{"id":5352,"date":"2008-04-25T21:32:14","date_gmt":"2008-04-25T21:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com.108-166-28-151.mdgnetworks.com\/wordpress\/?p=5352"},"modified":"2013-04-09T21:33:20","modified_gmt":"2013-04-09T21:33:20","slug":"jihad-studies-as-trivia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/jihad-studies-as-trivia\/","title":{"rendered":"Jihad Studies as Trivia"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n

Private Papers<\/em><\/p>\n

This article was first published in Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard.<\/span><\/strong>
\n
\nA<\/span>\u00a0new article<\/a>\u00a0by Thomas Hegghammer in the\u00a0Times Literary Supplement<\/em>, entitled \u201cJihadi studies: the obstacles to understanding radical Islam and the opportunities to know it better,\u201d lives up to its title \u2014 not so much by delineating what these obstacles are, but rather by being representative of them. Regrettably, the author evokes the same old mantras prevalent in modern academia\u2019s study of jihad and jihadists.<\/p>\n

First, even though one may suppose that the article at the very least would touch upon ideology, doctrine, or theology \u2014 after all, the words \u201cjihad\u201d and \u201cradical Islam\u201d are in the title \u2014 it all but ignores these concepts.<\/p>\n

Instead, it focuses on \u201cpeople\u201d \u2014 the jihadists themselves. Hegghammer assures us that, with the availability of new primary sources, our knowledge of what makes a jihadist tick is destined to improve. He would like us to better appreciate \u201cthe importance of mundane and non-ideological factors in individual recruitment to jihadist activity.\u201d He then explains the great need to learn the biographies of men like Osama bin Laden.<\/p>\n

But what do we learn from this approach? Much ink is spent over biographical trivia about bin Laden \u2014 \u201cWas Bin Laden really a playboy in 1970s Beirut, and a CIA stooge in 1980s Afghanistan? Did he really attend arsenal matches in London and sex orgies in Morocco in the 1990s?\u201d \u2014 without once ever explaining the significance of such gossipy queries. After positing these questions, Hegghammer is quick to inform us that, \u201cJust for the record, Bin Laden was never a playboy in Beirut; he was a shy and pious young man. He attended no arsenal matches or sex orgies.\u201d Again, as if any of this trivia \u2014 pro or con \u2014 has anything to do with jihad and radical Islam. While this \u201cpeople-first\u201d approach is entertaining, it is unclear how, practically speaking, a \u201cnuanced portrait of bin Laden\u201d is supposed to help combat him.<\/p>\n

The author next moves to\u00a0Messages to the World,<\/em>\u00a0a compilation of 24 statements attributed to bin Laden. Drawing conclusions from this collection, Hegghammer assures the reader that \u201cthose who expect religious ranting will be surprised. There are no complex theological arguments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Again, Hegghammer errs by making bin Laden the spokesman for jihad. Had he only turned to the writings of Ayman Zawahiri \u2014 long known for being the ideologue of al Qaeda \u2014 which are available in\u00a0The Al Qaeda Reader<\/a><\/em>, he would have encountered over two hundred pages of treatises dealing with the subjects of jihad, martyrdom (suicide-bombings), and even the legality of killing women and children, and fellow Muslims, during the jihad, the need to always bear enmity for all non-Muslims, and various doctrines of deception (e.g.,\u00a0taqiyya<\/em>) \u2014 all as articulated through\u00a0usul al-fiqh,<\/em>\u00a0or Islam\u2019s \u201croots of jurisprudence.\u201d<\/p>\n

D<\/span>eclarations and communiqu\u00e9s directed by al Qaeda at fellow jihadists are much more valuable \u2014 in that they are much more revealing \u2014 than the communiqu\u00e9s directed at the United States. The former are directed at fellow Muslims and thus couched in familiar Islamic terms and concepts; the latter, intentionally articulated through a Western epistemology \u2014 an epistemology that is utterly at odds with radical Islam.<\/p>\n

Consider the disparity of the following two quotes, both by bin Laden, one directed to Americans, the other to Muslims. To Americans, he says: \u201cReciprocal treatment is part of justice; he who initiates the aggression is the unjust one.\u201d However, in an obscure essay entitled \u201cModerate Islam is a Prostration to the West,\u201d directed at fellow Muslims \u2014 his Saudi kinsmen, to be specific \u2014 bin Laden celebrates his understanding of Islam\u2019s aggressive nature:<\/p>\n

[O]ur talks with the infidel West and our conflict with them ultimately revolve around one issue, and it is: Does Islam, or does it not, force people by the power of the sword to submit to its authority corporeally if not spiritually? Yes. There are only three choices in Islam: either willing submission [i.e., conversion]; or payment of the\u00a0jizya\u00a0<\/em>[poll-tax paid by non-Muslims], thereby bodily, though not spiritual, submission to the authority of Islam; or the sword \u2014 for it is not right to let him [an infidel] live. The matter is summed up for every person alive: either submit, or live under the suzerainty of Islam, or die\u2026. Such, then, is the basis of the relationship between the infidel and the Muslim. Battle, animosity, and hatred \u2014 directed from the Muslim to the infidel \u2014 are the foundation of our religion. (The Al Qaeda Reader<\/em>, p. 42.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hegghammer goes on to tackle the notion that theology or ideology could ever inspire a would-be Muslim suicide bomber. He concludes they could not. Instead, he is somewhat sympathetic to one particular\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0that finds \u201cthat the root cause of suicide terrorism is not religion, but foreign occupation.\u201d But Hegghammer is more inclined to believe that \u201cIt is probably not occupation, but nationalism, that generates suicide terrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n

The problem with the territory theory is the fact that Arab Christians \u2014 whether in Palestine or Iraq \u2014 have yet to blow themselves up during a suicide attack against Israel or U.S. forces in Iraq. As for Hegghammer\u2019s own notion that nationalism generates suicide terrorism, Arab Christians have traditionally been at the fore of the Arab nationalist movement. According to his theory, then, one would logically expect them at the van of martyrdom operations, which they are not. Indeed, Christian and Muslim Arabs are identical: they look the same, live in the same place, speak the same language, and consider themselves \u201cArabs.\u201d The only thing that differentiates them is religion. So, if all things \u2014 minus religion \u2014 are equal, is it not only logical to conclude that it is religion, or \u201cideology,\u201d that is responsible for the suicide-bomber, as that is the only variable that Christian and Muslim Arabs do not share?<\/p>\n

Early in his essay, Hegghammer indicates that one of the failures of Middle East scholars has been their \u201ctendency to rely on simple grievance-based explanations of terrorism.\u201d Yet his entire essay is a testimony to this model. He constantly tries to humanize bin Laden. He insists that doctrine or ideology has nothing to do with terrorism. And finally, in his conclusion, he, like many a Middle Eastern scholar before him, stresses only the need for us to comprehend our own shortcomings, before we condemn the terrorists \u2014 all in the platitudinous language we have come to expect:<\/p>\n

But the most important reason [for our lack of understanding \u201cjihadism\u201d] is no doubt that the\u00a0emotional outrage<\/em>\u00a0at al-Qaeda\u2019s violence has prevented us from\u00a0seeing<\/em>\u00a0clearly. Societies touched by terrorism are always the least well placed to\u00a0understand<\/em>\u00a0their enemies. It is only when we\u00a0see<\/em>\u00a0the jihadists not as agents of evil or religious fanatics, but as\u00a0humans<\/em>, that we stand a chance ofunderstanding<\/em>\u00a0them. (emphases added)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If this isn\u2019t ultimately a \u201csimple grievance-based explanation of terrorism,\u201d what is?<\/p>\n

Raymond Ibrahim is the editor of the\u00a0Al-Qaeda Reader<\/i>, translations of religious texts and propaganda.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Raymond Ibrahim Private Papers This article was first published in Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[227,838],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1ok","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1683,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/democracy-at-risk\/","url_meta":{"origin":5352,"position":0},"title":"Democracy at Risk","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 26, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim American Thinker A review of\u00a0The War of Ideas: Jihadism Against Democracy\u00a0by Dr. Walid Phares (Macmillen, 2007, pp. 288) first appeared inThe America Thinker\u00a0under the book's title. 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