War on Terror

Matthew Petti | 10.7.2024 8:00 AM

Illinois man Joseph Czuba believed he was ready for the apocalypse. He had been convinced by his favorite radio shows that Muslims were planning a "day of jihad" on October 13, 2023. When the day passed without incident, Czuba told his wife that something was still coming the next day. Ready to face down the attacking hordes, he withdrew $1,000 from the bank, just in case "the grid" went out. There was only one loose end: his Palestinian-American tenant, Hanaan Shahin.

"He came to the house and said he was angry at [Shahin] for what was happening in Jerusalem," prosecutor Michael Fitzgerald said after the incident, citing detectives investigating the crime. When Shahin told Czuba to "give peace a chance," Czuba allegedly chased Shahin through her apartment with a knife. Then he stabbed Shahin's 6-year-old son Wadea Al-Fayoume to death, prosecutors say. Police found Czuba outside the apartment, dripping blood.

Czuba was not the only one who feared October 13 would be a "day of jihad." After Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 and called for protests in other Arab nations the following Friday, the media speculated about a wave of terror on U.S. soil. Politicians whipped their followers into a frenzy. Police beefed up security, and schools closed down in fear of impending attacks.

Then nothing happened. There were no armed attacks on America by Muslims that week—and the rumor provoked armed attacks against Muslim Americans. It was like a speed run of post-9/11 paranoia. American society saw an incomprehensible foreign threat, and overreacted. Innocent people were hurt. Later, as the perceived danger wore off, the false rumors and the violence they inspired were memory-holed, with no one held accountable.

"The War on Terror disappeared into normality, rather than disappearing. A lot of the infrastructure that was created post 9/11 just remained in place," says Arun Kundnani, an expert on counterterrorism and mass surveillance. "When October 7 happened, the default reflex from a lot of institutions was already shaped by the War on Terror."

Through interviews and documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, including a never-before-seen FBI memo, Reason has reconstructed how the panic spread, and the damage it did to Jewish, Palestinian, and other American communities.

The rush by powerful figures and institutions into mass hysteria—and the lack of reflection on the consequences—vividly reveals what the politics of the war on terror have done to America.

The phrase "day of jihad" was an invention of the tabloids. Hamas never used those words. In fact, "there is no history of Hamas attacks on U.S. soil or U.S. troops," says Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, a scholar of classical Arabic who has extensively researched Islamist movements. (Hamas has killed and kidnapped Americans during indiscriminate attacks on Israel.) Its ambitions, however violent and repressive, are limited to taking power in the Holy Land.

Groups that have attacked America, such as Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, want "never-ending armed jihad" aimed at "world domination," Al-Tamimi says. In September 2024, an Islamic State supporter in Canada was arrested for allegedly plotting a mass shooting against Jewish Americans. By contrast, Hamas' goal is "a Palestinian state that should be Islamic in its identity, and governed by Islamic law," Al-Tamimi says.

Still, there was a kernel of truth behind the idea that Hamas was trying to mobilize foreign supporters. As it became clear that Hamas had killed hundreds of Israelis on October 7, and reports of atrocities against Israeli civilians flooded out, someone associated with Hamas did make a call for some action in foreign countries. In an interview with a Yemeni media outlet on October 11, former Hamas chairman Khaled Meshaal asked people to "head to the squares and streets of the Arab and Islamic world" in two days.

Meshaal told "scholars who teach jihad," or religious warfare, that "this is a moment to practice" what they preach. Specifically, he asked neighboring Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt to intervene in the war. It echoed a written statement by Hamas the day before, asking foreign Muslims to gather on October 13 and "march towards the borders of our beloved Palestine."

"This was not a call for a global war of jihad against infidels or a call to terrorism in Western countries," Al-Tamimi says. Arabic-language media covered Meshaal's speech in passing, if at all, as a straightforward attempt to stir up pro-war demonstrations in the countries bordering Israel.

English-speaking media had a different reaction. The Middle East Media and Research Institute, a controversial think tank run by a former Israeli intelligence officer, reposted clips of Meshaal's speech with English subtitles. Journalists ran with the most sensational framing possible.

"THERE WILL BE BLOOD," declared a headline from The Daily Signal, a news outlet formerly published by the conservative Heritage Foundation. The headline was not a quote from anyone involved with Hamas—it was a quote from Heritage Foundation expert and former U.S. intelligence official Robert Greenway, who claimed Meshaal's video was "an unambiguous global call to arms" that "will be heeded." Greenway did not respond to multiple emails asking for comment.

The Daily Mail, a British tabloid, coined the phrase "day of jihad," which was quickly picked up by other media. CBS News reported matter-of-factly that "Hamas has called for a day of jihad on Friday" without any context. NewsNation ran a five-minute segment on........

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