Finding the Roots of Islamist Extremism: The Radical Ideology of ISIS Has Its Roots in Wahhabi Islam

By Warren Roberts

March 11, 2015

A piece in the op-ed page of the New York Times, “The Education of Jihadi John,” offers valuable insights to a very real problem in the current struggle with ISIS and Jihadism. The author, Maajid Nawaz, is a British-educated Muslim who was himself a Jihadist before he was imprisoned in Egypt for four years. He decided after that experience that he had taken up a cause that went against his Islamic faith. That he is from the same background as Jihadi John, the British-educated Muslim who was photographed beheading prisoners in the self-proclaimed Islamist caliphate, ISIS, gives relevance to his New York Times piece, or so it seems to me.

Nawaz received a university degree at a British college that he says is a well-known hotbed of Islamic extremism. What radicalized him was the genocide of Bosnians in the 1990s, along with white racists in Britain. He is from a Pakistani family that was upwardly mobile and valued education. He was radicalized and alienated himself from the society that gave him advantages that went with being a British citizen. He explains that this is also true of Jihadi John, the ISIS terrorist. Nawaz looks to indoctrination efforts by Islamist extremists in British schools and colleges as a key to understanding the strange phenomenon of educated Muslims in Britain (and other Western countries) joining and fighting for ISIS.

He feels that ISIS is a perversion of his religion, Islam, as it surely is. ISIS and Islamic terrorism in its various forms have compromised ordinary Muslims in Britain and other nations, including America. He feels that to address the Jihadist problem it is necessary to “confront the legitimacy of Islamist discourse at the grass roots.” Presumably, he means centers of learning such as the one where he was indoctrinated with radical Islamist ideology.

Efforts are now under way to cut off funds that have financed ISIS. This is one thing that America can help accomplish, but it cannot win a war against ISIS by sending in troops. This would serve ISIS by giving it a recruiting card. It appears at this stage that this won’t happen. Shiite forces are now trying to take Takrit, the home town of Saddam Hussein. The army is made up largely of combined Iraqi and Iranian forces, which have made it clear that they don’t want American ground forces to join them. This is as it should be. Islamic states are the ones most directly threatened by ISIS.

The problem is complicated by the historic conflict within Islam between Sunni and Shia. The Saudis should join this effort but it is doubtful that they will because the ISIS state is Sunni, as are the Saudis. Indeed, the radical ideology of ISIS has its roots in Wahhabi Islam, which originated in Saudi Arabia in the 18th century and was fostered by schools financed by the Saudis throughout much of the Islamic world in the 20th century.

America’s role in the war against ISIS must be carefully calibrated. We can supply intelligence, help cut off funding to ISIS, and we can send in drone strikes. This should be done with extreme caution. Whenever innocent civilians are killed by drones there is blowback against America. This isn’t our world and we should stay out of it militarily, as much as possible.

The ongoing question of Syria remains. It is arguably the knottiest problem of all. I have no doubt that Bashar al-Assad is culpable for atrocities inflicted on his own people, as reports indicate. Several of my Syrian Christian friends say that they consider Assad Syria’s best bet at least in one respect – he tolerates dissident groups, including Christians. War is messy by definition. War in the Middle East is unusually messy. We should remember that we allied with Saddam Hussein against Iraq when it served our perceived interests. What to do in Syria is a problem that the President, Congress, and diplomats will have to address. There will be differences and denunciations back and forth; we should remember that at least we can have these exchanges. We can also hope that pragmatism, principle, and common sense will find a way to come together, to the extent that this is possible in today‘s overheated and often dysfunctional America.

Source: http://blog.timesunion.com/roberts/finding-the-roots-of-islamist-extremism/990/

URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-terrorism-jihad/finding-roots-islamist-extremism-radical/d/101921