An old (and tiresome) debate appears to have been settled by those best positioned to settle it. According to Andrew Gripp, a former political science professor:
Since 9/11, one of the defining fault lines in American and Western politics has concerned whether jihadist groups such as al-Qaeda and ISIS are motivated by their religion or by politics – or more specifically, by grievances against Western foreign policy. Some insist that Islamic doctrine is the basis of their violence, while others insist that such groups are not truly Islamic, but are instead using the guise of religion to lash out against Western influence and intervention.
After indicating how “jihadist groups’ political behavior is consistently traceable to their beliefs about what the Quran, hadith, and respected commentaries say they have a divine injunction to do,” Gripp writes:
For years, however, making this case has been a challenge. This is in part because al-Qaeda was intentionally speaking to both sides in this debate. As the scholar Raymond Ibrahim demonstrates in The Al Qaeda Reader, the terrorist group would regularly frame its grievances in political terms when broadcasting its message to the West (so as to insinuate that once the West withdrew, peace would come). Yet when speaking to the Muslim world, the group would make highly sophisticated religious arguments, explaining why its actions, however reprehensible on their face, were in fact justified by a close reading of the holy texts.
This was indeed the main reason I sought to translate and publish al-Qaeda’s internal communiques to fellow Muslims side-by-side with al-Qaeda’s communiques to the West: to show the stark differences in tone and purpose. As I wrote in the book’s preface ten years ago:
This volume of translations [The Al Qaeda Reader], taken as a whole, proves once and for all that, despite the propaganda of al-Qaeda and its sympathizers, radical Islam’s war with the West is not finite and limited to political grievances—real or imagined—but is existential, transcending time and space and deeply rooted in faith.
Now, however, the world need not rely on my translations and can get it straight from the horse’s mouth. In a recent article titled “Why We Hate You & Why We Fight You,” the Islamic State gives six reasons. Reason number one says it all:
We hate you, first and foremost, because you are disbelievers; you reject the oneness of Allah – whether you realize it or not – by making partners for Him in worship, you blaspheme against Him, claiming that He has a son [Christ], you fabricate lies against His prophets and messengers, and you indulge in all manner of devilish practices. It is for this reason that we were commanded to openly declare our hatred for you and our enmity towards you. “There has already been for you an excellent example in Abraham and those with him, when they said to their people, ‘Indeed, we are disassociated from you and from whatever you worship other than Allah. We have rejected you, and there has arisen, between us and you, enmity and hatred forever until you believe in Allah alone’” (Al-Mumtahanah 4 [i.e., Koran 60:4]). Furthermore, just as your disbelief is the primary reason we hate you, your disbelief is the primary reason we fight you, as we have been commanded to fight the disbelievers until they submit to the authority of Islam, either by becoming Muslims, or by paying jizyah – for those afforded this option [“People of the Book”] – and living in humiliation under the rule of the Muslims [per Koran 9:29].
This is as plain as it gets, not to mention wholly grounded in Islam’s traditional worldview. As has been repeatedly pointed out, if Muslims are persecuting people who share their nationality, ethnicity, culture, and language—on the simple basis that they are Christians—why should there be any surprise, or excuses of “grievances,” when Muslims terrorize the “infidels” of the West?
Reasons two and three of why ISIS hates and fights the West are essentially the same as reason one: Western secularists and atheists are hated and attacked for disbelieving in and living against Allah. Although reason four cites “crimes against Islam,” this is a reference to the “crime” of refusing to submit to Islam’s authority and sensibilities, also known as “Islam’s How Dare You?!” phenomenon.
It is only in reasons five and six that ISIS finally mentions “grievances” against Western foreign policies—only to quickly clarify:
What’s important to understand here is that although some might argue that your foreign policies are the extent of what drives our hatred, this particular reason for hating you is secondary, hence the reason we addressed it at the end of the above list. […] The fact is, even if you were to stop bombing us, imprisoning us, torturing us, vilifying us, and usurping our lands, we would continue to hate you because our primary reason for hating you will not cease to exist until you embrace Islam. Even if you were to pay jizyah and live under the authority of Islam in humiliation, we would continue to hate you [emphasis added].
It is this unrelenting hatred that Westerners cannot comprehend; a hate that compelsMuslim husbands to hate their non-Muslim wives, that compels America’s great “friends and allies,” such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, to publish government sanctioned decrees proclaiming their hate for America.
And it was always this hate that fueled al-Qaeda’s jihad—not grievances. All of the Koran verses that call for enmity against non-Muslims have been repeatedly cited by al-Qaeda in its Arabic writings to Muslims. Ayman Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s current leader, wrote a 60 page treatise devoted to delineating how Islam commands Muslims to hate non-Muslims (see “Loyalty and Enmity,” The Al Qaeda Reader, p. 63-115.)
Osama bin Laden once wrote:
As to the relationship between Muslims and infidels, this is summarized by the Most High’s Word: “We renounce you. Enmity and hate shall forever reign between us—till you believe in Allah alone” [Qur’an 60:4 referenced above in ISIS’s recent publication]. So there is an enmity, evidenced by fierce hostility from the heart. And this fierce hostility—that is, battle—ceases only if the infidel submits to the authority of Islam, or if his blood is forbidden from being shed [i.e., a dhimmi], or if Muslims are at that point in time weak and incapable [in which case, bin Laden later clarifies, they should dissemble (taqiyya) before the infidels by, say, insisting the conflict is about “foreign policy,” nothing more]. But if the hate at any time extinguishes from the heart, this is great apostasy!… Such, then, is the basis and foundation of the relationship between the infidel and the Muslim. Battle, animosity, and hatred—directed from the Muslim to the infidel—is the foundation of our religion. (The Al Qaeda Reader, p. 43).
Yet, in every communique he issued to the West, bin Laden stressed that al-Qaeda’s war was entirely based on Western foreign policies detrimental to Islam: if the West were to eliminate these, terrorism would cease. This rhetoric was accepted at face value by many so-called “experts” (such as ex-CIA agent Michael Scheuer, author of Imperial Hubris) and became the default answer to the tired question, “why do they hate us?” As late as 2014 U.S. President Obama invoked the “grievance” meme concerning ISIS.
Of course, it was one thing for Western leaders to accept and disseminate al-Qaeda’s lies concerning “grievances,” and another thing for them to continue doing so now, in light of ISIS’ open confessions concerning the true nature of the jihad. Any Western leader, analyst, or “expert” who at this late hour continues peddling the “grievance” narrative falls within the ever growing ranks of fools and liars.

Michael Copeland says
Thank you for your tireless work elucidating these matters.
Unfortunately we are led by fools and liars.
Angemon says
while others insist that such groups are not truly Islamic, but are instead using the guise of religion to lash out against Western influence and intervention.
The nonsense of this approach should be obvious – if it was, in fact, caused by grievances they wanted addressed why dilute/obfuscate it by placing them under the guise of religion?
Michael Laudahn says
I am still not convinced they will come to reason now. Too many influential people have erred for too long. So what will their next excuse be for not doing the things overdue?
Adrian says
A simple answer is, if muslim terrorism and killings are motivated by oppression and colonialism and disenfranchisement and poverty etc etc – then how do you explain the persecution and killings of hundreds of thousands of peaceful Xtians, Yazidis, and other faiths living in Muslim countries?.. How did these ever hurt Muhameddans?
Georg says
Crucial point.
linnte says
Mr. Ibrahim, thank you! This is solid and well written. Shared to my Facebook page. It is information that can be used in debating Muslims on line too and that is invaluable!
JIMJFOX says
Al-wala’ wa-l-bara’ (Arabic: الولاء والبراء) is an Arabic term meaning “loyalty and disavowal”. Al-wala’ wa-l-bara’ is referred to by some as holding fast to all that is pleasing to God, and withdrawing from and opposing all that is displeasing to God; namely the Kafirs(un-believers) who are to be hated:
Koran 9:29:
“The Jews say, “Ezra is the son of Allah “; and the Christians say, “The Messiah is the son of Allah .” That is their statement from their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved [before them]. May Allah destroy them; how are they deluded”
SIMPLE.
Will Doohan says
Thank you Mr. Ibrahim for the book “The All Qaeda Reader” and your work exposing the continuing persecution of Christians in Dar al’Islam.
marina says
The violent book Quran says to kill all the infidels until Islam is the only religion left.
Bela Csakany says
Even if all the world were to submit and become moslem, they would continue to slaughter each other for not being ‘islamic’ enough!
common sense says
ISIS and all Jihadists are in their view carrying out their Allah (God) given duty. Supremacy over the world is the goal of that duty by employing any measure at their disposal.
Hillary Clinton if elected will provide a pathway to the USA as Merkel has to Germany.
don vito says
Before I can form an opinion about this topic, I must wait for the heavy thinkers of islam to weigh in and see what they say, to wit: B-ho, Mazo, and, Il Papo. Hehe.
WorkingClassPost says
It’s weird that hate is so specifically cited as being used against muslims, yet it is so much a word that is of their creation.
Nobody does hate quite like a muslim.
They hate their mothers, their sisters, their own children, and as Germany is finding out, they even hate their saviours.
Yet our leaders still expect us to deny the hatred that they have unleashed upon us.
dumbledoresarmy says
Yep.
Islam pickles its followers in suspicion and aggression. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who as a child experienced families and societies suffused with Islam, both African and Arab, talks about that, in her book “Nomad”. Wafa Sultan, another ex-Muslim – from Syria! – called her book about Islam – and its effects on society, even on a society that, at the time of her growing up, was ruled by the Alawites (a syncretic/ heretical/ semi-Islamic group) not by Sunni or Shiite Muslims – “A God Who Hates”. That is: ‘allah’ HATES. That is one of Allah’s defining attributes. YHWH is love; whereas ‘allah’… HATES. And Brigitte Gabriel, who grew up in Lebanon and experienced the eruption of Jihad and attendant horrors that happened as soon as the Muslim population got big enough to challenge and overthrow the Maronite Christian, who were the dominant group at the time when she was born, called *her* book about Islam and Muslims, “Because They Hate”.
And in a little article published in a Bible Society world report that I read years and years ago, an *ex-Muslim*, of Kurdish ethnicity and Turkish nationality, who had been raised within a ‘moderate’ and apparently-secularised upper-middle-class family in then-relatively-secularised Turkey, nevertheless said flatly, speaking of *his* experience, “among Muslims, you would always fight”. To repeat, he did not grow up out in the tribal badlands of Somalia or Afghanistan, nor in Saudi Arabia or Yemen. He grew up in Turkey: he was educated to tertiary level. He was not poor; his parents were not goat-herders but urbanites. He was an ‘intellectual’. *Nevertheless*, he defines the Muslim milieu, the ‘atmosphere’ of a Muslim society, as “always fight”.
Phil says
Micheal Copeland is correct. Unfortunately we are still led by “fools and liars”. And we are being threatened now with 8 years of Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump is our only hope in this existential religious medieval war that has been declared on us.
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
Fight until there is no God but Allah.
— Allah talking about himself as he exhorts war on his behalf
That about sums up the whole deal.
Norger says
Thank you Mr. Ibrahim for the concise and logical analysis.
Yes, it may be true that 1.6 billion Muslim hold varying degrees of commitment to their faith, but it is undeniable that there is a mainstream, not fringe, view in Islam (perhaps THE mainstream view in Islam) in which pure hatred of non-believers is essentially considered a form of piety.
And our MSM and political leaders either can’t or won’t acknowledge this objectively verifiable doctrinal fact (al wara wal bara) much less talk about it.
UNCLE VLADDI says
The Qur’an clearly and very specifically tells muslims the Bible is wrong and also that all Christians and Jews are infidel criminals who worship a false god, and who must therefore be extorted, enslaved, and murdered for their “crime” of not being muslims:
Sura (Chapter) 47:1-4 of the Qur’an:
1: non-muslims are bad, (allegedly because they insult allah by dividing his nature*);
2: muslims are good, (allegedly because to them allah is the cause of everything*);
3: Allah made them both like that;
4: So muslims should chop off the non-muslims’ heads.
(“Allah could have done it himself, but he wants you muslims to do it for him”).
…
It’s all right there, in context: islamic violence is entirely general doctrine-driven, and not at all specific grievance-driven.
(And chapter 47 isn’t by any stretch even remotely the worst, most violent chapter; that honor goes to either chapter 8 or 9).
So don’t go looking for what actions of yours may have offended or provoked them; they have been taught from birth that your existence alone offends their god, and so should offend them.
Muslims have been officially taught to believe that they are the “best of people” (Qur’an 3:110) and that unbelievers are the “most vile of created beings” (Qur’an 98:6).
——-
*[Soon shall We cast terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers, for that they joined companions with Allah, for which He had sent no authority: their abode will be the Fire: And evil is the home of the wrong-doers! (3:151)].
…
So, if and when you consider islam to be a religion, you must agree with it’s main tenet: that God is a violent murderer who wants his muslim tribe to violently conquer the world by extorting, enslaving, and murdering all the non-muslim humans, right?
At WORST, all REAL religions only say:
“Obey our silly rules, or GOD (/’the gods’) will get you!”
…but ONLY islam says:
“Obey our silly rules, or WE will get you (‘for god’)!”
A forced ‘Faith!’ ISN’T a “Faith!” at all – it’s only extortion, and extortion is always a CRIME.
Bottom line: Muslims must be told straight out, unequivocally: “If you decide to believe in “allah,” you have declared yourself a criminal, and so must be arrested, indicted, tried and convicted. Your confession of “faith” in your crime-god will help us to do so.”
=======
Further, here are some more teachings from the Koran, “valid from eternity to eternity”:
2:191 Slay the unbelievers wherever you come upon them.
9:5 Kill the unbelievers wherever you find them.
2:98 Allah is the enemy of the unbelievers.
30:45 Allah does not love the unbelievers.
3:28 Muslims must not take the infidels as friends.
3:85 If anyone desires a religion other than Islam (submission to Allah) it will never be accepted.
8:12 Cast terror into the hearts of the infidels. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them.
8:60 And prepare against them whatever you are able of power and of steeds of war by which you may terrify the enemy of Allah and your enemy.
4:89 Anyone trying to leave islam must be murdered for it.
Got that yet? “Kill them wherever you find them!” is from (2:191, 4:89, AND 9:5).
There really is not any room for doubt. Islam is a MURDER-gang / extortion racket posing as religion.
UNCLE VLADDI says
Muhammad himself was a cowardly psychotic criminal who wrote a book of lies telling everyone else what fun it was to be him.
No other “motivations” need be sought in cases of “Sudden Jihad Syndrome” today!
This is so simple even a leftist can (but probably won’t want to) get it:
Muhammad rode around Arabia robbing enslaving and murdering people for “disbelieving” in his “unknown and unknowable god.”
HOW THE HELL CAN ANYONE “BELIEVE” IN AN “UNKNOWABLE” GOD?!
If and when you claim your god is unknowable, you’re the one who is limiting it’s ability to explain itself! You’re the one who is basically saying it doesn’t exist! You’re the one saying that your “god” isn’t a personal or compassionate one, but is one which either can’t or chooses not to relate to its subjects! You’re the atheist, and your version of a ‘god’ doesn’t exist!
The rest of the illiterate ancient Arabs should have caught on right there, but didn’t – Muhammad’s alleged enslavement by “allah” was always only an alibi to excuse his own criminal plunder-lusts and actions.
When your ‘god’ is really only generally “everything!” then it’s also only specifically NOTHING!
Existentialism IS nihilism!
CASE CLOSED!
Jack Diamond says
Islam not grievances is the source of the hate. Here is another example, in the context of an Egyptian cleric explaining why Muslims must hate the Jews (and Christians) and fight them:
Muhammad Hussein Ya’qub (Jan.17, 2009 Al-Rahma TV):
“If the Jews left Palestine to us would we start loving them? Of course not, we will never love them. Absolutely not. The Jews are infidels, not because I say so, and not because they are killing Muslims, but because Allah said: (9:30) ‘The Jews say that Uzair is the son of Allah, and the Christians say that Christ is the son of Allah. These are the words from their mouths, the imitate the sayings of the disbelievers before, May Allah fight them, they are so deluded’. It is Allah who said they are infidels.
“Your belief regarding the Jews should be, first, that they are infidels, and second, that they are enemies. They are enemies not because they occupied Palestine. They would have been enemies even if they did not occupy a thing. Allah said, ‘You shall find the strongest men in enmity to the believers to be the Jews and the polytheists.’ (5:82) Third, you must believe that the Jews will never stop fighting and killing us…and they will not cease fighting, until they turn you back from your religion if they can.
This is it, we must believe that our fighting with the Jews is eternal, and it will not end until the final battle, and this is the fourth point. You must believe that we will fight, defeat, and annihilate them, until not a single Jew remains on the face of the earth. It is not me who says so, The Prophet said: ‘Judgment Day will not come until you fight the Jews and kill them. The Jews will hide behind stones and trees and the stones and trees will call ‘O Muslim, oh servant of Allah! There is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!’”
Video of the “anti-Santa” Ya’qub
Matthieu Baudin says
“…Any Western leader, analyst, or “expert” who at this late hour continues peddling the “grievance” narrative falls within the ever growing ranks of fools and liars.”
Well put Mr Ibrahim and very true. Many of these ‘fools’ however would seem to have genuine fears about finding their nations sucked into fighting a religious battle against traditional Islam. I suspect that this was the major reason why George Bush Junior chose to create the laughable ‘war on terror’ and set in place a confused policy tradition quarantining Islamic Beliefs that extends to this day. Now 15 years post 9/11 we can safely say that this approach to fighting violent Islamic groups has failed. Unfortunately however we are likely to see this approach continue for another 4 to 8 years as Americans fall in love with the idea of their first woman President and the security of a Gandhi style political family dynasty.