


                   THE INFLUENCE OF ISLAM UPON TERRORISM

               Most in the western world believe that terrorism is
          barbaric, illegal and against all principles of morals and
          ethics in the Judeo-Christian context.  Terrorism is
          defined in the following ways: systematic and
          indiscriminate use of violence or the threat of it as a
          leverage to influence behavior.  Another definition
          explains that terrorism involves a criminal act that is
          often symbolic in nature and intended to influence an
          audience beyond the immediate victims.

               In Islam, terrorism is not addressed and one is hard
          pressed to find the subject of terrorism listed in the
          indices of books written on Islam and particularly those
          written by Muslims.  The nearest term in Islam that can be
          associated with the word, terrorism as used in a Western
          sense is jihad.

               The events of hostage taking in the Middle East and
          the hijacking of United States' airlines and sabotage by
          Arab nationals have exacerbated the tension between the
          West and the Middle East.  The perpetrators of the
          kidnappings and hijackings claim to be Islamic
          Fundamentalists.  They call their acts of violence, jihad
          or holy war.  Those in the West call it terrorism. The
          result is misunderstanding and the belief by Westerners
          that Islam promotes terrorism.

          The Spread of Islamic Fundamentalism

               In recent times Islamic Fundamentalism has had a
          bigger impact on the West than any other Third World
          movement. The reason for this is that Islam is the
          predominant religion of the Middle East and the area is
          experiencing a religious revival because some activist
          religious leaders believe that Western decadence is
          polluting Islam.  In addition, Islamic countries of the
          Middle East that are experiencing the resurgence of Islamic
          Fundamentalism are situated in an area that is
          strategically vital to the interests of the United States
          and its allies.  The region is rich in oil.

               While Americans equate Islamic Fundamentalism with the
          Shiite- sponsored Iranian Revolution of 1979, Islamic
          Fundamentalism is also found in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan,
          Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Morocco.

               Many religions tend to revitalize themselves
          periodically.  When Christianity experiences a period of
          revivalism it involves the religious dimension. The focus
          is upon the inner person and his or her relationship with
          God and others.  Christianity encourages its followers to
          love God and fellow man more deeply and to rid themselves
          of those things which separate them from God.  It addresses
          the religious dimension.  In Christianity there is no
          doctrine or concept of holy war.  On the contrary,
          Christians are enjoined to be obedient to all authority,
          good and bad.  There is no encouragement to overthrow
          oppressive governments.  In the United States the doctrine
          of "separation of church and state" is generally
          understood.  Muslim countries do not have such a doctrine.
          In Islam the religious perspective is different because it
          embodies the social, political, economic, and legal systems
          into its religious beliefs.  The embodiment of all of those
          things wrapped into religion affects all Muslims and all
          who relate with them.  For Muslims, the spiritual and
          secular are bound up together.  The fact that Islam finds
          it difficult to make a clear distinction between the
          spiritual and the secular might increase the danger of
          instability for Muslim countries because if its influence
          upon the political sphere has becomes threatened its
          influence upon the spiritual life may go by default.

               Such a comprehensive system which binds the secular
          and the spiritual so tightly may set such narrow standards
          and norms for its followers that they may have difficulty,
          or refuse to live up to them.  An example is the Western
          influence in Iran prior to the 1979 Revolution.  Women wore
          clothing that exposed more of their bodies and adopted
          other Western customs.  According to Shiite Fundamentalists
          there, they were not dressing full and honest hijab.

               When adherents to the religious faith fail to follow
          its basic tenets, an opportunity for religious revival
          arises.  As the failure of the faithful becomes more
          evident, a pious leader can arise and call them back to the
          basic fundamentals of their faith.  Fundamental Islam calls
          its adherents back to the purity of Islamic precepts as set
          forth in the Quran and the traditions of the Prophet.  It
          calls for a purification of tho faithful and and very
          narrow and strict observance of the Pillars of Islam.

               Early Islam spread in Africa, Asia Minor and to the
          southern portion of Europe.  As Islam spread, it also
          adapted itself to different cultures and as a result Islam
          itself became modified or diluted.  This in turn led to
          periodic revivalist movements to purify the faith to return
          the faithful to their definition of true Islam.

               Islam also had to deal with Christianity and the
          dominance of Western powers in the Islamic world.  Islam
          entered the modern age under the leadership of the Ottoman
          Turks, with Istanbul as the capital of the caliphate.
          During the Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Centuries,
          Islamic countries were feeling the effects of European
          expansionism.  The Ottoman Empire was not up to the task of
          fending off its European rivals.

               The Hapsburgs seized territories.  Napoleon occupied
          Egypt in 1798 and France continued to push into the Ottoman
          Empire by occupying Algeria in 1830.  Muslims saw the
          Ottoman Empire in decline.  The great Muslim thinkers must
          have pondered the superior strength of the Christian
          European powers.  As in the Old Testament account of the
          fall of Israel and Judah, the Islamic religious leaders
          like the Old Testament prophets attributed their failure to
          the decadence of the people.  The Muslim leaders could
          conclude that the Christians had devised a better system or
          the Muslim community had failed to follow true Islam.  They
          could not conclude that their religious belief system was
          inferior to that of the Christians.  The conclusion they
          reached was that Muslims had deviated from the true path.
          The stage was set for Islamic reform.  It had as much to do
          with political power and policies as with religion and
          theology.  In Islam they are all one.

               Islamic Fundamentalism was spread in Egypt by the
          Brotherhood to combat the British Mandate and Zionist
          Colonization in 1936-37.  The Islamic Brotherhood was
          organized in several countries to promote Islamic values,
          religious pride and self-determination.  Egyptian and
          British conflicts caused the Brotherhood to grow and
          develop rapport with other likeminded organizations in the
          Middle East.

               The Muslim Brotherhood grew in Syria when Syrian
          Students returned from Egypt in the 1930s and formed
          branches called the Young Men of Muhammad.  The Brotherhood
          became a fixture of the political and religious
          establishment.  The Brotherhood in Syria favored ending the
          French Mandate and for political and social reform along
          Islamic lines.  In Syria, the Brotherhood developed as a
          movement of resistance.  Through the Brotherhood, Islamic
          Fundamentalism expanded throughout the Muslim world.

               In recent times Islamic Fundamentalism flourished in
          Libya, where Islamic law has been influenced and
          interpreted by Colonel Muamar Qadhafi.

               Saudi Arabia and Iran have been heavily influenced by
          Islamic Fundamentalism.  Saudi Arabia, a monarchial
          autocracy and Iran an Islamic republic are so different yet
          so similar.  Both were ripe for all Islamic revival because
          the religious leaders felt that their spiritual heritage
          was being threatened by outside influences.  Under the
          Islamic Fundamentalist Wahabi Movement the feuding nomadic
          tribes of Arabia were unified into the State of Saudi
          Arabia.  in Iran it was a movement led by Shiite Ayatollah
          Khomeini that brought about the revolution.  Iran, long a
          center of Islam, particularly Shiite Islam, underwent
          secularization under the Pahlavi dynasty (1926-1979).  That
          secularization was used by Ayatollah Khomeini to justify
          and to usher in his fundamentalist Islamic regime.

               Afghanistan developed into a landlocked society which
          clung to medieval Islam and resisted modernization.  Today,
          ruled by a Marxist regime, Islam has emerged as an ideology
          of armed resistance.

               Revival and reform have been evident throughout the
          history of Islam.  People fall away from the faith, nations
          are conquered, outside social, political, economic and
          religious forces intermingle with the religious traditions.
          Technological development, changing economic priorities and
          modernization created tension and religious instability in
          the world of Islam.

               Economic development changes priorities and lives.
          People move from the rural areas to the urban centers.
          They feel lost and displaced in their new surroundings.
          Alienation pervades the masses and provides a ready
          audience for radical and revolutionary groups.  Those in
          the midst of change are a fertile ground for Islamic
          Fundamentalists to try to rally alienated and the
          underprivileged back to the basics of Islam as they see
          them.  Islam is presented as a religion of justice and
          equality.  Any opposition to Fundamentalist movements,
          whether groups or individuals, ideas, social, political or
          economic systems, they are all given the name of Satan.
          The faithful are told by Fundamentalists that the
          opposition must be defeated at all costs.  Fundamentalists
          may term this a holy war, a jihad.

          Jihad

               The Quran and the Prophet taught that Muslims were
          required to fight for the faith and that those who died in
          its defense were assured a martyrs' reward in Paradise.
          Orthodox Muslims believe that jihad is a religious war
          against unbelievers with the objectives of converting them
          to Islam or subduing all opposition.  Jihad is not any
          conflict that a Muslim chooses to fight.  Hijacking an
          airplane or taking hostages are not considered jihad by
          most Muslims, only by some terrorist groups holding a
          special view to justify their acts.

               Muslims consider jihad a duty for a nation, not
          individuals or groups.  It relates only to religion.  It
          has nothing to do with economic exploitation, political
          repression or imperialism in any form.  The belief that
          Arabs swept out of the Arabian Peninsula on some fanatical
          religious mission, a mission embodied in the term jihad,
          has been substantially refuted by historians of the era.

               Today jihad is perhaps the most misunderstood term in
          Islam because the term is used differently by different
          groups.  Some Muslim leaders call for jihad when they speak
          of freeing Jerusalem from Israeli occupation, punishing the
          United States for its involvement in Iran, ousting the
          U.S.S.R. from Afghanistan and liberating oppressed Muslims
          from their oppressors.

               Literally, the word means "utmost effort" in promotion
          and defense of Islam, which might or might not include
          armed conflict unbelievers.  It is interesting to note that
          in his early career Muhammad spread Islam by teaching and
          persuasion.  When he wanted to convert the Jews in Medina
          he stated that there was, "no compulsion in religion.

               Later in his career Muhammad declared that God had
          allowed him, and his followers, to defend themselves
          against infidels.  He then believed that God had allowed
          him to attack and set up the true faith of Islam by the
          sword.  The Prophet had a burning zeal to spread the faith,
          yet Muslims permitted other religious groups to live in
          their areas.  In the early days jihad was a religious war
          to spread the Islamic faith and the rules were very
          detailed.

               According to the Sunnah, a jihad is not lawful unless
          it involves the summoning of unbelievers to belief, and the
          jihad must end when order is restored, that is when the
          unbelievers have accepted either Islam, or a protected
          status within Islam, or when Islam is no longer under
          threat.  An important precondition of jihad is a reasonable
          prospect of success.

               During colonial times, when Muslims were under
          non-Muslim domination, it was concluded that provided Islam
          was not prohibited, jihad could not be justified.
          Opportunists for jihad during that time never received
          general support from the religious authorities.  A genuine
          jihad has rarely been invoked since Islam's original
          struggle for survival against the Meccans.

               Some radical Muslims are motivated to participate in a
          holy war because those who die in a genuine, jihad are
          martyrs and enter Paradise directly.

          Relation of Jihad to Terrorism

               Jihad is to be taken seriously because many Muslims,
          especially Shiites, believe that it is one of the major
          tenets of Islam.  There are many Islamic groups who use
          jihad as reason to justify terrorist activities.  Many
          groups and some countries use jihad as a rallying cry point
          to make a political statement rather than a military
          commitment.

               Jihad has its genesis in the very foundation of Islam.
          From the beginning, Islam was surrounded by hostile forces.
          The Prophet and his followers were literally driven out of
          Mecca.  They had to make a clandestine journey to Medina,
          where the inhabitants were embroiled in conflict.  He had
          to defend himself and his followers and he determined that
          the will of God demanded that he carry the message of God
          to everyone, and by the sword if necessary.  The "People of
          the Book," Christians and Jews, and others were to accept
          the message of the Prophet.  The Quran is clear that the
          followers of Islam are to join battle against the infidels
          who spurned Islam and persecuted the believers.  It is not
          clear on the circumstances in which the believers are to
          undertake the struggle.

               The word jihad is not in the Quran.  The Quran calls
          for war on the infidels and for courteous treatment of
          them; it calls for ruthlessness and for tolerance; it
          brands the unbelievers as doomed infidels, yet teaches that
          whoever believes in God and lives virtuously, whether
          Muslim or not, will be admitted to Paradise.

               Some scholars advise that jihad was defensive in
          nature while others say jihad is any conflict where Muslims
          are in conflict with non-Muslims.

               The Pharijites were a fanatical and violent group of
          dissidents who struggled against orthodox Islam, long ago.
          They believed that the profession of faith could only be
          accompanied by righteous works and Islam was to be imposed
          upon others by force.  They believed that jihad was among
          the cardinal pillars of Islam and that it was actually the
          Sixth Pillar of Islam.  The Kharijites were defeated by the
          end of the seventh century and the call for jihad to be the
          sixth pillar died with their defeat.

               Another influence upon Islam was martyrdom as adored
          by the Shiites.  The Shiites have a long history of
          commemorating the martyrs of their community.  Many of
          their early leaders died violent deaths and were looked
          upon as having died for the faith.

               The early history of Shiite opposition to established
          authority attracted all sorts of non-conformists.  The
          religion was a major force in the lives of the people.  The
          spread of Islam by conversion brought into the Islamic
          community large numbers of new believers who carried with
          them, from their Christian, Jewish and Iranian backgrounds
          religious concepts and attitudes unknown to the early Arab
          Muslims.   The esoteric nature of Shiism, and their high
          regard for martyrdom continues to be a factor in Shia Islam
          today.

               Another early sect in Shiite Islam were the Ismailis.
          An outgrowth of the Ismailis was a fanatical group who were
          known as the Assassins, a terrorist group based in Syria.
          Their objective was murder, particularly against all
          non-Ismailis.  They were a religious group with a political
          purpose whose aim was to overthrow the existing Sunni Order
          in Islam and replace it with a new order of their own.
          Their targets were religious and political figures.  Their
          leaders were said to have endowed them with hashish --
          hence the name hashishiyun, "assassins."

               The story is related that the Assassins were led by a
          mysterious leader known as the Old Man of the Mountain.
          One account relates that the sect lived in the mountains.
          Beautiful palaces surrounded by high walls were located
          there and only the elect could be admitted.  The Old Man of
          the Mountain had the allegiance of the young men who were
          permitted to live in the earthly paradise.  Those selected
          to live in the paradise were drugged with hashish and taken
          to the fortified city.  No one entered the garden except
          those the Old Man of the Mountain wanted to be his ashishin
          or assassin.  When they awakened, they found themselves in
          heavenly surroundings with all kinds of food, drink, and
          women.  They had the joys of Paradise.  They were taught by
          their teachers that they were to be obedient to the Old
          Man.  They were summoned to him when it was his desire to
          have someone killed.  They were drugged and taken out of
          their paradise with the understanding that if they
          accomplished the mission and lived they would be returned
          to paradise.  If they died on the mission they would go
          directly to Paradise.

               The accounts of the Assassins were recorded by an
          envoy sent to Egypt and Syria in 1175 A.D. by Emperor
          Frederick Barbarossa, William, Archbishop of Tyre, and
          Marco Polo. Other travelers also wrote of the Assassins and
          many of their manuscripts are extant.

               Islam has a rich history of its rise and influence in
          the Middle East and the world.  Though Shia Islam is the
          only numerically significant schismatic group in
          contemporary Islam, other schools of thought, minor sects,
          politico-religious organizations, brotherhoods and
          dynasties exist within the framework of the religion, which
          continues to influence events.

               Islam is growing and is a living
          socio-political-religious ideology.  To know about the
          religion and its rich history is to bring about an
          understanding and appreciation of its heritage.  The good,
          the bad, the indifferent -- Islam as a force in the world
          today has to be reckoned with.  Islam has been here, is
          here today, and will be here tomorrow.


