	Generational Dynamics
	Forecasting America's Destiny ... and the World's

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 15-Sep-06
Algerian terrorist group GSPC joins al-Qaeda and threatens France

Web Log - September, 2006

Algerian terrorist group GSPC joins al-Qaeda and threatens France

They consider themselves "one stone in building the coming Islamic nation," according to the announcement posted on their web site.

The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) is an Islamist terrorist group in Algeria aiming to overthrow the Algerian government and replace it with an Islamist state.

For France, GSPC was already considered a major terrorist threat anyway. Terrorist threats have gone up in France since last fall, when young Muslims rioted and demonstrated in massive numbers in the Paris suburbs last November.

But al-Qaeda's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, also announced the "blessed union" in a video posted this week on the Internet to mark the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

"All the praise is due to Allah for the blessed union which we ask Allah to be as a bone in the throats of the Americans and French crusaders and their allies, and inspire distress, concern and dejection in the hearts of the traitorous, apostate sons of France," said al-Zawahiri. "We ask him to guide our brothers in the Salafist Group for Call and Combat to crush the pillars of the crusader alliance, especially their elderly immoral leader, America."

Al-Zawahiri's message this week also threatened the French-led United Nations buffer zone forces (Unifil) in Lebanon as “enemies of Islam.” Intelligence sources indicate that number al-Qaeda cells are operating in Lebanon, preparing for an attack.

From the point of view of Generational Dynamics, this is part of a continuing process of "identity group" formation. We wrote about this in February with respect to the Danish cartoon controversy, where the publication of the Danish cartoons of Mohammed generated worldwide riots and demonstrations by Muslims, causing Muslim groups around the world to identify with each other.

Since then we've seen further links between al-Qaeda and groups stretching from southeast Asia to Egypt, and now to west Africa.

Generational Dynamics predicts that we're headed for a "clash of civilizations" world war but, as usual, tells us the final destination, but not now how we'll get there.

The spread of al-Qaeda identity groups throughout the world illuminates one likely component of the scenario that will get us there. Al-Qaeda's primary goal has always been to establish Islamist states, overthrowing moderate Muslim states when necessary. That's what the phrase, "one stone in building the coming Islamic nation," quoted above, means. Thus, al-Qaeda's rise is actually part of internecine battle within the Sunni Muslim community worldwide.

This internecine Sunni component will occur in addition to the other components we've previously discussed: the war between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, the war between Palestinians and Jews, and the battle between the Muslim world and the Western world.

The point is that nobody knows how all this is going to play out, who will be fighting whom, or who the winners and losers will be. The only thing that's certain is that the results will not be inconclusive. (15-Sep-06) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 15-Sep-06 Algerian terrorist group GSPC joins al-Qaeda and threatens France

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 15-Sep-06
Algerian terrorist group GSPC joins al-Qaeda and threatens France