Islamic Issues
May 17, 2008
19 minutes read

Thank God Someone Is Listening to Us – Terrorism Is Not Jihad

The U.S. Government recently issued a statement asking that government officials be cautious in their use of language as it may actually be against the interests of the U.S. to use terms that connect the religion of Islam with the acts of criminals. The governments suggests the use of more accurate and non-inflammatory language. A recent Homeland Security Report even sharply rebuked John McCain’s ‘Islamic Extremism’ rhetoric. Of course, Islamophobes like Robert Spencer and Hugh Fitzgerald don’t approve, but they also thought Islamo Fascism Awareness Week was a good idea.

The governments new awareness that words have meaning has been attacked as caving in to Muslim pressure by a number of groups and individuals who currently make a nice living defining Islam and Muslims. As an American Muslim who loves both Islam and America, I say “Thank God Someone Is Finally Listening to Us – Terrorism Is Not Jihad”. Perhaps now we can work together to combat the very real problem of extremism and terrorism.

When the media or individuals use Arabic terms such as jihad for acts of terrorism, or when they attach the word Islam in front of a word as in Islamo-fascism, Islamic terrorism, those words have an effect. They have an effect right here in America by linking the religion of Islam and terrorist acts in the mind of ordinary citizens. They have an effect on Muslims who are struggling to make clear to those Muslims who attempt to justify their crimes by some false interpretation of Islamic teachings that we do not accept their claims. They have an effect on Muslims worldwide who because of the use of language like Islamo-Fascist, have come to view the “war on terror” not as a war on al Qaeda, but as a war on Islam itself.

Criminal political movements like al-Qaeda who attempt to convince other Muslims that their actions are somehow “Islamic” attempt to call their terrorist acts Jihad, and when their false claims are echoed in the media in the West, that adds some legitimacy to their claims, at least for uneducated Muslims.

There have been lots of folks who have said that they have no problem with Islam, their problem is with Islamism or Islamists. This however is problematic even in the definition of the terms. The online dictionary and thesaurus gives the following definitions:

Dictionary: Islamism: 1. An Islamic revivalist movement, often characterized by moral conservatism, literalism, and the attempt to implement Islamic values in all spheres of life. 2. The religious faith, principles, or cause of Islam.
Thesaurus: 1. Islamist – a scholar who knowledgeable in Islamic studies bookman, scholar, scholarly person, student – a learned person (especially in the humanities); someone who by long study has gained mastery in one or more disciplines. 2. Islamist – an orthodox Muslim Islam, Muslimism – the civilization of Muslims collectively which is governed by the Muslim religion; “Islam is predominant in northern Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan, and Indonesia”

The truth is that when you add the word Islam in front of words like fascist, extremist, terrorist, etc. Or, when you allow criminals like Osama bin Laden or al Qaeda to redefine the words Jihad and Shahed, then you are giving the impression to all the millions of Muslims in the world that you think that OBL and al Qaeda are correct in their attempts to give an Islamic justification for their criminal actions. They are not correct. Terrorism is not Jihad, it is Hirabah. A martyr is a person who dies in the cause of God, most certainly not someone who dies committing an act of terrorism.

Terrorism is not a legitimate part of jihad according to traditional Islamic scholars, and mainstream Islamic scholars, and ordinary Muslims regularly attempt to point this out because they are aware that the only appeal to reason that might influence extremists who claim an Islamic justification in any way is the appeal to Islamic teachings.

If you must use an Arabic word, use the correct word HIRABAH which is the word that would correspond to these acts of terrorism. But, why use an Arabic word at all in English?

When Muslims have attempted to clarify the position of Islam, they have often been misunderstood. The following statement by Paul Barrett is typical of this deep misunderstanding of Islam and Muslims:

“But Hathout’s characterization of the attack also includes one of those troubling asterisks. When he says he reviles the 9/11 hijackers, he also tries to deny that they are Muslims. “If those people claim to be Muslims,” he says, “this is against every fiber in Islam.” In his circular reasoning, real Muslims can have no connection to terrorism because Islam forbids such violence. Ergo, Muslims didn’t carry out 9/11 since anyone who could do such a thing is not a real Muslim. This verbal feint could suggest evasiveness to some listeners.”

As a Muslim, I absolutely understand and agree with what Maher Hathout was attempting to express. Any person who could carry out the 9/11 terrorist act could not understand Islam, and no matter what distorted reasoning they followed to convince themselves that there was any possibility of justifying such an act, they were wrong. And, if there are any others out there who are following the same line of reasoning or attempting to convince others of that reasoning, they are wrong. Any extremist political ideology masquerading as Islamic is wrong and must be resisted by all Muslims.

The American Muslim has been publishing articles on this distinction between hirabah and jihad for many years, and will hopefully publish many more. After 9/11 American Muslims were forced to come to terms with the fact that there were some people who also considered themselves Muslims whose view of what it means to be a Muslim and to follow Islam was completely unrecognizable and abhorrent to us. It was a shock to hear those people use words that hold deep spiritual meaning and beauty for us in a way that turned the meanings of those words on their heads. We must counter this false message and find ways to reach those who have been brainwashed into believing that there is any validity in this false understanding preached by groups such as al Qaeda.

Thank God Someone Is Listening to Us – Terrorism Is Not Jihad

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