The other

The Jihadist campaign of Terror is a weapon of choice with global aspirations, where the ‘’other’’ is the enemy.

The campaign of terror under the banner of JIHAD has always had global aspirations, despite the many divisions between the different organizations and groups. Its ideals are rooted in a very superficial, ‘’romantic’’ idea of Pan Islam and the creation of a Theocratic Empire.

The Jihadists don’t have an organizational unity, but they share very similar ideology and similar objectives across their internal divide.

First among them, to destroy modern and open societies as well as the evolution of individual rights and personal freedoms as superior values.

The leadership behind the different Jihad organizations is filled with self-righteous victimhood and religious supremacy ideals, coupled with a serious deficit of dignity.

They turned their antagonism and inferiority complex into promises of ‘’glory’’ and ‘’revenge’’ against their ‘’enemies’’ – anyone and everyone who is different or opposes their version of right, be it their own people or the ‘’others.’’

We ought to remember, they are not mad, insane or deranged – they are FANATICS. Their ideology is a distorted interpretation of religion, with a holy war, JIHAD, as its core, TERROR as its strategy, and martyrdom, SHAHID, as its personal fulfillment.

Unfortunately, this JIHAD movement is not a marginal force. It has many followers from all over the world and it is GLOCAL.

The leaders and followers in most cases are not the marginalized. Many of them are the educated and elite, filled with religious megalomania and obsessed with ideas of fighting ‘’humiliation’’ and restoring their “past glory.”

Regrettably, their version of “past glory” is not the Golden Age of Islam, but rather the Dark Ages of Europe. Their vision for an empire is founded on a religious, militaristic, chauvinistic, gender biased empire.

But the truth is that the real world of JIHAD is the culture of HATE, hate of the different and the ‘’other.’’

In the name of hate, the end justifies the means, the ‘’Enemy’’ is total and absolute and hate is the remedy to all frustrations and humiliations.

Like so many other failed leaders of nations and organizations, the leadership of JIHAD created symbols of enemies and scapegoats to blame for all their problems.

A scapegoat, preferably in the form of a “foreign enemy,” is the best way to distract people’s attention from failed ideas, poor results and the real ills of their society – mostly homegrown.

Unfortunately and unsurprisingly, their choice in scapegoats and enemies is usually the innocent, whose only fault is being different.

The use of terrorism by this hate movement called Jihad is not a surprise either. Terror is a weapon of mass destruction, more than the loss of lives, terror destroys the fabric of our free societies by planting fear in our midst.

For terror, the biggest enemy is freedom, and for freedom, the biggest enemy is fear.

The devastating effects of terrorism can be felt already as those Jihadists turn on fellow citizens from other religions, all in the name of their differences.

This form of internal terror spells an end to their fellowship as citizens, especially when the points of contention have nothing to do with their shared state or national identity.

Down the road, it will lead to the collapse of democracy in a modern, inclusive nation state.

There are many things we need to do to combat terror in a practical way and they are mostly pre-emptive by nature. However, in order to eliminate it we need to tackle the root causes, and that requires the courage to face the reality of the environment that nurtures the ideology of Jihad.

One of the bravest voices on this issue is the President of Egypt, Abdel Fattah el Sisi. In his speech on January 5, before the most preeminent Islamic learning center in the world – the Al Azhar University he said it bluntly: It is not about the religion and faith of 1.6 billion Muslims, it’s about the ideology that deals havoc to the Islamic world and the world as a whole.

To define and acknowledge the problem is half the solution, and his words are a very good starting point for our struggle against the root causes of Jihadist terrorism.  

There is a long way to go but we have no choice only to win.

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(Effie Ben Matityau is the Ambassador of Israel.)