French President Emmanuel Macron just welcomed Ahmed al-Sharaa to Paris—a man better known to the world as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, the former commander of al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate and the founding leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). The same HTS that ruled through terror, imposed Sharia with the sword, ran torture prisons, and publicly executed civilians.
Macron’s administration, under the pretext of “regional diplomacy,” is now treating a lifelong jihadist as a statesman—just months before France prepares to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of the November 13, 2015 ISIS attacks that left 130 innocent people dead in the heart of Paris.
Let that sink in: the President of the French Republic brought a jihadist leader into the same city where the Bataclan massacre and Stade de France bombings were carried out by his ideological cousins.
And the West yawns.
From Bin Laden to a Business Suit: The Jihadist-Makeover Playbook
Ahmed al-Sharaa isn’t some misunderstood rebel leader. He is the polished face of a long-running Jihadist strategy: trade the Kalashnikov for a suit, soften the beard, smile for Western media cameras, and wait for the invitations to state dinners. Jolani—under that name—was sanctioned by the U.S. State Department in 2013 with a $10 million reward for information leading to his capture. His group HTS is responsible for mass killings of Syrian minorities, enforcement of Taliban-style Sharia, and targeting journalists and aid workers. None of this has changed. Only the optics have.
This isn’t the first time the West has fallen for the “moderate jihadist” illusion. In 1979, Jimmy Carter’s State Department applauded the Islamic Revolution in Iran as a liberation movement. Khomeini was sold to the American public as a spiritual leader yearning for freedom. Within months, Tehran was executing homosexuals, imprisoning dissidents, and enforcing compulsory hijab under penalty of lashes.
In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood—long banned as a subversive Islamist movement—briefly ascended to power in 2012 with Western backing. The result? A year of constitutional chaos, Sharia creep, and mass persecution of Coptic Christians before a popular revolt ended the farce.
The West never learns. If a jihadist figures out how to hold a press conference without yelling “Allahu Akbar,” they get a seat at the table.
Meanwhile, Republicans are Trying to “Fix” Syria
Not to be outdone in geopolitical idiocy, two Republican U.S. House members—Ben Cline and Scott Perry—recently traveled to Syria as part of a “fact-finding” mission, discussing reconstruction and calling for a reevaluation of sanctions. Photos emerged of smiling handshakes with Syrian officials under banners that scream “Make Syria Great Again.” The message is unmistakable: the American right is flirting with the same dangerous delusion as Macron—that Islamic strongmen can be managed, negotiated with, or somehow Westernized.
Their visit took place in the very region now controlled by the same networks that previously pledged loyalty to al-Qaeda and later flirted with ISIS. The notion that Syria’s post-Assad “stability” is in the hands of secular reformers is not just incorrect—it’s criminally naïve. These men aren’t post-Jihadists. They’re post-camouflage. Their ideology hasn’t changed. Only the tactics have.
1400 Years, Same Doctrine, Same Pattern
This isn’t about France or Syria or Republicans. This is about the West’s refusal to acknowledge the nature of the threat. Islam’s doctrine of conquest—codified in the Quran, practiced by Muhammad, and enforced across empires—has not changed since the Hijrah to Medina in 622 AD. The objective remains what it always has been: submission. Whether through terror, migration, lawfare, or diplomacy, the endgame is the same.
The Ottoman Empire used diplomatic recognition by France and Britain in the 1800s to secure trade and status—while still beheading apostates, enslaving women from the Balkans, and crushing Armenians. Tunisia’s reformist façade in the early 2000s masked deep Islamist networks later activated in the Arab Spring. In Europe today, Islamic enclaves across Sweden, France, and Germany operate under informal Sharia with authorities too cowardly to intervene. And still, leaders pretend that each new “moderate” is different—that maybe this one will abandon 14 centuries of religious imperialism for a shot at liberal democracy.
Islam doesn’t reform. It expands. It infiltrates. And when the timing is right, it dominates.
This Isn’t Diplomacy. It’s Surrender.
Macron’s meeting with Ahmed al-Sharaa wasn’t a diplomatic triumph—it was an ideological surrender. A willing embrace of a sanitized jihad. A photo-op that spits on the graves of the victims of the Bataclan, Charlie Hebdo, and Nice. It proves that in 2025, the West is still committed to losing the war it refuses to name.
And the American right isn’t far behind. If Republicans can be suckered into extending olive branches to jihadists in Damascus under the illusion of “realpolitik,” then the rot has spread far deeper than the halls of the Élysée Palace.
History is clear. Every time the West believes it can outsmart, moderate, or accommodate Islam, it ends in blood.
It happened in Tours in 732, in Constantinople in 1453, in Tehran in 1979, and in New York City on 9/11.
And unless we wake up, it will happen again—only this time, we’ll have invited it in, smiling, with handshakes and red carpets.