{"id":6,"date":"2002-06-20T16:24:36","date_gmt":"2002-06-20T21:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=6"},"modified":"2002-06-20T16:24:36","modified_gmt":"2002-06-20T21:24:36","slug":"what-al-qaeda-wants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/?p=6","title":{"rendered":"What Al-Qaeda wants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>(Second in a series.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In a <a href=\"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?m=200206#48\">The<br \/>\nMirage of Moderate Islam<\/a>, I have described the Koranic roots of<br \/>\nIslamic fanaticism, and observed that Osama bin Laden&#8217;s terror war on<br \/>\nthe west is part of a recurring pattern of fundamentalist revival<br \/>\nassociated with jihad in Islamic history.<\/p>\n<p>In this essay, I&#8217;ll get more specific about what Osama bin Laden is<br \/>\nreally after.  In the process, it will become clear why Arab-world<br \/>\ngovernments are so frightened of him.<\/p>\n<p>The first thing to understand is that Osama bin Laden is neither<br \/>\ncrazy nor stupid.  He is a very intelligent, educated, visionary man<br \/>\nwho is operating from deep within the Islamic worldview.  He&#8217;s trying<br \/>\nto do on a global scale what the Ayatollah Khomeini did in Iran in<br \/>\n1979; he&#8217;s bucking for the job of Caliph of Islam (&#8220;Khalifa&#8221; in<br \/>\nArabic).<\/p>\n<p>The position of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usc.edu\/dept\/MSA\/politics\/khalifa.html\">Khalifa<\/a><br \/>\nhas been vacant since the last Padishah Emperor of the Ottoman Empire<br \/>\nwas deposed in 1924, when the British and French broke up the Empire<br \/>\nafter it picked the wrong side in World War One.  Before that, the<br \/>\nCaliph was in theory both the supreme temporal and spiritual ruler<br \/>\nof the Islamic world.<\/p>\n<p>I say &#8220;in theory&#8221; because the Caliph&#8217;s actual authority varied<br \/>\nconsiderably.  In the early centuries of Islam, during the initial<br \/>\nexpansionary phase of the Empire, it was absolute &#8212; in European<br \/>\nterms, as though Charlemagne or Napoleon were also the Pope.  It<br \/>\ntended to decrease over time as the increasing size of the Islamic<br \/>\nempire led to political fragmentation.  Independent emirs swore<br \/>\nnominal fealty to the Caliph and accepted his symbolic authority<br \/>\nin religious matters, while otherwise behaving as sovereigns. An<br \/>\nable Caliph backed by strong armies could buck this disintegrative<br \/>\ntrend and make the allegiance of the emirs more than nominal.  Eventually<br \/>\nemperors of the Ottoman Turks collected this title, and gathered most<br \/>\nof the Islamic world under their sway.  But the Ottoman Empire had been in<br \/>\ndecline for four centuries by 1924, and the title of Caliph had<br \/>\nbecome almost meaningless.<\/p>\n<p>One of the signature traits of Islamic revivalism is nostalgia for<br \/>\nthe halcyon days of Islamic expansion, when the Caliph was the<br \/>\nundisputed Arm of Allah and there was plenty of plunder and rapine<br \/>\nto go around as the armies of God smote the infidel and claimed<br \/>\nnew lands for the Dar-al-Islam.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s where we cue the ominous theme music. It is part of Islamic<br \/>\ntradition that the title of Khalifa may be attained by conquest if the<br \/>\nincumbent is not fulfilling his duties &#8212; or if there is no incumbent.<br \/>\nUnder shari&#8217;a law and hadith, the umma (the consultative assembly of<br \/>\nthe elders of Islam) is <em>required<\/em> to recognize as Khalifa<br \/>\nanyone who is able to fulfill the duties of the position and<br \/>\ndemonstrates the sanction of Allah by mobilizing the Dar-al-Islam in<br \/>\nsuccessful jihad.  Jihad, here, is interpreted broadly; a war of<br \/>\nconsolidation that united a substantial portion of the Dar-al-Islam<br \/>\nunder a fundamentalist Islamic theocracy would do it. <\/p>\n<p>In other words, since 1924 the position of Caliph has been waiting<br \/>\nfor a Man on Horseback.  Or, for you science-fiction fans out there, a<br \/>\nMuad&#8217;Dib.  The Ayatollah Khomeini could never quite make this nut;<br \/>\nfirst, because he was not a plausible warlord, and second because he&#8217;s<br \/>\npart of the 10% Shi&#8217;a minority branch that disputes the Khalifal<br \/>\nsuccession.  The next Caliph, if there is one, will have to belong to<br \/>\nthe 90% Sunni majority.<\/p>\n<p>Osama bin Laden has behaved precisely as though he intends to fill<br \/>\nthat role.  And in doing so, he has frightened the crap out of the<br \/>\nrulers of the Arab world.  Because he&#8217;s played his religious and<br \/>\npropaganda cards very well in Islamic terms, barring the detail that<br \/>\nhe may well be dead and buried under rubble in an Afghan cave.<\/p>\n<p>On 9\/11, bin Laden took jihad to the symbolic heart of the West<br \/>\nmore effectively than any Islamic ruler has managed since the Siege of<br \/>\nVienna was broken in 1683.  By doing so he caught Arab rulers<br \/>\n(especially the Saudis) in a neat theo-political trap.  They have been<br \/>\nencouraging hatred of Israel and the West, and hyping the jihadist<br \/>\nmythology of fundamentalist Islam, as a way of diverting popular anger<br \/>\nthat might otherwise focus on their own corrupt and repressive<br \/>\nregimes.  But Bin Laden has trumped and beaten them at this game.  He<br \/>\nhas acted out the Koranic duty of jihad in a way they never dared &#8212;<br \/>\nand in doing so, seized the religious high ground.<\/p>\n<p>The sheikhs and ayatollahs now have a dilemma.  If they support<br \/>\njihadism, they must either start a war against the West they know they<br \/>\ncannot win or cede their own legitimacy to the Caliph-claimant who is<br \/>\nleading the jihad.  But if they come out against jihad, bin Laden or<br \/>\nhis successor can de-legitimitize them simply by pointing to the<br \/>\nKoran.  The possibility that the semi-mythical &#8220;Arab street&#8221; would<br \/>\nrevolt behind local Khomeini-equivalents hot to join al-Qaeda&#8217;s jihad is<br \/>\nquite real.<\/p>\n<p>Let the last word go to the mentor of Osama bin Laden, Sheik<br \/>\nAbdullah Azzam: &#8220;Jihad must not be abandoned until Allah alone is<br \/>\nworshipped by mankind&#8230;Jihad and the rifle alone&#8230;no negotiations,<br \/>\nno conferences and no dialogue.&#8221;  The Palestinians are, as usual,<br \/>\ndisposable pawns in a larger game.  The objective of al-Qaeda&#8217;s game<br \/>\nis to follow the Koranic blueprint to its logical conclusion; global<br \/>\njihad, a second age of conversion by the sword, the destruction of the<br \/>\nWest, and the establishment of a global Islamic theocracy.<\/p>\n<p>Osama bin Laden himself may be dead now.  Unfortunately, this<br \/>\ndoesn&#8217;t necessarily stop the game, because his body hasn&#8217;t been found.<br \/>\nThe Twelfth Imam of Shi&#8217;a disappeared under mysterious circumstances<br \/>\nin 941CE; persons claiming to be him and calling the faithful to jihad<br \/>\nemerged at intervals for a thousand years afterwards, the most recent<br \/>\none being the Mahdi who led an anti-British revolt in Egypt in 1899.<br \/>\nIf the jihadist tendency in Islam is not confronted and destroyed,<br \/>\nOsama bin Laden could haunt the West for a thousand years.<\/p>\n<p><em>(To be continued&#8230;)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/enetation.co.uk\/comments.php?user=esr&amp;commentid=77964879\">Blogspot comments<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Second in a series.) In a The Mirage of Moderate Islam, I have described the Koranic roots of Islamic fanaticism, and observed that Osama bin Laden&#8217;s terror war on the west is part of a recurring pattern of fundamentalist revival associated with jihad in Islamic history. In this essay, I&#8217;ll get more specific about what&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/?p=6\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">What Al-Qaeda wants<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-terror","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/esr.ibiblio.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}