Jihadism

In the context of the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York, we openly and morally supported the people of the United States no matter who their leaders were at the time. The trauma and grief of thousands of innocent victims and their families reached the depths of our hearts. But in those dark days we also advised our American friends and contacts (relations with the “gringo” embassy were very fluid then) to refrain from invading Iraq, if at all possible. When we were questioned about the soundness and sincerity of our suggestion, we explained that in Iraq, and in other Muslim countries, there existed a bloody rivalry going back hundreds of years between the Shiites and Sunni, with fundamentalist factions and resurgences on both sides. To support either of the large groups (to dismantle a dangerous, but ineffective government) would stir up a civil war that would start the moment the Americans proclaimed themselves victorious in their military plan. I reminded them verbally and in writing that the ancient Roman Emperor Trajan is said to have cried about how impossible it was to infiltrate and understand the Parthians, that is, the Persians, many centuries before the existence of the Muslim jihad which was started, in a sense, by Muhammad.

In response to our advice, a close American friend asked me what he should do to understand the predicaments of the Near East. I answered him, without thinking twice, that he had to study the history of the region and speak with the intellectuals. He then asked me for the names of these intellectuals. I immediately thought of the Egyptian historian Samir Amin and the Jewish poet Moshe Liba. This friend informed me that the “gringo” country possessed a unit of “experts” in the area. I do not doubt this. But a group of “specialists” who manipulate general trends is one thing, while the meticulous study of the internal history of personal matters concerning human groups settled for centuries in a specific part of this planet is a very different thing. Their experts make many mistakes, sometimes without possible remedy, by ignoring the impartial opinions of good historians and intellectuals who think in an integral manner. An appropriate book that will familiarize you with the problems unleashed by the jihadi in the Near East and in other regions is “Fitna, War in the Heart of Islam” by Gilles Kepel. Another interesting book is by the late Benazir Bhutto, titled “Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West.” We must not forget that this Pakistani politician, a moderate Muslim and prime minister of Pakistan, was assassinated in 2007 by extremist groups within her own religion. You should also begin to read the Quran to understand the branches of intolerance and fatal warmongering that come from certain jihadi groups during different historical moments. No Western thinkers, including Wilhelm Hegel, Martin Heidegger, or anyone else, achieved a complete understanding of the complexity of the Islamic world. I mention certain Western writers, but it should be acknowledged that in the Near East, there exist philosophers and poets linked to the Islamic religion who, nevertheless, were able to detach themselves from fundamentalism. For now I only wish to mention the philosophers Al-Farabi, Ibn Arabi, Avicenna and the translator Averroes, who was trained without prejudice in the teachings of Aristotle. He was also trained, in an Aristotelian manner, in the teaching of the theologian and Catholic philosopher Saint Thomas of Aquinas. (The previous case of the theologian, philosopher and Jewish doctor Moshe Maimonides is analogous, but at the same time different).

Our American friends should never have invaded the territory of Iraq absent a matter concerning life or death. But once they invaded, they should have never abandoned their potential Iraqi allies until they could consolidate a democracy that fully included Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds, Christians and secular groups. Abandoning Iraq left an enormous void, allowing the so-called new “caliphate” of the most ferocious jihadi to emerge. The supposed descendants of the caliphs have traditionally been intolerable. They hate Christians to death, whether they are Catholics or other Christian groups, for setting up a massive and strong religion in the Western world. But following this logic to the point of absurdity, the Muslim extremists (and other unbalanced Western extremists) hate the Christians because Jesus Christ was Jewish. And the first followers of Jesus, with rare exceptions, were also Jewish.

It has been known since ancient times that sophisticated technology notwithstanding, final battles are won by foot soldiers. Without any infantry to combat the new jihadi caliphate, the possibilities of a real victory are very remote. This is the moment for the United States to disassociate itself a little from the theory of “strong intelligence” and subscribe to a more realistic theory with respect to the Near East and other parts of the world.