Jihad and the West - Black Flag Over Babylon Chapter One Postcast Five

Welcome to an excerpt from Jihad and the West, Black Flag over Babylon written by Mark Silinsky, with a foreword by Sebastian Gorka. It was published by Indiana University Press in Bloomington and Indianapolis. This reading is presented by Kensington Security Consulting, which brings education to national security.  This reading is from the first chapter and begins with the full life and tragic death of Khaled al-Asaad, also known as Mr. Palmyra.

 

Walid al-Asaad, son of Khaled al-Asaad

           

Khaled al-Asaad, “Mr. Palmyra,” a beloved eighty-two-year-old antiquities scholar, devoted his life to exploring, preserving, and studying the town’s treasures. Holding degrees from Damascus University, he named his daughter Zenobia after the warrior-queen of Palmyra’s folklore. He directed the Antiquities and Museums Department’s archaeological site for forty years, then retired to read, write, dig, and educate the world about Palmyra. The Caliphate knew of him, and they beat and tortured the old man. Held for twenty-five days, he could neither speak to nor see his family, but there is no evidence that he betrayed a single artifact. The vandals demanded gold, but there was no bullion he could offer. As his son Mohammed said, “There was nothing to tell them; the gold in Palmyra is in the statues and the architecture.”

 

            The scholar could have escaped earlier, even after the Caliphate had conquered Palmyra. With his celebrity and prestige, he could have taken refuge in the West and lived near a prestigious university. But he told a fellow scholar, “I am from Palmyra, and I will stay here even if they kill me.” And they did.

 

            Trundled into a van, he was tossed into the town’s main square. He was not in an orange jumpsuit; he wore his ordinary clothes. Caliphate leaders read the charges against him, and the

Welcome to an excerpt from Jihad and the West, Black Flag over Babylon by Mark Silinsky, with a foreword by Sebastian Gorka. It was published by Indiana University Press in Bloomington and Indianapolis. This reading is presented by Kensington Security Consulting, which brings education to national security.

 

The town’s greatest antiquities scholar was branded a “director of idols.” He also represented Syrian scholars at international “infidel conferences.” They found him guilty and beheaded him. Afterward, they strung what remained of his corpse to an ancient Roman column. Palmyra mourned.

 

Palmyra Tomorrow

 

            There is still life in Palmyra. Its territory is contested between pro-government and Caliphate forces. In March 2016, the Caliphate was expelled. One month later, Russia’s Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra traveled to Palmyra and performed works by Bach and Prokofiev in the amphitheater the State had used to kill its enemies. The conductor declared it a concert against barbarism, and a Russian visitor paid tribute to the life of Khaled al-Assad.94 Nonetheless, an Islamic State spokesperson reveled in the devastation they had left: “We captured a whole town and houses from them, and they recaptured sand and destruction.” He was partially correct.

 

            But today Palmyra is more than sand and ruins. Omar Al-Farra’s warm poems and elegiac verse will likely be recited for years, albeit in hushed tones. They will remind Palmyra’s future generations of a sweeter, if bygone, life in Syria. The books of Palmyra’s bard, Khaled al-Asaad, will be read by lovers of history, art, and Syria. True, the proud Lion of Palmyra has been turned to dust. But it is not entirely lost. Its bold visage endures in photographs, and it will live on in memory.

 

In the World of Islam

 

            In the Islamic world, some nationalities support the Caliphate—its agenda, philosophy, and tactics—while others do not. In Pakistan, fewer than one-third of the population holds negative views of the Caliphate. This is particularly alarming to some observers given the country’s ever-growing nuclear arsenal. Other states with sizable support for the Islamic State include Nigeria, where 20 percent of the Muslim population supports it, and Malaysia, where 12 percent of Muslims support the State. Although the proportion of Muslims is often small, the combined number of Muslims who support the Caliphate is troubling. A Pew poll in 2015 found that in eleven nation-states with significant Muslim populations, there are between 63 and 287 million people who either support the Caliphate or are ambivalent.

 

Summary

 

            Mesopotamia, a home of empires and a host to religious monuments, has enduring ties to the West. A succession of empires has risen and fallen there, and one Islamic civilization became world-renowned for both science and piety. Europeans have engaged Muslims as both enemies and allies at different times and in different places. The balance of power in that part of the Middle East has shifted several times and in many ways. But today’s Caliphate is a unique challenge to Western interests, power, and prestige.

 

            In 2003, Saddam Hussein warned that the West would “open the gates of hell” if he were removed.97 He was removed, and the gates were flung wide open for the Islamic State. The Caliphate is devastating the treasures of ancient civilizations in Iraq and Syria that had survived for millennia. In summer 2016, it dynamited the 2,500-year-old temple of Nabu in Iraq. One week later, it boasted that it would soon destroy the pyramids of Egypt. As for today, the State is struggling to hold its Mesopotamian ground while infiltrating its cadre into Europe and throughout the West. This and more is the subject of the next reading of Jihad and the West.

 

This concludes the final reading from Chapter One of Jihad and the West, Black Flag over Babylon, by Mark Silinsky, with a foreword by Sebastian Gorka. If you enjoyed this, please consider subscribing and pressing the “like button.” You can purchase Jihad and the West on line, if you would like. Nothing in this reading or any other reading in Jihad and the West represents the official position of any person or agency of the United States government. On behalf of Kensington Security Consulting, thank you for listening.