Furnish - Sects, Lies, and the Caliphate: Ten Years of Observations on Islam

Sects, Lies, and the Caliphate: Ten Years of Observations on Islam

Timothy R. Furnish, Ph.D.

Sects, Lies, and the Caliphate: Ten Years of Observations on Islam

Copyright 2016 by Timothy R. Furnish, Ph.D.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of the author.

Acknowledgments

Sects, Lies, and the Caliphate: 10 Years of Observations on Islam (and its companion piece, Ten Years Captivation with the Mahdis Camps: Essays on Muslim Eschatology, 2005-2015 ) came about because one much wiser than memy wife, Davinasuggested that I compile ten years writings on one topic (respectively: Islams main doctrines and adherent groups; Islamic End Time beliefs) and publish them. Thanks, dear, for pointing out what should have been obvious to me, but wasnt; and for your support in pulling it together. She also suggested I ask Gail Tyler to edit both manuscriptsand I am grateful to Gail for plunging into work on manuscripts covering material far outside her usual area of expertise. Also, I want to thank Rick Shenkman, editor of History News Network [ HNN ], for granting me permission to use several dozen pieces which had originally appeared on HNN; and my long-time friend Tony Arrasmith, for the excellent cover artworkwhich he created with a little help from his friend John Doubt.

Preface

The title of this volume refers to three major elements of Islam that must be understood by anyone hoping to make sense of current events related to the worlds second-largest religion and its, frankly, problematic effects on the the world. Uniting all Muslims under the renewed caliphate is a stated goal of many Islamic organizations, both terrorist and non-terrorist. Lying to non-Muslims about this end, and the often harsh and violent means employed to reach it, is a staple of both Shi`i and Sunni Islamic beliefs. And Islam is composed of dozens of differing sects but not all of which toe the mainstream Sunni line of following the Quran and hadith s literally. Herein I deal with many other aspects of Islamic civilization, as well as with US policies toward them and it (such as jihad, in particular)but the title summarizes three key points of analysis.

My main areas of interest and research over the last several decades have been Mahdism (Islamic messianism) and Muslim eschatologybut since Mahdism has been, and still is, so closely connected to jihad, Shi`ism (particularly the Twelver brand of Iran), Sufism (Islamic mysticism) and certain sects of Islam, over the last 15 years I have delved a great deal into those sectors of the Islamic worlda trend reinforced by my five-year tenure as a consultant to US Special Operations Command on Islamic world issues, as well as my stints in the media being asked about such topics. Along those lines, Sects, Lies, and the Caliphate, like Ten Years Captivation with the Mahdis Camps, is intended as a user-friendly, popular work, providing the non-expert reader some help in understanding why ISIS beheads, how Shi`is differ from Sunnis and Christians from Muslims, and whether President Obamas constant assertions about Islam being perverted by extremists is accurate. You, dear reader, must decide whether Ive succeeded.

How to Use This Book

Sects, Lies, and the Caliphate is, thus, a book for non-experts on Islam, and not a reference or text book. It is intended to complement Ten Years Captivation with the Mahdis Camps , but whereas that work mainly deals with Islamic eschatology (end of time beliefs), this one focuses on non-apocalpytic elements of Islam, as well as on relevant US policy. Indeed, the longest chapter, of 86 pages, analyzes how poorly the US deals with Islamic movementsjihadist and otherwise. There are eight chapters arranged topically (and, I hope, logically), with essays in each chapter placed in reverse chronological order based on their original publication date. While each essay has been edited and, as needed, updated, each is clearly embedded in its original context but still quite relevant to current events in the Islamic world. The reader can thus skip around from topic to topic, and indeed from essay to essay, and still have the subject matter make sense. For anyone who wishes to trace the development of various facets of a topic over the last decade (Islamic terrorism, say, or Iranian foreign policy and WMDs), then the reader can go to the last entry in that section and work forward in time.

One final caveat: while this book is chock-full of astute analysis, it is also heavily laced with flippant (and sometimes mordant) references to classic rock music, The Simpsons , science-fiction, and moviesnotably The Lord of the Rings. (The ebook version also contains links to sources and other relevant references.) May the observations in this book provide some illuminationwhile at the same time not proving devoid of entertainment.

Table of Contents

ISIS/ISIL/" Da`ish "

Islamic Terrorism

Islam and its Problematic Doctrines

Christianity and Islam

U.S. Policy and Politics toward Islam and the Islamic World

Iran and Shi`ism

The Media and Islam

The Ottoman Empire and Democracy

ISIS/ISIL/ Da`ish

March 19, 2015: The Goals of the Islamic State: Hijrah, al-Haramayn and Hegemony.

What are the goals of the Islamic State/ISIS/ISIL/Da`ish? Some commentators and journalists seem to think these are simply to continue beheading, oppressing and terrorizing. But self-proclaimed Caliph al-Baghdadi and his ansar have more concrete aims in mindbased on my reading of ISIS publications, review of its videos, scrutiny of its actions and putting all those in the context of Islamic history.

Short-term, ISIS wants to consolidate the Iraqi and Syrian territories which it has occupied into a functioning state. This plan appears to be working quite well, for ISIS has expanded its area of control since U.S. (and Coalition) airstrikes began late 2014. (If you dont like Department of Defensederived Wall Street Journal maps , take a look at these of Syria and Iraq by an independent observerboth clearly show ISIS expanding its domain.) At the same time, it conducts an on-going agenda of both jihad and da`wah the former mainly against near enemies, but also including appeals for individual sympathizers to go after Western targets where they live; the latter focused on attracting as many Muslims as possible to make the hijrah from their current locales to the Islamic State. Again, both sides of this Islamic coin are well-spent, from al-Baghdadis perspective.

Long-term, ISISas many breathlessly have reportedaspires to not just ruling all the Islamic portions of the Middle East, Europe and South/Central Asia, but Rome and points further west, including the United States. This may be a hookah-dream, but considering that the ideology, if not quite all the brutal activity, of ISIS has solid grounding in Salafism, both its Wahhabi (Saudi) and Deobandi (South Asian) versions, its something that should be taken seriously by non-Muslims.

It is the mediumterm goals of ISIS that should most concern us. I submit that these primarily are two-fold: 1) to goad usthat is, the United Statesinto inserting ground troops into, particularly, Syria, as a means of fulfilling the hadith about the great apocalyptic battle near Dabiq; and 2) to take over Saudi Arabia, or at least to cause such regional instability that Riyadhs regime fractures, and ISIS Toyotas ride triumphantly into al-Haramayn, the two holy places of Mecca and Medina.

The first objective I have discussed at length, in many writings and interviews going back into 2014. [Feel free to review, below.] The second one, thus, I will now address. The idea had occurred to me before, but struck home again recently as I was re-reading portions of the insightful Gods Caliph: Religious Authority in the First Centuries of Islam by Patricia Crone and Martin Hinds (Cambridge, 1986/2003)in particular this: [I]t was control of these places [Mecca and Medina] rather than world domination which gave the Ottoman caliphate a certain plausibility, just as it is control of the same places which gives the Sa`udi monarchs a quasi-caliphal role today (note 18, p. 100).