The Templar Reprisals (The Best Thrillers Book 3) James Best (best books to read all time .txt) 📖

behind Lewis to put him in a chokehold. He pressed Lewis’ head forward, his neck pressed against his forearm. “You’ll be unconscious in seconds. Moving you won’t present a problem. Hold up a hand if you’ll tell us about the Ikhwan.”

Lewis immediately lifted a hand.

Evarts relented, but Baldwin did not lower the gun.

Lewis rubbed his neck and made a gaging noise before carefully saying, “Very well. This has not gone as intended.” He coughed and wheezed some more. “Knowledge about the Ikhwan works for our backup plan anyway. In the case of this eventuality, we discussed returning to the idea of recruiting you into the Templars. Some preferred that strategy all along.”

“But not you?” Evarts asked as a test.

“Not me,” Lewis admitted.

Lewis had broken. Evarts believed in giving hostile witnesses a plausible justification for talking. Rationalization was the grease that lubricated the mouth. Evarts circled the couch to pick up Lewis’ empty glass. He refilled it and placed it on the coffee table in front of him.

“Now, talk.” Evarts said.

Chapter 32

“Start with the Ikhwan?” Evarts said.

“From the beginning,” Baldwin added.

“Very well.” Lewis took a deep breath. “In the 1930s, Arabia hadn’t discovered oil yet. Sand, emptiness, and warring tribes were the only things in abundance. Then in 1932, Saudi Arabia came into existence when Abdulaziz Al Saud birthed an empire using the British as midwives. Al Saud didn’t rely on Brits alone. He had a group of ruthless Islamic fanatics known as the Ikhwan who served as his shock troops. They were all too willing to slaughter thousands to purify the new empire. Once the fighting abated, Al Saud needed to consolidate power, and he didn’t want pesky sermonizing from the cheap seats. The Ikhwan had to go. Al Saud finagled permission from the Wahhabi clerics to declare jihad against the Ikhwan.” Lewis smiled ruefully. “Not unlike King Philip IV of France persuading the Pope to condemn the Templars. In both cases, it was brutal. The king came to believe that the Ikhwan had been wiped out, but like the Templars six centuries earlier, the Ikhwan survived underground. Ever since, they’ve surreptitiously waged war against the west and Muslim leaders they deemed insufficiently pious.”

Lewis scooted his butt around on the seat before continuing.

“The Ikhwan would have remained a nuisance if they hadn’t acquired two key assets: money and a romantic cause. Every war needs a cash infusion and a rallying cry.”

Lewis appeared pleased with his lecture.

“Oil provided the money. Sponsorship by certain members of the Saudi royal family has been an open secret for decades. The royals provide a strong financial backbone, but the Ikhwan don’t squander money; in fact, they work feverishly to build their cash reserves. From time to time, the spoils of war add to the coffers. For all intents and purposes, ISIS is an Ikhwan subsidiary and during their caliphate, they aggressively harvested oil from fields in Syria and Iraq. Made billions, spent millions. Islamic nations typically use black in their national flags and battle banners, so ISIS called oil ‘the black gold feeding the black flag.’”

He waited for an appreciative reaction. When none was forthcoming, he continued.

“The movement’s philosophical underpinnings came in the 1950s and 60s from a sad little man named Sayyid Qutb. Think of him as the equivalent of Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Hitler, or even our own James Madison; all people who sparked a movement by espousing a philosophy. Qutb was an Egyptian civil servant, writer, and ardent nationalist. He was a shy mommy’s boy. His impoverished mother indoctrinated him in her beliefs. She was pious, chafed under British rule, and despised Western influences. She considered the British affected superiority a particularly grievous affront. But don’t assume Qutb only hated the British. He viewed the entire West as monolithic, with little distinction between Europe, Britain, and the United States. He loathed it all. Capitalism, socialism, democracy, republicanism, Marxism, fascism—he believed they were all cut from the same cloth … and that cloth was not Islamic. It was the fabric of the Christian and Jewish faiths. Qutb vowed that he would never allow nonbelievers to overwhelm Islam, the one true religion.

“Qutb wrote many books and most educated Muslims have read them. The less educated have heard his ideas espoused in mosques, coffee bars, and Muslim homes. These ideas provided the foundation for radical Islam. His writings came mostly from prison because Nasser incarcerated him for over a decade before hanging him in 1966.While in prison, he wrote In the Shade of the Qur'an, a remarkable prison manifesto, comparable with Mein Kampf.”

Lewis gazed at the ceiling before returning his eyes to Evarts. “You know the rest. With money and fervent idealism in their arsenal, the fundamentalists became terrorists. Qutb provided justification for the carnage.”

Baldwin leaned forward. “Explain Qutb’s philosophy.”

Lewis expression grew patronizing, and he spoke like a professor with a slow student.

“Qutb imagined resurrecting a theocratic caliphate, with strict enforcement of shariah law. The Koran defines dietary rules, proper prayer, marriage, divorce, rules concerning non-Muslims, charity, punishment for crimes, prohibitions, proper clothing, business rules, and on and on. It defines a way of life that unifies the religious and the secular. Qutb dreamed about the glories of the past when Arabs ruled the world. He wanted those triumphs again. He wanted a world where people once again bowed before Arabs and their religion.”

“Islam defenders say that’s over simplified.” Baldwin said dismissively.

“Aw, but it is that simple. Radical Islamists intend to conquer the world for the purpose of imposing shariah. And by the way, it’s not a criticism of Islam if you’re parroting their words.”

Evarts shook his head. “Americans will never accept shariah.”

“You mean Christian and Jewish Americans. Many Muslim Americans already embrace it.”

“I mean Americans,” Evarts said. “All Americans. We believe in the separation of church and state. Muslims have a constitutional right to worship as they please, but faith and government remain separate in our country.”

“According to Qutb, that concept goes against the nature of humanity. Radical Islamicists believe the