Jigsaw Jihadism

• Published in: The National interest Vol. 87; no. 87; pp. 61 - 66
• Main Author: Rosenthal, Justine A.
• Format: Magazine Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington The Nixon Center 01.01.2007; The National Interest, Inc; The National Interest Inc
• Subjects: Control; Cultural interaction; Holy war; Ideology; International aspects; International relations; Islam; Islam and politics; Islamic militants; Jihad; Media coverage; Minority & ethnic violence; Muslims; National interests; Nationalism; Perception; Policy studies; Political activity; Political aspects; Political extremism; Political violence; Public officials; Religion; Religious terrorism; Statistical data; Terrorism; Terrorist organizations; Terrorists; Violence; United States
• ISSN: 0884-9382; 1938-1573

A snapshot: turn on CNN to watch a gruesome play-by-play of our War on Terror, scan the best-seller list for the newest book on Osama bin Laden, leaf through the newspaper to see the latest suicide terror attack. Even if we suspend belief for a moment and simply cast aside all those terrorist groups that clearly have nothing at all to do with the Islamic religion-the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, the PARC in Colombia and the IRA in Ireland (to name but a few)-we are still left with a slew of seemingly similar groups all motivated by and distorting Islam to suit their own ends. Many of the liberation battles in our Muslim world had used composite slogans that mixed nationalism with Islam and, indeed, sometimes caused Islam to intermingle with leftist, communist slogans. . . .