The Mind of Jihad
Laurent Murawiec
Language: English
Pages: 376
ISBN: 0521730635
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
This book examines contemporary jihad as a cult of violence and power. All jihadi groups, whether Shiite or Sunni, Arab or not, are characterized by a similar bloodlust. Murawiec characterizes this belief structure as identical to that of Europe's medieval millenarians and apocalyptics, arguing that both jihadis and their European cousins shared in a Gnostic ideology: a God-given mission endowed the Elect with supernatural powers and placed them above the common law of mankind. Although the ideology of jihad is essentially Islamic, Murawiec traces the political technologies used by modern jihad to the Bolsheviks. Their doctrines of terror as a system of rule were appropriated by radical Islam through multiple lines of communication. This book brings history, anthropology, and theology to bear to understand the mind of jihad that has declared war on the West and the world.
The Last Refuge: Yemen, al-Qaeda, and America's War in Arabia
Taliban: The True Story of the World's Most Feared Fighting Force
Domestic Terrorism (Roots of Terrorism)
My Guantanamo Diary: The Detainees and the Stories They Told Me
Nuclear Iran: The Birth of an Atomic State
desire for good food and drink, to have a home, a desire for love and sex, to protect and be protected and to be successful and strong. Without some form of control and limit, all of these legitimate motives could prove very dangerous. So what constitutes the perfect control for the Fitrah? It must be a method that provides an organized yet practical demonstration of how to balance all these natural human desires. It cannot be something that goes against the Fitrah, by placing on it extra
deal with their common plight was to form a salvationist group under a messianic leader.23 Defrocked and fugitive priests and monks, semiliterate artisans, and sometimes ambitious noblemen led the crowds by dint of personal charisma, eloquence, “commanding bearing and . . . personal magnetism.”24 These men who saw themselves as “vessels for the divinity” inspired complete devotion, as if they were the vessel of all the emotions projected by their followers. Joining the eschatological mission of
insubordination.”56 Of course, it was the ruler’s destiny to rule the entire world, on God’s behalf. He was anointed king of the New Jerusalem and designated the real Messiah: Now I am given power over all nations of the earth, and the right to use the sword to the confusion of the wicked and in defense of the righteous. So let no one in this town stain himself with crime or resist the will of God or he shall without delay be put to death with the sword.57 Unsurprisingly, the official mottos
A canonical hadith states: “If only one day were left in the world, God would lengthen that day to send a man from my [Muhammad’s] descendents who would fill the earth with justice and righteousness, just as it has been filled with injustice and iniquity.” This is “a revolutionary statement indicating the end of the rule of Muslim tyrants before the end of the world. . . . There will be a day of earthly vengeance, when the Muslim community, aided by God and led by His agent, the Mahdi, will
logic is based on the self-same logic. Infidels are banned from entering the haram (“the forbidden”), which is at the core of Islam, and its immediate peripheries, variously defined as the Holy Places, al Haramayn only, or extended to the entire Arabic Peninsula. From dar al-Islam to dar al-Harb, the intermediate circles are but shades leading from white to black, from Good to Evil, from our tribe to their tribes – me, my brother, my cousins, the others. The concentric circles represent something
