Does Militant Islam Have Any Scope Of Success In An Armed Confrontation With The West?

By Dr. Mohammad Ghitreef, New Age Islam 18 February 2025 Main Points: 1- Militant Islam finds its roots, justification, and excuse in the prevalent religious and Fiqhi Takfiri tradition in most Muslim societies worldwide. 2-We cannot rid of this menace without rethinking our religious legacy and revisiting certain texts of the Quran and Hadees. 3-History tells us that Muslims often have lost their properties as a result of inadequate strategies and emotionally charged narratives. 4- Near past Muslim history tells us that there is no scope for armed confrontation with the West. …………….. Militant Islam is a rather new phenomenon. It is nourished on the literal meaning of selected texts of the Quran and Hadees. It heavily relies on the old jurisprudential interpretations of those texts and often employs them out of context. The literal interpretation of injunctions related to, say, Jihad, war with infidels, and their legal position. This thinking of Islamic dominance is deeply rooted in the nostalgic memory of our Ulama and theologians who practically live in those times of Islamic political glory following the advent of Islam in the seventh century. Very often they find a great help for their perception of religious thought which is still taught literally as it is in our madrasas, seminaries and centres of religious learning, without giving them a proper context. That is why Muslim Ulama still are daydreaming about turning to those bygone ages and getting back that dominance once again. They still love to have slaves and slave girls because they have read and taught the Ahkam of Zimmies, the injunctions related to slaves and slave girls. Ulama and religious leaders justify them and believe in them literally. They neither themselves develop an updated and a more relevant jurisprudential understanding of Islamic Fiqh nor allow others to do so. And therefore, when they encounter extremists and militants, they do not find any satisfactory answers to give and resort to hypocritical gimmicks. The fact of the matter is that on theoretical grounds, most of the Ulama and militant ideologues are on the same page, which is why they seldom utter words of condemnation of their heinous criminal acts of violence. Yet militancy is no longer relevant today as militants are experiencing failure time and again. A decade ago, we saw a pseudo-Islamic caliphate formed by a notorious terrorist Abubakar Al-Baghdadi, which initially captured substantial swathes of land in the Levant, Iraq, and Syria, and slaughtered thousands, irrespective of whether Muslim or non-Muslims. In the end, it was censured by all Muslims unanimously, and finally this terror denomination was finished by deadly Russian air strikes. Now Hamas, an outfit of the Brotherhood came with this new experiment of Tufanul Aqsa (طوفان الاقصى). What would be the net result? If we look back, we will find that Muslims have been making the same mistake again and again during the past two centuries. Yet the saga of Militant Islam is not stopping here. This scenario leads me to ponder on a broader question: does Militant Islam have any scope in the new world order? I must elaborate my point by citing a few examples of Muslim history of the near past. First and foremost of them is the Jihad movement formed by Syed Ahmad Shaheed of Rai Braili. In the aftermath of the British capturing Delhi in 1857, he migrated from northern India to Sarhad province (now Khaibar Pakhtunwa in Pakistan) adjacent to Afghanistan with his zealot disciples and companions. He won some small battles against the Sarhadi khans and chieftains who were themselves Muslim; though still strictly following their tribal culture and customs violating many Sharia rulings and injunctions. Syed Ahmad Shaheed in his enthusiasm for the revival of Shariah foolishly imposed the Sharia on his conquered villages and cities, however, without having adequately and appropriately educated the populace beforehand, this hastily executed move proved to be counterproductive. The tribal leaders and chieftains conspired and when these pious migrants were performing their prayers they overwhelmed them and slaughtered them in the position of prostration. Only a few vigilant ones could save themselves. A distressed Syed Ahmad wanted to go to some another place. When he was retreating in his way, along with the remnants of his army, he was beset and surrounded by a Sikh regiment sent from Lahore Punjab which the Sikh ruled at that time. And thus Syed Ahmad and his warriors met a tragic end in the field of Balakot. After the European Imperial forces invaded Muslim lands equipped with new technological and scientific arms, the Muslims were comprehensively crushed. Muslims did pose a forceful resistance everywhere, yet due to unmatched warfare and unfortunately having only old-fashioned tools, they failed. At that time many movements of resistance rose in Muslim lands against the European imperial forces. For example, Emir A. Qadir in Algeria resisted the French invasion for a long time. He even established a small kingdom in the Reef area. Yet soon his tiny kingdom was attacked by imperial forces from all sides. Seeing that there was no benefit in continuing he wisely threw his weapons and surrendered to the French. In Dagestan or Caucasian lands Imam Shamil, a Sufi saint also took to fighting bravely against the invading Russian Empire. For a while, he was successful to an extent, yet in the end, he realized that human bravery was no match to modern high-tech power and state-of-the-art weaponry. He also surrendered and lived in peace afterward. In Libya a famed warrior Omer Mukhtar a Sufi disciple of the Sannousi order there, on whom latterly an English film; The Lion of the Desert also came out, successfully resisted the Italian empire for a decade or so. But when Turkey made the decision to withdraw from his assistance, found himself alongside his committed group of Mujahids in a state of helplessness. Nevertheless, he continued to resist until he was eventually captured by the enemy and executed in a brutal manner a few days later. All these examples show that only bravery and Faith are not useful in the face of higher technological warfare. So, it is a pity that Muslims repeatedly do the same experiments without any substantial gain. It clearly shows that in changed circumstances militant Islam has no scope to thrive. We must understand that until we become scientifically aware, and until we do not make much progress in science and technology, our economy will not be strong. And until there is no desire for new scientific inventions and discoveries a new educational and scientific revolution will not come in our society. Until then there will be no use in confronting the developed nations of the world. We will continue to lose, and the situation can never be changed. After 1877, when the armed freedom struggle had failed India also left the path of armed struggle and adopted other meaningful ways, resulting in the country‘s independence. In Afghanistan too, if the US did not join hands, the success of Afghan Jihad against Russia was doubtful. One can say that there are many recent examples one can cite in which Militant Islam is winning grounds as it is gaining pockets in African countries. Taliban’s two terms in Kabul were possible because the US could not defeat them. Likewise, recently in Syria HTS has been able to defeat Russia and get rid of the brutal Asad regime, with the help of the West. Yet to an extent, it is true that these are small battles. In the larger picture Militant Islam cannot defeat the West and the world order it had formed in the long run. Small battles are not so important in this regard. Furthermore, history has demonstrated that Muslims often have lost their holdings as a result of inadequate strategies and emotionally charged narratives. Therefore, with this hindsight, our thinking must be a result-oriented one. --- Dr. Mohammad Ghitreef is a Research Associate with CEPECAMI / Tahzibul Akhlaq AMU, Aligarh. URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-west/militant-islam-armed-confrontation-west-fiqhi-takfiri-ulama/d/134652 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism