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Islamic terrorism

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Islamist terrorism is terrorism that is carried out to further the political and religious ambitions of a segment of the Muslim community that is militantly Islamist.

Use of Islamist versus Islamic

The use of the phrase "Islamic terrorism" in place of "Islamist terrorism" is found to be offensive by many. Those who oppose the phrase claim that it connects Islam unfairly and offensively with terrorism. Many who oppose the term also go on to argue that terrorism against civillians is banned by Islam.

Organizations

The first Islamist terrorist groups, as defined by the U.S., were the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt and Hezbollah of Lebanon. Such definitions of groups as Islamist terrorists are highly debated and criticized. However, the mainstream press in most democractic countries accepts the aforementioned groups as Islamist terrorists, as do third parties such as Amnesty International, the European Union, and the United Nations.

Al-Qaeda is defined by most nations as an Islamist terrorism group. Formed in the aftermath of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, it has commited terrorism against Saudi Arabia and also housed Osama bin Laden after the September 11th attacks against the United States. It opposes the Saudi regime because of perceived and real ties to America. Militantly pushing for pan-Islamic dominance, the group opposes the Saudi regime on the basis that it is insufficiently Islamic. Al-Qaeda claims that the world is a struggle between their extreme Islamist ideology against Zionism, Christianity. and the secular West.

Terrorist view

Islamist terrorists claim they are defending Islam and the Ummah (the Muslim community). Islamic terrorists also claim that their aggression is retaliatory to what they see as agression against Muslims coming from Israel and the United States.

Modern Islamist terrorist groups are often inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood, which was the prototype of the later Islamist groups[citation needed]. Some Islamist terrorist groups, notably Hezbollah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad and Al-Qaeda have used suicide bombers against civillians, soldiers, and government officials of the regimes that they oppose. Their use of suicide bombers is seen by many Muslims as contradictory to Islam's teachings. Groups who support Islamist terrorism in the form of suicide bomings often refer to such attacks as "martyrdom operations" and the suicide-bombers who comit them as "martyrs" (Arabic: shuhada, plural of "shahid"). Islamist terrorists, and their sympathisizers often believe that suicide bombers, as martyrs to the cause of Jihad against the infidels, are entitled to the rewards of paradise for their actions.

The members of such groups are more likely to see themselves as freedom fighters rather than terrorists, as the political origins of such groups in Israel/Palestine, Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation, Chechnya and most recently post-Saddam Iraq are often connected to demands for statehood and nationalist self-determination. Opponents of this view claim that it is wrong to kill civillians to further a political cause.

In an interview with The American Conservative magazine, Robert Pape, author of the book Dying to Win, said "The central fact is that overwhelmingly suicide-terrorist attacks are not driven by religion as much as they are by a clear strategic objective: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from the territory that the terrorists view as their homeland. From Lebanon to Sri Lanka to Chechnya to Kashmir to the West Bank, every major suicide-terrorist campaign — over 95 percent of all the incidents — has had as its central objective to compel a democratic state to withdraw." [1]

Other Muslim views

See also: Religious terrorism and Political terrorism

The extent of support for Islamist terrorism within the Muslim population is disputed. Many Muslims have denounced terrorism in all of its forms. The Free Muslims Coalition[2] rallied against terror, stating that they wanted to send "a message to radical Muslims and supporters of terrorism that we reject them and that we will defeat them."

Condemnation of Islamist terrorism is varied in scope. While the United Nations, the European Union, and the United States include Hamas and Hezbollah in their condemnation of terrorism, many Muslim leaders, as well as non-Muslims in the Middle East,[citation needed] do not view such groups as terrorists. The following internet links point to denunciations of Islamist terrorism by Muslim leaders in a wide variety of countries:

Abdel Rahman al-Rashed, a Muslim and the general manager of Arab news channel, Al-Arabiya said: "It is a certain fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but it is equally certain, and exceptionally painful, that almost all terrorists are Muslims." While statistics do show that most recent terrorist attacks were committed by Muslims, there are several active non-Muslim terrorist groups, varying in their political and religious aims.

According to journalist Johann Hari, "Two-thirds of the suicide killings committed in the past two decades were not committed by Muslims." [27], [28]. Critics of this argument claim that it is misleading because Hari is referring only to to "suicide killings", and not "suicide terrorism" or "terrorism" specifically. In addition, critics often point out that Muslims commit more terrorism than any group in proportion to their fraction of the world population(estimated to be between 13% to 23%). In addition, critics also claim that Hari's statement is misleading because Islamic terrorism has been the most common form of terrorism in recent years, even if it has not been in the last two decades.[citation needed] Several Muslim leaders have issued fatwa's (declarations) that declare terrorism in any form to be harām (forbidden) by Islam.[29] However, Islamic terrorists have also issued their own fatwa's in support of Islamic terrorism.

Many Muslims claim that Islām (literally translated as 'submission') comes from the same root as 'Salām', meaning 'Peace', and that Islamic terrorism, despite its claims of martyrdom, goes against the essence of Islam. According to this view, Islamic terrorism is an oxymoron. (See also: etymology of "Islam")

Islamist ideology and theology

Islamist ideology often clashes with Western norms. The United States is often seen as personifying 'everything that is wrong with the modern world - and the Western secular domination of it that America has such an influence in molding'. The West is seen as inherently un-Islamic, immoral, perverted, secular, and worshipping money and limitless freedom rather than God. The US, through Hollywood, television, and its perceived dominance of the United Nations and NATO, is viewed as being the greatest of the world's moral and cultural pollutants - the 'great Satan' of this modern time.

Further, democracy and freedom outside Islamic boundaries is seen as a direct threat to 'true Islam', with pornography, promiscuity, money-worship, and the acceptance of 'heretics and the immoral' (homosexuals, feminism, non-believers, etc.) seen as inevitable consequences.

The Crusades still loom large in the mind of the Islamist. They see conflict with Christianity, today personified by the US-dominated West, as inevitable[citation needed], and the latest chapter in a historic struggle between the two faiths. More recently the Ottoman defeat by 'Christian European armies' in the First World War, and subsequent abolition in 1924 of the caliphate (the Islamic ruling system established since 632), are viewed as a temporary setback for Islam that has to be rectified as priority.

The Israel issue is actually part of the broader context related to the Islamist view of Jews, based on the conviction that there is historic conflict between Judaism and Islam similar to the one with Christianity[citation needed]. Bin Laden's umbrella network is more correctly called the 'International Islamic Front for Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders'. Israeli right-wing politician and former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has alleged:

"The soldiers of militant Islam do not hate the West because of Israel, they hate Israel because of the West - because they see it is an island of Western democratic values in a Muslim-Arab sea of despotism. That is why they call Israel the Little Satan, to distinguish it clearly from the country that has always been and will always be the Great Satan - the United States".

The Qu'ran

The Qur'an, the highest source of authority in Islam, vehemently denounces the killing of any person who is not guilty of at least one of two crimes:

[5:32] "Whosoever killed a person – unless it be for killing a person or for creating disorder in the land – it shall be as if he killed all mankind; and whoso saved a life, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind."

According to this verse of the Qur'an, if one human being is killed who is neither guilty of murdering another person nor guilty of causing disorder/strife, it would be equivalent of massacring the entire human race, which is an inconceivably barbaric crime, and a monumental sin. Some Islamist terrorists interpret the phrase "or for creating disorder in the land" as justification for the use of violence against those they view as creating disorder or disunity.

Some Islamist terrorists also use the following verse as justification for killing members of other Islamic sects:

[9:107] And there are those who put up a mosque by way of mischief and infidelity - to disunite the Believers - and in preparation for one who warred against Allah and His Messenger aforetime. They will indeed swear that their intention is nothing but good; But Allah doth declare that they are certainly liars.

Hence it is possible for Islamist terrorist to justify killing fellow Muslims by first using the practise of Takfir to declare them as kafir.

Other possibly relevant Qur'anic verses include:

2.190-1: "Fight in the cause of Allah those who fight you, but do not transgress limits; for Allah loveth not transgressors. And slay them wherever ye catch them, and turn them out from where they have turned you out; for tumult and oppression are worse than slaughter; but fight them not at the Sacred Mosque, unless they (first) fight you there; but if they fight you, slay them. Such is the reward of those who suppress faith."

This verse is traditionally interpreted (for example by Ibn Kathir) as forbidding attacks on non-combatants; see al-Baqara for further details.

With reference to the Hypocrites (munafiqin), a group at Medina, who are said to have pretended to be Muslims while secretly supporting their enemies, the Qur'an says:

[4.89-91] "They desire that you should disbelieve as they have disbelieved, so that you might be (all) alike; therefore take not from among them friends until they fly (their homes) in Allah's way; but if they turn back, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them, and take not from among them a friend or a helper. Except those who reach a people between whom and you there is an alliance, or who come to you, their hearts shrinking from fighting you or fighting their own people; and if Allah had pleased, He would have given them power over you, so that they should have certainly fought you; therefore if they withdraw from you and do not fight you and offer you peace, then Allah has not given you a way against them. You will find others who desire that they should be safe from you and secure from their own people; as often as they are sent back to the mischief they get thrown into it headlong; therefore if they do not withdraw from you, and (do not) offer you peace and restrain their hands, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them; and against these We have given you a clear authority."

Allegations of concealing intentions

According to The Australian, "the message the fundamentalist clerics are delivering to their supporters—mostly in Arabic—is in dramatic contrast to their public statements": [30]

Last month, Sheik Zoud told about 400 followers in Arabic: "God grant victory to the mujaheddin in Kashmir and Chechnya, and Palestine and Afghanistan." Sheik Zoud, head of the Sydney arm of the Melbourne-based organisation Ahlus Sunnah Wal-Jamaah declared: "Inshallah (God willing), dark days will descend upon America soon."

But during a newspaper interview last year, Sheik Zoud said: "I'm against all terrorism over the world. I'm against all terrorists who kill civilian people.

"Let the Australian people relax. Why everyone make the Australian people scared from the Muslims?

According to a report written by Paul Sperry in Frontpage Magazine quoting an anonymous source, the Pentagon in the United States of America shares similar views, raising questions on whether the Muslim religion is "hijacked" by terrorists or merely the basis for Islamist terrorism [31]:

The internal document explains that Islam divides offensive jihad into a "three-phase attack strategy" for gaining control of lands for Allah. The first phase is the "Meccan," or weakened, period, whereby a small Muslim minority asserts itself through largely peaceful and political measures involving Islamic NGOs -- such as the Islamic Society of North America, which investigators say has its roots in the militant Muslim Brotherhood, and Muslim pressure groups, such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations, whose leaders are on record expressing their desire to Islamize America.

In the second "preparation" phase, a "reasonably influential" Muslim minority starts to turn more militant. The briefing uses Britain and the Netherlands as examples.

And in the final jihad period, or "Medina Stage," a large minority uses its strength of numbers and power to rise up against the majority, as Muslim youth recently demonstrated in terrorizing France, the Pentagon paper notes.

It also notes that unlike Judaism and Christianity, Islam advocates expansion by force. The final command of jihad, as revealed to Muhammad in the Quran, is to conquer the world in the name of Islam. The defense briefing adds that Islam is also unique in classifying unbelievers as "standing enemies against whom it is legitimate to wage war."

Examples of Islamist Terrorism

A partial list of Islamist terrorist incidents:

U.S. State Department's list of Islamist terrorist groups

See also

Islamic Concepts

Commonly used techniques

Books on the subject of Islamist terrorism

Al Qaeda Training Manual

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