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

Mark Durie: Paris attacks not ‘nihilism’ but ‘sacred strategy’

Nov 18, 2015 4:00 am By Ralph Sidway

One of the most important Christian writers on Islam and the global Muslim persecution of Christians, Anglican pastor and theologian Mark Durie, weighs in on the struggle to accurately render the meta-narrative concerning the Paris Jihad Attacks.

For a variety of reasons, there are a great many policymakers, media analysts, elected officials and ordinary citizens who are having an extremely difficult time understanding what is happening (see John Kerry’s “legitimacy” comments). Mark Durie offers a practical corrective to the West’s epistemological blindness, and a sliver of a ray of hope that all is not yet lost.

“Paris attacks were not ‘nihilism’ but sacred strategy,” by Mark Durie, November 17, 2015:

LEADING commentator Janet Daley’s article in Saturday’s Telegraph ‘The West is at war with a death cult’ stands for everything that is woeful about European elites’ response to Islamic jihad.

It is a triumph of religious illiteracy.

The jihadist enemy, she asserts, is utterly unintelligible, so beyond encompassing in ‘coherent, systematic thought’ that no vocabulary can describe it: ‘This is just insanity’, she writes. Because the enemy is ‘hysterical’, lacking ‘rational demands’, ‘negotiable limits,’ or ‘intelligible objectives’ Daley claims it is pointless to subject its actions to any form of historical, social or theological analysis, for no-one should attempt to ‘impose logic on behaviour that is pathological’.

Despite this, Daley then ventures to offer analysis of and explanations for ISIS’ actions, but in doing so she relies upon her own conceptual categories, not those of ISIS.

Her explanations therefore fall wide of the mark.

‘Civilians’

Daley writes: ‘We face a violent and highly contagious madness that believes the killing of civilians is a moral act.’  Here she appeals to Western concepts of war, reflected, for example, in the Geneva Convention, which provides detailed principles for the ‘protection of civilian persons’.

Yet the first step in understanding a cultural system alien to one’s own, is to describe it in its own terms.

ISIS does not subscribe to the Geneva Convention.  Its actions and strategies are based upon medieval Islamic laws of jihad, which make no use of the modern Western concept of ‘civilian’.

They do, however, refer to the category of disbelievers (mushrik or kafir).

ISIS believes that killing disbelievers is a moral act, in accordance, for example, with Sura 9:5 of the Qur’an, which states :‘Fight and kill the idolators (mushrik) wherever you find them’.

Not nihilism

Daley writes: ‘The enemy has stated explicitly that it does not revere life at all’ and ‘Civilians are not collateral damage in this campaign: their deaths are the whole point.’  She goes on to lament that the latest French attacks lack any purpose, but are ‘carried out for the sheer nihilistic thrill of it’.

The claim that ISIS does not ‘revere life’ seems to refer to any number of statements by Islamic radicals, including an ISIS militant who vowed to ‘fill the streets of Paris with dead bodies’, and boasted that ISIS ‘loves death like you love life’ (see here).  This is a theological reference to a series of verses in the Qur’an in which Jews are criticised for desiring life (Sura 2:94-96, 62:6-8).

According to the Qur’an, loving life is a characteristic of infidels (Sura 3:14; 14:3; 75:20; 76:27) because it causes them to disregard the importance of the next life.  The taunt much used by jihadis, ‘We love death like you love life’,  implies that jihadis are bound for paradise while their enemies are hell-bound.

The point of these statements is that Muslims are willing to fight to the death, while their infidel enemies will turn back in battle. This is not about reverence for life, but about who has the will to win. This has nothing to do with nihilism, which is a belief that there are no values, nothing to be loyal to, and no purpose in living. In fact ISIS fighters have strong and clear loyalties and values, alien though they may be to those of Europe.

Daley’s claim that the deaths are ‘the whole point’ is also mistaken. While it is true that the jihadis consider killing infidels a meritorious act, potentially earning the killer a place in paradise (see here), and they consider being killed in battle against infidels a ticket to paradise, in fact the killings do serve a strategic purpose. This is to make infidels afraid, and thereby to weaken their will to resist Islamic dominance.

This strategy is commended by the Qur’an, for example in Sura 8:12, ‘I shall cast dread into the hearts of those who disbelieve. So strike above (their) necks and strike (off) all their fingers!’, as well as by the successful example of Muhammad in fighting the Jews of Medina, referred to in Sura 33:26-27, ‘He brought down from their fortifications those of the People of the Book who supported them, and cast dread into their hearts. You killed a group (of them), and took captive (another) group. And he caused you to inherit their land, their homes, and their wealth, and a land you had not set foot on.’  A similar passage is Sura 59:2, which ISIS has in fact been quoting in its celebrations of the Paris carnage.

It may seem to Daley that ISIS’ often-stated intention of defeating the West is fanciful, but the point is to understand ISIS, and as far as it is concerned, these deadly attacks are instrumental in weakening the will of infidels and hastening eventual victory.

Daley wonders what possible point these attacks could serve. She speculates:  ‘… what is the alternative that is being demanded? Sharia law? The subjection of women? An end to liberal democracy? Are any of these things even within the bounds of consideration? What could be accomplished by national self-doubt or criticism at this point, when there is not even a reasonable basis for discussion with the enemy?’  It is hardly a secret that the ultimate goal of ISIS is to bring non-Muslims everywhere  to convert to Islam or live under an Islamic caliphate as dhimmis. Sharia law and the subjection of women are part and parcel of this.

It is odd that Daley laments having no reasonable basis for negotiating with the enemy.  ISIS is not playing by a Western-style negotiating rule book. It is following Muhammad’s instructions to his followers to offer three choices to infidels: conversion, surrender, or the sword.  Bin Ladin has explained that the West’s rejection of this framework is the whole reason for its conflict with what he calls ‘the authority of Islam’:

“Our talks with the infidel West and our conflict with them ultimately revolve around one issue; one that demands our total support, with power and determination, with one voice, and it is: Does Islam, or does it not, force people by the power of the sword to submit to its authority corporeally if not spiritually? Yes. There are only three choices in Islam: [1] either willing submission [conversion]; or [2] payment of the jizya, through physical, though not spiritual, submission to the authority of Islam; or [3] the sword, for it is not right to let him [an infidel] live. The matter is summed up for every person alive: Either submit, or live under the suzerainty of Islam, or die.” (The Al Qaeda Reader)

It may seem unimaginable to European elites that ISIS is fighting for the goal of the surrender or conversion of Europe, but ISIS is thinking in time frames which extend to centuries, and their forebears conquered vast territories using such tactics.  A final act of conquest can be preceded by decades, or even centuries, of military raids.

For example, Constantinople: targeted by Muslims from the days of Muhammad, it was laid siege to the first time by Islam mere decades after Muhammad’s death, and again a century or so later. Finally, after eight centuries of spasmodic warfare, territorial encroachment, and occasional setbacks, Islam defeated the capitol of Eastern Christendom.

While killing is currently the main mode of ISIS’ attacks inside the West, if they could they would use other tactics as well, such as taking booty and slaves or destroying infrastructure, as they have been doing in Syria and Iraq.

Grievances

Daley claims it is pointless to argue with people who have no reasonable grievances, for ‘the French people did not deserve this, just as Americans did not deserve 9/11’.  However the important question is how ISIS sees its own motivations.  Their ideology teaches them that infidels deserve death, simply by virtue of their unbelief.  This has nothing to do with France’s history of colonialism or its treatment of Muslim minorities.  ISIS needed no appeal to grievances to justify killing and enslaving Yazidis in Iraq and Syria, so why should they view the people of France any differently?  Their objection to Europeans is that they are not Muslims, and their objection to European states is that they do not implement sharia law.

Irresponsible

It is irresponsible and dangerous to claim that a tenacious enemy is insane and incomprehensible. To refuse to acknowledge the ideology of ISIS, and to deny its relevance is tantamount to a death-wish.

Like so many other revivalist Islamic groups, ISIS believes that it will be successful if it stays faithful to its divinely-mandated goals and tactics.  It believes the nations of Europe are morally corrupt, weak infidels who love life too much to fight a battle to the death with stern Muslim soldiers who have set their hearts on paradise.  It believes Europe stands on the wrong side of history.

To combat this ideology it is necessary for Europe to prove ISIS wrong on all counts. It must show strength, not weakness. It must have confidence in its cultural and spiritual identity. It must be willing to fight for its survival. It must show that it believes in itself enough to fight for its future. It must defend its borders.  It must act like someone who intends to win an interminably long war against an implacable foe.

There is a great deal Europe could have done to avert this catastrophe.  It could, long ago, have challenged the Islamic view of history which idolised jihad and its intended outcome, the dhimma.  It could have demanded that Islam renounce its love affair with conquest and dominance.  It could have encouraged Muslims to follow a path of self-criticism leading to peace.  This lost opportunity is what Bat Ye’or referred to in a prescient 1993 interview as the ‘relativization of religion, a self-critical view of the history of Islamic imperialism’.

Instead the elites of Europe embarked on decades of religiously illiterate appeasement and denialism.

There is still much that European states could do to defeat ISIS.  They could, for example, inflict catastrophic military failure upon it as a powerful counter-argument to its theology of success.  This will not deliver decisive, final victory against jihadism, but it will make the supremacist claims of ISIS less credible and hurt its recruitment.  Islam’s laws of war allow Muslims to suspend their battle with infidels temporarily if there is no immediate prospect of victory and the risks to their cause are too great.

Europe also needs to act to suppress incitement of jihadi ideology by its clients, including the anti-Israeli jihadism of the Palestinian Authority.  It must put more pressure on the militarily vulnerable Gulf states to stop funding Islamic radicalism throughout the Middle East and exporting jihad-revering versions of Islamic theology throughout the whole world.

One hope for Europe is that Islamic populations will get tired of the doctrine of jihad and all its bitter fruits. There are some signs that this is already happening, and many of the Muslims who are now seeking asylum in their hundreds of thousands will have come to this conclusion.  However it seems likely that Muslim communities now established within Europe will be the last to reconsider their dogmas and their take on history, because they have not had to suffer first-hand the harsh realities of life under Islamic dystopias such as the ISIS ‘caliphate’ or Iran’s Islamic Revolution.  A 2014 opinion poll found that among French 18-24 year olds, the Islamic State had an approval rating of 27%, which must include the overwhelming majority of young French Muslim men.  For Europe, the challenge from within will be more enduring and intractable than the challenge from without.

Nevertheless, European states could still do much on their own turf. They could ban Saudi and other Middle Eastern funding to Islamic organisations, including mosques. They could stop appeasing Islamists in their midst. They could, even at this late hour, demand that the large and rapidly growing Muslim communities now well-established across Europe engage in constructive self-criticism of their religion, for the sake of peace.

This article first appeared in Lapido Media.

Mark Durie is the pastor of an Anglican church, a Shillman-Ginsburg Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum, and Founder of the Institute for Spiritual Awareness. He is the author of The Third Choice – Islam, Dhimmitude and Freedom, and of Which God? Jesus, Holy Spirit, God in Christianity and Islam.

 

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Filed Under: Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, Daesh), Islamic supremacism, Jihad doctrine Tagged With: Janet Daley, Paris


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Comments

  1. dumbledoresarmy says

    Nov 18, 2015 at 4:16 am

    I can only encourage my fellow jihadwatchers to share this excellent article far and wide.

    Also, read and re-read it till the points he makes are securely embedded in your mind, so that you will be able to use them yourself as occasion requires, in conversation or in other settings.

    It is particularly important to understand the points that he makes under the caption headings ‘grievances’ and ‘not nihilism’.

    • xxxChurch100 says

      Nov 19, 2015 at 3:46 pm

      I agree , may I suggest Mark Durie’s Book “The Third Choice ” [which I purchased 5 days ago] as an extremely factual , practical and ideological guide to Islam , which most in the “west” would be completely unfamiliar to .
      Regards

  2. citycat says

    Nov 18, 2015 at 5:27 am

    They are already embedded in my mind. Nice to see it written down, especially the bit about the danger of the silent breeders

  3. Beagle says

    Nov 18, 2015 at 8:58 am

    Another well done analysis by Durie, obviously familiar with Islam. These well-intentioned pedagogical pieces come and go like the tides with each new Islamic atrocity. But I have to wonder how a major op-ed contributor – Daley, one I’ve read and agreed with in the past – could still be so ignorant of Islam and jihad 101 in 2015?

    For a decade and more I had some sympathy for those clueless about Islam and jihad. But it is increasingly clear what I interpreted as curable ignorance is denial, delusion, and willful blindness.

    The oft-cited Atlantic article on IS published earlier this year provides nothing 12 years of Jihad Watch posts have not already in terms of theological, legal, eschatlogical, and geopolitical analysis of jihadist goals.

    Many adults of some age who don’t get it by now are choosing not to get it.

    • Kepha says

      Nov 18, 2015 at 9:44 pm

      @Beagle:

      Of course some of the pundits and leaders out there are willfully blind or even deceitful about what we’re up against, and we had a splendid example of this in Shrillar Shrooooo’s telling her family that Amb. Stevens’ Party was attacked and killed by a Qaida-like group, then telling the public that an obscure video by an obscure Coptic immigrant (albeit an apparent low-life) was to blame. I also agree that the Atlantic is a Johnny-come-lately compared to what we’ve gotten from our blog host here.

      But we’ve also had others who have allowed themselves to be educated. As one who has received kind treatment at Muslim hands (albeit chiefly people from a Muslim minority in a very large Kufr majority) and worked well alongside Muslim individuals, I was loath to think that perhaps the Muslim world is telling us that they want to take up again at the point when Sobieski chased the Turks away from Vienna. Then again, I was fortunate enough in my education to know that violent jihad is very much a part and parcel of Islam as a spiritual and doctrinal system.

  4. Angemon says

    Nov 18, 2015 at 11:57 am

    Superb article.

  5. eduardo odraude says

    Nov 18, 2015 at 4:20 pm

    Mark Durie’s The Third Choice might be the best book on Islam there is. Why? Because it is simultaneously the most compassionate and yet the most hard-hitting Islam-critical book there is. He is not part of the political partisan split between left and right, so his book has a chance of convincing anyone who reads it. He is also a linguist and first rank scholar, and though he knows the material with the finest scholarly scrupulousness, he writes beautifully and extremely clearly, and anyone can understand. I believe Islam-critics could not do better than The Third Choice.

    • TheBuffster says

      Nov 19, 2015 at 6:35 am

      I agree with your evaluation. I love the book. And the man.

      • dumbledoresarmy says

        Nov 19, 2015 at 8:48 am

        I have met him.

        He’s lovely.

        And with all his scholarship (he has a background in Linguistics, he’s a fellow of the Australian Research Council, and has studied at the University of Leiden, under the formidable Dutch scholar of Islam, the late Hans Jansen) he’s a humble parish priest, pastoring an Anglican congregation, right here in Australia. His parishioners are very fortunate.

        I hope his Bishop appreciates him…and i hope his Bishop realizes what a fantastic asset he is, to the Anglican church in Australia and beyond, to the church in general, to all of Australia, and beyond.

        Since I worship within an Anglican context here in Australia (the Anglican church in Australia has many strands; it has a strong evangelical strand, especially in Sydney and to some extent in Melbourne, and also a strong ‘Anglo-Catholic’/ High Anglican strand which takes spiritual realities and the *historic* or traditional Christian faith pretty seriously, as well as being afflicted – as all churches are nowadays – with a lot of people who are just mindlessly floating along with the Zeitgeist) I am doing my best to promote Durie, among my fellow Anglicans, as a ‘go-to’ source on Islam.

        *He’s* the sort of person our church leaders and political leaders and most especially our journalists should be turning to, first up, for a comment, and for information, when something like this terror raid in Paris explodes onto our TV screens.

  6. WCM says

    Nov 18, 2015 at 4:55 pm

    Ralph Peters nailed it 13-14 years ago, shortly following 9/11 with, When Devils Walk the Earth: The Mentality And Roots of Terrorism and How To Respond.

  7. luciano says

    Nov 19, 2015 at 9:26 am

    I read the ‘History of Venice; by Dr. Greenwich some years ago. Excellent book. The author gives a simple formula for the progress of history……WEALTH LEADS TO LUXURY TO DECACENCE TO INERTIA. Inertia is where Europe is at…..All they want to do is eat and drink and go on vacation. They cannot even reproduce. To pay for their decadence they imported en-masse Islamic workers to fund their social welfare programs. Now the enemy is within. Europe is soon to be Eurabia.

  8. Markus Lukas says

    Nov 19, 2015 at 3:01 pm

    We should nuke Raqqa right now. And I mean use a nuclear weapon, not harsh language.

    I am not being hyperbolic, ironic or sarcastic. I mean it.

    It will send an immediate and unmistakable message. to Daesh, the broader world of Islamicist sympathizers and indeed the entire planet that we are not to be trifled with.

    Such an attack will — in an instant — accomplish at least two important objectives:

    1) Though our enemies can build “sophisticated” suicide bomb vests and mass-murder IED cars, nuking Raqqa will demonstrate our overwhelming superiority across the entire scientific and technical spectrum; and

    2) Whether one is Christian — or even religious — or not, our enemy is obsessed with proving their cult is the strongest faith on the block; they will not fail to notice ” … the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”

  9. Robert says

    Nov 19, 2015 at 4:30 pm

    I had the full experience of the Islamic belief while I lived in and around Iraq for three full years.
    It is astounding to me that people can have such sympathy for the people of France and condemn
    Israel for casting the violent Muslims out.
    France and all of Europe is about to get a taste of what Israel has been living threw for the last 50 years.

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