Networking 21st Century Style

The boom years of the ‘90s were all about "networking." If you wanted to achieve success, it was all about "who you knew."

The networking principles remain virtually unchanged in 2001. If you want to be a successful terrorist, ushering in your own "boom and bust" cycle, it’s still all about "who you know."

Unfortunately, as a highly illuminating article in last Sunday’s New York Times pointed out, far too many of "America’s most wanted" know Osama bin Laden. And they’re willing to follow his orders at the drop of a blood-stained fez.

Reporter Chris Hedges got some inside glimpses into one such terrorist cell whose goal was the destruction of the U.S. Embassy in Paris. What he discovered blew holes through several stereotypes. While a number of the bin Laden foot soldiers were, indeed, of Middle Eastern extraction, there were also a surprising number of European converts to radical Islam; extensively educated individuals referred to as "white moors."

Even those with obvious Arabic heritage did their best to fit into their surroundings and attract as little attention to themselves as possible. Among their ranks were a community organizer, two municipality workers and a former soccer player. Some had families.

Personally, they were described as "nice" or "kind." Few could have imagined the darker natures they concealed, ready to blast innocent civilians to smithereens in order to accomplish their twisted religious ends.

Fortunately, European police described this group as none too clever. Their methods were predictable and led to timely arrests. The fear is that their cohorts still at large may have learned from the mistakes of their jailed peers and might not be so sloppy the next time.

There’s a larger lesson here than merely maintaining a heightened state of alert in dealing with these dangerous enemies of the cross. They represent the fleshly arm of a spiritual rebellion that began before the snake first slithered into the garden. We must trust the true God of the universe to crush the head of this idolatrous serpent before it can strike again.

And to accomplish that end, we’d better learn to spend more quality time on our knees.

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