Terrorism and Islamic Faith

Islamism, Arab Spring, and the Future of Democracy, 2018

Islamism and Its Role in Modern Islamic Societies Introduction. What Is This Chapter About? The subject of this chapter is how Islamism is not a monolith but rather, multifaceted, multileveled, continually changing, and often self-contradictory. It is simply impossible to understand contemporary Islamic (and, especially, Arab) societies without considering the influence of Islamism as a pastiche of ideology, cultural environment, modes of action, and ways of life. Without acknowledging this, the mass of relevant phenomena will look unexplained and not integrated into the general course of life. To understand Islamism is not easy, because it is one of the most complex social phenomena of the present time (Kepel 2000: 25; Levin 2014: 4). In addition, for a number of reasons, which we will discuss below, for many observers of the Middle East in the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-firstst century, Islamism remains "a phenomenon lurking beneath the surface" (Osman 2016: xiii). For that reason, it remains insufficiently understood. Meanwhile, it can swing wildly in its manifestations from quite respectable political parties and debates of scientists to a vocal stream of consciousness rant by an illiterate Muslim or violent actions of radical Islamist groups. Thus, "political Islam is not a monolithic phenomenon, but rather a complex concept with multifaceted dimensions, comprising Muslim political attitudes that vary vastly cross-nationally" (see, e.g., Achilov and Sen 2017: 609; see also Ayoob 2009; Denoeux 2002; Schwedler 2011). In addition, "the very concept of Islamism is sensitive to volatile social and political shifts" (Achilov and Sen 2017: 621), and, as a result, the concept of Islamism changes with certain major events. As experts note, even radical Islam is extremely diverse. There is still no established terminology for its designation: Experts speak of Islamism, political Islam, Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic terrorism, jihadism, Wahhabism, Salafism,

This is a long paper that deals with the contemporary issue on Global Terrorism. Today, world wide, Muslims are taken to be the terrorists. I have tried my best to explain in details the concept of terrorism in our contemporary time.

Islam Beyond Violent Extremism, 2017

This collection of papers by Imam Dr. A. Rashied Omar provides the reader with a deeper understanding of the Islamic ethics of violence and peace and situates extremist acts within concrete socio-historical and political contexts. The papers examine the major ethico-legal principles on Peace and War in Islam and apply these to analyze the theological justifications and political motivations of contemporary Muslim extremist movements. The papers also suggest possible ways in which we can mitigate the spread of Muslim extremism by identifying Islamic resources for peacebuilding and effective strategies for social justice.

American Journal of Islam and Society, 1996

Since the end of the Cold War, the West has mounted a campaign against Islam as the essential source of terrorism and the Muslims as necessarily terrorists. However, the problems of violence and terror are not isolated issues but have epistemological and unspoken real causes. Violence is related to despotism, especially the despotism of hegemony. The US-led war on terrorism is not a simple struggle between good and evil. The hidden reasons behind it makes it difficult for the Muslims and others in the Third World to appreciate the efforts. Constructed mostly by reporters of such powerful TV cables like CNN, intelligence analysts and "experts on Muslim affairs," the Muslim is perceived as the terrorist, the imminent menace to civilization and the universal values of democracy and freedom. This campaign gained much momentum and became more intense with the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. The untiring rhetoric associating Islam and Muslims with terrorism serves only the purpose of substantiating and reinforcing the clash of civilizations thesis which would certainly push the world into the abyss of disaster and destruction. It is ironic that all of this is being done in the name of cherished values such as freedom, self-determination and democracy. Distortion is being systematically spread on various levels and by different means to make people lose sight of the causes that have led to the strained and explosive situation the world is facing today.

Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 2007

Extreme religious interpretations of the Quran and the movement of Islamic Revivalism influence the emergence and progression of violent Jihad in contemporary times. Islamic 'terrorists' are able to legitimize their movement as an act of violent Jihad permitted by the Quran essentially because of religious sanctions that permit the use of violence as an act of defense and to preserve the will of God in Islamic communities. The Quran systematizes this use and relates it to other aspects of the Shariat through its discourse on revivalism. Based on the Quranic principle of ijtihad, terrorists emphasize the Quran's tenets on violence and revivalism in their religious interpretations and present it as a legitimate premise for the use of excessive aggression.

British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies , 2014

Amazon, 2022

Islam morphed into Islamism in six phases. This transformation resulted from recourse to a weaponized exegesis and jurisprudence, necessitated by the political exigencies. Militant rulers craved a rendition of Islam that would enable them to wage unlawful wars of territorial expansion under the banner of Islam. This required a re-alignment of the relationships between revelation, reason and tradition. The process reflected a drift from tradition to revelation. The revelation-centric paradigm gave way to a tradition-centric paradigm. This was an anomaly in the epistemology of Islam and explains a slew of problems confronting the umma today. At the prodding of militant rulers and their accomplices among clerics the umma turned from revelation to tradition. This was exemplified in the requests by rulers to record the traditions ascribed to the prophet in defiance of his prohibition of the recording of his traditions. The traditions were recorded reluctantly by the persons tasked with the recordings. For a few of them remembered that the prophet prohibited the recording of his traditions. To assuage the fears of defying the prophet, Umar II publicly declared that the prophet “abrogated” his prohibition of recording his traditions. The first and sixth phases were political. The second stage witnessed the repression of reasoning by tradition. In the third stage, tradition would become a “part of” revelation. In the fourth stage, tradition would “judge” revelation. In the fifth stage, the verses of reconciliation in the Book of Allah would be abrogated and replaced by the verse of the sword and hawkish traditions. The transformation of Islam to Islamism was expedited by the repression of reason. This was achieved by treating the use of reason in religion as kufr. In the third phase, tradition was treated as revelation. It was at this juncture that Islam became “traditional.” The treatment of tradition as revelation was “justified” by recourse to a tradition in which the prophet said that his traditions were “similar” to the Book of Allah. In so far as tradition was treated as an “equal” of revelation, the designation of tradition as revelation amounted to scriptural shirk. Thus, the transformation of Islam into Islamism was enabled by a gradual encroachment upon tauhid. In the fourth phase, tradition transcended revelation and was treated as a “judge” of revelation. Treating tradition as a “judge” of revelation required the subordination of revelation to tradition. In so far as the subordination of revelation to tradition amounts to the subordination of the word of God to the words of persons, the treatment of tradition as a judge of revelation also amounted to shirk. The fifth stage witnessed the abrogation of revelation by revelation, tradition, and the rulings of the ulama. When the peace verses were “abrogated” by the verses of the sword, Islam became “political.” In so far as the abrogation of revelation by tradition and the rulings of the ulama required treating the words of persons as greater authorities than Allah, the alleged “abrogation” of revelation by tradition and the rulings of the ulama were expression of juristic shirk. The sixth and last stage witnessed the embedding of the teaching of the clash of the realm of peace (dar al-Islam) with the realm of unbelief (dar al-kufr). Islam became political and began to serve as a justification for unlawful wars of territorial enlargement waged under the pretext of propagating Islam by the sword, a practice referred to as jihad al-talab, or the sixth pillar of Islam. The aggressiveness of militant Islam brought defeats, as in the destruction of the Abbasids by the Mongols, the defeats of the Turks at the gates of Vienna, as well as the war in Afghanistan and the fall of Bagdad in 2003.