THE ENEMY WITHIN
جهاد
Jihad - an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims.
In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle".
Within the context of Islam it refers to struggle against those who do not believe in Islamic God (Allah).
It is based on the definitions provided in the Quran.
2:190 'Fight in the way of Allah those who fight you but do not transgress. Indeed. Allah does not like transgressors.'
2:191 'And kill them wherever you overtake them and expel them from wherever they have expelled you, and fitnah is worse than killing. And do not fight them at al-Masjid al- Haram until they fight you there. But if they fight you, then kill them. Such is the recompense of the disbelievers'.
2:193 'Fight them until there is no more fitnah and until worship is acknowledged to be for Allah.'
Jihad is commonly misunderstood as "Holy War", Jihad means "to struggle in the way of Allah".
Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God (al-jihad fi sabil Allah)".
A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is mujahideen.
Jihad is an important religious duty for Muslims.
A minority among the Sunni scholars sometimes refer to this duty as the sixth pillar of Islam, though it occupies no such official status.
In Twelver Shi'a Islam, however, Jihad is one of the 10 Practices of the Religion.
There are two commonly accepted meanings of jihad: an inner spiritual struggle and an outer physical struggle.
The "greater jihad" is the inner struggle by a believer to fulfill his religious duties.
The "lesser jihad" is the physical struggle against those who reject Islam.
This physical struggle can take a violent form or a non-violent form. The proponents of the violent form translate jihad as "holy war".
Origins
The beginnings of Jihad are traced back to the words and actions of Muhammad and the Quran.
This encourages the use of Jihad against non-Muslims
(Jihad bil Saif)
The primary aim of jihad as warfare is not the conversion of non-Muslims to Islam by force, but rather the expansion and defense of the Islamic state.
In the classical manuals of Islamic jurisprudence, the rules associated with armed warfare are covered at great length.
Such rules include not killing women, children and non-combatants, as well as not damaging cultivated or residential areas.
More recently, modern Muslims have tried to re-interpret the Islamic sources, stressing that Jihad is essentially defensive warfare aimed at protecting Muslims and Islam.
Although some Islamic scholars have differed on the implementation of Jihad, there is consensus amongst them that the concept of jihad will always include armed struggle.
إسلام سياسي
Islamism
Islamism is a controversial neologism, and definitions of it sometimes vary.
Leading Islamist thinkers emphasize the implementation of Sharia (Islamic law); of pan-Islamic political unity; and of the selective removal of non-Muslim, particularly Western military, economic, political, social, or cultural influences in the Muslim world that they believe to be incompatible with Islam.
Many of those described as "Islamists" oppose the use of the term, and claim that their political beliefs and goals are simply an expression of Islamic religious belief.
Central figures of modern Islamism include Jamal-al-Din al-Afghani, Muhammad 'Abduh, Rashid Rida, Muhammad Iqbal, Muhammad Asad, Sayyid Qutb, Hasan al-Banna, Abul Ala Maududi, Said Nursî, Taqiuddin al-Nabhani, Ruhollah Khomeini, Ali Shariati, Navvab Safavi, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, and Rashid al-Ghannushi.
Islamism has been defined as:
"the belief that Islam should guide social and political as well as personal life",
"the [Islamic] ideology that guides society as a whole and that teaches law must be in conformity with the Islamic sharia",
an Islamic "movement that seeks cultural differentiation from the West and reconnection with the pre-colonial symbolic universe",
"the organised political trend, owing its modern origin to the founding of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in 1928, that seeks to solve modern political problems by reference to Muslim texts",
"the whole body of thought which seeks to invest society with Islam",
A major division within Islamism is between the fundamentalist "guardians of the tradition" of the Salafism or Wahhabi movement, and the "vanguard of change and Islamic reform" centered on the Muslim Brotherhood.
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| Sayyid Qutb |
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| Milestones Sayyid Qutb |
Qutb believed things had reached such a state that the Muslim community had literally ceased to exist.
It "has been extinct for a few centuries," having reverted to Godless ignorance (Jahiliyya).
To eliminate jahiliyya, Qutb argued Sharia, or Islamic law, must be established. Sharia law was not only accessible to humans and essential to the existence of Islam, but also all-encompassing, precluding "evil and corrupt" non-Islamic ideologies like communism, nationalism, or secular democracy.
Qutb preached that Muslims must engage in a two-pronged attack of converting individuals through preaching Islam peacefully and also waging militant jihad to forcibly eliminate the "power structures" of Jahiliyya – not only from the Islamic homeland but from the face of the earth.
Qutb was both a member of the brotherhood and enormously influential in the Muslim world at large.
Qutb is considered by some to be "the founding father and leading theoretician" of modern jihadis, such as Osama bin Laden.
كفّار
Kafir
Kafir (kāfir, plural كفّار kuffār) is an Muslim Arabic term used in an Islamic doctrinal sense, usually translated as "unbeliever," "disbeliever," or "infidel."
The term refers to a person who rejects God in Islam or who hides, denies, or covers the "islamic truth."
482 derivations of the K-F-R root occur in the Qur'an, testifying to the importance of the concept of kufr.
In the structure of Islamic thought, kufr represents all things unacceptable and offensive to God (Allāh).
In its most fundamental sense in the Qur'an, kufr means "ingratitude," however the Qur'an contains numerous verses in which more detailed definitions are provided; the kafir is referred to as:
Odious: "(Such) as dispute about the signs of God, without any authority that hath reached them. Grievous and odious (is such conduct) in the sight of God and of the Believers." [40: 35]
Mocked: "But on this Day the Believers will laugh at the Unbelievers." [83: 34]
Punished: "But ye have indeed rejected Him, and soon will come the inevitable punishment !" [25: 77]
Terrorized: "Remember when your Lord inspired to the angels, "I am with you, so strengthen those who have believed. I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieved, so strike [them] upon the necks and strike from them every fingertip."" [8: 12]
Destroyed: "Of the wrong-doers the last was remnant was cut off. Praise be to God, the Cherisher of the Worlds." [6: 45]
Slain: "You will find others who wish to obtain security from you and to obtain security from their people. Every time they are returned to the influence of disbelief, they fall back into it. So if they do not withdraw from you or offer you peace or restrain their hands, then seize them and kill them wherever you overtake them. And those - We have made for you against them a clear authorization." [4: 91]
Crucified: "Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth to cause corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land. That is for them a disgrace in this world; and for them in the Hereafter is a great punishment." [5: 33]
Evil: "Say thou: 'Yea, and ye shall then be humiliated (on account of your evil)." [37: 18]
Cursed: "Accursed wherever they are found, being seized and massacred completely." [33: 61]
حَرَام
Ḥarām
Ḥarām (حَرَام ḥarām) is an Arabic term meaning sinful.
In Islamic Jurisprudence, haraam is used to refer to any act that is forbidden by God, and is one of five الأحكام الجمسة (al-ahkam al-khamsah) that define the morality of human action.
Acts that are haraam are typically prohibited in the religious texts of the Quran and the Sunnah. The category of haraam is the highest status of prohibition.
Actions that are haraam result in punishment, and is therefore considered a sin if carried out by a Muslim - or against a Muslim
Islam teaches that a haraam (sinful) act is recorded by an angel on your left shoulder.
An Islamic principle related to haraam is that if something is prohibited, then anything that leads to it is also considered haraam.
A similar principle is that the sin of haraam is not limited to the person who engaged in the prohibited activity, but the sin also extends to others who supported the person in the activity, whether it be material or moral support.
If something is considered haraam, it remains prohibited no matter how good the intention or how honorable the purpose.
It is not possible for a Muslim to commit an act that is Ḥarām against a Kafir.
So it is possible for a Muslim to lie, cheat, steal, commit sexual acts,injure or murder with regard to kafirs - and usually this is required - in line with the injunction in the Quran.
2:193 'Fight them until there is no more fitnah and until worship is acknowledged to be for Allah.'
The statement by the Muslim Council of Britain, stating that the killing of a non-Muslim in Woolwich on 22nd May 2013 had "no basis in Islam" is therefore delusive.
It must be remembered that Muslims find no problem in dissimulating when interacting with kafirs.
We are therefore left with the problem of how many Muslims in the United Kingdom sympathise or support the actions of Islamists such as those involved in the Woolwich incident.