Symbolism in Terrorism by Jonathan Matusitz

Author:Jonathan Matusitz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2012-11-11T05:00:00+00:00

Jihadist Globalism

Contemporary jihadists have framed many conflicts in religious terms. Examples are the war against the Soviet invaders in Afghanistan in the 1980s, the civil war in Bosnia in the early 1990s, and the conflict between Chechen secessionists and Russia (beginning in the mid-1990s). Regarding these conflicts as attacks on the ummah, extremists from numerous Muslim countries joined the jihad in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Chechnya in order to safeguard Islam. Under these circumstances, Al Qaeda (i.e., “The Base” in Arabic) surfaced in the late 1980s as an international jihadist network targeting more dispersed, symbolic people and permanent structures in its holy war on Western adversaries. At that time, Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), which became the Palestinian National Authority, regularly employed the word “jihad” to boost his influence in the Arab world.[31]

The term “jihadist globalism” is often used in relation to jihadism. Jihadist globalism was coined to describe modern-day jihadist violence as a reaction to Western forms of modernization—those that jihadists believe have exacerbated poverty, political instability, and daily life in Muslim society. Jihadist globalism is an intense reaction not only against market globalism but also against domestic groups that have imposed their routines on Muslim nations. Many people designate acts of terrorism, including the September 11, 2001, and the July 7, 2005, terrorist attacks, as demonstrations of jihadist globalism.[32] Suicide terror has been optimized as an exigency to fulfill the mission of jihadist globalism (e.g., in Dar es-Salaam, Iraq, Istanbul, Beirut, Buenos Aires, Casablanca, Nairobi, Russia, Chechnya, and Bali). In 2002, nightclubs were bombed in Bali. Four years before, in Tanzania and Kenya, it was U.S. embassies that were targeted. Let us not forget attacks on synagogues in Istanbul and Tunisia, an Israeli-owned hotel in Nairobi, and a Jewish club in Casablanca.[33]

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