Tag: Jihad

Ayhan Ozer [[email protected]]

The Islamic Jihad is an alarming word. In the west, either by ignorance or by design, it is loosely translated as “Holy War”. Yet, the Muslims claim that in Islamic teaching no war is holy; peace and harmony are divine injunctions in Islam. An attempt to present Islam as a warmongering faith is a stereotypical sensationalism handed down from by-gone era when Islam was painted as an arch-enemy of Christianity. If the Muslims are attacked with a faith- based intention then as a last resort Islam sanctions Jihad. Yet, Muslims are encouraged first to search for peaceful solutions to resolve their disputes and conflicts. Understanding, compromise and empathy should be given a chance to resolve hostility and confrontation as they are more constructive, and they lead to harmonious relations.

Jihad is a multi-level concept, and has a larger connotation than its casual meaning would suggest. It is to strive in the way of God, and to struggle against evil inclinations within ourselves. It may come as a surprise to many but In that sense Jihad is not strictly religion-specific; rather, it is a way of dealing with adverse human conditions, which makes it universal. During a lifetime most individuals, even societies may have had their own moments of Jihad. For instance, the tremendous willpower put forth by a drug addict to free himself from the tentacles of addiction can be construed as a Jihad. Similarly, the ordeal of an alcoholic who seeks liberation from his predicament and his trials on this way can also be characterized as Jihad. All private struggles, such as gambling, over-eating that demand unrelenting will-power and nervous energy to overcome the evil within ourselves can be termed as Jihad.

There is an anecdote attributed to Prophet Muhammad which illustrates the quiet inner struggle that each of us is required to exert from time to time. According to Traditions, the Prophet had just returned from a battle, victorious. He had proclaimed Jihad as the battle had been waged against the realm of disbelief to defend the faith and the faithful. One of his men said to Him, “Oh Muhammad, you have achieved your Jihad, you must rejoice it!” Prophet responded, “It was a lesser Jihad, now we have greater Jihad that lies ahead of us, and we must overcome it.” The man was puzzled, he asked, “Oh, Muhammad is there a goal more important than to be victorious in a battle?” Prophet replied, “Yes, there is! Now, it is time to conquer the evil force within ourselves, and restrain our ego lest we should slide into vainglory, and dilute our victory.”

Almost every society has its own flaws. Some are intolerant of the religious or ethnic differences. Others are racist, and some societies oppress women, or deny basic civil liberties to their own people. Racism, for one, is a human defect inherently built in our sub-conscious. It plagues societies indiscriminately. America is a good example in that regard. At one time in its history America suffered from racism and ant –Semitism. As all the evils these two require constant vigilance lest they should raise their heads. Racism especially needs unyielding weariness; it may not be defeated yet it can be controlled through reinforcement and education. What is remarkable about America is its conscious and unrelenting persistence to purge itself of these moral shortcomings. And this can be termed as Jihad! The Civil Rights movement of the 1960s held a mirror to the psyche of the American society, and the country has become continuously vigilant against bigotry and prejudice, and eliminated them from the public sphere. What makes America great is the arduous journey it has undertaken tirelessly in the way of self edification, and its readiness to fight evil forces. In the Islamic lexicon it is called “Supreme Jihad.”

The above are inspiring examples that describe the concept of Jihad from a larger perspective. The common thread in all those examples is the conscious effort to transcend the self in pursuit of moral rectitude.

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Ayhan Özer

by Burak Bekdil
July 7, 2016 at 4:00 am

• “Infidels who were enemies of Islam thought they buried Islam in the depths of history when they abolished the caliphate on March 3, 1924 … We are shouting out that we will re-establish the caliphate, here, right next to the parliament.” — Mahmut Kar, media bureau chief of Hizb ut-Tahrir Turkey.
• “The magazine [Dabiq] creates propaganda for [ISIS]. It has an open address. Why does no one raid its offices?” — Opposition MP Turkey’s Parliament.

The government big guns in Ankara just shrugged it off when on June 5, 2015, only two days before general elections in the country, homegrown jihadist militants for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syia (ISIS, or ISIL or IS) detonated bombs, killing four people and injuring over 100, at a pro-Kurdish political rally.

Again, when IS, on July 20, 2015, bombed a meeting of pro-Kurdish peace activists in a small town on Turkey’s Syrian border, killing 33 people and injuring over 100, the government behaved as if it had never happened. After all, a bunch of “wild boys” from the ranks of jihad — which the ruling party in Ankara not-so-secretly aspires to — were killing the common enemy: Kurds.

Then when IS jihadists, in October, killed over 100 people in the heart of Ankara, while targeting, once again, a public rally of pro-peace activists (including many Kurds), the Turkish government put the blame on “a cocktail of terror groups” — meaning the attack may have been a product of Islamists, far-leftist and Kurdish militants. “IS, Kurdish or far-leftist militants could have carried out the bombing,” the prime minister at the time, Ahmet Davutoglu, said. It was the worst single terror attack in Turkey’s history, and the Ankara government was too demure even to name the perpetrators. An indictment against 36 suspects, completed nearly nine months after the attack, identified all defendants as Islamic State members. So there was no “cocktail of terror.” It was just the jihadists.

In the last year, there had been further jihadist acts of terror, targeting Turks and foreign tourists, but with relatively few casualties up to now. At an Istanbul airport, however, a mysterious explosion, which the authorities hastily attempted to cover up, was probably the precursor of the latest mega-attack in Istanbul. The management at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen Airport said on Dec. 23, 2015 that: “There was an explosion at the apron and investigation regarding its cause is progressing … Fights have resumed.” That unidentified explosion consisted of three or four mortars fired at a passenger plane parked at the apron. The attack killed one unfortunate cleaner.

The incident was quickly “disappeared” from the public memory. One person dying in a mysterious explosion was too minor for a collective Turkish memory that had grown used to casualties coming in the dozens. It was, in fact, a powerful message from the terrorists: We will target your lifeline — air traffic.

Every year about 60 million travelers pass through Istanbul’s main airport, Ataturk. Turkey is now building an even bigger airport that will host 150 million passengers a year. Completing the mission from December’s “minor and unresolved” attack at the Sabiha Gokcen Airport, the terrorists visited Ataturk Airport on June 28, killing at least 45 and injuring hundreds of people.

Travelers are shown fleeing, trying to escape the terrorists attacking Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport, June 28, 2016. (Image source: ABC video screenshot)

Turkish prime minister, Binali Yildirim, said that it was “probably” an attack by IS. Days later, the suicide bombers were identified as jihadists of Central Asian origin.

In a state of perpetual denial, Turkey’s Islamist rulers are still too bashful to admit any linkage between political Islam and violence. Ironically, their denial exposes their country to the risk of even more Islamic terror. Worse, the political Islam they fuel in their own country is growing millions of potential jihadists at home. In November, a Pew Research Center study found that 27% of Turks (more than 20 million) did not have an unfavorable opinion of IS — compared to, say, 16% in the Palestinian territories.

In March, only three months before the latest jihadist attack in Istanbul, thousands of supporters of Hizb ut-Tahrir — a global Islamist group, viewed by Russia and Kazakhstan as a terrorist group but that defines itself as a political organization aiming to “lead the ummah” [Islamic community] to the re-establishment of the caliphate and rule with sharia law — gathered at a public sports hall in Ankara, courtesy of the Turkish government, to discuss the re-establishment of the Islamic caliphate. In his speech, Mahmut Kar, the media bureau chief of Hizb-ut Tahrir Turkey said:

“Infidels who were enemies of Islam thought they buried Islam in the depths of history when they abolished the caliphate on March 3, 1924 … We are hopeful, enthusiastic and happy. Some 92 years later… we are shouting out that we will re-establish the caliphate, here, right next to the parliament.”

It was not a coincidence that an opposition MP on July 1 took the speaker’s point at the Turkish parliament, showed a copy of a magazine, Dabiq, largely viewed as IS’s press organ, to an audience and said: “This is [IS’s] official magazine. It is published in Turkey. Its fifth issue is out now. The magazine creates propaganda for [IS]. It has an open address. Why does no one raid its offices?”

That question will probably remain unanswered.

Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a Turkish columnist for the Hürriyet Daily and a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.