Opinion | umm Abdillah, Radio Islam Programming | 2015.02.28 | 8 Jumadal Ula 1436
Each time “Islamic State” makes headlines Muslims are left wondering when and how we got here. “By dint of what machination has my religion become the boogeyman?” It’s time for us to readdress our psychological, intellectual and spiritual game plan writes umm Abdillah.
News broke on Thursday that the masked ISIS ransom demander or “Jihadi John” has been identified as Mohammed Emwazi, a 27-year-old Kuwaiti-born Londoner. Also in the spotlight this week: a trio of British girls who ran away from home. It’s unclear where they are, but authorities worry their next stop will be ISIS in Syria. Adding to our consternation as Muslims – irresponsible reporting implicated Darul Ulooms in SA via Al Jazeera’s Spy Cable leak as Jihad training centres. To add insult to injury, The Daily Maverick “found”/didn’t find a South African Muslim ISIS mercenary, and hinted that ISIS is going to claim us all!
If public sentiment is anything to go by, media haranguing has a pretty brutal effect on Muslim psyche. Each time “Islamic State” makes headlines; Muslims are left wondering when and how we got here. “When did my religion become the boogeyman?” The global war on terror (Taliban, Al Qaeda, Al Shabab, Boko Haram, ISIS etc.) is often deemed a war on Islam. Matters between the two so delicately intertwined, it’s easy to lose perspective of our status and roles as non-combatant or “ordinary” Muslims. Ruefully, we know the glib manner “ordinary” activity can be spun to seem like “suspicious” activity. Yet, to ward off helplessness, depression and radicalised blues, it’s imperative to not only remain critical and alert, but also readdress our psychological, intellectual and spiritual game plan. This is not a sprint. It is a long-term, cross-country, triathlon – and we’re in for more than just a Cape to Cairo trip.
Back to ISIS – the Barbarian stereotype
IS, or ISIS or Da’esh the Arabic acronym for Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (Al Dawla al-Islamyia fil Iraq wa’al Sham) didn’t emerge out of thin air.
Summed up nicely by Mike Whitney:
“This is a major region-shaping operation that the Turks, the Saudis, the Qataris, the Americans etc. are in on. Sure, maybe some of these militants have gone off the reservation and started doing their own thing, but even that’s not certain. After all, ISIS has already achieved many of Washington’s implicit objectives: Dump Nuri al Maliki and replace him with a US stooge who will amend the Status of Forces Agreement; allow Sunni militants and Kurds to create their own de facto mini-states within Iraq (thus, eliminating the threat of a strong, unified Iraq that will challenge Israeli hegemony); and create a tangible threat to regional security i.e. ISIS. This then justifies US meddling and occupation for the foreseeable future. So far, arming terrorists has been a winning strategy for Obama and his allies.”
BUT – Is it Islamic?
Opponents of the term “Islamic State” say it is neither Islamic nor a state: thus the suggestion of a group of British imams to David Cameron was that he uses the expression “Un-Islamic State.” In a similar vein, Egypt’s leading Islamic authority, urged the media to use QSIS: “Al-Qaida Separatists in Iraq and Syria.” The French government, now officially adopts the Arabic acronym “Daesh” because IS apparently blurs the lines between Islam, Muslims, and ‘Islamists’.
Burning people is haraam. Capturing non-combatants and killing them via beheading or torture is haraam. Mutilation of corpses is haraam: so the live to an even greater degree of abomination. Call them whatever you want – there is a need for Muslims to recognise that ISIS has been able (rightly or wrongly) to institutionalise the notion of “Jihad”. Their religiosity doesn’t seem to factor. That they’re fighting for freedom in Muslim territories obviously does.
The issues which brought them into being have to be eliminated before they can be considered a “Muslim” threat, and this is largely what is inconvenient for world leaders to admit, and in turn, the media to relay.
See why this is not a sprint? It is a long-term, cross-country, triathlon – and we’re in for the long haul. As Muslims we need to stay focused and alert, especially on how emotion (and beheadings!) are used to distract and waylay the actual (long-winded) more intellectual matters at hand. These matters concern regional instability, the war in Iraq, and Bashaar al Asad’s war on his own people. So, the first and long-term challenge is the fight to bring injustice, othering, corruption, illegal wars, and the rape of natural resources to an end.
Further, one must not necessarily expect that the users of terrorism (be it the US or ISIS) would possess common psychological or sociological characteristics.
The War on Terror/Islam routes from post-colonial strategies, and advocates the form of a “civilising mission”. The American civilisation was constructed as the norm, as it is assumed to be universal – leaving the ‘others’ seem abnormal. This Othering process creates an enmity between the western world and what they perceive to be terrorists. A good/moderate Muslim per Western standards is hence an implicit part of the civilising mission, and we would be blind not to note that, or fall into that trap. This, bar our revulsion of ISIS tactics.
Spiritually, we have to realise that Shaitan uses despondency and helplessness to shy us into submission or uncontrolled rage. It is not the mosque, or Imam or Quran that radicalises one, rather the frustration that arises from having no anchor. Speak to each other about viable activism; unite to use legal institutions to make world powers accountable; and know we are all Quran-bound to display good character.
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