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was a reasonable explanation for their nations‘ prostration: the corrupt secular state that
did not follow the wise guidance of the Koran.
The Threat from Outside Forces
Many within the Arab world cannot understand why they have been laid low by events, and
they are willing to believe that the best explanation is that a conspiracy of outside forces
keeps the community down. This is not necessarily a view of the ignorant: it is often found
among those who assume that a just society would result in just outcomes. How, they ask,
can it be that their people suffer—they remain poor, and their future is so bleak—despite
their wealth, history, and devotion? The clearest answer is often ―outside forces‖ (Kuran,
2001). Thus, Israel becomes a powerful puppeteer that manipulates Western media against
the Arabs. Arab countries are maneuvered into conflict by Christians, Jews, and Atheists, or
by other unseen forces.
The Free Masons [which are controlled by Jews] ...control all the kaffir
[non-Muslim] institutions and systems in the world today ...they are
planning the mass sterilization of women ...they are able to instigate wars,
provide the arms for the two sides to be able to fight it, at a price of course,
and then take over control, or strengthen control if they already have it, once
the fighting is over, any opposition to them having been considerably
weakened by the inevitable consequences of war. (Thompson, 1995, 48-49)
The Islamist conspiracy viewpoint is similar to those seen in political cults (Tourish &
Wohlforth, 2000, 31-33).
Even well educated individuals within the Islamic society hold conspiratorial views, and such
views should not be dismissed with derision. As with Holocaust denial, these views left
unchallenged lead to wild leaps of logic incompatible with reality but compatible with
extremist views. The United States suffered from the results of these conspiracy theories
and had difficulty getting Muslims to believe that it was bin Laden—not a double—on the
infamous video, chortling over the deaths on September 11.
Islam as a ―Theory of Everything‖
In the modern West religion tends to be treated as a private matter, with civil institutions
providing a neutral arena for political discourse between various political, religious, and
social factions. As Supreme Court Justice Samuel Miller stated in 1872, ―The law knows no
heresy, and is committed to the support of no dogma, the establishment of no sect‖
(Menendez &Doerr, 2002, 175). Islam, however, makes no distinction between private and
public conduct, and does not distinguish between religious and civil matters. Many Muslims
agree that every institution of society and every department of government must be guided
by Islamic law. Laws based upon human authority are blasphemous (Maududi,1995, 15,
28). Mohammed was the last prophet, but he also was an administrator and a warrior
(Sullivan, 2001, 45).
Islamists argue that Islam provides answers to nearly all questions of daily life:
The Prophet determines the rules to serve as the basis of social and cultural
relationships, economic, judicial, and political dealings, matters of war and
peace, and international affairs. The Prophet does not transmit merely a code
of rituals commonly regarded as `religion.‘ He brings with him a whole
system of thought and action which is called Ad Din (the complete way of life)
in Islamic terminology. (Maududi, 1995, 6)
While modern Western states evolved secular systems as a result of ugly experiences with
internecine warfare and horrific religious excesses, Islamists point to failures of secularist

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states in their midst, wax poetic of lost Andalucia, and argue that their greatness will return
only when Islam becomes the center of society again.
The events recorded in the history of Islam during its golden ages, those ages
in which the Shariah was implemented in its entirety, provide that the
principle of Islamic legitimacy enjoyed priority over all decision and actions
taken by the rulers of the state (Hassan, H., 1993, 4).
The Islamist call for the return to pure Islam is a powerful one, and based upon a unique
historical perspective. The Muslim world was indeed the world center of learning during the
medieval period, and we are all lucky to be inheritors of its greatness. The decline of Islam
was long and sad, with the Ottoman Empire finally collapsing after the Great War, and the
Arab nations placed under administration of Western, Christian powers (Lewis, 2001). This
collapse is lamented by Islamists, such as bin Laden, because it resulted in what they
perceive to be the dismemberment of the Islamic Community by the Christian powers, and
the insertion of their satrap state, Israel, in their midst (Sullivan, 2001, 45).
Thus, bin Laden and other Islamists blame the Christian world for the current situation in
the Islamic world:
Ever since the beginning of Islam, the unbelievers have never ceased plotting
against this precious Muslim ummah (nation) in order to inject into it the
poison of disbelief, deviation, and moral degradation ....Over the fourteen
centuries of Islam, the unbelievers have gradually succeeded in some of these
plots ....In effect [the collapse of the Soviet Union] was the beginnings of
the second Crusades! ...The Muslims today face a barbaric onslaught from
their enemies—the Jews, Christians, atheists, secularists and others ....
Supported by a demonic global plan as well as unlimited financial backing,
this attack aims at domination and hegemony over the Islamic world dividing
it, attacking it culturally and morally, and perverting the true image of the
Religion. (Baaz, Not Dated)
Jihad Until Supremacy
Islamists focus on a traditional Islamic view of the world, which is divided into two
segments: the Dar al Islam, the Moslem domain of peace, and the Dar al Kufr, the domain
of war, a region that essentially covers all other lands, and also all lands within Islam not
administered by a caliphate, or in Arabic, khalifah. The word khalifah refers to the successor
or representative of Prophet Muhammad who acts as the head of state for the Muslim
community. Currently, there is no caliphate in existence it is the Islamist‘s goal to restore
the caliphate system. As stated in the Al Qaeda Manual (9):
I present this humble effort [a warfare manual] to these young Moslem men
who are pure, believing, and fighting for the cause of Allah. It is my
contribution toward paving the road that leads to majestic Allah and
establishes a caliphate according to the prophecy.
The goal of establishing a caliphate places the Islamists in conflict with all governments in
the Islamic world. Their enemies are not only Christians and Jews, but also Muslims who do
not follow Sharia laws or who govern a secular state. ―[Our goal is to bring] mankind to the
worship of their lord and establishing a khilafah on the pattern of prophethood,‖ explained
Azzam Publications, an Islamist propaganda organ on the Internet that has been taken
down. Thus, while the West incurs the wrath of the Islamist movement, its primary goal is
to eliminate all secular states and replace them with the caliphate.
Ummah is an Arabic word indicating the community of believers, the Islamic world. There is
no equivalent term in the West, although an archaic term Christendom does survive to spice