Author: Daniel Pipes
Publication: FrontPageMagazine.com
Date: May 31, 2005
URL: http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=3D18231
In his just-released, absorbing,
and excellent book, Understanding Jihad (University of California Press),
David Cook of Rice University dismisses the low-grade debate that has raged
since 9/11 over the nature of jihad - whether it is a form of offensive
warfare or (more pleasantly) a type of moral self-improvement.
Cook dismisses as "pathetic and
laughable" John Esposito's contention that jihad refers to "the effort
to lead a good life." Throughout history and at present, Cook definitively
establishes, the term primarily means "warfare with spiritual significance."
His achievement lies in tracing
the evolution of jihad from Muhammad to Osama, following how the concept
has changed through fourteen centuries. This summary does not do justice
to Cook's extensive research, prolific examples, and thoughtful analysis,
but even a thumbnail sketch suggests jihad's evolution.
The Koran invites Muslims to give
their lives in exchange for assurances of paradise.
The Hadith (accounts of Muhammad's
actions and personal statements) elaborate on the Koran, providing specific
injunctions about treaties, pay, booty, prisoners, tactics, and much else.
Muslim jurisprudents then wove these precepts into a body of law.
Muhammad's conquests: During his
years in power, the prophet engaged in an average of nine military campaigns
a year, or one every 5-6 weeks; thus did jihad help define Islam from its
very dawn. Conquering and humiliating non-Muslims was a main feature of
the prophet's jihad.
The Arab conquests and after: During
the first several centuries of Islam, "the interpretation of jihad was
unabashedly aggressive and expansive." After the conquests subsided, non-Muslims
hardly threatened and Sufi notions of jihad as self-improvement developed
in complement to the martial meaning.
The Crusades, the centuries-long
European effort to control the Holy Land, gave jihad a new urgency and
prompted what Cook calls the "classical" theory of jihad. Finding themselves
on the defensive led to a hardening of Muslim attitudes.
The Mongol invasions of the thirteenth
century subjugated much of the Muslim world, a catastrophe only partially
mitigated by the Mongols' nominal conversion to Islam. Some thinkers, Ibn
Taymiya (d. 1328) in particular, came to distinguish between true and false
Muslims; and to give jihad new prominence by judging the validity of a
person's faith according to his willingness to wage jihad.
Nineteenth century "purification
jihads" took place in several regions against fellow Muslims. The most
radical and consequential of these was the Wahhabis' jihad in Arabia. Drawing
on Ibn Taymiya, they condemned most non-Wahhabi Muslims as infidels (kafirs)
and waged jihad against them.
European imperialism inspired jihadi
resistance efforts, notably in India, the Caucasus, Somalia, Sudan, Algeria,
and Morocco, but all in the end failed. This disaster meant new thinking
was needed.
Islamist new thinking began in Egypt
and India in the 1920s but jihad acquired its contemporary quality of radical
offensive warfare only with the Egyptian thinker Sayyid Qutb (d. 1966).
Qutb developed Ibn Taymiya's distinction between true and false Muslims
to deem non-Islamists to be non-Muslims and then declare jihad on them.
The group that assassinated Anwar El-Sadat in 1981 then added the idea
of jihad as the path to world domination.
The anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan
led to the final step (so far) in this evolution. In Afghanistan, for the
first time, jihadis assembled from around the world to fight on behalf
of Islam. Abdullah Azzam, a Palestinian, became the theorist of global
jihad in the 1980s, giving it an unheard-of central role, judging each
Muslim exclusively by his contribution to jihad, and making jihad the salvation
of Muslims and Islam. Out of this quickly came suicide terrorism and bin
Laden.
Cook's erudite and timely study
has many implications, including these:
The current understanding of jihad
is more extreme than at any prior time in Islamic history.
This extremism suggests that the
Muslim world is going through a phase, one that must be endured and overcome,
comparable to analogously horrid periods in Germany, Russia, and China.
Jihad having evolved steadily until
now, doubtless will continue to do so in the future.
The excessive form of jihad currently
practiced by al-Qaeda and others could, Cook semi-predicts, lead to its
"decisive rejection" by a majority of Muslims. Jihad then could turn into
a non-violent concept.
The great challenge for moderate
Muslims (and their non-Muslim allies) is to make that rejection come about,
and with due haste.
