Behind Al Qaeda's Mask of "Jihad" -- The Satanic Face of "Hirabah"
Author: Jim Guirard -- TrueSpeak Institute
Source: FreeMuslims.org -- May 2, 2006
Just as the European Union is correct to be designing a new lexicon for the ongoing "war of words" against al Qaeda-style Terrorism, so was US Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld correct when he recently graded America and the West no better than D or D-plus in our efforts to win the "war of ideas" against Osama bin Laden's suicide mass murderers -- a.k.a., so-called "Jihadis" and "holy warriors."
Since words, particularly those which distinguish good from evil, are often the most vital ingredient in this battle for "hearts, mind and souls," could this be the factor that is both dragging us down and giving great aid and comfort -- and legitimacy -- to the enemy?
The answer is an emphatic yes -- with the two interrelated pitfalls being (a) our enormous addiction to bin Laden's patently false but very seductive and self-sanctifying language of so-called "Jihadi martyrdom" and (b) our ignorance of and/or refusal to use those truthful Arabic and Islamic words which will correctly and forever label bin Ladenism as the gigantic pseudo-Islamic scam it really is.
In a recent Washington Post op-ed essay, former US National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) chief John Brennan observed in part: "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."
The subtle but deadly problem here is one of "semantic infiltration" -- which the late, great US Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan defined in Cold War context as "the process whereby we come to adopt the language of our adversaries in describing political reality. The most totalitarian regimes in the world call themselves 'liberation movements.' It is perfectly predictable that they would 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?"
And so it is today when we parrot al Qaeda's language of so-called "Jihad" (holy war) by purported "mujahiddin" (holy warriors) and "martyrs" supposedly destined for "Paradise," allegedly as a reward for killing all of us "infidels." This is the five-word mantra which quite effectively brands us as what bin Laden calls "The Great Satan" -- for who else would be so relentlessly killing a bunch of holy guys on their way to Paradise?
Fortunately, there is a solution to this dilemma. It involves our proactive use of the four or five other Islamic words (and their English equivalents) which tell the truth about what should be called neither "holy" nor Heaven-bound but "The al Qaeda Apostasy," instead.
The Word is "Hirabah" -- Unholy War, Forbidden "War Against Society"
In brief, this truthful new picture of political (and authentic Islamic) reality would best be painted as follows: "Hirabah (Unholy War, forbidden "war against society") by mufsidoon (evildoers and mortal sinners) and irhabists (terrorists) on their way to Jahannam (Eternal Hellfire)" as a proper punishment for their many shaitaniyah (satanic) crimes and sins against Allah.
Among these transgressions are such khawarij (outside the religion) violations of Quranic prohibitions as killing of innocents, sponsoring suicide for purposes of intimidation, fomenting hatred among religions and nations, desecrating the bodies of perceived enemies, destroying some mosques and weaponizing others, condemning everyone but themselves as "infidels" and as "apostates," and perverting many passages of the Holy Quran itself -- all in the falsely asserted "Will of Allah," of course.
Unfortunately, truth-in-language is easier said than done. First, we Americans are incredibly inept at learning and using foreign words. Four and a half years into the War on Terrorism hardly any of us have even learned the Arabic word for terrorism -- Irhab. This is astounding!!! It and the other four or five correct words listed above will come off our lips only with great effort.
Second, any such corrective action within the US Government will have to contend with the Government's own de facto cautions and prohibitions against waging the anti-AQ battle in Islamic religious terms -- or even in words which have Islamic religious implications.
While this rule is intended to avoid egg-in-the-face mistakes about Islam, such a milquetoast standard must now be modified -- even one Arabic/Islamic word at a time -- so as not to prohibit but to encourage the prudent use of such truthful anti-al Qaeda Islamicterms and frames of reference as those recommended.
Limiting ourselves to such Western secular words and law enforcement terms as "criminals" and "thugs" and "bring to justice" is little better than shooting with blanks. And, even worse, we shoot ourselves with live and deadly ammunition every time we either repeat or acquiesce in bin Laden's deceitful language of "Jihadi martyrdom" which so effectively sanctifies him and so thoroughly demonizes us.
Finally, it is instructive to recall Vladimir Lenin's cynical method of concocting a pseudo-religious scam: "We find our greatest success to the extent we inculcate Marxism as a kind of religion. Religious men and women are easy to convert and win, and will easily accept our thinking if we wrap it up in a kind of religious terminology."
In the case of Leninism, this tactic of deceit finally resulted in so-called "Liberation Theology" -- condemned as heretical by the late John Paul II but still lurking in the scheming minds of Fidel Castro, Nicaragua's Sandinistas and Venezuela's (a.k.a., Cubazuela's) Hugo Chavez.
In the case of neo-Leninist bin Ladenism, it has resulted in the pseudo-Islamic scam of so-called "Jihadi martyrdom" -- which we still call "holy" but for which we should immediately begin using the new words "Hirabah by mufsidoon destined for Jahannam" (Unholy War by evildoers and mortal sinners destined for Eternal Hellfire), instead.
Hopefully, the EU's new anti-Terrorism lexicon (and our own, as well) will soon be making full use of such truth-in-Islam words and frames of reference -- and ridding itself of al Qaeda's pseudo-Islamic and apostate language of so-called "Jihadi martyrdom," whose willful misuse by suicide mass murderers and haters is an insult to authentic, Qur'anic Islam.
JIM GUIRARD -- TrueSpeak Institute 703-768-0957 Justcauses@aol.com