With Help From Major Itamar Ben David
By Justine Hemmestad
The world has always been more connected than we may think - even 180 years ago, and even in Small Town, Iowa. When pioneers Timothy Davis, John Thompson, and Chester Sage founded a town in northeastern Iowa in the same year that Iowa became a state (1846), they had their minds on a contemporary Algerian hero they had read about who fought against French colonial power, Emir Abdelkader - hence their town name of Elkader. The publication in which they’d learned of him, “Littell’s Living Age,” followed Emir Abdelkader’s military achievements as he fought the French. Abdelkader was said to have protected the Christians and employed the Jews. President Abraham Lincoln gifted Abdelkader a pair of pistols in 1863. In fact, Elkader High School’s class of 1915 honored Emir Abdelkader as having qualities for which to aspire to. That’s not all, though. The Algerian hero was a jihadist. Elkader is the only city in America who is named after a jihadist. “Jihad,” says Major Itamar Ben David, “is a much broader term than people tend to think. Jihad is not just the act of war, it’s an encompassing obligation of the life of the Muslim to be faithful to God and to proselytize, and promoting Islam in any way can be considered as a jihad.” So how does an Iowan town, named after a jihadist, impact the war half a world away? Via juxtaposition. For perspective, the Washington Post reports about Hamas, “The group’s original charter, issued in 1988, says, ‘There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through jihad.’” Last week we saw how Mexico is vulnerable to jihadists. However, Canada, like Iowa, is one of the safest places in the world to be. Also like Iowa, Canada has an indirect jihadist history that people might not anticipate, though much more current and elicit. In fact, India has called Canada a “safe haven for terrorists.” For years, pressure has mounted from Canada’s parliament, opposition, and Iranian diaspora, which highlights the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ongoing role in supporting international terrorism. “As an immediate consequence of this listing, Canadian financial institutions, such as banks and brokerages, are required to immediately freeze the property of a listed entity,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government said in a statement. “It is a criminal offense for anyone in Canada and Canadians abroad to knowingly deal with property owned or controlled by a terrorist group.” The Canadian police are also trying to shift their focus from Islamic terrorists to right-wing hateful ideologies. They question why far-right extremists are not charged with terrorism, while those inspired by Islamic extremism are. In early July of 2024, Canadian Jewish politician, and Mount Royal Member of Parliament, Anthony Housefather said that he’s been called a neo-Nazi in flyers distributed in Montreal. “Get out of Canada,” the flyers said; “Zionism equals terrorism.” Canada’s Special Envoy for Preserving Holocaust Re- membrance and Combating Antisemitism Deborah Lyons said that the sign was not only targeting Housefather but all Jewish Canadians, most of whom identify as Zionists. Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, “Jewish Canadians indeed helped build this country and will always have a home here. We stand with you, and the entire community, against this hate.” But accusations that the Canadian police’s favorable pro-Palestinian protest responses were a direct order of Justin Trudeau or liberal mayors lead to claims that, “Canada will soon be unrecognizable and filled with religious extremists.” Anti-Israeli sentiment expressed in Canadian social media ranges from using coded language (dog whistles) to conspiracy theories to outright antisemitism. This year, Canada’s immigration tribunal has also ordered the deportation of an Onterio, ex-employee of Hamas-linked aid group. The woman, Majeda Sarassa, worked for the International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy Canada so was therefore deemed inadmissible to Canada. She had been based in the West Bank city of Bethlehem under the pretext of distributing money to children whose fathers had died. She was integral to IRFAN operations in Palestine, though she said she was not aware that IRFAN - Canada had been sanctioned for terrorism until she arrived in Canada. About a dozen countries, including the U.S. and Canada, stopped funding UNRWA after Israel reported that dozens of UNRWA employees were connected to Hamas, and that 12 employees participated in the October 7 attacks. The Immigration Appeal Division ruled that Sarassa’s employment made her a IR- FAN-Canada member, an organization engaged in terrorism. Canadian authorities had previously stripped IRFAN - Canada of its charity status after federal auditors found it had sent money to groups associated with Hamas. The group has also been placed on a list of terrorist entities for using its “status as a charitable organization to fund Hamas.” Sarassa argued that her involvement was “low-level” in Canada, and she said the children of fathers fighting Israelis “did not qualify for the money she distributed, nor did those imprisoned in Israel.” However, Canada had records of her employment lasting for a longer duration than she said, and when she was asked if any of the children’s dead fathers were Hamas members, she answered, “I don’t know this.” Sarassa has also said that Palestinian Islamic Jihad members broke her leg after she refused to join their ranks, and she recognized that they are a terror organization, “whose objective is not only the destruction of the state of Israel but also despotic control over the Palestinian civilians.” Even as late as a few days ago, the UN fired additional UNRWA workers who they admitted participated in the October 7 massacre in Israel. The danger that characterizes these instances is that people often see through the lens of what they know - the jihadist of yesteryear may be differently understood than the jihadists of today because the battlefield was different, and that’s confusing (however, jihad is always the “military effort to push the enemies of Islam [out] or force them to acknowledge Islam is superior”). People may by superimposing Abdelkader onto recently broadcasted jihadist elements. Because Emir Abdelkader protected Christians and employed Jews and fought against the oppression of the French, the actual difference in battlefield isn’t accounted for. People see the world through their own perspective. Dr. Galit Truman-Zinman, who teaches at the School of Political Science and the Academic Excellence Unit at the University of Haifa, says that in fact, Hamas is equal to Isis. She says, “Another Islamist terrorist organization, Hamas, has over the years of its existence conducted a steady stream of acts of violence, subversion and terrorism directed against the State of Israel and its citizens.” To clarify her point, and to uphold mine as well, Truman-Zinman writes, “When we analyze the intentions and capabilities of Hamas… we can see a great deal of similarity to ISIS. The main points of similarity are: extreme Islamist ideology, intelligent use of media for psychological warfare and propaganda, brutal violence against ‘infidels’, a proud display of atrocities without any concealment, and a rigid and oppressive attitude towards anyone who does not participate in their fundamentalist version of Islam and does not engage in ‘righteous’ jihad. The two terrorist organizations have much in common based on their similar radical ideological ambitions: erasing ‘infidels’ from the world and ruling over an Islamic political-social order.” Major Itamar Ben David also described Hamas as being similar to ISIS in the immediate days after the terror group’s October 7 attack on Israel, when the utter heartbreak of Israel could be heard in the roughness of his voice. The tendency is to equate what we do know with what we don’t know in order to understand it, meaning that the invocation of Emir Abdelkader is brought into present day Hamas symbolism without a full understanding of Hamas. Peel back the layers of a recognized Islamic hero, and Hamas’ literal flag flies. Vigilance, and knowing what the symbolism is, would be what is called for when a jihadist flag reads, “we love you Usama [bin Laden], America is digging its grave with its left, while Usama has already chopped off her right (via Combating Terror at West Point).”
(pictured: Lincoln gifted revolvers to Abdelkader)
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