Teaching the Long War and Jihadism

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Teaching the Long War and Jihadism
U.S. Foreign Policy and the Modern Middle East A
Summer Institute for Teachers Sponsored by The
American Institute for History Education and FPRI
s Wachman Center June 25-27, 2009

• Mary Habeck

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Global Jihadist Ideology

• Islam
• Ancient religion of 1.5 billion people
• Diversity of beliefs, practices, and politics
• Modernists, traditionalists and orthodox
  (80-85?)
• Islamism (salafi Islam, fundamentalism) (15-20?)
• Islam must have political power and a state
• Response to European colonialism
• No unanimity about democracy

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Global Jihadist Ideology (cont.)

• Jihadism (jihadiyya) (lt1?)
• Extremist version of Islamism
• No gradual implementation or political process
• Only violence can recreate an Islamic state
  called the Caliphate
• Global jihadism (salafi jihadiyya)
• al-Qaida and affiliated groups
• The main enemy is the United States, not our
  local rulers

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Basic ideology of jihadism

• Aberrant definitions of jihad and tawhid
• Believe that only they are the true believers
  (the saved sect) all others are so-called
  Muslims
• Hostile unbelievers control the world and desire
  the destruction of Islam
• Therefore war against them and their puppets is
  justified
• An Islamic state is necessary not only to
  implement Islamic law correctly, it will also
  wage eternal war with the unbelievers.

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Contrasting definitions of tawhid

• Islam
• There is only one God
• He has no partners this means that only he has
  the right to be worshiped
• Anyone who worships another god is sinning and
  after death, he will be judged by God.

• Global jihadism
• There is only one God
• He has no partners this means that only he has
  the right to be worshiped and to make laws, that
  is, only God has sovereignty
• Anyone who claims to have sovereignty or who
  makes laws is making himself into a god and must
  be killed.

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Contrasting definitions of jihad

• Islam (evolution over time)
• Struggle and war
• Muhammads life
• The internal and external jihad
• Jihad as an individual duty and communal duty
• Today jihad is an internal struggle and
  defensive (just) war
• Jihad is a matter of state

• Global jihadism
• (1 meaning)
• Jihad is fighting
• Muhammads life
• The internal jihad is a Sufi fraud
• Jihad has become an individual duty for all
  Muslims
• Today jihad is individual duty tomorrow jihad
  will be a communal duty
• Jihad is a matter for each individual

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Global jihadisms war with Muslims

• Ideological preaching aimed at converting other
  Muslims to jihadism or to supporting their
  struggles
• Jihadism is the only authentic Islam
• Participation in our jihad is necessary for
  salvation
• Our jihad is defensive (an individual duty)
• Political creating a Caliphate
• Controlling territory and implementing Islamic
  law (promoting virtue and preventing vice)
• No Muslim state has any legitimacy and therefore
  can be fought
• Military fighting Muslims who actively oppose
  jihadism or who actively support the unbelievers
• Liberal and secular Muslims
• Apostates such as Sufis, Shia, Ahmadis or
  political leaders

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Global jihadism's founders

• Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab

Hasan al-Banna
Sayyid Qutb
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Global jihadisms appeal to other Muslims

• Authentic Islam
• Sacrificing lives for the community
• Avoiding Hell
• Evil societies both at home and abroad
• Jihad as participation in liberation and
  salvation
• Revenge and retribution (qisas)
• A conspiratorial vision of history

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Global jihadism in actionHamas (jihadist)
Attacking the occupiers
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Global jihadism in actional-Jihad/Egyptian
Islamic Jihad
Killing the Apostate Ruler
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Global jihadism in action Jamaah Islamiyah
Tourists as occupiers and polluters
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Global jihadism in actionGamaa al-Islamiyya
From tourists as occupiers and polluters to
attacking the greater unbelief
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Global Jihadism in actional-Qaida (global
jihadist)
From attacking occupiers to the US as greater
unbelief
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Global jihadisms war with the US

• Why attack the US?
• The US as the greater unbelief (the eternal
  enemy)
• Strike a stunning blow to the US to
• Convince US to leave all Islamic lands (see
  Beirut, Somalia)
• Convince other Muslims to join al-Qaidas war
  with the US and the apostate puppets
• Without the support of the US, its apostate
  puppets would fall to the energized jihadist
  movement

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Global jihadisms war with the US (cont.)

• Objectives post-9/11
• Uniting the jihad
• Inciting the diaspora to jihad
• Training the next generation of jihadis
• Getting the US out of Islamic lands
• Creating the Caliphate
• Strategies post 9/11
• IO strategy the importance of the media
• Economic strategy the oil weapon and attrition
• Military strategy attrition, guerrilla warfare,
  and multiple battlefields (Management of
  Savagery)
• The continuing need for a base

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America and the Long War Models

• A crime was committed on 9/11
• i. Pinpoints al-Qaida as main problem, doesnt
  blame entire Islamic world
• ii. Refuses to recognize deeper roots and global
  nature of the conflict
• A clash of civilizations
• i. Emphasizes cultural/religious roots of the
  conflict
• ii. Conflates most Muslims with the radicals
• A global insurgency
• i. Global vision that gives us strategies for
  fighting the war
• ii. Downplays role of nations
• The Islamic Reformation
• i. Its not about us emphasizes role of
  religion, culture and history
• ii. Downplays economic/social issues leaves us
  without model for the war
• The Long War or World War IV
• Emphasizes nation-states, lengthy nature of
  global conflict, gives us a model for the war

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America and the Long War When did the war start?

• 9/11
• 622
• 1992
• 18th century OR 1928
• 1979

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America and the Long WarNaming the enemy

• Bin Laden et al
• The Arab/Muslim world
• Al-Qaida and affiliated groups
• Islamists and/or jihadis
• Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, et al.

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America and the Long WarPinpointing the
objective

• Arrest or kill Bin Laden et al.
• Transformation of the Islamic world
  (modernization/democratization)
• Suppress or kill al-Qaida while preventing other
  Muslims from joining the fight
• The reformation of Islam
• Regime change

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America and the Long WarOperationalizing

• Arresting a law enforcement problem
• Diplomatic pressure and international
  institutions includes nation states as both
  cause and cure
• COIN counterinsurgency - a military problem but
  includes society, culture, and economy
• Work by imams, muftis, shaykhs, ayatollahs a
  religious problem
• Invasion and state-building a military,
  diplomatic and state-building problem