The Global Jihad

Radical fundamentalists are on the march under the banner of Jihad in Nigeria, Mali, Kenya, Somalia, Central African Republic, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen. In Libya, the state has practically collapsed as contending factions of radical Islamists slug it out with tanks, anti-aircraft guns, AK 47s and rocket-propelled grenades. In Egypt, an audacious attempt by the Muslim Brotherhood to convert post-Mubarak popular aspirations for freedom and democracy into a brazen push for an Iran-style Islamic Republic dominated by Mullahs was thwarted only by the resolve of the Egyptian people and the alliance of the military, media, bureaucrats and judges who preferred a secular republic. Both Algeria and Tunisia only barely survived a similar, post-Arab “Spring” take-over by radical fundamentalists.

In Turkey, RecepTeyyip Erdogan’s mission of transforming Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s secular democracy into a sectarian dictatorship continues its bold evolution with Erdogan now seeking to dominate all its institutions through an executive presidency, having suppressed the powerful military, prosecutors, bureaucracy and intelligence agencies. Across Europe and America, young immigrant and native-born Muslims are switching allegiance from Western democracies to radical Islam and travelling in hundreds or reportedly thousands to join Jihads in Syria, Iraq and even Somalia. So-called “moderate” Arab monarchies and other Muslim regimes-Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iran, UAE and Turkey are increasingly believed to be funding Islamists of different hues across the Sunni-Shiite divide-ISIS in Syria and Iraq, Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad etc.

Many nations across the globe are now formally engaged with one Jihadist insurgency or the other-since September 11, 2001, the US has been confronted with the terrorist menace of Al Qaeda and domestic terrorists who throw bombs at Boston Marathoners or third-world terrorists who put bombs in their shoes or underwear in an attempt to bring down airplanes; Britain and other European states have had to deal with global or local terrorist cells who bomb trains in an attempt to kill large numbers of innocent people; India has continued to fight terrorists in its Kashmir region and occasionally in its luxury hotels and city centres; Russia continues to deal with a low-level insurgency in its North Caucasus region of Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingushetia and others; and even China now contends with Islamists in its Uighur(Uyghur)  region!

The terrorist threat of Al Qaeda has now been overshadowed by the murderous barbarism of ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) or ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) or Islamic State as it now wishes to be known, expressing its global aspirations for building an Islamic Caliphate across what it regards as irrelevant national borders. ISIS has shown spectacular brutishness as it adopts seventh century tactics-beheading people of other faiths, forced conversions, raping and kidnapping women, crucifying opponents, carrying out mass executions, including reportedly of children, issuing ultimatums on Christians and people of other faiths to leave their territories at the pain of death or a subjection tax, and indoctrinating a new generation of young people who pose with the severed heads of their victims. “Boko Haram” in North-East Nigeria is following Al Qaeda and ISIS’ playbook while the Nigerian State and the world watch helplessly! I frankly never imagined I would witness a world in which such atrocities were committed in this age!!!

There are questions around the theological justifications for the extremist religious ideology that manifest in these actions which only adherents of the Islamic faith can answer-I have learnt for instance that radical Islamists believe that under an Islamic principle of abrogation, earlier verses that declare Islam to be a religion of peace; that abhor compulsion in religion or that exalt the “people of the book” (Jews and Christians) have been abrogated by latter ones that urge terror, death and subjugation upon “infidels”; they also follow supposed traditions regarding behavior when in a metaphoric Mecca (said to be a reference to the religion’s early days in Mecca when it was not yet in a dominant political and military position) versus when in “Medina” (by which time the faith was in a position to exert full hegemony over the population); extremists also follow an alleged division of the world into “Dar al-Islam”(House of Peace) and “Dar al-Harb” (House of War) comprising unbelievers against whom war and conquest is legitimate, even mandatory! I gather that dialogue with people who subscribe to such extremist ideology is complicated by their practice of “Taqiyya”, a doctrine which supposedly permits dissimulation, lying, deceiving and betraying unbelievers implying that any assurances offered by such extremists are unreliable. I am of course incompetent regarding Islamic theology and thus not in a position to rebut these theological positions, but peace-loving Muslims will have to present an alternative theology and contest the theological legitimacy of radical and extremist Jihad.

It is patently clear based on the evidence that the gravest threat to contemporary global peace, security and stability is from this rampant violent philosophy. It is also clear that current naivety, political correctness or appeasement as a response to radical extremism is not effective. The history of the world is clear on the consequences of offering appeasement or timidity to a determined hegemon, especially one willing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity in pursuit of its fanatical objectives. The civilized world will have to unite, contend with and defeat this violent ideology as it defeated Hitler, “Mein Kampf” and Nazism in the Second World War.

Opeyemi Agbaje