JD: Islam, that faith which is a major force in our world today. Are they becoming more radical?
KT: Well Jimmy there’s good news and bad news in this story. Islam has been radical for 1,400 years. Remember it began with the sword and it’s only rarely that it puts away the sword, that it chic’s the sword. What we’ve seen over the past year really is a shift of the center of Islam. Going from Saudi Arabia to Turkey. Saudi Arabia which has become more pro-Western over the past year with Mohammed bin Salman the crown prince and certainly cracking down on political Islam in his country, the Jihadi groups that are operating from his country.
But the slack has been picked up Jimmy by Erdogan in Turkey. Now remember Turkey has a huge standing army. They have just invaded northern Syria and Turkey is turning increasingly towards Russia and working in concert with the Iranians. So you have a shift in the balance of power in the Islamic world if you wish. And I would say on balance it is becoming more radical.
JD: And that radicalization really beginning back in 1979 when the Ayatollah Khomeini came into Iran and made it an Islamic Republic. What does that actually mean Ken?
KT: I actually like to call them the Islamic state of Iran because there’s nothing Republican about their form of government. What it means Jimmy is that Iran has lost its nationalist pass and adopted this worldwide Islamist movement. They believe that they are the leaders of Islam in the world of course that’s being disputed definitely by Saudi Arabia. But they are ruled by the Quran. They have a constitution but that constitution is subjected to Sharia law which is derived from the Quran. And “Islamic Republic” so to speak and I’ve put it in quotes, is really an Islamic state ruled by Sharia law which is an expansionist totalitarian all encompassing world views and we will see more terrorism in 2020.
JD: Ken Timmerman with the details of Islam’s growth and radicalization.
