The Kill List Read Free Page A

distribute dollars. But that is not the point. With terrorism, that is never the point. With terrorists, whether al-Fatah or Black September or the new, supposedly religious breed, the rage and the hatred come first. Then the justification. For IRA patriotism, for Red Brigade politics, for Salafist-Jihadist piety. An assumed piety.”
    The professor was preparing tea for two on his small spirit stove.
    “But they claim to follow the teachings of the Holy Koran. They claim that they are obeying the Prophet Muhammad. They claim they are serving Allah.”
    The old scholar smiled as the water boiled. He had noticed the insertion of the word “Holy” in front of Koran. A courtesy, but a pleasing one.
    “Young man, I am what is called
hafiz
. That is one who has memorized all 6,236 verses of the Holy Koran. Unlike your Bible, which was written by hundreds of authors, our Koran was written—dictated, actually—by one. And yet there are passages that seem to contradict each other.
    “What the Jihadists do is to take one or two phrases out of context, distort them a little more and then pretend they have divine justification. They do not. There is nothing in all our Holy Book that decrees we must slaughter women and children to please the one we call Allah the Merciful, the Compassionate. All extremists do that, including Christian and Jewish ones. Do not let our tea go cold. It should be drunk piping hot.”
    “But, Professor, these contradictions. Have they never been addressed, explained, rationalized?”
    The professor served the American more tea with his own hands. He had servants, but it pleased him to make his tea personally.
    “Constantly. For thirteen hundred years, scholars have studied and composed commentaries on that one single book. Collectively, they are called the
hadith
. About a hundred thousand of them.”
    “Have you read them?”
    “Not all. It would take ten lifetimes. But many. And I have written two.”
    “One of the bombers, Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, the one they call the blind cleric, was . . . is . . . a scholar, too.”
    “And a mistaken one. Nothing new in that in any religion.”
    “But I must ask again: Why do they hate?”
    “Because you are not them. They experience deep rage at what is not themselves. Jews, Christians, those we call the
kuffar
s, the unbelievers who will not convert to the one true faith. But also those who are not Muslim enough. In Algeria the Jihadists butcher villages of
fellagha
s, peasants, including women and children, in their Holy War against Algiers. Always remember this, Lieutenant. First comes the rage and the hatred. Then the justification, the pose of deep piety, all a sham.”
    “And you, Professor?”
    The old man sighed.
    “I loathe and despise them. Because they take the face of my dear Islam and present it to the world twisted with rage and hatred. But communism is dead, the West weak and self-serving, concerned with pleasure and greed. There will be many who will listen to the new message.”
    Kit Carson glanced at his watch. It would soon be time for the professor’s prayers. He rose. The scholar noticed the gesture and smiled. He, too, rose and accompanied his guest to the door. As the American left, he called after him.
    “Lieutenant, I fear my dear Islam is entering a long dark night. You are young, you will see the end of it,
inshallah
. I pray I shall not be forced to witness what is coming.”
    Three years later, the old scholar died in his bed. But the mass killings had begun with a huge bomb in an apartment block favored by American civilians in Saudi Arabia. A man named Osama bin Laden had quit Sudan and returned to Afghanistan as an honored guest of a new regime, the Taliban, which had swept the country. And the West continued to take no measures to defend itself but continued to enjoy the locust years.
    PRESENT DAY
    The little market town of Grangecombe in the English county of Somerset attracted a few tourists in the summer to stroll