The Rising Threat of Jihadist Extremism in the World

The world is currently suffering from the heat of terrorism all across the world. The seeds of terrorism arose in the Middle East in the 19th century, when Islamic rebellions called *Khawarij or Khawarijis attacked in the Muslims house of Allah in Mecca – Saudi Arabia in late70s.  In the current days, Islamic extremism has risen from the Middle East in the 19^th century but the Arab states and the Western countries did not bother them and took this rising threat minimum until it started destroying the Western civilisation and posed a direct threat to the Western democratic values.

*The Khawarij: The Modern-day Jihadist revolutionary groups are collectively known amongst early and later-day Muslim scholars as the Khawarijis. In Islamic terminology, the word refers to those who exit the rule of the one in authority over them. They refuse to accept his authority and rebel; most commonly under the pretext of the charge of disbelief and removing of injustice. Another term that has been used for them by the scholars and Jurists is Takfiris. The term takeover here refers to those who go to extremes in declaring Muslims to be apostate, disbeliever or an infidel.

In November 1979, a radical Islamic group stormed the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the most sacred city in Islam. They had been smuggling weapons into the mosque over the period of days under burial shrouds and clothing. The siege lasted twenty days and was led by a group who believed that they had amongst a just leader who is to appear at the end of time and who will remove the injustices of the rulers and establish the law of God. After twenty days, these Islamic terrorists were killed, captured and executed in the army operation. They were Khawarijis who wanted to top down the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and attacked the Grand Mosque of Mecca and spread blood of Muslim pilgrims.

In October 1981, the Egyptian president, Anwar Sadat was assassinated in Cairo by an extremist group calling itself Jama’at al-Jihad (their leaders later called merged into the Muslim Brotherhood), as he reviewed a parade commemorating in the 1973 war. Lieutenant Khalid Istambuli, the leader of the assassin carried out,

I am Khalid Istambuli, I have killed Pharaoh and I do not fear death.

In February 1982, local members of the Muslim brotherhood, Al-Ikhwan al-Muslimoon, founded in Egypt, instigated a rebellion in the Syrian town of Hama. The government forces moved in with air and ground attack and recaptured the area from the Islamic terrorist group, killed around 40,000 to 50,000 thousand of Hama residents and destroyed the city of Hama completely.

There are various examples of these types of Islamic/Khawarij terrorist incidents in the Middle East and the Muslim and the Western world that are all too often ignored and forgotten, they have continued through onto the twenty first century with devastating consequences for Muslims and non-Muslims in the world alike.

Over the two decades the United Kingdom and the West in general has seen a rise of Jihadist extremism. Radical groups using methods similar to those of cult sects, have substantially increased their recruitment of disaffected Muslims, especially focusing upon youths, vulnerable and converts to Islam. Muslims and non-Muslims alike need to understand the context within those extremist sects operate and the principles they have invented to propagate their dangerous ideology. They must also understand the pretext they utilise to attacks target in the West. Indeed, suicide bombing, stabbing and car ramming in the West and in Israel is mare symptoms and extensions of that which these groups have unleashed upon the Muslim population for decades.

The extremists see the streets and markets of London, New York, Paris, Madrid, Karachi, Mumbai, Riyadh, Mecca and Jerusalem, to name a few, as “domains of war”.

The enemy is the established democratic government, the target for them is any person who happens to live within the domain of war, Muslims or non-Muslims alike. Their intent is to scare and shake democratic and peaceful societies, to create fear in civilian’s faces, to put terror into the hearts of the victims’ population, to destabilise elected governments; all of this is justified for them through Jihadist slogans, amongst which is “Whosoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed are the disbelievers”.

Islam denounces any type of extremism, rebelliousness and mischief in religion and against the innocent people in the world. There are many Islamic texts that condemned extremism and extremists. Early day and later day Muslim scholars strongly condemned and warned of the mischiefs of the Khawarij (Jihadist Extremist) in the world, even though, the Prophet of Islam (Peace Be Upon Him) warned in his sayings against the Khawarij groups.

The prophet of Islam (PBUH) stated:

“Beware of extremism in religion, for that which destroyed those who came before was extremism in religion” (The book of AN-NISAI)

The extremists are destroyed. The extremists are destroyed. The extremists are destroyed. (The book of Muslim)

The third century Muslim scholar Ahmed bin Hanbal (RA) stated:

“The Khawarijis are an evil people. I do not know upon the earth a people a more evil than them. There authentic narrations from the Prophet concerning (their censure) from ten different aspects”.

Ash-Shahrastani stated:

They (Khawarij) speak with takfir of those who commits a major sin and they declare that he is in the hellfire eternally.

Ibn Taymiyyah stated:

“The Khawarijis were the first to declare Muslims to be apostates; they would declare them to be disbelievers based upon sins that did not constitute idolatry. They declared anyone who did not agree with them in their deviate innovation to be disbelievers and made permissible the shedding of their blood and forcibly taking their wealth.”

In the current era, these Khawarijis run and operate their Jihadist activities under different Jihadi groups and names such as Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Taliban, The Muslims Brotherhood, Hamas, Hizb-ut-Tehrir, Bako Haram, Al-Muhajiroon and many others.

The religious violent extremism exists in Islam and it is now clear that the Prophet of Islam (PBUH) informed his followers that extremism is a reality that will take place, and thus, Muslims ought to be aware and not be deceived by those radicals who say “There is no such thing as extremism and that there are no such divisions in Islam”.

It is therefore incumbent upon every Muslim to free himself and distance himself from these rebellious Jihadist groups, regardless of what beautifully embellished title they give themselves. Indeed, it is a collective duty of the Muslims to inform or any suspicious activity of someone, pass on any information they have about these Muslim Jihadists and hand to terrorists and even Jihadist sympathisers or extremists to the authorities in Muslim countries or even in non-Muslim/Western countries, and this is not considered as a betrayal in Islam.