No, it is not the foreign policy that is to be blamed for Islamist terror
For as long as Islamist terror has plagued the entire globe, the Left has adopted an apologetic stance towards it.
Rather than admitting that Islamist terrorists are inspired by a certain view of Islam and carry out such acts in the name of Islam, the Left has always diverted our attention towards the foreign policy of the Western states or towards other lame excuses. As per the Left, Isis murdering innocent people in Iraq in the name of Islam has everything to do with the Iraq war but nothing to do with the fact that it feels that it is a religious directive. The rise of Isis is also often associated with the invasion of Iraq and therefore all the ruthless acts of Isis are blamed on the West rather than the Islamic interpretation Isis adheres to. According to the Left, terrorist attacks committed against Western people are due to grievances of Muslims over Western policies in Middle East.
This argument of the Left is extremely weak, even ludicrous. They have made a grave error in their understanding of the very ideology of such extremists. Islamist terrorists do not bomb the West in response to Western policies, they bomb because they believe that Sharia must dominate and these states must be run according to Islamic jurisprudence. If terrorist attacks committed against Western people are rooted in Muslim vindictiveness toward the West, then logically only Westerners would fall victim, but this is not the case. In fact Islamists have killed more Muslims than non-Muslims. Just in Pakistan alone, nearly 50,000 people have been killed by extremists since 9/11. Why are Muslims being targeted by Islamists if Western foreign policy is the cause of their anger? What role did Shias and Ahmadis in Pakistan or Coptic Christians in Egypt or Yazidi women in Iraq ever play in forging Western foreign policy? Why are these communities the prime victims of Islamist terrorism? This shows that Islamists do not hate the West because of what its policies are, they hate the West because it doesn’t agree with their viewpoint. And the West is not singled out; they also hate all Muslims who do not conform to their interpretation of Islam.
This is why it is important to distinguish Islamists from the rest of Muslims. Islamists are those Muslims who follow Islamism, a totalitarian interpretation of Islam that seeks hegemony over the entire world and legitimizes the imposition of a certain view of Islam on any community, whether Muslim or non-Muslims. Unlike a normal Muslim, an Islamist believes that the very essence of Islam lies in its political doctrine. Not all Muslims are Islamists but every Islamist believes in this version of Islam (and hence is a Muslim).
Hassan al-Banna, Sayyid Qutb and Maududi were the spearheads of Political Islam in the 20th century. Explaining the political and totalitarian nature of Islam, Hassan al-Banna (the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood) said:
“It is the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be dominated, to impose its laws on all nations and extend its power to the entire planet”.
Sayyid Qutb, another prominent leader of Muslim brotherhood and mentor of Osama Bin Laden, wrote in his book Milestone:
“The abolition of man-made laws cannot be achieved only through preaching. Those who have usurped the authority of God and are oppressing God’s creatures are not going to give up their power merely through preaching” (Indicating towards Global Jihad).
Do these statements suggest that Sayyid Qutb and Hassan al-Banna were aggrieved by Western policies? Absolutely not. They only reflect that these men interpreted Islam in a violent and authoritarian manner. They would have done the same thing with or without any Western intervention in Middle East.
If Western policies were the cause of Islamist terrorism, then why don’t we witness the same phenomenon being exhibited by the Vietnamese who too were a victim of America’s intervention? Why don’t Japanese go around killing innocent Americans in response to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Why are only Muslims creating such a havoc on a global scale? If Western intervention is the only reason behind Islamic terrorism then why is Sweden, a country that has never been a part of NATO, also a victim of extremism?
The fact is that the Left and the majority of Muslims are in denial about the facts with regard to radical Islam. Islamophobe is the label one receives if he /she dares to say that these terrorists are scripturally motivated and follow a specific brand of Islam. But as Aldous Huxley famously remarked: “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored”. One may ignore the facts but that would only come to haunt you. The Left’s denial of radical Islam has enabled it in our societies and as a result Islamist terrorism is on the rise. It will continue to do so unless we acknowledge that radical Islam is “a form of Islam” that needs to be countered.