A New Jihad?

Within a century from the death of the founding Prophet Muhammad, in 632 AD, Islamic conquests had rolled across the Middle East, taken North Africa and annexed most of Spain (around 711 AD). From there, they made incursions into France, Europe in general, and even forced the Pope to flee Rome. The battle for the control of Spain raged for hundreds of years, Christian forces pushing hard, and Islamic forces pushing back harder. The Muslims attacked Europe pretty much at will for approximately 400 years before the Crusades, which lasted a mere 120 years, offered a fairly lame retaliation. This is how the Judeo-Christian world first encountered militant Islam, but this conflict has ebbed and flowed throughout modern history.

The Muslim world eventually fell into decay with the collapse of the once-powerful Ottomans (in the 1800s, they were described as the “sick man of Europe”) and the conquest or virtual conquest of traditionally Muslim lands by the Western powers. Derided as “camel jockeys” and “ragheads,” a massive inferiority complex slid into the psyche of Muslims worldwide. But as oil provided new wealth and concomitant power to the Middle East, a new Islamic militancy began to return to the world stage. Behind all of this militancy is a quest for respect and dignity; Muslims yearned for their once advanced civilization that ran roughshod over the West for hundreds and hundreds of years.

While Europeans were burning books and creeping through the Dark Ages, the Islamic world gathered those same books, preserved them in their libraries, advanced agronomy, astronomy, geography and, most significantly in a modern world built on science, a system of mathematics that endures to this very day. Ever try and multiply Roman numerals? That’s why we call our numbering system “Arabic numerals.” Algebra is an Arabic word. Yet Islam is hardly a religion of tolerance: “Believers, make war on infidels who dwell around you. Deal firmly with them. Know that Allah is with the righteous.” (Quran 9:123). To the West, the days of Muslim splendor seem to have passed. To those Muslims born in an oil rich world, they believe their time has returned. T o the most extreme believers, the rebirth of Islamic power is an opportunity to return to the era of conquest and forced conversion.

One of the most complex and least understood “pillars” of Islam is Jihad – often viewed by the West as meaning a “holy war” – which is not defined in the Qur’an with crystal clarity. To some, it means “sacrificing one's life for the sake of Islam/God/a just cause” or “fighting against the opponents of Islam.” To others, it represents a religious mandate to destroy non-believers and impose Islam and its laws everywhere. Wikipedia summarizes some of the less militant interpretations of the word: “A commitment to hard work” and “achieving one's goals in life,” “Struggling to achieve a noble cause,” “Promoting peace, harmony or cooperation, and assisting others,” or “Living the principles of Islam.” Most of Islam adheres to these less threatening definitions of “Jihad.” Unfortunately, a growing minority prefer the more violent interpretation.

Look at a map of the Africa; the north is largely Islamic, and the Sub-Sahara is a hodge-podge of varying forms of Christianity with a few more primitive beliefs systems along the way. Entire nations – like Nigeria – are split between fundamentalist factions of Christians and Muslims, often eying each other with disdain if not outright violent hostility. And militant Islam is on the march once again. We’ve seen its perils in the devastating 9/11 attacks, launched effectively with Taliban support, from Afghanistan, and we are witnessing a southward movement, out of war-torn Somalia, moving into Kenya, Tanzania and now, Uganda: “The bombings orchestrated by Somalia's al-Shabab militia that killed at least 74 people watching the World Cup finals on television [on the evening of July 11^th] are the latest sign of the growing ambitions of al-Qaeda's regional affiliates outside the traditional theaters of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.” Washington Post (July 13^th).

While I continue to advocate the removal of the United States from an unwinnable conflict in Afghanistan, make no mistake that I perceive extremist Islamist violence as anything but the profound global threat that it truly is. It must be countered and understood. To me, the American efforts in Afghanistan are nothing more than a blessing to militant Islam: 1. Al Qaeda and its clones use that conflict – very successfully – to stir Muslims worldwide against the United States and to recruit a growing disenfranchised corps of “religious fighters” to attack non-Muslim targets everywhere and 2. The continued hard dollar costs of U.S. military commitments have slowly drained our coffers, sapping our economy, and weakening our global power accordingly. These militants revel in this perceived, however indirect, success.

Al Qaeda – a body of affiliated Islamist groups – is striking new African targets: “The [Uganda] attacks, intended to inflict maximum damage on civilian targets, mark the first major international assault by Somali militants in a region where the United States and its allies are attempting to stem the rise of Islamist militancy. At least one American was killed and several were wounded in the [July 11^th] strikes… The United States has provided millions of dollars in military and economic aid, training, equipment, logistical support and intelligence to regional counterterrorism allies such as Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya.” The Post. To counter the true enemies that threaten our survival, we must both understand them and their methods… and we really cannot let them lure us into self-destructive acts that serve their most diabolical purposes.

I’m Peter Dekom, and we do indeed live in a dangerous world.