May 13, 2008
Thank God Someone Is Listening to Us - Terrorism Is Not Jihad
by Sheila Musaji
The U.S. Government recently issued a statement asking that government
officials be cautious in
their use of language as it may actually be against the interests of the
U.S. to use terms that
connect the religion of Islam with the acts of criminals. The governments
suggests the use of
more accurate and non-inflammatory language. A recent Homeland Security
Re****t even sharply
rebuked John McCain’s ‘Islamic Extremism’ rhetoric. Of course,
Islamophobes like Robert
Spencer and Hugh Fitzgerald don’t approve, but they also thought Islamo
Fascism Awareness Week
was a good idea.
The governments new awareness that words have meaning has been attacked as
caving in to Muslim
pressure by a number of groups and individuals who currently make a nice
living defining Islam
and Muslims. As an American Muslim who loves both Islam and America, I
say “Thank God Someone
Is Finally Listening to Us - Terrorism Is Not Jihad”. Perhaps now we can
work together to
combat the very real problem of extremism and terrorism.
When the media or individuals use Arabic terms such as jihad for acts of
terrorism, or when
they attach the word Islam in front of a word as in Islamo-fascism,
Islamic terrorism, those
words have an effect. They have an effect right here in America by
linking the religion of
Islam and terrorist acts in the mind of ordinary citizens. They have an
effect on Muslims who
are struggling to make clear to those Muslims who attempt to justify their
crimes by some false
interpretation of Islamic teachings that we do not accept their claims.
They have an effect on
Muslims worldwide who because of the use of language like Islamo-Fascist,
have come to view the
“war on terror” not as a war on al Qaeda, but as a war on Islam itself.
Criminal political movements like al-Qaeda who attempt to convince other
Muslims that their
actions are somehow “Islamic” attempt to call their terrorist acts Jihad,
and when their false
claims are echoed in the media in the West, that adds some legitimacy to
their claims, at least
for uneducated Muslims.
There have been lots of folks who have said that they have no problem with
Islam, their problem
is with Islamism or Islamists. This however is problematic even in the
definition of the
terms. The online dictionary and thesaurus gives the following
definitions:
Dictionary: Islamism: 1. An Islamic revivalist movement, often
characterized by moral
conservatism, literalism, and the attempt to implement Islamic values in
all spheres of life.
2. The religious faith, principles, or cause of Islam.
Thesaurus: 1. Islamist - a scholar who knowledgeable in Islamic studies
bookman, scholar,
scholarly person, student - a learned person (especially in the
humanities); someone who by
long study has gained mastery in one or more disciplines. 2. Islamist -
an orthodox Muslim
Islam, Muslimism - the civilization of Muslims collectively which is
governed by the Muslim
religion; “Islam is predominant in northern Africa, the Middle East,
Pakistan, and Indonesia”
The truth is that when you add the word Islam in front of words like
fascist, extremist,
terrorist, etc. Or, when you allow criminals like Osama bin Laden or al
Qaeda to redefine the
words Jihad and Shahed, then you are giving the impression to all the
millions of Muslims in
the world that you think that OBL and al Qaeda are correct in their
attempts to give an Islamic
justification for their criminal actions. They are not correct.
Terrorism is not Jihad, it is
Hirabah. A martyr is a person who dies in the cause of God, most
certainly not someone who
dies committing an act of terrorism.
Terrorism is not a legitimate part of jihad according to traditional
Islamic scholars, and
mainstream Islamic scholars, and ordinary Muslims regularly attempt to
point this out because
they are aware that the only appeal to reason that might influence
extremists who claim an
Islamic justification in any way is the appeal to Islamic teachings.
If you must use an Arabic word, use the correct word HIRABAH which is the
word that would
correspond to these acts of terrorism. But, why use an Arabic word at all
in English?
When Muslims have attempted to clarify the position of Islam, they have
often been
misunderstood. The following statement by Paul Barrett is typical of this
deep
misunderstanding of Islam and Muslims:
“But Hathout’s characterization of the attack also includes one of those
troubling asterisks.
When he says he reviles the 9/11 hijackers, he also tries to deny that
they are Muslims. “If
those people claim to be Muslims,” he says, “this is against every fiber
in Islam.” In his
circular reasoning, real Muslims can have no connection to terrorism
because Islam forbids such
violence. Ergo, Muslims didn’t carry out 9/11 since anyone who could do
such a thing is not a
real Muslim. This verbal feint could suggest evasiveness to some
listeners.”
As a Muslim, I absolutely understand and agree with what Maher Hathout was
attempting to
express. Any person who could carry out the 9/11 terrorist act could not
understand Islam, and
no matter what distorted reasoning they followed to convince themselves
that there was any
possibility of justifying such an act, they were wrong. And, if there are
any others out there
who are following the same line of reasoning or attempting to convince
others of that
reasoning, they are wrong. Any extremist political ideology masquerading
as Islamic is wrong
and must be resisted by all Muslims.
The American Muslim has been publi****ng articles on this distinction
between hirabah and jihad
for many years, and will hopefully publish many more. After 9/11 American
Muslims were forced
to come to terms with the fact that there were some people who also
considered themselves
Muslims whose view of what it means to be a Muslim and to follow Islam was
completely
unrecognizable and abhorrent to us. It was a shock to hear those people
use words that hold
deep spiritual meaning and beauty for us in a way that turned the meanings
of those words on
their heads. We must counter this false message and find ways to reach
those who have been
brainwashed into believing that there is any validity in this false
understanding preached by
groups such as al Qaeda.
SEE ALSO:
A Call to Harabah, Aziz Poonawalla http://www.altmuslim.com/a/a/a/2083/
A detailed fatwa - Defending the Transgressed by Censuring the Reckless
against the Killing of
Civilians, Shaykh Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti
http://www.mereislam.info/articles/Defending-the-Transgressed_Shaykh-M-A-Al-Akiti.pdf
A spiritual jihad against terrorism, Sheila Musaji (5 parts)
http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/a_spiritual_jihad_against_terrorism_part_i/
A Time for Introspection: “The worst enemies of Islam are from within”,
Hamza Yusuf
http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/a_time_for_introspection_the_worst_enemies_of_islam_are_from_within/
The Amman Initiative: A Theological Counter-Attack Against Terrorism, S.
Abdallah Schleifer
http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/the_amman_initiative_a_theological_counter_attack_against_terrorism/
The Evolution of ‘Jihad’ in Islamist Political Discourse, Farish A. Noor
http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/the_evolution_of_jihad_in_islamist_political_discourse/
Hirabah versus Jihad, Dr. Robert D. Crane
http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/terrorism_hirabah_versus_jihad/
Hiraba
http://www.muhajabah.com/islamicblog/archives/veiled4allah/003000.php
Is media coverage of Arabs, Islam Good?, Magda Abu Fadil
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/magda-abufadil/is-coverage-of-arabs-isla_b_98757.html
Islam: Religion or Ideology?, Imam Zaid Shakir
http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/islam_religion_or_ideology/
Jihad, Empire, and the Ethics of War and Peace, S. Parvez Manzoor
http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/jihad_empire_and_the_ethics_of_war_and_peace/
Jihad, Islams Struggle for Truth, Vincent Cornell
http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/jihad_islams_struggle_for_truth/
Jihad and the Modern World, Dr. Sherman Jackson
http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/jihad_and_the_modern_world1/
Jihad Gone Wrong, Khaled Abou El Fadl
http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/interview_khaled_abou_el_fadl_jihad_gone_wrong/
Jihad: Its True Meaning and Purpose, Dr. Muzammil Siddiqi
http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/jihad_its_true_meaning_and_purpose/
Jihad or Hiraba?
http://stygius.typepad.com/stygius/2005/01/jihad_or_hiraba.html
McCain hasn’t gotten the message and is still referring to “Islamic”
terror
http://www.wa****ngtontimes.com/article/20080421/NATION/438135169/1002
The Muslim Community: Where We Stand 1994, Hamza Yusuf
http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/the_muslim_community_where_we_stand_1994/
Muslim scholars reject bin Laden’s idea of Jihad
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/39887_islam22.shtml
New Frontiers in Conflict Management: A Grand Strategy to Wage Jihad
Against Terrorist Muslims,
Dr. Robert D. Crane
http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/new_frontiers_in_conflict_management_a_grand_strategy_to_wage_jihad_against/
New Muslim think tank to counter extremism - The Quilliam Foundation
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/7044
Peace and Justice in Islam, Imam Zaid Shakir
http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/peace_and_justice_in_islam/
Spencer, the NDU scholars, the securocrat and his books, Yusuf Smith
http://www.blogistan.co.uk/blog/mt.php/2006/06/24/spencer_the_ndu_scholars_the_s#more
Terrorism, Jihad, and the Struggle for New Understandings, Dr. Antony T.
Sullivan
http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/terrorism_terrorism_jihad_and_the_struggle_for_new_understandings/
Terrorism: It’s Not Jihad, It’s Unholy Hirabah, Jim Guirard
http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/terrorism_its_not_jihad_its_unholy_hirabah/
The Use and Abuse of Jihad in the Muslim World, Dr. Abdulaziz Sachedina
http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/from_defensive_to_offensive_warfarethe_use_and_abuse_of_jihad_in_the_muslim/
VIDEO: Tackling Extremism, Hamza Yusuf
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7464474174671383831&q=obsession+radical+islam
When in doubt call if Jihad, Svend White
http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/when_in_doubt_call_it_jihad/
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