[...]... “unbelief ” and “falsehood”—as the sole reason for their decline To solve their internal problems (poverty, tyrannical governments, and lack of military power), and to end the oppression and aggression of the West, they have decided to concentrate on the destruction of one or the other of these “eternal” enemies 13 Why They Did It The September 11 attackers belong to this last category For these jihadis,... is a return to the Qur’an and hadith alone as the only authorities for 10 Why They Did It their actions They want to eliminate interpretations and traditions that they see as heretical and, using their own reason, justify their conduct through the sacred texts alone Other jihadis believe that the trouble began on 3 March 1924, when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk abolished the Ottoman Caliphate— the religious... about the forcible conversion of others to Islam—although under some rulers it became that—but rather about opening the doors to countries so that the oppressed peoples within could hear the Truth and, once Muslims conquered the land, have the privilege of being ruled by the just laws of Islam The best way to translate “jihad” is therefore not “holy war but rather “just 20 Historical Context war —a war. .. sensibility, the United States, and the West in general, must be willing to lay aside prejudices and be open to hearing what the jihadis themselves are saying They are telling everyone in the world what they believe and how they will act The question is whether anyone is listening to them 15 2 Historical Context The ideas supported by the jihadis did not spring from a void, nor are all of them the marginal... viewpoint, and they draw conclusions about how Muslims should respond to them from the Qur’an, hadith, and the life of Muhammad Jihadist ideologues who use words like “capitalism,” “women’s liberation,” and “human rights” empty them of the meanings that they usually have in Europe and America and fill them with an Islamicized significance To ignore the justifications offered by jihadis themselves for what they... texts (the Qur’an and sunna, as laid out in the hadith) to show that their actions are justified They find, too, endorsement of their ideas among respected interpreters of Islam and win disciples by their piety and their sophisticated arguments about how the religion supports them The question is which Islam they represent As the religion of over a billion people, Islam does not present a united face, and. .. years ago and the one that they confront today Just as in the thirteenth century, Islamic lands were conquered and ruled by unbelievers Although the infidels have been expelled, and the current rulers of Islamic countries say that they are Muslims, like the Mongols they use laws other than the shari‘a to govern This in the minds of the jihadis makes the present leaders of every Islamic country the infidels... and slavery, and blind following of the clergy—had to be changed drastically to fit into the modern era Concepts like secularization, the separation of religion and state, materialism, nationalism, and liberalism made sense to these men and formed the basis for their ideologies of modernization Other Islamic scholars were convinced that Islam itself, and especially a revival of the “true” Islam of their... the elaborate ideology of the jihadist faction can the United States, as well as the rest of the world, determine how to contain and eventually end the threat they pose to stability and peace Some might object that nationality, social factors, and historical processes are more important than religion in explaining the larger motives of these hijackers and their reasons for carrying out their attack... marginal opinions of a few fanatics The principle dogmas that they assert—that Islam is the one true faith that will dominate the world; that Muslim rulers need to govern by the shari‘a alone; that the Qur’an and hadith contain the whole truth for determining the righteous life; that there is no separation between religion and the rest of life; and that Muslims are in a state of conflict with the unbelievers—have . alt="" Knowing the Enemy