User:Atcovi/Islamic Extremism: A New Perspective & Proposal

Islamic extremism is a term familiar to everyone in the world due to the extensive terror it has installed into common people. According to a 2014 article on BBC News, the British government defined Islamic extremism as a “vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs” (Casciani, bbc.com). Although the definition states “British” values, we can assume that the values of the nation in question also apply equally to the quoted definition. Although a popular subject in regards to the safety of the commonfolk, the history, and solutions behind tackling Islamic extremism remains vague. In order to lessen the prevalence of Islamic extremist ideologies, we must welcome Muslims into diverse communities, cease military operations that put Muslims in danger, and not erroneously blame the religion of Islam.

Researcher John Moore cites the creation of Israel in 1948 as the catalyst for anti-Western sentiment across the Middle East (John Moore, pbs.org). After the conclusion of WWII in 1945, a political movement amongst the Jews began to take action. This movement is known as Zionism. Zionists believed that they were entitled to a Jewish homeland in or near Jerusalem, a city considered holy by the Jews and Muslims. Zionists fled to Palestine and began to create settlements in the region, much to the opposition of the Arabs already living in Palestine. In May 1948, Israel officially declared an independent Jewish nation. In response, five Arab nations, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, invaded Israel, leading to the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. The war continued until a year later when a cease-fire agreement was observed by all parties. Israel remained an independent nation but certain regions, such as the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, were given to the Arab nations (History of Israel, history.com). Despite the 1949 Armistice Agreements, major conflicts continued to ensue following the war. With continued frustrations boiling and a mindset of “terrorism [being an] effective [way] in reaching political goals”, certain Palestinian factions resorted to terrorism (John Moore, pbs.org). One of these cases was the Munich massacre in the 1972 Summer Olympic games, where masked Palestinian terrorists took a number of Israeli Olympians hostage. The introduction of terroristic means to convey a message was not only limited to Palestine but spread to Egypt and Iran. The Egyptian Islamic Jihad group was created in the 1970s and remains active to this day, working extensively to create an Islamic state in Egypt. Post-religious revolution Iran backed the terroristic Hezbollah Shia extremist group, which has executed terrorist attacks on Israeli establishments internationally. Iran’s revolution proved to be a major catalyst in radical Islamic movements throughout the world.

Soon after the Munich massacre in 1979, the last Shah (ruler) of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, was overthrown by an anti-secular movement led by Imam Khomeini. This resulted in Iran turning into an Islamic republic whilst opposing Western policies and philosophies. Khomeini stated in a 1980 speech to the Islamic Republic of Iran that his nation was actively fighting “against the Western world — devourers led by America, Israel, and Zionism” (Khomeini, merip.org). Iran’s shocking revolution increased anti-Western sentiment and hatred for Western values, including secularism. America was seen as the center of the “western values” that Islamic extremism strictly opposed (secularism and democracy), in part due to its backing of Israel and the Pahlavi dynasty. This is proven by Khomeini’s coupling of “Shah and America” when referring to his Islamic clergy overthrowing the American-backed Pahlavi dynasty (Khomeini, merip.org). Nearby to Iran was Afghanistan, which was also dealing with an invasion by a major western power at around the same time as Iran’s revolution.

In 1979, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan on the basis of Afghanistan’s government’s lack of Soviet support (following the killing of Afghani Soviet Union puppet Nur Mohammed Taraki), Afghanistan’s strategic location & fears of increased US sentiment. As a result of the war, it led to the “stimulat[ion] [of] the rise and expansion of terrorist groups” (John Moore, pbs.org). The war is said to have “war helped create the terrorist and extremist groups that are still in place today” as the anti-Soviet western governments (US, UK, China, etc.) financially supported the Mujahideen fighters (various Afghani opposition groups to Soviet rule) against the Soviet Union (McCann, inews.co.uk). Eventually, the Mujahideen fighters were able to rescue their county from Soviet rule but fell short of a massive civil war between various Afghani factions for power. In 1994, the Taliban emerged victoriously amongst the several Afghan factions and took control of the nation. The Taliban soon became the spearhead of Islamic-inspired terrorism, perpetrating the 1993 World Trade Center bombings and the 2001 Twin Tower attacks. In response to the latter attack, the US executed an unnecessary and damaging invasion of Iraq in 2003 - which only left Iraq in complete destruction. The US’ attempt at “democracy premotion” only worsen the hatred against the West that many of these extremist groups already possessed (anon, e-ir.info). One of these groups vastly motivated by the Iraqi Invasion was the Islamic State of Iraq & Al-Qaeda.

Al-Qaeda was the group directly responsible for masterminding the 9/11 attacks. Osama bin Laden, the Afghani leader of the group, commanded his assailants to hijack commercial planes and fly them into the New York Twin Towers. Bin Laden’s attack was motivated by the “oppression and tyranny of the American/Israeli coalition … in Palestine and Lebanon” (bin Laden, aljazeera.com). The terrorist group continued to perpetuate various attacks, especially attacks with intent to cause sectarian rifts between Muslims, following the years of the US hunt for bin Laden. The group steadily has been declining ever since bin Laden’s death in 2011, but the group still continues to operate as a significant body as of 2022. The Islamic State (ISIS), on the other hand, was founded in 1999 in order to create sectarian rifts between the Muslims. ISIS swore allegiance to Al-Qaeda in 2004 and continued to fight for territorial power in Iraq. In the summer of 2014, ISIS successfully declared itself as a caliphate and controlled significant portions of the Levant. Despite short successes, the state started to lose territory in 2015 and eventually lost a major city, Mosul, in 2017. In late 2017, former Iranian president Hassan Rouhani declared ISIS to be defeated, and US President Donald Trump followed in pursuit a year later. In late 2019, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was humiliatingly defeated by Trump’s troops–effectively resulting in ISIS's significance, tyranny, and terror “over” (Khatib, chathamhouse.org). As of 2021, terrorist attacks are “a third of what they were” in comparison to 2015 (Global Terrorism Index, visionofhumanity.org). Although the militant groups behind Islamic extremism are either significantly weakened or completely gone, the ideology is still as relevant as ever.

Albeit the vast decline in Islamic extremist attacks, the ideology is still very much a threat. This is proven by the fact that attacks from Islamic extremism have not been completely reduced. Despite the almost complete eradication of the Islamic State in Iraq, why is this violent ideology still relevant? To figure out the “why”, we must figure out the “how” behind the existence of this ideology. A Dutch study conducted by Radboud Uni professor Frans Wijsen on Tanzanian inter-communicative relations revealed that Muslims & Christian communities referred to one another as “relatives”, but what actually spawns extremism was the “international marginalization of Islam” (Wijsen, tandfonline.com). One participant blamed the restriction of Islamic worship in comparison to the Christians. As a result of such oppression, the extremists “make noise” (Wijsen, tandfonline.com). Tanzanian Muslims complain about being treated as “second-class citizens” by the government, inspiring Muslims to “fight for their rights” (Wijsen, tandfonline.com). This similar mindset of responding to oppression with widespread terror is mirrored in Michael H. Cunningham’s Wake of the Warrior, which was developed based on Cunningham’s real maritime experiences. The main character, Mubbaligh, is motivated by local speeches about “American imperialism” to commit a massive & deadly terrorist attack on American lands (Cunningham pg 14). One can hypothesize that American imperialism may refer to the extensive US involvement in the Middle East prior to the early 2000s as the book’s timespan is about 2003 to 2004. Another Dutch study conducted by Dutch researcher William Stephens mentions special consideration to “prejudice against Muslims” (Stephens, tandfonline.com). In Stephens’ explanation, the lack of coexistence between a Muslim youth’s identity to its religion & national identity (British, for example) can be room for an extremist mindset. What exacerbates this fuel for terror is a lack of teaching towards acceptance of both identities. According to Stephens, a “greater voice” should be given to Muslims and they should be taught to view themselves as “citizens with rights and responsibilities” (Stephens, tandfonline.com). This ensuing rage to fight for rights becomes so engrained in an extremist “dehumanizes anyone that is non-Muslim and Muslims that disagree”, according to former British Islamic extremist Adam Deen in an interview on Good Morning Britian (Deen, youtube.com). Deen explains that the extremist genuinely believes that they are “serving God”, which convinces them to perpetuate heinous crimes against innocent people–Muslim or not (Deen, youtube.com). Lastly, Deen acknowledges that these acts by terrorists are in “contradiction” with the core messages of Islam. Deen’s refusal to link Islam and violent extremism is supported by hostages’ accounts of Abu Sayyaf Islamic militants in the Philippines, who have commented that the fighters were “unfamiliar” with the Qur’an, the Islamic holy scripture (Bowden, theatlantic.com).

Now that we’ve reviewed the history of Islamic extremism & the mindset of extremists, we can only conclude that the solution to this problem is to integrate Muslims into one’s community with full respect given to the Muslim’s religion. Muslims should feel welcomed in their respective communities so that there is no identity-crisis between their religion & nationality. Stephen encouraged the communities to maintain “social bonding[s]” between individuals in a community, which can serve as an efficient barrier to radicalization and alienation (Stephens, tandofline.com). Many of the Tanzanian Muslims and extremist Muslims over the decades have blamed the poor treatment by their government as to why they are resorting to violent methods. The invasions by Western powers, such as the USSR & USA, have served as a catalyst for extremist attacks. In addition to integrating Muslims into the common society, the governments of the world should put a complete stop to the invasions & oppressions in Muslim lands–such as for the US to completely withdraw its involvement in the Middle East. Although killings of innocent people is absolutely unacceptable, the rage that these extremists feel towards their people being oppressed in various parts of the world serve as an explanation for their crimes against humanity. Lastly, blaming Islam is only a way of alienatizing Muslims from the Western societies and aid in the fuel to Islamic extremism.

Many misconceptions revolve around the religion of Islam itself being a direct source of extremism. Geert Wilders, an Islamaphobic Dutch politician, blames the Qur’an as a source of “intolerance, murder and terror” (Wilders, BBC News). In Wijsen’s study, a few Christians involved in the study made a “link between Islam and violence” (Wijsen, tandfonline.com). An opinion column by Mike Clark of The Florida Times-Union claims that the Qur’an commands its adherents to “convert you [non-Muslims] to Islam or kill you if you refuse to convert” (Clark, jacksonville.com). He uses verses from the Qur’an to supply his proof, quoting chapter 2, verse 121: “Then kill the disbelievers (non-Muslims) wherever you find them, capture them and besiege them” to justify throwing heinous adjectives towards the scriptures (Qur’an verse 2:121). Critics of Islam have used these verses as evidence that Islam is to be blamed for the acts of extremists. In fact, blaming and promoting hatred towards Islam not only serves as a catalyst for terrorism, but proves to be fruitless. The verse in question, 2:191 (chapter 2, verse 121), can easily be explained by looking at the previous verse, 2:190: “And fight in the way of Allah with those who fight against you” (Qur’an 2:120). In the Qur’an, God has clearly commanded his followers to fight in his way only in self-defence. As observed in the terrorist attacks perpetrated by Islamic terrorists, their attacks are aimed towards the general population–therefore not falling under the category of permissability in fighting. As for neutral non-believers (who are not actively pursuing Muslims), God has commanded the Muslims to adhere to their faith while the non-believers adhere to their own faith - separating Islam from kufr (disbelief). This is shown in Chapter 109. The critics of Islam are habitual in their grave misunderstanding of the Qur’an, plucking the verses of the holy scripture to fit their agenda. Unfortunately, this type of behaviour has spread to many of the general public - who hold such repulsive and disgusting attitudes towards Islam. In fact, God has stated in the Qur’an that the killing of an innocent is “as if he had slain mankind entirely”, which emphasizes the respect and good treatment that mankind needs to have with each other on a humanic level (Qur’an verse 5:32). How could someone claim that the Qur’an advocates for the unjust killings when it has verses encourage humanic cooperation? Surely, it is only a misguided view to believe Islam advocates for the unjust killings of innocents.

Conclusively, Islamic extremism is by far one of the most deadlious ideologies to have rampant the world since the 1900s. After observing its history, we can easily see that the main motive of Islamic extremism is damaging & henious oppression committed by Western powers. The formation and maintenance of an invasive Israel, a power-hungry Soviet Union, and the US’ invasion of the Middle East have only given the fuel for these terroristical groups. To counter such problems, local communities must band together and welcome one another in order to avoid alienation and isolation. Lastly, blaming the religion of Islam only serves to be a red herring and avoid the true cause of the extremism. With mankind united against one enemy, we can keep our communities tight–one community at a time to assure our noble lands are protected from such vile, unacceptable cruelty.