Israpundit » Blog Archive » 'Islam is our enemy. Jihadists are a manifestation only'

A fascinating article, here's a long extract...

'What are the central pillars of jihadist ideology? Where does it fit within the history and theology of Islam? What are the jihadists' goals? What are they prepared to do to achieve them?

They could begin to find answers in "The Mind of Jihad," a book written seven years ago by the late Laurent Murawiec for the Pentagon's director of net assessment. Murawiec explained that jihad implies "warfare with spiritual significance." He added that the concept "stems irrefutably ?from the Quran," and that jihad cannot be seen — as so many of its apologists contend — as "a response to "colonial aggression,' 'imperialist encroachments,' 'Zionist intrusion' or "American ?crimes.'"

Jihad was the primary means by which the great Islamic empires of antiquity expanded their borders until, starting in the 1100s, European scientific and military developments began to shift the power equation, and Christian empires started to encroach "into lands that had long been ?conquered and ruled by Muslims."

Over the centuries that followed, Islamic warriors increasingly found themselves on the defensive. "But as soon as some in the umma [the transnational Muslim community] could nurture again the belief that jihad could be victorious again, that the balance of forces would again favor the umma, sizeable groups and schools of thought went back to the offensive."

Murawiec saw clearly that we are now in such an era. Within the Muslim world, "sizeable groups and schools of thought" view the West as weakening, in decline, unwilling and maybe unable to defend itself. They further believe that Muslims have a religious obligation to exploit this opportunity to expand "the writ and word of Allah."

"Modern jihad," as Murawiec called it, "erupted in full force with the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979 in both the Shiite and the Sunni world." Thousands of jihadist attacks have followed ?over the years since.'

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