I wish all of you a Happy Holiday Season.
Today I am launching my new website, at the dawn of another year filled with hope for peace around the world. I welcome your opinions and comments on the issues that will challenge our freedom.
As we close-out 2011, a very trying year, we embark with great expectations for 2012, an election year. Promises will be made and hopes for a better life will fill the air. Yet internationally, concerns will continue to heighten in the Middle East and Africa, as the Salafist movement marches on and gains strength. Some groups are associated with Salafi jihadists in their quest to create a worldwide caliphate, and govern according to religious law — Sharia.
Let me quote a pertinent paragraph from my book: When the White House Calls:
“I believe Osama bin Laden and his radical Islamic followers will continue in their fanatical quest to take the world back to the time in the twelfth century when Sultan Saladin controlled vast regions of northern Africa and the Middle East. Osama bin Laden has consistently stated that he considers all non-Muslims infidels and invaders of Muslim soil; he has called for a global jihad against all the Western powers, with the United States being foremost on the list.”
Osama bin Laden is now gone, but nothing will change from the intended goals of the Salafi jihadist movement. I proffered solutions in the book, on the engagement of sub-Saharan Africa, which applies beyond the region as well:
“To gain respect and effect change, our form of democratization — alien in this part of the world — must become a secondary issue. But as the United States fully engages the…countries, we will have a greater chance to leave a positive footprint and guide these countries onto the path of freedom and prosperity, eradicating poverty, reducing the impact of disease, and diminishing the influence of the jihadist movement in its quest to create a worldwide caliphate.”
I welcome your responses.
Best Wishes for the New Year,
John Price, Former United States Ambassador