Analyzing the current strength of jihadist movements across the globe, Andrew Peek traces their origins to three events in 1979:
The Iranian revolutionaries had overthrown a close U.S. ally . . . and heir to a monarchical tradition that stretched back 2,500 years. And they had done it, seemingly, by faith. For those Arabs who were suffering under the stagnancy of one form of dictatorship or another, Iran’s revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini was an inspiration, Persian and Shiite though he was.
The second event began in 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. The ragtag group of Tajik and Pashtun rebels successfully defying the mighty Soviet army were another powerful symbol, just like the Iranian Revolution. . . .
In 1979, apparently inspired by Khomeini, a group of radicals took over the Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia by force, demanding the overthrow of the kingdom’s rulers. After several unsuccessful attempts, Saudi authorities regained control of the mosque; but to solidify its own position, the monarchy began to pump vast amounts of funding into promoting its own brand of extremely conservative Islam, Wahhabism, abroad. Schools, mosques, charities, prisons—all benefited from Saudi largesse as long as they adhered to the Wahhabi line. . . .
[If the war on radical Islamism is to be won], the 1979 roots—the symbols and the money—need to be pulled out of the soil.
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