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Robert Spencer: Do Islamic Jihadis Really Lack A Basic Understanding of Islam?

Aug 9, 2017 9:19 am By Robert Spencer

My latest over at the Geller Report:

Pope Francis and H. R. McMaster and John Kerry and so many other learned imams have assured us over the years that Islamic terrorism has nothing whatsoever to do with Islam, and now there is proof, or what purports to be proof, in the form of a study from no less august an authority than the United Nations.

The United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism has released a new study claiming that Islamic State jihadis “have low levels of education and ‘lack any basic understanding of the true meaning of jihad or even the Islamic faith.’”

The study found that most of these jihadis “saw their religion in terms of justice and injustice rather than in terms of piety and spirituality,” and that the typical jihad warrior “is most likely to be male, young and disadvantaged economically, educationally, and in terms of the labour market. He is also more likely than not to come from a marginalised background, both socially and politically. Most were unemployed, or underemployed, and/or said that their life lacked meaning.”

This study directly contradicts the results of another new study that was conducted in Germany, which found that “the widespread view that radical Muslims know little about Islam is wrong.”

Which study are we to believe? Well, this one reinforces the common view that a typical jihadi “is most likely to be male, young and disadvantaged economically, educationally, and in terms of the labour market.”

Yet study after study (of a more honest variety) has shown that poverty and lack of opportunity don’t really cause terrorism at all. The Economist reported in 2010: “Social scientists have collected a large amount of data on the socioeconomic background of terrorists. According to a 2008 survey of such studies by Alan Krueger of Princeton University, they have found little evidence that the typical terrorist is unusually poor or badly schooled.”

In the same vein, CNS News noted in September 2013: “According to a Rand Corporation report on counterterrorism, prepared for the Office of the Secretary of Defense in 2009, ‘Terrorists are not particularly impoverished, uneducated, or afflicted by mental disease. Demographically, their most important characteristic is normalcy (within their environment). Terrorist leaders actually tend to come from relatively privileged backgrounds.’ One of the authors of the RAND report, Darcy Noricks, also found that according to a number of academic studies, “Terrorists turn out to be more rather than less educated than the general population.”

The Times Online reported the following as far back as April 2005: “Three-quarters of the Al-Qaeda members were from upper middle-class homes and many were married with children; 60% were college educated, often in Europe or the United States.”

There are innumerable examples of affluent Muslims becoming jihad terrorists. One was Maher “Mike” Hawash of Portland, Oregon, a well-regarded Intel executive who made $360,000 a year at the crest of a highly successful career. Around the year 2000, Hawash began to become more religious, growing his beard long, rejecting the nickname “Mike,” and attending the supremacist Islamic Center of Portland. Ultimately he served a seven-year prison term for conspiring to aid the Taliban.

What’s more, there is plenty of evidence that Islamic State jihadis know the Qur’an well. One Malaysian Muslim said that the Qur’an led him to join the Islamic State. A Muslima in the U.S. promoted the Islamic State by quoting the Qur’an. An Islamic State propagandist’s parents said of him: “Our son is a devout Muslim. He had learnt the Quran by heart.” A Muslim politician from Jordan said that the Islamic State’s “doctrine stems from the Qur’an and Sunnah.” There are innumerable other examples of this.

So this UN study appears to be simply an advertisement for the failed policies that the West is already implementing regarding the jihad threat. They have to keep pumping out propaganda such as this, because their policies are such obvious failures, they can only be shored up by lies.

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Filed Under: Featured, Jihad doctrine, Robert Spencer, United Nations, willful ignorance Tagged With: United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism


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Comments

  1. Ren says

    Aug 9, 2017 at 9:25 am

    How could the Jihadis not understand islam? Muhammad was a terrorist.

    Bukhari (4.52.220):
    Allah’s Apostle said, “…I have been made victorious with terror (cast in the hearts of the enemy), and while I was sleeping, the keys of the treasures of the world were brought to me and put in my hand.”

    • gravenimage says

      Aug 9, 2017 at 9:48 pm

      True, Ren and Dave.

  2. jack grandville says

    Aug 9, 2017 at 9:45 am

    This is a case where an old saying comes to mind: “Time will tell.”

  3. Westman says

    Aug 9, 2017 at 10:17 am

    Why should we have a problem with either study when the logical conclusion is: Islam is a smorgasborg of competing ideas that appeal to a range of intellect – from the elect to the barely functional?

    There is something for everyone; a distressed suicidal Muslim can become a martyr, a coward can give zakat and spend time in the “greater jihad”, an “offended” Muslim can harass infidel women or kill the offenders, a Muslim with a good memory can live off others as an Imam, jizya can be extracted from infidels, hatred for Jews has an approved outlet, taking one’s frustrations out on women is allowed(she was insubordinate), and there are enough contradictions that some verse is always handy to quote to the kufar that Islam is peaceful and those “other””Muslims aren’t “real” Muslims. And if that fails it’s acceptible to lie in support of Islam’s image.

    Both the gifted and the knuckle-draggers find Islam useful as an exploitation device. Where are all those Saudi, Kuwaiti, Qatari, and UAE citizens among the “immigrants” to Europe? Exploiting Europe gains nothing for them compared to living off oil wealth while their religious leaders export the ideology of terrorism with Western dollars.

    Where is the ONE Islam? Nowhere. Where is the confused, irrational, factually ignorant, contradictory Islam? Everywhere….

    • LR says

      Aug 9, 2017 at 1:37 pm

      Westman,

      Exactly.

      The subject matter of how, or why one becomes a Jihadi may not always be the same for everyone…

      Personally, I liked the movie, “Horses of God”. A Morroccan movie regarding this matter.

      • Westman says

        Aug 9, 2017 at 10:15 pm

        I took a look at the trailer, LR. Thanks for the reference. I may watch this during the weekend.

    • Schrödinger says

      Aug 10, 2017 at 12:23 pm

      You forgot to mention female muslim’s 1400 year infatuation with Muhammad the barbarian. He woos and seduces them to this day. How do we even begin to wean not only Muslimas but all Muslims off their sadomasochistic obsession with Islam?

      Not just sadly but tragically, its ideology somehow taps into and serves to gratify a great many of the weaknesses, vices, even certain needs of far too many people, though certainly not everyone. It rightly alarms and repels far more others. It’s impossible to determine to exactly what extent Islam reflects the numerous perversions of just one man, it’s alleged prophet, or the prevailing laws, customs, habits and perversions of the mainly Bedouin Arab in the milieu in which the ideology more fully developed over several centuries. It’s insidious appeal operates in multiple nefarious ways upon multiple different levels of credulity and vulnerability. The mirage of those 72 virgins in that great big brothel in the sky where lucky “martyrs” and “believers” go — Islam’s lascivious, ludicrous “heavenly paradise” — may entice many a Muslim male. However it’s augmented by the far more tangible, more immediately gratifying promise and rewards of multiple, pliant, replaceable wives and “possessions of the right hand” in this world.

      We’re not simply confronted with the challenge of disproving Islam’s truth claims or challenging it from a moral and practical perspective. That’s not that difficult. However Muslims aren’t particularly interested. It’s not just the ideology that’s the problem — it’s equally Muslims themselves. They’re the universal Muslim and they really are to blame, without them Muhammad would have stood alone. Intriguingly, those lyrics from Donovan’s idealistic 60’s song — “He’s a Catholic, a Hindu, an Atheist, a Jain, A Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew” — conspicuously omit the Muslim. Perhaps this was an oversight. Or maybe a music producer or Donovan himself thought the wiser, instancing incipient Western Dhimmitude.

      The synergies of it’s varying appeal to diverse personality types, at different ages and stages of life, and to the many levels in every Muslim society — and insurgent Muslim societies — in combination this evil seduction strengthen Islam’s grip not only upon them but menace the entire world. This complexity and extent of the nature of the challenge Islam and its Muslim adherents represent necessitates diverse, flexible, multi layered strategies to overcome it. But perhaps I overcomplicate things. Perhaps we ought just hurry up and kick them all out.

  4. Sven Oljaski says

    Aug 9, 2017 at 10:32 am

    NO, they understand it very clearly. The rest of the apostates of their religion don’t understand it at all. Plus the West and the LEFT.

  5. mortimer says

    Aug 9, 2017 at 10:43 am

    ISIS provides an excellent religious indoctrination for its fighters who learn to practice Sunnite Islam meticulously and correctly according to the letter of Sharia law.

    It has come out in research that most of the jihadis have participated in ISLAMIC STUDY GROUPS in their home countries. University ISLAMIC STUDY GROUPS are a fruitful ground for jihad recruitment, because in such groups the DUTY OF JIHAD is studied in the ORIGINAL, PRIMARY TEXTS of the Sira, hadiths and Koran as well as the secondary and tertiary writings of Islamic authorities.

    Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has BA, MA and PhD degrees in Islamic studies and was considered one of the best students ever at his university and one with a superior mastery of Islamic texts.

  6. mortimer says

    Aug 9, 2017 at 10:44 am

    Islam has NOTHING to do with Islam.

  7. Kepha says

    Aug 9, 2017 at 11:20 am

    Why the nonsense about the Jihadis not understanding Islam? It’s the liberal dominance in media, government, and academia.

    Liberals regard themselves as highly intelligent and cultured people whose judgments are infallibly predicated on a wide and deep knowledge of virtually everything under the sun. It is their profound faith that they have discovered the true, “neutral” reason shared by the whole of humanity; and never mind that they are heirs of a specific tradition of discourse. They believe themselves beneficiaries of excellent educations, so if they know nothing about Islam save for what they got in their high school textbook (probably written by someone with a grudge against the Christian past regurgitating memes inherited from someone else with a grudge against the Christian past), they know Islam better than some bearded, sweaty guy out in the Syrian desert. Assured by everything and everyone they choose to “know”, liberals see themselves as the peak of the evolutionary process, destined by history to remake the world in their own image. Hence, if the Mainline Protestant churches rolled over and played dead before them, and the Roman Catholic Church is finally in the process of doing so, they are certain that Islam will do the same. This is the real reason for the solemn assurances of our noble liberal leadership that all will be well with Islam just around the corner; as soon as the Western World (and perhaps the Pacific Rim as well) sacrifices enough of its hard-earned wealth on jizya to the Falastin Arabs and their allies.

    This is one reason why I pray that God would give us in the West–and worldwide–a Third Great Awakening. I pray for a revival of real theological learning in the West that will whole-heartedly challenge the narrative we’ve been being fed. I pray for a continued stubborn witness to this lost world–and its utter lostness is most evident in the narrative our supposedly enlightened leadership has been giving us since 9/11.

    • tim gallagher says

      Aug 9, 2017 at 8:26 pm

      Kepha, a good description of the pompous arrogance of the liberal elites. When it comes to Islam, they wouldn’t have a clue. Dangerous idiots. And useful idiots to the Muslim barbarians. I feel everybody should have woken up to Islam by now. All these liberals need to do is read the Koran and other texts that form the minds of Muslims.

    • Margaret Robinson says

      Aug 10, 2017 at 8:37 am

      Sorry but you pray in vain. The cultural leftie dogma has taken over the western world. UK citizens are now being arrested for criticising islam. Not hate speech not inciting violence not swearing, just being critical. Free speech the foundation of our democracies is dying.

  8. RichardL says

    Aug 9, 2017 at 1:34 pm

    Robert, the report is not from Germany, but from Vienna, which is in Austria.

    The report would have never been published in Germany. Sven Kalisch’s treatment makes that clear.

  9. Alarmed Pig Farmer says

    Aug 9, 2017 at 2:44 pm

    It is inarguable that the Jihadis understand Islam best, cuz the Holy Ko-Ran calls for just that. Duh. But somehow the damning facts of Islamic scripture are kept secret from the general population. Just look at the double talk from Fox RINO stars Hannity and Carlson on Islam to see that. There is no safe haven for free thought on Islam, just Moslems.

  10. lebel says

    Aug 9, 2017 at 3:09 pm

    “What’s more, there is plenty of evidence that Islamic State jihadis know the Qur’an well”

    Evidence you provided is anecdotal – the UN study actually has a methodology and uses quantitative analysis.

    • ItsReallyQuiteClear says

      Aug 9, 2017 at 6:42 pm

      Did you even read the UN study? Methodology? What kind of sample did they use? Not random subjects, not even from random countries. They interviewed 43 returning Foreign Trained Fighers (FTF) from 7 countries: 3 in the EU and 4 in MENA. Subjects were self-selected by virtue of their being *returning* FTFs. Could there be differences among FTF who returned to their “current nations of residence” after either becoming disillusioned with ISIS, being stopped at a border, or being sent back by local authorities? I don’t know. Some of them experienced life with ISIS, and some of them barely experienced a trip to the airport.
      But in this amazing methodology, what exactly did they control for?

      How about their use of monthly income, reported on an absolute basis, as a determinant of economic status? Do you really think that $500/month means the same thing in 7 different countries on 2 (or 3) continents?

      Next time, inshallah, you might read the primary source before you celebrate it.

    • gravenimage says

      Aug 9, 2017 at 9:51 pm

      lebel is once again claiming that Islam has nothing to do with Islam. No surprise there.

    • Kepha says

      Aug 10, 2017 at 7:38 am

      Having a Ph.D. in political science, I can tell you that quantitative methodology is more often than not a combination of physics envy and unwillingness to ask an important question. You can prove anything by a “study” of this sort.

  11. Monty says

    Aug 9, 2017 at 4:11 pm

    Does it matter? The real issue is not the occasional terrorist attack, as awful that is for the victims. The real problem is the swamping of non-Muslim nations with Muslim immigrants/invaders. Violence won’t get Islam in control of Europe. Control is being handed over by the leadership. It is more than possible to stop and even reverse the problem, but there is no will to do it. Eventually Muslims will outnumber the locals and Islam will be in control no matter what.

    • tim gallagher says

      Aug 9, 2017 at 8:19 pm

      You’re right Monty. The only possible solution to the inevitable problems ( terrorist attacks, all sorts of criminal enterprise, etc) that Muslims bring into any non-Muslims countries is to keep them out. Non-Muslims need to be protected from the Muslim savages. Our political leaders show no will to do what is necessary. Keep letting Muslims in and their much higher levels of reproduction will ensure Islam takes over. Keep them out. Once they are let in it is already too late. It is just inviting totally predictable problems in. I believe everybody should have woken up to this by now. It seems that some people will never wake up.

    • gravenimage says

      Aug 9, 2017 at 9:56 pm

      As awful as Jihad terror is, it is only one tactic of many for Muslims taking over Dar-al-Harb.

  12. Guy Macher says

    Aug 9, 2017 at 4:36 pm

    None of the apologists ever quote the Koran, except a part of 5:32, changing the meaning of it completely. When Muslim barrows or their water-carriers pretend Islam is not the doctrine of Satan, ask for quotes proving their opinion.

    Read the Koran! Be ready to counter the lies of Muslim barrows and their libtard friends.

  13. RodSerling says

    Aug 9, 2017 at 6:55 pm

    Here is a link to the study:
    http://www.un.org/en/counterterrorism/assets/img/Report_Final_20170727.pdf

  14. gravenimage says

    Aug 9, 2017 at 9:46 pm

    Robert Spencer: Do Islamic Jihadis Really Lack A Basic Understanding of Islam?
    ……………………..

    One of the biggest lies (or at best misconceptions) about Islam.

  15. PKG says

    Aug 10, 2017 at 7:07 am

    CVE and counter terrorism ‘experts’ in particular, seem very keen to promulgate the view that jihadists are nothing more that unhinged ignoramases who crave a sense of belonging, get high on engaging in ‘heroic acts’ (like superman), lack direction and meaning, and have a paucity of knowledge or understanding of the Koranic scriptures, the implication being that if they were otherwise enlightened, they wouldn’t engage in such heinous activity.

    Well in many cases, it appears that the jihadists not only have a very clear idea of the Koranic scriptures, but in fact they are the most fervent and literal adherents to the commands therein.

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