At one level, terrorists are simply filled with anger and hate and are violent, bloodthirsty killers. But there is also a coherent logic behind their thinking. In this post, I hope to explain it a bit.
The most fundamental theological tenet of Islam is tawhid, the absolute unity and oneness of God. This plays out in many permutations, but one of them is that God has only one religion, Islam, and all other religions are not only false but an affront to him. Islam teaches that in the inevitable course of history, Islam will come to dominate the world. In their thinking, this means that all of us ignorant non-Muslims will come to see the light and glory of Islam and ultimately submit to the will of God as Muslims. The natural outworking of history is the steady expansion of the "House of Peace", that is, the geographic territory submitted to the will of God, i.e., Muslims, over the ever-decreasing "House of War", that is, those who stubbornly refuse to submit to the will of their creator. Once the world has submitted to Islam, the unity and oneness of God and his religion will be perfected on the earth. Throughout Islamic history, we have seen Muslim armies march to conquer all the territory they could, only stopping when they were militarily defeated. For instance, Europe was spared by the forces of Charles Martel in Tours, France in the 8th century, and King Sobieski and his Polish forces at Austria in the 1680s.
Jihad is the process by which territory is taken for Islam. Jihad can be peaceful and is undertaken as missionary activity among the unbelievers. But when people refuse to submit, violence is necessary to force them to submit.
Offensive jihad is a communal obligation. This means that as long as someone is undertaking it on behalf of the Muslim community, the remaining Muslims are relieved of the duty to do so. Defensive jihad, on the other hand, is the obligation of every individual Muslim. This explains the split of ISIS from Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda's strategy was to slowly work to overthrow existing countries, starting with nominal Muslim countries that are ruled by kings or democratic systems. Then that newly Islamicized government would be the basis for the creation of a caliphate, a country ruled strictly according to sharia. ISIS felt this was too slow a strategy, and decided to take any territory they could, no matter how small, and without regard for national boundaries. They took parts of Iraq and Syria and declared the caliphate, with Al Baghdadi the new calipha. You may recall ISIS called on the world's Muslims to come to the defense of the caliphate, which technically all Muslims in the world were required to do. We saw that a few tens of thousands of young Muslim men, and a few Muslim young women traveled to the new caliphate to fight on behalf of the caliphate. (Note that while this is the orthodox theology of Islam, most Muslims of the world are more nominal, and even perplexed by terrorism, believing Islam is a religion of peace. Their particular, individual brand of Islam may indeed be peaceful, but orthodox Islam would say they are not good Muslims and have fallen victim to the godless influences of the West.)
Terrorism is a part of offensive jihad. Just as we justified the atomic bombs dropped on Japan as a necessary evil to ultimately save hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides and bring a swift end to the war, jihadis view terrorism as a way to jump start the enemy's ultimate submission to Islam. By making continued resistance to Islam painful and bloody, it is thought the non-Muslim world will capitulate more quickly than in a long, drawn out, violent war. These jihadis view the West, and Christians, as weak, pleasure-seeking, pansies who will capitulate rather than fight.
In my view, these terrorist event are with us forever. Unless someone or some movement within Islam is able to bring about a coherent theology that counters the clear commands of the Qur'an and hadith to jihad and violence, these texts will be used to purify (radicalize) Muslims to continue the fight to subdue the world for Islam.
The most fundamental theological tenet of Islam is tawhid, the absolute unity and oneness of God. This plays out in many permutations, but one of them is that God has only one religion, Islam, and all other religions are not only false but an affront to him. Islam teaches that in the inevitable course of history, Islam will come to dominate the world. In their thinking, this means that all of us ignorant non-Muslims will come to see the light and glory of Islam and ultimately submit to the will of God as Muslims. The natural outworking of history is the steady expansion of the "House of Peace", that is, the geographic territory submitted to the will of God, i.e., Muslims, over the ever-decreasing "House of War", that is, those who stubbornly refuse to submit to the will of their creator. Once the world has submitted to Islam, the unity and oneness of God and his religion will be perfected on the earth. Throughout Islamic history, we have seen Muslim armies march to conquer all the territory they could, only stopping when they were militarily defeated. For instance, Europe was spared by the forces of Charles Martel in Tours, France in the 8th century, and King Sobieski and his Polish forces at Austria in the 1680s.
Jihad is the process by which territory is taken for Islam. Jihad can be peaceful and is undertaken as missionary activity among the unbelievers. But when people refuse to submit, violence is necessary to force them to submit.
Offensive jihad is a communal obligation. This means that as long as someone is undertaking it on behalf of the Muslim community, the remaining Muslims are relieved of the duty to do so. Defensive jihad, on the other hand, is the obligation of every individual Muslim. This explains the split of ISIS from Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda's strategy was to slowly work to overthrow existing countries, starting with nominal Muslim countries that are ruled by kings or democratic systems. Then that newly Islamicized government would be the basis for the creation of a caliphate, a country ruled strictly according to sharia. ISIS felt this was too slow a strategy, and decided to take any territory they could, no matter how small, and without regard for national boundaries. They took parts of Iraq and Syria and declared the caliphate, with Al Baghdadi the new calipha. You may recall ISIS called on the world's Muslims to come to the defense of the caliphate, which technically all Muslims in the world were required to do. We saw that a few tens of thousands of young Muslim men, and a few Muslim young women traveled to the new caliphate to fight on behalf of the caliphate. (Note that while this is the orthodox theology of Islam, most Muslims of the world are more nominal, and even perplexed by terrorism, believing Islam is a religion of peace. Their particular, individual brand of Islam may indeed be peaceful, but orthodox Islam would say they are not good Muslims and have fallen victim to the godless influences of the West.)
Terrorism is a part of offensive jihad. Just as we justified the atomic bombs dropped on Japan as a necessary evil to ultimately save hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides and bring a swift end to the war, jihadis view terrorism as a way to jump start the enemy's ultimate submission to Islam. By making continued resistance to Islam painful and bloody, it is thought the non-Muslim world will capitulate more quickly than in a long, drawn out, violent war. These jihadis view the West, and Christians, as weak, pleasure-seeking, pansies who will capitulate rather than fight.
In my view, these terrorist event are with us forever. Unless someone or some movement within Islam is able to bring about a coherent theology that counters the clear commands of the Qur'an and hadith to jihad and violence, these texts will be used to purify (radicalize) Muslims to continue the fight to subdue the world for Islam.
