The
premise of my final paper idea stems from a book Professor White suggested to
me as a relevant work dealing with my own personal interests: The Missing Martyrs: Why There Are So Few
Muslim Terrorists by Charles Kurzman.[1] Basically,
Kurzman’s book explores why there aren’t more terrorists in America seeing as
how there are “a billion Muslims in the world” many of whom are purported to “hate
the West and ardently desire martyrdom”.[2] The
question that is rightfully raised is “why don’t we see terrorist attacks every
day”?[3]
The conclusion that Kurzman draws, “that terrorist groups are thoroughly
marginal in the Muslim world”[4]
will be further examined in the light of one of the secondary sources I have
selected for this project: Lions Tamed?
An Inquiry into the Causes of De-Radicalization of Armed Islamist Movements:
The Case of the Egyptian Islamic Group by Omar Ashour.[5] This
journal article highlights certain variables which have led to the
de-radicalization of several formerly militant Islamist movements using as a
case study the Egyptian Islamic Group. While Ashour’s piece alone may seem out
of place, it will be utilized in conjunction with several other sources to
relate it to the coursework I have been engaged in: namely, Muslim communities in
America and the ‘puritanical’ Salafi branch of Islam. One of these additional
sources is an article from The New Yorker: “The Rebellion Within”.[6] In
this article, the former leader of the Egyptian terrorist group Al Jihad Sayyid
Imam al-Sharif (Dr. Fadl) renounces aggression saying “We are prohibited from committing aggression,
even if the enemies of Islam do that”.[7]
Having found the material to form the basis of
an argument that Muslim communities are predominately peaceful, I set about
applying the above articles to American Muslim communities. In this effort, coming
across Evan F. Kohlmann’s “Homegrown”
Terrorists: Theory and Cases in the War on Terror’s Newest Front put up
quite the roadblock.[8]
In this essay, Kohlmann approaches the subject of Al Qaeda operatives in North
America and Europe from the perspective of a terrorism analyst and a senior
investigator at the NEFA Foundation (Nine Eleven Finding Answers Foundation)
with degrees in both international politics and Islamic studies. As such, his
statements regarding Al Qaeda’s increasing sphere of influence should be taken
as statements from an authority in the field. Having said that, it should also be
realized that Kohlmann is paid to look at the threats, not what is working
well. As such, his claim of “budding terrorist ‘entrepreneurs’ lurking in a
host of major cities across Europe and North America”[9]
is coming from his research on these specific groups; not of peaceful Muslim
groups such as those who met at the Mission Valley Church of the Nazarene with
their Christian counterparts,[10]
shared their mosque with a Christian congregation for Easter services in
Sacramento,[11]
or the mourning that has accompanied the passing of the Pope of the Orthodox
Coptic Church spanning religious divides.[12]
But I still needed a document that connected
these examples to the Muslim communities in the United States! The beginning of
this connecting effort may be found in “Islam and Modern Democracy,” by Fauzi
M. Najjar.[13]
In this article, Najjar argues that there are two forms of Muslim thinkers when
it comes to politics and Islam: “the first approaches Islam from the values of
Western democracy; the second approaches modern democracy from an Islamic
viewpoint”.[14]
The former criticize the Caliphate as being a source of evil and corruption
while the latter promote the Qur’an and the Traditions (Sunnah) as the source
of legislation (Shari’a law) and the nation as the source of authority. This
serves as grounds for the thought of different political Islam communities. The
book that served as support pylon in bridging the gap between Islam and Muslim
communities in the U.S. was Fawaz A. Gerges’ America and Political Islam: Clash of Cultures or Clash of Interests?[15]
Within this book, Gerges makes the argument that while many see political Islam
as being in direct opposition to U.S. national security interests, domestic,
regional, and international variables have been the actual shaping forces of
U.S. policy towards Islam more than anything else. Dividing the two
perspectives on these factors into opposing camps, accomodationists and
confrontationalists, Gerges offers a glimpse at the policy conflicts raging in
Washington D.C. over hot-topics of the time (and today) Iran, Algeria, Egypt,
and Turkey.
The final brick in the wall, though, is Garbi
Schmidt’s Islam in Urban America: Sunni
Muslims in Chicago in which she considers the formation and meaning of an
American Islam.[16]
While largely a descriptive text, Schmidt’s conclusions that “Islam is an
American religion”[17]
and that “the strongest argument against the existence of a unified
Muslim-American community” [18]
is that of ethnic affiliation are foundations of this work. First of all, the
fact that Islam may be considered an American religion (in the sense that it is
able to exist in America and flourish) validates the potential threat of
extremists here in America. Secondly, and more importantly, the fact that
Muslim communities are not homogenous – that they do hold many different views
and mixed forms of jurisprudence - illustrates that Muslims are not to be
judged as a whole for the actions of a clear minority group (a theme that will
be built throughout these texts). We do not label all Christians terrorists for
the actions of groups such as the National Liberation Front of Tripura in
North-East India;[19]
nor do we classify all Jews as terrorists because of the actions of men such as
Yigal Amir and Yaakov Teitel. These are only a couple of examples of terrorist
activities from other religious groups that have not poisoned the respective
religions nearly as much as the 9/11 attacks have corrupted America’s perspective
on Islam. Thus, in my efforts to address extremism in America, I will be
narrowing the lens of focus to center upon the Salafi Sunni school of Islam
that I have mentioned above.
[1]
Charles Kurzman, The Missing Martyrs: Why
There Are So Few Muslim Terrorists (Oxford University Press, 2011).
[2] Charles
Kurzman, The Missing Martyrs: Why There
Are So Few Muslim Terrorists.
[3] Ibid.
[4]
Ibid.
[5]
Omar Ashour, “Lions tamed? An inquiry into the causes of de-radicalization of
armed Islamist movements: The case of the Egyptian Islamic group,” Middle East Journal vol. 61, no. 4
(Autumn, 2007): 596-625.
[6]
Lawrence Wright, “The Rebellion Within,” The New Yorker, June 2, 2008.
[7]
Ibid.
[8]
Evan F. Kohlmann, “’Homegrown’ Terrorists: Theory and Cases in the War on
Terror's Newest Front,” Annals of the
American Academy of Political and Social Science vol. 618 (July, 2008):
95-109.
[9]
Evan F. Kohlmann, “’Homegrown’ Terrorists: Theory and Cases in the War on
Terror's Newest Front,” 95.
[10] http://www.cair.com/ArticleDetails.aspx?mid1=777&&ArticleID=16956&&name=n&&currPage=1
[11] http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2012/04/08/mosque-allows-christian-church-in-to-hold-easter-services/
[12] http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2012/Mar-19/167132-lebanese-leaders-praise-shenouda-as-figure-of-openness-wisdom.ashx#axzz1rfa2bumk
[13]
Fauzi M. Najjar, “Islam and Modern Democracy,” The Review of Politics vol. 20, no. 2 (April, 1958): 164-180.
[14]
Fauzi M. Najjar, “Islam and Modern Democracy,” 177.
[15]
Fawaz A. Gerges, America and Political
Islam: Clash of Cultures or Clash of Interests? (Cambridge University
Press, 1999).
[16]
Garbi Schmidt, Islam
in Urban America: Sunni Muslims in Chicago
(Temple University Press, 2004).
[19]
Jeroen Adam et al., “In the Name of the Father? Christian Militantism in
Tripura, Northern Uganda, and Ambon,” Studies
in Conflict and Terrorism vol. 30, no. 11 (2007) 963-983.
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