Why The Jihadis Act As They Do

[Annie]

Very interesting article, based on work of Yale historian:

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=14660

Excerpt:

The Key to Jihadist Ideology and Strategy
By Lawrence Auster
FrontPageMagazine.com | August 16, 2004

When trying to explain the Islamists' global campaign of mass murder, both liberals and conservatives, despite their fierce mutual disagreements, make the same underlying mistake. People on the anti-war left believe that Al Qaeda attacked us because we're imperialist, or because we're racist, or because we don't do enough for Third-World hunger (yes, there are people who actually believe the hunger argument; most of them are Episcopalians). By contrast, many people on the pro-war right, especially President Bush, believe that the Islamists hate us for our freedoms, opportunities, and overall success as a society. In other words, the left believes that the Islamists hate us for our sins, and the right believes that they hate us for our virtues. Both sides commit the same narcissistic fallacy of thinking that the Islamist holy war against the West revolves solely around ourselves, around the moral drama of our goodness or our wickedness, rather than having something to do with Islam itself.

A very different perspective on the Islamist challenge comes from Mary Habeck, a military historian at Yale University. Speaking at the Heritage Foundation on August 13, Habeck said that the various jihadist groups base their war against non-Moslems on the Islamic sacred writings, particularly the Sira, which, unlike the Koran, tells the Prophet’s life in chronological sequence. Using Muhammed as their model, the jihadis live and think and act within paradigms provided by the stages of Muhammed’s political and military career. According to Habeck, this internally driven logic of Islam, and not any particular provocation, real or imagined, by some outside power, is the key to understanding why the jihadis do what they do.

 

[ajwps]

Very interesting article, based on work of Yale historian:

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=14660

Excerpt:

Great article Kathianne. But I do have a problem with Yale Military Historian, Mary Habeck and her conclusions. The Jihadists have had the chronology of Muhammad's life, time and activities for centuries but never have they attacked western civilization with such ferosity in the more than 1700 hundred year history of Islam.

From my perspective, I see the Jihadists as activist Islamites who despise themselves and their own failures to stay in step with western civilization plus the failure to convert the remainder of the world's unbelivers to the Qur"an book of Muhammad whose words command these Jihadists to make the entire population of the world followers of Allah god.

Their ideations are primitive drives that are a part of all our human lower brain stems where aggression, reproduction and self preservation are seated. For the most part, the remainder of mankind has been able to suppress the drives all humans express in much less different ways.

If this theory is correct, it will be very difficult for humanity to force these early evolutionary aberrations from such a large group of those who act out these self-despising actions.

It will be a herculean effort by Bush or anyone else in the world.

 

[dilloduck]

There are a whole lot of Arabs who are angry about a variety of things. Are we sure each individual fighter is a jihadist? Some of their motives are certainly suspect. The reason for thier behavior as individuals is a bit difficult to diagnose I would think.

 

[ajwps]

There are a whole lot of Arabs who are angry about a variety of things. Are we sure each individual fighter is a jihadist? Some of their motives are certainly suspect. The reason for thier behavior as individuals is a bit difficult to diagnose I would think.

How does one define 'a whole lot of angry Arabs.' I simply purposed my own deas of why the Arabs are not angry but driven from their primitive instincts inherent in all mankind.

Let's define jihadist and their ability to see previous civilizations who attacked them and how they equate past events in order to struggle with the unbelievers of today:

This term has never been translated by Muslims to mean holy war. Instead, it means to struggle or exert oneself to his or her utmost potential. In Islam, there are two levels of jihad. The greater jihad most often refers to the inner struggle against evil within oneself with the goal of self-improvement for the betterment of one's community and the world as a whole. The lesser jihad refers to the struggle on the battlefield in self-defense if Muslims have been attacked and their right to practice their faith has been aggressively taken away. " Fight in the cause of God against those who fight you, but do not transgress limits. God does not love the transgressors" (Qur'an 2:190). This is an unequivocal statement that only self-defense makes war permissible for Muslims and the goals of war cannot be worldly gain.

www.omarfoundation.org/Culture/Educators/Glossary.htm