Why Jihadists Loved America in the 1980s

[Peter1469]

Why Jihadists Loved America in the 1980s

It was the Cold War and the US was focused on the Soviet Union and did not see Jihadists as a threat.

It was freezing cold with gusting winds in Indianapolis on New Year’s Day 1978. While much of the city was presumably waking to a hangover, the Islamic Teaching Center was busy hosting prominent preachers from the Middle East. Among them was Abdallah Azzam, a 36-year-old rising star of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood. In Indianapolis, Azzam would meet a young Saudi student with a now-famous name: Osama bin Laden. It was a historic moment, one that marked the rise of an extensive jihadist network in the United States.


That Azzam and bin Laden met in America is no coincidence. They came because, unlike other countries in the Middle East, the U.S. allowed them and other Islamists to preach, fundraise, and recruit followers without interference. My new biography of Azzam shows that in the 1980s, radical Islamists exploited U.S. territory to an extent not previously recognized. In fact, for more than a decade, America was among the most hospitable jihadist-recruitment grounds in the world.


To understand why, one has to look at the Afghan War. A few years after their Indiana meeting, Azzam and bin Laden co-founded the Services Bureau, an organization in Peshawar, Pakistan, that sought to bring Muslim fighters to Afghanistan. As its leader, Azzam spearheaded a worldwide effort to fundraise and recruit, especially from the Gulf countries and the United States.








Although based in Pakistan from 1981 onward, Azzam crossed the Atlantic at least once a year, and by the end of the decade had visited New York, Texas, California, Seattle, and several other states in between. The message was always the same: Muslims in America should fight in Afghanistan, or at least donate money to the jihad. He spoke not in underground cellars, but in large, open venues, such as the annual meeting of the Muslim Arab Youth Association, which usually brought together hundreds of people. He stayed in the apartments of young local supporters, impressing them with his charisma and humble lifestyle. U.S. authorities became aware of these activities in the late ’80s, but did not consider Azzam a threat.

Read the rest of the article at the link.

[Mister D]

That's because strategically they weren't a threat and aren't now.

[Lummy]

That's because strategically they weren't a threat and aren't now.

The first WTC attack wasn't until 1993. Prior to that, as I recall, "terrorism" was a relatively vague notion coming mainly out of metropolitan law enforcement, and even the WTC bombing didn't wake up the country the way it probably should have and might have had it not been for Clinton's Branch Davidians fiasco (also 1993) and Clinton's Ruby Ridge (1992) tragedy, both of which were major distractions.

Yeah, I think you're right.

[jet57]

That's because strategically they weren't a threat and aren't now.

They were always a threat. Their attention was focused elsewhere at the time.

[Mister D]

They were always a threat. Their attention was focused elsewhere at the time.

They weren't' strategic threat, aren't a strategic threat now and probably never will be.

[The Sage of Main Street]

That's because strategically they weren't a threat and aren't now.

Echoes of a Prehistoric Horror

These bandit hybrid-humanoids have been a continuous threat to homo sapiens ever since the Stone Age. The places they chose to settle in are literally No Man's Land areas, proving that they only went there as criminal fugitives on the run. Well, they're back.

[usaf81]

The first WTC attack wasn't until 1993. Prior to that, as I recall, "terrorism" was a relatively vague notion coming mainly out of metropolitan law enforcement, and even the WTC bombing didn't wake up the country the way it probably should have and might have had it not been for Clinton's Branch Davidians fiasco (also 1993) and Clinton's Ruby Ridge (1992) tragedy, both of which were major distractions. Yeah, I think you're right.

I was in the sand in the '70s and there was plenty of terrorism. Two guys I played ball with were thrown off a 4'th floor balcony because one had married a Muslim girl. 3 of our NCOs were SMG'ed on a city street, airplanes were always being hijacked, a cruise ship too. But most of it was on foreign soil and American's weren't that interested. There was no Internet and such stories died fast and we didn't have the number of potential recruits living on western shores.
As well the Cold War did draw some lines not to be crossed. But we always had terrorism and a lot of travel warnings and base shut downs. The Muslim ones were bad enough but I remember those red Brigade jerk offs and Baader–Meinhof Group of screwballs. They were a very dangerous bunch because they blended into European society so well while targeting NATO and they had so many apologists in the news media. Which has always been Leftist in Europe.