Secular Western analysts of Islamic militancy typically miss the boat when seeking the root causes spurring Muslims to engage in violent jihad. Since the analysts themselves have no galvanizing religious faith upon which they build their lives, they can’t imagine that religious faith could be a serious motivator for anyone else — they are blinded by their own bias.
Hence, we often hear in the mainstream media that what really motivates new recruits joining ISIS, al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, al-Shabaab, etc. is not religious conviction but rather a desire to flee poverty and disenfranchisement (as John Kerry argued in 2014), to topple politically corrupt regimes, to escape the dreariness of a meaningless future, or to combat other social injustices. Only motivations as powerful as these could compel a terrorist to face death willingly. Religious motivations, as everybody knows (in the world of secularism), are silly and groundless, so they cannot provide an adequate foundation to explain the terrorist’s mindset. Their dismissal amounts to this: “Since I cannot conceive of the possibility that religious faith might be of ultimate importance, to the point of sacrificing my life in its pursuit, it must not be possible for anyone else (except, of course, for those who are mentally unbalanced).
As a result, we find that though militant Muslims ascribe their actions to their religion (quoting copiously from the Qur’an, reciting authoritative martial accounts of their peerless prophet, slavering over the sensual delights of paradise promised to those who kill and are killed for Allah (Qur’an 9:111), our elite analysts know better. “Islam,” they say, “has nothing to do with terrorism and militancy and conquest. It is a religion of peace. These militants have hijacked Islam and perverted it — they don’t really believe it, but are using it as a front for their real agendas — economic advancement, destruction of political enemies, and so on.
However, when one gets a chance to listen to militants who describe how they were originally recruited, it becomes clear that our secular analysts haven’t got a clue. Time and again, seasoned jihadis recount that clear teachings from the Qur’an and Sunna (authoritative accounts of the actions and declarations of Muhammad) convinced them that jihad for the sake of Allah was the only acceptable path for one seeking to be a true Muslim.
One such recruit, 38 year-old “Alex” ( a pseudonym used for his protection now that he has been captured by government forces), belonged to the Maute Group, a local terrorist group on Mindanao Island in the Philippines that gave its allegiance to ISIS and carried out a five month siege of Marawi City, effectively leveling the city center and killing over a thousand residents in the process. Alex said of his recruiters, “They said ‘they’re the ones fighting for the true jihad. We’re going to fight to the death to defend our religion and we will reap our rewards in the afterlife,” Most influential in his decision to join the Maute Group along with his 13 year-old son (who died in battle) was the terrorist group’s charismatic leader Abu Dar. Alex recalls that “Abu Dar was a great speaker, even better than Omar Maute [one of the founders of the terror group]. He was very knowledgeable about the Qur’an. You will really believe him.”
Still fresh in our minds today are the suicide bomb attacks Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka, carried out by nine local Muslims (with the support of some 60 other Sri Lankans now under arrest and the apparent help of a larger Islamic terror network, perhaps ISIS). Authorities are now reporting concerning the nine suicide bombers that they were all “well-heeled” and “well-educated,” from middle- to upper-middle-class families, once again putting the lie to the claims of John Kerry and expert Western analysts that terrorists are made primarily by poverty and social victimization.
Sadly, the culprit turns out to be the religion of Muhammad as taught in the Qur’an, Hadith literature and the early histories of Islam, all revered Muslim documents. Historical Islam is inherently jihadi, and the more seriously a Muslim entertains patterning his/her life after that of Muhammad, the more he/she is drawn to totalitarian violence against all who resist submission to Islam. Its capacity to woo willing pawns eager to kill and be killed for the sake of Allah so that they may earn a ticket to paradise must not be underestimated.
Read the rest here.
mortimer says
Three things make jihad: 1) the mission of Muslims to conquer the world in the name of Allah 2) the motivational hatred of Allah directed against ‘wrong-worshippers’ (mushrikoon) and 3) the method of Mohammed (political-military struggle and migration).
What is frequently left out is the HATRED of Allah directed against the dirty kufaar. This is the MOTIVE of Islam and ALL Muslims are required to HATE KAFIRS and show hostility towards them. Muslims only PRETEND to be friendly towards the dirty kufaar. No Muslim may be an actual, true friend of a KAFIR.
When most people understand the MOTIVE of Islam (i.e. hatred) then Islam will start to deteriorate rapidly around the world, since it will be seen accurately as a HATE CULT and DEATH CULT.
Western elites are playing games with the minds of Western people and PRETENDING that Islam is benign even though the PRIMARY SOURCE TEXTS OF ISLAM do not say that.
Koran 48:29 is a verse that clearly and unmistakably contradicts the Golden Rule:
Koran 48.29 “Muhammad is the messenger of Allah
Those with him are VIOLENT (ashiddaa’) against the unbelievers (kufaar),
Compassionate amongst themselves.” (Richard Bell’s translation)
Islam is malignant and malicious, not benign.
Aussie Infidel says
Mortimer, Well said! Hate is one of our most primeval emotions, and hatred of the kuffar certainly is a core doctrine of Islam.
The verse you quote (48:29), is even more significant, because it also concludes with, “… Allah has promised those who believe and do righteous deeds among them forgiveness and a great reward.” Every student of Islam knows that ‘righteous deeds’ include jihad or holy war for the cause of Allah (because that is what Muhammad did); and that the ‘great reward’ means Paradise (and all those virgins). Muhammad was a warlord and knew how to motivate young, devout, testosterone fueled, Muslim men. Just promise them endless sex in the mythical Afterlife, and they’ll scream “Allahu Akbar!” as they “kill and are killed.”
Mateen also quoted verse 9:111, “Indeed, Allah has purchased from the believers their lives and their properties [in exchange] for that they will have Paradise. They fight in the cause of Allah, so they kill and are killed. [It is] a true promise [binding] upon Him in the Torah and the Gospel and the Qur’an. And who is truer to his covenant than Allah? So rejoice in your transaction which you have contracted. And it is that which is the great attainment.”
This is substantiated further by verse 9:123, “O you who have believed, fight those adjacent to you of the disbelievers and let them find in you harshness. And know that Allah is with the righteous.” Furthermore, since these verses are in Sura 9, they are among the last verses revealed to Muhammad, and therefore abrogate any contrary verses preceeding them.
Mateen is correct that most “secular analysts” can’t imagine that religious faith could be a serious motivator for anyone else.” Many people conflate secularism with atheism, but secularism means maintaining a separation of religion and state. The First Amendment of the US Constitution effectively makes America a secular country. Nevertheless, it is true that most secularists (atheists) haven’t got a clue what motivates the jihadis, and seriously underestimate the power of religious indoctrination. However, it is not correct to blame secularists per se for this situation. Most secularists (or atheists) couldn’t care less about religion anymore; they are simply glad that in our modern societies, belief in the supernatural is declining. Our enemy is not secularism, but the political Left (most of whom are atheists) who want to overthrow our democratic societies, because like the Muslims, they hate the West.
Most politicians – of both the Right and Left – are thoroughly ignorant of Islam, and very few have even read the Quran. The Left supports the Muslims because they hope that they will help them rid the world of their ‘old enemy’ – Christianity. But they never stop to consider what will happen if the ‘soldiers of Allah’ are ever victorious. Do Leftists seriously imagine that the Muslims will allow them to set up some socialist utopia within the Islamic Ummah? They need to remember what happened when the Ayatollah Khomeini seized power in Iran – the communists who helped him, were summarily executed along with his other political and religious enemies. And that will also be the fate of the foolish Leftists in the West.
Tony Naim says
2 options to deal with Radical Islam- without a third:
1- outlaw the religion completely
2- all governments in the Northern hemisphere, including Russia, in addition to, all South American nations, India and China, must adopt a single unanimous and uniform foreign policy towards the Muslim world, by forcing all 4 centers of Islamic jurisprudence in Cairo, Mecca, Najaf and Qom, to reform Koranic verses that call for violence or discrimination against non Muslims, particularly, Jews, Christians and women.
One unified policy to make Islamic religious teachings and the academic formation of their clergy compliant with Human rights.
The mixing of spirituality and violence must not be accepted under any circumstance.
Naildriver says
This piece by Mateen is well stated and cuts to the heart of this seemingly brain dead reaction from our leadership regarding Islam’s overt assaults, and reinvigorated jihad since the days of colonialism, against any not Muslim.
Yes, those who apologize for Islam simply fail to grasp the power behind belief. Those who lack any understanding of spiritual experience simply haven’t a clue.
Many people have family members fanatical about some religious group or another and I’d suspect they’d concede such behavior must have some genetic basis, given the furor and resolve of some relative taken mind body and soul into some cult. Just look across the spectrum of belief systems and there exists the most dim-witted, lame, and improbable mind muck upon which people are willing to destroy themselves.
Consider the recent Slave Women Cult whose members consisted of HollyWood Stars and an heiress to billions — branded on their asses for the cult leader’s sexual usage. Or the Haley/Bop comet hitchhikers who some 30 strong, all donned matching space suits and drank cyanide all dying together in a bunk house; or ‘Jamestown’ with another Kool Aid incident that killed almost 900.
But ISLAM. This cult takes the cake in its ability to perpetuate the most demented and loathsome behaviors from its followers. And, the WHY of this is because Islam a very effective men’s entitlement system as with polygamy and institutionalized bigotries.
Islam has carnal appeal particularly upon sexual issues and plays to those intense and powerful limbic impulses to its advantage; particularly sadism and masochism. Islam also invites the whole cult to participate in stoning and other bloodlust — and has been doing so for centuries as if such monstrosities were perfectly normal — and demands no one criticize these things upon death — as Islam is pretty much employed the punishments of what the Sicilian Mafia used as a blueprint for their perpetuity.
Islam employs the worst in mankind for its success, and has done very well upon the consequental criminal activities — at least if one compares them to what Christianity considers the best in mankind such as integrity, courage, decency, kindness, forgiveness, and human rights.
CRUSADER says
” Since the analysts themselves have no galvanizing religious faith upon which they build their lives, they can’t imagine that religious faith could be a serious motivator for anyone else…”
VERY good point.
In the martial arts, without a core of solid training, a person doesn’t know enough to judge what works well in a true fight or in true combat. Many people will “try” this and that, and think it is sufficient. But they will falter in a fight. In other cases, many more folks won’t even attempt to train in self defense / combatives because they don’t know enough themselves to figure they might one day need at least the AWARENESS attribute from the training.
So, parallel to this concept above, if a person cannot recognize something effectively enough then they really cannot weigh in properly with a judgment call.
People easily become blinded by their own biases. People are arrogant. And that leads to disaster and down fall. And — that’s what the Original Sin was all about….
How to recover from it?
Admit the problem in the first place, and confess to needing to learn more in order to change for the better….
revereridesagain says
Mateen and Crusader: Speaking of arrogant, that is arrogant even for smug believers. I guarantee you that the many atheist, mostly Objectivist, friends I have are well aware that there are many religious believers in this world who will do anything to toe the line drawn by their mystical faith so that they will get their “reward”. We spend a lot of time trying to convince devout Christians of this because THEY don’t think any person of faith would kill for it.
Do you think a lifetime of being told that one is inferior and doomed to a “meaningless future” or even torment in hell for not believing in Jesus does not get that point across, to say nothing of the mania of Muslims to assure themselves eternities in Allah’s invisible pleasure palace? Fanatics of many stripes are willing to kill and die for less than that.
“Those who lack any understanding of spiritual experience simply haven’t a clue.” My friends ask me if I am afraid of Christians. No, but I am often heartily sick and tired of you because I’ve heard too many of you imply that because I am atheist I have no soul. At least, unlike Muslims, you aren’t willing to kill me for it.
elee says
I think you’re both expressing facets of the insight I posted below in a separate thread. And hey, no baiting back and forth between Christians and seculars, can’t we all agree to unite behind the principle embodied in the American First Amendment?
mateenelass says
Revere,
I do not know you personally, and I regret that you have experienced arrogance more than humility from Christians. I do not assume that all atheists or secularists are incapable of understanding that religious convictions can create strong motivations — that is why I used the words “typically” and “often” when referring specifically to the analyses of the secular talking heads and politicians appearing on American TV. Bias blindness is a danger we all face, whatever our cave of choice — that’s why trading views with those of differing perspectives is so valuable. We may not alter our convictions, but we will gain understanding of where others are coming from, and may even visit their caves from time to time.
gravenimage says
+1
Politicallyincorrectistruth says
To Mateen ; Your article smacks of ignorance and bias against “secular western analysts” is astounding. You wrote “Since the analysts themselves have no galvanizing religious faith upon which they build their lives, they can’t imagine that religious faith could be a serious motivator for anyone else — they are blinded by their own bias.” You are so wrong….the opposite is true. It`s your bias that is stopping you from seeing reality.
Naildriver says
Revere,
Certainly there is a failure to deal with Islam effectively, if at all, from the highest levels! And, false narratives and wholesale lies and propaganda are now rife — and, further, Islam’s devotees march on in triumph — if it’s their aim to cost the West trillions, cost the West freedoms, cost the west security and evoke terror throughout the world.
So, to complain these analysts or authorities charged with our protection are getting it wrong because they lack insight or must fail to ‘get’ the Muslim’s motivation is wrong? Do you have a better idea for this ineptitude to protect the citizens of the West — could it be malfeasance, greed run amuck … TREASON instead?
CRUSADER says
Meanwhile, the populist trend in Eastern Europe got diverted…
Slovakia’s first female president-elect is an unapologetic liberal who will soon take power in a region increasingly consumed by right-wing populism and anti-EuropeanUnion sentiment.
Last month, Zuzana Caputova, an accomplished lawyer with no previous political experience, secured 58 percent of the vote in a second round run-off against European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic. She will assume office on June 15, becoming the first woman to hold the presidency, as well as the youngest at 45. Although Slovakia’s president is mostly ceremonial and political power rests with the prime minister, they do have the power to appoint judges and act as commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
Prior to her electoral victory, Caputova was an activist and anti-corruption lawyer who was well known for fighting against a landfill site in her hometown of Pezinok for more than 10 years.
In a combative presidential election, Caputova campaigned on fighting corruption and restoring civility in Slovak politics, refusing to engage her opponents in political smears, preferring to stay above the fray and focused on the issues she believed most affected voters.
One of the biggest issues facing Slovaks is deeply entrenched public corruption, especially in light of the February 2018 assassination of Jan Kuciak, a journalist who was reporting on graft and links to organized crime at the highest levels of power. The murder prompted mass protests against the government and led to the resignation of Prime Minister Robert Fico.
The Kuciak murder inspired Caputova to run on a platform of transparency and tackling powerful corrupt elites.
Also top of her agenda is promoting progressive values, which are currently under assault from conservative nationalists in Eastern Europe.
Caputova defends LGBTQ rights, abortion rights, women’s equality, and supports same-sex unions in a country where same-sex marriage is still illegal.
She has positioned herself as a positive voice while also capitalizing on the anti-establishment mood that is prevalent across the democratic world.
“Caputova’s election happened at a time when voters across Europe are protesting their traditional leaders and supporting political newcomers. Some of them are right-wing and nationalist, which makes them ideologically different from Caputova, but Caputova shares with them the anti-establishment element,” Adriano Bosoni, Senior Europe Analyst at Stratfor, told Fox News.
Even the ruling center-left Smer party has drifted rightward in recent years and has tried to increase its electoral base by appealing to Christian voters.
Caputova’s win is even more shocking given the strong tide of right-wing populism and nationalism that has dominated European politics over the last several years, particularly in Eastern Europe following the 2015-2016 refugee crisis.
The likes of Viktor Orban in Hungary and other leaders around Central Europe have exploited the migrant crisis and stoked anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment to stir up their base of support. Caputova, meanwhile, is unafraid of defending her liberal views and represented a sober and rationally based perspective on public policy matters.
Populists championing conservative values such as Orban’s Fidesz Party and Poland under the Law and Justice Party have experienced significant democratic backsliding, with nationalist leaders undermining the rule of law, independent media and civil society organizations, and assaulting the judiciary, while railing against Brussels and E.U. institutions.
Attacks against the E.U. and west have become commonplace for extremist forces that have risen in Eastern Europe. Caputova, on the other hand, has made it clear she supports the E.U., NATO, and western values and considers Slovakia an integral component of the rules-based international order.
Although anti-E.U. parties espousing similar xenophobic and anti-institutionalist rhetoric are expected to win in the upcoming E.U. elections in May, Caputova’s surprise victory is proof that far-right populism based on fear and hate does not have to be the paradigm in Eastern Europe.
“The notable thing about Caputova’s victory is that it shows that moderate candidates can win an election, and that voters will not always turn to far-right or anti-immigration candidates to show their dissatisfaction with the mainstream political parties,” Bosoni said.
— Fox News
elee says
I dissent somewhat from the main thread here. I believe that experience in a Christian culture, even if that experience includes ardent belief in Christianity (or for that matter Judaism), leaves one unprepared to understand Islam. This is because the Christian culture aspires to turn its other cheek to evil, persecution and violence. These notions are foreign to the main thrust of Islam. And I believe that members of a Christian culture, whether they are themselves Christians or not, make the mistake of believing all religions are akin to Christianity in urging men to be governed by decency and compassion, and believing that, being a “religion,” Islam must do the same. Adopt this view and try to predict Muslim behaviour and I submit that you’ll be wrong, fatally wrong, a lot. Islam chose at some point, back in its pre-millennial Arabian origins, to reject forgiveness decency and compassion in favor of the folkways of vendetta. That’s what got enshrined as eternal truth in their scriptures. I sometimes refer to this as Islam’s astute recruiting decision: a credo of pillage and plunder appeals to more armed men than one of kindness and compassion…….as Hitler famously lamented in the 20th century. Say it ain’t so and you’re an apostate explicitly marked for a violent death. For the relationship between forgiveness and vengeance in Islam see K 43:38 et seq: nothing commending forgiveness can ever diminish the right to avenge in blood. And note that this is a “Meccan,” pre-Medina verse, written before the Fat Dwarf got armed behind him.
elee says
Typo, my bad, the citation should be K 42:38 et al.
mateenelass says
elee,
I have to disagree with you. Even though Christians are called and empowered by God to live a new kind of life as taught and exemplified by Christ, we still carry within us the old natural self powered by all the passions and fruits of fallen human nature. Islam sanctifies those fallen passions in the cause of Allah. While we repudiate that way of life as Christians, we don’t have to look far afield from our own hearts to discover those same motives rearing their heads in our own souls. While we are called to repent and turn away from them, Muslims celebrate them when put to use in hating infidels and conquering for the sake of Allah.
Christians who fail to learn the truth about Islam and merely assume that as a religion it must be similar to Christianity are guilty of ignorance, not inability to understand. They must be educated, as JihadWatch is dedicated to doing.
Chand says
Christians are perfectly capable of behaving in very un-Christian like ways, going against its teachings by murdering, massacring, plundering, looting, conquering, colonizing, forcibly converting and the rest, more so in the past. Whole continents have been conquered and Christianized. Protestants and Catholics had massacred each other as the Shias and Sunnis.
Muslims are perfectly capable of behaving in very un-Islamic ways, going against its jihad and ‘kill kafirs’ teachings by being compassionate, kind, peaceful, forgiving, tolerant, repentant and the rest. Many tolerate hardships and pains without lifting a finger and go to their graves as peaceful humans.
All human behaviours, like all behaviours of all living beings, have to seen through the lenses of Darwinian genetic struggle. Every creature is trying to propagate its genes by any and all means available. They do so individually, as family groupings, as tribes and ultimately as nation states. Only human self consciousness and culture has recently allowed us to transcend what Dawkins calls the ‘tyranny of the genes’ and become altruistic, selfless, compassionate and non-violent.
As science and technology has removed the ground from other religions and eroded fundamentalism, so will Islamic fundamentalism be eroded away.
gravenimage says
Chand has said before that he wants to see all religious faith crushed–even the most peaceful.
gravenimage says
elee, Christians have ably defended against Islam for hundreds of years in the West. The problem is more denial and “political correctness” than it is Christianity or Judaism.
Walter Sieruk says
AS for the Question ” What makes a jihadist ?” the answer is it’s the religion of Islam which contains in its “holy book” ,the Quran, instruction for violence and killing for the advancement of Islam. As in, for example 2: 191, 5: 33. 9: 5, 111,112. 47:4.
elee says
4:47 too…..and so many others.
UNCLE VLADDI says
Islam has nothing to do with religious “faith” – all muslims are basically atheists because they have absolutely zero faith in their own god’s ability or willingness to do anything to enforce even it’s own desired will on the world; in stead, they claim it “permits” the muslims to do Muhammad’s wet-work for it. And as islam has no concern for “spiritual” matters separate from the secular (there’s no separation of mosque and state) nor for an afterlife beyond a crude depiction of a celestial bordello, it’s also an example of secular atheism. Beyond all that, islam is nothing more than another typical criminals’ “inevitable force” alibi to excuse their own criminal desires and actions; i.e: “The Allah Made Me Do It!” Like Muhammad, they insist that, if they get away with what would otherwise be defined as a crime (attacking thereby innocent other people first) then, since “allah” obviously meant for them to get away with it, it really can’t have been a crime at all! Whee! In short, this article is mistaken, in that muslims have no more faith than the leftists who help to enable islam.
AntiIslamicman says
You have to believe in a false prophet