Marshall Memorial Fellowship: How Transatlantic Partners Can Halt So-called Muslim Terrorism
Terrorism in Europe and the U.S. frequently is portrayed as a largely Islamic phenomenon. Yet this connection is flawed, as terrorism is antithetical to Islam.
Terrorism is not sanctioned by Islam. In Islamic law terrorism (hirabah) is explicitly forbidden and classified as a major sin. To commit acts that strike fear in the hearts of people is equivalent to waging war against God. The Quran is explicit in its message recognising the sanctity of all human life: to kill one person it is as though all of mankind has been killed (Quran 5:32). The Quran further forbids Muslims from creating disorder in the world: do not commit abuse on the earth spreading corruption (Quran 29:36).
Even at times of war and hostility, the Prophet Mohammed laid down strict rules of engagement which made it absolute that women, children and non-combatants must not be killed and infrastructure must not be destroyed. The Prophet rejected all types of terrorism in the name of Islam. When Muslims were being persecuted in Mecca, the Prophet forbade them from responding in a violent manner and instead ordered them to migrate peacefully to another land. This was in accordance with the teachings of the Quran: they will say “we were oppressed in the land.” The angels will say “was not the earth of Allah spacious enough for you to emigrate therein?” (Quran 4:97).
When Muslim terrorists ascribe their actions to Islam, they directly contravene Islam. While religious language is open to multiple interpretations, terrorists take verses from the Quran out of context and distort them in order to justify their deviant interpretations. Terrorists are bolstered when critics accept their interpretation, giving them credence.
Terrorist organisations have managed to amass large followings and influence their followers to commit atrocities using religion, and in particular a distorted concept of Jihad, as a tool of persuasion for political means. For terrorist organisations this has been a relatively easy process to win over uneducated people who, despite having a good grasp of their grievances, have a very poor understanding of Islam and have fallen prey to the promises of divine intervention and heaven from politicised clerics. A 2010 study of 2,000 people who were attracted to terrorism by the U.S. Institute for Peace found that these people had “an inadequate understanding of their own religion which makes them vulnerable to misinterpretations of the religious doctrines.”
The concept of Jihad has misleadingly become a synonym of terrorism. In Islam there are two types of Jihad: a greater Jihad which comprises an internal spiritual struggle towards self-improvement and a lesser jihad which is an external struggle against evil when Islam is under attack, with clear restrictions. Terrorists have attempted to narrow the concept of Jihad, restricting it to combat and slaughter which is in complete contravention of Islam.
Photo David Shankbone
In Europe and the U.S. there is a distorted view of terrorism, where large sections of the public believe that Muslims commit the most terrorist acts. According to statistics from Europol between 2009 and 2013 less than two percent of all terrorist attacks in Europe were committed by Muslim terrorists. In the U.S. the main terrorist threat has been from right-wing extremists. Researchers at Princeton University found that Muslim terrorists were responsible for only six percent of terrorist attacks between 1980 and 2005. U.S. Terrorism Scholars Charles Kurzman and David Schanzer wrote in the New York Times that “there have been more than 215,000 murders in the United States since 9/11. For every person killed by a Muslim terrorist there have been 4,300 homicides.”
A study of suicide bombings committed in the Middle East between 1981 and 2006 by Flinders University Australia found that suicide bombings were committed as a result of political grievances not religion. A further study by the University of Chicago which looked into 2,200 suicide bombings from 1980 found that more than 90% of the attacks were directed at occupying forces supporting the argument that Muslim terrorism is a politically motivated response to occupation.
The vast majority of victims of Muslim terrorists are Muslim. In the 12 years of the ‘war on terrorism’ from 2003 to 2015 a staggering 1.3 million lives were lost in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan alone (Body Count).
The threat from Muslim terrorists is and has been grossly exaggerated in the U.S. and Europe in order to justify the multiple wars being waged in Muslim majority countries. The U.S. and its European allies have spent decades waging and funding wars in the Middle East. The entire region is encircled with foreign military bases. The increase in Muslim terrorism can be attributed to the U.S. and Europe’s foreign policy and occupation of these lands. It is fair to say that if there is no occupation then there would be a drastic reduction in Muslim terrorism.
Ushrat Sultana, a lawyer and consultant, is a Spring 2016 European Marshall Memorial Fellow.