THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XI, Issue # 19, January 15, 2009
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
STUDYING THE ISLAMIC WAY OF WAR
By Raymond Ibrahim
A DANGEROUS GAP IN THE MILITARY STUDIES PROGRAMS CARRIED ON BY THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF
DEFENSE: SENIOR SERVICE WAR COLLEGES TOTALLY IGNORING ISLAMIC WAR-FIGHTING DOCTRINE -- FAILURE OF
THE WAR COLLEGES TO INCORPORATE INTO THEIR CURRICULUM A SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF MUHAMMAD AS A MILITARY
OR POLITICAL LEADER -- OUR CONSEQUENT LACK OF AN IN-DEPTH UNDERSTANDING OF THE WAR DOCTRINE BEING
FOLLOWED BY ISLAMISTS IN THEIR GLOBAL JIHAD AGAINST THE U.S.A. & THE WEST -- OUR RESULTANT FAILURE TO TAKE
THE MOST BASIC & SIMPLE ADVICE REGARDING WARFARE: WU SUN TZU'S ANCIENT DICTUM, "KNOW THY
ENEMY" -- ADDITIONAL DIFFICULTY: THE U.S. GOVERNMENT'S INABILITY OR UNWILLINGNESS TO EVEN
ACKNOWLEDGE OUR JIHADIST ENEMY & ITS IDEOLOGICAL ROOTS IN ISLAM
FULL STORY:
At the inaugural conference for the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) back in April,
2008, presenter LTC Joseph Myers made an interesting point that deserves further elaboration. Though Military
Studies have traditionally valued and absorbed the texts of classical war doctrine — such as Karl von Clausewitz's On
War, Wu Sun Tsu's The Art of War, even the exploits of Alexander the Great, as recorded in Arrian and
Plutarch — Islamic war doctrine, which is just as, if not more, textually grounded, is totally ignored.
As recently as 2006, former top Pentagon official William Gawthrop lamented that "the senior Service colleges of the
Department of Defense had not incorporated into their curriculum a systematic study of Muhammad as a military or
political leader. As a consequence, we still do not have an in-depth understanding of the war-fighting doctrine laid
down by Muhammad, how it might be applied today by an increasing number of Islamic groups, or how it might be
countered [emphasis added]." Today, seven full years after September 11, 2001, our understanding of the
Islamic way of war is little better.
This is more ironic when one considers that, while classical military theories (Clausewitz, Sun Tzu, Machiavelli, et. al.)
continue to be included on war-college syllabi, the argument can be made that they have little practical value for
today's far different landscape of warfare and diplomacy. Contrast this with Islam's doctrines of war: their "theological"
quality — grounded, as they are, in a religion whose "divine" precepts transcend time and space, and are believed to
be immutable — make Islam's war doctrines unlikely ever to go out of style. While one can argue that learning how
Alexander maneuvered his cavalry at the Battle of Guagamela in 331 BC is both academic and anachronistic, the
exploits and stratagems of the prophet Muhammad — his "war sunna" — still serve as an example to modern-day
jihadists.
For instance, based on the words and deeds of Muhammad, most schools of Islamic jurisprudence agree that the
following are all legitimate during war against the infidel: the indiscriminate use of missile weaponry, even if women and
children are present (catapults in Muhammad's Seventh Century context; hijacked planes or WMD today); the need to
always deceive the enemy and even break formal treaties whenever possible (see Sahih Muslim, 15: 4057); and that the
only function of the peace treaty, or "hudna," is to give the Islamic armies time to regroup for a renewed offensive, and
should, in theory, last no more than ten years.
Quranic verses 3:28 and 16:106, as well as Muhammad's famous assertion, "War is deceit," have all led to the
formulation of a number of doctrines of dissimulation — the most notorious among them being the doctrine of
"Taqiyya," which permits Muslims to lie and dissemble whenever they are under the authority of the infidel. Deception
has such a prominent role that renowned Muslim scholar Ibn al-Arabi declares: "[I]n the Hadith, practicing deceit
in war is well demonstrated. Indeed, its need is more stressed than [the need for] courage."
In addition to ignoring these well documented Islamist strategies, more troubling still is the Defense Department's
continuing failure to appreciate the pertinent "eternal" doctrines of Islam — such as the Abode of War versus the
Abode of Islam dichotomy, which maintains that Islam must always be in a state of animosity vis-à-vis the infidel world
and, whenever possible, must wage wars until all infidel territory has been brought under Islamic rule. In fact, this
dichotomy of hostility is unambiguously codified under Islam's worldview and is deemed a fard kifaya — that is, an
obligation on the entire Muslim body that can only be fulfilled as long as some Muslims, say, "jihadists," actively
uphold it.
Despite these problematic — but revealing — doctrines, despite the fact that a quick perusal of Islamist websites and
books demonstrate, time and again, that current and would-be jihadists constantly quote, and thus take seriously,
these doctrinal aspects of war, senior U.S. government officials charged with defending America do not.
Why? Because the "Whisperers" — Walid Phares's apt epithet for the majority of Middle East/Islamic scholars and
their willing apologists in the press — have made anathema anyone who dares to point out a connection between
Islamic doctrine and modern-day Islamist terrorism — as witness, the Steven Coughlin debacle. This is an all too
familiar tale for those in the field (see Martin Kramer's Ivory Towers on Sand: The Failure of Middle Eastern
Studies in America).
While there exists today many Middle East Studies departments, one would be sorely pressed (especially in the more
"prestigious" universities) to find any courses dealing with the most pivotal and relevant topics of today — such as
Islamic jurisprudence and what it says about jihad or the concept of the Abode of Islam versus the Abode of War.
These topics, we are assured, have troubling international implications and are best buried. Instead, the would-be
student is inundated with courses dealing with the evils of "Orientalism" and colonialism, gender studies, and civil
society.
The greater irony — when one talks about Islam and the West, ironies often abound — is that, on the very same day
of the ASMEA conference, which also contained a forthright address by premiere Islamic scholar Bernard Lewis ("It
seems to me a dangerous situation in which any kind of scholarly discussion of Islam is, to say the least,
dangerous"), the State Department announced that it would not call al-Qa'ida-type radicals "jihadis" or "mujahadin,"
nor incorporate any other Arabic word of Islamic connotation ("caliphate," "Islamo-fascism," "Salafi," "Wahhabi,"
and "Ummah" are also out).
Alas, far from taking the most basic and simple advice regarding warfare — Sun Tzu's ancient dictum, "Know thy
enemy" — the U.S. government is having difficulties even acknowledging its enemy.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Raymond Ibrahim is Associate Director of the Middle East Forum and editor of The Al-Qaeda Reader, as
well as editor of translations of Islamic religious texts and propaganda. Fluent in Arabic and well acquainted with
the primary texts of Islam (he worked for six years as a reference assistant at the Library of Congress,) Mr. Ibrahim is
particularly well-suited to the task of delineating the otherwise obscure doctrinal and historical aspects that fuel
radical Islam.
The foregoing article by Raymond Ibrahim was originally published in National Review Online, January 11,
2009, and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to
define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
(Article URL: http://www.meforum.org/article/2050)
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
January 15, 2009
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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