Jihad Joe_ Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam - J. M. Berger [112]
Modern jihad presents a clear threat to the national interest of the United States and to the safety of its citizens at home and abroad, as well as to countless innocent civilians of other nations. These countries include Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and Somalia, where Sunni extremists have targeted Shia Muslims, other Muslim sects they consider to be apostate, and any Muslim of any sect who dares take a stand against them.
We cannot interdict the behavior of individuals or popular masses on a global scale, but we can and must deal with the problem when it strikes closest to home. American jihadists present a unique threat to their homeland. Understanding the problem is the first step toward finding solutions.
The observations that follow pertain to the specific, peculiarly American path to jihad. On the global level, the question of radicalization and jihadism is more complex and interwoven with local political and cultural issues, but some of these points still apply.
PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN JIHADIST
Many jihadist ideologues are motivated by the desire to recreate some form of Islamic caliphate in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and elsewhere in the Eastern hemisphere, whether regionally or in individual countries. Others seek to expand that caliphate on a global scale, with the intent to absorb Western society into a world-spanning Islamic state ruled by a strict, often brutal, interpretation of the shariah (Islamic law).
Although such motives have a place in public discourse concerning global policy, they are nearly irrelevant to the question of radicalization, especially the radicalization of Americans. Those who take up the jihadist path often end up embracing such global ambitions at a later stage, but very few Americans simply wake up one morning with a desire to impose shariah on the world.
Radicalization starts most often quietly and usually with a specific grievance. Many elements lead American Muslims to take up the banner of jihad, and some of these will be examined in the following passages, but the first element is almost always the same.
Whatever else lies in their hearts, virtually all American jihadists share an urgent feeling that Muslims are under attack. The most important religious and political justifications for jihad are based on the idea of self-defense, striking back against aggressors and protecting the members of the global Muslim community, known in Arabic as the Ummah.
Therein lies a sticky, painful problem. The narrative of Muslim victimization does not originate with al Qaeda. It is a pervasive theme that is deeply entrenched in mainstream Muslim thought, both in America and abroad.
In preparing for this book, I read nearly two hundred issues of the monthly English-language magazine published by the Saudi-supported Muslim World League, arguably the single most influential Muslim organization in the world. Month after month, the magazine trumpets the alarm: Islam is under attack from enemies everywhere. Islam is misunderstood because of vicious lies by its enemies. Muslims are persecuted and discriminated against on the global stage and in individual countries.
This isn’t only a Saudi predilection. It can be found, to a greater and lesser extent, around the world. In the United States, the most visible example is the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit whose daily e-mail newsletter enumerates grievance after grievance, from workplace discrimination to alleged hate crimes, which can be anything from a nasty word to murder or arson. CAIR’s message is more carefully calibrated than that of the MWL, but it contributes to the echo chamber.
Some of the specific complaints aired by both organizations are entirely valid. Muslims in the United States and around the world suffer their share of travails and persecution,