Radical Islam: How the Islamists Have Manipulated Islam

[Bambino Machievelli]

Contents: 
Introduction 
What is Islam 
The Sunni-Shiite Split 
Shaykh ibn-Taymiyya and Shayh ibn-Abdul Wahhab 
The Islamic Brotherhood 
Al-Qaeda 
Shaykh Hamza Yusuf 
What the Islamic Texts Say 
Conclusion 

  
Introduction 
Islam is a religion that is under attack from both Western media as well as Islamists. An Islamist is a person who uses Islam for their own political gain. Another term that can be used for an Islamist is extremist. The Islamists claim to follow a strict interpretation of the Qur’an, the Sunnah or Hadeeths, and the Seerah. The Sunnah is the sayings of Prophet Muhammad PBUH, the Hadeeths are the written records of these saying, and the Seerah is the overall biography of the life of Prophet Muhammad PBUH. 
Muslims are now categorized within two groups: moderates and extremists. Extremists look at all non-Muslims as Kafirs (Infidels) and believe that all non-Muslims should be subjugated and under their control. Dhimmis (People of the book: Jews and Christians, this has been extended to Hindus and Sikhs in some areas of the world) would have to pay a jizya (tax) for their protection, and that every other group of people should either be made to become Muslim or die. 
There are two scholars whose writings are very influential in shaping the ideologies of the Islamist Extremists: Shaykh Taqi ad-Din ibn-Taymiyyah and Shaykh Muhhamad ibn-Abdul Wahhab. These two historical figures shaped the ideologies of Sayyed Qutb, the founder of Islamic Brotherhood and also Ayman al-Zawahiri and Osama Bin Laden, the founders and two leaders of Al-Qaeda. A look at these two historical scholars is needed in order to understand the time periods in which they lived and why they felt the need to fight in Jihad against foreign occupiers. 
Moderates claim that Islam is peaceful and do not condone the terrorism perpetrated by the Islamist extremists in the name of Islam. The most openly vocal against extremism and terrorism is Shaykh Hamza Yusuf. He is a Malaki Scholar and works tirelessly promoting his version of Islam and openly criticizes the Islamist extremists. Hamza Yusuf says that Islam is a religion of forgiveness and tolerance and says that a Muslim following true Islam would never harm a non-Muslim. 
So who is right and who is wrong? I am going to attempt to answer this question using the Qur’an, Hadeeths, and Seerah. In order to answer this question, one must first know what Islam is. Also, one must understand the origins of the Sunni-Shiite split and the ramifications still being felt today due to this split. 
What is Islam 
The word Islam comes from the root salaam or salaama which means peace. Another root meaning of Islam is submission or submission to Allah SWT. So Islam means obtaining peace through the absolute submission to the Almighty God. Islam was finalized by the Prophet Muhammad PBUH 1400 years ago in the area of Saudi Arabia. He lived in both cities of Mecca and Yathrib (Medina) which is where he was buried. 
The Sunni-Shiite Split 
The Prophet Muhammad was able to do something that was very remarkable. He was able to unite the Arabian Peninsula under one flag which was never achieved previously or since. Upon Muhammad’s PBUH death there was a rift between people who thought that Abu-Bakr RA and people who thought that Ali RA, the son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad PBUH should be the first caliphate or leader of the Muslim world. This difference of opinion has resonated to the modern world and has been the cause of many bloody wars over the past 1400 years culminating in the Iraq-Iran War. Also, Sunnis have made it a sport to blow up Shiite Holy sites and mosques in Iraq and Pakistan. There are also many reports of Shiites reciprocating the violence by sending suicide bombers into Sunni neighborhoods. 
Shaykh Ibn-Taymiyyah and Shaykh ibn-Abdul Wahhab 
Shaykh Ibn Taymiyya (CE 1263-1328) was alive in the area of Turkey during the Time of the Mongolian invasions. He lived under the auspices of a foreign ruler which caused him to want to get back to what he considered the roots of Islam, the Qur’an and Sunnah. He was a Hanbali jurist and was very influential in the ideologies of future Muslims especially the followers of Abdul-Wahhab, Sayyud Qutb, Zawahiri and Bin Laden, as well as the various sects of Salafism and Wahhabism. 
Ibn Taymiyya, due to being under the rule of the Mongols, was a big proponent of his brand of Jihad. Taymiyya said that it is impermissible to live under the tyrannical rule of Kafirs. He felt that Jihad was obligatory and had to be fought by every capable Muslim. He said, “The best of the forms of voluntary service man can devote to God. The Uluma (scholars) of the Islamists agree in proclaiming it superior to the Hajj (pilgrimage) and to the Umra (lesser pilgrimage), as well as to prayer and supererogatory fasts, as is shown in the Book and in the Sunna.” In doing this Ibn Taymiyya gives modern day Islamist extremists’ intellectual justification for performing their version of Jihad. A quote taken from Shaykh inb-Taymiyyah by Zawahiri to justify his ideology is: 
“It is well known and compulsory, based on Islam and the consensus of Muslims, that whoever justifies adherence to something other than Islam, or adherence to a law other than the sharia of Muhammad PBUH, such a one is an infidel-like the infidels who believe in some parts of the Book while disbelieving others.” (Ibrahim, 2007) 
It is this type of reasoning that Qutb and Zawahiri use to call Democracy shirk (associating partners with Allah SWT). They believe that by associating partners by Allah SWT by having a government that is not sharia law that they are either kafirs and did not believe in Allah SWT in the first place or become kafirs by taking themselves out of their religion. 
Shaykh Ibn Wahhab came at the end of the 18th century at a time when the Ottomans were struggling both financially and militarily. The Ottomans at the time had control over the two holy sites, Mecca and Medina. Wahhab made an alliance with the current Saud family which was the catalyst that put them into power. His strict interpretation of Islam based on the teachings of Ibn Taymiyyah has been the catalyst and the rallying cry for Islamists worldwide. Ibn Wahhab felt that people should not follow the scholars of the day and that they should learn on their own. Ibn Wahhab prescribed jihad against the Mushrik (atheists) and had many of the scholars and people from the house (the descendent) of the Prophet Muhammed PBUH murdered, even when he promised them protection. (Attributes of God in Islam, 2002) 
The dangers of learning the religion of Islam on one’s own is very dangerous according to the Malaki scholars. They say that one of the dangers is that the person learning on their own become arrogant and attack other Muslims. Another danger is that the person learning on their own cannot have the wisdom to decipher what the Qur’an means due to the hyperbolic nature of the classical Arabic. One letter, such as the letter ein, has at least seventeen different meanings. (Al-Miraj: Night of Advice, 2004). Also one must have an isnad, which is a chain of narration to the prophet Muhammad PBUH, saying such and such person learned from such and such person, who learned from such and such person, even saying where they learned the hadeeth at all the way back to the prophet. (Garden of the Gnostics, 2003) 

The Islamic Brotherhood 
Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966) was an Egyptian who was educated in the United States. He felt that American women in the 40’s and 50’s were way too promiscuous. He started an organization called the Islamic Brotherhood, which is the grandfather of all of the modern radical Islamic movements. He was heavily influenced by Abdul-Wahhab and Shaykh Ibn-Taymiyyah. When he was in the United States he experienced racism which led to his militancy. He was executed for plotting against the Egyptian government and he hated Democracy. He considered Democracy a form of shirk and went against tawheed. He wrote two books, “In the Shade of the Qur’an” and “Milestones Along the Way.” 
Sayyid Qutb can be seen as the mastermind of the modern era of these different radical Islamist groups. He espoused jihad against the West and Non-Muslims, and even though he was not a scholar and did not have ijazah (certificate which gives permission to teach Islam), and yet people followed and listened to Qutb’s rhetoric. Qutb, who lived in Greeley, CO, a place where alcohol was illegal at that time said about American women: 
“The American girl is well acquainted with her body’s seductive capacity. She knows it lies in the face, and in expressive eyes, and thirsty lips. She knows Seductiveness lies in the round breasts, the full buttocks, and in the shapely thighs, sleek legs – and she shows all this and does not hide it.” (Siegel, 2003) 

Qutb then went on to say that the governments of Egypt and Saudi Arabia were like the Jahaliya (Term meaning ignorant which is used for the pre-Islamic Arabs) and that these two governments needed to be overturned and replaced with a true Islamic government based on what he called the authentic Qur’an and Sunnah. Qutb had four ideas about ignorance and Jihad. He says that only Allah SWT has the right to make laws. Called democracy a false religion, says only shariah can rule the land if it’s an Islamic land, and referred to anyone disagreeing with him as jahaliya. Qutb’s teachings went on to inspire many future Islamists, but none who has had a bigger impact on today’s worldwide affairs then Ayman al-Zawahiri, co-founder of al-Qaeda and mentor to the world’s most notorious terrorist and Islamist, Osama Bin Laden. 
Al-Qaeda 
Al-Qaeda (The Base) is now the model organization that many Islamist groups copy and emulate around the world. Al-Qaeda was created by Osama Bin Laden and Ayman Zawahiri as an organization they claim is devoted to the protection of Islam worldwide and to rid the world of “Zionist Crusaders who are in the Holy Land.” (Ibrahim, 2007) They claim that Israel and the West want to wipe out Islam and also to make the Muslim woman undress. Al-Qaeda is the organization behind the attacks on America’s Twin Towers in NYC on September 11, 2001, and also behind many other terrorist attacks. Al-Qaeda believes it is their duty to rid the world of democracy and calls for the death of any American as well as any Muslim who believes in Democracy. Bin Laden gave the order to his followers, “Kill Americans wherever you find them.” 
Al-Qaeda likes to use the takfiri method of saying they have the authority of kicking people out of the religion for not agreeing with them. The word takfiri comes from the root takfir which means to kick out. Bin Laded is famous for using this tactic. The top Saudi scholars even before 9/11 was telling Saudi citizens not to listen to Bin Laden because he was a danger and was not educated in the religion. He was only a construction worker and does not have ijaza to teach about Islam. Before Bin Laden was the number-one most-wanted terrorist in the world, he was known for being a womanizer who frequented brothels and wasted the money his father sent him for his education on prostitutes, alcohol, and other deviant activities. 
He never started being religious until he helped fund the Afghani mujahedeen (holy warriors) in their jihad against the Soviet Union. It was this experience that went to his head and the power of war seduced him. When he started making connections with Mullah Omar and found that he could be in a position of power this went to his head. He was later introduced to Zawahiri and Zawahiri convinced him to use his money for the undertaking of kicking the United States out of Saudi Arabia. 
A tactic used by al-Qaeda to get Iraqis to fight for them is the fear of the Iraqi person’s family being slaughtered for that individual not complying to al-Qaeda’s terroristic demands. The individual is not nearly as concerned for his own life as he is for his family. Arabs have very strong family ties and strong family values, so this is a method commonly used to force people into terrorism. 
Zawahiri has also called any Muslim who believes in Democracy an apostate-infidel. He says in his writings the Muslim who believes in Democracy, “Is like the one who says about himself, I am a ‘Jewish-Muslim or I am a Christian-Muslim’ the one worse than the other, he is an apostate infidel, and his blood can be spilled.” (Ibrahim, 2007) Zawahiri has also made it permissible to have collateral damage and to destroy buildings, kill unarmed men, the elderly, women, children, animals, all while waging jihad when Allah SWT forbids this in the Qur’an. 


Shaykh Hamza Yusuf 
Shaykh Hamza Yusuf is an American born Muslim scholar that is from the Malaki Fiqh (school of thought). The Malaki Fiqh is a traditional version of Islam based on the teachings of Imam Malik who based what he taught on the practices of the people of Medina. Since Medina was the home of Prophet Muhammad PBUH and his final resting place, Imam Malik felt that the practices of the people of the city of Medina supersedes what other people might have attributed to the Prophet PBUH. This was based on people growing up seeing the Prophet their entire life and knew very well what he really said and how he practiced Islam. 
Hamza Yusuf (1969-present) is the founder and director of the Zaytuna Institute, a Malaki Madrassa (school) in Berkeley, Ca. Not only does Hamza Yusuf have ijaza to teach about Islam, he also has degrees in the Social Sciences and Humanities from San Jose State, U.C. Berkeley, and Stanford. Yusuf’s father is a professor of the Humanities at Stanford University. Yusuf’s parents were active in the civil rights movement in the Bay Area and raised him to appreciate and love everyone regardless of their ethnic or religious background. When Yusuf was seventeen years old, he had a near fatal car accident which made him want to learn about religion. After studying the various religions, he chose Islam as the religion of his choice. Upon his conversion he went to embark on obtaining religious knowledge and has studied all over the world including Spain, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Mauritania. Yusuf has a television show named Journeys which is aired all over the Middle East. He has also advised former President George Bush Jr. on Islamic advisors. He has also advised the Arab League, presidents and other leaders of European nations, been in high level U.N. meetings and is the person who started the now-famous letter to the Pope, “A Common Word, a Love for God and a Lover for Your Neighbor.” He was able to get over 140 Muslim scholars from around the world to sign this declaration which opened up talks between the Pope and the top Muslim Scholars. 
Since 9/11 Shaykh Hamza Yusuf has worked very hard on bringing peace and understanding between the Muslim world and the non-Muslim world. He gives over 200 lectures a year and is in such high demand that unless you are a news agency or a government official, you have to book at least two years in advance to get him for a talk. Even though he is against terrorism and terrorists he refuses to kick them out of the religion by saying he is not allowed to say that they are not Muslim. That his Islam is not their Islam but it is for Allah SWT to judge. (Yusuf, Does God Love War, 2006) He has made many statements against them including, “If they do not like the West, then they can leave.” He refuses to refer to non-Muslims as kafirs saying that this is a form of pseudo-expatiation, and as soon as you start to pseudo-expatiate an entire people, to view them as less than you, then it gives you the right within your own mind to demonize an entire people. (Yusuf, 2006) This demonizing a people will make people feel like they have the right to harm others and is a very dangerous way of thinking. 
What the Islamic Texts Say 
Al-Qaeda loves taking the Qur’an out of context. Zawahiri in his letter to the members of his organization and the Muslims he tries to recruit claims that the Qur’an in 58:22 says: 
“No believer will love an infidel; and whoever does love an infidel is not a believer.” What the Qur’an really says is, “You won’t find anyone who believes in the last day loving anyone opposing God, or God’s Messenger, even if it be their fathers or their sons, or their brothers or their kin.” (Ibrahim, 2007) 

What is meant by this ayat (verse, sign) is not to love your family members, just not to love a family member over loving God if they are opposed to Allah SWT or the Prophet Muhammad PBUH. It is very clear in Islam that you have to obey your parents in all matters, even if they are non-Muslim unless they tell you not to follow your religion. This is made clear in Qur’an 29:8: 
“We have prescribed for man goodness to his parents; but if they strive to get you to associate with me (commit shirk) what you have no knowledge of, then don’t obey them.” (Cleary, 2004) 

Allah SWT makes it very clear in this verse to be good to your parents and to always obey unless it is for committing shirk, which is the only unforgivable sin according to the Islamic tradition. 
Another section of the Qur’an which orders goodness to one’s parents is 31:14-15 which says:
“We have entrusted man with care of his parents: his mother bore him, sapped and weakened, and his weaning takes two years: So be grateful to me and to your parents. The journey is to me. If the two of them strive to have you associate with what you have no knowledge of with Me, then do not obey them. But keep company with them courteously in this world, and follow the path of those who turn to me.” (Cleary, 2004) 

As you can see Allah SWT not only demands you to be good to your parents but to take care of them when you become older. Again Allah SWT says the only thing not to obey your parents in is shirk, and even then commands you to be good to them and to keep your company with them. 
The concept of jihad (struggle) is a concept that is both abused and misunderstood by many people, both in the Muslim world and the West. It is thought to mean Holy War but this not etymologically possible to have this meaning. The word Jihad means struggle. The first meaning is more important and has absolutely no militaristic meaning at all. It is about an inner struggle of doing good and trying not to do wrong. It is ones day to day struggle of abstaining from sin and calling everyone to the good. The second meaning of jihad is a military call by a legitimate government for the removal of belligerence. (Thinking Anew, 2003) The Qur’an is very clear on when jihad can be implicated and when it has to stop. Jihad can only be fought when there is either a non-Muslim entity invading one’s homeland, when a government is not allowing for the Muslims to worship freely, or in protection of your family and property. Once the oppressors have stopped fighting against you then stop fighting against them and do not transgress limits, because Allah SWT does not love those who transgress limits. (Yusuf, 2006) 
One more point that I would like to make before I conclude my paper. For the extremists to say that it is not allowed to love non-Muslims is ridiculous. It is allowed for Muslim men to marry women of the Book. This is very clear. Prophet Muhammad PBUH once said that a Muslim man would have to take his wife to a church and even sit with her if it makes her happy. The Prophet PBUH was very clear to not keep your wife who is from the book from attending her services or worshipping how she sees fit. (The Rights and Responsibilities of Marriage, 2002) How can one be married to a woman of the book, a non-Muslim, and not love her? This goes against basic human nature. 
Conclusion 
Islam is a very controversial topic now. The Islamists have hijacked the religion in order to obtain their own political aspirations and empirical goals. There has been much fighting amongst Islamic groups, and much of this has to do with power and domination and Islam is just the excuse. This is a very real politick way of looking at the bigger picture. Zawahiri has distorted and even ignored what Allah SWT has said in the Qur’an in order to fulfill his narrow vision of what he feels the world ought to be. This is very clear when he ignores what Allah SWT says in the Qur’an about collateral damage and whom not to kill in a jihad. So one could actually argue that listening and obeying Zawahiri would also be a form of shirk and an unforgivable sin. 
Islam commands to be good to parents even if they are non-Muslim. Also, the Prophet Muhammad PBUH commands to take one’s wife, even if she is a non-Muslim to her church service if it will make her happy. I will end this paper by quoting Shaykh Hamza Yusuf who was quoting a hadeeth at a panel discussion that he had in Berkeley with Chris Hedges when he says, “Beware of extremism in religion, because it is extremism in religion that destroyed the people who came before you.” (Yusuf, Does God Love War, 2006) 
  
Bibliography and Works Cited 

Yusuf, H. (Performer). (2004). Al-Miraj: Night of Advice. Berkeley, CA, United States of America. 
Abd-Allah, H. Y. (Performer). (2002). Attributes of God in Islam. Berkeley, CA, United States of America. 
Cleary, T. (2004). The Qur'an: A New Translation. Starlatch Press. 
A-Yaquobi, M. (Performer). (2003). Garden of the Gnostics. Berkeley, CA, United States of America. 
Ibrahim, R. (2007). The Al Qaeda Reader. New York, NY: Broadway Books. 
Siegel, R. (2003, May 6). Sayyid Qutb's America. Retrieved April 17, 2009, from NPR:http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1253796 
Yusuf, H. (Performer). (2002). The Rights and Responsibilities of Marriage. Berkeley, CA, United States of America. 
Yusuf, H. (Performer). (2003). Thinking Anew. Berkeley, CA, United States of America. 
Yusuf, H. (Director). (2006). Does God Love War [Motion Picture].