Inside Jihad: how radical Islam works, why it should terrify us, how to defeat it

202 Pages·2015·2.541 MB·English

by  Hamid, Tawfik

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Inside Jihad
Understanding and Confronting Radical Islam
By Dr. Tawfik Hamid
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Copyright & Publisher Information
© 2007 Tawfik Hamid
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the
author.
First edition: March 2008
ISBN: 978-0-9815471-0-7
Self published book.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2008900898
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Table of Contents
COPYRIGHT & PUBLISHER INFORMATION.....................................3
TABLE OF CONTENTS......................................................................4
A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF ISLAM........................................................8
CHAPTER 1: THE MAKING OF AN ISLAMIC TERRORIST................ 15
Childhood 15
Egypt’s “Revival of Islam” 17
Adolescence 20
Medical School 22
A New Recruit 24
Phases of Indoctrination 28
Hatred 28
Suppression of Conscience 29
Desensitization to Violence 30
Tactics of Indoctrination 32
Suppression of Critical Thinking 33
Superiority 34
State of War 34
Sex and Paradise 35
Prophet Muhammad as Role Model 38
Fear of Hell 39
Restriction of Emotional Outlets 40
Doctor “Ayman” 41
Second Thoughts 47
Final Remarks 50
CHAPTER 2: MYTHS AND MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT ISLAMISM.. 55
Root Causes 57
Poverty 57
Discrimination 59
Lack of Education 61
Absence of Democracy 62
Western Colonialism and Imperialism 63
The Arab/Israeli Conflict 64
US Foreign Policy 68
The Meaning of “Jihad” 70
“Jihadists just want to be heroes” 73
“Al-Qaeda resembles the IRA” 75
CHAPTER 3: THE FAILURE OF ISLAMIC SOCIETIES........................81
Background: Sufi and Salafi 81
Sufi Islam 82
Salafi Islam 84
Secular Islam 88
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Salafism Explodes 89
Wahabbis Become Wealthy 89
Jihad: Umma to Individual 90
Passive Terrorism 91
Passive Support 92
Passive Denial 95
False Uproar, Deafening Silence 96
Theological Deception 106
Shifting the Blame 108
Who is a “Moderate Muslim”? 109
Oppression of Women 116
CHAPTER 4: THE FAILURE OF THE WEST........................................127
Lack of Reciprocity 127
Political Concessions 131
Apologies 131
Unwise Immigration policies 132
Weak Military Responses 137
The Collapse of the “Progressive” Movement 146
Karen Armstrong 147
Moral Relativism 158
CHAPTER 5: TOWARD ISLAMIC REFORMATION...........................165
Obstacles to Reformation 165
Salafist Resistance 165
Information, Transmission, Perception 166
Inadequate Criteria for Virtue 167
Lack of a Peaceful Theological Foundation 168
Inexact Non-Violence 168
Rigorous Hatred 169
How to Reform Islam 171
De-emphasize non-Quranic writings 172
Importance of “The” (Al-) 173
Relativity of the Quran 175
Promote the Humane Side of Prophet Muhammad 176
Accept Jews and Judaism 180
Justify Good Values Rigorously 182
CHAPTER 6: STRATEGIC PLAN TO DEFEAT RADICAL ISLAM........ 187
CONCLUSION............................................................................... 191
APPENDICES.................................................................................. 195
A Poem by Dr. Maha Hamid 195
The Amman Statement 198
FBI Hate Crime Statistics 201
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Introduction
We are confronted today with the seemingly intractable
scourge of Islamic Terrorism. Some experience it in-person,
most encounter the spectacle of it on their television
screens. Our minds are haunted by images of 9/11, of the
Bali nightclubs, of subways in Madrid and London, and of
schoolchildren in Beslan. We witness daily misery in myriad
locations around the globe. Jihadists behead innocent people
on videotape, and billions watch it.
It has led decent people to ask questions and seek
answers: “What kind of person could do this?”, “What is
the purpose?”, “What caused this and who is to blame?”
Naturally, we also ask, “What can we do about it?” Today,
countless books are available about Islam and Islamic terror,
and we do read them. Not long ago words like “Sharia”
and “Wahabbi” would have met with blank stares from
acquaintances. Now, while many readers are familiar with
these terms, there still remains profound confusion about
Islamism. A large percentage of non-Muslims continue
to be mystified by an ideological cancer on the body of
approximately 1.5 billion Islamic adherents.
Critics have leveled the charge at me that I am anti-Islam.
Nothing is farther from the truth. I am in fact a Muslim and
I consider much in Islam to be beautiful and worthwhile.
However, the way it is taught today in most communities
is perverted and destructive. Radical Islam could only have
arisen in a community that prepared the ground for its evil
seeds to sprout. I am convinced, therefore, that Islam is in
need of reformation, or extensive re-interpretation, and that
such change is entirely possible. To this end I have worked
extensively, and in the final chapter I outline the key elements
of Islamic reformation.
The 20th century bestowed upon us the carnage of the World
Wars, Nazi concentration camps and Soviet labor camps.
It has borne witness to genocide in places as disparate as
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Cambodia, Rwanda, and Bosnia. If we have gained anything
from that experience, we would expect it to be the capacity
to diagnose ideological and societal illnesses, to confront
them and defeat them. Sadly, that expectation leads to
disappointment. Recent events in Darfur testify to a spotty
record of inaction, indifference, and misdirected blame, of
ignorance and feigned ignorance.
So too is it the case with jihad. I hope, in writing this book,
to employ my personal experience to clarify the problem of
Islamic terrorism and to propose workable approaches to
neutralize it. I am certainly familiar with the time constraints
of most readers – television, books, radio, and newspapers
compete with the new media of blogs, email and instant
messages to monopolize our spare moments as never before.
I have therefore chosen to keep this book to a reasonable
length, so that even the busiest members of our society may
read it.
Note: I intentionally did not use traditional translations of the
Quran as many of them do not convey the exact understanding
of the verse. For this reason, I translated the Quranic verses from
Arabic (my mother tongue) into English in a way to convey how
the verse is understood and interpreted by most Islamic scholars.
Tawfik Hamid
28 January 2008
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A Brief Overview of Islam
This is not a book about Islam – it is a book about Islamism
and how to combat it. We cannot confront the problem of
Islamism, however, without a general mental picture of
Islam. The reader will encounter various Arabic words and
Islamic concepts and must have some familiarity with them if
any discussion about the topic is to make sense. That is what
these next few pages undertake. They are not a substitute for
a complete and detailed exposition of the religion. That role
is played by the many excellent books devoted to the subject,
and to which the reader is encouraged to turn. Indeed, many
commonly-available encyclopedias provide an adequate
coverage of Islam if a reader lacks the time or inclination
to examine a complete treatise. In turn, some readers may
already be knowledgeable about Islam; they may safely skip
this overview. Here, I will cover only the main structural
components of the religion and corresponding terms which
are critical to our discussion. With these constraints in mind,
let us introduce Islam.
The word Islam means “submission” to God, or Allah. It is a
monotheistic faith that originated in the 7th century with its
prophet, Muhammad. The primary text is the Quran, which
Muslims believe is the literal word of God transmitted to the
Prophet by the angel Gabriel. The revelation of the Quran to
Muhammad is marked by Islam’s holiest month, Ramadan.
Muhammad was born in the Arabian Peninsula, an area
holy to Muslims, who call it, in Arabic, the hijaz. The region
encompasses the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. These
cities are visited every year by millions of Muslims as part of
their obligatory pilgrimage, known as the haj.
Initially, Prophet Muhammad faced persecution for his new
faith. As time passed, he was able to gather adherents and
control the city of Medina, where he established his authority.
From there, he fought battles against the armies of Mecca
with mixed results. Eventually, by employing a strategy of
constriction and direct assault, Muhammad overcame the
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city with little struggle. During that time, a quarrel arose
between the Jews of Medina and Muhammad’s followers,
which led to the quick destruction of the Jewish community.
This destruction, in combination with further conversion
and conquest, enabled Muhammad to consolidate power.
By the time of his death in 632, Muhammad ruled the
entire hijaz. After his death, Muslims selected a prince, or
caliph, to lead an Islamic government called the Caliphate.
Historians distinguish between several caliphates. They
were headquartered in various cities and were the source of
some internal conflict, including that between Sunni and Shia
which we still see today. However, under the first caliphs –
and remarkably, in less than 150 years – Islam had exploded
across the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of Europe in
what is known as the Islamic Conquest. In a short span of
time, many native languages and religions disappeared; they
were swallowed-up by the Arabic language and Islam.
Because he was the final prophet, chosen to reveal God’s
last message, and also because of his success, most Muslims
consider the Sunna – or words and deeds of Muhammad –
to be a foundational component of Islam. These exploits of
Muhammad are recorded in chronicles known as hadith,
a word employed in both the singular and plural sense
(although “hadiths” is popular among English speakers).
The Quran itself is divided into 114 chapters, called suwar
(more commonly referred to in the singular, sura, and in the
anglicized plural, “suras”), which contain a total of 6236
poetic verses, or ayat. The word of God was revealed to
Muhammad not at once, but over a period of time. Therefore,
earlier suras typically concern themselves with spiritual
and ethical matters, while later suras are preoccupied with
regulation of society, for example, marital relations, criminal
punishment, and war.1 The Quran cannot cover every aspect
1
Interestingly, the suras are not necessarily arranged chronologically; lower-num-
bered suras were sometimes written later. For example, Sura 2 was written during
the Medina period (late stages of revelation), while Sura 114 – the last Sura in the
Quran – was written in the very early stages of Islam, in the Mecca period. Thus,
when we speak of “earlier suras” we mean earlier in time, not “earlier” in number.