War on Islam controversy
War against Islam is a term used to describe a concerted effort to harm, weaken or annihilate the societal system of
The phrase or similar phrases have been used by
Jonathan Schanzer has argued that the historical Muslim indifference to the West turned to "alarmed dislike" with the beginning of Western military superiority in the 17th century. However, with the end of the era of Western colonialism, rage against non-Muslims and the governments of Muslim-majority countries stems not from alleged non-Muslim aggression and enmity, but allegedly from frustration over the unrelenting encroachment of mostly Western culture, technology, economies, and from a yearning for a "return to the glorious days when Islam reigned supreme."[13]
Usage of the term and concept
The most influential Islamists who have alleged a broad malicious conspiracy against the societal system of Islam are:
Sayyid Qutb
From the background of the
The Western ways of thought … [have] an enmity toward all religion, and in particular with greater hostility toward Islam. This enmity toward Islam is especially pronounced and many times is the result of a well-thought-out scheme the object of which is first to shake the foundations of Islamic beliefs and then gradually to demolish the structure of Muslim society.[15]
Among the early books following Qutb is Qadat al-gharb yaquluman: dammiru al-Islam, ubidu ahlahu (Western Leaders Are Saying: Destroy Islam, Annihilate All of Its People) written by Jalal `Alam and published in 1977.[18]
Ayatollah Khomeini
Ayatollah
[Europeans] have known the power of Islam themselves for it once ruled part of Europe, and they know that true Islam is opposed to their activities. (...) From the very outset, therefore, they have sought to remove this obstacle from their path by disparaging Islam (...). They have resorted to malicious propaganda (...).[22] The agents of imperialism are busy in every corner of the Islamic world drawing our youth away from us with their evil propaganda.[23] They are destroying Islam! Agents – both foreigners sent by the imperialists and natives employed by them – have spread out into every village and region of Iran and are leading our children and young people astray.[24]
Osama bin Laden
From a
All these crimes and sins committed by the Americans are a clear declaration of war on Allah, his messenger, and Muslims. What bears no doubt in this fierce Judeo-Christian campaign against the Muslim world, the likes of which has never been seen before, is that the Muslims must prepare all possible might to repel the enemy (...).[26] Every day, from east to west, our umma of 1200 million Muslims is being slaughtered (...)[27] We (...) see events not as isolated incidents, but as part of a long chain of conspiracies, a war of annihilation (...).[28] The West (...) will not be able to respect others' beliefs or feelings. (...) They regard jihad for the sake of God or defending one's self or his country as an act of terror.[29]
Allegations relating to the supposed war against Islam
Islamic tradition and history
According to scholar David B. Cook, a religious studies professor at
The Messenger of God said: The nations are about to flock against you [the Muslims] from every horizon, just as hungry people flock to a kettle. We said: O Messenger of God, will we be few on that day? He said: No, you will be many in number, but you will be scum, like the scum of a flash-flood, without any weight, since fear will be removed from the hearts of your enemies, and weakness (wahn) will be placed in your hearts. We said: O Messenger of God, what does the word wahn mean? He said: Love of this world, and fear of death.[32][33]
Cook claims that the idea of a Western war against the societal system of Islam is a belief "at the heart of the radical Muslim and especially the globalist radical Muslim;" a factor "binding globalist radical Muslims together."[34]
Western supporters of the belief in ingrained Western hatred/hostility of Islam include historian Roger Savory, and Boston-based novelist and author James Carroll. According to Savory, Christendom felt threatened by Islam and its march into Europe, (the Muslim Umayyad Caliphate advanced into Europe as far as northern France before being defeated at the Battle of Tours in 732; the Muslim Ottoman Empire attempted to conquer Vienna twice, laying siege to the city in 1529 and 1683), and thus became hostile to it.[35][36]
Alleged legacy of the Crusades
Islamists who use this term often point to the
On September 16, 2001, President George W. Bush referred to the war in Afghanistan as a Crusade: "This crusade, this war on terrorism is going to take a while. And the American people must be patient. I'm going to be patient." [39]
In contrast, historian Bernard Lewis points out that the Crusaders had strong motives to wage the Crusade other than the denigration of Islam. The lands they attempted to recover were the lands where Christianity was founded, including "the holy land where Christ had lived, taught and died", and where "a substantial proportion of the population ... perhaps even a majority, was still Christian", since "not much more than four centuries had passed since the Arab Muslim conquerors had wrested theses lands from Christendom". Rather than the Crusades leaving a psychological scar passed down through the ages among Muslims, the Arabs of the time did not refer to the Crusaders as Crusaders or Christians but as Franks or Infidels, and "with few exceptions", the Muslim historians of the time showed "little interest in whence or why the Franks had come, and report their arrival and their departure with equal lack of curiosity".[Note 1]
Modern-day events
The alleged perpetrators of the "War on Islam" include
In particular, Western support for the continued occupation of
In 2016, the US National Security Adviser said: "We are facing another ‘ism,’ just like we faced Nazism, and fascism, and imperialism and communism. This is Islamism, it is a vicious cancer inside the body of 1.7 billion people on this planet and it has to be excised.".[51]
The 2005
Media
The Universities of Georgia and Alabama in the United States conducted a study comparing media coverage of "terrorist attacks" committed by Islamist militants with those of non-Muslims in the United States. Researchers found that "terrorist attacks" by Islamist militants receive 357% more media attention than attacks committed by non-Muslims or whites. Terrorist attacks committed by non-Muslims (or where the religion was unknown) received an average of 15 headlines, while those committed by Muslim extremists received 105 headlines. The study was based on an analysis of news reports covering terrorist attacks in the United States between 2005 and 2015.[62]
Reception
Reactions in the non-Muslim West to the alleged war have varied. Some Western political leaders have dismissed the claims of a war being fought against Islam as untrue, while also being sensitive to Muslim fears of such a "war" and shaping some of their political statements and actions with Muslim fears in mind—including denouncing those who verbally attack Muslims.[63] Other non-Muslims have argued that the truth of a religious war is the other way around—it being Muslims who are waging war against non-Muslims.[64]
Reception in American politics
Following Islamist terrorist attacks both President Barack Obama (following the San Bernardino attack) and George W. Bush (after the 9/11 attacks) made a point of stating that the US was not at war with Islam, instead saying that they were at "war against evil" (Bush) and "people who have perverted Islam" (Obama).[63][65]
When Republican presidential nominee
Madiha Afzal of the Brookings Institution wrote in August 2016 that Trump's allegations of an Islamic war on America were helping ISIS convince Muslims that America is at war with Islam.[67]
Reception in Muslim discourse
A measure of the strength of the belief that a non-Muslim power (the United States) is at least attempting to weaken, if not annihilate, Islam can be found in opinion polls that showed, as of late 2006/ early 2007, strong majorities — at least 70% — in the Muslim countries of Egypt, Morocco, Pakistan, and Indonesia, answering "yes" to the pollsters' question: do you believe the United States seeks to "weaken and divide the Islamic world?"[68]
Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon write in their book Age of Sacred Terror:
In the
Islamists may not control parliaments or government palaces, but they have occupied the popular imagination.[69]
The idea that the West is waging war on Islam has however been dismissed by many non-Muslims in the west.
Western proponents of the "War against Islam" theory
According to
See also
- Conspiracy theories in the Arab world
- Conspiracy theories in Turkey
- List of conspiracy theories
- Destruction of early Islamic heritage sites in Saudi Arabia
- Grand Mosque seizure
- Islam and modernity
- Islamophobia in the media
- Islam and secularism
- Islamophobia in the United States
- Persecution of Muslims
- Violence against Muslims in India
Notes
- ^ "In recent years it has become the practice, in both western Europe and the Middle East, to see and present the Crusades as an early exercise in Western imperialism - as a wanton and predatory aggression by the European powers of the time against the Muslim or, as some would now say, against the Arab lands.
They were not seen in that light at the time, either by Christians or by Muslims. For contemporary Christians, the Crusades were religious wars, the purpose of which was to recover the lost lands of Christendom and in particular the holy land where Christ had lived, taught and died. In this connection, it may be recalled that when the Crusaders arrived in the Levant not much more than four centuries had passed since the Arab Muslim conquerors had wrested theses lands from Christendom - less than half the time from the Crusades to the present day - and that a substantial proportion of the population of these lands, perhaps even a majority, was still Christian."[40]
"With few exceptions, the Muslim historians show little interest in whence or why the Franks had come, and report their arrival and their departure with equal lack of curiosity. This was the age of Muslim weakness and division, and the Muslim world, in East and West alike, was being invaded by barbarians, both external and internal, from every side."[40]
References
- ^ Richard Cohen (Aug 10, 2010). "The Economist's unforgivable silence on Sayyid Qutb's anti-Semitism". Washington Post. Retrieved June 2, 2013.
- ^ Sayyid Qutb from atheism and nudity to Ikhwan al-muslimin and tafsir | Shaykh Raslan, retrieved 2021-05-27
- ^ "KHOMEINI, AYATOLLAH". Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved June 2, 2013.
- ^ Paula newton (March 17, 2010). "Purported al-Awlaki message calls for jihad against U.S." CNN. Retrieved June 2, 2013.
- ^ "The Evolution of a Radical Cleric: Quotes from Anwar al-Awlaki". New York Times. May 8, 2010. Retrieved June 2, 2013.
- ^ Michael Slackman (April 24, 2006). "Bin Laden Says West Is Waging War Against Islam". New York Times. Retrieved June 2, 2013.
- ^ Simon Saradzhyan (May 2, 2013). "Are Chechen Immigrants a 'Threat'?". Huffington Post.
- ^ Oliver Bullough (April 19, 2013). "Beslan Meets Columbine". New York Times.
- ^ Elad Bernai (Feb 23, 2011). "Obama Should Embrace Islam, Says Muslim Cleric". Israel National News. Retrieved June 2, 2013.
- ^ Catherine Herridge (July 26, 2013). "Accused Fort Hood shooter releases statement to Fox News". Fox News.
- ^ "Trump's "Muslim ban" is a huge gift to ISIS". Vox. January 29, 2017.
ISIS has been trying for years to convince Muslims around the world that the West — and especially the United States — is at war with Islam.
- ISBN 9780190631932. Retrieved 2016-07-17.
- ^ Schanzer, Jonathan (10 May 2002). "At War With Whom? A short history of radical Islam". Doublethink (Spring 2002). Retrieved 9 May 2016.
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ignored (help) - ^ PBS program America at the crossroads "Qutb, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, visits America in 1948"
- ^ Qutb, Milestones, (1981) p.116
- ^ Roy, Olivier, Globalized Islam : the Search for a New Ummah, Columbia University Press, 2004, p. 250.
- ^ Roy, Olivier, The Failure of Political Islam, translated by Carol Volk, Harvard University Press, 1994, p.19-20
- ^ Cook, Understanding Jihad, (2005), p.137
- ^ Khomeini, Islam and Revolution (1981) p.34
- ^ Khomeini, Islam and Revolution (1981) p.139
- ^ Some speculate that the figure of 300 years may come from the date of farthest advance of Muslim armies. On September 11, 1683, the king of Poland began the Battle of Vienna, where the army of the Ottoman Empire under Grand Vizier Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha was defeated. In the next two centuries the Ottoman Empire was militarily rolled back and economically overshadowed and by Western Christian military power and technology. see: Wright, Lawrence, Looming Tower, (2006), p.171
- ^ Khomeini, Islam and Revolution, (1981) p.140
- ^ Khomeini, Islam and Revolution (1981) p.127
- ^ Khomeini, Islam and Revolution (1981) p.128
- ^ bin Laden, Messages, (2006)
- ^ published in Islamic magazine from Australia, Nida'ul Islam (The Call of Islam), October–November 1996
- ^ bin Laden, Messages, (2006), p.153, from December 2001 statement recorded for release to al-Jazeera, shown on al-Jazeera December 26.
- ^ bin Laden, Messages, (2006), p.133, from Letter to al-Jazeera's Kabul Bureau November 3, 2001, 10 days before the Northern Alliance entry.
- ^ Transcript of Osama bin Laden's audiotape Archived 2008-11-21 at the Wayback Machine, dated April 23, 2006, "Aljazeera"
- ^ Fulcher of Chartres' account of Urban's speech, Urban II: Speech at Council of Clermont, 1095, Five versions of the Speech (available as part of the Internet Medieval Sourcebook).
- ^ Cook, Understanding Jihad (2005), p.143
- ^ Abu Da'ud, Sunan, (Beirut, 1988), IV, p.108 (no. 4297) quoted in Cook, Understanding Jihad - Abu Dawood declared some of Hadiths (including the above) in his book to be unauthentic (2005), p.143
- ^ Others maintain the hadith or similar ones are authentic. "Al-Wahn, A Deadly Disease". www.IISCA.org. 19 April 2006. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
- ^ Cook Understanding Jihad, 2005, p.136
- ^ Savory, R.M., Christendom vs Islam: interaction & co-existence, Introduction to Islamic Civilisation, p.127
- ^ Savory, R.M., Christendom vs Islam: interaction & co-existence, Introduction to Islamic Civilisation, p.128
- ^ Qutb, Milestones, p.159-160
- ^ Savory, R.M., Christendom vs Islam: interaction & co-existence, Introduction to Islamic Civilisation, p.134
- ^ a b "President: Today We Mourned, Tomorrow We Work". 17 September 2001. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
- ^ a b Islam and the West by Bernard Lewis Oxford University Press, 1993 p.12
- ^ Here Osama bin Laden says: "This is why they established institutions and enacted laws to maintain their supremacy by creating the United Nations and the veto power.... They regard jihad for the sake of God or defending one's self or his country as an act of terror. US and Europe consider jihad groups in Palestine, Chechnya, Iraq and Afghanistan as terrorist groups, so how could we talk or have understanding with them without using weapons?"
- ^ Human Rights Watch: Chechnya: Research Shows Widespread and Systematic Use of Torture
- ^ Chechnya Holds Parliamentary Vote, Morning Edition, NPR, 28 November 2005.
- ^ Government efforts help only some IDPs rebuild their lives Archived 2013-08-21 at the Wayback Machine, IDMC, 13 August 2007
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on August 16, 2007. Retrieved 2016-02-08.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Terrorism Monitor - The Jamestown Foundation". Archived from the original on 14 August 2007. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
- ^ "What is worse than terrorist attacks?" (PDF).
- ^ "Osama bin Laden dead: The one time that he mentioned Kashmir". The Economic Times. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
- ^ Al-Qaida leader warns of new attacks Archived 2008-02-28 at the Wayback Machine Aljazeera.net, FEBRUARY 27, 2004
- ^ Khomeini, Islam and Revolution, (1981), p.127
- ^ Andrew Kaczynski (22 November 2016). "Michael Flynn in August: Islamism a 'vicious cancer' in body of all Muslims that 'has to be excised'". CNN. Retrieved 2020-10-17.
- ^ "Bin Laden Says West Is Waging War Against Islam". Archived from the original on 2008-05-22. Retrieved 2007-10-25.
- ^ The racist crusade against Muslims Archived 2006-05-06 at the Wayback Machine accessed 10-23-2007
- ^ 'A conspiracy against Islam' Archived 2007-09-14 at the Wayback Machine accessed 10-23-2007
- ^ Islamophobia Watch, Documenting the war against Islam Archived 2007-10-19 at the Wayback Machine categories of the website include "Danish Cartoons"
- ^ "Bin Laden Threatens Europe over Mohammed Cartoons | DW | 20.03.2008". Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on January 1, 2020. Retrieved March 28, 2008.
- ^ Transcript released by the SITE Institute, a U.S. group that monitors terror messages
- ^ "Qatari University Lecturer Ali Muhi Al-Din Al-Qardaghi: Muhammad Cartoon Is a Jewish Attempt to Divert European Hatred from Jews to Muslims", Al-Jazeera/MemriTV, 2 March 2006.
- ^ "Cartoons 'part of Zionist plot'", Guardian, 7 February 2006.
- ^ "PA: Likud behind Muhammad cartoons", ynet, 13 February 2006.
- ^ "The 'War Against Islam': How a Conspiracy Theory Drove and Shaped the Islamist Movement". European Eye on Radicalization. 2019-12-06. Retrieved 2020-10-17.
- )
- ^ a b Greenberg, Jon (11 December 2015). "War of words: The fight over 'radical Islamic terrorism'". Politifact. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
- ^ Tracinski, Robert (October 29, 2001). "A War against Islam". The Ayn Rand Institute. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
- ^ a b c Parker, Kathleen (December 18, 2015). "Americans must take a stand against our own extremists". Washington Post. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
- ^ Anthony, Charles B. (10 February 2017). "Steve Bannon is preparing Trump for a holy war. No, really". Middle East Eye. Retrieved 27 May 2017.
- ^ "How we all reinforce a narrative of Islam versus the West". Brookings Institution. August 4, 2016.
- ^ Poll conducted from December 2006 to February 2007 by WorldPublicOpinion.org Muslims Believe US Seeks to Undermine Islam Archived 2008-04-07 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ (italics added), The Age of Sacred Terror by Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon, New York : Random House, c2002, p.172-3
- ^ a b MacAskill, Ewen (3 November 2001). "Paranoid Muslims are the problem, says Rushdie". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
- ^ "The war against Islam" by James Carroll, June 7, 2005.
- ^ "Fuad Nahdi: Young, British and ready to fight". the Guardian. April 2003. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
- ^ Anas Altikriti (10 February 2006). "Anas Altikriti: This is not a cartoon war". the Guardian. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
- ^ "A Moment to Pause and Reflect" Archived 2006-05-16 at the Wayback Machine by John V. Whitbeck, accessed 10-23-2007
Further reading
- The War on Islam by Enver Masud
- Cook, David (c. 2005). Understanding Jihad. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-24448-6.
- Khomeini, Ruhollah; Algar, Hamid (translator and editor) (1981). Islam and Revolution : Writing and Declarations of Imam Khomeini. Berkeley: Mizan Press.
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has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - bin Laden, Osama; James Howarth (translator) (2005). Messages to the world : the statements of Osama Bin Laden. New York: Verso. ISBN 9781844670451.)
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has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - Qutb, Sayyid (1981). Milestones. The Mother Mosque Foundation.