Download Islamic Fundamentalism

Islamic
Fundamentalism
Beliefs and Practices; Social Movements
and Groups
Islam
is not equal to
Islamic Fundamentalism
DO NOT CONFUSE THE TWO!
Beliefs of Islamic
Fundamentalism
Islamism or Islamic Fundamentalism
• As globalization spread, many Muslims
became skeptical about western economic
development and political and cultural
norms
• Blamed the West for their own economic
and political problems and the breakdown
of traditional social and religious values
• Saw the abandonment of Islamic traditions
as the cause of their problems and many
blamed the US
The Saudi Arabian
Mutaween, or
religious police,
enforce the Islamic
dress code
Islamist Reaction
• Many saw the solution as a
revival of Islamic identity,
values, and power
• Most sought to bring about
change through peaceful
means
• An extremist minority has
claimed a mandate from God
that calls for violent
transformations
Supporters of Hizbut Tahrir, a
hardline Muslim group,
protesting in front of the US
Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia
Islamic Fundamentalism Beliefs
• Islamic society should be united and returned to a “more
pure” time
• The true Islamic state should be led by a Caliphs – as in the
early Islamic Empire
• The Koran and Islamic law (sharia) should be the legal basis
for state and society.
• Islam must be a fixed element in all areas of life.
• Some fundamentalists reject all reform and modernizing as
“Un-Islamic”.
• Islam, as generally lived nowadays, is seen as a compromise
with the unbelieving world.
Why Do They Hate The
West? Especially USA
• Westernization
Why do they Hate USA?
• Imperialism
• US overthrew Iranian elected prime minister in
1952 and replaced him w/ a king
• Cultural Imperialism
• economic imperialism
• OIL
• Iraqi sanctions/embargo (1990-2002)
• over 1 million dead
• half of them under 5 yrs
• Support of Israel
• $3 billion a year
• uses $ to fight Palestinians
• Support Saudi Arabia
• continued military bases
• Good vs. Evil
Why Do People Turn To
Islamic Fundamentalism?
What is the appeal?
Appeal of Islamic Fundamentalism: Why?
• Muslim fundamentalists, filled with idealistic zeal, are
committed to the establishing of a state which is influenced
only by Islam.
• They are prepared for great sacrifice – even their own lives
– to work for this goal.
• Their life is to assist in the building of an Islamic state.
• Their aversion to all things western and non-Islamic is
expressed by clothing and strict adherence to an Islamic
moral code.
• The strength is to give individual people an identity, hope,
and new sense of self respect.
• Some of the social-welfare projects which fundamentalist
groups have set up are exemplary, such as orphans’ and
widows’ pensions, the building of hospitals and schools etc.
Goals and Methods
Islamic Fundamentalism Achieve Goals By
Doing The Following:
• Combine religion and government = create more “Islamic
states”
• Use “Shari’a Law” for whole society
• Limit the effects of modernization
• Force non-fundamentalist Muslims and others to obey,
even using violence
• Women’s rights are virtually non-existent
• Unfair justice system
• Punishments are cruel
• Target the United States as the “Great Satan”
Why use terrorism?
•Guerilla Warfare
•Desire to wound a more powerful foe.
•You may be more powerful, but you can still bleed
•The higher the target’s profile, the better.
•American Embassies in Africa (Aug. 1988)
•World Trade Center (1993 & 2001)
•Military targets
•Beirut, Lebanon (1983)
•241 Marines killed
•Pentagon
•US naval ships (USS COLE in Oct. 2000)
•About sending a message!!
Jihad
• Convinced that the Muslim world is
under siege, extremists used the
concept of the jihad to rationalize
and legitimize terrorism and
revolution
• Jihad is sometimes called the
Sixth Pillar of Islam and is an
exertion or struggle in achieving
the ways of Allah
• It invokes the right and duty to
defend Islam and the Islamic
community from unjust attack
Members of the Islamic
Jihad’s military wing,
the Al-Quds Brigade, in
Gaza
TERRORIST OR
FREEDOM FIGHTER??
History of Islamic
Fundamentalism and
Islamism/Islamists
Growth of Islamism
Islamists
• Movement to reorder
government, society according
to Islamic laws
• Islamists believe Muslim
countries have strayed from
true Islam, followed Western
models of political, economic
development
Conflicts, Violence
• Egypt, Iran, Iraq have seen
growth of Islamism; has led to
conflicts within society,
government
• Some extremists have used
violence to bring about
changes, have attacked
regional governments, their
allies, innocent civilians
Example: Muslim
Brotherhood
Sayyid Qutb
Especially influential theorist,
Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966), an
Egyptian journalist, highranking member of Ministry of
Education
Critic of corrupt King Faruq
Exiled to U.S., earned M.A. in
Education from Colorado State
College of Education (1949)
Appalled by consumerism,
secularism, relaxed sexual
mores, high divorce rate, racial
inequality, alcohol, and
support for Israel
On return to Egypt, joined
radical Islamist Muslim
Brotherhood, became leading
theorist
Sayyid Qutb
Nationalist Colonel Gamel Abdul Nasser overthrew King Faruq,
courted Qutb and Muslim Brotherhood
Qutb proposed Nasser remake Egypt as Islamic theocracy
Secularist, Arab-nationalist Nasser refused
Qutb and Muslim Brotherhood turned against him
Qutb arrested, imprisoned, tortured; executed for opposition to
Nasser (1966)
Became martyr, hero of radical Islam
Inspiration for ideas, actions of Al Qaeda, Taliban, radical Islamists
Growth of Muslim Brotherhood
• Egypt’s defeat in ArabIsraeli war of l967
provided an
opportunity for the
Muslim Brotherhood to
expand
• Since 1970s,
fundamentalist groups
attracted growing
popular support
Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt
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Other Examples of Islamic
Fundamentalism
Roots of Islamic Radical Extremism
Muhammad Al-Wahhab
Wahhabi “Pure” Islam
Al-Qaeda
???
Muslim
Brotherhood
Egypt
Hezbollah
Lebanon
Sayyid Qutb
Anti-West/Anti-America
HAMAS
Gaza
Taliban
Afghanistan
Anti-Israel
Islamic Fundamentalist Groups
• Goal: the destruction of the
state of Israel
• Reside in West Bank & Gaza
• Build schools, clinics, roads, etc
• Political parties
• Hezbollah: Party of God
• Southern Lebanon
• Shiite Muslims
• HAMAS: Islamic Resistance
Movement
• Leading political party in Gaza
Strip
• Sunni
Example: Hezbollah
Hezbollah – The Party of God
• Goals:
• Elimination of Israel,
liberation of Jerusalem,
and Islamic rule in
Lebanon
• Guidance and
assistance to other
extremist groups
• Independent State of
Palestine
Hezbollah – The Party of God
• Attacks:
• Many attacks in Israel
(80’s-90’s)
• US Embassy (1984)
• Marine Barracks, Lebanon,
1984
• Kidnapping of Americans in
Lebanon -1980’s
• TWA hijacking – 1985
• Israeli Embassy attack –
1992
Hezbollah – The Party of God
• Financing:
• Iran
• False charities and
humanitarian groups
• Wealthy individuals
• Diplomatic, political,
and logistical support
from Syria
• Businesses
Example: Hamas
Hamas Background




Arabic acronym for “The
Islamic Resistance
Movement”
Grew out of the Muslim
Brotherhood
Created in 1987 by Shaikh
Ahmed Yassin
Headquarters in Gaza City,
Palestine
Hamas
• Attacks:
• Many bombings, suicide
bombings, rocket and
artillery attacks, kidnappings,
beatings, and other acts of
violence against Israeli
civilians during 80’s and 90’shundreds of casualties
• Provides relief, education,
to Palestinians
• Provides political
participation
• Goals:
• Destruction of Israel
• Destruction of Judaism
• Political violence
• Creation of an Islamic State
in Palestine
The Slogan of Hamas
“God is it’s target, the Prophet is it’s model, the
Qur’an it’s constitution: Jihad is it’s path and death
for the sake of God is the loftiest of it’s wishes.”
Hamas
• Financing:
• Various Middle East
countries
• Illegal drug sales
• Palestinian
expatriates and
private donors in
Saudi Arabia and other
oil-rich Persian Gulf
states.
• Muslim Charities
around the world
• Iran also provides
significant support
Example: Al Qaeda
What is al-Qaeda?
• Al Qaeda is a stateless (meaning without a country)
terrorist organization.
• led and financed by Osama bin Laden, a radical Shi’a
Muslim.
Osama bin Laden
• Osama bin Laden began his
militancy in response to the 1979
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
• He helped found the Maktab alKhadamāt (MAK) which recruited
and funded mujahideen to fight the
Soviets
• Ironically, the US also supported
the mujahideen based on the
Cold War philosophy that “the
enemy of my enemy is my friend”
al-Qaeda
Part of the postDesert Storm US
military presence
at Prince Sultan
Air Base, 80 km
south of Riyadh
• In 1988, bin Laden split from the MAK and formed a
new group comprised of some of the most militant
mujahideen that would become the al-Qaeda terrorist
group
• The US involvement in Desert Storm and continued
presence in Saudi Arabia, home of the Muslim holy
sites of Mecca and Medina, bin Laden became
infuriated by the Western influence
al-Qaeda
al-Qaeda calls for the use of
violence and force bringing
about the end of non-Islamic
governments, and in particular, a
wish to drive the U.S. armed
forces out of Saudi Arabia and
Somalia.
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Bin Laden
• Osama bin Laden overtly criticizes the
Saudi government. Saudi Arabia
banishes him; his family disowns him
(officially).
• Bin Laden leaves Saudi Arabia to
further build al Qaeda. al-Qaeda is
responsible for the proliferating of
terrorists throughout the world, and
providing them with equipment and
financing.
• al-Qaeda has become a “movement”
(philosophy).
History of attacks on US
Interests connected to
al Qaeda prior to
September 11, 2001
USA in Somalia
• Dec. 4, 1992, George H.W. Bush sends 28,000
American troops to Somalia.
• Bush wanted to help the Somali people since all
attempts to send food to them were intercepted by
war lords.
Black Hawk Down!
• In 1993, 18 Americans
died when their Black
Hawk helicopter was
shot down over
Mogadishu, Somalia.
• The US believes al Qaeda
operatives taught the
Somalis how to shoot
down helicopters just like
they did in Afghanistan
against the Soviets.
World Trade Center bombing
• 9-11 was not the first terrorist attack on the WTC.
• In 1993, a man rented a Ryder truck and detonated a large
bomb in one of the towers hoping to knock it over onto the
other tower.
1993 WTC bombing
It killed 6 people and injured over 1000.
Ramzi Yousef
• He was a planner of the WTC
bombing.
• He was a member/leader of al
Qaeda.
• Yousef stated, "Yes, I am a
terrorist, and proud of it as long
as it is against the U.S.
government."
• Speaks 7 languages and has
college degrees in engineering
and chemistry.
• Currently serving a life sentence.
1996 Car Bombing of Khobar Towers
• The Khobar Towers provided housing for American
military stationed in Saudi Arabia. 19 Americans
were killed and hundreds injured.
US Embassy Bombings
• Two American embassies in
Kenya and Tanzania were
bombed simultaneously in
1998. 220 people were killed.
Fatwa – Legal interpretation of Islamic Law
• In August of 1998, Osama bin Laden and 4 of his
close associates sign and distribute a statement
declaring “it is the individual duty for every Muslim
who can do it” to kill Americans.
Clinton Responds
• President Clinton decided to attack al
Qaeda in response.
• US attacks al Qaeda training camps in
Sudan and Afghanistan with Tomahawk
missiles. Camps were destroyed. Osama
lives.
USS Cole attack Oct. 2000
• In Yemen, Al Qaeda
operatives sent a
suicide bomber
aboard a small ship
near the USS Cole
and detonated its
bomb, blowing a
large hole in the US
Navy ship.
• 17 sailors killed.
al-Qaeda’s International Presence at the
Time of the Sept 11 Attack
Example: ISIS, ISIL, The
Islamic State
ISIL: Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant
ISIL has taken control
of parts of Iraq &
Syria
ISIL is so extreme,
even al Qaeda rejects
them
ISIL: Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant
• ISIL began as an al Qaeda affiliate in Iraq following the
2003 US-led invasion
• American forces spent years and enormous resources to
bring the group largely to heel before US troops pulled out
of the country in December of 2011
• Since then, the region has been in political turmoil and
sectarian hatreds
• The Islamic State has seized on those Sunni-Shiite
tensions to help inspire its Sunni extremist followers
• The group is led by an ambitious Iraqi militant known as
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
Flaws
Flaws in the Islamic fundamentalist argument
• There was no “purer” time
• The past they wish to “return to” is not the way they
think it was
• It violates rights of modern Muslims & non-Muslims
(especially women)
• It leads to extremist acts (like terrorism) that violate the
principles of peace inherent in Islam
• Fundamentalist leaders rely on modern technology (the
internet, cars, planes, bombs, etc) – the same things they
say they are fighting against
Political Cartoons on Islamic
Fundamentalism