45

AL JAWF GOVERNORATE, YEMEN

He was only thirty-nine years old, but the mantle had fallen to him. First, Anwar al-Awlaki, a dual American and Yemeni citizen, was martyred by a drone in 2011. Two weeks later, his sixteen-year-old son and nine relatives were killed by a drone in an open-air café in Shabwah, Yemen. U.S. officials claimed it was a mistake—the intended target was supposedly an Egyptian who was nowhere near that location.

Seven years later, the Great Satan struck again. This time the victim was an Iranian imam named Yazeed Abdul Hamid, killed in Yemen when more than eighty soldiers ambushed his caravan. The Yemeni coalition government claimed credit for the assault, but everyone knew it was American Special Forces.

The Great Satan would never learn that the death of one martyr only gave birth to a hundred more. And now Saleet Zafar, an imam from Saudi Arabia, had taken up the cause, his sermons blazing across the Internet, inspiring tens of thousands to great deeds for Allah.

Zafar seemed an unlikely choice—an intellectual and an introvert, a reader of books and a student of current events. He had committed the entire Quran to memory before his twelfth birthday. One hundred fourteen suras. Six thousand two hundred thirty-six verses. Eighty thousand words. There was nothing more important than the word of Allah.

He was a thin man with a black, wiry beard who always wore the long white robe of a cleric. He had bad eyesight and thick, round, wire-rimmed glasses. But when he preached, those imperfect eyes blazed with the glory of Allah.

He was also a man on the run, shuttled from one host family to another, seldom sleeping in the same house on two consecutive nights. He often went for a week without seeing his family. But his two sons, aged twelve and ten, would be at the mosque tonight. Even Saleet did not think America would strike a mosque full of innocent women and children.

But when he left, he would tell his boys good-bye. He did not want them sleeping under the same roof as him when the Hellfire missile came.

There were times he would stay with members of ISIS; they had little fear of death. He knew his sermons on YouTube had inspired many to become part of the great jihad, but he was only doing the will of Allah. He had not asked for this mantle, but if it was Allah’s will, he would carry it with great zeal.

He followed events in America closely. The infidels had turned on each other in the American courts, an entirely predictable occurrence. But the subject of his sermon tonight was something far more important—the upcoming trip of the Israeli prime minister to America. It was part of President Amanda Hamilton’s plan to construct an axis of power between the Americans, the Israelis, and the Saudis that would end up destroying all true followers of Islam. But these were the last days. What else should one expect?

As he rose to speak, his two sons listened from the front row, their eyes expectant, their faces proud. There were hundreds of others jammed into the mosque, some recording the message with their phones so it could be posted on various Internet venues.

Saleet began by reciting the Quran’s description of those who died at the Battle of Uhud: “‘Never think of those who have been killed in the cause of Allah as dead. Rather, they are alive with their Lord, receiving provision, rejoicing in what Allah has bestowed upon them of his bounty.’”

Saleet, preaching without notes, expounded on the great bounty given by Allah to his martyrs. The remission of one’s sins. Avoiding the torment of hell, where the skin was literally burned from your body. Marriage to beautiful heavenly virgins. A crown set with priceless rubies. The right to intercede with God on judgment day on behalf of seventy relatives. Entry into the highest gardens of heaven. It was an impressive list, and therefore, according to Saleet, the tragedy was not in dying; the tragedy was in failing to live life fully surrendered to Allah.

Partway through his message, he pivoted from theology to the recent events unmasking the agenda of the Great Satan. He condemned the alliance between the U.S. and Israel but saved some of his harshest language for the moderate infidels in Saudi Arabia who helped advance the Great Satan’s agenda.

He ended by pleading with his listeners to study the Quran: “The life of a true Muslim flows from the ink of our Quran and the blood of our martyrs. Our history has been colored with these two streams: one of them black and the other red. The infidels cannot harm true believers. Even in our death, they can only guarantee that the great bounty of Allah will flow unhindered to those who truly believe.”

When Saleet had finished, he looked down at his boys. They had soaked it all in, even concepts they could not yet understand. He knew in their hearts they were ready to die for Allah. And though it pained him to consider such a possibility, he trusted the words of the Quran over his own emotions. Allah demanded great sacrifices. And if this was the sacrifice Saleet was called upon to make, he would do it willingly, though his heart would break in the process.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Najir Mohammed knew the video was his call to action. The twenty-one-year-old Georgetown University student would color history with his own red blood. He had been planning his attack for nearly a year, but now events had aligned. In a few days, the Americans would be celebrating Memorial Day, and the leader of Israel would be visiting American soil. It could not be coincidental. He prayed Allah would give him an opportunity to act, and he prayed for the courage to do what needed to be done.