Jihad
For man to raise his sword against man, for man to
kill man, is not holy war. True holy war is to praise
God and to cut away the enemies of truth within our
own hearts. We must cast out all that is evil within us,
all that opposes God. This is the war we must fight.
-Bawa Muhaiyaddeen
To kill Americans and their allies both civil and
military, is an individual duty of every Muslim who is able in any country where this is possible, until the Aqsa Mosque [Jerusalem] and the Haram Mosque[Mecca] are freed from their grip and until their armies,
shattered and broken-winged, depart from all the lands of Islam, incapable of threatening any Muslim.
-Usamah Bin-ladin
The true teachings and principles of Islam are being undermined by the nationalistic and oppressive interpretations of its true essence by the Taliban and Islamic militants. Islam as a religion based on peace, submission, and devotion to god has been molded into a political ideology concerned with international affairs, oppressive laws, and anti-Western movements. What has occurred has been a divergence between Islamic liberalists and groups of radical fundamentalists that support a “perversion” of Islam, oppressive regimes, and terror. Islamic militant groups and regimes such as the Taliban use the guise of Islam and the power of religion to justify their acts of terrorism against the west and oppression of their own people. In doing so these “extremists” and “fundamentalists” are polluting the reputation of Islam, and are spreading misconceptions that Muslims are being oppressed by their religion when they are really being oppressed by “misfits who place their own morality above mankind’s” (Zakaria 22). Islamic extremists such as Usama Bin-Ladin are preaching Jihad as a holy war against the west, and are creating a Jihad culture based on terror. It is ironic that now the word Jihad should invoke fear, since in Islam it stands for the fight against the evil within us (Muhaiyaddeen 44). Just as Islamic nations were becoming more liberal, Islamic revivalism emerged in opposition of Westernization, but now Islamic fundamentalist extremists are taking revivalism one step further by declaring war on the west through shameless acts of terrorism.
The terrorist acts of September 11th on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in the US are being condemned by all Islamic scholars around the globe because “at no point do the basic texts of Islam enjoin terrorism and murder” (Lewis 14). “Westerners tend to think of Islamic societies as backward looking, oppressed by religion, and inhumanely governed” (Mazrui 118). Islamic nations and followers of Islam are finding themselves in a position were they have to defend their faith against the misconceptions created by the actions of Islamic militants, Islamic fundamentalists, and repressive Muslim regimes rooted in nationalism. Under the new “revivalist” regimes in the Arab nations such as the Taliban, the state rules through tyranny and repression. “Traditional Islam in Afghanistan believed in minimum government with as little state interference as possible” (Rashid 23). The Islamic fundamentalists who claim to be purifying the faith of Islam are not purifying the faith but making way for a return to the dark ages of patriarchy. Islam was never an oppressive or violent religion, only Muslim states and tyrants were oppressive and violent. “The Islam traditionally practiced in Afghanistan was immensely tolerant of other Muslim sects, other religions, and different lifestyles” (Rashid 24). Now under the Taliban it is a crime to bring Bibles into Afghanistan. Islam is a peaceful religion based on a “struggle against one’s lowly and base qualities” (Muhaiyaddeen IV). The notion that Islamic society is backwards and repressive is false, the Islamic fundamentalists and nationalistic authoritarian regimes, that rule certain Muslim states, are the ones who are regressive. Before the Taliban and before Russia’s occupation of Afghanistan during the cold war “most Islamic countries were attempting to modernize and join the developed world” (Sargent 223).
Taliban Revivalism
The Taliban are an Islamic fundamentalist regime in Afghanistan, deeply rooted in nationalism. They emerged from the revivalist movements in opposition to the modern Islamic liberal state. After Afghanistan’s long occupation by Russia, of which they had overcome (with the help of the United States) the concept of liberalism was felt by many Muslims in Afghanistan to be “too western”, this was the start of Taliban “Islamist” revivalism in the twentieth and twenty-first century. “At times revival in one domain spells death in another; at times, a revival has nothing to do with the traditional way of life, and is even to counter it” (Danner 21). The term “Islamist” revivalism is used because of “…their subordination of spiritual concerns to political-legal ones” (Tolson 26). To call revivalism under the Taliban to be a form of actual Islamic religious revivalism is misleading since traditional Islamic society was devout to the teachings of the Koran and Sufism, practicing peaceful isolationism. The force of “Taliban style” revivalism is being felt in places like Pakistan and Muslim African nations. This Taliban “purist ideology” rests on establishing nationalistic regimes that promote opposing Islamic liberalists and any form of Pro-West activities or practices. “The Islamists…argue that a return to core religious values would bring social justice, good government, and a higher level of moral life while putting Muslims in touch with their glorious past” (Bullrat 20). It is plain and obvious that the Taliban’s interpretations of the Islamic religion have no consideration towards “social justice”, “good government”, or a “ higher level of moral life”, unless you consider oppression of women, repression of information, or militarism any of such. The Afghan Taliban regime is under the influence of Arab Islamist militants such as Usama Bin-ladin, who is “one of the main recruiters of Arab militants for the Afghan jihad” (Rashid 24). Therefore, to understand the Taliban and Taliban militarization, we need to understand the Islamist militant cause and ideology, as Ghaussan Salame put it:
Islamists would like to be viewed as the true anti-imperialist force, pushing
the struggle a step further by resisting not only the West’s political hegemony
but also its intrusive ideas like liberalism, socialism, and secularism. (22)
Islamist Militants
In rejecting all forms of western thought and influence, for the Islamist militant, the west’s ideas of human rights, freedom of speech, freedom of press, gender equality, or the right to a fair trial are no exception. “The Taliban may have debased Deobandi traditions-but in doing so they have promoted a new, radical model for Islamist revolution” (Rashid 26). The Taliban who where first known as the Islamic Students Movement, even in their name which is a Pashtun word meaning seeker of religious knowledge, have reformulated and convoluted the Deobandi religious schools to spread their version of traditional Islamic society and jihad to the poor and uneducated Afghan youth, who make up the majority of the Taliban’s military. It is by these means that the Taliban had gained control of Afghanistan, and were able to enforce their so-called revivalism.
Taliban revivalism is not isolated to Afghanistan, and is a purist theory of revolution. Afghanistan is seen as a “success story: Islamists of many countries rushed to support their brothers against an atheistic western power, the Soviet Union” (Salame 23). That is why support for the “Taliban style” revivalism grew in other countries such as Pakistan, were “the Pakistani Mujahideen are targeting and killing thousands of civilians, violating both the Islamic “just war” tradition and international law” (Stern 120). The spread of Islamist militants and Taliban revivalism are interlinked with the goal to bring down “Western-American interventionism in the Muslim world” (Salame 22). It breathes the notion and belief of a new Jihad:
When Afghan trained Arab militants blew up the world trade center in New York, killing six people and injuring 1000 the bombers believed that just as Afghanistan had defeated one super power-the Soviet Union-they would defeat a second. (Rashid 26)
Since Afghanistan has no industrial component and lack of economic funds they are incapable of conducting modern warfare. Afghan Islamist militants have to resort to acts of terrorism to attack the West. On September 11th when they hijacked 4 planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York, and the Pentagon in Washington, are examples of their offensive strategy. Since Taliban revivalism supported and fed Islamist militarization, the Islamists are now calling for a jihad “holy war”.
Misconceptions of Jihad and Jihad Culture
Another misconception of Islam along with Islamist revivalism is that of the true Islamic notion of jihad. “The once-unifying factor of Islam has become a lethal weapon in the hands of extremists and a force for division and fragmentation” (Rashid 24). Taliban extremists and Islamist militants are calling for a jihad on the West in the name of Islam. The true weapons of Islam are not “hijacked planes” or “bombs”, but as the Islamic Sufi Muhammad Raheem Bawa Muhiyaddeen states, “Sabr” (inner patience), “skukr” (contentment), “Tawakkul ‘ala’ Allah” (trust in god), and finally “Al-hamdu lillah” (praise of God). Muhiyaddeen condemns the military use of the word jihad in the name of Islam because “once we understand what the true weapons of Islam are, we will never take a life, we will never even see anyone as separate from ourselves” (53). “The Taliban began as reformers, following a well-worn tradition in Muslim history based on the familiar notion of jihad-holy war” (Rashid 23). It is because jihad is a “familiar notion” but poorly understood by the uneducated youth of Afghanistan that the Taliban can use the power of religion to inspire and blind their own people. For the people of the many Muslim countries:
…Today the situation is made complicated by the fact that in may parts of dar al-Islam itself non-Islamic forces have gained a footing sometimes under the name of a foreign ideology of a western form of nationalism and sometimes even under the name of Islam itself which during the last few years has been used more and more in a clever and sometimes insidious fashion to hide the real nature of the forces in question. (Nasr 3)
In Afghanistan under the Taliban the real “forces in question” are nationalism and a form of military ruler ship where even the Afghan people “ accuse the Taliban of using jihad as a cover to exterminate them” (Rashid 24). This has become an issue of much controversy among Islamic nations, who are being run by governments or regimes that claim to be revivalist but are really violating the main principles of Islam. This is why the “Islamist militants generally receive a lukewarm reception from the traditional religious establishment of their countries” (Salame 22).
Islamist militants such as Usama Bin-ladin have created as Jessica Stern put it a “jihad culture” that feeds of the unemployed and uneducated people. In offering the notion of a glorious jihad on the west, the unemployed and poor are given the hope a better life and an almost fascist sense of pride in the “revival” of a supreme Islamic society, free from the evil grasp of the West.
“Extremist madrasahs preach jihad without understanding the concept: they equate jihad-which most Islamic scholars interpret as the striving for justice (and principally an inner striving to purify the self) –with guerilla warfare” (Stern 119). If the Islamist militants truly believed in and understand jihad and the religion and society they claim to be defending they would not resort to militarization in the first place, or claim jihad on the west. As Muhiyaddeen stated:
Do not shout, “Allaah Akbar! God is most great!” and then kill someone. Instead lead him to the good path, the straight path and say, “Allah Akbar.”True holy war means to kill the inner enemy, the enemy of truth. But instead people shout, “Jihad!”and go kill an external enemy. That is not holy war. We should not spread Islam through the sword; we must spread it through the Kalimah, through truth, faith, and love. We have to think of this. (85)
And if this is the case, then how can it be that to “kill Americans and their allies both civil and military” be “an individual duty of every Muslim”, as stated by Usama Bin-ladin in his “ Declaration of the World Islamic Front for Jihad against the Jews and the Crusaders”. How can that be justified under Islam? The fact is that when Afghanistan was liberated from Russian occupation addicts of a jihad culture were born, and now irregulars who fought in Afghanistan started to fight in Kashmir and are looking for new “jihads” to fight even against Pakistan itself (Stern 120).
On human Nature
Under traditional Islam human nature is viewed as something that needs to be worked at, through the search for inner peace, and contentment. Generally people are seen to be equals and should be allowed freedom and diversity in their lifestyle as long as they practice inner patience and trust in God. However; under the Taliban and “fundamentalist ideology human nature is corrupted by western ideas and people need to be told what to do every step of the way. They view human nature in a nationalistic sense that Muslims should be isolated, and that Americans and Westerners are inherently evil and in partnership with Satan. These are two drastically contrasting views on human nature, the second view is held by a minority of extremists that are just using the guise of the Islamic religion to justify their nationalistic beliefs and international intensions.
Conclusion
In addressing the misconceptions of Islam, Taliban revivalism and the Islamist Jihad culture undermine the true teachings and traditional principles of Islamic society. They are both a new phenomenon in the Middle Eastern scene, and hold no bearings in true Islam. Taliban revivalism is nothing but the rule of a tyrant regime that oppresses its people though fear and propaganda. The Islamist militants and Jihad culture are a minority of extremists that advocate a perverse morality though their acts of terrorism. In seeing Muslim countries develop western ideas and government through the Islamic Liberalists, Islamists and nationalists took it upon themselves to expel all western influence and develop a purist Islamic society. This society fell to corruption and terrorism under the Taliban and groups of extremist factions.
Works Cited
1. Tolson, Jay. “Struggle of Islam” U.S. News and World Report.
V. 131 no. 15. October, 2001.
2. Zakaria, Fareed. “Why they hate us” Newsweek Magazine.
V. 138 no. 16. October, 2001.
3. Stern, Jessica. “Pakistan’s Jihad Culture” Foreign Affairs.
V. 79. no. 6. Nov/Dec, 2000.
4. Rashid, Ahmed. “Taliban’s Export Strategy” Foreign Affairs.
V. 78. no. 6. Nov/Dec, 1999.
5. Lewis, Bernard. “License To Kill” Foreign Affairs.
V. 77. no. 6. Nov/Dec, 1998.
6. Mazrui, Ali. “Islamic and Western Values” Foreign Affairs.
V. 76. no. 5. Sept/Oct, 1997.
7. Bullrat, Richard. “Islamic militants” Foreign Affairs.
V. 72. no. 5. Nov/Dec, 1993.
8. Salame, Ghaussan. “ Islam and the West” Foreign Policy.
no. 90. Spring, 1993.
9. Muhaiyaddeen, Bawa. Islam and World Peace. The Fellowship Press, 1987.
10. Newel, Richard. “Islam and the struggle for Afghan National Liberation.”
Pullapily 251-260.
11. Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. “Islam in the Islamic world today, an overview.”
Pullapily 3-14.
12. Danner, Victor. “Religious Revivalism in Islam.” Pullapily 21-28.
Pullapily, Cyria., ed. Islam in The Contemporary World. Cross Roads
Books, 1980.
« return.