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Middle Eastern oppression and terrorism in the name of Islam: The divergence between the Islamic religious establishment and groups of Islamist radicals.
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:
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Phillip A. Dawid
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Comments
Well done! jane | Jun 1st, 2002
I totally agree with your article and hope that everyone reads it because it really opens your eyes. I've learnt a lot of new things, especially about the religion of Islam, and hope that people won't be so quick to judge the normal every day muslim who does not agree with everything that the Taliban does.
Perfect Asma Zia | Mar 23rd, 2005
I completely agree with you. People have severely misinterpreted the term jihad and what it actually means. I'm glad, at least someone knows what's right.
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