Jihadism's roots in political Islam
By Bassam Tibi International Herald Tribune
TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2005
GÖTTINGEN, Germany After any terrorist attack by jihadists - from the
Sept. 11 attacks to those in Bali in 2002, Madrid in 2004 and London in July -
two contradictory views are usually heard. Some people claim that such
religiously legitimated terror has its roots in Islam; others, principally
Muslims and politically correct Westerners, say such terrorism has nothing to
do with Islam.
The truth can only be reached by putting aside both extreme views and by
recognizing the difference between Islam, the religion, and Islamism, the
religious-political ideology. Although jihadism may not be Islamic, it is based
on the ideology of Islamism, which has emerged from the politicization of Islam
in the current war of ideas.
It is difficult to overstate the importance of recognizing this truth.
Jihadism will continue to be with us for decades to come, as long as the
movement related to it within Islamic civilization continues to thrive and to
disseminate its deadly ideas.
Jihadists see themselves as non-state actors waging an irregular war
against "kafirun," or unbelievers. They see their struggle as a just war
legitimated by a religious, political and military interpretation of the
Islamic concept of jihad.
Jihadism's relation to Islamism can be stated in a nutshell: Jihadists
read the classical doctrine of jihad in a new mind while reinventing Islamic
tradition.
Although the Koran allows Muslims to resort to "qital" (physical
fighting) for the benefit of Islam, this is clearly for reasons other than
terrorism, because the Koran allows qital only under strict rules, while
terrorism, by definition, is a war without rules. The new interpretation of
jihad adds an "ism" to it, jihad becoming jihadism (jihadiyya), an irregular
war that is a variety of modern terrorism.
It is wrong and even deceitful to argue that jihadism has nothing to do
with Islam, because the jihadists believe that they are acting as "true Islamic
believers" and learn the Islamist mind-set in mosques and Islamic schools,
including those of the Islamic diaspora in Europe.
It follows that the debate over whether these terrorists are "Islamic" or
"un-Islamic" is meaningless. The fact is that jihadism is a new direction in
Islamic civilization, an expression of the contemporary "revolt against the
West" that enjoys tremendous popularity in the ongoing war of ideas. In order
to combat the deadly idea of jihadism successfully, it is necessary to seek
Muslim cooperation to determine who the jihadists are, rather than engaging in
empty arguments.
The jihadists are followers of the ideas of Hasan al-Banna and Sayyid
Qutb, who laid the foundations of Islamism as a political and military
interpretation of Islam. Islamism aims not only to purify Islam but also to
establish the "Nizam Islami," or Islamic order.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, some commentators said that jihadists were
now targeting the West because they were "fighting somebody else's war." This
is utterly wrong. The intellectual father of jihadist Islamism, Sayyid Qutb,
who was executed in Cairo in 1966, made the message crystal clear: Jihadism is
a "permanent Islamic world revolution" aimed at decentering the West in order
to establish "Hakimiyyat Allah," or God's rule, on a global scale.
Early Islamists honored Qutb's distinction between two steps, the local
and the global, in the jihadist strategy: First topple secular regimes at home,
and then move on to global jihad. What Al Qaeda has done is not to fight
somebody else's war, but rather to confuse the two steps in the jihadist
strategy. This confusion continued to manifest itself in the terrorist attacks
in Madrid and in London, because of the existence of a Muslim diaspora in
Europe that has its own problems.
What can be done to counter jihadism? As a Muslim immigrant living in
Europe, I wholeheartedly reject the idea of a "clash of civilizations." But it
would be naïve to overlook the reality of an ongoing "war of ideas" - a
struggle between global jihad and democratic peace as competing directions for
the 21st century.
Instead of giving in to talk of a "clash of civilizations," what is
needed is an alliance between Western supporters of democracy and enlightened
Muslims against jihadist Islamists.
It is important to realize, however, that democracy is a political
culture and not simply a procedure. Shiite clerics in Iraq, for example, have
failed to recognize this - and as a result they are unable to provide an
alternative to Sunni jihadism.
(Bassam Tibi is a professor at the University of Göttingen, Germany, and
a professor-at-large at Cornell University. He is the author of "Islam between
Culture and Politics." )
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