We are witnessing the resumption of a monumental battle between two cultures. Christians and Muslims have been fighting for centuries, and the current conflict is thought of by many as just a continuation of the Crusades after a lull of eight hundred years or so. A review of the history of the Crusades and other religious wars exposes man’s inhumanity to man. Barbaric acts—torture of many varieties, including burnings at the stake, crucifixions, and beheadings—all the result of religious disagreements, have terrorized populations for millennia.
This battle between Western civilization and a radical dictatorial theocracy has resumed and will only escalate as months pass. The United States has already been viciously attacked (the World Trade Center attacks of 9/11), and the perpetrators are threatening even more devastating and widespread attacks on this country and the rest of the world. Fundamentalist Muslims (as opposed to moderate Muslims) pose a serious threat not only to the United States but to moderate Islamic nations and all non-Islamic nations. Their ultimate goal is the conversion of the entire world to Islam and rule by caliphates based on Sharia law as mandated in the Koran. Their aims are rooted in history. An in-depth study of Islam will provide a better understanding of their mission.
It is commonly believed that terrorism is fueled by poverty, injustice, lack of education, ignorance, or weak minds susceptible to brainwashing. This is a dangerous misconception when considering the jihadists. Osama bin Laden came from a wealthy family and was a civil engineer. Ayman al-Zawahiri is a physician. Mohammed Atta was an architect. Many jihadists are well-educated people—physicians, scientists, engineers, and architects. Many are married with families.
What drives jihadists to hate Western civilization, especially the United States and Israel? The answer lies in the history of Islam and in the Qur’an.
But before we explore this subject, it might be helpful to define the following terms related to Islam:
Apostasy – Renunciation of a religious faith. The formal disaffiliation from, or abandonment or renunciation of, Islam by a person.
Apostate – A Muslim who has committed apostasy (renounced his or her Islamic faith).
Fatwa – An Islamic ruling, legal opinion, or decree pertaining to a specific issue. A fatwa may be declared by an Islamic scholar or expert in Islamic law.
Hadith – The record of the teachings, deeds, and sayings of the Prophet Mohammed.
Infidel – A person who has no religious beliefs or rejects Islam. A person who believes in a religion other than Islam. The term infidel is synonymous with kafir.
Jihad – A holy war waged on behalf of Islam as a religious duty. Believers contend that those who die in combat become martyrs and are guaranteed a place in paradise.
Kafir – The Qur’an uses the word kafir to signify various negative qualities of a person. The term refers to a person who rejects Islam.
Sharia – Islamic law based on the teachings of the Qur’an and the Hadith, prescribing both religious and secular duties and sometimes retributive penalties for lawbreaking.
Takfir – In Islamic law, takfir refers to the practice of excommunication, one Muslim declaring a non-Muslim or an apostate an unbeliever or kafir.
Taqiyya – From the Qur’an and Hadith, the license, even encouragement given to Muslims to lie and deceive infidels in order to advance Islamic conquest.
History of Islam
THE PROPHET MOHAMMED
Mohammed was born in Mecca in AD 570. His father died shortly before his birth, and his mother died when he was six years old. He was then raised by his paternal uncle and a Bedouin nurse.
As a young man, he began a career managing trade caravans on behalf of merchants. At age twenty-five, Mohammed worked for a wealthy forty-year-old Meccan widow. They married and had a monogamous and loving marriage even though polygamy was common practice at the time.
In his late thirties, Mohammed sought refuge from daily life by retreating to a cave in Mount Hira, on the outskirts of Mecca. He would spend days or weeks there in meditation and solitude. In AD 610, at age forty, Mohammed returned from one visit and proclaimed that while in a trance-like state, the angel Gabriel appeared to him and commanded him to memorize and then proclaim messages (verses) from God (Allah) to all mankind. The people were to convert from polytheism, materialism, and immorality; repent from evil; live honest and pure lives; and worship Allah, the only true God. The flow of divine verses to Mohammed continued periodically over the next twenty-three years, giving directives as needed regarding religious beliefs, laws, daily life, social order, conduct in war, and other matters. Mohammed memorized each verse verbatim as dictated to him during the revelations.
Mohammed’s followers were few at first, numbering only about forty after three years. As his influence grew, his teachings threatened the open Meccan lifestyle, and his followers were at first mocked and later persecuted, beaten, stoned, and thrown in prison.
By AD 622 Mohammed gained a substantial following in the city of Medina, 280 miles north of Mecca. In Medina, he became a leader and used the revelations he received as a practical guide to creating and ruling a society. The laws prescribed by the verses became the laws of the city of Medina.
Revelations then came to Mohammed that allowed Muslims to take up arms against their enemies. They were being persecuted by groups outside Medina, and Mohammed still had a price on his head placed by the Meccans. Just as the earlier verses had given them guidance when the community needed order, now Mohammed received revelations regarding defending themselves against their attackers. But the meaning of certain verses was not always clear and was open to interpretation. The sword verses are the most striking and controversial. Those who now use the Koran to support jihad use these verses to back their actions.
Several battles were fought between Mohammed’s followers in Medina and the Meccans, and in 630, Mohammed’s army of ten thousand Muslim converts marched to Mecca and won the final confrontation. He converted the entire Meccan population to Islam.
Mohammed died in 632 at the age of sixty-two. By 634 the entire Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam. The new religion spread quickly, reaching the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Chinese border on the east within one hundred years of Mohammed’s death. The rapid spread was mainly due to the military and political prowess of the Caliphs.
THE QUR’AN
In 651, a committee of Mohammed’s followers exactly transcribed to text the devine verses that had been memorized and recited by Mohammed. The verses were considered perfectly preserved as they were revealed to the Prophet. The collected and compiled verses became known as the Qur’an (Koran).
The verses in the Qur’an dictate strict rules for both personal and group behavior in all aspects of daily life both in peacetime and during war. The Qur’an does not provide a detailed code of laws. There are only a few verses pertaining to legal matters. However, during his lifetime, Mohammed interpreted provisions in the Qur’an while acting as judge in legal cases, and Sharia law became an integral part of Islamic faith. Following Mohammed’s death, caliphs continued developing Sharia law with their own decisions and pronouncements.
The Old and New Testaments of the Bible were considered to have been corrupted, but the Qur’an was intact. To go to heaven, one must have followed the teachings of the Qur’an. It is considered the direct word from Allah transcribed into 114 chapters. Some verses, however, are subject to interpretation. What each person has found in the scriptures’ message is his or her own interpretation of the will of Allah.
SUNNIS VS SHIITES
Shortly after the death of the Prophet, Islam split into two factions, the Sunnis and the Shiites.
The Shiites, or Shia, believe that the successor to the Prophet, the imam, should be a member of his family, namely Ali, the Prophet’s cousin and son-in-law. Shiites consider imams to be infallible manifestations of God and perfect interpreters of the Qur’an. They believe any ruler of Islam must be divinely appointed, preserved from sin, and related to the Prophet Mohammed, as dictated by the Prophet himself. The imam is a figure of absolute religious authority. In the Shiite faction of Islam, the imams are given divine qualities. Ali was the first of the twelve imams. Shiites believe that in the tenth century, Allah took the Twelfth Imam (also referred to as the Mahdi, or “Hidden Imam”) into hiding, and he will return at the end of time, or Judgment Day.
Sunnis consider their imams as human leaders, and any qualified leader may be chosen as a ruler for Islam. Imams may be capable of error but deserve obedience provided they maintain the ordinances of Islam. The imam is identical to the caliph, or political successor of Mohammed.
The term imam is also given to Muslims who lead prayers in mosques and has been used as an honorary title.
Following the death of the Prophet, the Sunnis chose Abu Bakr, an effective leader unrelated to the Prophet, to be the first caliph. Eventually, Ali was chosen as the fourth caliph, but war broke out between the two factions and Ali was killed in 661 near the town of Kufa located in present-day Iraq. Ali’s son, Hussein, rejected the successor caliph and led the Shiites in battle against the caliph’s army. The attacking Shiites were all killed and Hussein was decapitated, his head taken to the Sunni caliph in Damascus. The two factions never resolved the bitter rivalry, and it continues to this day.
MUSLIM POPULATIONS
In 2009, the Pew Research Center estimated there were 1.57 billion Muslims throughout the world. About 90 percent of the total Muslim population is Sunni (~1.4 billion), while about 10 percent are Shiite (~157 million). The Pew Research Center also estimates these numbers will grow to almost 2 billion Muslims by the year 2030, with about the same distribution of Sunnis and Shiites. Sunni populations are concentrated in most Muslim countries while Shiites are concentrated in four countries: Iran (93% Shiite), Azerbaijan (70%), Bahrain (70%), and Iraq (67%). The four countries in the world with the largest Sunni-majority populations are Egypt (99% Sunni), Indonesia (99%), Bangladesh (99%), and Pakistan (87%).
Both factions have increased their populations and influence worldwide through emigration throughout Europe, Australia, Asia, and North and South America, including the United States and Canada. In 2010, the Pew Research Center estimated there were 2.6 million Muslims in the United States and 940,000 in Canada.
THE CRUSADES
AD 750 began the Golden Age of Islam. It emphasized knowledge in science, math, technology, and literature. Islam had quickly spread throughout the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, and India and inspired a series of empires.
Jerusalem was the third most holy city after Mecca and Medina. It is where Mohammed ascended into heaven. As a holy city to Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, battles over control of the city have been waged for centuries. Jerusalem was ruled by Arab Muslims from AD 632 until the end of the eleventh century. Turkish Muslims expanded to the west.
In 1095, the Byzantine church sent an urgent request to Pope Urban II, warning that help was needed to defend against the expanding Muslim population, which was now a direct threat to Christian Europe. The pope sent Christian warriors to help and fight.
In 1096, the first Crusade was launched. Fifty thousand peasants and seven thousand knights laid siege to Jerusalem. One thousand Crusaders died in that siege. In 1099, the Christians won the city and sacked it. The Crusaders were brutal and killed many inhabitants. In 1146, the Muslims started jihad to win back Jerusalem. In 1174, Saladin planned an attack on Jerusalem, and in 1187 he defeated a Crusader army and advanced to Jerusalem. He was merciful and released his prisoners. It was a bitter defeat for the Christians.
In 1189, Richard the Lionhearted led another Crusade, which resulted in a stalemate. A truce was declared on September 2, 1192. Saladin had failed to remove Christians from Muslim soil, and the battle was unresolved.
The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries marked the decline of the Golden Age of Islam. Knowledge became less important. The influence of Christian Europe was growing. The forces of the Ottoman Empire, which had expanded as far west as Vienna, were defeated there by Christian forces.
WAHHABISM
Wahhabism, also referred to as Salafism, is an ultraconservative, fundamentalist religious movement or sect of Sunni Islam named after the eighteenth-century preacher and scholar Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792). In the mid-eighteenth century, Wahhab started his movement in the remote Nejd region of Saudi Arabia. He formed a pact with the Saud family, offering political obedience in return for protection and propagation of the Wahhabi movement.
Wahhab stressed strict interpretation of the Qur’an. Wahhab and Saud met in 1774 and together controlled Saudi Arabia. Saud was the political leader while Wahhab became the religious leader. In 1924, Saud’s descendants conquered Saudi Arabia and formed a state eight years later. Wahhabism became law. The majority of the world’s Wahhabis are in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.
Wahhabism has caused considerable disruption in the Muslim community by easing the rules of takfir. In Islamic law, takfir refers to the practice of one Muslim excommunicating another. Wahhabism allows the labeling of non-Wahhabi (moderate) Muslims as apostates, or unbelievers, a crime punishable by death. A recent example of takfir is the merciless slaughter of hundreds of surrendered Muslim Iraqi soldiers and civilians by ISIL troops. In more moderate circles, stringent evidence of a Muslim renouncing his religion is needed to declare a Muslim an apostate. The radical fundamentalist Muslims believe that merely being associated with infidels is reason enough to be declared apostate, with no court or religious leader being involved in the decision.
CONTEMPORARY RADICAL ISLAM
Sayyid Qutb, born in Egypt in 1906, has been dubbed the “Philosopher of Islamic Terror” and is one of the most influential architects of modern Sunni Islamic political doctrine. Raised in a devout Muslim home, he memorized the Koran. He became a proponent of Wahhabism and interpreted the Koran as promoting violence to spread the word of Islam. He became a leading theorist of violent jihad.
In 1948, Qutb went to America and was outraged by the decadent lifestyles of Americans, which he deemed anti-Muslim, vulgar, barbaric, sexually promiscuous, pro-Israeli, and both morally and spiritually impoverished. He returned to Egypt in 1951 and joined the Muslim Brotherhood. In his writings he called all true Muslims to jihad against jahiliyya, or modern life, which America represents. His thoughts and writings have influenced many contemporary jihadists, including Ayman al-Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden.
In 1966, Qutb was accused of participating in an attempt to overthrow the Nassar regime and was hanged.
THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD
The Muslim Brotherhood is an Islamic religious and political organization dedicated to the establishment of a world based on Islamic principles. The organization was founded in Egypt in 1928. It began as a radical underground force in Egypt and other Sunni countries but has spread worldwide. The group promotes strict moral discipline and opposes Western influence, often by violence. For the last fifty years or so, the Muslim Brotherhood has moved into Europe and the United States and has established a wide and well-organized network of mosques, charities, Islamic organizations, and training camps, with the ultimate goal of converting the entire world into a united Islamic state. Through these entities, they raise funds for terrorist activities and recruit new members.
AL-QAEDA
Al-Qaeda was established about 1988 by Osama bin Laden. In its early years, it was involved in the Afghan resistance against the Soviet Union. It has since become an international terrorist network with the goal of establishing a caliphate (Islamic state) not only throughout the Middle East but the entire world. In 1998, Al-Qaeda issued a statement that it was the duty of all Muslims to kill U.S. citizens and their allies everywhere. In 2001, Al-Qaeda merged with the Egyptian Islamic Jihad organization led by Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Al-Qaeda’s first attack was the 1992 bombing of hotels in Yemen where U.S. troops were staying. Other notable attacks by Al-Qaeda include the USS Cole in 2000 and the Richard Reid shoe bombing attempt on an American Airlines flight in 2001. On September 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda, led by Osama bin Laden, carried out the attacks on the World Trade Center, killing 2,996 people and destroying buildings valued at more than ten billion dollars. The group who planned the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 also had Al-Qaeda connections. Al-Qaeda is responsible for multiple assassinations, bombings, hijackings, kidnappings, and suicide-bomber attacks around the world. Reports indicate that the group is attempting to obtain weapons of mass destruction.
ISIL or ISIS
This violent Al-Qaeda affiliate group known both as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) commands as many as 30,000 fighters, and its ranks are growing rapidly through a sophisticated social media recruiting program.
Their initial goal was to restore an Islamic state, or caliphate, in Iraq and the area known as the Levant—the eastern coast of the Mediterranean from southern Turkey to Egypt and encompassing what are now the nations of Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan. ISIL is well established in Syria and is now involved in a brutal and barbaric military campaign to take over Iraq. ISIL soldiers are able to justify their mass executions of captured Muslim Iraqi soldiers and civilians by considering them apostates, a crime punishable by death. It is essentially a program of ethnic cleansing.
ISIL proclaimed a worldwide caliphate on June 29, 2014. The group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was declared caliph and was renamed Caliph Ibrahim. The new caliphate claims religious authority over all Muslims worldwide and has a goal of gaining worldwide political and religious control. Once they are well established in the Levant, they reportedly plan to turn their attention to the United States with terrorist attacks more extensive and destructive than 9/11. This threat alone should be sufficient incentive for individuals and families to have a disaster preparedness program.
KHORASAN
In September 2014, United States government officials released information that a relatively unknown terrorist group in Syria was plotting imminent attacks on Western targets, possibly including the U.S. homeland. The group, known as Khorasan, consists of seasoned members of Al-Qaeda from across the Middle East and Europe who were sent to Syria by Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was the second in command of Al-Qaeda until the death of Osama bin Laden. Al-Zawahiri assumed leadership following bin Laden’s death. Khorasan’s leader, Muhsin al-Fadhli, is thought to have had a very close relationship with Osama bin Laden.
Khorasan has ties to notorious Yemeni bomb maker Ibrahim al-Asiri, who is believed to have made the underwear bomb carried by twenty-three-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 (an Airbus A330-323E jumbo jet with 290 passengers) from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day 2009. The bomb failed to detonate.
Khorasan is reportedly working alongside Jabhat al-Nusra, the official Al-Qaeda branch in Syria. The group is reportedly procuring bombs from Yemen. The goal in Syria is to find people to detonate the bombs. Fadhli reportedly trains these recruits on how to execute terror operations in Western countries, focusing mostly on means of public transportation such as trains and airplanes.
Now it is time to answer our original question. What drives jihadists to hate Western civilization, especially the United States and Israel? What drives seemingly intelligent, well-educated people to commit mass murder and brutal executions, including beheadings, stonings, and crucifixions?
The answer lies in the intense and complete religious belief of the jihadist in fundamentalist Islam. He has interpreted verses in the Qur’an and the Hadith to command him to convert the entire world to Islam by any means necessary. It is his duty to rid the world of apostates and infidels. By participating in this battle, he is promised that if he is killed in this effort, he will gain entrance to paradise.
This is the worldview of the jihadist:
- There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his messenger.
- Allah gave instructions (in the form of verses) to Mohammed through the angel Gabriel. These instructions are commandments regarding personal and societal behavior both in peacetime and in war.
- The Qur’an is a holy book. It is the written form of these verses memorized verbatim by Mohammed. Both the Qur’an and the Hadith convey direct instructions, rules, and certain proscribed punishments for infraction of these rules (Sharia law).
- The entire world must be converted to an Islamic theocracy ruled by Sharia law. This is the will of Allah. It is permissible to use any means necessary to accomplish this mission.
Islamic fundamentalists have an intense hatred of the United States. The way of life in America violates Islamic law and principles. They have an even more intense hatred of Israel and of all Jews. Their intent is to destroy both countries and all their infidel citizens. They believe in the use of violence to achieve their goal of a worldwide Islamic empire.
A number of terrorist groups have established well-organized cells in the United States. Terrorism experts have estimated the number of Islamic fundamentalists in the United States to be at least one hundred thousand. Many of their members blend in with Western culture and have become a part of communities and so are not suspected of being terrorists.
To learn more about Islamic fundamentalists and their goals, we suggest reading any of several noted authors on the subject, including Yossef Bodansky (Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America, Forum Prima, 1999), Walid Phares (Future Jihad, Palgrave MacMillan, 2005), and Steve Emerson (Jihad Incorporated, Prometheus, 2006).
