In the West, it’s fashionable to say that Islam has been hijacked by violent extremists.
Many even say that terror groups have nothing to do with religion, let alone Islam. President Bush called Islam a “religion of peace.” President Obama says the “Islamic State” isn’t really Islamic.
Yet when we look carefully at the Muslim world’s top religious leaders in their dueling spiritual capitals of Mecca and Tehran, their views are hiding in plain sight. If Islam has been hijacked, it starts at the top.
How so?
Because those spiritual leaders collectively preach hatred and intolerance of infidels, sanction medieval brutality such as beheading alleged criminals in Saudi Arabia and hanging gays in Iran, plus enslaving women and girls as second class citizens. Generations of Saudis have been educated with descriptions of Christians and Jews as apes and pigs. Generations of Iranians are taught that the U.S. is the “Great Satan.”
Ruling clerics like the Saudi Grand Mufti and Iranian Ayatollah would just tell you they’re following the Koran. Literally. Straight out of the 7th century.
If this medieval mentality was only confined to Saudi Arabia and Iran, perhaps it could be contained. But it’s not. Both sides have been exporting their competing extremist versions of Sunni and Shia Islam since the 1970s — to the tune of well over $100 billion from the Saudi side alone. They have transformed the Middle East and beyond. It’s led to a mass extinction of human rights across the globe.
It’s when radical Islam-inspired terror groups began to multiply, picking up on the trail started by the Muslim Brotherhood in 1920s Egypt. Flush with oil fortunes, Saudis and other Gulf State Sunnis following the strict code of Wahhabism funded Madrassas teaching boys just the Koran in places like Afghanistan and Pakistan. Women in most of the Muslim world had been making progress towards equality — but thanks to hardline Mecca-inspired clerics, were forced backwards to conform to Saudi cultural norms.
Just take a look at the photos of the 1970s in places like Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan and even Iran. They used to wear Western attire, including dresses and skirts. They’ve since traded them for hijabs, niqabs, and burqas. And if the Saudis completely had their way, they wouldn’t drive or leave the house without a male relative either.
But it’s not just about fashion statements or other personal freedoms.
The hardline form of Islam is fueling a war on civilization itself, killing tens of thousands a year and destroying entire societies. According to the Global Terrorism Index 2014 report, there were 10,000 terrorist attacks resulting in nearly 18,000 deaths in 2013. Most of those came from 4 groups… the Islamic State, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram and the Taliban. All radical Islam-inspired terror networks.
While their ranks include psychopaths, thrill seekers and rebels looking for a cause, they are united by a common ideology that they believe gives their depravity some legitimacy. And if this life is a miserable failure, what better way to go out as a martyr for pleasures promised in the afterlife.
Sure, they are death cults. But the hardcore ideology fueling their depravity is straight out of Islam’s two spiritual capitals. Blessed at the top.
So when do peaceful Muslims rise up against the ruling class in Saudi Arabia and Iran to reform their religion? When is the Million Muslim March on Mecca and Tehran?
Where is their Martin Luther? Or modern day champions of human rights and liberty, like Martin Luther King, Jr. or Mahatma Gandhi?
It’s understandable how countless among today’s 1.6 billion Muslims would try to avert their eyes, make excuses, or just blame someone else. The truth is often too painful to bear. Including for many Western progressives, who would rather seek moral equivalence by dwelling on Christian-world past sins, centuries ago.
Yet instead of making excuses for jihadists, labeling them as “un-Islamic” or trying to character assassinate anyone who doesn’t agree as “Islamophobic,” humanity would be better served by supporting moderate Muslims who believe in peaceful co-existence, not conquest. Fixing the root causes of today’s Islamic extremism is a much more effective strategy than simply battling the ever growing number of terror groups, and a better use of energies than trying to shame Western governments into risk-filled refugee quotas.
Denying the roots of today’s global terrorism epidemic or blaming others won’t make it go away, just lead to more death and destruction. Like moderate Muslims say, their religion needs a reformation. Well, it’s time to get started.
J.D. Gordon is a retired Navy Commander and former Pentagon spokesman who served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 2005-2009.
