The astonishing aspect of this is that mainstream Western analysts will fall for it. After all, they have gotten behind the idea that the Muslim Brotherhood is “moderate” because it doesn’t usually resort to violence in order to further its goal of implementing Sharia. The fact that the Brotherhood and groups such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State — and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, for that matter — have the same goal, Sharia imposed everywhere, isn’t important to them at all.
“Al-Qaeda rebrands: Terrorist group rebounds under a new name – Hayat Tahrir al-Sham – as it positions itself as a ‘moderate’ alternative to ISIS,” AFP, September 11, 2017:
“Al-Qaeda is on the rise again in the shadow of the Islamic State group in Syria”, experts say. The news comes 16 years after the jihadists shocked the United States in the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Sunni group that last month seized control of the northern Syrian city of Idlib, is simply a ‘rebranding’ of Al-Qaeda that is positioning itself as more moderate than the Islamic State in hopes of a resurgence, according to experts….
