Author: Jim Guirard -- TrueSpeak Institute
Source: Distribution to "Word Warrior" Lecture Audiences -- April-May 2007
Dear Fellow Word Warriors: As a "read ahead" for the TrueSpeak lecture and Q&A session you will soon be attending, I am pleased to share with you a truth-in-language and truth-in-Islam thesis of mine in the vital "war of words" and "hearts, minds and souls" aspects -- namely, the vital spiritual and intellectual aspects -- of the broader war on al Qaeda-style Terrorism.
(FYI, most of my op-ed articles can be found on my work-in-progress TrueSpeak.org website, under War on Terrorism. Selected others are on the FamilySecurityMatters.org website -- and can be viewed there by entering "Jim Guirard" into the search box at the upper right of the FSM homepage, where I am a Contrubuting Editor.)
As you can see from the essay displayed below, one of the major weapons in our arsenal we are not using to advantage is the language itself -- which, in my opinion, is currently being corrupted in very dangerous ways by Osama bin Laden's carefully constructed lexicon of self-sanctification. As the recently retired chief of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), Dr.John Brennan, has said in a Washington Post op-ed column:
"Bin Laden has also insidiously convinced us to use terminology that lends legitimacy to his activities. He has hijacked the term "jihad" to such an extent that US and other Western officials regularly use the terms 'jihadist' and 'terrorist' interchangeably. In doing so, they unwittingly transfer the religious legitimacy inherent in the concept of jihad to murderous acts that are anything but holy."
In this connection, please reflect on the major parallels drawn by my essay between UBL's language of so-called "Jihadi martyrdom" -- which I now call "Irhabi MURDERdom" -- and the Soviets' patently deceitful Cold War language of "people's democracy" and "progressive fronts" and even of the pseudo-religious scam of "Liberation Theology." (And please note the powerful quote from the late, great Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan about the dangers of "semantic infiltration" about half-way through the text.)
Our problem today is a language which paints a highly seductive but cynically false picture of "Jihad" (Holy War) by "mujahideen" (holy warriors) and "shahideen" or "shuhada" (martyrs) destined for Paradise as a proper reward for killing all of us alleged "kuffr" (infidels).
This is bad enough. But it becomes multiple times worse when these are the same words which so many of us tend to use, as well -- thus tending to confirm their accuracy and validity in a way which relegates America and the West to the role planned for us by al Qaeda, the role of "The Great Satan." For who, indeed, other than the Great Satan would go about killing a bunch of holy guys (saintly Jihadi guys) on their way to Paradise?
What follows in that regard is a thesis of mine which was delivered to the January 12-13, 2006 Norad-Northcom Academic Conference on Militant Extremism in Colorado Springs -- and which has now been posted on the Marshall Center's PTSS Daily Report and, earlier, on both the FreeMuslims.org and TheAmericanMuslim.org websites, the latter of which appears below for your easy reference.
Please note that no fewer than six of the highly quotable Islamic scholars in my work-in-progress compendium of about twenty-five are cited here in support of the "Hirabah" (unholy war, forbidden "war against society") frame of reference -- and in rejection of al Qaeda's patently false and self-canonizing language of "Jihadi martyrdom."
There is, of course, much more to the story than meets the eye than what appears in this one essay; and I will shortly be sending additional materials about how we might finally begin demonizing those mufsidoon al Qaeda and those irhabiyoun al-Zawahiri (al-Zawariri terrorists) who are now so effectively demonizing us, instead -- all too often with our careless assistance.
Looking forward to discussing this further with you in due course and to knowing in the interim of any questions or constructive comments you might have in these matters of shared concern, and with best wishes, I remain, Sincerely yours,
JIM GUIRARD -- TrueSpeak Institute 703-768-0957 Justcauses@aol.com
Presented to Northcom Conference on Militant Extremism -- Jan 11-12, 2006
Posted on TheAmericanMuslim.ORG -- Jan 17, 2006
Posted on FreeMuslims.ORG -- Jan 19, 2006
Posted on Marshall Center's PTSS Daily Report -- June 5, 2006
TrueSpeak Institute
Jim Guirard, President
1129 Cameron Road
Alexandria, Virginia 22308
703-768-0957 Justcauses@aol.com
Al Qaeda's Satanic War Against Society -- "Hirabah" Is Its Name
From its inception in the form of unauthorized and un-Islamic fatwas (religious edicts) in 1996 and 1998, Osama bin Laden's so-called "Jihad Against America and the West" is nothing but a pseudo-Islamic scam. It is no more "holy" or "godly" than the genocidal haters and killers who concocted and are fomenting it.
As Islamic Law scholar Khaled Abou El Fadl of UCLA explains in his highly acclaimed new book, "The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists," these radicals "entirely ignore the Qur'anic teaching that the act of destroying or spreading ruin on this earth is one of the gravest sins possible -- fasad fi al-ard, which means to corrupt the earth by destroying the beauty of creation. This is considered an ultimate act of blasphemy against God. Those who corrupt the earth by destroying lives, property and nature are designated as mufsiduun (corruptors and evildoers) who, in effect, wage war against God by dismantling the very fabric of existence... the crime is called Hirabah (waging war against society)."
This Hirabah's (this unholy war's) more appropriate name is The Al Qaeda Apostasy -- a momumental perversion of authentic Islam which (in the name of Allah, of course) threatens to turn that religion into nothing but a perpetual killing machine of all Christians, all Jews and all Muslims who happen to disagree. Beneath its false labels it is a plainly satanic, cultic violation of many of the fundamental precepts of Qur'anic Islam--including such sinful transgressions and such de facto desecrations of the Qur'an as:
All of this constitutes a gigantic apostasy (or blasphemy, choose your word) against the "peaceful, compassionate, merciful and just" Allah who is repeatedly so described by the Qur'an. And, of course, the penalty for apostasy in Islam is death. Ask poor old Salman Rushdie who has been under an Iranian fatwa of death for over a decade--for allegedly mistranslating certain verses of the Prophet in his famous book, "The Satanic Verses."
It is noted at this point that many authentic Muslim Scholars and Jurists -- particularly those who participated in the recent anti-terrorism summit sponsored by King Abdullah bin al-Hussein of Jordan -- have strongly condemned the excesses of "takfir" : namely, the many and uniformly baseless accusations of apostasy being leveled by al Qaeda and like-minded terrorist movements against any and all of their perceived enemies.
But the mere fact that these "takfiri" practices might be unIslamic in their extremism, this very well-intentioned "Amman Message" should not be regarded as prohibiting truthful and provable charges of apostasy against those whose ruthless transgressions -- such as those ten listed above -- so clearly identify their godless perpetrators as the "Abd' al-Shaitan" (the Servants or Slaves of Satan) they truly are.
But, wonder of wonders, Osama bin Laden's multiple perversions of Islam -- which are a thousand times worse than Rushdie's alleged offenses -- are shielded from valid charges of apostasy by the existing halo of so-called "Jihad." While that halo is a patently false one, it is made to seem true by the fact that so many of us (its intended victims) mindlessly parrot bin Laden in calling it a holy and Godly "Jihad."
Surely, if it were something else, its harshest critics (particularly our Public Diplomacy and Psychological Operations experts on the subject) would be calling it by some other more truthful Islamic term -- particularly if that much needed name were the exact opposite of the so-called "holy" and "godly" war it is universally alleged to be.
Now, more than four years after the suicide mass murders of September 11, 2001, it is high time that we discover the correct Islamic word for such sinful atrocities and proactively begin using that name -- rather than continuing to lip-sync with Osama bin Laden, at the risk of our lives and those of our children and grandchildren.
The Word Is "Hirabah"--Forbidden War Against Society
Of course, there is a word for the genocidal kind of warfare which violates all of the Qur'anic prohibitions listed above, despite our sophomoric inability to have found it by now.
As confirmed above by Professor El Fadl, it is the ancient word Hirabah (pronounced hee-RAH-bah), which the Islamic Jurisprudence (the Fiqh) defines as a forbidden "war against society" -- or what in modern parlance would be called "genocidal terrorism" or "crimes against humanity."
In his seminal article on Hirabah in the Fall 2001 issue of Muslim World, the renowned University of Michigan scholar of Islam, Prof. Abdul Hakim (a.k.a., Sherman Jackson), long ago confirmed this interpretation with remarkable clarity as follows:
"In the end, however, Hirabah assumes its place as an effective super-category hovering above the entire criminal law as a possible remedy to be pressed into service for the more sensational, heinous or terrifying manifestations of these and other crimes. In this capacity, Hirabah appears, again, to parallel the function of terrorism as an American legal category. Its function is not so much to define specific crimes but to provide a mechanism for heightening the scrutiny and/or level of pursuit and prosecution in certain cases of actual or potential public violence.
"In sum, we may conclude that it is terror, or the spreading of fear and helplessness, that lies at the heart of Hirabah. From this perspective, Hirabah speaks to the same basic issue as does terrorism in American law. As mentioned earlier, however, Hirabah actually goes beyond the FBI definition of terrorism, inasmuch as Hirabah covers both directed and coincidental spreading of fear... Hirabah, as it turns out, [once was and should be seen again as] the most severely punished crime in Islam, carrying mandatory criminal sanctions."
But, looking back in history, we discover that the widespread killing and pillaging of entire communities and tribes by ruthless barbarians, brigands and Crusaders gradually subsided in the Middle Ages. And the powerful Islamic word which had been used since the 10th and 11th centuries to condemn such atrocities--but which is not in the Qur'an -- gradually faded from use, as well.
Obviously, it must now be rediscovered and resuscitated. Hand in hand with the Arabic word "Irhab" (Terrorism), it must become the keystone of both truth-in-language and truth-in-Islam in the war against al Qaeda-style suicide mass murder and related forms of hatred and violence now posing as "holy."
A powerful step in that rediscovery of the truthful Hirabah fame of reference can be found in the September 30, 2005 keynote address to the Association of Muslim Social Scientists by the distinguished Professor S. Abdallah Schleifer of the American University in Cairo:
"Indeed one of the good signs I promised earlier to allude to is the imperative -- felt by both many Islamist as well as all traditional Muslims -- to unambiguously denounce terrorism. To make it increasingly clear in a series of declarations over the past year that nothing can justify the intentional targeting of unarmed civilians, and that what has been described by extremist Islamists as "jihad" is in fact Hirabah, a classic Islamic legal category that can best be translated as 'terrorism' ...
"In his critically important essay, "Domestic Terrorism in the Islamic Legal Tradition" -- which appeared in the Fall 2001 issue of Muslim World -- Dr. Sherman Jackson noted that in the classic legal literature defining Hirabah, its is the elements of intimidation, of the terroristic spreading fear and a sense of helplessness in the community, that is central."
As Dr. Schleifer explains, "Jackson quotes the 11th century Spanish Maliki jurist Ibn Abd al Barr who defines the agent of Hirabah as: "Anyone who disturbs free passage in the streets and renders them unsafe to travel, striving to spread corruption in the land by taking money, killing people or violating what God has made it unlawful to violate is guilty of Hirabah... be he a Muslim or a non-Muslim, free or slave, and whether he actually realizes his goal of taking money, or of killing or not.
"And it is clear, in his extensive review of all of the classic legal sources from all of the schools of Islamic law, that the very impersonality of Hirabah, of terrorism, in which there is invariably no personal relationship between the terrorist and his victim, is what makes it more criminal than homicide ... and in the eyes of the classical jurists, it is why the terrorist deserves to be sentenced to death regardless of the status of the victim, be he or she Muslim or non-Muslim."
Looking to the future, it is only by the assertive and insistent use of this truthful term, along with four or five others which follow from it, that the false and blasphemous language of so-called "Jihadi martyrdom" (which portrays a bunch of holy guys destined for Paradise as a reward for murdering all variety of so-called "infidels") can eventually be defeated. These other essential words are as follows:
irhab (terrorism), also such derivatives as irhabis and irhabists (terrorists) and Irhabism -- all of which are easy alternatives to the Jihad-jihadi-jihadist-jihadism misnomers which now so thoroughly distort both the Arabic and English lexicons. [Why not "Irhabi Murderdom" rather than so-called "Jihadi martyrdom?"]
mufsidoon or mufsiduun or mufsiddin (evildoers, corrupters, sinners) -- the Islamic word for those who are fomenting and waging unholy Hirabah and who, therefore, cannot be either the mujahiddin (holy warriors) or the shahiddin (martyrs) they so arrogantly claim to be
Jahannam (Eternal Hellfire) -- which is authentic, Qur'anic Islam's destiny for unrelenting and unrepentant mufsidoon who will not cease their evildoing and who will, therefore, not be destined for Paradise but for Shaitan's Eternal Hellfire
tajdeef (blasphemy) and/or murtadd (apostasy) -- which is what these Jahannam-bound mufsidoon are engaged in when they ruthlessly kill innocents and noncombatants, foment hatred, commit and entice others to commit suicide, condemn everyone but themselves as "infidels," etc.
khawarij (outside the religion) -- a condemnation which can apply either to individuals or to activities which are so unIslamic, so extremist and so unrelenting as to invite charges and conviction of apostasy or blasphemy
istihlal (sin of "playing God") -- the cardinal sin of ignoring Qur'anic truths and concocting one's own self-serving perversion of Shar'ia (Islamic Law)
shaitaniyah (satanic) -- which is the fundamental character of the willful and mortally sinful Osaman Apostasy described at the beginning of this essay
Logically, now that our scholarly experts, our public diplomacy spokespersons and our national leaders know the word Hirabah and the name mufsidoon for those who are fomenting and waging this forbidden "war against society," we should be using these truthful Islamic words and labels aggressively and without fear of contradiction.
Cold War Parallels
Truth be known, there were no such "wars of national liberation," because no liberty was ever involved. And today, there is no so-called "Jihad," because there is neither any holiness nor any "peaceful, compassionate, merciful and just" Will of Allah of the Qur'an involved -- but only the al Qaeda Apostasy, Qur'anic Islam's punishment for which is death in this life and Jahannam (Eternal Hellfire) in the next.
As outlined above, this is reminiscent of the subtle but deadly Cold War problem identified in the 1970s and 80s by Dr. Fred Charles Ikle and Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan as "semantic infiltration" -- which the late Senator defined as follows:
"Simply put, semantic infiltration is the process whereby we come to adopt the language of our adversaries in describing political reality. The most totalitarian regimes in the world would call themselves 'liberation movements.' It is perfectly predictable that they should misuse words to conceal their real nature. But must we aid them in that effort by repeating those words? Worse, do we begin to influence our own perceptions by using them?"
Of course, we do! The problem is as real and as deadly dangerous today as it was then. Bin Laden and his murderous kind say "Jihad and Holy War," and we repeat these false words thousands of times over -- thus endorsing and confirming their claim to a holy and godly purpose. They say "mujahiddin" (holy warriors) and "shuhada" or "shahiddin" (martyrs) on their way to Paradise and we dutifully copy-cat those words, as well. Back in Cold War days, that sort of naiveté was called "useful idiocy" and should still be.
Recall, please, how the perfidious Soviets and their surrogates, Fidel Castro in particular, successfully co-opted the powerfully positive word "liberation" and turned it into a lovely but patently false label for adding colonies -- euphemistically known as "satellites," of course -- to the Evil Empire.
Truth be known, those bloody wars of Soviet colonial conquest (properly defined) had absolutely nothing to do with either national independence or personal liberty -- no more than today's so-called "holy wars" of al Qaeda, Hamas, Hizballah, Islamic Jihad and their pseudo-Islamic clones have anything to do with godliness or holiness.
In addition to the words of wisdom from Professors Hakim, El Fadl and Schlieffer cited above, here are quotations from three more (of about twenty-five) distinguished scholars of Islam and of Middle Eastern affairs--with many more to come -- who are have embraced this truthful Hirabah (unholy war, "war against society") frame of reference, and sharply rejecting the false and un-Islamic language of so-called "Jihadi martyrdom:"
A Ticket to Hellfire, Not to Paradise
As these scholarly words of authentic Islam suggest, we will be missing the proverbial boat if we continue to focus so much on trying to make America look GOOD in the Muslim and Arab worlds and so little on the need to make the "mufsiduun Saddam" and the "mufsiduun Osama" (Saddam's and Osama's evildoers) look BAD in the eyes of the Arab Street and the world at large -- namely, like the sinful blasphemers against the "peaceful, compassionate, merciful and just" Allah of the Qur'an who they actually are.
Of course, this antidote to the Al Qaeda Apostasy is best delivered in Islamic religious words -- just like the seductive al Qaeda mantra is. As explained above, the latter proposes to impressionable and religiously motivated young Muslims that they "Join the Jihad, become mujahiddin and martyrs, enter into Paradise."
But imagine, please, how much more difficult it will be for al Qaeda and its murderous ilk to inspire and to sustain the suicidal zealotry of young Muslims -- or the approval of any truly devout and faithful Muslims whatever -- once these genocidal irhabis come to be viewed by the Umma (the Muslim World) as mufsidoon (evildoers) engaged in Hirabah (unholy war) and in murtadd (apostasy) against Allah and, therefore, on their way to Satan's Jahannam (Eternal Hellfire), instead.
JIM GUIRARD -- TrueSpeak Institute 703-768-0957 Justcauses@aol.com
A Washington DC-area attorney, lecturer, writer and anti-Terrorism strategist, Jim Guirard was longtime Chief of Staff to former US Senators Allen Ellender and Russell Long of Louisiana. His TrueSpeak Institute is devoted to truth-in-language and truth-in-history in public discourse