A Study of Islam- Part Four
Jihad – The Holy War
September 11, 2001, has forever altered the significance of the word jihad to the modern world. While many Muslims assert that the word simply means spiritual struggle, militant Islam has a far more sinister understanding: “Holy War.”
In February 1998, three and a half years before September 11, Osama bin Laden made his own views clear. Along with other extremists from Egypt, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, he issued a fatwa or ruling that called on Muslims “to kill the Americans and their allies – civilian and military.” He said that this is “an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it.” In the winter of 2001, Osama bin Laden told ABC News producer Rahimullah Yousafsai that he would kill his own children, if necessary, in order to hit American targets.
The tragedies of September 11 have brought to the surface a long and bitter struggle between Muslims over the meaning of jihad and the nature of true Islam. There contemporary conflicts about Islam’s real identity lie in ancient debates about the teaching of the Quran, the example of the prophet Muhammad, the legitimacy of non-Muslim governments, and the place of war in Islamic ideology.i
Background to the Two Islams
The current debates between Muslims about jihad are better understood when the following crucial facts are noted. Anyone who reads, even briefly, the history and nature of Islam will discover these items to be beyond dispute, though what these facts mean is a source of considerable debate.
· The Quran uses the word jihad in terms of a personal spiritual struggle ( the greater jihad).
· The Quran also uses jihad to clearly define “holy war” or “just war” against unbelievers.
· The prophet Muhammad engages in battles of war to convert or kill those opposed to Islam.
· The prophet taught that Islam must be spread to the whole world.
· Islamic law justifies self-defense and certain acts of war against all opposed to Islam.
· Over history, Muslims conquered non-Arab lands and peoples through war.
· Muslims divide the world into two: Islam and infidels
· Many Muslims believe that all countries should follow Islamic law.
· Many Muslim countries are authoritarian rather than democratic and
do not tolerate dissent.
Out of the mix of these
realities have emerged two basically different perspectives among modern
Muslims. The vast majority of Muslims believe none of the above points justify
terrorism. They believe that the Quranic defense of war does not apply to
terrorism or justify the attacks of September 11. They believe Osama bin Laden
would be condemned by the Prophet Muhammad, that he has broken Islamic law, that
he has disgraced Islam, and is doomed to eternal punishment.
Muslim extremists believe just the opposite. They view their actions as a true jihad or “holy war” against infidels and the enemies of Islam. They believe it is right to target America, “the great Satan.” Osama bin Laden believes that the Quran supports his campaign, that the Prophet would indeed bless his cause, that Islamic law clearly justifies his actions, and that Allah is on his side. He believes that he will not fail and that it is his duty as a Muslim to continue with the attacks until all non-Muslims are either converted or dead.
Major Islamic Terrorist Groups
About 70 major terrorist
groups operate in the world. Of these, more than 30 are Islamic in orientation.
Of the rest, only a few are widely recognized, like the Irish Republican Army,
or the Aum group that spread the poison gas in the subway system of Tokyo. Among
the Islamic groups the most well known are:
· Abu Nidal Organization (aka Black September)
· Islamic Group or IG (aka Al-Gama’s al-Ismamiyya)
· Armed Islamic Group
· Hamas
· Hizballah (Party of God, aka Islamic Jihad)
· al-Jihad (aka Islamic Jihad)
·
al-Qaida (of Osama bin Laden)
Before September 11, Americans
for the most part were not worried about such groups. Europeans had a far
greater sensitivity to terrorism because of the militant groups operating in
Spain and the United Kingdom. Israel had firsthand experience with all Islamic
groups. America seemed safe, even after the attacks on American embassies in
Kenya and Tanzania, and on the USS Cole in South Yeman.
Some scholars on terrorism have
stated that there was more chance of dying from a fall in your bathtub than from
a terrorist attack. As absurd as it sounds now, that point had merit prior to
September’s attack. The US State Department lists a total of 77 American
casualties in terrorist attacks around the world from 1995 through 2000, and
then, on one day, more than 2,800 died in the World Trade Center alone.
The Islamic terrorist groups
have several aims to support jihad:
· Use violence to bring their version of Islam to particular Muslim countries
· Establish a Palestinian state
· Destroy the State of Israel
· Crush the dissents who oppose their views and ideology
·
Attack the “Great Satan”, the United States of America
These goals are expressed in the
language of religious hatred towards the US and her allies. On Sunday, October
9, al-Jazeera satellite TV released a statement from Osama bin Laden that
captures the essence of jihad. Here are some excerpts:
“America is filled with fear.
America has been filled with horror from north to south and east to west, and
thanks be to God what America is tasting now is only a copy of what we have
tasted. God has blessed a group of vanguard Muslims to destroy America and may
God bless them and allot them a supreme place in heaven. I swear to God that
America will never dream of security or see it before we live it and see it in
Palestine, and not before the infidels’ armies leave the land of Muhammad,
peace be upon him.”
Of course, behind these words lie deeds of terror. Islamic jihad is, in plain terms, evil. It has showed itself in the Sudanese slave trading, the execution of moderates in Egypt, the slaughter of Kurdish Muslims in Iraq, the gang-rape of devout Muslim women in Algeria by Muslim extremists, and the killing of Muslim journalists (eighteen in 1994 alone) who write or speak dissenting views.
Understanding Islamic Terrorism
‘How could they do it?” A
year or so of planning, waiting, and training and then the unimaginable happened
on September 11, 2001. To the
Western mind, such acts defy understanding. To the Muslims who understand jihad,
it was inevitable.
There have been at least four
different views of jihad and the events of September 11.
1) Mental Illness. In this view, the terrorists are crazy, mad, and insane. Nothing can explain what they did because their actions are outside any ordinary discourse of reason and sense. These deeds are irrational and beyond the understanding of any decent human being.
2) Evil. The terrorists are the embodiment of wickedness. Their behavior can only be explained on the grounds of pure, hellish hate. These are people without conscience, who have no moral compass. They are fanatics whose hearts are darkened by an alliance with evil.
3) Terrorist Ideology. To Osama bin Laden and his colleagues, there is no mystery to understanding why the United States and its allies have suffered terrorist attacks. The US deserved what it got. It is an enemy of Allah, opposed to Islam, and worthy of destruction. Islamic terrorists believe what they are doing is right and they will be rewarded for it. Hundreds of thousands of young Muslim boys, and now girls, are being taught daily in this ideology. It will be their only schooling, and they, regardless of personal feelings, are not allowed to ask questions, under the penalty of death.
4)
Failure in the Arab Muslim World. The attack of America is,
according to this view, a result of Muslim ignorance. The hatred of America is
fueled by their jealousy of the wealth and freedom of America in contrast to the
poverty and dictatorship in the Muslim Arab world. Thus, America is blamed for
calamity, oppression, and evil that is actually caused by the evil of Islamic
dictatorships or the evil of Islamic militants.
Islam: A Religion of Peace?
There is a common belief that Islam is a religion of
peace. For the millions of Muslims who deplore terrorism and disagree with Osama
bin Laden and others like him, this is their understanding of Islam.
There is however another Islam,
that of the Muslims who readily kill in the name of Allah. The terrorists who
hijacked one of the planes at Logan Airport in Boston left behind their
instructions on what to do if a passenger interfered in their plot: “If God
grants any one you a slaughter, you should perform it as an offering on behalf
of your father and mother, for they are owed by you. Do not disagree among
yourselves, but listen and obey. If you slaughter, you should plunder those you
slaughter, for that is a sanctioned custom of the Prophet’s.” When we speak
of a peaceful Islam, Muslims of another stripe burn the American flag and
dreamed of more attacks on America.
Although there is a great gulf between the ideology and theology of Christians and Muslims, there does appear to be an Islam of peace. It is in the millions of Muslims who live everyday in love and gentleness. It is in the Muslim praying five times a day for no more September 11s. It is in those mosques where clerics preach that Islam is not a religion of the sword. Is it in those Afghans who know that Osama bin Laden has betrayed their country. It is in those Muslims who know that there is a hateful perversion of “Islam” that could not possibly be from Allah, the all-Merciful Creator.
Copyright
© 2002, Scott Ptak. All Rights Reserved.
i Taken from Understanding Islam, James Beverley, Nelson Publishing, Copyright 2001, page 56