THE HISTORY OF PALINDROME YEARS predicts that the continued confrontation between
the Muslim World and the West will escalate into a major war
starting in the Palindrome year of 1991 and expand in magnitude in the Palindrome year of 2002 with consequences dominating the next millennium.

An attempt will be made, by declaring a “Jihad”, to recreate the
Ottoman Empire and to unite Muslims against the infidel. The
conflict between “modernization” and “westernization” of Islam
will be eventually resolved by reformation of the Muslim religion,
similar to the Reformation of Christianity. The age of the Muslim
religion and it’s intolerance of other religions reflects the
conditions of the Christian religion of the Dark Ages. This is the
Dark Age period of the Muslim religion both numerically and developmentally. Reformation will eventually lead to liberation of the women of Islam and peace between the religions.

Compared to the tragically slow reformation period of Christianity, the reform movement of Islam will be more speedy and effective due to the advances in communication technology. The advances in technology, however, will make the Islamic reformation period more dangerous because religious fanatics wil have access to weapons of mass destruction imperiling the civilized world.

JIHAD
The Islamic idea of “jihad” has a wide range of meanings,
from an inward spiritual struggle to attain perfect faith, to a war
of conquest or conversion against all unbelievers. Interpretation of
the word also changed throughout the existence if Islam. Starting
in the middle ages “jihad” generally referred to a divinely
sanctioned struggle to establish Muslim rule over non-Muslims f o r
the propagation of the Islamic faith.

Today Islam has three interpretations for the word. The
Muslim Apologists believe that “jihad” is resistance to persecution
of Muslims only. The Muslim Modernists believe that it means
resistance to aggression when Islam is attacked in war.
The third group, the Muslim Revivalists claim that “jihad”
means the struggle to expand Islam throughout the entire world.
Even this group does not intend to coerce people to accept Islam as
their religion. Its primary goal is to overthrow regimes ruling
Muslim countries that are secular and not governing according to
the laws of Islam. This has created major confrontations between
the governments of Islamic countries and the religious minority in
those countries.

Major segments of this Revivalist group are followers of
Osama bin Laden whose intentions were declared on February 23,
1998 in a statement issued by the World Islamic Front. It is a
religious ruling (fatwa) requiring the killing of Americans, both
civilian and military. This document links the bin Laden network to
many terrorist attacks, including the September 11, 2001 attacks
on New York and Washington. This group of fanatics is more
effective than the hundreds of similar groups preceding it, because
it is willing to utilize modern technology in its attacks while still
adhering to fundamental religious practices. It’s ideas are of
historic importance for us to understand. Here is the text of the
document issued by it’s leaders:

Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders
World Islamic Front Statement
23 February 1998
Shaykh Usamah Bin-Muhammad Bin-Ladin, Ayman a l -
Zawahiri, amir of the Jihad Group in Egypt, Abu-Yasir Rifa'i Ahmad
Taha, Egyptian Islamic Group, Shaykh Mir Hamzah, secretary of the
Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Pakistan, Fazlur Rahman, amir of the Jihad
Movement in Bangladesh
Praise be to Allah, who revealed the Book, controls the
clouds, defeats factionalism, and says in His Book: "But when the
forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the pagans wherever
ye find them, seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them i n
every stratagem (of war)". Peace be upon our Prophet, Muhammad
Bin-'Abdallah, who said: I have been sent with the sword between my
hands to ensure that no one but Allah is worshipped. Allah who put
my livelihood under the shadow of my spear and who inflicts
humiliation and scorn on those who disobey my orders.
No one argues today about three facts that are known to
everyone; we will list them, in order to remind everyone:
First, for over seven years the United States has been
occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian
Peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating
its people, terrorizing its neighbors, and turning its bases in the
Peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the neighboring
Muslim peoples.
The best proof of this is the Americans' continuing
aggression against the Iraqi people using the Peninsula as a staging
post, even though all its rulers are against their territories being
used to that end, but they are helpless.
Second, despite the great devastation inflicted on the Iraqi
people by the crusader-Zionist alliance, and despite the huge
number of those killed, which has exceeded 1 million... despite all
this, the Americans are once against trying to repeat the horrific
massacres, as though they are not content with the protracted
blockade imposed after the ferocious war or the fragmentation and
devastation.
Third, if the Americans' aims behind these wars are religious
and economic, the aim is also to serve the Jews' petty state and
divert attention from its occupation of Jerusalem and murder of
Muslims there. The best proof of this is their eagerness to destroy
Iraq, the strongest neighboring Arab state, and their endeavor to
fragment all the states of the region such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia,
Egypt, and Sudan into paper statelets and through their disunion and
weakness to guarantee Israel's survival and the continuation of the
brutal crusade occupation of the Peninsula.
All these crimes and sins committed by the Americans are a clear decla
On that basis, and in compliance with Allah's order, we issue
the following fatwa to all Muslims:
The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians
and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it
in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate
the al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque [Mecca] from their grip,
and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam,
defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance
with the words of Almighty Allah, "and fight the pagans all
together as they fight you all together," and "fight them until there
is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith
in Allah."
We -- with Allah's help -- call on every Muslim who
believes in Allah and wishes to be rewarded to comply with Allah's
order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and
whenever they find it. We also call on Muslim ulema, leaders,
youths, and soldiers to launch the raid on Satan's U.S. troops and
the devil's supporters allying with them, and to displace those who
are behind them so that they may learn a lesson.
Almighty Allah also says: "O ye who believe, what is the matter with you
this life, as compared with the hereafter: So lose no heart, nor fall
into despair. For ye must gain mastery if ye are true in faith."

Osama bin Laden sent a coded message in his video recording
shown throughout the world following the terrorist attack on the
World Trade Center in New York in 2001. When he referred to the
suffering by Muslims during the last 80 years he referred to the
Dissolution of the Ottoman Empire 80 years ago. His call to
remember the Ottoman Empire can be compared to similar
exhortations referring to events in US history. “Remember the
Alamo”. “Remember Pearl Harbor” “Remember the Main” etc.

THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE
The Ottoman Empire lasted for seven centuries from the 13th
century until the 20th century. Thirty-six consecutive rulers all
belonged to the same family. They defeated the Byzantine Empire
and conquered the capital of Constantinople. Under Mehmed the
Conqueror, the Ottomans rebuilt the devastated city into the
fabulously wealthy capital they renamed Istanbul, with large
warehouses, the Covered Bazaar, Topkapi Palace, and several
mosque complexes. The Ottomans are one of the greatest and most
powerful civilizations of the modern period.

It was Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent who brought the
Ottoman Empire to its zenith. During his reign, from 1520 until
1566, he presided over the most powerful state in the world. A
remarkable military strategist, he more than doubled the Ottoman
land holdings he inherited from his father. The Ottoman Turks have
conquered and maintain effective control over diverse peoples in a
vast empire stretching from Persia almost to the gates of Vienna
and along the north coast of Africa to Algiers. He also brought a
profusion of elegant mosques, baths, schools, fountains, and
gardens to Istanbul. Much of the original splendor created by the
Ottomans can still be seen in Istanbul.

While intellectual progress in the rest of Europe was
suppressed during the Middle Ages by the influence of the Church, a
virtual renaissance occurred in the Ottoman Empire in literature,
the arts, the sciences, and Suleyman set a new standard of
jurisprudence. Their moment of glory in the sixteenth century
represents one of the heights of human creativity, optimism, and
artistry. The empire they built was the largest and most influential
of the Muslim empires of the modern period, and their culture and
military expansion crossed over into Europe. The Ottomans
established an empire over European territory and established
Islamic traditions and culture that last to the current day. The
Muslims in Bosnia are the last descendants of the Ottoman
presence in Europe.

Upon Suleyman’s demise, the gradual decline of the Ottoman
Empire began. While historians like to talk about empires in terms
of growth and decline, the Ottomans were a powerful force
militarily and culturally, right up until the break-up of the empire
in the first decades of the 20th century. The Empire finally ended
after three hundred years in 1924 when Kemal Ataturk abolished
the Muslim caliphate and founded the Republic of Turkey.
Secularization represents the real break with the Ottoman
tradition and heritage. The return to a theocracy ruled by Mulahs is
the goal of the current JIHAD advocated by extreme elements of the
Muslim world.  ¶ 3:01 PM