It
is common knowledge that the attacks on the United States of September 11, 2001
were committed by Muslim extremists from a terrorist organization called
Al-Qaeda. But how extreme were Al-Qaeda’s views from traditional Islam really?
Of course, this isn’t to say that all Muslims are terrorists. However, there
are many facts that cannot be ignored about Islam and its connection to
terrorism and war: the surprisingly high number of Islamic terrorist groups
(as compared to other religions) (Spencer 146), world-wide conflict regions between
Muslims and non-Muslims, the war-driven prophet Muhammad, the Islamic history
of war, and even the text of the Qur’an itself. It is highly conceivable that
Islam provides the means for the creation, shelter, and ferocity of terrorist.
It would seem that Islamic terrorism is
immediately and stereotypically connected with the concept of jihad and holy
war. However, jihad is not holy war, nor does it
have any general association with war in Arabic semantics. Reuven Firestone, a
professor of medieval Judaism and Islam, defines jihad as “to strive, exert
oneself, or take extraordinary pains” (16). In
Islam, there are several different types of jihad. The prophet Muhammad is
classically quoted as saying, “we are returning from the lesser jihad to the
greater one” (qtd. in Spencer 148) after returning from a battle. The greater
jihad was then said to be striving to “bring the soul into conformity with
Allah’s will.” The lesser is “actively defending Islam and propagating the
faith”, which can be accomplished by means including but not limited to war (Firestone
17). Therefore, in Islam, the struggle with one’s soul should be seen as a
higher priority than the lesser jihad of war (“Jihad in Islam”; Spencer 148).
Striving and struggling to defend against or forcibly convert non-Muslims with
warfare is known as “jihad of the sword”; it is the common usage of jihad by
media (Firestone 17). The concept of jihad can be used as a cause for
terrorism and war as long as it is understood as “jihad of the sword.” But to
see how terrorism in Islam can be further justified, it is necessary to look at
the history of Islam.
The accepted Islamic history tells us
that Muhammad was a man living in Mecca, a city in current day Saudi Arabia.
Here, starting in the year 610, he would receive messages from Allah (God) through
the angel Gabriel in wahee (revelations). Allah told the prophet Muhammad what
was wrong with the unbelievers, what to change, and how to accomplish these
changes (Trifkovic 27). At first, Muhammad was
to proselytize and defend the faith of Islam in non-violent ways; Sura
(Chapter) 15:94-95 of the Qur’an is one example of this. It reads, “Therefore
declare openly what you are bidden and turn aside from the polytheists. Surely
We will suffice you against the scoffers” (Trans. Shakir[1]).
These verses are considered by Muslims to be the starting commandment from
Allah to Muhammad that he preach the new faith. But, as the verse says,
Muhammad and his followers were to turn away from the ridicule and harassment of
the polytheists in Mecca instead of engaging in violence (Firestone 51).
Because of the unending persecution of
his followers in Mecca and the hope for establishing a base for Islam elsewhere,
Muhammad fled Mecca in 622 for the city of Medina (known as Yathrib at that
time) (Trifkovic 34). As Muhammad was afraid that he and his followers would
be exterminated on their journey to Medina, he would pronounce the allowance by
Allah that they could fight in defense of themselves or their faith (Firestone
54). Sura 22:39 says exactly such: “Permission (to fight) is given to those
upon whom war is made because they are oppressed, and most surely Allah is well
able to assist them” (Trans. Shakir).
Given the recent fighting and disorder among
the different cultures and religions (Jews, Christians, and polytheists) in the
Medina region, Muhammad was able to convert many of the polytheist there and
gain authority over the rest. At this point, Muhammad received messages from
Allah that would further change his policy on fighting for the propagation of
Islam (Trifkovic 34-35). The total realization of the “jihad of the sword”
would come in several verses, known as the “verses of the sword”. This first,
Sura 9:5, calls for making war on the polytheist unbelievers:
So
when the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters[2]
wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait
for them in every ambush (Trans. Shakir), but if they repent, and establish
regular prayers and practice regular charity, then open the way for them: for
Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful. (Trans. Yusufali)
Muhammad thought the “People of the
Book,” Jews and Christians, would accept his prophecy as a continuation of
their own beliefs. However, “when Muhammad’s prophetic claims were rejected by
Christians and Jews, […] his position underwent complete change to
uncompromising hostility and justification of violence” (Trifkovic 33). The
second “verse of the sword”, 9:29, was given to then justify violence against
Jews and Christians (Spencer 124):
Fight
those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which
hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of
Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya
with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued. (Trans. Yusufali)
As both of these sword verses point out,
there are conditions to which Muslims will not war with non-Muslims. One is
obviously to accept Islam as one’s faith. The other is to pay a tax called the
Jizya and submit to the rule of the Sharia (Islamic law) (Spencer 167). There
are also other conditions in the Sharia to ensure non-Muslims feel their
second-class position in Islamic society. Some of these are the prohibition of
building, rebuilding, or repairing places of worship; letting a Muslim have
your seat if he wishes; prohibition of weapons; prohibition of marrying a
Muslim woman; and the requirement to be distinguishable in appearance from
Muslims (Spencer 196). Contrary to most other modern religions and
governments, equality of other religions is unfounded in the Sharia to an
extent that other religions have difficulty even existing in areas where the
Sharia rules. This obviously shows that it is an acceptable view for Muslims
to consider their religion superior, and after all, it is easier to justify war
on other people if you consider yourself superior to them.
Since all of the aforementioned verses
are in the Islamic holy book of the Qur’an, the issue of which verse(s) Muslims
should regard as the truth is fiercely debated among Islamic scholars today.
As Robert Spencer, a board member of the Christian Islamic Forum, notes, there
is an acceptance that verses considered as “Medinan” abrogate those that are
considered to be “Meccan” as to when and where they were revealed by the
prophet. This is not just something that scholars have developed, though; Sura
2:109 states the ability of later revelations to be substituted for earlier
ones as such: “None of Our revelations do We abrogate or cause to be
forgotten, but We substitute something better or similar: Knowest thou not that
Allah Hath power over all things?” (Trans. Yusufali). It is because of this
“doctrine of abrogation” that the Medinan verses advocating “jihad of the
sword” against all non-Muslims are given more credit in Islam than the Meccan
verses of peaceful proselytizing (Spencer 135).
The allowance of war against non-Muslims
is not the only incentive for Muslims to fight for the propagation of their
faith. There are numerous verses in the Qur’an telling Muslims they must fight
despite any number of excuses, such as fighting not being enjoyable (Sura 2:216),
the possibility of death (3:156), not knowing how to fight (3:167), not
fighting unless for reward (4:72-73), not fighting when innocents need to be
protected (4:75), and not fighting because of the comfort of life (4:77;
9:39). The only condition in which Muslims cannot fight is if they are
disabled (4:95) (Firestone 77-81). Additionally, it was claimed by Muhammad and
the Qur’an (4:95; 61:10-13) that those who fought non-Muslims in “jihad of the
sword” would go to a paradise in the afterlife that was “a grade one hundred
higher” than that of other Muslims (Spencer 154). This was a potent attraction
of Muslims to war and, today, to terrorist groups and especially suicide
bombing. With paradise awaiting them, it is not hard for fervent Muslims to
put their lives at stake for the defense or spread of Islam.
When Allah through Muhammad gave these
stipulations to Muslims, they did fight. Soon after arriving in Medina, they
began with the raiding of Meccan caravans to gain financial support and fulfilling
their desire of vengeance on the Meccans (Copeland; Trifkovic 35). Muhammad
condoned these acts of aggression, even organizing them himself. Although the
first few raids failed, the Muslims eventually managed to surprise and overcome
a caravan by disregarding the traditional peace during the holy month of
Ramadan, for which Muhammad had allowed by another revelation from Allah (2:217)
(Trifkovic 35). Over the next few years, the Muslims would fight three major
battles with the Meccans, defeating the Meccans in two of them. The Meccans
surrendered before a fourth battle, a siege on Mecca itself, could be fought.
This event assured the dominance of Islam in Arabia. Shortly after, in 632,
Muhammad died (Copeland). It is unsure how many total battles Muhammad
participated in, but the highly respected hadith (an account on the life of the
prophet Muhammad) Sahih Bukhari puts the number at nineteen. Another
hadith tells that Muhammad himself fought in nine of the nineteen battles, not
including raids (Spencer 151). Muhammad’s successors, called caliphs,
continued the tradition of jihad in the will of Allah. They expanded Muslim-ruled
territory as far as Spain to the West, the Balkans to the North, Indonesia to
the East, and much of Africa to the South. However, after roughly the 13th
century, spreading Islamic territory by “jihad of the sword” had lessened
greatly (“Islam, A World Civilization”).
Today, there are still wars being fought
by Muslims as jihad; however, since the time of European colonization, it has
turned to more of a defensive jihad (Esposito 76). As we can see in Iraq now,
most Muslims are more than willing to fight if there are non-Muslim militants
in Islamic states. The situation in Iraq has proved to be particularly
effective at stirring up Islamic militants and terrorists. Osama bin Laden has
said that his position of hatred for Saudi Arabian and Western governments came
from the “admission and stationing of foreign non-Muslims troops in Islam’s
holy land and their permanent deployment after the Gulf War” (Esposito 12).
Fighting between Muslims and non-Muslims doesn’t only exist in Iraq, though.
There are numerous hotspots around the world, such as Israel, Sudan, Chechnya,
Bosnia, Kashmir, Kosovo, Indonesia, and Egypt (Chomsky 60). In all these
regions, there are Muslims that have turned to terrorism as a method of jihad.
Of the U.S. State Department’s list of 37 designated Foreign Terrorist
Organizations, at least 19 (~50%) of them have an Islamic background (“Patterns
of Global Terrorism”). United States Code defines terrorism as a violent or
dangerous act that “would be a criminal violation if committed within the
jurisdiction of the United States or of any state and appears to be intended to
intimidate or coerce a civilian population“ or the policy or conduct of a
government (Chomsky 16). It is this type of low-level warfare committed by
Muslims that is in the media every day. They range from simple suicide
bombings in Israel to the complex atrocities of September 11 (2001).
The primary source of justification for
Islamic terrorism is the background of the religion itself, as previously mentioned:
the Qur’an and the actions of Muhammad. Bin Laden often quotes passages from
the Qur’an in his speeches, meant to draw support and new recruits for him and
his terrorist organization Al-Qaeda (“Bin Laden's 'letter to America'”). This is
so effective because Muslims
cannot deny the Qur’an as part of their religion. One verse that is
particularly well liked by terrorists for a good reason (“Last Words of a
Terrorist”) is Sura 8:12 as it reads: “I am with you, therefore make firm
those who believe. I will cast terror into the hearts of those who
disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of
them” (Trans. Shakir). Although there are restrictions on war set forth by
Muhammad and the Qur’an, such restrictions as not to kill innocents and non-combatants
and not to kill combatants after they’ve surrendered (Esposito 158), Islamic terrorists
often disregard or circumvent them. For example, Bin Laden doesn’t consider
any American citizens as innocents because they pay taxes that fund the
military (“Bin Laden's 'Letter to America'”). Because of these perverted
interpretations of Islam that terrorists have, they are usually referred to as
Islamic extremists.
Another way Islamic terrorists justify
their acts is by considering them as reciprocation for the violence done to
them. As the renowned
political science speaker Noam Chomsky would not have us forget, a significant
portion of the world views the United States and its allies as terrorists
(Chomsky 44). This significant portion includes all Islamic-ruled nations. Because
most Islamic terrorists see their acts as defending the faith, they are even
more justified and accepted in Muslim society. As stated earlier, being
oppressed was the first reason to fight given by Muhammad from Allah (22:39).
To
get the best perspective on terrorism and war in Islam, it is necessary to
compare it to other major religions. Robert Spencer gives the most potent
explanation of this when concluding one chapter in his book, “Onward Muslim
Soldiers”. He says:
Certainly
people of all religions have committed horrific acts of violence in the name of
their religion. But Islam has a long-established tradition of interpreting the
Qur’an in a way that allows Muslims to justify such violence, and indeed even
to think it might be required of them. Christianity—with its emphasis on
turning the other cheek, redemptive suffering, loving one’s neighbor—and other
religions have no comparable tradition. Christian martyrs meet their end by
being persecuted unto death, while Islamic martyrs are suicide killers. (146)
It
is also interesting to compare the prophets of other major religions to Islam’s
Muhammad. The prophets Moses and especially Jesus were considered to be
peaceful when Muhammad was anything but peaceful in his final years (Silas).
Terrorism for
Muslims is immensely justifiable. Although nobody can give a definitive answer
as to whether or not Muslims applaud terrorism as a jihad of the sword, it is
understood that a significant number of them do and especially those living in
nations ruled by the Sharia. This accounts for the ability of terrorist
organizations to exist in relative safety in Islamic countries. Sheltered by
the Sharia, these organizations can recruit almost any Muslim willing to listen
to their selective propaganda of the Qur’an and Muhammad’s life. These
terrorists are fierce and steadfast martyrs as they welcome their own death by
jihad with the prospect of paradise awaiting them. Islam will be a religion of
war until all those that are able to be Muslim are indeed such.
Works Cited
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