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Abdullah Azzam |
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| Stalin, Hitler and Mao operated according to Azzam’s philosophy. They recognized that “history” (what is remembered and recorded) builds on slaughter—a “lofty edifice of skulls.”
The terror and death Bin Laden created is dwarfed by the efforts of Stalin, Hitler and Mao—whose reputations rest on a foundation of cripples and corpses.
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Bin Laden’s mentor—Abdullah Azzam—was called the “Lenin of international jihad.” An entire philosophy of history is contained within the following two paragraphs from “Martyrs: The Building Blocks of Nations:
“History does not write its lines except with blood. Glory does not build its lofty edifice except with skulls, Honour and respect cannot be established except on a foundation of cripples and corpses.
Empires, distinguished peoples, states and societies cannot be established except with examples. Indeed, (one cannot) change reality, or change societies, without blood, sacrifices and invalids, without pure, innocent souls.”
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Azzam states that history “writes its line in blood;” that honor and glory build upon a foundation of “cripples and corpses.” Empires, societies and states, Azzam says, are brought into being through sacrificial death.
What is (political) history? The creation of death—testifying to the existence or reality of a sacred ideal.
The ideologies of Stalin, Hitler and Mao are identical to the philosophy put forth by Azzam in his treatise. They recognized that history builds on a “lofty edifice of skulls.”
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