Abstract
The early winter of 1993 was a very happy time for Edward Smith and his wife, Monica. The young couple from Seaford, Long Island, had learned during the autumn that they were going to have a baby, a son, whom they had already named Eddie. They had fixed up their house from top to bottom, listened to Eddie’s heartbeat in the doctor’s office, and shopped for baby furniture. Edward, Monica, and little Eddie seemed destined for a future of contentment, right up until the moment their world was shattered on 26 February.
[Muslims] must kill the enemies of Allah, in every way and everywhere in order to liberate themselves from the grandchildren of the pigs and apes who are educated at the table of [the] Zionists, the communists, and the imperialists.1
Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, 1992
As an ideology, fundamentalist Islam can claim none of the sanctity that Islam the religion enjoys.2
Daniel Pipes, Editor, Middle East Quarterly
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Notes
Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman is quoted in Steven Emerson, “Political Islam Promotes Terrorism,” in Islam: Opposing Viewpoints, ed. Paul A. Winters (San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1995), 160.
Daniel Pipes, “Same Difference,” National Review, 7 November 1994, reprinted in “Political Islam is a Threat to the West,” in Islam: Opposing Viewpoints, ed. Paul A. Winters (San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1995), 191.
See also Daniel Pipes, In the Path of God: Islam and Political Power (New York: Basic Books, 1983).
“Bombing Victim’s Husband Speaks Out,” New York Times, 25 May 1994, B4, late ed.
Richard Bernstein, “Trade Center Bombers Get Prison Terms of 240 Years,” New York Times, 25 May 1994, A1, late ed.
Steven Emerson, “The Other Fundamentalists,” New Republic, 12 June 1995, 22.
See also Adam Brodsky, “Jihad on American Soil? You’d Better Believe It,” Daily News [New York], 1 February 1993, 27.
Richard Pérez-Pena, “After Terrorist Threat, Kennedy Becomes a Wary Fortress,” New York Times, 14 August 1995, B1, late ed.
Youssef M. Ibrahim, “Muslim Edicts Take on New Force,” New York Times, 12 February 1995, sec. 1, 14, late ed.
Flora Lewis, “The War on Arab Intellectuals,” New York Times, 7 September 1993, A19, late ed.
Youssef M. Ibrahim, “Muslim Edicts Take on New Force,” 14.
Youssef M. Ibrahim, “Algeria Militants Vow to Kill Women Linked to Government,” New York Times, 4 May 1995, A3, late ed.
Youssef M. Ibrahim, “With 46th Algerian Journalist Slain, It’s a Furtive Vocation,” New York Times, 31 May 1995, A11, late ed.
“Cairo Militants Win Annulment,” New York Times, 15 June 1995, A3, late ed.
Emerson, “The Other Fundamentalists,” 22.
Eric Pooley, “The Arab Connection: Breaking the World Trade Center Bombing Case,” New York, 15 March 1993, 30.
Richard Behar, “The Secret Life of Mahmud the Red,” Time, 4 October 1993, 57. Many of the details of Abouhalima’s life are taken from this article. Hannah Arendt’s views are discussed at length in Chapters 5 and 6.
Tim Weiner, “Blowback from the Afghan Battlefield,” New York Times, 13 March 1994, sec. 6, 53, late ed.
The information presented here comes principally from press reports and court proceedings. For some of the terrorists, information is unavailable and for others it is difficult to confirm.
Francis X. Clines, “U.S.-Born Suspect in Bombing Plots: Zealous Causes and Civic Roles,” New York Times, 28 June 1993, B2, late ed.
Ibid.
James C. McKinley, Jr., “Parents of Bomb Suspect Weep and Insist He Is No Terrorist,” New York Times, 17 August 1995, B4, late ed.
Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, ed., The Muslims of America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).
“The Immigrants: Fundamentalist Islamic Terrorists in the US,” editorial, New Republic, 19 April 1993, 7.
Richard Bernstein, “Hate-Literature Documents Weighed in Bombing Trial,” New York Times, 27 January 1994, B4, late ed.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Richard Bernstein, “Bomb Trial Focuses on Origin of Video,” New York Times, 2 February 1994, B3, late ed.
Ibid.
Bernstein, “Trade Center Bombers Get Prison Terms of 240 Years,” B4.
Ibid.
Mary B. W. Tabor, “Transcript of Tapes Reveals Sheik Talked of Merits of Bomb Targets,” New York Times, 4 August 1993, A1, late ed.
“Sheik Urged Attack on U.S. Army, Transcripts of Tapes Show,” New York Times, 7 March 1994, B4, late ed.
Tabor, A1.
Ibid., B4.
Joseph P. Fried, “Ex-Aide Says Sheik Wanted Mubarak Dead,” New York Times, 5 May 1995, A1, late ed. Abdo Haggag testified as part of a plea bargain in which charges were dropped for his involvement in the Mubarak plot. As part of the deal, he pled guilty in an unrelated arson case.
Jill Smolowe, “A Voice of Holy War,” Time, 15 March 1993, 31.
Richard Bernstein, “Sheik Asserts Innocence in Terror Conspiracy Case,” New York Times, 16 October 1993, 27, late ed.
John L. Esposito, The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 47–76, presents this classification.
For balance, see Raphael Patai, The Arab Mind, rev. ed. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1983).
David Pryce-Jones, The Closed Circle: An Interpretation of the Arabs (New York: Harper Perennial, 1991).
Esposito, 7-8.
Bernard Lewis, The Political Language of Islam (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988), 117–18, n. 3.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Hrair Dekmejian, Islam in Revolution: Fundamentalism in the Arab World (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1985), 4–5.
Hrair Dekmejian, Islam in Revolution: Fundamentalism in the Arab World (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1985), 4–5.
Hrair Dekmejian, Islam in Revolution: Fundamentalism in the Arab World (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1985), 179–91.
Esposito, 122.
Ibid., 32.
Bernard Lewis, 73.
Patrick J. Bannerman, Islam in Perspective (London: Routledge, 1988), 86, as quoted in Esposito, 33.
Fathi Yakin, Mushkilat al-Da’wa wad-Da’iyya [Problems of the Call and the Caller] (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risala, 1981), 220–21
as quoted in Ziad Abu-Amr, Islamic Fundamentalism in the West Bank and Gaza: Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic Jihad (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1994), 120.
Johannes J. G. Jansen, The Neglected Duty: The Creed of Sadat’s Assassins and Islamic Resurgence in the Middle East (New York: Macmillan, 1986). Jansen’s work includes as an appendix an English translation of Faraj’s manifesto. Jansen writes that: “Western writers who give accounts of Islam to a Western public often do not stress those elements in Islam that would be offensive or nonsense in the eyes of their Western readers. They rather see it as their duty to present Islam in as acceptable a light as possible to the West. They state the case of Islam with as much coherence as possible and construct the most feasible explanation for various Islamic aspirations. In general, they take on the role of a counsel for the defense” (xxi).
Faridah, sec. 16 as quoted in Jansen, 7. Contrast this with King Hussein’s perspective, expressed at the time of the signing of an accord with Israel in July 1994. He quoted the Koran: “Then if they should be inclined to make peace, do thou incline toward it also, and put thy trust in Allah. Surely, it is He who is all-hearing, all-knowing.” Elaine Sciolino, “Quoting Bible and Koran, Two Old Foes Pledge Peace,” New York Times, 27 July 1994, A8, late ed.
Faridah, sec. 50, as quoted in Jansen, 183-84.
Faridah, sec. 54, as quoted in Jansen, 185.
Faridah, sec. 55, as quoted in Jansen, 186.
Faridah, sec. 3, as quoted in Jansen, 160-61.
Faridah, sec. 84, as quoted in Jansen, 199.
Faridah, sec. 109, as quoted in Jansen, 211.
Faridah, sec. 121, as quoted in Jansen, 217.
Faridah, sec. 100, as quoted in Jansen, 205.
James C. McKinley Jr., “Sheik’s Speech Encouraging Guerrillas is Entered at Trial,” New York Times, 1 March 1995, B2, late ed.
David Lamb, The Arabs: Journeys Beyond the Mirage (New York: Vintage-Random, 1988), 108.
Bernard Lewis, 4.
Fatima Mernissi, Islam and Democracy: Fear of the Modern World, trans. Mary Jo Lakeland (New York: Addison-Wesley, 1992), 145–47.
James A. Bill, “Resurgent Islam in the Persian Gulf,” Foreign Affairs 63 (Fall 1984), 126.
Bernard Lewis, “Islam and Liberal Democracy,” The Atlantic Monthly, February 1993, excerpted as “Islam Has Weak Democratic Traditions,” in Islam: Opposing Viewpoints, ed. Paul A. Winters (San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1995), 103.
Mernissi, 32-41.
Ibid., 43.
Ibid., 47.
See also Peter Waldman, “Leap of Faith: Some Muslim Thinkers Want to Reinterpret Islam for Modern Times,” Wall Street Journal, 15 March 1995, 1.
Chapter 7 considers the psychology of injustice and its impact on aggressive behavior.
C. A. Russell and B. H. Miller, “Profile of a Terrorist,” Terrorism: An International Journal 1 (1977), 17–24.
United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, Terrorism in the United States: 1987 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1988).
Walter Laqueur, The Age of Terrorism (Boston: Little, Brown, 1987), 149–50.
Leonard Weinberg and Paul Davis, Introduction to Political Terrorism (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1989), 98–99.
Phillip W. Johnson and Theodore B. Feldmann, “Personality Types and Terrorism: Self-Psychology Perspectives,” Forensic Reports 5 (1992), 300–301.
Laqueur, 142-73.
Dekmejian, 32-36.
Ibid., 33.
Ibid., 35.
Lamb, 89.
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© 1996 Neil J. Kressel
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Kressel, N.J. (1996). Muslim Extremists in New York. In: Mass Hate. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6084-9_3
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