Islamism Terror West PDF
Transcription
Islamism Terror West PDF
M A X FA R R A R @ B I G B O O K E N D @LEEDS CHURCH INSTITUTE 06.06.15 ISLAMISM & TERROR A W E S T E R N W AY O F DOING POLITICS? OUTLINE DALYAN, TURKEY: MODERNISATION & THE MOSQUE • DEFINITIONS & DISTINCTIONS • KEY ISLAMISTS & THE WEST • ISLAMIC STATE • DOING BETTER: CRITICAL MULTICULTURALIST DIALOGUE photo: Max Farrar DEFINING ISLAMISM • ‘A political ideology whose key tenets include: • belief that Islam is not a religion but a holistic socio- political system • advocacy of Sharia (Islamic) law as a divine state law • belief that a transnational Muslim community (Ummah) should unite as a political bloc’ • S I M C O C K , S T U A R T, A H M E D ( 2 0 1 0 ) DEFINING TERRORISM • ‘An act or threat of violence against non-combatants with the objective of exacting revenge, intimidating or otherwise influencing an audience’ • STERN (2003) ISLAM: DISTINCTIONS • Traditionalists (eg Deobandis, Barelwis, Tablighi-Jamat - differing interpretations of the scriptures) • Salafis: literalists (no interpretation, no politics); reformists (eg Muslim Brotherhood); political literalists (eg Hizb ut-Tahrir) • RAMADAN (2004) ISLAM:FURTHER DISTINCTIONS • liberal/rationalist reformism (eg Ataturk in Turkey) • Sufis (everywhere, quietly) • RAMADAN (2004) • Muhammad al-Wahhab (1703-1792): original Salafi • Saudi Arabia nominally Wahhabi but politically accommodated to the West; not Islamist ISLAM & VIOLENCE • Jihad means ‘struggle’. Ijtihad means ‘exertion’ (usually over problems of interpretation) • Only the ‘political literalists’ advocate violent jihad • Thus Al Qaeda and Islamic State are a minority among the Salafis who are themselves a minority among Muslims ISLAMISM: FOUNDATIONS HASSAN AL-BANNA (1906-1949) HASSAN AL-BANNA (1906-1949) • Founded the Muslim Brotherhood in 1927 in Egypt • ‘Traditional Islamic ideas of egalitarianism and social justice had been swept aside by the country’s political and religious elites’ • Capitalist, colonial, secular culture immiserated the poor and corrupted morals • Used Western political methods (rallies, leaflets, newspapers) to build a mass organisation for an authoritarian ‘Islamic socialism’, ‘Islamic modernity’ • ASLAN (2006) COMMINS (2008) KEPEL (2004) ABU ALA MAWDUDI (1903 - 1979) ABU ALA MAWDUDI (1903 - 1979) • Founded the Islamic Party (Jama’at-e-Islami) in India in 1941. Moved to Pakistan after partition • Influenced by his study of Hegel, Adam Smith, Rousseau, Voltaire, Darwin, Marx • Politican party with an elite, supreme leader (Emir), no mass membership • Fighting against both socialism and capitalism • Modern ‘Islamic’ countries are jahiliyya (ignorance, before the Prophet) • Anti-nationalist ‘universal revolution’: ‘all that is on earth belongs to Allah’ • Governed by shari’a law, with ’deep seated conservative cultural attitudes’ on women • Accepted Pakistan as an Islamic state (1956) after democracy, equality, tolerance, social justice ‘as enunciated by Islam’ incorporated in its constitution • A D A M S ( 1 9 8 3 ) N A S R ( 2 0 0 8 ) PA R A C H A ( 2 0 1 5 ) H T T P : / / W W W. D A W N . C O M / N E W S / 1 1 5 4 4 1 9 SAYYID QUTB (1906 - 1966) 1955: 15 year sentence after breaking with Nasser’s Free Officers coup 1966 on trial for opposition to Nasser regime SAYYID QUTB (1906 - 1966) • Applied Mawdudi’s writings to Egypt after visit to USA (1948-50) revealed the West to be ‘uncivilised’ and ‘jahili’ (backward, ignorant) because • US women are ‘freed of their basic responsibilities to bring up children’ • sexual relations based on ‘lust, passion and impulse’ • ‘even homosexuality is not considered immoral’ • Joined Muslim Brotherhood to use both ‘preaching and persuasion’ and ‘physical power and jihad for abolishing the organisations of the jahili system’ • Brotherhood resists the ‘individualism generated by the secular, materialist, capitalist West’ • QUTB [1964] TRIPP (2008) ISLAMISM TODAY AYMAN AL-ZAWAHIRI (1951 - ) AYMAN AL-ZAWAHIRI (1951 - ) • Follower of Qutb from 1965, when he joined the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt • At 1981 trial claimed they were ‘the real Islamic opposition against Zionism, Communism and imperialism’ • Doctor in Peshawar, Afghanistan 1984. Started to influence Osama bin-Laden • Joined Al-Jihad, a split from the Brotherhood, in 1979. Leader from 1993. Merged with Al-Qaeda in 1998. AQ’s leader after Osama’s assassination in 2011 A L Q A E D A R E V I V E S TA K F I R • Muslim Brother Abdullah Azzad (1941-1989) issued fatwa in Pakistan recruiting for ‘defensive jihad’ against the Soviets. In Peshawar from 1981. ‘Offensive jihad’ when Afghanistan becomes Muslim. Assassinated 1989 • al-Zawahiri denounced the Brotherhood, ‘constitutions, man-made laws, democracy’, and called for offensive jihad against ‘Muslim’ Arab governments • In late 1980s persuaded Osama to adopt the c7 doctrine of takfir: Muslims who do not accept AQ may be killed • Legitimated suicide • Osama: ‘Every Muslim . . . hates Americans, hates Jews, hates Christians’ • LAWRENCE (2005) WRIGHT (2007) AL-QAEDA:MODERN AND WESTERN • Strategy: propaganda and violence to replace ‘Muslim’ governments with Shari’a law; build an army to overcome non-Muslim governments • Tactics: spectacular ‘propaganda of the deed’ to enthuse supporters and demoralise opposition; VHS; film on the web • Members’ contract: wages, health plans, holiday pay, redundancy pay — in return for obedient service • bin Laden’s mind was ‘sophisticated and modern in the extreme’; his followers are modern ‘idealists, reformers and nihilists’ • WRIGHT (2007) I S L A M I C S TAT E I N T H E L E V A N T: T H O R O U G H LY W E S T E R N • Samir Abd Muhammad al-Khlifali (Haji Bakr), a colonel in the intelligence division of Sadam’s air defence force, planned the government of the Islamic State from 2012 • The plan ‘resembles the Stasi’ and ‘Saddam’s security apparatus’ • Haji Bakr and Sadam’s other former intelligence officers appointed Abu Bakr al- Baghdadi Emir of IS in 2010, later calling himself Caliph REUTER (2015) • • IS’s success is entirely based on • the excellent (Western) training of its ex-Saddam officers • its state-of-the-art (US) military equipment • its (Western-style) meticulous strategic planning • C H R I S T O P H E R R E U T E R , D E R S P I E G E L , 1 8 . 0 5 . 1 5 H T T P : / / W W W. S P I E G E L . D E / I N T E R N AT I O N A L / W O R L D / B I L D - 1 0 2 9 2 7 4 - 8 3 6 8 5 0 . H T M L • ‘The plans also include areas like finance, schools, daycare, the media and transportation. But there is a constantly recurring, core theme, which is meticulously addressed in organizational charts and lists of responsibilities and reporting requirements: surveillance, espionage, murder and kidnapping’ • REUTER (2015) • Like every modern organisation IS has strict financial income and expenditure targets and controls • ‘Between August 2008 and January 2009, ISI’s master financial ledgers in Mosul reportedly showed the group generating slightly less than $1 million in fundraising per month. In 2014, the Islamic State was able to generate the same amount—or more—per day’ • IS pays $4-600 per month. Average Syrian public sector wage is $68-103. It taxes civilians at 50%. Its welfare system favours the poor, the disabled and the widowed • H U M U D , P I R O G & R O S E N ( 2 0 1 5 ) H T T P S : / / W W W. F A S . O R G / S G P / C R S / T E R R O R / R 4 3 9 8 0 . P D F • Haji Bakr is a thoroughly modern state official in the Western mould: ‘Aloof. Polite. Cajoling. Extremely attentive. Restrained. Dishonest. Inscrutable. Malicious. The rebels from northern Syria, remembering encounters with him recall completely different facets of the man. But they agree on one thing: "We never knew exactly who we were sitting across from.”’ REUTER (2015) DOING BETTER IN COUNTERING ISLAMISM • You cannot shoot an idea. You cannot bomb an ideology • We need to revise multiculturalism and apply ‘critical multiculturalism’ ‘ C R I T I C A L M U LT I C U LT U R A L I S M ’ • Negotiates, as well as celebrates, diversity • Understands the critique of capitalism and imperialism offered by Islamism; endorses its commitment to the poor and its views on individualism and consumerism • Always explains that violent, jihadi Islamism is a very small strand in Islamism, which itself is a minority tendency in Islam • Respects Islamist governments when they emerge democratically (eg Tunisia, Turkey, Morsi’s Egypt) • Maintains full commitment to the rule of law when prosecuting Islamists who engage in violent propaganda • Debates values and ideologies • Engages in respectful dialogue while supporting progressive values (especially on women’s rights and sexual preference) • FA R R A R ( 2 0 1 2 , 2 0 1 3 , 2 0 1 4 ) THANK YOU • A PDF of these slides is available at • My articles on critical multiculturalism and Islam are available at W W W. M A X F A R R A R . O R G . U K • • My chapters ‘Islamism and Terror: a Western way of doing politics’ and ‘Multiculturalism - a contested discourse’ are in Farrar, Robinson, Valli and Wetherly (eds) (2012) Islam and the West: Key issues in multiculturalism (London: Palgrave) • H T T P : / / M A X F A R R A R . O R G . U K / M A X - B L O G / W R I T I N G / M U LT I C U LT U R A L I S M - I N - T H E - U K - A - C O N T E S T E D - D I S C O U R S E / H T T P : / / M A X F A R R A R . O R G . U K / M A X - B L O G / B L O G / I S L A M I S M - A N D - T E R R O R - A - W E S T E R N - W AY- O F - D O I N G - P O L I T I C S /