Terror in the Tropics

Islam, the teaching of reconciliation, is perceived as a harsh religion. The perception of Islam is tarnished by acts of wayward persons. The corruption of the knowledge of revelation confused the umma. The deterioration of knowledge was triggered by the reinterpretation of revelation. Rulers required a justification for waging unlawful wars of aggression to enlarge the empire. Mercenary ulama furnished their rulers with a religious justification for waging wars of aggression. For the purpose, they reinvented Islam as a teaching of war. They treated jihad al-talab - an expression of terrorism - as a sixth pillar of Islam. They treated wars of aggression as a religious requirement. They corrupted the knowledge of revelation by reinterpreting it as a religion of war. The reinterpretation required the weaponization of exegesis and jurisprudence. This entailed the repression of reason, the treatment of tradition as revelation, recourse to hawkish traditions and the abrogation of verses that restrict warfare to self-defense. The reinterpretation of Islam as a religion of war was reinforced by a turn from revelation to tradition. The turn was assisted by tarnishing the reputation of revelation. This was done by alleging that the Book of Allah is in parts unclear, insufficiently detailed, and contradictory. Two of these mischaracterizations were used to justify the turn from revelation to tradition. Recourse to tradition to clarify and detail the allegedly obscure and incomplete parts of the Book of Allah. The allegedly contradictory parts would be reconciled by recourse to the teaching of abrogation. Tarnishing the Book of Allah as unclear, insufficiently detailed and contradictory required rejecting all verses that teach that the Book of Allah is clear, fully detailed, and free of contradictions. The rejection of any verses in the Book of Allah, however, is an expression of kufr. In different words, the rejection of these verses was tantamount to a departure from Islam. The turn from revelation to tradition was further buttressed by the perception that all that the prophet uttered was revelation, and that we follow the prophet by following the traditions ascribed to him. Misinterpretations also encompass the perception that the verse according to which believers are asked to take whatever the messenger assigns to you and deny yourselves what he withholds from you as referring to traditions rather than physical assets left behind by fleeing persons. The turn from revelation to tradition also encompassed the perceptions that tradition possesses the power to judge and abrogate and even replace parts of revelation. This is shirk, as it treats persons as possessing the power to judge, abrogate and even replace the rulings of Allah. The weaponization of exegesis and jurisprudence enabled the emergence of the teaching of jihad al-talab or the propagation of Islam through compulsion, prohibited in revelation. The war to propagate Islam by resorting to force was to be waged against non-believers under the rubric of the war between the dar al-Islam and the dar al-harb, the Islamist variant of the clash of civilizations thesis until they remit the jizya or become Muslims. Exegetes and jurists that participated the corruption of the teaching of revelation, by reinterpreting Islam as a religion of war, betrayed their profession. For they permitted exegesis and jurisprudence to descend to the rank of political propaganda. This was a betrayal not just of scholarship but of the umma as well. Mercenary ulama replaced Islam with a bogus version, known as Islamism. The doctrine of jihad al-talab, a product of weaponized exegesis and jurisprudence was used to furnish a justification for wars aggression prohibited in revelation. It also paved the way for the emergence of present-day terrorism. Regrettably, the perception of terror as warfare and martyrdom accelerated the proliferation of terror.