• Why Jihad Watch?
  • About Robert Spencer and Staff Writers
  • FAQ
  • Books
  • Muhammad
  • Islam 101
  • Privacy

Jihad Watch

Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Fitzgerald: Who Can Use the Word “Extremism”?

Sep 13, 2006 11:24 am By Hugh Fitzgerald

What does it mean to use the phrase “a tiny minority of extremists”? What must it mean, in order to make sense? It means that there is a political doctrine, a belief-system, a cult, a “religion” or a “major world religion,” some of whose adherents are apparently extremely extreme in their embrace of that (choose: major world religion, religion, cult, belief-system, political doctrine), which is to say that they take it really seriously, especially as they see what they are required to do as adherents of that (choose one: same choices as before) X or Y or Z.

An “extremist” has to be an “extremist” about something. So this is what Youth Wants to Know. What is that “something” the belief in which leads us to call some of that something’s adherents a “tiny minority of extremists”? That something is, of course, Islam. And what is it, precisely, contained within that Islam that that “tiny minority of extremists” believe in just a bit too deeply, take a bit too seriously, act upon a bit too readily? Is it something that is in that religion/belief-system/cult? Or is it not there at all? Is it something that they have imagined, have invented? Or is it in fact there to be found, there to be found quite naturally, and in fact it might even take an effort to avoid seeing, to pretend is not there?
What are the texts, what are the passages, upon which Sheik Nasrallah, or the late Sheik Yassin (“spiritual adviser” of Hamas), or Bin Laden, or Al-Zawahiri, or the Indonesian mastermind of the Bali bombings, or those who belong to Sunna al-Islam in Iraq, or Jaish-e-Muhammad in Pakistan, or Gemaa Islamiya in Egypt, or this or that local succursale of the world-wide Muslim Brotherhood, the Ikhwan, rely? Are they apocryphal texts that only they take as true? Are they texts that they endow with a meaning that Muslims have not, over the past 1350 years, steadily endowed with the same meaning? Are they Hadith that the most authoritative muhaddithin have dismissed as unreliable in their isnad-chain, that this “tiny minority of extremists” has decided to raise to the top level of “authenticity” despite the considered judgments of Bukhari and Muslim? Do they rely on fabricated details of the life of Muhammad, uswa hasana, al-insan al-kamil? Is their view of non-Muslims, and of the proper relation between Muslims and non-Muslims, Believers and Infidels, distinct from that which Muslims have believed in the past, and acted on, over 1350 years of recorded history of Islamic conquest and subjugation of non-Muslims?

Have you, in the past five years, read anywhere, any apologist for Islam, explaining to us exactly those invented texts, or those incorrectly elevated Hadith, or those fabricated details of the Life of Muhammad, on which that “tiny minority of extremists” have apparently been relying? Do you know of a single Qur’anic passage that has been used by Bin Laden or Al-Zawahiri or any of the others, that was made up? Do you know of any wild interpretations offered by that “tiny minority of extremists” that can be refuted, easily, by the vast majority of “peace-loving” Muslims whose Islam, whose understanding of Islam, we are repeatedly told is completely different from that of that “tiny minority of extremists” who have “perverted a great religion”?

We want to know more. We want to know exactly how that “great religion” has been “perverted.” We want to have chapter and verse. Tell us, someone — Karen Armstrong, John Esposito, Carl Ernst, Ralph Peters, the ghost of Sheikh Bin Baz, the Sheikh Al-Azhar, Al-Qaradawi, James Akins, Raymond Close, Lt. Gen. (ret”d.) William Odom, James Baker, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Tom Friedman, Nicholas Kristof, Alistair Crooke, Javier Solana, the entire staff of the E.U. and the U.N. and the editorial boards of The Times, The Post, The Guardian, Le Monde, anyone at all among those who presume to instruct or protect us, including of course George Bush — the man who looks forward to the day when those freedom-loving “moms and dads” in the Middle East will sit down to their Norman-Rockwellian or Leave-It-To-Beaver existences, just like all of us, as we each worship solemnly on the same Thanksgiving Day. (Oh, by then it will be a worldwide holiday, as we will all give thanks in just the same way, to the very same God of those very same three-arabahamic-faiths — faiths that everyone in the whole wide world will embrace along with democracy and freedom and toys and good things to eat for all the boys and girls on the other side of the mountain.)

Tell us what the word “extremist” modifies. Explain to us exactly what the “extremists” believe, and where they get their crazed ideas. If there is reason to believe that they understand passages in the Qur’an and stories in the Hadith in a strange and “perverted” way, the way that those who would “pervert a great religion” would be expected to, please tell us exactly which passages and which stories are being read in false versions, or are being interpreted in a way that is false, false to the doctrine of Islam, false to the history of Islam. Explain to us just how they “pervert a great religion.”

We want to know, from all those who describe “the terrorists” as “extremists,” exactly in what way those “extremists” are “extremists,” and in what way they are to be easily distinguished from all the quiet, peaceful, pluralist Muslims we are assured make up not merely the majority, but the “vast majority,” of Muslims. We”d be pleased to find out exactly which texts need revision, need to be dealt with, and just how the word can go out, so we can all, Muslims along with their non-Muslim friends and brothers, mock into non-existence those “extremists” who are causing misunderstood Muslims such undeserved anguish, such undeserved grief. And surely, as we could see from so many stories in the newspapers on the Fifth Anniversary of the 9/11/2001 attacks, that the feelings of Muslims is perhaps the most important thing for all of us, at this stage of events, to consider, to worry and fret about. So we must make sure that we clearly identify what it is that distinguishes the beliefs of the “extremist” tiny minority from the vast majority of non-extremists. Just so we”ll all be completely clear on this.

So help us out, please. Perhaps we are a little slow. Perhaps we do not see things with the pellucid clarity of the bakers and brzezinskis, the espositos and the ernsts and the armstrongs and the peterses, and all those who think that the “tiny minority of extremists” have nothing to do with the real Islam. And if we need to worry, we don’t want to have to worry about anything other than that “tiny minority of extremists” who can be defeated, who can be caused to disappear. For otherwise we might inadvertently worry about Muslims who are part of some majority, and not part of that “tiny minority.” And their feelings would naturally be hurt. And as we learned this week, in all the attention given to the feelings of Muslims, their wounded sense of being under suspicion, the most important thing — by far — is surely not to offend the feelings of Muslims. For that would make them mad. That would force them to do things. That would force them, quite possibly, to begin to misinterpret the Qur’an and Hadith the way the “extremists” do.

So tell us what that way is, and then perhaps we can prepare a dossier to show how crazed are the interpretations, how false the passages, on which those “extremists” rely.

We”re waiting eagerly for this answer. But we”re not waiting forever.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Follow me on Facebook

Filed Under: Uncategorized


Learn more about RevenueStripe...

FacebookYoutubeTwitterLog in

Subscribe to the Jihad Watch Daily Digest

You will receive a daily mailing containing links to the stories posted at Jihad Watch in the last 24 hours.
Enter your email address to subscribe.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!
If you are forwarding to a friend, please remove the unsubscribe buttons first, as they my accidentally click it.

Subscribe to all Jihad Watch posts

You will receive immediate notification.
Enter your email address to subscribe.
Note: This may be up to 15 emails a day.

Donate to JihadWatch
FrontPage Mag

Search Site

Translate

The Team

Robert Spencer in FrontPageMag
Robert Spencer in PJ Media

Articles at Jihad Watch by
Robert Spencer
Hugh Fitzgerald
Christine Douglass-Williams
Andrew Harrod
Jamie Glazov
Daniel Greenfield

Contact Us

Terror Attacks Since 9/11

Archives

  • 2020
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2019
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2018
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2017
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2016
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2015
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2014
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2013
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2012
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2011
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2010
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2009
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2008
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2007
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2006
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2005
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2004
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2003
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • March

All Categories

You Might Like

Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Recent Comments

  • janicevanguilder on New study reveals that Muslim religiosity strongly linked to hatred towards the West
  • Boycott Turkey on Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, France and UAE conduct joint military exercises amid rising Turkish threat
  • Yogi on EU Parliament members call for firing of border agency director for preventing illegal migrants from entering Europe
  • Hoi Polloi on Why so many Muslims can’t wait for Biden to get inaugurated
  • Hoi Polloi on EU Parliament members call for firing of border agency director for preventing illegal migrants from entering Europe

Popular Categories

dhimmitude Sharia Jihad in the U.S ISIS / Islamic State / ISIL Iran Free Speech

Robert Spencer FaceBook Page

Robert Spencer Twitter

Robert Spencer twitter

Robert Spencer YouTube Channel

Books by Robert Spencer

Jihad Watch® is a registered trademark of Robert Spencer in the United States and/or other countries - Site Developed and Managed by Free Speech Defense

Content copyright Jihad Watch, Jihad Watch claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to their respective owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

Our mailing address is: David Horowitz Freedom Center, P.O. Box 55089, Sherman Oaks, CA 91499-1964

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.