"HISTORY" BUILDS ON AN EDIFICE OF SKILLS;
ON A FOUNDATION OF CRIPPLES AND CORPSES
Abdullah Azzam
Stalin, Hitler and Mao operated according to Azzam’s philosophy. They recognized that “history” (what is remembered and recorded) builds on slaughter—a “lofty edifice of skulls.”

The terror and death Bin Laden created is dwarfed by the efforts of Stalin, Hitler and Mao—whose reputations rest on a foundation of cripples and corpses.

Bin Laden’s mentor—Abdullah Azzam—has been called the “Lenin of international jihad.” An entire philosophy of history is contained within the following passage from “Martyrs: The Building Blocks of Nations:

Azzam: “History does not write its lines except with blood. Glory does not build its lofty edifice except with skulls, Honour and respect cannot be established except on a foundation of cripples and corpses.

Empires, distinguished peoples, states and societies cannot be established except with examples. Indeed, (one cannot) change reality, or change societies, without blood, sacrifices and invalids, without pure, innocent souls.”

See Richard Koenigsberg's “Law of Sacrifice (click preceding link):” ideologies become real insofar as people kill and die for them.

Azzam explicitly states that history “writes its line in blood;” that honor and glory build upon a foundation of “cripples and corpses.” Empires, societies and states, Azzam says, are brought into being through the blood and sacrificial death.

What is (political) history? The creation of death and “invalids”—testifying to the existence or reality of some sacred ideal.

People like Stalin and Hitler and Mao operated according to the philosophy put forth by Azzam. They recognized that history builds on a “lofty edifice of skulls.”