THE CIVIL WAR SPREADS:

Egyptians press hunt for Sinai terrorists (Michael Slackman and Mona el-Naggar, AUGUST 30, 2005, The New York Times)

Thousands of Egyptian security troops have spread out across a sprawling mountain range in the northern Sinai in an increasingly violent hunt for terrorists.

Two high-ranking Egyptian police officers were killed last week when they drove over a land mine, the worst such incident since an Islamic insurgency in the mid-1990s, according to Egyptian security officials.

A week ago, the Egyptian Interior Ministry issued a statement saying it had captured, killed or identified all of those responsible for the suicide bombing attacks on resorts in Taba in October and Sharm el Sheik in July.

But what was supposed to have been a mopping up operation, with a handful of suspects being sought hiding in the caves and hideaways along Halal mountain, took a surprising turn when Major General Mahmoud Adel and Lieutenant Colonel Omar Abdel Moneim were killed last week and the security forces were forced to temporarily withdraw, officials said.

By Monday, officials said that there were thousands of security agents back on the hunt, aided by armored vehicles and army minesweepers searching for mines planted in the rugged terrain of the mountain range.

"This is a huge mountainous region," said an official in the Interior Ministry. "It is high and rugged with caves and turns. We are coming in from below and they are in control from above. It is expected that we lose some men because it is a war and there are arms being used."

Where many predicted a clash of civilizations, what we have is fundamentally a series of battles within Islam itself and we're just an intensely interested outside party.

MORE:
Jihadism's roots in political Islam (Bassam Tibi, AUGUST 30, 2005, International Herald Tribune)

Although jihadism may not be Islamic, it is based on the ideology of Islamism, which has emerged from the politicization of Islam in the current war of ideas.

It is difficult to overstate the importance of recognizing this truth. Jihadism will continue to be with us for decades to come, as long as the movement related to it within Islamic civilization continues to thrive and to disseminate its deadly ideas.

Jihadists see themselves as non-state actors waging an irregular war against "kafirun," or unbelievers. They see their struggle as a just war legitimated by a religious, political and military interpretation of the Islamic concept of jihad.

Jihadism's relation to Islamism can be stated in a nutshell: Jihadists read the classical doctrine of jihad in a new mind while reinventing Islamic tradition.

Although the Koran allows Muslims to resort to "qital" (physical fighting) for the benefit of Islam, this is clearly for reasons other than terrorism, because the Koran allows qital only under strict rules, while terrorism, by definition, is a war without rules. The new interpretation of jihad adds an "ism" to it, jihad becoming jihadism (jihadiyya), an irregular war that is a variety of modern terrorism.

It is wrong and even deceitful to argue that jihadism has nothing to do with Islam, because the jihadists believe that they are acting as "true Islamic believers" and learn the Islamist mind-set in mosques and Islamic schools, including those of the Islamic diaspora in Europe.

It follows that the debate over whether these terrorists are "Islamic" or "un-Islamic" is meaningless. The fact is that jihadism is a new direction in Islamic civilization, an expression of the contemporary "revolt against the West" that enjoys tremendous popularity in the ongoing war of ideas. In order to combat the deadly idea of jihadism successfully, it is necessary to seek Muslim cooperation to determine who the jihadists are, rather than engaging in empty arguments.

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 30, 2005 12:00 AM