From Barbary Wars to Somali piracy, the "water" jihad has a
long lineage
by Raymond
Ibrahim
Pajamas Media
April 17, 2009
http://www.meforum.org/2126/barbary-wars-somali-piracy-water-jihad
During the recent Somali pirate standoff with U.S. forces,
when American sea captain Richard Phillips was being held hostage, Fox
News analyst Charles Krauthammer confidently concluded
that "the good news is that these [pirates] are not jihadists. If it's a
jihadist holding a hostage, there is going to be a lot of death. These
guys are interested not in martyrdom but in money."
In fact, the only good news is that Richard Phillips has
been rescued. The bad news is that what appears to have been a bunch of
lawless, plunder-seeking Somalis "yo-hoing" on the high seas may well in
fact be related to the jihad — as attested to by both Islamic history and
doctrine.
Indeed, the first jihad a newborn U.S. encountered was of a
pirate nature: the Barbary Wars off the coast of North Africa (beginning
1801, exactly 200 years before September 11, 2001). Writing in the
Middle East Quarterly a year before Somali piracy made headlines,
U.S. sea captain Melvin E. Lee — who knows in theory what Captain Phillips
may have learned in practice — writes:
What Americans and Europeans saw as piracy, Barbary
leaders justified as legitimate jihad. [President Thomas] Jefferson
related a conversation he had in Paris with Ambassador Abdrahaman of
Tripoli, who told him that all Christians are sinners in the context of
the Koran and that it was a Muslim's "right and duty to make war upon
them wherever they could be found, and to enslave as many as they could
take as prisoners."
Lee goes on to reflect: "One of the greatest challenges
facing strategic leaders today is objectively examining the centuries-old
roots of Islamic jihadism and developing a strategy that will lead to a
lasting solution to the Western conflict with it. … This inability to
grasp the root of Islamic jihadism is the result of a moral relativism
prominent in modern Western liberal thought."
This last point is especially poignant. While U.S.
leadership is capable of mouthing history, so too is it in the habit of
distorting the past through such "moral relativism." Hillary Clinton, for
example, in a press conference about the Somali kidnapping crisis, put an
interesting spin on the Barbary Wars when she said — in between fits of
hysterical
and inexplicable laughter — that America and Morocco worked
"together to end piracy off the coast of Morocco all those years ago, and,
uh, we're going to work together to end, uh, this kind of, uh, criminal
activity anywhere on the high seas."
Historical anecdotes aside, it need be acknowledged that,
doctrinally speaking, the jihad has various manifestations; it is not
limited to bearded, "Allah Akbar"-screaming mujahidin fighting in
Afghanistan and lurking in caves. Along with jihad al-lissan and
jihad al-qalam (jihad of the tongue and pen, respectively, i.e.,
propaganda jihad), one of the most important forms of jihad is known as
jihad al-mal — or "money jihad."
The money jihad is fulfilled whenever a Muslim financially
supports the more familiar violent jihad. The Koran itself declares: "Go
forth, light-armed and heavy-armed, and strive with your wealth and
your lives in the way of Allah! That is best for you if you but knew"
(9:41).
Several other verses (see 9:20, 9:60, 49:15, and 61:10-11)
make the same assertion and, more importantly, in the same order: striving
with one's wealth almost always precedes striving with one's
life, thereby prioritizing the former over the latter, at least
according to a number of jurists and mufasirin.
Muhammad himself, according to a canonical
hadith (collected by al-Tirmidhi), said: "He who equips a raider
[i.e., mujahid] so he can wage jihad in Allah's path … is himself a raider
[i.e., achieves the same status of mujahid]."
Moreover, the seafaring jihadist — or, in Western parlance,
the "pirate" — is forgiven all sins upon setting foot in a boat to wage
war upon infidels; he receives double the reward of his terrestrial
counterpart — which is saying much considering the martyred mujahid is, of
all Muslims, guaranteed the highest celestial rewards (see Majid
Khadduri's magisterial War
and Peace in the Law of Islam, p. 113).
There's more. Islamic law (Sharia), what mainland Somali
Islamists have been successfully waging a jihad to implement, has much to
say about kidnapping, ransom demands, and slavery. U.S. leadership should
keep this in mind if and when they consider the plight of the other
200 hostages in Somalia. According to Sharia, there are only four
ways to deal with infidel hostages: 1) execution, 2) enslavement, 3)
exchange for Muslim prisoners, or 4) exchange for ransom. Those hostages
who have not been executed are therefore currently living as slaves to
their Somali overlords.
This is clearly the case of Canadian journalist Amanda
Lindhout, for whom the Somalis are demanding $2.5 million in
ransom. Eight months ago, she was abducted, raped, and impregnated by
Somali Islamists and is currently "owned" by them — or, in the words of
the Koran (e.g., 4:3), she is ma malakat
aymankum, i.e., human "property" conquered and possessed by
jihadi force:
The term spoil (ghanima) is applied specifically to
property acquired by force from non-Muslims. It includes, however, not
only property (movable and immovable) but also persons, whether in the
capacity of asra (prisoners of war) or sabi (women and
children). … If the slave were a woman, the master was permitted to have
sexual connection with her as a concubine (Khadduri, p. 119,
131).
Finally, for those readers who refuse to interpret
modern-day events in light of "antiquated" history or arcane religious
doctrine, here's an August 2008 Reuters
report revealing that what top news analysts are now dismissing as a bunch
of random pirates scouring the coast of Somalia may well be directly
related to the mainland, if not international, jihad:
An explosion of piracy this month off the coast of Somalia
is funding a growing insurgency onshore as the hijackers funnel hefty
ransom payments to Islamist rebels. … According to our information, the
money they make from piracy and ransoms goes to support al-Shabaab
activities onshore.
Al-Shabaab ("the youth"), of course, are the
al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamists currently taking over Somalia.
Thus, in the words of Krauthammer, whereas "these guys are
interested not in martyrdom but in money," the facts remain: whatever
their "true" motivation, a portion of this money funds the greater jihad;
and those "pirates" slain by U.S. ("infidel") firearms are most likely
being portrayed as martyrs by their companions.
Does this mean that all pirates who happen to be Muslim are
funding the jihad and fervently seeking after "martyrdom"? Of course not.
But it is a reminder that what may appear to Americans as "um, criminal
activities" (in the memorable hilarities of Hillary) have a long pedigree
and, within an Islamist context, may have method to their madness.
From Muhammad's 7th-century caravan raids, to the Muslim
conquests, to the Barbary wars, to modern-day Somali piracy—all of which
were likely triggered by the desire for booty and plunder rather than
religion per se—so long as jihadi doctrines continue providing the base
proclivities of man with a veneer of respectability, indeed, piety, so
long will such behavior be endemic to the lands, and waterways, of the
jihad, irrespective of true motivation.
Originally published at: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/what-piracy-this-is-the-same-old-jihad/
Raymond
Ibrahim is the associate director of the Middle East Forum and the
author of The Al Qaeda Reader, translations of religious texts
and propaganda.
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