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JIHAD DEVOLVED FROM ANCIENT RELIGIOUS DECREES

Arnaud de Borchgrave
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

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NEWS ANALYSIS

  =C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0In a truly free election in Saudi Arabia, w=
ith the royal family on the sidelines bereft of the divine right of kings, =
and Osama Bin Laden as a candidate for prime minister, the world's most wan=
ted terrorist would win hands down. So spoke, albeit privately, one of the =
most important non-royals, who manages a big chunk of the royal family's fi=
nancial portfolio. =20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Bin Laden, a member of a powerful and rich-as=
-Croesus non-royal family, is seen by countless millions of fundamentalist =
Muslims as the successor of several famous Islamic theologians going back a=
ll the way to Taqi al-Din ibn Taymiyya.=20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0 Born in A.D. 1269, Taymiyya wrote extensivel=
y on jihad (holy war) against transgressors of the word of Allah as conveye=
d by the Prophet. This contemporary of Dante elevated jihad to the same lev=
el as the "five pillars" of Islam =E2=80=94 prayer, pilgrimage, alms, faith=
 ("No God but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet"), and Ramadan. =20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Indeed, a survey of the various strains of ra=
dical Islam active in large swaths of the Muslim world presents much that i=
s worrisome to a Western policy-maker.=20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0"The Age of Sacred Terror" is a remarkable ne=
w book by two of the Clinton White House's counterterrorist directors that =
delves into the roots of militant Islam and its jihad duties. Anyone who op=
poses jihad is an enemy of God.=20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0"By asserting that jihad against apostates wi=
thin the realm of Islam is justified =E2=80=94 by turning jihad inward and =
reforging it into a weapon for use against Muslims as well as infidels =E2=
=80=94 [Taymiyya] planted a seed of revolutionary violence in the heart of =
Islamic thought," wrote co-authors Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon. =20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0The two argue that it was precisely the weapo=
n of jihad that heavily armed Muslim extremists turned to when they invaded=
 and occupied the Grand Mosque in Mecca in November 1979. The House of Saud=
 was momentarily paralyzed; they couldn't send security forces into the mos=
t sacred site in all of Islam with orders to shoot it out with the jihadist=
s in the tunnels around the mosque. The royals turned to the French for hel=
p. The tunnels were flooded and high-voltage cables dropped into the water.=
 Most of the jihadists drowned or were electrocuted.=20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Any leader of a Muslim country who does not r=
ule according to a strict interpretation of the Islamic legal code known as=
 Shariah is fair game for jihadists, as Taymiyya ordained. It was Taymiyya'=
s fatwa (religious decree) in 1303 against Mongol invaders that turned the =
tide against Mongols who had converted to Islam. =20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0If Taymiyya was Bin Laden's first role model,=
 the second was Mohammed ibn Abd al-Wahhab, born in 1703 in Arabia, then a =
remote, neglected part of the Ottoman Empire. The works of Taymiyya became =
religious pillars of back-to-basics Wahhabism, as al-Wahhab's ideas came to=
 be known. Its creed was that "innovation" was a grave sin against Islam. "=
Takfir" was proclaimed, which meant innovators were to be put to death. =20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Al-Wahhab, allied with a local sheik, Mohamme=
d ibn Saud, fought to restore a strict interpretation of the faith. By the =
time he died in 1792, Wahhabism had conquered most of central Arabia.=20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0The descendants of al-Wahhbab and Ibn Saud co=
ntinued this close alliance of religious zeal and territorial conquest =E2=
=80=94 and forced the rest of the Arabian peninsula to comply.=20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Key modern-day literary firebrands on the sid=
e of Muslim revolutionary fervor included Abu al-Ala Maududi and Rashid Rid=
a. They linked Islam with the rhetoric of communism and fascism, a linkage =
that helped fuel the success of Islamist extremists in the Oct. 10 election=
s in Pakistan.=20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0A similar fusion occurred in Iran in the late=
 1970s when the ayatollahs and the underground Tudeh (Communist) party merg=
ed their efforts to undermine and overthrow the U.S.-backed shah of Iran.=
=20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0On Jan. 26, 1952, the violent Muslim Brotherh=
ood suddenly exploded on the Cairo scene by burning down some 300 buildings=
. King Farouk survived six more months until a military coup of "Free Offic=
ers," led by Gamal Abdel Nasser, abolished the monarchy and allowed the kin=
g to sail on his yacht into comfortable exile in Monte Carlo. =20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0The chief theoretician of the Muslim Brotherh=
ood was Sayyid Qutb, who wrote nonstop during his desert imprisonment by Na=
sser. Hanged in 1965, his books are still best-sellers throughout the Middl=
e East. His manifesto, "Signposts," merged all the essential elements of re=
volutionary Islamism.=20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Qutb's views of America =E2=80=94 derived fro=
m his stay in Greeley, Colo., while working on a master's in education =E2=
=80=94 are widely shared today throughout radical Islam. Repelled by Americ=
a's admiration for Israel, as well as the licentiousness and racism that he=
 believed pervaded the country, he decried American culture as foul and emp=
ty. =20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0From Yasser Arafat's attempt to overthrow Jor=
danian King Abdullah I in September 1970 to the assassination of Anwar Sada=
t in 1981, Sayyid Qutb's outpourings were cited by militants as the rationa=
le to kill America's puppets.=20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0The other branch of militant Islam sprang fro=
m anti-colonial sentiment in British-ruled India in the mid-19th century.=
=20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Known as Dar ul-Ulum (Realm of Learning), it =
took root at Deoband, in Uttar Pradesh. Deobandism, dedicated to a particul=
ar concept of Islam known as "salafi," and Wahhabism constitute the two mai=
n wings of Islamist fundamentalism that continue to vie for influence in pr=
esent-day Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia.=20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Ninety-nine percent of the world's 1.2 billio=
n Muslims are moderate and see jihad as a self-cleansing process to get bac=
k on the path of spiritual excellence. Leaders such as Egyptian President H=
osni Mubarak, Pakistan's Gen. Pervez Musharraf, King Abdullah II of Jordan,=
 King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, King Mohammed VI of Morocco all have told this =
reporter in the past two years that Islamist extremists are no more than 1 =
percent of their population.=20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0When Gen. Musharraf was reminded that 1 perce=
nt of Pakistan's population of 140 million is 1.4 million, he said, "You're=
 right, but I'd never thought of it that way."=20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0One percent of 1.2 billion Muslims worldwide =
is 12 million fanatics who believe America is the Great Satan, fount of all=
 evil, to be attacked and demolished.=20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Islamist terrorist groups have plenty of plac=
es to hide =E2=80=94 the tri-border area of Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, w=
here camps have been reported; war-torn Colombia; Somalia in Africa; Sumatr=
a in Indonesia; Mindanao in the Philippines; even remote areas of the Unite=
d States. =20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Muslims are a majority in 63 countries. Of th=
e 30 conflicts now under way in the world, 28 concern Muslim governments, c=
ommunities, or both. Amir Taheri, an Iranian author and journalist, estimat=
es that two-thirds of the world's political prisoners are held in Muslim co=
untries, which also carry out 80 percent of all executions each year.=20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Many of the imams in America's 2,000-plus pri=
ncipal mosques (for a population of about 2 million Muslims) are recently n=
aturalized U.S. citizens who were sent over as missionaries from both Iran =
and Saudi Arabia.=20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0"We are spreading the good word of our faith =
in America," said the imam at the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heigh=
ts, Mich., who came over from Iran 10 years ago, "just as you send Christia=
n missionaries to sub-Sahara Africa." He also chided his interlocutor for d=
ismissing his contention that September 11 was a combined operation by the =
CIA and Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service. =20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Vatican sources concede Roman Catholic effort=
s have been steadily losing ground in Africa to "the Muslim penetration" fo=
r the past 30 years.=20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0In Pakistan, fundamentalist Muslim clerics ha=
ve resisted any reform of the madrassas, the Koranic schools that have been=
 used to inculcate anti-U.S. and anti-Israeli views.=20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Among the teachings current in such schools: =
A great apocalyptic war is in the offing that will end in the Muslim conque=
st of Europe, and, in time, America as well. Some 750,000 young Pakistanis =
are presently in 11,000 madrassas where they are taught that jihad is the n=
oblest of human endeavors.=20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Gen. Hamid Gul, a former Pakistani intelligen=
ce chief with pronounced anti-American views, boasts that a greater Islamic=
 caliphate is fast approaching, one that will combine the oil riches of Sau=
di Arabia with the nuclear weapons of Pakistan, "which could then deal with=
 America on an equal footing."=20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0In Singapore, former Prime Minister Lee Kuan =
Yew, said that the "greatest threat facing civilization over the next 10 ye=
ars was an Islamist bomb and, mark my words, it will travel."=20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0It is hard to escape the conclusion that a U.=
S. invasion of Iraq to topple Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein and replace hi=
m with a pro-American government will be seen throughout radical Islam, and=
 large segments of moderate Islam as well, as yet another defeat that must =
be avenged. As the extremists read history, the defeat of the Ottomans at t=
he gates of Vienna in 1683 triggered a reversal of Islam's fortunes that ha=
s continued ever since.=20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0The radical Islamic strains put to a severe t=
est President Bush's oft-repeated contention that Islam is "a faith based u=
pon peace and love and compassion" committed to "morality and learning and =
tolerance." =20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Radical Islam is committed to jihad against t=
he United States and Israel, or a war of civilizations between the Judeo-Ch=
ristian West and the impoverished Muslim world. The Wahhabis and Deobandis =
hate all things American, and condemn all religions outside their own view =
of Islam.=20
=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0=C2=A0Moderate Islam is yet to find a voice that wi=
ll roll back the extremists, a sort of Islamic Martin Luther, or at least a=
 Martin Luther King.

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