Islam and Terrorism Part 8
by John Shaw
We have addressed history up to this point, but historical facts do not completely explain why things are as they are. It is easy for me to cite historical facts and events. Understanding the history will help us understand the people, but only to a point. There is another aspect that we must understand; we must have some insight into the culture, the traditions that shape the people we are trying to understand. I will attempt to help open that door, if only just a crack, for you to peek through.

It is not simple to explain the cultural differences, and explaining them in a laundry list will not give the reader the insight they need. I am addressing Islamic culture now and would start with the term, “Insha’Allah”. Literally translated as: By the will of God, God willing or if it is Gods will. I would ask the reader to ponder for a moment, the last time they talked to a friend or stranger and agreed to meet again at another time (later in the day, the next day, etc.). Now when you parted, what did you each say: “Bye”, “See you later”, “See you tomorrow”, “We’ll meet at 2 PM”, etc. Can you remember when the last time you invoked the will of God as part of your next business meeting?

While many of us have strong religious beliefs, we seldom invoke God’s will in every conversation. Not so in Islam. In fact, few conversations or even casuals meetings occur without the term, “Insha’Allah” being used. The point I want you to understand is that regardless of how dedicated a Muslim may or may not be, their world is saturated with constant religious reminders. Not only is the language filled with religious expressions, but in almost all areas there is a neighborhood mosque and everyone hears the call to prayers 5 times a day from the minaret. The influence of this lifelong exposure to daily expressions of Islam on the individual’s life cannot be ignored.

First you must understand the social differences. By this I am referring to how societies form and function. We live in a country with a strong government and reasonably effective police. As such, for the average American, they live in relative security (relative to much of the rest of the world). Think for a minute, when you are facing true crises in life, where can and do most of us turn? In most cases we turn to our families. For it is in our families that we know we will find the spiritual, and physical support (assuming we have a functional family). Reflect upon this for a minute: children calling their parents for advice, siblings helping each other, etc.

In many, Islamic countries, the central governments are not capable of providing basic necessities to their populations. There are many reasons for this and there is not space here to address this in detail. My point here is for the reader to understand that in those areas where the central government (or local) is not able to provide basic necessities (Think Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs) like: food, water, shelter, safety; the individual must secure them or die. The individual when faced with starvation or threat of being killed turns to his or her family for safety. In many Islamic countries this is their tribe.

When Saddam ran Iraq, with a strong central government, tribal allegiance was lessened (unless you were in a group he persecuted). When the central government collapsed in Iraq, the population turned to their families (tribes) for security and survival. This occurs to a lesser or greater degree throughout the region and you can expect it to be even more important now given the current Arab Spring as it is called.

Why is this important for us to understand? It addresses the allegiance of the individual and the group. My family (read my tribe) is more important to me than my government for it will be there when the government fails me. When I am in trouble or in danger it is my tribe (family) that will feed and protect me, because my government will not or cannot.

Throughout the Middle-East and much of the Islamic world those living in the countryside live a more conservative or shall I say traditional lifestyle. In many of these countries those who have grown up in larger metropolitan areas Bagdad vs. a small farming village in the country are less inclined to follow all of the traditional rules (we have similar situations here e.g. NYC vs. the Dade City, Fl.). We need to have some idea of what these traditional values (read rules) are because they do impact us here in our immigrant communities.

The status of women is a major issue and often creates great stress and trouble for immigrants here. While Islam teaches respect for women, this should not be considered respect in a 21st Century Western view of respect. I ask the reader to understand that I am making general statements here that apply in varying degrees to different Arab/Islamic countries. As young girls, females are protected but not yet restricted, they are not required to wear veils, etc. Once they reach 11 or 12 years old they will start to wear burqa (covering of head, face and body) and/or higab (head covering). By the early teenage years a female may not leave the house alone unless in the company of a male member of the family. This is often modified as groups of women will go to the market etc.

There is no unsupervised male/female contact except within the family. Depending on the specific customs of the area, and to some degree the tribe, women may be considered as almost chattel property of the father and later the husband. In my opinion, Saudi Arabia and Yemen are the most restrictive/traditional, Iran and Kuwait close and then most of the other countries follow with variations on dress and careers for women. In all cases, typical Western dress is unacceptable (except in the tourist areas). In Saudi Arabia and Iran, religious police actually patrol the streets looking for women who fail to meet the modesty standards. Imagine the reaction of your wife if the police arrested her (and took her to jail) because her dress was not long enough or was too form fitting.

Women’s dress codes were a function of modesty. " Say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty ; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what must ordinarily appear thereof. " [Quran : 24.31] A traditional Islamic interpretation would require a woman to wear clothing that covers all but the face and hands. No clothing that fits close to the body would be allowed. Clothing should not allow the woman’s figure to be identified and cloth must not be thin or transparent. Additionally, no makeup is permitted. In the most traditional, even the face is covered. Covering the face is not out of the Quran, rather it is a cultural tradition within certain groups.

In traditional areas marriages are arranged. A man will have a family member approach the family of an eligible woman to see if the family will consider the match and if the woman is willing. The willingness of the woman to marry the man is supposed to be a key element but that does not mean it always is. In some areas, a female is first offered to the oldest son of her father’s brother (her first cousin) and in order for her to marry anyone else may require the permission of the first cousin (a statement that he is not interested in marriage to her). Remember, until after World War I much of the Arab world consisted of migrating Bedouin tribes. In that world, keeping the wealth (camels, goats, labor, etc) in the family kept the family stronger and better able to defend its grazing and water resources. Inter marriage made the tribe stronger.

Another area not well understood is the issue of marriage (Arabic=Nikah described in the Qur'an in 4:4 ) under Islam. I will only briefly address the issue of marriage here but there are significant differences between Western concepts and Islamic concepts. Nikah is a marriage intended to be permanent, as opposed to a temporary marriage entered into for a specific period called Nikah Mut’ah (Nikah Mut’ah is described in Al-Qur'an in Surah An-Nisa ayat 24, 4:24. This temporary marriage is often disavowed by Sunnis but Shia still accept it as authorized by the Qur’an; there is no financial obligation involved with a temporary wife after the seperation. While not often discussed, it is not uncommon for wealthy gulf Arabs to travel to Lebanon or Egypt during the summer months and have a temporary (temporary is my term) wife for the summer.

It is normally accepted that A Muslim male may have up to four wives at the same time. Temporary wives do not count against the total of four, and divorce is predominately controlled by the men. A man taking an additional wife is required to support all wives in the same manor. In other words, each wife must be provided similar housing, and support. It is not acceptable for a man to take a wife and not support her. In my limited experience, marriage to multiple wives is not as common as it might once have been, but it still exists.

Likewise, in the more traditional practices, a woman may only leave the home with the expressed permission of her father or husband. The older Muslim homes (as one would find in the Arab Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem) are divided into a section where the women remain. This area of the home is not open to visitors (non-family males) and is often screened off. In 2004, when my deputy (I was in a UN job at the time) was a Jordanian, an outstanding, dedicated man, I was invited to his home for dinner. His wife prepared the meal, but remained out of sight and ate in a separate room. It would have been completely unacceptable for her to sit at the same table with her husband and me to eat dinner. As a note, it was perfectly acceptable for his 5 year old daughter to eat with us as she was not considered old enough for the rules of modesty to apply. Quite different from our mores and what we do.

Under Islam, there is no such thing as conversion from Islam. In many Islamic countries, preaching anything but Islam to a Muslim is a criminal act. An American in Egypt was thrown out of the country just a few years ago (abt. 2007) for passing out Christian literature, he was lucky, he could have been jailed. In the more traditional Islamic countries (and under the Quran) conversion for a Muslim (to leave Islam) is a death penalty offense.

Having served alongside a number of Muslim officers both in the Middle-East and in other parts of the world I am well aware of the fallacy of considering Islam as some monolithic entity. Just as all Americans do not think alike or interpret the documents written by our founding fathers in the same way; nor do all Muslims interpret the tenets of Islam in the same way. I caution all readers to truly recognize this. We must understand this or we will play into the hands of the radicals who say we are at war with Islam (a war we do not want).

On one occasion, a number of years ago, sitting in a restaurant (here in the U.S.) with an Arab, Muslim officer we order breakfast, he ordered a ham and cheese omelet. I casually asked him about the ham and he smiled saying, “When I go home I will be a good Muslim.” I do not say this to condemn or judge him. Quite the contrary, he was an intelligent, good man and the issue of pork was not a critical issue of his religious belief. How many Christians go to church on Sunday and on Monday operate in their business life in a manner devoid of Christian principles?

My point in this line of dialogue is to bring the reader to the realization that human nature is the same all around the world. Cultures are different and how we are conditioned to react to things is different. What are not different are the ends to which some people will go to gain: property, wealth, fame or power. Radical Islam is about power not religion in all too many cases. You do not see the key leaders of radical groups executing suicide bombing attacks; they send others to do that work.

At some point in time I must wrap-up this series. It was never my intent to give a complete explanation or course in either Islam or terrorism. I have tried to pick out what are important events in the last 1500 years of Islamic history in the Middle-East. Just as it would be impossible to distill the last 1500 years of Western-European history into a few dozen pages, so it is in the case of Islam and the Middle-East.

I hope that I have been able to educate you the reader on some of the most basic elements that have shaped the modern Middle-East. Inadequate as it is, I hope all have learned something from what I have written. More important, I hope that all seek to build on this and engage in discussions, research, and pay attention to what is going on around us in the world in which we live.

As I stated in the opening of this series, it is not my attention to try to paint all Muslims with the radical brush. I can easily point to examples of Christian or Jewish acts of violence, by organized groups. Those of you old enough to remember Rev. Jim Jones of Jonestown fame knows where the term, “Kool-Aid drinker” came into our vocabulary. Just as we would not all want to be colored with that brush, we should not paint entire groups with the same brush.

There are bad people out there and while not all are bad, we must learn to recognize those who intend us harm. All too often Muslims themselves have paid the greatest price for the actions of radicals Islamist. Different is not by necessity bad, it is just different.

Radical Islamists seek power: governmental, political and social. Since they will make and interpret the rules if and where they gain control, it will be them who wield power in their new order. Make no mistake; it is power that they seek. Like all totalitarian governments, there are no rights for the common man in such a world. Unlike World War II when we fought the good war, clear and in the open; this is a war of ideas and will be more akin to the Cold War with the Soviet Union. We must be prepared for the long haul.

Radical Islamists seek a worldwide Islamic Caliphate. All governments will be run by them (who better to rule than those who created the new state) with their view of justice as the rule for all. Remember what the word Islam means, it means submission to the will of Allah (and thus the Qur’an. Those who will not submit must be eliminated in the view of radical Islam.

“If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.”
- Sun Tzu