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Allah is in the game, but not on al Qaeda's side
by Donald Sensing. . . In religious terms, [Wahabbi-style Islam] is a religion of "realized eschatology," that by acting as if the utopian state can be significantly achieved in this present time, then the day will come, fairly soon, when the utopia will be entirely realized, an accomplishment that they view as certain anyway. Hence, the point of al Qaeda's terrorism, and of their allied groups, is to put them on the right side of history, to borrow a Marxist term. They understand that one way or another, the dar al Islam will ultimately triumph over the dar al harb: Islam will reign supreme over infidels. They seek, first, to be true Muslims and second, to help history move toward that triumph. Their willingness to wage jihad against the infidels, especially giving their lives to do so, is how they cement their place as keepers and defenders of the faith. This faithfulness is not intended to make Allah suddenly, personally strike his enemies dead, but to make Islamist victory inevitable. Why? Because when they order their lives according to Islamic dicta (as they propound it), the flow of human affairs will naturally lead to Islamic triumph. Thats the way Allah has ordered the world. But this belief is dependent upon a few things, not least of which is that Islam is actually the one true faith in all the world. It depends on their presuppositions that America is weak and weak willed. It depends on the Muslim ummah really wanting to see Islamism established across all the Arab lands, and that the ummah are willing to side with Islamists to make it so. All these things are highly problematic. However concrete al Qaedas ultimate goals may appear, achieving them rests on a serious sense of self delusion and premises that are far from certain. The death of Zarqawi does nothing to make Islamism's vision of utopia appear more likely in the eyes of the hundreds of millions of Muslims who are sitting on the fence, waiting to see which side to step off to. If al Qaeda et. al. really are the keepers of the true faith of Islam, as they insist they are, then it's reasonable for other Muslims to ask just when Allah will finally get in the game. I think that more and more Muslims will decide that Ashraf al-Akhras is right: Allah is in the game, but not on al Qaeda's side. Posted by: Mike 2006-06-09 |
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