The Media Demagogues Are at it Again: Islamism is a Cancer!

At the turn of the century I wrote a capstone essay Concepts of Jihad in the Twentith Century. The paper is a examination of outer struggle, and inner struggle faced by many Muslims. This is really too complex of an issue to completely unpack in a blog post. Even the 70 page essay did not even give the topic enough justice. The purpose of this blog is to give you a high level overview of one philosophical ideology expressed through the outer struggle of Political Islam: Islamisim. I understand this is a very dense and complex issue, which is easy to demagogue. This is why the regressive left has chosen this term as an attack surface in which to attack General Michael Flynn with their racist, homophobe, misogynist, Islamophobia narrative.

November 22, 2016 retired General Michael Flynn; National security adviser to President-Elect Donald J. Trumps is being criticized in the legacy media, for saying in a Islam is a cancer in a paid speech in August. He said "Islamism is a cancer."  It's not an inaccurate statement to say Islamisim is a cancer.  Before you crucify me and call me some sort of Islamophobe we need to say that Islamism is not the same as Islam. Follow me here. Islam is the religion which Muslims practice. Muslims are those that practice a monotheistic religion founded in 6th century Arabia, where they submit to the will of God as dictated in their holy book the Qur'an. Islamism by contrast is radical fundemantalist political philosophy. This philosophical school of thought is also known as by the name of Salifism and Wahabism. This philosophy is followed by September 11th attackers and Daesh.*

So what is the basic philosophical tenet of this philosophy? To keep things simple it is the belief that the only correct practice of Islam was during the 4 Rightly Guided Caliphs. These were the direct successors, of the Prophet Mohammad [Peace and Blessings be Upon Him]: Abu Bakr, Uthman, Omar, and Ali. Unpacking these men and what it meant for the development of the Umma, {the Muslim community} and its historical implications to Islam is beyond the scope of this blog. It is enough to say these are universally agreed upon by all sects of Islam as the rightful successors of Prophet Mohammad [Peace and Blessing Upon Him]. This philosophy was developed during the 1920's in British Colonial Egypt by Sayyid-Qutb a founding member of Ikhwanweb better known in English by the Muslim Brotherhood. His radical writing was based off a 11th Century Scholar Ibn Taymiyyah which argued that Sufism was a result of Muslims moving away from the fundamental doctrine of following of Sunni Islam. Qutb a radical reporter took these ideas and applied it to the his contemporary age and the colonialism of the Late British Empire, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. To bring this into context the first World War had just ended in 1917, and Egypt was both a important political, and cultural center of the Ottoman Empire. Now they were under occupation. Qutb thought this was a punishment from God, because Muslims had fell away from fundamental practice. The Muslim Brotherhood or its successors have never been shy of using violence as a means to accomplish its political end. Qutb, is essentially the founding father of modern Islamic Jihadi Terrorism.

Islamism is not the same is Pan Arabism which is also political movement which seeks to unite Arabs and North Africans under a single political idea. The idea of Pan Arab and Islamist movements are often confused, as being synonyms however, they differ inasmuch as Pan Arab is mostly secular, and Marxist in orientation.  Islamism by contrast is also Marxist it more closely resembles Liberation Theology by pushing Marxist/Communist ideas using religion as a means to recruit and of concealment. Islamism is a means to radicalize generally conservative pious people to violent revolt ushering in authoritarian ideas.

I understand this is a very dense and complex issue, which is easy to demagogue. This is why the regressive left has chosen this to as an attack surface to attack General Michael Flynn with their racist, homophobe, misogynist, Islamaphobe narrative. I hope this high level over view gave you a great understanding of what the General was actually saying and why it indeed is a cancer, not only for Islam, Muslims, but the entire world.

*Daesh is the insulting name for ISIS. It roughly translates to those that screw donkeys.