The Problem with Terrorism Is TERROR

What is terrorism? The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition defines terrorism for us.

terrorism /t?r??-r?z??m/

noun

1. The use of violence or the threat of violence, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political goals.

2. The act of terrorizing, or state of being terrorized; a mode of government by terror or intimidation.

3. The practise of coercing governments to accede to political demands by committing violence on civilian targets; any similar use of violence to achieve goals.

4. The deliberate commission of an act of violence to create an emotional response through the suffering of the victims in the furtherance of a political or social agenda.

5. Violence against civilians to achieve military or political objectives.

6. A psychological strategy of war for gaining political or religious ends by deliberately creating a climate of fear among the population of a state.

7. The calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimidation or coercion or instilling fear.

Words matter. The distinguishing feature of terrorism is that it targets civilian populations. The history of warfare was forever changed by the acceptance of civilians as military targets in the Middle East. Islam is not a religion like any other. Islam is a theocracy. It is a supremacist, expansionist, binary, sociopolitical replacement ideology with a religious foundation. Islam distinguishes itself in its founding 7th-century doctrinal text, the Qur’an, as the only “religion” on the planet that advances genocide against non-believers––Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians. For 1400 years Muslims have been taught that there will only be peace on Earth when all the world is Muslim, that means after the establishment of a global Islamic caliphate.

The tactical method for achieving the Islamic caliphate is jihad––Islamic terrorism that specifically targets civilians. Terrorism is enshrined in Islam’s religious texts as the obligatory character of jihad. Dr. Dianne Irving’s seminal article published November 14, 2020, “What the Qur’an Requires of ALL Muslims; Direct Quotes” provides incontrovertible evidence that terrorism is the religious obligation for ALL Muslims.

Dr. Irving uses the accepted scholarly Arabic/English translation of the text of the Qur’an and Sharia Law, Reliance of the Traveller, to clarify the immutable nature and strategic objectives of Islamic jihad. Please read her article in its entirety for a more detailed discussion. The excerpt below, including Dr. Irving’s commentary and conclusion, make it clear that Islamic jihad/terrorism is the doctrinal religious obligation of every Muslim everywhere in the world.

[pages 599 – 606] – JIHAD (categorized under “Justice”)

• o9.0 (O: Jihad means to war against non-Muslims, and is etymologically derived from the word mujahada,signifying warfare to establish the religion. … and such hadiths as the one related by Bukhari and Muslim that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said: “I have been commanded to fight people until they testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah and perform the prayer and pay zakat.

[page 600] – THE OBLIGATORY CHARACTER OF JIHAD

• o9.1 Jihad is a communal obligation. When enough people perform it to successfully accomplish it, it is no longer obligatory upon others. (O: the evidence for which is the Prophet’s saying (Allah bless him and give him peace), … If none of those concerned perform jihad, and it does not happen at all, then everyone who is aware that it is obligatory is guilty of sin, if there was a possibility of having performed it.

• o9.4 WHO IS OBLIGED TO FIGHT IN JIHAD
Those called upon (O: to perform jihad when it is a communal obligation) are every able-bodied man who has reached puberty and is sane.

• o9.8 THE OBJECTIVES OF JIHAD
The caliph makes war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians (N: provided he has first invited them to enter Islam in faith and practice, and if they will not, then invited them to enter the social order of Islam by paying the non-Muslim poll tax — which is the significance of their paying it, not the money itself — while remaining in their ancestral religions) (O: and the war continues) until they become Muslim or else pay the non-Muslim poll tax (O: in accordance with the world of Allah Most High,
“Fight those who do not believe in Allah and the Last Day and who forbid not what Allah and His messenger have forbidden — who do not practice the religion of truth, being of those who have been given the Book — until they pay the poll tax out of hand and are humbled” (Koran 9:29) the time and place for which is before the final descent of Jesus (upon whom be peace). After [page 603] his final coming, nothing but Islam will be accepted from them, for taking the poll tax is only effective until Jesus’ descent (upon him and our Prophet be peace), which is the divinely revealed law of Muhammad. The coming of Jesus does not entail a separate divinely revealed law, for he will rule by the law of Muhammad. As for the Prophet’s saying (Allah bless him and give him peace), “I am the last, there will be no prophet after me.” this does not contradict the final coming of Jesus (upon whom be peace), since he will not rule according to the Evangel, but as a follower of our Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace)).

• o9.9 The caliph fights all other peoples until they become Muslim (O: because they are not a people with a Book, nor honored as such, and are not permitted to settle with paying the poll tax (n. though according to the Hanafi school, peoples of all other religions, even idol worshipers, are permitted to live under the protection of the Islamic state if they either become Muslim or agree to pay the poll tax, the sole exceptions to which are apostates from Islam and idol worshipers who are Arabs, neither of whom has any choice but becoming Muslim.

• o9.10 THE RULES OF WARFARE It is not permissible (A: in jihad) to kill women or children unless they are fighting against the Muslims. Nor is it permissible to kill animals, unless they are being ridden into battle against the Muslims, or if killing them will help defeat the enemy. It is permissible to kill old men (O: old man meaning someone more than forty years of age) and monks. …

PERMISSIBLE LYING, DECEIVING

r8.2 The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said,
“He who settles disagreements between people to bring about good or says something commendable is not a liar.” This much is related by both Bukari and Muslim, with Muslim’s version recording that Umm Kulthum added; “I did not hear him permit untruth in anything people say, except for three things: war, settling disagreements, and a man talking with his wife or she with him (A: in smoothing over differences).” This is an explicit statement that lying is sometimes permissible for a given interest, scholars having established criteria defining what types of it are lawful. The best analysis of it I have seen is by Imam Abu Hamid Ghazali, who says: “Speaking is a means to achieve objectives. If a praiseworthy aim is attainable through both telling the truth and lying, it is unlawful to accomplish through lying because there is no need for it. When it is possible to achieve such an aim by lying but not by telling the truth, it is permissible to lie if attaining the goal is permissible (N: i.e., when the purpose of lying is to circumvent someone who is preventing one from doing something permissible), and obligatory to lie if the goal is obligatory. … Whether the purpose is war, settling a disagreement, or gaining the sympathy of a victim legally entitled to retaliate against one so that he will forbear to do so; it is not unlawful to lie when any of these aims can only be attained through lying. …

VI. CONCLUSION

Until free societies and their officials understand correctly what Islam really is and what the Qur’an demands from all Muslims, such terrorist actions as seen recently throughout Europe will continue to be mislabeled “radical”. They are not “radical” or performed by “fringe” groups of Muslims; they are quite seriously required of all Muslims — or else they must die — as their “holy book” the Qur’an quite clearly and profusely demands. Thankfully, more and more people today are taking the time to read the Qur’an themselves and thus understand better how to deal with it.

Dr. Irving documents the doctrinal sources of Islamic terrorism, but the question remains: Why is terrorism so effective? To answer this question, it is necessary to understand the universal psychodynamics of fear. Fear is arguably the most powerful trigger of human behavior change. The tactical objective of terrorism is extreme fear; its strategic objective is submission. If you frighten someone enough, you can get that person to do almost anything. Why is this so? Because fear triggers chronological adults to psychologically regress back to childlike compliance (submission)––the time before critical-thinking skills have developed. When the house is on fire a child or a psychologically regressed adult hides under the bed, a rational adult finds the escape route.

Psychological regression is a powerful tactical weapon of asymmetric warfare, and I never forget that what separates ordinary people from Navy SEALS is their intensive psychological training. Navy SEALS are trained to remain in their most rational adult psychological state of mind even under the most destabilizing and dire circumstances. They are consummate psychological adult role models for us all, specifically because terrorism targets civilians. We must remain psychological adults to fend off the tactical fear-based provocation designed to regress us back to psychological childhood where we are easily controlled.

Terrorism is an extremely powerful tactical weapon used by totalitarian societies internally to ensure compliance and used externally as an offensive weapon against civilian populations particularly in nations that value and prioritize the lives of their citizens. On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists savagely attacked Israeli civilians raping, murdering, and butchering 1200 men, women, and children, and taking 250 hostages including American citizens. Two years later, on October 15, 2025, as part of President Trump’s phased 20-point peace plan, Israel and Hamas agreed to Phase 1: an immediate ceasefire; an Israeli troop withdrawal to an agreed-upon line; and the trade of 20 living Israeli hostages and 28 dead Israeli hostages for 2,000 Hamas terrorists. After the transfer, Hamas immediately violated the terms of the agreement and rejected the terms of Phase 2 which require the complete disarmament of Hamas. So, what has the President’s “peace” deal accomplished? Israel recovered its precious living hostages and the remains of some of its dead hostages. Hamas refilled its ranks and resupplied its jihadi terrorists to regroup and prepare for the next attack on Israel.

Why do I say this? First, because Hamas is doctrinally committed to destroying the Jewish people and, by extension, the Jewish State of Israel. President Donald Trump cannot peacefully disarm and remove Hamas terrorists and their leaders from Gaza with words on a document signed in a “peace” deal. The Saudis have stated unequivocally that if Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, the three countries responsible for disarming Gaza, do not meet their obligations then the Saudis will withdraw from the agreement.

Second, because Qatar and every other Muslim nation whether Shia or Sunni Muslim is doctrinally committed to the destruction of Jews and Christians worldwide. First comes Saturday, then comes Sunday. President Trump is a Christian businessman-turned-politician who is a dealmaker and peacemaker. The problem with Middle East deals and Middle East peace plans is that they require mindfulness of Muslim ideological commitments to Islamic doctrine and familiarity with the two Arabic words that describe them. Taqiyya, lying in the service of Islam, and hudna, a deceitful ceasefire pause used to regroup, resupply, and reattack.

President Trump is well-intentioned, but he is playing short-term Christian businessman checkers with an opponent who is playing long-term Islamic ideological chess. The Islamic doctrinal commitment to jihad is immutable and has remained unchanged for 1400 years. So, where does this leave President Trump and the Israelis? Without a peaceful Phase 2 there is only one option––Israel must go back into Gaza militarily and forcibly remove Hamas jihadis to protect itself from the inevitable forthcoming attacks.

History is a great teacher. What China did to manipulate America when they opened their markets to Kissinger/Nixon in 1972, is precisely what Qatar/Iran are doing to President Trump and his administration today. China played the long game and quietly exploited the greed of American globalists who thought that they were taking advantage of cheap Chinese labor. It took fifty years for China to establish itself as an economic, manufacturing, and cultural threat to the sovereignty of the United States. Similarly, Qatar found the way to exploit American greed by quietly buying influence at American universities across the country to advance its own culture war on America and simultaneously courting American businessmen to deflect attention from Qatar’s anti-American, antisemitic, anti-Christian, pro-Palestinian propaganda campaign. While Iran’s oil bankrolls the barbaric savagery of terrorists slaughtering Jews and Christians worldwide, Qatari money deceitfully bankrolls the profitable business deals made in polite company which brings me to the Center for American Progress.

Journalist Andrew Fox provides an extraordinary analysis of Qatari involvement in American political affairs in his special report to Investigative Project on Terrorism, September 25, 2025, “Who Was Really Behind the Recognition of Palestine: There is more to it than meets the eye.” Fox describes what he calls the hidden hand of the Center for American Progress:

An influential progressive think tank, aligned with Qatar’s agenda, has been quietly orchestrating a significant shift in Western policy towards Israel and Palestine. The Center for American Progress (CAP), a Washington, D.C.–based NGO described by critics as a “pro-Qatar” organisation, has used its global network to encourage allied governments to recognise a Palestinian state and adopt more hardline positions against Israel.

Who are the allied governments referenced above? Who are their common enemies?

At the 2024 summit in Montréal, for instance, global progressive elites assembled under CAP’s guidance to “collaborate on bold new ideas” for governance. The key figures alone demonstrate the network’s reach: Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shared the stage with former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Mark Carney (then a UN envoy and Canada 2020 think-tank chair, now Canada’s Prime Minister). Also present was Paul Ovenden, Director of Political Strategy at 10 Downing Street until last week––a top aide to British Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer, reflecting that party’s support. CAP Action’s CEO Patrick Gaspard and Canada 2020’s CEO Braeden Caley (a key summit organiser) explicitly described the gathering as an “essential” meeting of the “global progressive movement” to strategise against common adversaries.

The operative and repeated word in this article is progressive––progress toward what???????? Every leftist progressive policy anywhere in the world is designed to weaken and destabilize its host Western nation-state, not strengthen it! Progressivism is the height of Orwellian word perversion because the word progress infers construction when, in fact, progressivism is designed for societal destruction! Progressivism is a humanitarian hoax on a global scale.

The Center for American Progress (CAP) and its Global Progress Action (GPA) are Orwellian names for organizations committed to the destruction of Israel and establishment of Qatari hegemony in the Middle East! CAP is a progressive leftist “think tank” launched by George Soros’ Open Society Foundation in 2003. Sunni/Qatar and Iranian/Shia are different sides of the same Islam expansionist coin. Qatar is the financier in charge of the soft-side of jihad––Al Jazeera + billions of Qatari dollars spend on influence in western universities, particularly in America. This is the academic nexus of the red/green alliance being funded with Qatari riyals and US taxpayer dollars through its NGOs and USAID. Qatar specializes in sinister cultural terrorism, and Iran specializes in savage physical terrorism, but they are both deeply involved in Islamic jihad designed to force worldwide submission to its global Islamic caliphate.

Bassem Eid’s incisive article published, June 10, 2025, by Investigative Project on Terrorism, “Qatar: the Real Perpetrator of the October 7th Massacre” exposes Qatari’s staggering deceit:

What explains the deep involvement of Qatar in antisemitism and international terrorism? In a word: ideology. Qatar’s official version of Islam is the stark form called Wahhabism. Since the 1990s, Qatar has positioned itself as the major funder of the radical front for Islamist political theocracy known as the Muslim Brotherhood throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Hamas, which Qatar has heavily funded, is the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, and its 1988 founding charter commits it to the destruction of the State of Israel and the establishment of an Islamic theocracy in its place. Qatar was the primary physical residence and base for Hamas’s international leadership from 2012 until late 2024, when American pressure grew too great in the wake of the October 7 [2023] massacre.

Qatar’s reach stretches far beyond direct terrorism––its persuasive reach has astonishing access through Qatar’s state-owned media corporation, Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera has become a household name worldwide, and many Westerners are surprised to learn that the channel, which has provided media access for radical figures from Saddam Hussein to Osama bin Laden, is the property of the Qatari government and, as such, has never once voiced criticism of the Qatari state or its royal family. Not only Israel but also several Arab states have scrutinized Qatar’s Al Jazeera for its platforming of Hamas, for which it provides highly slanted positive coverage and boosting. …

Indeed, Qatar’s “soft power” globally, including in the United States, goes far beyond media reach or security cooperation. The wealthy Qatar Development Fund, a state-owned investment entity, has poured resources into critical and sensitive United States infrastructure. Notably, Qatar has invested billions in U.S. higher education, with research indicating that Qatar-funded groups are behind many of the antisemitic and pro-Hamas “protests” that have roiled U.S. campuses since Hamas launched its war on October 7, 2023. Much of this Qatari funding has not been reported to the U.S. Department of Education, as required by law, with Yale University, for example, having allegedly concealed millions of dollars in Qatari investments that are believed to have fueled anti-Israel attitudes on campus.

Qatar is wealthy and powerful mainly because the United States and its allies have allowed it to be, and the consequences are now plain for all to see. Unlike Iran, Qatar is not a large, mountainous country with millions of inhabitants; it is a small, low-lying peninsula with a total population under 3 million, of whom about 90% are foreign noncitizens. It is an absolute monarchy whose ruling al Thani dynasty retains a complete monopoly on political power. Now, it is upon the U.S. Congress to designate Qatar for what it is––a major state sponsor of terrorism––and to impose sanctions on its ruling class. Doing so would compel change and dry up one of the primary financial sources of instability in today’s world. Failing to change the status quo risks leading to more horrors like those the Qatari-sponsored terrorists perpetrated in Israel on October 7, 2023.

The Western Judeo-Christian mind is unprepared for the depth of ideological commitment to jihad that is obligatory in Islamic doctrine and especially unprepared for the deceitfulness that is intrinsic to its success. The doctrinal tenets of Islam are diametrically opposed to the Judeo-Christian tradition, particularly the obligatory jihadi terrorism that is the weapon of choice being used to bludgeon Western nations into submission physically and psychologically.

Qatar is not America’s friend no matter how many friendly business deals are approved or how many friendly “peace” deals are signed, because beneath the veneer of profit and politeness is the harsh reality of doctrinal Islamic jihad and its 3-step taqiyya/hudna tactical strategy to deceive, distract, and conquer. The battle to establish an Islamic caliphate is being fought in America, on America, and against Western nations globally. The friendly deceitfulness that is its signature characteristic is part of the overall psychological battle between objective reality (the adult world of facts) and subjective reality (the child’s world of feelings) that defines life in the 21st-century. This consequential battle is the explanation for the title of my latest book, Space Is No Longer the Final Frontier––Reality Is, released in August 2024.

Our Make America Great Again President Donald Trump has done an extraordinary job of strengthening America and making Americans feel proud to be American again. What he must finally accept is that Islamic doctrine is antithetical to American values––it is an existential threat to American national security and the future of Western civilization.

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Space Is No Longer the Final Frontier––Reality Is is available in paperback, hardback, and ebook formats on barnesandnoble.com, amazon.com, and directly from Ingram in paperback.

Pundicity page: goudsmit.pundicity.com 

Website: lindagoudsmit.com