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 John Esposito wrote Unholy War in the period following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 to encourage better understanding as a step toward peace. The book provides non-Muslim layfolk with a basis for understanding the development of the modern Islamic fundamentalist movement, its leadership, and its relation to Qur’anic Islam.
Early in the book, Esposito tells the story of Osama bin Laden’s development into the infamous terrorist mastermind that he has become. It is said that Osama’s father was sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and resolved to raise many sons to fight for it, but none of Osama’s fifty-one siblings did. Osama became more radical while studying at King Abdulaziz University, under the influence of his teachers Abdullah Azzam and Muhammad Qutb, both of whom helped to found the contemporary fundamentalist jihad. Inspired by Saudi Wahhabism, bin Laden became involved in the jihad that had developed on several fronts in the 1970s. He was immersed in the Afghan-Soviet War and there developed a friendship with the radical activist Ayman al-Zawahiri. He was scandalized by the US military presence in the Muslim holy land of Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf War.
Esposito then takes several steps back in history for a broader perspective. He says that “the history of the Muslim community from Muhammad to the present can be read within the framework of what the Qur’an teaches about jihad” (p27). To explain the point, he offers a brief summation of Islam’s formative years when Muhammad was alive. Jihadists of all sorts and throughout history would allude to that period in their rhetoric. Esposito leads the reader through a concise but informative account of the history of jihad from Muhammad’s time to our own.
Esposito examines the roots of the contemporary jihadist movements in the geopolitical situations of the last few centuries. The current national boundaries in Muslim lands reflect the colonial period more than local tradition. For many Muslims, American military presence in the Middle East represents a less explicit form of the same situation. They remember the glorious empires of their ancestors and blame their current status on unfaithfulness to Allah. The response has been jihad, sometimes violent but usually not, in order to free Muslims from Western domination and return lax Muslims to a more rigorous interpretation of Islam.
But Unholy War is not just a book about history. It’s history looking to the future, and to that end, Esposito offers a summary of the positions of three twentieth-century Muslim reformers. Each of them advocates a way forward without terrorism and violence. Abdurrahman Wahid of Indonesia proposes a pluralistic society that maintains a separation of mosque and state, and he doesn’t believe that Islam should be the basis of government. Anwar Ibrahim of Malaysia suggests a pluralist solution that recalls the convivencia, the living-together, of Islam’s golden age in Spain and Sicily, where Muslims lived as neighbors with Christians and Jews. He embraces some modernist ideas, including the “information revolution” and equal rights for women. Mohammad Khatami of Iran calls for “nonmilitant jihadist defense of Islamic identity” (p137) in the context of intercultural dialogue that can be mutually beneficial and allows for criticism when necessary.
Esposito’s commitment to a better understanding of Islam on the part of Westerners is an encouraging step in the right direction. He condenses a considerable amount of knowledge into a small package, easily accessible to those of us who know little of Islam. His work in Unholy War reminds us that Islam is not a monolith, and despite recent violence, the Muslim world and the West need not be enemies.
Will Burrows
John L. Esposito Titles |