Islam and the West

1. Islam and the West

2. Islam and the West • For al Qaeda and other Islamic extremist groups, the War on Terrorism is essentially a religious war, even if it is not characterized as such by the EU or US. • The specific grievances and aims of Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda and other groups have been clearly and repeatedly stated. • One of the first such statements from bin Laden was the “Declaration of the World Islamic Front for Jihad against the Jews and Crusaders, published Feb. 23, 1998 in the London-based Quds al-’Arabi.

3. 1998 Declaration for Jihad • “First -- For more than seven years the United States is occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of its territories, Arabia, plundering its riches, overwhelming its rulers, humiliating its people, threatening its neighbors, and using its bases in the peninsula as a spearhead to fight against the neighboring Islamic peoples. • “Though some in the past have disputed the true nature of this occupation, the people of Arabia in their entirety have now recognized it. • “There is no better proof of this than the continuing American aggression against the Iraqi people, launched from Arabia despite its rulers, who all oppose the use of their territories for this purpose but are subjugated.”

4. 1998 Declaration for Jihad • “Second -- Despite the immense destruction inflicted on the Iraqi people at the hands of the Crusader Jewish alliance, and in spite of the appalling number of dead, exceeding a million, the Americans nevertheless, in spite of all this, are trying once more to repeat this dreadful slaughter. It seems that the long blockade following after a fierce war, the dismemberment and the destruction, are not enough for them. So they come again today to destroy what remains of this people and to humiliate their Muslim neighbors.”

5. 1998 Declaration for Jihad • “Third -- While the purposes of the Americans in these wars are religious and economic, they also serve the petty state of the Jews, to divert attention from their occupation of Jerusalem and their killing of Muslims in it. • “There is no better proof of all this than their eagerness to destroy Iraq, the strongest of the neighboring Arab states, and their attempt to dismember all the states of the region, such as Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and Egypt and Sudan, into petty states, whose division and weakness would ensure the survival of Israel and the continuation of the calamitous Crusader occupation of the lands of Arabia.”

6. 1998 Declaration for Jihad • These crimes amount to “a clear declaration of war by the Americans against God, His Prophet, and the Muslims. In such a situation, it is the unanimous opinion of the ulema throughout the centuries that when enemies attack the Muslim lands, Jihad becomes a personal duty of every Muslim.” • This duty [fatwa] dictates that “to kill Americans and their allies, both civil and military, is an individual duty of every Muslim who is able, in any country where this is possible, until the Aqsa mosque [Jerusalem] and the Haram mosque [Mecca] are freed from their grip, and until their armies, shattered and broken-winged, depart from all the lands of Islam, incapable of threatening any Muslim.”

7. Understanding Islam • These ideas proceed from a profoundly different worldview than most Westerners are familiar with. • It is necessary to understand the history of Islam in order to understand it as a political force. • The history of Islam reflects an almost unbroken pattern of conflict with the West, both in defending what many Muslims believe are its rightful prerogatives, and in attempting to subdue Western nations. • Islam was the leading civilization in the world from roughly 700-1400, during what we in the West call the Medieval period. The great texts of antiquity were preserved, studied and interpreted, paving the way for the Renaissance and the cultural flourishing of the West in the 15th-17th centuries.

8. Understanding Islam • But the trajectories of those two civilizations have crossed, with the West continuing on its unprecedented ascent, and Islamic civilization continuing, in many ways, to decline. • What are the main differences between Islamic and Western worldviews?

13. “…most Muslim countries are still profoundly Muslim in a way and in a sense that most Christian countries are no longer Christian.” (Lewis, 16)