ISIS's Inherent Atheism

Slamming sledgehammers. Toppling statues. Decimated artifacts. Detonating charges that flash in an instant, but destroy centuries of history. The images coming out of Palmyra, Syria, Mosul, Iraq, and other locations in the Levant viscerally illustrate how al-Dawla al-Islamiyya (a.k.a. ISIS, ISIL, IS, Daesh) is destroying shrines, statues, and sundry other artifacts as they establish their version of a caliphate in Syria and Iraq. Reports and live video have flooded in over the past few months showing so-called Islamic State (IS) militants wrenching artifacts from museum walls, imploding sacred shrines and churches, and reducing historic effigies to rubble.

The most recent reports declare that the militants destroyed a UNESCO world heritage site & temple at Palmyra. While scholars and curators have come forth to attest that the some of these relics are replicas and that many more precious artifacts are hidden (indeed, an 82 year old curator was killed for keeping this information secret), there is still a potent sense of lost history and heritage in what some have termed, “horrific acts of vandalism” being perpetrated by IS. 

The question is WHY? Could it be that underlying ISIS's destruction of temples and statues is a strain of doubt -- wondering if there is a God out there at all? 

The Conversation is an online portal for in-depth journalism & analysis, which works with academics and journalists to provide evidence-based, ethical, and responsible information. 

Muslim Brotherhoodness: Understanding the rise of the MB & Islamism in Egypt & Beyond

In Syria, the Muslim Brotherhood finds itself caught between ISIS on one side and the regime of Bashar al-Assad on the other. Receiving support from Europe it hopes to be part of a regime change and a moderating force in Islamist political restructuring following the end of the civil war. Meanwhile, in Egypt - the birthplace of the Brotherhood - the organization finds itself outlawed again and struggling to even claim a place under the current Abdel Fattah el-Sisi regime.

Whether as a majority in places like Tunisia, Morocco, and Turkey or minority in countries such as Iraq, Egypt, and Palestine how does Islamism continue to survive, and thrive, in the wake of significant political currents throughout the Muslim world? How does its historical context inform its present manifestations? 

Last week I was able to present on the rise of Islamism through the lens of the Muslim Brotherhood and its ilk. In the presentation I covered the historical context within which Islamism first emerged at the turn of the 20th-century, charted the ideological contours of Islamism's founders (principally al-Banna, Mawdudi, & Sayyid Qutb), and discussed the present state of Islamism in light of recent political turnover as a result of the various uprisings of the Arab Spring from 2011-2012. 

The content comes directly from Peter Mandaville's tome Global Political Islam. However, I also added some of my own commentary, critique, and additional input taking into account recent developments over the last few years (most importantly, the Arab Spring). 

*Follow @Kchitwood for more on religion & culture

This presentation, entitled, "Islamism on the Rise!" plays off of important and relevant headlines from Syria, Iraq, and Egypt and would be of interest to anyone wanting to understand Islamic political bodies and get a grasp of the historical context at play in current political discourse throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and indeed, throughout the Islamic world. 

You can follow along with the presentation HERE and listen below. 

I encourage you to consider the questions we discussed in class and perhaps comment below:

• What are the overarching similarities between the various ideologies, forms, and political programs of the actors we discussed? What are the key differences? 
• Does the Muslim Brotherhood, and its ilk, "speak for Islam?" Or even more specifically, does the MB speak for "Islamism?"
• In The Failure of Political Islam, Olivier Roy argues that far from being rooted in the Islamic scholarly tradition, political Islam is a reactionary movement whose ideological philosophy is rooted in Marxism, Third Worldism, & the broader revolutionary programs of the 50s, 60s and 70s. From what you heard, do you agree? Disagree? Why? 
• Discuss Islamism as a term following the events of The Arab Spring & the current crisis concerning Al-Dawla Al-Islamiyya (aka IS, ISIL, ISIS). Is Islamism still relevant? Have entered, as many have recently argued, a stage of post-Islamism adapting to broader calls for democracy, rights, and societal pluralism? How can Islamism survive and thrive in such a context? 

"Why do Westerners join ISIS?" Featured at Sojourners

Over the weekend, my post "The lonely jihadi: Why do Westerners join ISIS?" was featured on the Sojourner's 'God's Politics' blog.

Sojourner's magazine is a progressive publication of the social justice organization Sojourners, founded by current editor Jim Wallis who is active in bringing faith to light on issues of racial and social justice, life and peace, and environmental stewardship. 

*For more on religion and culture, follow @kchitwood.

It was an honor to write for their online portal and I amended my original post to include a section on how Christian congregations and individuals can "combat" ISIS. While there is much to be said about the essentializing, and perhaps racially tinged, "multi-cultural" viewpoint that I espouse (casting "Muslims" as a community bloc or single identity given so much internal diversity) I still believe that a program of positive, multifaceted, integration on the public and private levels is the way forward in dealing with extremism and isolated individuals who join radical, violent, causes. This integration is not assimilation as such, but a bridge building and re-construction of what it means to be American (or European) in light of Muslim belief and practice. It is a two-way street, but one which non-Muslims (who too often cast Muslims in a solely negative light) bear the prime responsibility to cross. This is not because Muslims are incapable of making inroads toward integration, but the onus is on those of us who tend to push them to the margins in the first place. 

Anyways, check out the blog and react to my paragraph about pro-active Christian initiatives to integrate the isolated Muslim who tends to join groups like ISIS: 

Christians can be engaged at both the personal and congregational level. It begins with paying attention and recognizing the Muslim communities and individual Muslim families in your neighborhood and community; then, the impetus to find, and form, appropriate and respectful relationships. Once a friendship is established, take the time to listen, learn, and value their Islamic faith and practice. This friendship is best established, and nourished, through dining together, dialogue events, and interfaith community projects. These friendly encounters will not only build new bridges between Muslims and Christians, but also integrate isolated Muslims into the fold of their new communities making a home for them beyond the boundaries of religion and ethnicity.

These types of efforts, more than bombs and bombastic rhetoric, are how we can combat the lonely jihadi and make a significant contribution to peace in the Middle East, and indeed, across the globe.

The lonely jihadi: why do Westerners join ISIS?

Whether or not ISIS/ISIL is "Islamic," or a "state," it is definitely terrifying. As it terrorizes the Levant -- killing Muslims, Christians, Jews, Yazidis, & other religious/cultural minorities in Syria and Iraq -- and takes the lives of Western journalists, it strikes fear in the hearts of many. 

Swirling around the alarming analysis are the rumors and realities of individuals from Europe and the U.S. joining the ranks of ISIS/ISIL and fighting for their "cause." 

The intelligence organization Soufan Group recently released a report stating that fighters from at least 81 countries have traveled to Syria since its three-year conflict began. Hundreds of recruits come from nations like France, Germany, the UK, and the U.S. 

Of all the fearful intimations of this conflict, this feature seems to be the most frightening to many in the West. Could it be that my neighbor is a secret jihadi? Are redheads (a "pure" European stock) more prone to terrorism? Are mosques their hideouts? Regardless of the judiciousness of these questions, underlying them all is the question "why?" Why would someone leave the West to fight for ISIS in Syria and Iraq?  

According to the Soufan report, those that leave for the Middle East to fight are typically 18-29 year-old men (some as young as 15) and some Western women who join with their spouses, or come alone to become "jihadi brides." These men and women are Islamic, often second or third generation immigrants, though very few have prior connections with Syria. 

Why do they join? Is it religious devotion? Psychological imbalance? Tendency toward radical movements and anarchy? All of these motivations may play a part, but my argument is that these men and women who leave their Western homes for the dunes of terror are lonely. 

These Western jihadis are isolated -- that is why they join ISIS. 

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In his book Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah Olivier Roy says that in the passage to the West, Islam as a religion (and its practitioners) undergo a deterritorializing, deculturalizing, and destabilizing process that, both of us argue, leaves individuals in search for a new ummah (global Islamic community, on the macro level) and a new community (on the micro level). 

As Islam is less and less associated with a specific nation, tribe, or territory (deterritorialization) the lines between Islam and the West become blurred. This leads to Islamization and a renewed and revived effort to stake a clear claim for Islam in the modern world. This Islamic revival can be either progressive or conservative, but it leaves the individual Muslim with a choice. This choice is problematized by the fact that, often, to be "Muslim" is necessary for the sake of identification in the West. 

In the West, Islam undergoes a deculturalization process, which leaves the term "Muslim" as the sole identifier (as opposed to Egyptian, Somali, Indonesian, Bosnian, Argentinian, etc.) Muslims lose their sense of culture in the West, no longer able to identify according to their ethnic heritage or national identity. In this environment, where religion defines identity, two things happen: 1) Muslims feel they must ratify their credentials -- prove they are really, and truly, "Muslim" to people within, and on the outside, of their community or 2) having broken with the culture of their past, second and third generation Muslim migrants who are part of, but do not feel integrated into, Western society choose to reconstruct their identity along strict Islamic lines. 

This whole process is quite destabilizing as it continues to isolate the individual from their former identity markers -- family, culture, nation. Everything that used to define them -- their culture, their dress, their economic standing, their political affiliation -- breaks down in the West and they are left with Islam alone to rebuild themselves. In this process is offered, what Roy calls, "the realization of the self." (37) Islam becomes the way that the marginalized and lonely Muslim in the West can reconstruct their identity. 

Of course, this self cannot be reconstructed alone. There needs to be a community within which it can be rebuilt and resurrected. Enter ISIS.

"Neofundamentalist" (Roy prefers this term over 'Salafi') jihadi groups offer answers to what ails secluded Muslims in the West. Their community is built upon the free association of individuals and voluntary devotion to the community's cause. It is a "reconstructed ummah," one in which the individual plays an oversized role. 

However, the ummah is never really reconstructed. Terror groups rarely have an end goal in mind. They do not wish to establish an "Islamic state," no matter what they call themselves. They are comfortable with the deterritorialized condition and the destabilized nature of the world and continually leave it up to individuals to construct the community and define its norms. In the process, fanaticism and radicalism germinate as insecurity about the borders of the community intensify. The lonely jihadi who left the West for "true Muslim community," finds that the lines are blurred even within ISIS. The loneliness and deep inner questions continue. 

In the midst of this "imagined ummah" undertaking, groups like ISIS inculcate a sixth pillar of 'individual jihad' to give purpose to the life of the wayward Muslim. "This overemphasis on personal jihad complements the lonely situation of the militants, who do not follow their natural community, but join an imagined one." (42) Fighting and, to a greater degree, giving one's life to the cause, becomes the "ultimate proof" not only of one's religious devotion, but also of one's "reform of the self." (289) All the while, in search of a new community, the jihadi remains alone, isolated, and solitary -- especially in suicide attacks. 

This is why bombing, however "strategic," will not stem the tide against terror organizations such as ISIS. Unfortunately, where integration or assimilation into Western societies is eschewed, the neofundamentalist path towards isolation, both externally and internally imposed, begins. Not all marginalized Muslims in the West join jihadi groups. Some of them simply choose to live in "Islamized territories" (Islamic ghettos, per se) shut off from Western influence even as they live in the West. However, for those that do not find that such closed communities fit the bill, radical Islamic terror groups call out ever stronger. 

Thus, programs for integration and assimilation -- at the national, local, and personal levels -- are the only way to "fight" ISIS and restrict the flow of Westerners joining their ranks. Assimilation should not mean that Muslims must give up the authentic beliefs and practices of their faith. Integration does not lead to Islamization or the imposition of shariah law. It is, instead, a friendly policy towards Muslims in the West that leads all of us, Muslim and Christian/Jew/agnostic/etc. deeper into a real community where identity is not solely defined by religion, but also historic cultural, and new national, characteristics. 

This is how we can combat the lonely jihadi.