The Cart Before the Horse:

Terrorism and violence in Islam

Sam Solomon

During the half-decade since 9/11 in New York City, this generation of reporters have quickly mastered the pronunciation of such previously unfamiliar place names and surnames as the above. And many of these have practically become household words - words which now roll off the tongues of reporters as smoothly as if they were born to it.

It’s all a part of what is termed the ‘new normal’. In essence, we have a new reality and a new vocabulary - a vocabulary of terror. We have mastered this new vocabulary as well as the necessary related geography of their lands, lands about which we never dreamed we would need to know, at least not to this level of detail.

But what we haven’t mastered is why and when, if ever, will it be over? Will winning the war in Iraq and solving the Hezbollah-Israeli problem put an end to it? Would this provide the basis for a sustainable peace?

Speculation is rife about these issues, from the White House down to the street level. We heard at first that Islam is a religion of peace, but, after five years, that theory is being challenged and President Bush has finally moderated his rhetoric to feature the term Islamic Fascism to be able to deal more truthfully with the reality of what we are facing. There are documentaries, round tables and even entire conferences which are given over exclusively to the subjects of what is happening and what to do about it. But what do the Muslims themselves think?

When one attempts to dialogue with any Muslim, moderates included, endeavouring to understand the relationship between terrorism and Islam, one is confronted with a response that, in effect, puts the cart before the horse by reversing the order of "cause" and "effect" in a defensive barrage of unrelated events and injustices - all the while admitting no wrongs - which ends up in a form of self-justification of the works of terror. Though the person speaking may, in fact disavow terror as a tactic to achieve redress, their opinion remains as follows:

But, they are neglecting to look at the past history of Islam, and at the root of terrorism within the pages of the Qur’an and the related holy books that define and empower Islam. A root which has born bitter fruit throughout the history of Islamic conquest, and would have done the same in our day and age even if there were no Israel, and even if there were no American forces in Muslim lands.

Was the forced expulsion of the Jews and the Christians in AD 635 from the Arabian Peninsula - by the "Just" and so-called "Rightly Guided" Khalifa Umar Ibn Al Khattab - caused by the Israeli occupation of Palestine?

Was the continuous march of Islamic armies to conquer and occupy neighbouring lands, country after country between the 7^th and 17^th centuries - all the way to the gates of Vienna - caused by the USA’s invasion of Iraq?

Where was Israel at that time? Where was the United States?

Why do the Arabs and the Muslims overlook their own history and their own sacred writings when asked to find a ‘cause’ for terrorism? Especially in view of the established fact that their "holy Jihad" is found recorded in the Qur’an?

Let’s face it, terrorism and violence in Islam is NOT a result of economic and political injustices from which the nations of those regions suffer - as is propounded and perpetuated by well-meaning Westerners, "moderate" Muslim political advisors, and possibly, some think-tank experts.

No, honourable pundits! Terrorism and violence in Islam isn’t a phenomenon due to either political or economic injustices.

No, not at all! In fact the painful truth is that terrorism and violence are fundamental components of Islam. In fact, Islam, without bloodiness and savage brutality, simply is not Islam. Islam without the spilling of blood would wither and die.

However, although the ‘injustices’ suffered are not the actual ‘causes’ of the terror, they are in every sense very real, and one can easily establish that all these injustices of every kind - be they political, economic, or social - are tools, ingredients, and ammunitions, which are being utilized most effectively by the overseers and the recruiters of Islamic terror, to motivate, train, manipulate, and launch new Jihadists for the cause of Allah.

Both real and perceived ‘injustices’ are employed by the terror managers within the various organizations like Al Qaeda and the others to pollute and brainwash the minds of the Muslim youth, for the purpose of ‘bringing them back’ to the true Islam of the Qur’an - which is then able to turn them into self-exploding suicidal martyrs.

What do these young men and women find when they return to the Qur’an with the newly awakened desire and determination to ‘play their part’ in the Islamic ‘struggle’? They find - Islamically speaking - that enmity with the Jews and the Christians and the call for their killing is quite normal, and is actually a divinely ordained obligation which is placed on all Muslims by Allah. And they are further buttressed in their new resolve by the Qur’anic promise that death in the cause of Islam transports one instantly to Paradise. This is the formula for a suicide bomber.

These divine, legally-binding decrees (see below) have been in the Qur’an for nearly 1400 years, empowering and sustaining Jihadists during the first emergence of Islam centuries ago, and now guiding, teaching, unifying and empowering the Jihadists of Al Qaeda and the likes of it, in their current bid for a global resurgence.

It wasn’t always this way - because in the initial revelations of the Qur’an during those early to middle years of Mohammad’s governance of the nascent Islam, there were benevolent references to Jews and Christians. They were nullified, abrogated and, long before his death, the operative Suras, as quoted above, were already in full force.

So, one could wonder, if, in obedience to the (above stated) Words of the Qur’an, they, the Muslims, are enjoined by their sacred text to "enmity" toward Jews as an Islamic "obligation", why would they be surprised to find that the Jews find it hard to trust them?

In the light of these Qur’anic directives, can it still be said that the Islamic hostility and animosity towards the Jews is engendered only because of their occupation of Palestine? Or is it openly and clearly rooted in the religion itself?

If we were to suppose the possibility that the political, social and economic injustices listed in the beginning of this article, were to be addressed, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict resolved, and Iraq stabilized, along with the withdrawal of all of the international forces from that country, and all Muslim lands - then, would the Qur’anic "Jihad obligation" be rescinded?

And if so, would the Qur’anic verse quoted above - Sura 5:51-52 – then be changed to read, "O ye who believe, go ahead and take the Jews and the Christians as your friends"? And Sura 5:82 be changed to read: "… the closest to those who have believed (the Muslims) are the Jews …"?

In other words - does Jihad in Islam come to an end when the injustices are addressed and put right? Would we then, under these ideal conditions have a truly "sustainable peace"? Or, could it be that Jihad can only end when all the peoples of the earth have submitted, surrendered and been Islamised?