The ‘War on Terrorism’—Perspectives from Radical Islamic Groups

Abstract

Contrary to both popular and academic belief, the 'War on Terrorism' launched by the United States has one very clear enemy: radical Islamism. The varied and complex world of Islamism has been reduced to one unitary enemy, and that enemy is being fought both militarily and ideologically. This paper analyses the impact that the War on Terrorism is having on its target and contends that the 'simplification' of the concept of radical Islamism by the US administration, while beneficial for the purely practical purposes of war, is very much detrimental to the understanding of such a phenomenon and leads to policy choices that deepen the fault lines between Islamists and the West. The paper concludes by arguing that the current War on Terrorism is running the risk of causing a 'return' of the jihadi Islamist ideology that had been comprehensively defeated within the vast Islamist world and that has been replaced by a much more pragmatic and much more peaceful approach to gaining political inclusion.

The Clash of Identities: An Analysis of the Causes of Salafi Jihadi Terrorism with Reference to Jemaah Islamiyah

“…In 2001, President Bush called the war a ‘crusade’ (BBC 2001) and this was followed by then Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's hope that the ‘superior’ Western civilisation ‘will continue to conquer [Islamic] peoples, like it conquered communism’ (CNN 2001). Likewise, groups such as al‐Qaeda and JI viewed the September 11 attacks and the consequent War on Terrorism as a clash of civilisations (Cavatorta 2005: 47; Esposito 2002: 120). Osama bin Laden stated in a letter to al‐Jazeera in November 2001 that Muslims ‘are resisting the strongest, fiercest, most dangerous and violent Crusader campaign against Islam since Muhammad was sent’ (bin Laden 2005: 135).…”

“…Alex Schmid (1983) identifies at least 109 different academic definitions of terrorism. Further, there are many manifestations of terrorism, such as territorial; transnational; group; and individual (‘lone‐wolf’) forms (Cavatorta 2005: 41; Errera 2005: 73–74). See Jessica Stern (2003: 3–8) on the complexity of terrorism.…”