, and ultimately to live life during off duty times.

One of the first things we can do as instructors is to aggressively reach out to academies to get on the mandate program early and teach the following skills:

Self-Assess at the Beginning

Provide guidance to on how to examine their life in terms of where they want to be personally and professionally in two to five years. One effective way to do this is to pre-pare a list in a very private place – like a diary. In that list write down where you want to be personally and professionally next year, in two years, and in five years from now. At a minimum the list should also include on the mental and spiritual pages: who are my family members, what activities I do with them, how much time each week I spend with them, who are my non-LEO friends, what are my hobbies and outside interests, how much do I trust and believe in my God, how much do I trust my supervisors and the command staff, and others. On the physical side: how many minutes a day I exercise, my weight, my waist size, my blood pressure, my resting heart rate, how far I run each day, the number of push-ups I do, my body mass index, and others. As each year‘s entries are made, look for trends. If the trends are going the wrong way ask for help and do it early.

Identify the Toughest Parts of THE JOB

Teach your students journaling skills. This is a skill on how to write events and, most importantly, feelings. So, write in your journal (diary) what you‘ve found to be real-ly hard, e.g., expectations of the public, expectations of your supervisor, being held to an unrealistically high standard, harsher

 punishment than for any other profession) if you misbehave (i.e, DUI, drugs, fighting, gambling), things you can‘t UNsee (dead bodies, dead children, tortured bodies, rape survivors), things you can‘t UNhear (screaming inmates, crying mothers who

have just lost their children, screams of children being burned alive in a car crash), and things you can‘t UNsmell (the stench of dead bodies, burning flesh, toxic chemicals). The list might also include the unfair treatment by supervisors, the press, the people you help, and your family and friends. Each year, look for trends.

Identify Symptoms that Indicate You’re Heading for Trouble

 

Teach your students how to recognize cynicism

Teach your students how to recognize cynicism – the contemptuous distrust of human nature and motives in folks other than suspects and especially in family and friends. Check your journal to notice if these showing up: social isolation, THE JOB is now my life, broken marriage(s), alienated children, a negative world view, financial problems, nothing is fun anymore, strongly waiting for the end of the shift, increased feelings that it‘s ok to give in to corruption, not wanting to make arrests, thinking I can‘t into trouble for the stop I didn‘t make or I won‘t get sued for the shot I didn‘t take, hyper-vigilant when off duty, a sense of being a victim (i.e., I have no control), and thoughts of suicide and/or homicide?

 

Teach How to Deal With Situations in Which Officers Have No Control

On the street, we teach officers how to have control over violators and other citizens. What they usually do not have control over are things like change of assignment, change of shift, change of supervisor, vindictive punishment by command staff, decisions of the courts, corruption practiced by fellow officers, depression of fellow officers, rumors about themselves, etc. So how are these skills taught? The basic skills must be taught in performance based (not subject matter based) stress management classes that include at least: the skills of self-appreciation (make a list and keep stock of what you are proud of), how to breathe, positive self-talk, self-calming techniques when under stress (i.e., being chewed out by supervisor, threatened by a suspect, loss of a spouse), meditation, covert visualization, self-hypnosis, progressive muscle relation, how to eat (nutrition), how to effectively exercise, how to develop a personal support system, how to find things that are fun (that are safe and legal), how to define personal moral values, and others. Teach also what is clearly known to help for shift changes: nutrition, light stimulation, exercise, napping, how to sleep, and how to manage time so as to spend adequate time with family and friends.

 

Some Mental Fitness Training: How to find and relate with non-LEO friends, how to schedule time with family, how to find hobbies and outside interests, how to meditate, how to detach from the JOB when at home, how to become PROactive at home, how to find help (peer counselors, psychologists, pastoral counselors, and police chaplains.

 

Some Spiritual Fitness Training: How to select a religion, how to practice its

rituals, how to schedule to attend services and functions, how to read the spiritual texts, and how to teach in Sunday School. Also, teach them how to select and use a spiritual Board of Directors and a spiritual advisor.

Teach How to Be Professional

 

This generally has a lot of controversy on what this means. What I‘ve found useful is to teach officers that when they encounter what they consider aversive situations they cannot control, such as shift changes, assignment changes, supervisor changes, being named as a defendant in a civil or criminal suit, then focus on doing the best job they can in the situation and to see if, …this too will eventually end.

Ok, so what can we as instructors do about this? We can teach prevention. There is a very old safety saying, If it‘s predictable, it‘s preventable and we know that many of our fellow officers will suffer such destruction and that it is preventable, at least for many. There is, however a major

problem – my experience is that most humans don‘t have the prevention gene…until they have

experienced catastrophic con-sequences or failures. But, let‘s try – so here‘s what we can teach that has worked in the past and for other professions: post-shift briefings, critical incident stress debriefings, peer counseling, performance based ethics training (not just lectures on what‘s right and wrong but how to resolve the unique ethical dilemmas encountered as a LEO), and performance based tactical communication (pioneered by Dr. George Thompson in his Verbal Judo®). In addition we can establish a spouses‘ support club with group meetings where we can teach spouses about THE JOB and the problems associated with it and how to more effectively relate to their LEO spouse. And finally, establish a spouse contact person who is safe for spouses to come to with complaints or signs and symptoms of impending impairments of their LEO spouse, and who will rigorously and fairly follow up on the concerns raised by spouses. If we do these things more of our idealistic young officers will not only survive but thrive throughout their career and make to retirement fit to en-joy it mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

About the Author: David Schiff was formerly training director of a state investigative agency. He is currently a senior police instructor, adjunct academy instructor, and a peer counselor (for over 30 years), and has an MA in counseling psychology. He is the founder of the Operant Group, a career counseling company and author of the Consultant‘s Digest. He has counseled many officers over the years and assisted with fitness for duty evaluations of impaired officers.

By Fernando Figueroa

Terrorism will not go away any-time soon. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates says that even winning the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan will not end the “Long War‘against violent extremism and the fight against al-Qaeda and other terrorists… (www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25943246).

To understand why we can never really win the war on terrorism, we need to step back in time to understand what goes on in the minds of these extremists. In the East, history is not a thing of the past, it‘s an ongoing event; people of the middle east thrive on history and symbolism. In the Middle East the symbolic is what is most real1

1 Holy War, pg 169

In this article you will get a better understanding of the terrorism of today by delving into the past.

 

Before Islam, the Arab world was in a state called Jahilliyya which is an Age of Ignorance.

During this period of al Jahilliyah, the social structure of the Arab life, including their political system and religious beliefs and practices, was highly primitive. There was no political unity as they did not have an organized form of government.

There were many in the Arab world of that time seeking a way out of chaos to order. During this period they saw and heard the Jews and Christians following their laws, reading their divine book, and having order within their community.

―Lest ye should say, The Book was sent down to two people before us, and for our part, we remained unacquainted with all that they learned by assiduous study (S 6:156).

―The Arabs stood in need of a prophet even more than the Jews2

2 Muhammad, his life based on the earliest sources, Martin Lings, 1983 pg. 16

3 Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet, Karen Armstrong. 1992 pg. 257

One of the earliest Muslim biographers of Muhammad, Ibn Ishaq, had this to say

―Some of the Arabs believed that Allah whose name simply meant the God, was the deity who was also worshipped by the Jews and Christians. but unlike the People of the Scriptures as the Arabs called these two venerable faiths, the Arabs were painfully aware that he had never sent them a revelation or scripture of their own even though they had his shrine in their midst from time immemorial. Those Arabs who came into contact with the Jews and Christians felt an acute sense of inferiority it seemed as though God had left the Arabs out of His divine plan.3

The Shariah is the religious law derived from the four sources of law in the Sunni Islam. Its primary source of the law is the Quran itself

Now enters Muhammad, a long awaited hope and vision for some of the Arab people, to take them out of the Jahilliyya. An inspiration, a man to put them on a road to civilization and society, and united them to a cause.

Ye are the best of peoples, evolved for mankind, enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong, and believing in God. (S 3:110)

Now they had a sense of importance, God did not forget them and it worked.

Whomever they faced, they conquered, until they eventually came into a period called the Classical Age. In this period the Muslims advanced in science (alkemi aka chemistry), mathematics (aljabr aka. Algebra),  literature, art, architecture, navigation, and astronomy. They were the top of their world, until the Mongols decided to rain on their parade. Attacked by Mongols-the Tartars- in the east and the Franj in the west, the Muslims had never been in such a critical position 4 Why has this happened to us, was going through their minds then after much thought and debate they decided their fascination with the arts and sciences during the classical period was the only logical answer5 Many of them concluded that the studies of the Quran and Islamic theology were the only worthwhile pursuits for those who wished to please God.

4 The Perfect in History, Ibn Al Athir 1967, Dar Al Arabic Book

5 The Changing Face of Islam in America, Larry Poston, 200, pg 39

6 Muslim-Christian Dialogue: Promise and Problems, 1998, Raficq Abdullah, pg. 207

 

To the Islamic faithful, modernity represents the Jahilliyah modernity has nothing to offer them. According to the Islamic, it embodies the virulent return of the Jahilliyah or ungodliness which now infests the entire world, including Muslims societies.6 The only way to combat this modernity is to bring back the Shariah and then and only then, Islam will flourish and reign supreme as it did at the time of their prophet.

―An essential part of the process of re-sanctification of the umma is the removal of the apparatus of the modern state, by violence if necessary, and also the creation of a new no-nonsense self-image for the people torn from their villages, clans, lineage, under the protective shadow of the Qur‘an and the shariah.7

7 Pg. 208

8 Poston, pg 87

9 BBC News, Wednesday 20 December 2000, Analy-sis: who are the Taliban

10 Moderate Friends of Terror, New York Post, April 22, 2002

11 John Miller interview with Osama bin Laden http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/who/interview.html

 

The Shariah is the religious law derived from the four sources of law in the Sunni Islam. Its primary source of the law is the Quran itself ―once implemented, will provide the framework for perfect world order.8 This was the whole mission of the Taliban ―the Taliban said their aim was to set up the world‘s most pure Islamic state, banning frivolities like television, music, and cinema.9 Chairman of the Board of CAIR, Omar Ahmed, had this to say Islam isn‘t in America to be equal to other faiths, but to become dominant; the Quran should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth.10

 

Hatred for the Jews

The enmity between us and the Jews goes far back in time and is deep rooted.11

When Muhammad became a prophet, he wanted to be accepted by both Jews and Christians. The Jewish tribes around at the time of Muhammad in Medina were the Banu Qaynuua, Banu Nadir, and the Banu Qu raiza. These tribes at first took Muhammad as a serious man; He had made a separate treaty of friendship between the rapidly growing Muslim community and the Jewish tribes in Medina.

―In Tracing Islam back to Ibrahim, Muhammad appears to have been influenced by the large Jewish population in alMadinah. Not only did he learn from them of the Jewish tradition concerning Ibrahim, but while he was still seeking to gain their recognition of himself as a prophet, Muhammad utilized the community accepted tradition that Ibrahim was physical father of both the Arabs and the Jews.12

12 The Hajj Today, David Edwin Long, 1979 pg. 5

All was fine, the Muslims at that time prayed towards Jerusalem, they worshiped one God like the Jews, they mentioned the likes of father Abraham, Moses, King David, and Solomon. This all changed when the Jewish tribes decided to break the treaty and betray Muhammad (when the tribal elders noticed that prominent Jewish families were converting to Islam). Soon after, Muhammad changed the direction of the Muslim prayer to Mecca.

―Narrated Al-Bara' (bin `Azib): When the Prophet came to Medina, he stayed first with his grandfathers or maternal uncles from Ansar. He offered his prayers facing Baitul-Maqdis (Jerusalem) for sixteen or seventeen months, but he wished that he could pray facing the Ka`ba (at Mecca). The first prayer which he offered facing the Ka`ba was the `Asr prayer in the company of some people. Then one of those who had offered that prayer with him came out and passed by some people in a mosque who

were bowing during their prayers (facing Jerusalem). He said addressing them, "By Allah, I testify that I have prayed with Allah's Apostle facing Mecca (Ka`ba).' Hearing that, those people changed their direction towards the Ka`ba immediately. Jews and the people of the scriptures used to be pleased to see the Prophet facing Jerusalem in prayers but when he changed his direction towards the Ka`ba, during the prayers, they disapproved of it. (Hadith Sahih Bukhari 1.39)

Soon followed the slandering of the Jews in the Quran:

 

The Jews say: "God's hand is tied up." Be their hands tied up and be they accursed for the (blasphemy) they utter. Nay, both His hands are widely outstretched: He giveth and spendeth (of His bounty) as He pleaseth. But the revelation that cometh to thee from God increaseth in most of them their obstinate rebellion and blasphemy. Amongst them we have placed enmity and hatred till the Day of Judgment. Every time they kindle the fire of war, God doth extinguish it; but they (ever) strive to do mischief on earth. And God loveth not those who do mischief. 5:64

O ye who believe! take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors: They are but friends and protectors to each other. And he amongst you that turns to them (for friendship) is of them. Verily God guideth not a people unjust. 5:51

Here are some quotes from the Hadiths, after this betrayal:

The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) said: If you gain a victory over the men of Jews, kill them. ―Book 19, Number 2996 Sunan AbuDawud,

Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews. Sahih Muslim, Book 041, Number 6985

You can see that a few more dominos began falling. The theme here is still jealousy, a sense of being part of a grand scale, a divine plan.

 

Enter the Crusades

Our school history books tend to leave out a lot of the gore and blood that was shed during the crusades, but the history books of the Arabs have no such editing, they read quotes like these:

―Wonderful things were to be seen. Numbers of the Saracens (Muslims) were beheaded…others were shot with arrows, or forced to jump from the towers; others were tortured for several days, then burned with flames. In the streets were seen piles of heads and hands and feet. One rode about everywhere amid the corpse of men and horses waded in the blood up to their knees, nay up to the bridle. It was a just and marvelous judgment of God that this place should be filled with the blood of unbeliev-ers.13

13 James A. Haught, Holy Horrors, 1990 pg 25-26

This scene is still alive in many extremist minds, today, and the United States (the west) is considered the crusader. Usamah Bin Laden often calls the US ―crusaders14 Unfortunately George W. Bush once promised to unleash a full ―crusade to rid the world of evildoers.15 He later apologized for that statement (New York Daily News, Sept 19, 2001). The extremists see this new crusade not as a fight against terrorism, but a fight against Islam. The hero of the Arabs during the time of the crusades was a man called Salah al Din (Saladin). Both Bin La-den and Saddam Hussein were compared to Salah al Din. Saddam Hussein had a children‘s book published entitled ―The Hero Sa-ladin which told the story of Salah al Din‘s re-conquest of Jerusalem, and the rest of the booklet focused on Saddam, whom it called ―the noble and heroic Arab fighter Saladin II.16 As far as Bin Laden, many Muslims believe he is the next Saladin ―destined to liberate from the western crusaders. 17 Bin Laden calls this war the ―new Christian-Jewish crusade led by the crusaders Bush under the flag of the cross.18 And that the reason why all this is going on is because ―America has spear-headed the crusade against the Islamic nation,19

14 New York Daily News, Sept 25, 2001

15 New York Daily News, Sept 17, 2001

16 Ofra Bengio, Saddam‘s Word: Political Discourse in Iraq, New York: Oxford University Press. 1998 pg. 82-83.

17 For the Muslims dispossessed, Bin Laden is the new Saladin, The Guardian 10/10/2001

18 Bin Laden broadcast call to make to take action against U.S. urges all Muslims to fight infidels, New York Daily News, Sept. 25, 2001.

19 John Miller interview with Osama bin Laden http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/who/interview.html

  

Enter America

 

So now America (the Christian crusaders) and the Jews are protecting each other just like during the time of Muhammad and the Quran quote of Surah 5:51 is coming into play again.

―O ye who believe! take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors: They are but friends and protectors to each other. 5:51

They feel that every bomb, bullet, tank, etc. that kills a Muslim comes from American money. And they see both Israel and America both intertwined, sort of the way people who don‘t educate themselves see Islam and terrorism intertwined. This is exactly what Bid Laden stated after CNN‘S Peter Arnett asked why he declared was against the United States;

―We declared jihad against the US government, because the US government is un-just, criminal and tyrannical. It has commit-ted acts that are extremely unjust, hideous and criminal whether directly or through its support of the Israeli occupation of the Prophet's Night Travel Land (Palestine).20

20 CNN.COM search Peter Arnett interview with Bin Laden, May 1997

The ―Peace in the Middle East will al-so never happen. For the Jews, Israel was promised by God and they should posses it from river to river, ―I will fix your boundary from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River Euphrates; Exodus 23:31

―On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your descendants I have given this land, From the river

of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates: Genesis 15:18

―'Turn and set your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland and in the Negev and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. Deuteronomy 1:7

Israel will not share or divide their land because it was a gift and a promise from God. And as you just read Bin Laden referred to Israel as ―the Prophet's Night Travel Land. Why will the neither the people of Palestine nor the Arabs of the world give up trying to take Israel?  Because of the Dome of the Rock and the Masjid Al-Aqsa. The presence of the Dome in Jerusalem is like the American flag on the moon.

―The Dome of the Rock embodies the arrival of nascent Islam and underlines the religion‘s rising presence.21 ―because the two mosques were constructed shortly after the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem 1, 3000 years ago they have become symbols of military victory…22

21 Muslims, Their Religious Beliefs and Practices, Andrew Rippin, 2001 pg.63

22 Holy War, The Rise of Militant Christian, Jewish and Islamic Fundamentalism, David S. New, 2002 pg 169

Now Islam has a sort of a parking spot at the land of Israel where the prophets of old once walk and lived. The Jews on the other hand see it as an acknowledged defeat;

―For religious Israelis the two mosques on the Temple Mount have far too long been resented memorials to the fact that God apparently at one time favored the forces of Islam over those of Judaism. Somewhere deep in the blood of religious Israelis the mosques seem to say, you have been con-quered.23

23 Holy War, pg. 169

24 The new power keg in the middle east, Nida‘ul Islam magazine 15th issue Oct 1996

25 Holy War pg. 166

So to many Muslims or extremist the connection between the ―Christian Americans and the Jews is to expand Israel like the Bible had once promised;

―We know at least one reason behind the symbolic participation of the Western forces and that is to support the Jewish and Zionist plans for expansion of what is called the Great Israel. ―24(The powder keg in the middle east, Nida‘ul Islam magazine 15th issue Oct 1996)

We have been digging around in the sands of time to see what triggered this war on terrorism, and hopefully you have gotten a better understanding of what goes on in the minds of these terrorists. And if they think they are losing the battle they will ask them-selves, ―People started to say, why are we defeated? Is it because we are away from Islam?25 And would fight harder to get closer to Islam and be heroism by many, and seek the rewards in paradise.

About the Author: Fernando Figueroa is a proud member of ILEETA, and is looking forward to attending the upcoming Conference in April.

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