Islamic Extremism and the Creation of Religious Extremist Groups

Introduction 

In his 2015 article, Ben Norton states that ideologies are not independent from material reality and that every religion has extremists. Therefore, religious ideologies like Islam cannot be devoid of material conditions and social forces that use the ideology in reality, for instance politically. The author emphatically states that Islamic extremism was imposed on the Middle East by the West, particularly the United States and its allies like Britain using a combination of imperial machinations and radicalization of people ruled by tyrannical regimes and in extreme poverty (Norton, 2015). It is the use or abuse of the Islamic extremism in the fight against USSR and communism during the Cold War that led to the revival of Islamic extremism that led to the formation of Salaffi groups like Al Qaida, ISIS, Taliban and Boko Haram among others. The creation of the these groups that use Islamic extremism is reminiscent of the religious extremism used in medieval Spain to establish a political government using the papacy of the Catholic faith where Jews were persecuted, forced to leave or convert to Christianity. 

The Use/Abuse of Islamic Extremism 

In the article, Ben Norton traces the roots of violent Islamic extremism and the formation of Salafi groups like ISIS and Al-Qaida to several issues surrounding the use of the Islam faith. The use of Islamic extremism in as a Cold War strategy by the United States is explicit as the author puts it and believes that the world must find the genesis of the problem so as to solve the wide spreading of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Taliban, Mujahedeen, Boko Haram, Hamas and others (Norton, 2015). The author traces all these to the Western strategy on Soviet Union during the Cold War era, especially the use of Muslim wealthy figures like Osama bin Laden and the creation and perpetuation of fundamental Islamic states and nations like Saudi Arabia, and Iraq under Saddam Hussein (Norton, 2015). Further, the systematic annihilation of secularism and open societies that embraced socialism and significant freedoms for women was spearheaded by the West in its bid to control communism and the Soviet influence. These strategies could only work using religious ideology and in this case, Islamic extremism. 

It is factual that all religious ideologies have extremism and Islamic extremism is founded on the concept of jihad or holy war against infidels. However, in its history, Islamic jihad as a violent international phenomenon had disappeared in the last four centuries for all uses. But the United States revived it in the 1980s to counter the fast spreading communism. When the Soviet Union got involved in Afghanistan, the Pakistani regime, led by Zia ul-Haq took the opportunity to launch a jihad against what they considered godless and infidel communism. Imperatively, the United States used this opportunity to launch was they considered a God-sent chance to annihilate and stop the “Evil Empire” read the spread of communism (Norton, 2015). Therefore, the United States began a systematic mobilization of over 1 billion Muslims against the spread of communism. The U.S offered financial and material assistance for people to be recruited to fight in the jihad and Osama bin Laden was one of the fundamental figures recruited in the program. Bin Laden became the face of the jihadist movement because he was not only a Muslim and Arab, but also a wealthy and influential Saudi from a well established business family. Bin Laden was willing to use his money and business network to ensure that communism does not spread and went around recruiting people to join the jihad against the spread of the “Evil Empire” (Norton, 2015). 

In the Western press, particularly the United States and Britain, Bin Laden was a “freedom fighter” and his outfit, the Mujahedeen was a freedom group that wanted to stop unreligious ideologies spread by the Soviet Union like secularism and freedoms for women in the Muslim world, particularly the Middle East. The mujahedeen fighters were recognized in the Western capitals and invited for open deliberations by President Ronald Reagan in the Oval Office. Bin Laden, using jihadist ideology, was a Western ally, who was instrumental in helping them check the spread of communism and operated his movement in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Bin Laden recruited Muslim youths from Sudan, Algeria, Egypt and other parts of the Middle East. However, after the Gulf War and the U.S failure to move its troops from Saudi Arabia in the 1990 antagonized the relationship between Bin Laden and the Western powers. While the U.S. helped Saudi Arabia to defeat Saddam Hussein, it did not move its troops from the country, the Holy land of the Islamic faith with holy places like Mecca and Medina. The presence of foreign troops (U.S. troops) on the whole land (Ka’aba) led to the start of a jihad against the United States that culminated in the 9/11 attacks. In fact, the chickens of the Afghan war were coming home to roost (Norton, 2015). Therefore, the United States used Islamic extremism through prolific, wealthy and influential figures like Osama bin Laden, as Cold War strategy to stop the spread of communism and Soviet influence in the Middle East. 

The U.S supported extremism in Afghanistan through the Pakistani government. The Afghan mujahedin was labeled a freedom fighting outfit. The U.S. government started supporting these weak, fringe and isolated religious extremist groups to advance its Cold War strategy (Norton, 2015). While the strategy succeeded, its repercussions are the present day political situations and religious extremism in the Middle East and other parts of the world. The establishment of almost Islamic government and theocracies in the Gulf region and suppression of other religious faiths in these areas is the glaring evidence of how religious extremism can be used or abused politically. The formation of Islamic States in Iraq and Syria is the outcome of religious extremism used a political strategy to maintain and advance a political course, stopping the spread of communism. Further, after the fall of the Soviet Union, secular socialist groups were the face of resistance movement in the Middle East was replaced by Islamic extremist formations that were supported initially by the Western capitals. Former secular nations turned to reactionary states governed by Sharia law and cannot grant women equal rights yet they are Western allies (Norton, 2015). These events are reminiscent of medieval Spain where nation states were established through religious extremism. The Spanish monarchy used the Catholic faith, Christianity, to establish its political government by forcing Jews to surrender their faith, leave or be executed. Today, ISIS has wiped away all moderate Muslims and Christians in the Middle East. The extremist group is keen on forming an Islamic state in both Syria and northern Iraq. Others like Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab in Africa have executed thousands in the war to establish an extreme Muslim empire where religious tolerance cannot be allowed. 

Conclusion 

It follows that the use or/ and abuse of Islam has led to the formation of extremist groups like ISIS and others with the blessing of the Western capitals aimed at fulfilling a political course. Therefore, the current events mirror the historical use of religious extremism for political expediency without factoring the long-term consequences as it happened in 14 th Century Spain and Christian Inquisition period in Europe. 

Reference 

Norton, B. (2015, November 17) We created Islamic extremism: Those blaming Islam for ISIS 

would have supported Osama bin Laden in the ’80s. Accessed from https://www.salon.com/2015/11/17/we_created_islamic_extremism_those_blaming_islam_for_isis_would_have_supported_osama_bin_laden_in_the_80s/