Are
terrorists rational actors who find themselves forced to use desperate measures
in response to extreme provocations? Or are they driven by demons of the mind?
Are the evils they so righteously denounce carefully selected to externalize
feelings buried within their own psyches? Experts disagree. Psychologist Martha
Crenshaw defends the rationality of the terrorist. She argues that terrorism
"displays a collective rationality" and that "efficacy is the
primary standard by which terrorism is compared with other methods of achieving
political goals." In reply, psychiatrist Jerrold Post insists that
"political terrorists are driven to commit acts of violence as a
consequence of psychological forces, and that their special psycho-logic is constructed
to rationalize acts they are psychologically compelled to commit."- Ted Goertzel
“I abducted them, and I will sell
them in the market according to God’s sharia,” Abubakar Shekau, leader of Boko
Haram, said in a video after his group kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls in
Nigeria. The demands Boko Haram seek to fulfill after it killed civilians and
abducted the girls and threatened to sell them is to establish an Islamic
emirate!
It’s enough to use the words “God’s sharia” and “Islam” to divide Muslims. There are reasonable people who consider
what’s beyond these terms and there are the blind ones who believe whatever
these groups say as long as they use the terms “Islam” and “God’s sharia.”
The latter group thus remain confused as they seek justifications for the acts
of such terror organizations.
The common people whose minds have been hijacked by some extremist preachers and clerics are incapable of thinking on their own. They are dragged behind these preachers and defend them seeking justifications which reassure them, even if these justifications violate Islam and human values. Boko Haram claims it’s an Islamic group and has abducted schoolgirls and threatened to sell them claiming it will do so as per God’s sharia. So, how do common people justify these acts?
It’s perhaps easy to condemn these groups which are geographically distant from us. The situation becomes more confusing when we are close to the event. The Saudi state news agency recently announced that Saudi authorities arrested a terrorist group linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and al-Qaeda. The group had reportedly been arming itself and planning explosions.
The common people whose minds have been hijacked by some extremist preachers and clerics are incapable of thinking on their own. They are dragged behind these preachers and defend them seeking justifications which reassure them, even if these justifications violate Islam and human values. Boko Haram claims it’s an Islamic group and has abducted schoolgirls and threatened to sell them claiming it will do so as per God’s sharia. So, how do common people justify these acts?
It’s perhaps easy to condemn these groups which are geographically distant from us. The situation becomes more confusing when we are close to the event. The Saudi state news agency recently announced that Saudi authorities arrested a terrorist group linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and al-Qaeda. The group had reportedly been arming itself and planning explosions.
Defending their actions
Perhaps someone would defend them saying “it’s a group that
lost its way.” In other words, the group’s intellect is not bad but their
expression of it has been exaggerated. It’s thus okay to think that those
around you are infidels, that their women are slaves, that the bank deserves to
be robbed and that the state is an infidel. If you subscribe to such ideas, you
would no doubt lose your way!
Those who support violence, sectarianism and social division
are not loyal to a country as their only concern is to swear the oath of
allegiance to an Islamic emirate like Boko Haram and the ISIS.
The problem is not how these groups
ended up like this but rather with how these groups became as such. Those who
are armed in our country or those who kidnapped schoolgirls in Nigeria did so
due to misconceptions about Islam. These misconceptions circulated under the
cover of pure Islam and of returning to the concepts of Islam’s golden era -
not the concepts based on commendable values but those related to political
conditions and war among infidels’ countries and Islam back then. When you’re
armed with statements telling you that you’re absolutely right, then you must
win this right even if you have to resort to force. And when you have weapons,
you must translate your right via murder and abduction. You do all this
reassured that this is God’s sharia.
Where were we when these youths were being deceived? Where were we when leader of the Hashashin (Assassins) group drugged young men and then have them wake up among women to make them think they spend a night in paradise? These young men were deceived and would wake up the next morning and assassinate a deputy or a governor because he antagonized the leader of the group.
Where were we when these youths were being deceived? Where were we when leader of the Hashashin (Assassins) group drugged young men and then have them wake up among women to make them think they spend a night in paradise? These young men were deceived and would wake up the next morning and assassinate a deputy or a governor because he antagonized the leader of the group.
Not mercenaries
These are not mercenaries. They unfortunately have a solid
doctrine.
What’s more dangerous than taking up
arms is extremist rhetoric. Proof to that is that any attempt to put an end to
such rhetoric is met by resistance or anger because some consider that whoever
criticizes these groups is an enemy of Islam. It’s as if Muslims don’t commit
mistakes!
How can we separate Islam as a tolerant, ethical and moral religion from Muslims who misinterpreted it and from those who think the more extremist they are, the more right they are?
Is it difficult to say that Boko Haram and the ISIS-linked terrorist group exposed in our country have nothing to do with Islam? Is it difficult for some people to understand that religion is not properly practiced by these people who pull out their arms and abduct girls to sell them as slaves? Perhaps it’s difficult to explain this to some people from our generation who already made up their minds. But when it comes to today’s and tomorrow’s generations, Boko Haram and the ISIS will be seen as no more than new forms of Hashashin.--Badria al-Bishr
How can we separate Islam as a tolerant, ethical and moral religion from Muslims who misinterpreted it and from those who think the more extremist they are, the more right they are?
Is it difficult to say that Boko Haram and the ISIS-linked terrorist group exposed in our country have nothing to do with Islam? Is it difficult for some people to understand that religion is not properly practiced by these people who pull out their arms and abduct girls to sell them as slaves? Perhaps it’s difficult to explain this to some people from our generation who already made up their minds. But when it comes to today’s and tomorrow’s generations, Boko Haram and the ISIS will be seen as no more than new forms of Hashashin.--Badria al-Bishr
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