7 July 2003 - The use of terror in Islam

It seems that in the world we live in terrorism is the focus of most political rhetoric. And it is the countries of the Muslim world that stand accused of harbouring terrorists if not backing them.

Terror is of itself a neutral word, even though it is a negative feeling no one likes experiencing. It depends on who experiences terror and why, that makes it good or bad. There is a world of difference between a robber who has broken into your house feeling terror when you put your gun in his mouth and the terror of the innocent girl in the bedroom who was being threatened by the robber to keep her quiet.

In Islam terror is justified only as a way of making an aggressor stop or reduce their aggression. This is the only justification for creating such a feeling in someone. It is like a cat that gets into a battle, it tries to make itself look big and scary by the fur standing on end and standing on tip toes with an arched back. In many creatures such tactics are used and always with the same goal and effect: to reduce the amount of actual violence. It is a classic natural part of self defence.

Now, the $64,000 question about any tactic is: "will it work?" and perhaps the million dollar question is "who has the right to decide if it will or it won't?". Freedom fighters, resistance fighters, revolutionaries of all kinds - call them terrorists if you like - are simply people who use violence and hence the fear or terror it causes, to achieve their goals. Broadly speaking there are however, only two goals in politics: domination or peaceful coexistence. In the case of Usama bin Laden his proclaimed goal is undoubtedly the latter as he repeatedly stresses the nature of his struggle as being "You will not have peace and security in your lands until you stop making war and causing oppression in our lands". Compare this with the pre-emptive doctrine of the USA where clearly the goal is domination.

This reflects a deeper political struggle which goes on over history: equality verses hierarchy. Islam unambiguously teaches that we should live in peace with one another and not seek to dominate or impose our will on one another.

So, will a tactic of terror work? It depends. But if you don't communicate your goals effectively it will certainly fail. And if it turns out what you really want is to impose your will as a master over his servants then you deserve to fail and deserve to feel some terror yourself.