TERRORISM AND EVOLUTION OF

NEW MUSLIM UMMAH

Introduction
1.
The topic of terrorism is both
complex and emotive. It is complex because
it combines so many different aspects of
human experience, including subjects such
as politics, psychology, philosophy, military
strategy, and history, to name a few.
Terrorism is also emotive both because
experiences of terrorist acts arouse
tremendous feelings, and because those who
see terrorists as justified often have strong
feelings concerning the rightness of the use
of violence1.
2.
While the atrocities and acts of
terrorism committed by violent extremists
have connected Islam with terrorism, the
Islamic tradition places limits on the use of
violence and rejects terrorism, hijacking,
and hostage taking. As with other faiths,
mainstream and normative doctrines and
laws are ignored, distorted, or hijacked by a
radical fringe. Islamic law, drawing on the
Quran, sets out clear guidelines for the
conduct of war and rejects acts of terrorism.
Islam, like all world religions, neither
supports nor requires illegitimate violence.
The Quran does not advocate or condone
terrorism. However, Quranic verses also
underscore that peace and warfare are the
norm. Permission to fight the enemy is
balanced by a strong mandate for making
peace.2
3.
Religious terrorism occurs when the
use of terrorism is systematized by an
ideological and fanatical interpretation of a
religious text. Religious terrorist groups
functioning in the absence of this pretext,
create junk terrorism. According to
Charles Kimball, religious terrorism
1

Teaching Guide on International Terrorism:

Definitions, Causes, and Responses.
2
Islam, Globalization and Counter terrorism by
Juhaya S. Praja
Terrorism and Evolution of New Muslim Ummah

functions on the basis of five essential

principles. These are: means justify the end,
holy war, blind obedience, absolute truth
claims and the ideal times. Kimball explains
that truth claims are essential points in a
religion at which divergent interpretations
arise. Extreme interpretations of truth
claims provoke the ideology upon which
religious terrorism is based. 3
4.
Thinkers also come to conclusion
that the worlds approach to religion can and
must be changed. Nicholas Wade in the
Faith Instinct argues Religious behavior
evolved for single reason to further the
survival of human societies. Those who
administer religion should not assume they
cannot be altered.4 Marc Sageman's book
Leaderless Jihad: Terror Networks in the
Twenty-First Century (University of
Pennsylvania Press; 2008) asserts that most
terrorists lack religious knowledge and were
secular individuals until just before joining
an extremist group. He concludes, "A wellestablished religious identity actually
protects against violent radicalization."
Sageman, who analyzed more than 500
cases to understand how people "evolve into
terrorists," describes the radicalization
process as having several stages, but
emphasizes that there was no linear
progression from one stage to the next.5

Statistical Analysis of Terrorism

5.
Geographical Index. The average
level of global peacefulness remained stable;
3

Religious Basis for Islamic Terrorism: The Quran

and its Interpretations by Dr. Amritha Venkatraman
4
The Great Leap-Fraud: Social Economics of
Religious Terrorism, Volume II By A. J. Deus P 708
5
Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam by Parvez
Ahmed Professor, University of North Florida.

a number of indicators and countries did

deteriorate while others improved. Four out
of the nine geographical regions experienced
an improvement in peace: Europe, North
America, sub-Saharan Africa and Central
America and the Caribbean. The other five
regions became less peaceful. The most
substantial changes in the Index occurred in
the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
where several countries suffered from an
upsurge in violence related to sectarian strife
and civil conflicts, resulting in the region
being ranked as the least peaceful in the
world. 6

ongoing conflict. Figure 2 highlights the

number of deaths from terrorism each year
over the period 1998 to 2013. The increase
in deaths from terrorism has been
particularly noticeable over the past three
years, increasing by 61 per cent between
2012 and 2013 alone. A handful of terrorist
organisations are responsible for the
majority of deaths. The Taliban, ISIL, Boko
Haram and al-Qaida and its affiliates were
responsible for 63 per cent of all deaths from
terrorism in 2013. All four groups have
remained active in 2014 and 2015. 7

Source: IEP, Global Peace Index

Fig 2. Deaths from Terrorism, 2000-2014
Source: IEP, Global Terrorism Index

6.

Religious Terrorism. After the end

of the Cold War and various peace processes
led to the waning of ideological and
nationalist terrorism, the start of the 21st
century saw a sharp increase in terrorism by
religious groups, often in the context of

EU Countries.
In 2014, seven
EU Member States reported a total of 201
terrorist attacks, which resulted in the death
of four people and the injury of six. The
total number of terrorist incidents continued
to decrease Attacks, which resulted in the
death of four people and the injury of six.
The total number of terrorist incidents
continued to decrease in all EU countries
except the United Kingdom, where they
tripled since 2013. The UK attacks represent

7.

Fig 1. GPI overall score and overall Score

Change by Region, 20082015

Global Peace Index Report 2015

Terrorism and Evolution of New Muslim Ummah

Global Peace Index Report 2015

more than half of the total number of

terrorist incidents in the EU for the reporting
period. Spain and Italy experienced an
increase in the number of arson attacks,
compared to last year in which criminal
damage accounted for the majority of
incidents. The number of attacks targeting
critical infrastructure increased from one to
eight. One attack classified as religiously
inspired attack was reported by Belgium.
Four people were killed in the incident. One
other religiously inspired attack was
reported by France. Terrorist attacks linked
to separatist terrorism 4 in 2013 and to 67 in
2014. All incidents for the reporting period
occurred in Spain and France (17 and 50
respectively).8

Fig 3.
Overview of the Failed, Foiled and
Completed attacks in 2014 per EU Member
State and per Affiliation

USA. An FBI report shows that

only a small percentage of terrorist attacks
carried out on U.S. soil between 1980 and
2005 were perpetrated by Muslims.
Princeton
Universitys
Loon
Watch
compiled the following chart from the FBIs
data:
8.

Fig 4. Terrorist Attacks on U.S. Soil by Group,

According to FBI Database

According to this data, there were

more Jewish acts of terrorism within the
United States than Islamic (7% vs 6%).
These radical Jews committed acts of
terrorism in the name of their religion.
These were not terrorists who happened to
be Jews; rather, they were extremist Jews
who committed acts of terrorism based on
their religious passions, just like Al-Qaeda
and company.9
9.

Emergence of New Ummah

10.
The phrase not all Muslims are
terrorists seems to get thrown about a lot.
More often than not it is used to defend
Muslims against prejudice attacks from
those who have negative views of Muslims
as a whole. However, some of those who are
slightly more apologetic for Muslims will
resort to using an even more developed
version of the original phrase not all
Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are
Muslim. The first part is quite obviously
correct, however the second part all
9

European Union Terrorism Situation and Trend

Report EUROPOL 2015
Terrorism and Evolution of New Muslim Ummah

Non-Muslims Carried Out More than 90% of All

Terrorist Attacks in America; Washington's Blog and
Global Research, 1 May 2013

terrorists are Muslim is just as much of a

misconception as believing that all Muslims
want to cut your head off or set you alight.10
11.
The majority of Muslims are not
located in the motherland of Islam, but
Indonesia, India and Pakistan. The faces of
Islam in these geopolitical locations are
more moderate than what has developed in
the Middle East. However, the global
interaction among the people of Muslim
countries does not only introduce moderate
Islam, but also militant ideas and practices
as the resistance to the common enemy,
namely the West. Terrorism is not Islamic at
all and will never become part of the Islamic
teaching.11
12.
Muslims today understand newfound
forms of cultural engagement and civic
activism to be important avenues for
securing the right of religious freedom in the
name of the Constitution and the Bill of
Rights for American Muslims. U.S.-based
partnerships like the Clergy Beyond Borders
(CBB), founded jointly by Muslim, Jewish,
and Christian American clerics, further
illustrate this larger trend among forwardlooking Muslim Americans and their
counterparts in other faiths to integrate Islam
into Americas cultural and religious fabric.
The CBB website emphasizes the
organizations vision that all religions
contain a message of commitment to
improving the world. CBB advocates
mutual recognition among religious
communities, seeking not to remove
meaningful borders between them, but rather

to build bridges of understanding and

cooperation.12
13.
"Muslim-American
communities
have
been
active
in
preventing
radicalization," said Charles Kurzman,
professor of sociology at UNC, in the
statement. "This is one reason that MuslimAmerican terrorism has resulted in fewer
than three dozen of the 136,000 murders
committed in the United States since 9/11."13

Fig 5. Public officials should attend events

at mosques, to monitor the preachings
Way Forward
Muslims
have
responded
to
Islamophobia and shariaphobia in motley
and creative ways. They have adopted a
responsive
posture
in
combatting
misinformation
about
Islam
while
reclaiming each by supporting, participating
in, and initiating community and public
engagement projects. They have also started
contributing to politics, popular culture, and
an ongoing interfaith dialogue at their
regional level. Muslims today emphasize
they see as shared Non Islamic and Islamic
values of honoring and celebrating
14.

10

A response to the phrase not all Muslims are

terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslim Jun 6 by
Ideology. Vision. Discussion.
11
Islam, Globalization and Counter terrorism by
Juhaya S. Praja
Terrorism and Evolution of New Muslim Ummah

12

Post-9/11: Making Islam an American Religion By

Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad and Nazir Nader Harb
13
Study: Threat of Muslim-American terrorism in
U.S. exaggerated January 6, 2010

difference. They also envision their efforts

to integrate Islam into the tapestry of society
as a way of protecting themselves from the
phobias that adversely affect and threaten
their communities.
15.
Muslim communities themselves are
playing a large role in keeping the number
of radicalized members low through their
own practices, according to the study.
Leaders and Muslim organizations denounce
violent acts, for instance, in messages that
have weight within communities. In
addition, such communities often self-police
confronting those who express radical
ideology or support for terrorism and
communicating concerns about radical
individuals to authorities. Some Muslim
have adopted programs for youth to help
identify those who react inappropriately to
controversial issues so they can undergo
counseling and education.
16.
More and more Muslim college
students are finding creative ways to reach
out to their local communities beyond their
campuses as well. Georgetown Universitys
Muslim Chaplaincy, one of only 13 such
programs in the United States, offered a
Muslim Alternative Spring Break for the
first time in March 2012. After a competitive
selection process, 12 Muslim undergraduate
students led by their campus Imam traveled
to Parkersburg, West Virginia to work with
Habitat for Humanity building homes for a
family in need. Students spent their entire
Spring Break in service working side-byside in the community.
Conclusion
17.
There has been a notable shift from a
Muslim identity politics based on
disassociating from regional identity, or
regional exceptionalism and its cultural
Terrorism and Evolution of New Muslim Ummah

trappings, to a stance of integration and

cultural assimilation. That is not to say that
Muslims have abandoned their customs to
conform to regional imaginary, but that
many Muslims have redoubled efforts to
retell the story of Islam in their region.
Muslims in the last 12 years have also
sought to substantiate their claims about a
copacetic identity that is both in their region
and Muslim by writing about Islam as an
authentically religion; indeed, since 9/11
there has been a plethora of publications
both online and in print dedicated to the
notion that Islam is an American religion
and that Muslims are every bit as citizens as
their Jewish and Christian counterparts.
These works are another piece of the
intricate tapestry of projects and movements
American Muslims have initiated since 9/11.
18.
These undertakings illustrate a
certain set of social shifts taking place in
Muslim communities and intellectual
circles. These changes reflect the evolving
realities of a more deeply rooted immigrant
population as well as the complex and
lasting impact of 9/11 on world most diverse
and vulnerable religious community as it
struggles to gain acceptance into mainstream
society through the practice of different but
integrated forms of Islam.