Yes, Terrorism has a Religion

Adolfo Lujan photo

By

Sami Jamil Jadallah

Please, let us dispense with the niceties and the political correctness and admit that Terrorism has a Religion. And this religion is Islam, Judaism, Christianity, and Hinduism. The terrorists for the most part, if not all, come from these different faiths. One must add that “Racist Nationalism” is also a religion albeit secular in nature but has deep roots in religion. None of the Abrahamic religions, adding Hinduism, are innocent.

The rise of modern day Islamic Terrorism has its roots in Saudi Arabia with the November 1979 attack on the Holy Mosque in Mecca by Juhayman al-Otaybi and the discovery by Saudi intelligence services that they had a “problem”. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was a “windfall” for Saudi Arabia and many Arab countries to export their “Jihadists” to Afghanistan. Hundreds of thousands were recruited and joined the Jihad with active and full support from the United States.

This is the time when the Saudi religious and political establishment pushed for more conservative restrictive religious measures and theology which it exported to all four corners of the world. All this came to an abrupt end with the ascension of Prince Mohamed Bin Salman who dared to redefine the new message of the religious establishment.

The recent horrific massacres in Sri Lanka and the wanton murder of innocent people by an “Islamist” group is clear evidence that terrorism does have a religion and in this case it is Islam, or at least the version of Islam that has been promoted and well-funded by the Salafi “duaat” for the last 40 years, since the Mujahedeen war against the Soviets. The practice, theology, and ideology did not change. Of course in those days the Pakistani intelligence services made good use of terrorism transforming the Mujahedeen into the Taliban.

The suicide bombing in Occupied Palestine which became the norm for a while was also motivated by religion which was directed against an Israeli-Jewish occupation also motivated and justified by religion.

The US is far from being innocent and in fact did play a major role in the rise of “Islamic Terrorism” from Afghanistan to the present day Iraq and Syria. The US recruited religious officers from the ranks of the Muslim Brotherhood, the likes of Ahmed Azzam, Sheik Omar Abdul-Rahman, and Ayman al-Zawahiri among others. Till recently, and after orders from political leaderships, Muslim preachers who used to curse Infidels; Jews and Christians during Friday prayers stopped doing so and began to preach a new message of peace, harmony and tolerance.

The attack on Jewish worshipers in the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh by Robert Bowers, a White Nationalist, was also motivated not only by White racism but by religion as well.

For a long time and since the Reagan years, with the rise of Evangelical Christianity and the Unholy Alliance between Jewish Zionism and Evangelical Christianity there have been many cases of what should be defined “state terrorism” committed by a certain number of American soldiers whether in Iraq or in Afghanistan, in addition to individual acts of terrorism here in the United States committed against Muslims as well as against blacks.

Attacks by Christian terrorists and White Nationalists went mainstream with the likes of Franklin Graham, who has millions of followers calling “Islam Evil” adding “Islam is evil and wicked” and referring to his issues with Obama as “the problem is that he was born Muslim.”

Other megachurch Christian preachers like Pat Robertson referred to Islam as ”not a religion”, calling for ”the total shutdown of Muslims entities in the US.” Jerry Falwell Jr, in a student convocation at Liberty University attended by over 20,000 cheering students, called for everyone to “buy guns…we could end those Muslims before they walk-in.”

Those incitements of hate and theological terrorism became the norm within the US military during their deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan. With chaplains in a military airbase declaring “Christians in the US armed forces serve Satan and are grossly in error if they support service members’ right to practice other faiths.” Such incitement was well practiced by the invading US Army in Iraq.

The same is true of the attacks on mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand by an Australian White Nationalist, certainly motivated by religion since he sees Islam has no place or space in his Christian world.

It is not only Christians and Muslims who are terrorists, but Jews as well. They too are motivated by religious ideology and believe that the life and existence of a non-Jew is a burden on humanity. This contempt for Goyim is engraved in Talmudic traditions.

The late Israeli Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef incited hate and called for genocide relying on language in the Torah: “The Lord shall return their deeds on their heads, waste their seeds and exterminate them, devastate them and vanish them from this world. It is forbidden to be merciful on them, you must send missiles to them and annihilate them.”

Incitement of hate and terrorism is actively promoted in many Yeshivas in the colonized West Bank, with many of the colonial settlers forming terrorist organizations that not only commit mass murder as is the case of the New York-born Jewish Rabbi Baruch Goldstein who died on February 25, 1094 having shot dead over 30 Muslim worshippers during the early morning prayers and wounding more than a hundred.

The West Bank Rabbi of Yitzhar Yeshiva author of the “King Torah” legitimizing the killing of non-Jews as part of the Halachic adjudication of non-Jews. This religious hate was confirmed with the recent appointment of the IDF Chief Rabbi Eyal Karim who declared “It is acceptable to rape non-Jewish women during war times to improve moral”, declaring that ”Jewish laws remove restrictions on soldiers and the Torah permitted the individuals to satisfy the evil urge.” I am sure Alan Dershowitz will use this argument in defense of Harvey Weinstein.

Jewish terrorism preceded the creations of the State of Israel with Jewish agents blowing up Jewish places of worship in Iraq and Egypt, and blowing up public facilities of the US and other Europeans in Cairo (Lavon Affair) and with numerous terrorist acts committed by the Irgun and Haganah. Jewish terrorist organizations used terrorism as the most efficient means to drive Palestinians out of their home and succeeded in so doing.

In modern day Israel, Israeli colonial settlers commit daily terrorist attacks on Palestinians, from running over Palestinians with their cars, going back and forth to make sure the woman’s head is completely crushed, to pouring gasoline down the throat of a Palestinian teen and setting him on fire, to burning down the Church of the “Loaves and Bread” in Tabgha-Tiberias with Jewish terrorists writing Jewish prayers in red urging the “cutting down of idol worshipers.”

Hindu Terrorism is of course another story and for a later article…

Sami Jamil Jadallah

Sami Jamil Jadallah is a US citizen, an immigrant from Palestine with over 35 years of international legal and business experience in the US, Middle East, Europe and North Africa. He is a Veteran of the US Army and holds a BA degree in political science and economics, a master degree in public and environmental affairs and doctor of jurisprudence from Indiana University.

Active in international and local affairs, Sami is a co-drafter of the Preamble for the Constitution of the One State for All of its People in Palestine and is active in veteran’s affairs in support of their re-integration in American society. He lectures and writes on a variety of topics including terrorism, social, economic and political issues related to the US and the Middle East.

Sami believes that education is the only way to transform the Middle East into a peaceful productive region and calls on all foreign troops to get out of the Middle East, leaving the people to shape their own destiny. Sami is in semi-retirement but fully engaged in voluntary work and engaged in the peace movement in the Middle East.