It’s Not About Iraq, Afghanistan: Islamist Expert
July 22, 2005 · By Tom Cerber
Olivier Roy is the author of noted books, including Globalized Islam.
In today’s NY Times, he explodes the argument that the 3/11 attacks in Madrid and the 7/7 attacks in London (and yesterday’s attacks) were “punishment” for Spain’s and England’s participation in Iraq:
From the beginning, Al Qaeda’s fighters were global jihadists, and their favored battlegrounds have been outside the Middle East: Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya and Kashmir. For them, every conflict is simply a part of the Western encroachment on the Muslim ummah, the worldwide community of believers.
Second, if the conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine are at the core of the radicalization, why are there virtually no Afghans, Iraqis or Palestinians among the terrorists? Rather, the bombers are mostly from the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, Egypt and Pakistan - or they are Western-born converts to Islam. Why would a Pakistani or a Spaniard be more angry than an Afghan about American troops in Afghanistan? It is precisely because they do not care about Afghanistan as such, but see the United States involvement there as part of a global phenomenon of cultural domination.
“Born again” or converts, they are rebels looking for a cause. They find it in the dream of a virtual, universal ummah, the same way the ultraleftists of the 1970’s (the Baader-Meinhof Gang, the Italian Red Brigades) cast their terrorist actions in the name of the “world proletariat” and “Revolution” without really caring about what would happen after.
It is also interesting to note that none of the Islamic terrorists captured so far had been active in any legitimate antiwar movements or even in organized political support for the people they claim to be fighting for. They don’t distribute leaflets or collect money for hospitals and schools. They do not have a rational strategy to push for the interests of the Iraqi or Palestinian people.
The Western-based Islamic terrorists are not the militant vanguard of the Muslim community; they are a lost generation, unmoored from traditional societies and cultures, frustrated by a Western society that does not meet their expectations. And their vision of a global ummah is both a mirror of and a form of revenge against the globalization that has made them what they are.
In short, these “globalized” jihadists have no constituency, no community, and seek worldwide revolution for the sake of revolution.
There’s no possibility of “understanding” them.
[...] hat the caliphate begins in Afghanistan. The ecumenic ambition of the jihadists fits with Olivier Roy’s findings that they do not regar [...]
[...] hat the caliphate begins in Afghanistan. The ecumenic ambition of the jihadists fits with Olivier Roy’s findings that they do not regar [...]
[...] Spiked-Online reviews a new book on al-Qaeda by Faisal Devji, Landscapes of the Jihad. Devji, like Olivier Roy, repudiates the notion that al-Qaeda is a territorial entity that seeks territorial aims (e.g., the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, or even the caliphate). [...]
Why would you say any human being is beyond understanding? That is far more demonic and malicious in nature than any Jihadist dogma I have ever heard. It would also seem that you’re are implying that all western converts to Islam are lost causes or “terrorists” and should be considered less than human. Such thinking is no better than the Fundamentalism that you fear, for your’s holds a similar end, the elimination of human life. You’re no better, just another hate monger, and if you have something to say to me that would somehow justify you’re hatred of Semetic Monotheism, I would love to hear it, because unlike you, I wish to understand. Allah bless.
However, I agree that terrorism in no way shape or form represents the global Ummah.