Will Islamism cease to be a threat?

[All Along The Watchtower]

Al-Qaeda isn’t going anywhere in any of their fronts, they are a nothingburger now.

Hardly, they’re deeply embedded in insurgencies around the world.

[All Along The Watchtower]

Will Islamism ever stop being a threat??? I’m not talking about Islam, I am talking mostly about Salafi Jihadism, an ideology that is obviously genocidal and created refugees in the millions.

I love how this definition of "Islamism" excludes the Islamic Republic of Iran, which most fearmongerers about Islamic fundamentalism would (laughably) point to as threat #1.

And the answer is embedded right there. With the Middle East turning into a Saudi vs Iranian battle for domination of the region, the jihadi types are mostly agitated about fighting Iran and its proxies (Assad, the Houthis in Yemen, etc), not "the West."

Honestly the only country in the Western World where Iran is seen as part of the threat from Islamism is USA, pretty much everyone else recognize that the vast majority of Islamic terrorism is funded by our good allies in the Persian Gulf.

Iran harbors a lot of al-Qaeda senior leadership and they, Hezbollah, and the Assad regime have facilitated and allied with jihadists many times. They have plenty of Sunni allies in the Arab world, which makes sense because merely supporting Shiite groups limits the degree of their influence in the Arab and Islamic worlds (Shiites are a minority of Muslims, after all). Moreover, Iran supporting Shiite groups is obvious and expected, whereas supporting Sunnis (including Salafi jihadists) gives them more plausible deniability and a broader array of options.

The Islamic Revolution of 1979 may have been Shiite, but its aspirations were, and are, pan-Islamist and it inspired Islamists across the board. Khomeini and his supporters condemned the United States, Israel, and the Gulf monarchies; in Iran, they had helped overthrow a monarchy that had been allied with the US and Israel. Al Qaeda and other Salafi jihadist groups similarly despise the US, Israel, and the Gulf monarchies. They can be pragmatic enough, and opportunistic enough, to find common cause with Iran here.

[All Along The Watchtower]

Will Islamism ever stop being a threat??? I’m not talking about Islam, I am talking mostly about Salafi Jihadism, an ideology that is obviously genocidal and created refugees in the millions.

I love how this definition of "Islamism" excludes the Islamic Republic of Iran, which most fearmongerers about Islamic fundamentalism would (laughably) point to as threat #1.

And the answer is embedded right there. With the Middle East turning into a Saudi vs Iranian battle for domination of the region, the jihadi types are mostly agitated about fighting Iran and its proxies (Assad, the Houthis in Yemen, etc), not "the West."

Honestly the only country in the Western World where Iran is seen as part of the threat from Islamism is USA, pretty much everyone else recognize that the vast majority of Islamic terrorism is funded by our good allies in the Persian Gulf.

Iran harbors a lot of al-Qaeda senior leadership and they, Hezbollah, and the Assad regime have facilitated and allied with jihadists many times. They have plenty of Sunni allies in the Arab world, which makes sense because merely supporting Shiite groups limits the degree of their influence in the Arab and Islamic worlds (Shiites are a minority of Muslims, after all). Moreover, Iran supporting Shiite groups is obvious and expected, whereas supporting Sunnis (including Salafi jihadists) gives them more plausible deniability and a broader array of options.

The Islamic Revolution of 1979 may have been Shiite, but its aspirations were, and are, pan-Islamist and it inspired Islamists across the board. Khomeini and his supporters condemned the United States, Israel, and the Gulf monarchies; in Iran, they had helped overthrow a monarchy that had been allied with the US and Israel. Al Qaeda and other Salafi jihadist groups similarly despise the US, Israel, and the Gulf monarchies. They can be pragmatic enough, and opportunistic enough, to find common cause with Iran here.

Hesbollah??

Yes. What about them?

[All Along The Watchtower]

Will Islamism ever stop being a threat??? I’m not talking about Islam, I am talking mostly about Salafi Jihadism, an ideology that is obviously genocidal and created refugees in the millions.

I love how this definition of "Islamism" excludes the Islamic Republic of Iran, which most fearmongerers about Islamic fundamentalism would (laughably) point to as threat #1.

And the answer is embedded right there. With the Middle East turning into a Saudi vs Iranian battle for domination of the region, the jihadi types are mostly agitated about fighting Iran and its proxies (Assad, the Houthis in Yemen, etc), not "the West."

Honestly the only country in the Western World where Iran is seen as part of the threat from Islamism is USA, pretty much everyone else recognize that the vast majority of Islamic terrorism is funded by our good allies in the Persian Gulf.

Iran harbors a lot of al-Qaeda senior leadership and they, Hezbollah, and the Assad regime have facilitated and allied with jihadists many times. They have plenty of Sunni allies in the Arab world, which makes sense because merely supporting Shiite groups limits the degree of their influence in the Arab and Islamic worlds (Shiites are a minority of Muslims, after all). Moreover, Iran supporting Shiite groups is obvious and expected, whereas supporting Sunnis (including Salafi jihadists) gives them more plausible deniability and a broader array of options.

The Islamic Revolution of 1979 may have been Shiite, but its aspirations were, and are, pan-Islamist and it inspired Islamists across the board. Khomeini and his supporters condemned the United States, Israel, and the Gulf monarchies; in Iran, they had helped overthrow a monarchy that had been allied with the US and Israel. Al Qaeda and other Salafi jihadist groups similarly despise the US, Israel, and the Gulf monarchies. They can be pragmatic enough, and opportunistic enough, to find common cause with Iran here.

Yeah. I absolutely agree with the sense developing on the left that affirmatively supporting Saudi Arabia over against Iran is getting ridiculous, but let's not pretend the Iranians are cuddly teddy bears either.

Viciously authoritarian monarchy that sponsors Wahhabi ideology vs. viciously authoritarian theocracy that exports its Islamist “revolution” via various violent proxies. Pick your poison I guess.

[All Along The Watchtower]

The Houthis from the info I’m getting on them are only more rigid in the sense of fully representing the oppressed Zaydi Shia minority there. Unlike with the PMU or Hezbollah however, they are not as sectarian. The government of the northern Yemeni state also is not totally ran by the Houthis or just Shias and has better rule of law.

This, and mainly the fact that the cooperation between the Houthis and Iran is quite minimal relatively speaking—they aren’t subservient proxies totally onboard with what Khomeini or the Sepah says—is why they aren’t on the terror list anymore.

Iran isn’t Al-Qaeda in wanting to create a new Caliphate or even having the means to anymore.

So much of this post is wrong it’s hard to know where to start.