Who is the enemy, and what is this thing called jihadism that everyone has been talking about? Jihadism is a modern word, not something from the Quran. Jihadis, or jihadists, call themselves salafi jihadi or salafiyya jihadiyya (-iyya in Arabic is equivalent to -ism). When I first saw the term in early 2002, I thought it perfectly described the people we’re fighting and that the ideal name for the conflict we’re involved in might be a war on jihadis, or war on jihadism. However, the root of jihadism is “jihad,” which is actually a good word within Islam.
Ideology
Jihadis are a small minority within the Islamist movement that believes violence must be used in order to create the perfect Islamic state. Within jihadism there are disagreements about at whom this violence should be aimed, how it should be carried out, what it will accomplish, and what the Islamic state law will look like when it is finally created. Here, I address those jihadis who agree with Al Qaeda and affiliated groups on several important issues.
Only a very small minority of Muslims believe in violence and are willing to participate in it, which—in addition to great FBI work—explains why no attacks have been carried out in the U.S. since 9/11, and why there have been few attacks in Europe or other places.
Jihadist ideology can be reduced to unusual definitions of four Islamic words (tawhid, jihad, caliphate, and da’wa) and a few simple concepts. The jihadis believe, first, that they’re the only true Muslims in the world, the saved sect, the victorious party; that they’re the only ones going to Paradise. Second, they believe that hostile unbelievers control the world and have only one purpose in life, the destruction of Islam. In fact, according to several histories put together by jihadis, the entire purpose for the founding of America was to destroy Islam. Thus, thirdly, jihadis feel that war against the hostile unbelievers is permitted, because they’ve been attacked and aggressed against for at least ninety years, since the May 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement (which divided the Middle East into areas of influence for France, Great Britain and others). Bin Laden frequently references that agreement. Other jihadis have a more expansive vision of this war, believing it began either with the Crusades or fourteen hundred years ago or even with the creation of man. To them, history has been a constant fight between the believers and unbelievers, light and dark, truth and falsehood. Thus, for jihadis, all their wars have been defensive.
Finally, jihadis want to create an Islamic state for all the reasons that Islamists do—so that Islam will be correctly practiced, so that sharia law will be imposed, etc—but also to carry on this eternal war. Eternal war is the only foreign policy they envision for the caliphate, or Islamic state. When the war ends, it will be Judgment Day, the end of time. This is a dark, Manichean vision of the world.
As noted, the jihadis have very specific views of the concepts of tawhid, jihad, the Islamic state, and da’wa.
Tawhid (One God)
Tawhid, the belief that there’s only one god and only he deserves to be worshipped, is as central a concept to Islam as the concept of the Trinity is to Christianity. Neither term actually appears in the sacred texts. But tawhid is understood from everything that is contained in the sacred text.
Most Muslims believe that—if one worships gods other than the true God—it is up to God to judge the unbeliever after death. God might have mercy on the unbeliever or he might not, but it’s his judgment, not something for other Muslims to decide. The jihadis agree
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