|
A Frightening Pathology: The Rise of Radical Islam
by Julie Hirsh, Trinity College
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks during The World Without Zionism conference in Tehran on October 26th, 2005.
REUTERS/Ho New
|
The history of the Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity and Islam—is a history of division and disagreement. In Judaism, for example, consider the Orthodox, the Conservative and the Reform movement. But today all of these Jewish movements, no matter how they may differ, are peaceful. Throughout its history, Islam has had movements that have looked down on all non-believers as “infidels” and sought to spread the “one true faith” by jihad, holy war.
Recent decades have seen the establishment and growth of a new violent Islamic movement, which justifies and uses terrorist acts against the innocent. Radical Islamists are a minority within Islam, to be sure, but even if they comprised just ten percent of the Muslims worldwide, this would still translate into about 100 million supporters of Islamic terrorism.
American opponents of the war on terrorism often condemn the Bush administration for failing to recognize the West’s culpability in the global rise of Islamic attacks on Western civilians.1 Critics maintain that Israel’s security policies and America’s support for the Jewish State are to blame. It is criticisms like these that completely ignore the predilection for violence against non-Muslims that is rooted in modern Islamic societies. The rise of what some call Islamo-fascism is perfectly predictable given the political theology of radical Islam and the culture of victimization that sustains it. Television programs, newspapers, Internet cafés, universities, mosques, and religious schools all depict Jews as satanic enemies of Islam and instigators of U.S. intervention in Muslim lands. These institutions enforce the leading precepts that fuel terrorism in today’s jihadist societies: the need for Islamic theocracy, demonizing the West (including Nazi-like propaganda against Jews), and Holocaust denial. Even literature like The Protocols of the Elders of Zion as well as anti-Semitic films depicting Jewish murder of Christian and Muslim children for Passover matzoh (a modern-day blood libel) are common throughout the Arab world.
The notable absence of outrage at or even condemnation of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s notorious statements about the Holocaust reflects the growing consensus among the Arab and Muslim world regarding the reality of the Holocaust (as well as the morality of the Nazis—for instance, Mein Kampf is a recent best-seller in Turkey, while Egypt is the world’s leader in production of anti-Semitic literature). Like Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose doctoral theseis was on this subject, journalists in the Middle East also deny the Holocaust. For instance, one Egyptian reporter defended the Iranian president’s outbursts thus: “What this truth means is that these massacres…never happened. The famous execution chambers were no more than rooms for disinfecting clothing.”2
Islamic fundamentalism is a religious and political ideology in which everyone must adhere to literalist interpretations of the Qur’an, Hadith, Sha’ria (Islamic law), and the Islamic state, and seek to establish Muslim control over the world. To fundamentalists, modernity is both the inhibitor and the obliterator of Muslim sovereignty. Osama bin Laden and his followers, after all, have repeatedly urged Muslims to take up arms against the “malignant illness” of Israel and the Christian West. Instances of such incitement are numerous, notable examples being the issuance of a fatwa in 1998 in which bin Laden asserted that murder of Americans and their allies is incumbent upon all Muslims, as well as an interview with reporter Rahimullah Yusufazi in 1999 in which he argued for the importance of jihad for the liberation of Muslim holy sites. Bin Laden is also, of course, known for his complicity in and praise of the September 11th attacks on America.
 Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini (known as the “Arab Fuhrer”) pictured with Adolph Hitler. Husseini began a campaign of terror and intimidation against anyone who opposed his policies, murdering Jews. He used Nazi funds to finance his terrorist activities aimed at ejecting the Jews from the Land of Israel. After participating in two coups against Britain, Husseini fled to Germany, where, in November of 1941, he was greeted with open arms by Hitler himself. Yasser Arafat was the mufti’s nephew and disciple. Mahmoud Abbas was Arafat’s deputy for 40 years. |
|
|
The modern radical Islamic movement originated in the 1940’s, beginning with the writings of two pioneers of radical Islam: Sayyid Abul A’la Maududi in India and Pakistan and later Sayid al Qutb in Egypt. Qutb would become the more famous and influential of the two, with many experts calling him the Osama bin Laden of his generation. The works of Maududi and Qutb call for all Muslims to establish an ideal fundamentalist state, where appointed leaders and a ruling party of male, Muslim scholars will determine the reading of Allah’s laws, so as to ensure that the state sustains a pure, Islamic society where Allah reigns. This ideology also seeks to destroy western democracy, particularly in areas where its influence has led Muslims to assimilate or live more secular lives.3 Maududi even clarified that, “In such a state, no one can regard his affairs personal or private. Considered from this aspect, the Islamic state bears a kind of resemblance to the fascist and Communist states.”4 The writings of Maududi, Qutb, and many of their successors, such as Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, have been translated into numerous languages for Muslims all over the world. The popularity of radical Islam also results from followers who find themselves powerless to stop the political corruption within their own governments. It has grown exponentially since the Iranian Revolution and the events following September 11th. But those who turn to the violent ideology of radical Islam as the solution to their economic and civil hardships still find themselves with innocent blood on their hands. Surely, those Germans who saluted Adolph Hitler as he helped them build back their wealth during the world-wide Depression are not exempt from guilt just because they did not live under the most ideal economic conditions.
Once in place, the Islamic state, like Nazi Germany, will imprison its society in a constant state of fear. The Islamic state is both misogynistic and sadistic, imposing its own violent interpretation of Sha’ria law on every aspect of public life. Violence against women is rampant in the Islamic societies of Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, parts of Egypt, and Southern Turkey, to name a few. In many of these Islamic societies women have grown accustomed to violence and are subject to abusive ancient laws pertaining to marriage rights and bodily protection. Such vicious policies have made radical Islam synonymous with violence and mass murder of innocents (“infidels”).
Today we hear leaders of the Palestinian Arabs attribute their crushing defeats by the Israeli military and self-imposed economic hardships to the absence of Islam in their society. As evidenced by the local Arabs’ voting, this “return to Islam” is considered by many to be the final solution to the Israeli question. The swift radicalization of Arab society in Judea, Gaza, and Samaria is a dangerous and alarming model for the phenomenon of radical Islam across the globe. If the non-Muslim world continues to deny the advance of the Islamic war machine, we will find ourselves in a nuclear conflict against fanatical enemies who glorify death as we glorify life.
- Jonah Goldberg. “The Terror That Dare Not Speak Its Name,” 31 August 2005. www.townhall.com/columnists/JonahGoldberg/2005/08/31/the_terror_ that_dare_not_speak_its_name.
- MEMRI. “Egpyt’s Ruling Party Newspaper: The Holocaust is a Zionist Lie Aimed at Extorting the West,” Special Dispatch Series No. 756, 30 July 2004 memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives& Area=sd&ID=SP75604.
- Martin Kramer. “Fundamentalist Islam at Large: The Drive for Power” Middle East Quarterly 3.2 June 1996 www.meforum.org/article/304.
- Charles J. Adams, “Mawdudi And the Islamic State” in John Esposito Voices of Resurgent Islam (Oxford University Press, 1983, pp.119-121).
Julie Hirsh is a junior at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, majoring in Middle Eastern Studies. She is spending her fall semester at The George Washington University.
|
