JEFFREY HERF
25
JEFFREY HERF
What is Old and What is New In the
Terrorism of Islamic Fundamentalism?
M
ass murder inspired by Islamic fundamentalism and fanaticism
differs from the secular totalitarian ideologies and regimes of
Europe's twentieth century: fascism and Nazism, on the one
hand, and Communism, especially in the Stalin era, on the other. Like the
twentieth-century totalitarians, today's Islamic fundamentalist fanatics
are convinced that they possess absolute Truth which is immune to refu–
tation or criticism; they despise Western modernity yet borrow its tech–
nological accomplishments in an effort to destroy it. They believe that
force and terror are necessary to establish a utopia in place of the current
decadent and corrupt world; and they explain history on the basis of a
conspiratorial construct in which the United States, more than "interna–
tional Jewry" or global capitalism, plays the central role.
Unlike the followers of the past century's secular religions, today's ter–
rorists draw inspiration from an apocalyptic vision rooted in religious
radicalism. Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda emerge in a global political
culture in which elements of Leftist anti-globalization discourse and
reruns of fascist and Nazi visions of Jewish conspiracies merge with reli–
gious passions. Because al Qaeda knows how to speak the language of
leftist anti-imperialism of the past century, it suggests a mood that over–
laps with secular Third-World radicalism. Yet in crucial matters, such as
its view of death and suicide and its stance on rationality, it appears closer
to the fascist and Nazi philosophy than to the Communist past. The
stand-off with Soviet Communism could end with its peaceful implosion;
as was the case with fascism and Nazism, the only way the threat of ter–
rorism inspired by radical Islam can end is through its military defeat.
By terrorism, I mean the intentional murder or attempted murder of
any person, civilian or military, man, woman, or child, old or young,
who is not engaged in military combat. Civilian deaths caused by stray
bombs and missiles or preemptive killings of those who are actively
engaged in acts of terror, neither of which intentionally target the
innocent, are not acts of terrorism in this sense. In the modern European
Editor's Note: This essay draws on remarks delivered at a faculty-student forum
on October
8,
2001,
sponsored by the University of Maryland in College Park.
