BOOK
REVIEW The fanatic's
mindset Knowing the
Enemy: Jihadist Ideology and the War on
Terror by Mary
Habeck
Reviewed by Sreeram Chaulia
In every crime scene, the intelligent
detective tries to establish the motive by
deciphering the mindset of the assassin. After
September 11, 2001, analysts offered a multitude
of explanations for the root causes of the
terrorist acts of that date. Unfortunately,
socio-economic and secular biases in the liberal
media ensured
that
belief-centered understandings of terrorism were
trashed as "right-wing obsession".
Resurrecting an obvious cause that has not
been given its due, military historian Mary Habeck
brings to the overwritten topic of September 11 a
remarkably insightful explanation based on the
ideology of extremist Islam. "It would be wrong to
conclude that the hijackers, al-Qaeda and the
other radical groups have nothing to do with
Islam. These extremists explicitly appeal to the
Koran and the Hadith; find endorsement among
respected interpreters of Islam and win disciples
by their piety." (p 3) Poverty, oppressive
governments, colonization, imperialism, etc may be
underlying issues, but the jihadis choose their
actions primarily on religious grounds.
A
core belief in jihadist lore is that Islam is the
only way of life for humanity and that Muslims are
"divinely destined to lead mankind" by diffusing
the true faith. (p 8) Christian and Jewish
domination of world politics, finance and popular
culture is a terrible "inversed fact" that is
attributed to apostate rulers from the Abbasids to
Hosni Mubarak, Pervez Musharraf and the Saudis.
Others fault deliberate assaults of unbelief
(kufr) and falsehood (batil), such
as Mustafa Kamal's abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1924,
for Islam's inferior position. Imperialism, by
this theological perspective, is an attempt "to
destroy Islam and kill as many Muslims as
possible". (p 12)
The jihadist solution to
Islam's decline is rejection of "blind imitation
of Western ideas and a return to the Koran and
Hadith as the only authorities". (p10) Fanatics
advocate reopening the doors of ijtihad
(interpretation), allowing every Muslim the right
to fit the sacred literature to his own reason.
September 11 was meant to be a stunning blow "to
begin the ultimate destruction of falsehood" and
to be a consensus (ijma) mechanism that
lines up the entire ummah (Muslim
community) behind the jihadist vision of eternal
warfare.
Habeck discusses the legacies of
prominent Islamist jurists for modern jihadis. Ibn
Taymiyya (1263-1328) argued that Islam required
state power and urged "resumption of armed
struggle against anyone outside the fold of
Islam". (p 20) For him, jihad was a war to convert
unbelievers to Islam, a task "even better than the
hajj" (pilgrimage). (p 21) Abd al-Wahhab
(1703-92) prescribed relentless jihad against
secular lawmakers who dared to defy God's law
(sharia). His "Al Muwahiddun" movement smashed
images, tombs and shrines of Sufi and Shi'ite
saints.
Rashid Rida (1865-1935) condemned
modernizers as heretics and insisted that "Islam
does not really exist unless a strong Islamic
state is established". (p 28) Hasan al-Banna
(1906-49) conceived the West as an intellectual as
well as a physical threat that Muslims had to
overcome. After unseating unbelievers that
occupied Islamic land, jihad had to "invade the
Western heartland until all the world shouts by
the name of the Prophet". Resort to violence was
"to save humankind and illuminate the whole planet
with the sun of Islam". (p 33) Banna's Ikhwan
al-Muslimeen (Muslim Brotherhood) produced Sayyid
Qutb (1906-66), a giant in the jihadist pantheon
who rejected democracy as a "false religion, not
just a false political idea". (p 36) Abul A'la
Maududi (1903-79) asserted that warfare with
infidels was inexorable. His "sovereignty of God"
(hakimiyyat Allah) concept heralded
totalitarian regulation of Muslim personal and
public activities. Today, his followers wage jihad
in Kashmir "to free this 'Islamic' land from
'Hindu' domination". (p 37)
Jihadis place
much weight on the literal words of scriptures.
Citing the principle of abrogation (naskh),
they demand that Christians and Jews have to
accept Islam and submit to Muslim rule or die.
Hindus "have only the choice of conversion or
death". (p 44) The pages of the Koran are
considered sufficient to understand the plans and
intentions of enemies. The story of Moses and his
confrontation with the Egyptian king is taken as
an infallible prediction of the downfall of the
"newest pharaoh", the US, at the hands of Muslims.
The archetypal battles of Badr and Ahzab promise
victory to Islam against more powerful forces.
Koranic descriptions of Jews as betrayers and
traitors who incur God's curse and transform into
monkeys and pigs are widely quoted in jihadist
circles.
In the essentialist fanatic
vision, democracy is "the ultimate expression of
idolatry". People, legislatures, representatives
or nations have no inherent sovereignty, which
belongs to God alone. International organizations
such as the UN are conspiracies to destroy Islam.
International law is a digest of "exclusively
Christian norms" that suffocate the ummah.
The foreign policy of the Islamic state should be
"perpetual jihad because the sacred texts compels
it". (p 52)
To jihadis, a true Muslim has
to put the sharia into practice or risk being
declared an unbeliever. With the expiry of "the
real Islamic state", authentic Islam vanished in
jihadist estimation. So-called Muslim societies
today are actually pagan (jahil) and as
illegitimate as the "filth of man-made religions".
(p 66) Osama bin Laden describes all Islamic
states as mired in ignorance (jahiliyya),
thanks to government-appointed clergy
(ulama), who are likened to "Pentagon
Muslims".
Capitalism, especially charging
of interest in finance, is a central focus for
jihadist criticism of Jews. Bin Laden often
emphasizes the injunction to wage war on usury, be
it in the US or Saudi Arabia. Personal freedom and
human rights are seen as contradictions to Islam
that have been injected as poison by the
unbelievers. The jihadist attitude is that
liberalism is a satanic influence that should be
destroyed.
Habeck characterizes jihadist
foreign policy as dictated by the dichotomy
between incompatible foes - true Islam
(al-Haqq) and kufr. "Islam must
expand to fill the entire world or else falsehood
will do so." (p 84) The US is to most jihadis the
leading spirit of kufr, which has
established a bridgehead within the Islamic
heartland through the "artificial crusader state
of Israel". (p 91) For al-Qaeda, the US and Israel
are so intertwined that to talk about one is to
talk about the other. Secular Muslim intellectuals
are excoriated as implants of the West to ruin
Islam deliberately and lead the believers astray.
The very notions of "moderate Muslim" and
"fundamentalist Muslim" are seen as Western
inventions to divide the ummah. Scientific
ideas such as evolution, psychology and sociology
are limned as "purposely disseminated to sow
doubts in the minds of Muslims". (p 100)
Since a majority of Islamic scriptures
refer to jihad in the sense of fighting
(qital), "the extremists are not outside
the bounds of traditional Islam". (p 108) Jihadis
interpret warfare as the peak of the religion and
compulsory on true Muslims. Justifying "defensive
jihad", they envisage aggression as the mere
existence of competing ideologies, rather than a
physical attack by an enemy state. A country does
not have to be majority Muslim to be an Islamic
territory - "it need only have a large number of
Muslims or have been under an Islamic state at any
point in history". (p 114) Therefore, jihadis take
it as their duty to "restore" Muslim rule to the
Balkans, Hungary, Romania, Austria, Crimea,
Poland, Spain, India and Russia. Renouncing
"offensive jihad" is a sign to jihadis that
"Muslims have surrendered" to defeatism. They
advocate retaining the right to spread the rule of
Islam even if not attacked by the unbelievers. In
Maududi's language, Islam had to spread "through
word if possible or through the sword when
necessary".
Habeck elucidates distinctive
characteristics of jihadist warfare such as
deception, ambiguity, misleading the unbelievers
and outright lying, all contained in the Prophet's
dictum - "war is deceit". The definition of
combatant is sufficiently broad to allow
intentional killing of women, children and other
Muslims if they help the enemy by word or deed.
Torture of captives is argued from the Sunnah (the
way of the Prophet) as helping the Muslim cause.
Terrorism, or "striking fear into the hearts of
God's enemies", is also claimed to be permissible,
based on one verse in the Koran and a few Hadith
collections.
Jihadis count on a massive
uprising of the worldwide Muslim ummah and
use da'wa (missionary activity) for this
end. Until the full-scale mobilization of all
Muslims fructifies, jihadis prioritize enemies by
learning from the life of the Prophet Mohammed
(sira). The sira is an integral part of the jihadi
aqida (creed of Islam) and an inspiration
to fight for the supremacy of the faith.
Mohammed's migration (hijra) to Medina
shows jihadis the importance of relocating to a
"safe haven", far from the forbidden indulgences
and sins of unbelievers. Some true believers can
remain behind enemy lines as "subversive cells",
but in general, migrating to states or regions
within states where the sharia reigns is deemed
necessary. This accounts for mass movements of
jihadis to Afghanistan after the Taliban came to
power in 1996.
The Prophet's raids on
caravans of tribes hostile to Islam signals to
jihadis the need for offensive warfare on
unbelievers. Mohammed's success in Mecca to
attract primarily young people to his side informs
jihadi targeting of universities in non-Islamic
countries for constituting the elite vanguard
(jamaa) of future takeovers. The author
notes how, lacking detailed plans or programs,
jihadis trust the "method of Mohammed" to solve
all the problems of the world - economic,
political, social and cultural.
Habeck
unravels internal differences among jihadis about
the triage of enemies. Bin Laden has been trying
to persuade other jihadis not to get distracted by
smaller tempting targets and aim at the "greater
unbelief" of the US first. The Hizb-al-Tahrir
group, however, calls for killing "near enemies"
(apostate "agent rulers", Shi'ites, Ahmadiyyas et
al) before taking on the US, "even if this means
the death of millions". (p 158) Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi's declaration of war on Iraqi Shi'ites
reflects this line of thought. Mufti Khubiab Sahib
recommends attacks on wealth and worldly
possessions of Hindus as the correct strategy,
while Maulana Masood Azhar cites the Sunnah to
claim that "the most efficacious targets are the
wealth and economy of the infidels". (p159)
Jihadis live and enact a literal clash of
civilizations in which good, virtuous and true
Islam is expected to triumph. Bin Laden's
exhortations against the superpower's "most
cowardly people" who can be defeated stems from a
conviction that, if not the full ummah, a
small band of dedicated Islamic warriors are
adequate to win in this cosmic clash.
Habeck concludes with recommendations for
the world to defeat jihadis. Taking away territory
where the jihadi version of Sharia can be applied
is a strong blow to their ideological confidence.
Expulsion of extremist ulama from mosques
can dent jihadist da'wa. Equitably
resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict "will
not stop the violence from al-Qaeda, but will
deprive it of means for winning new recruits".
(p174) To concretize the face of the enemy, the
author suggests renaming the "war on terrorism" as
"war on jihadism" or "war on khawarij"
(heterodox Muslims).
In an otherwise
brilliant book, Habeck naively labels
democratization of Muslim countries a long-term
solution to the jihadist threat. One would have
expected her to reflect on the empirical reality
of democratic lacunae in much of the Islamic
world, except occasional outliers. Her projection
that a jihad-cleansed Islamic democracy can evolve
runs against facts and is a leaf taken straight
out of the daft neo-con blueprint of the George W
Bush administration.
Knowing the Enemy:
Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror by
Mary Habeck. Yale University Press, January 2006.
ISBN: 0-300-11306-4. Price: US$25, 243 pages.
(Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All
rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing
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Caliphate in 1924,
for Islam's inferior position. Imperialism, by
this theological perspective, is an attempt "to
destroy Islam and kill as many Muslims as
possible". (p 12) 
