Declaration of Jihad Against the Countrys Tyrants Military Series - Report Example

The Introduction Page of the AQTTM: An Analysis The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in strategic areas in the United s compelled frantic raids and searches of terrorist lairs by authorities all over the world. These resulted in the discovery of several terrorist publications, one of which is the Al Qaeda Training Manual entitled Declaration of Jihad (Holy War) Against the Country’s Tyrants Military Series. This document was seized in the house of an Al Qaeda member as part of a computer file during a raid instituted by the Manchester (England) Metropolitan Police. The training manual details the organization’s primary mission which is the violent overthrow of ‘godless’ regimes for the purpose of replacing them with Islamic states. Moreover, the manual essays other missions, although secondary yet as violent, and the tactics and strategies to be used by its members in pursuing these missions. The introductory page of the said document clearly declares that the organization must pursue the establishment of an Islamic state which can be undertaken only through an armed revolution or jihad. At the outset, the Al Qaeda group makes known its intention to wage an armed revolution against those who they think have diluted the Islam faith right on the first pages of the manual. This intention appeared in the introduction to the said training manual after it narrated events in the history that it declared had damaged the faith of Islam. These events are used by the manual to justify an armed revolution against all those the groups believed to be guilty of seducing Islam believers to the path of the sinners. According to the manual’s introduction, the Islam faith’s declining present condition was precipitated by the abolition of the caliphate on May 23, 1924. The caliphate is an Islamic form of government which represented the unity of the entire Muslim world. It was headed by a caliph who headed the Islamic faith much like the popes of the Christians although the caliphs have political as well as military powers. This Muslim institution was however abolished by the Grand Assembly of Turkey through the influence of Kemal Ataturk (Mustafa Kemal) in 1924 in the wake of the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Previous to that, Kemal led a fight to repel European occupation of Anatolia. After defeating the Greeks in 1922, Kemal moved to abolish the sultanate and eventually the caliphate in 1924 as a result of the perceived support of the caliphate to the European forces (Sayyid 2003). This abolition, according to the manual’s introduction, started the massive repression and destruction of the Islamic faith which began by the jailing of thousands of young Muslims. The subsequent westernization of the Muslim world and its people had, according to the manual, obliterated the essence of the faith. The manual strongly assailed the introduction to Muslim countries of western culture which produced men like physicians, engineers, businessmen, politicians, journalists and information specialists that constituted a “wasted generation.” These young men’s clothes, manners, and lifestyle, according to the manual, are antithetical to the pure and undiluted Islamic way. Thus, it is the primary objective of the group to reverse the tide and resurrect the caliphate, reject anything western and reinstate the practice of the jihad. The primary objective of the group which is to bring about an Islamic state of faith that is not confined only to rituals but one that pervades every aspect of life including politics, and government, social and ethical aspects. This return to the absolute Islam way of life means a rejection of the western way of life which can be characterized as love for everything that is worldly that brings about the fear of death as this would mean a termination from enjoyment of these worldly possessions. The reversion to this pure Islam condition also includes the re-embrace of the Jihad or the holy war. According to the book Beyond Jihad: Critical Voices from Inside Islam, there are many meanings that can be attached to the word including a struggle with one’s self but historically however, jihad had always referred to wars waged by Muslims against non-Muslims since Muslims are forbidden to engage in war against each other. Jihad is the means employed by Muslims to spread Islam all over the world in the same manner that Christians engaged in crusades against pagans, Muslims and other non-Christians in the 12th century (Shienbaum & Hasan 2006). That jihad was used as a means of spreading Islam all over the world is well documented in more than eighty per cent of the texts written by Islam scholars. The Prophet Mohammad, for example, waged seventy-eight jihads, only one of which, viz., the Battle of Ditch, was a defensive war. He waged wars against pagans, Jews, Christians and other non-Muslims to force them to convert to the Islam religion. Eventually, as Islam became widespread Mohammad began the tradition of issuing invitations first to non-Muslims to embrace the religion and then attacked those who refused the invitation. A typical invitation, for example, would read “Embrace Islam, or pay the poll tax, or fight unto death’ (Shienbaum & Hasan 2006). The book Jihad in the Qur’an: The Truth from the Source however believes that Islamic jihad does not mean only mean physically fighting in the name of Allah to spread Islam. Jihad can likewise mean an internal struggle or “exerting efforts, in the form of struggle against or resistance to something, for the sake of Allah.” This can refer to the struggle of keeping one self free from the temptation of sins (Fatoohi 2004). However, this concept is obviously not the kind of jihad that the Al Qaeda had in mind as can be gleaned from the contents of the manual which obviously contemplates an armed fight. It talks, for example, of the “overthrow of the godless regimes and their replacement with an Islamic regime” in page 12, as well as declares its missions, among others, as the kidnapping and assassinating of enemy personnel, rumor spreading for the purpose of instigating others against the enemy, blasting and destroying just about everything non-Muslim places like amusement places, embassies, vital economic centers, bridges leading into and out of the cities. . Conclusion From the wording of the manual’s introduction, it is evident that the Al Qaeda organization is an Islam fundamentalist that believes and aspires, albeit violently, for a return to the basic sources of the Islam religion which are the Qur’an and the Hadith or Sunna. However, fundamentalists like the Al Qaeda are not as intent to return to such sacred scriptures as interpreting these scriptures in a very literal and non-interpretative manner (Olson 1998). As a matter of fact, the first fundamentalist movement was inspired by a desire to get rid and erase the ‘corrupting’ influences of the western world on the way of life of the Muslims (Dicken & Watson 1999). To the Al Qaedans, everything western reeks of sin and therefore, must be rid of even if it means the employment of violence. As fundamentalists, the Al Qaedans believes that anything that cannot be found in the Islam sacred scriptures are anti-Islam and must be dealt with by all the force they can muster. Yet, in its aspiration to force everything and everybody to return to the fundamentals of the Islamic faith, Al Qaeda unwittingly uses tools that are essentially western like weaponry, and state-pf-the-art communication technology. In its employment of global terrorism, the group makes use of the advantages of globalization and its effects to spread and reach others around the world. A glaring example is the employment of the commercial airplanes not only invented by the western world but owned by western countries to perpetuate its terrorist activities. The manual provides a glimpse of the isolationist and violent mindset of the terrorist group, a rather impossible feat, and therefore impractical, to accomplish in this highly globalize world. Oil for example, which provides the bulk of the income of the Muslim Middle East countries are primarily consumed by the western countries. Thus, the Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations, may seriously damage the world’s peace and order but it can never be successful because of this largely isolationist perspectives. Dissension and strong opposition to such views will come not only from non-Muslims but from Muslims themselves who would rather occupy themselves by earning good jobs, send their children to good schools and generally lead comfortable lives tolerating other faiths and be tolerated rather than engage in constant war just to force others to relinquish their faith, a faith practiced by their ascendants since time immemorial, and embrace Islam as their own. The religious intolerance of the Al Qaeda as can be gleaned from the introductory pages of the AQTTM and their vow to re-embrace jihad as a way to propagate the Islamic faith has no future and sooner or later, it will be the Muslim people who will put a stop to them. The extent of social, political and cultural evolution has made the Al Qaedan quest an impossible pursuit. So much time and events have passed and taken place and a reversal to the state of things of several centuries back is not only unimaginable but also impossible. This is not to say however, that Al Qaeda should not be taken seriously. The havoc they wrought on September 11, 2001 is one good argument for taking their threats seriously. The said global catastrophe illustrated that Al Qaeda members are serious and dedicated to their mission, however misguided they were, and the civilized world should always keep its eyes open.. References Dickins, James & Watson, Janet C. E. Standard Arabic: An Advanced Course. Cambridge University Press, 1999. Fatoohi, Louay. (2004). Jihad in the Quran: The Truth from the Source. Quranic Studies, pp. Fay, John. (2007). Encyclopedia of Security Management. Butterworth-Heinemann; pp554. Olson, Alan M. & Steiner, David M. & Tuuli, Irina S. Educating for Democracy: Paideia in an Age of Uncertainty. Rowman & Littlefield, 2004 Sayyid, Bobby S. (2003). A Fundamental Fear: Eurocentrism and the Emergence of Islamism. Zed Books, p. 58 Published 2003. Shienbaum, Kim Ezra & Hasan, Jamal. (2006). beyond jihad: Critical Voices from Inside Islam. Academica Press, LLC, pp 77-78 Read More