Ali Khan

A THEORY OF INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM
Developments in International Law

VOLUME 56
The titles published in this series are listed at the end of this volume.
A Theory of International
Terrorism
Understanding Islamic Militancy
L. ALI KHAN
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This book is dedicated to my grandfather Abdul Ghani and aunt
Saeeda, who both nurtured me with love and kindness.
Table of Contents
A Theory of International Terrorism
Preface ...................................................................................... xi
Introduction ............................................................................ 1
PART I
PHENOMENOLOGY OF TERRORISM
Chapter 1 AGGRIEVED POPULATIONS
1.1 Primary Grievances ........................................................ 19

1.2 Secondary Grievances ...................................................... 27
1.3 Objectication of Grievances .......................................... 39
Chapter 2 SUPPORTIVE ENTITIES
2.1 Supporting the Right to Armed Struggle ...................... 59

2.2 Supportive States and International Organizations .... 70
2.3 Supportive Groups and Individuals .............................. 82
Chapter 3 SUPPRESSIVE ENTITIES
3.1 Suppressive Terrorism .................................................... 94

3.2 Pain and Suffering of Suppressive Entities .................. 112
3.3 Dehumanization of Aggrieved Populations .................... 118
viii Contents
PART II
ONTOLOGY OF TERRORISM
Chapter 4 VALUE IMPERIALISM
4.1 Attributes of Value Imperialism .................................... 133

4.2 Secular Imperialism ........................................................ 143
4.3 Holy Imperialism ............................................................ 158
Chapter 5 PHENOMENOLOGY OF JIHAD
5.1 Islamic Law of Hijra ........................................................ 172

5.2 Forms of Jihad ................................................................ 177
5.3 Terrorism and Military Jihad ........................................ 187
Chapter 6 THE ESSENTIALIST TERRORIST
6.1 Proling Islamic Terrorism ............................................ 211

6.2 HITLit Inuence over Political Rhetoric ...................... 228
6.3 HITLit Proposals to Combat Muslim Militancy ............ 232
6.4 A Critique of Essentialist Terrorism .............................. 243
Chapter 7 WAR ON TERROR
7.1 Characteristics of War .................................................... 249

7.2 Corporatization of War .................................................... 256
7.3 Lawlessness of War .......................................................... 268
Contents ix
PART III
PEACEFUL SOLUTIONS
Chapter 8 NEGOTIATED SOLUTIONS
8.1 Law of Negotiated Solutions .......................................... 289

8.2 Barriers to Negotiated Solutions .................................... 299
8.3 The Concept of Durable Deal ........................................ 312
8.4 The Qubec Model .......................................................... 315
Chapter 9 FREE STATE SOLUTIONS
9.1 The Foundation of Free State ........................................ 325

9.2 Beyond Territorialization of Islam ................................ 342
9.3 From Separatism to Free States .................................... 351
Bibliography .............................................................................. 360

Index .......................................................................................... 367
Preface
Following the Qurans revelatory methodology, I have conceived

this book in small portions over a period of several years. The Quran
was revealed to the Prophet over a period of more than twenty
years, in small portions, mostly in response to concrete issues that
the Prophet faced in real life. The Quran provides the rationale for
this gradualism. We have delivered the Quran to you in this man-
ner in order that it might strengthen your heart and We have
arranged it in small components which form a whole. Even when
employed to secular scholarship, such as this book, the Qurans
methodology is highly efcacious in researching and contemplat-
ing the small pieces of a larger treatise. I have found this method-
ology refreshing and natural. Early morning, often before the
morning-prayer, I would write a small excerpt and save it, not
knowing whether it would be relevant to the thesis of the book.
Eventually, all the pieces came together in sections and chapters.
In writing this book, I have beneted from countless works writ-
ten by others. Several colleagues at Washburn Law School read
drafts of chapters and provided feedback. I want to thank Brad
Borden, Bill Merkel, Robert Rhee, Aida Alaka, Peter Reilly, Gregory
Pease, Bill Rich, and Myrl Duncan for each reading a chapter.
Professor Hisham Ramadan read the chapter on Jihad for which I
am thankful to him. Dominique Honea, class of 2006, brought count-
less books, law review articles, poems, internet stories, and other
research materials for me to read and reect before writing excerpts
in the mornings. Special thanks to Mary Beth Bero for spending
scores of hours in bringing the manuscript to order. Among family
xii Preface
members, in admitting affection for Dr. Lori Khan, Yahya, and

Harun, I want to express special love for my little son Kashif, who
makes me Abu Kashif, a name I like.
Ali Khan, May 2006

Topeka, Kansas
Introduction
One might hypothesize that international terrorism is too arbitrary,

inhumane, and pathological to be studied in the realm of legal the-
ory. Overly condemnatory characterizations of terrorism carry ele-
ments of truth for indeed terrorist violence, perpetrated by states
and private groups, jolts elementary human consciousness. Shock
and awe is frequently the anticipated response of victims of vio-
lence. Modern terrorism involves the heartless killing of children
throwing stones at tanks, deaths of pregnant women at security
roadblocks, suicide bombings carried out in buses and discothe-
ques, the terrorizing of luminous cities at night with bombing sor-
ties, and the incineration of worshippers at mosques. To dignify
terrorism with a legal theory, one might pre-conclude, is wasting
words; it is ponticatory participation in madness; indeed, it is no
more than an apologists afterthought that confers legitimacy on
blatantly illegal and morally vacuous violence. Not so, says this
book. Terrorism is the violent consequence of a world divided into
nearly two hundred nation-states. It is the inevitable outcome of
the compulsive territorialization of human communities.
Terror Triangle
Part I of the book presents the phenomenon of the terror triangle,
highlighting the nation-states structural pathology that engenders
violence both for its creation and preservation. The terror triangle
consists of aggrieved populations, suppressive entities, and sup-
portive entities. In the Middle East, for example, the Palestinians
2 Introduction
constitute the aggrieved population, Israel is the principal sup-

pressive entity, and all those who uphold the Palestinian libera-
tion movement are supportive entities. Likewise, Chechens and
Kashmiris are aggrieved populations, Russia and India are sup-
pressive entities, and all states, international organizations, and
individuals who provide moral, nancial, or military assistance to
the aggrieved populations of Chechnya and Kashmir are support-
ive entities. Although the phenomenology of terror triangle may be
used to study diverse theatres of violence, this book focuses on
Muslim militancy that has monopolized global attention.
A Theory of International Terrorism distinguishes phenomeno-
logical terrorism from retail terrorism. It avoids the mistake of
studying terrorism under an overly-inclusive methodology that
lumps drug-related violence with Muslim militancy, and both with
retail terrorism that individuals perpetrate to vent their personal
frustrations or anger. Gross studies of terrorism distort analysis
and ignore the specic themes of violence. Violence perpetrated to
make money by selling contrabands has little relationship with vio-
lence unleashed to secede from a nation-state. And a governments
legal and moral claims to forcibly dismantle a criminal gang can-
not be transferred to the governments brutal suppression of an
aggrieved population that uses violence to protest its ill-treatment
and human rights violations. Any examination of terrorism that
refuses to see these distinctions cannot be taken seriously.
Focusing on phenomenological terrorism, the terror triangle stud-
ies the dynamics of violence involving Muslim militants, particu-
larly in the context of the Middle East conict over the occupation
of Palestine. Part I demonstrates that the phenomenon of Muslim
violence stems from concrete grievances. When a Muslim popula-
tion (Chechens) is denied the right to self-determination or when
its land and resources (Palestinians) are forcibly taken or when it
(Iraqis) is invaded and occupied, it accumulates concrete griev-
ances. This phenomenon of subjugation is further compounded when
suppressive entities violate fundamental human rights of the
aggrieved population. Extra-judicial killings, unlawful searches and
seizures, disappearances, and security roadblocks worsen the mis-
ery of aggrieved populations. Vengeful members of the aggrieved
population resort to violence, giving birth to what is known as
Islamic terrorism. A Theory of International Terrorism studies
Islamic terrorism in the context of the terror triangle, arguing that
state terrorism perpetrated against aggrieved populations should
not be ignored for analytical and normative purposes. Islamic ter-
Introduction 3
rorism and state terrorism are the co-dependent forms of violence.

This co-dependence becomes triangular when supportive entities
provide moral, material, nancial, and military assistance to
aggrieved populations.
Part I recognizes that the causes of triangular violence are numer-
ous and that no single narrative can capture its multi-faced com-
plexity. It repudiates the overly broad caricatures or attempts at
crude reductionism. Although the aggrieved populations discussed
here are Muslims, one need not assume that these populations
derive their grievances from the teachings of Islam. What they
derive from the teachings of Islam is the spirit to ght against per-
secution. And although Islamic terrorism constitutes the phenom-
enological focus of the book, the terror triangle is not conned to
religious terrorism in its context, scope, or purpose. As the theory
develops in subsequent chapters, it incorporates ontological com-
plexities that muddle the terror triangle. The ontology of Islamic
terrorism, however, does not undermine the phenomenology of ter-
ror triangle. The concept of aggrieved populations transcends
Chechens, Kashmiris, Palestinians, and indeed Muslim communi-
ties. The theory is not conned to Muslims. It is equally valid
whether the aggrieved population is Irish, Tibetan, Sikh, or any
other.
A Theory of International Terrorism was rst presented in a law
review article published in 1985. Since then, the world has dra-
matically changed. The most extraordinary event in this period
involves the collapse of the Soviet Union. During the Cold War, ter-
rorism carried an ideological overlay. National liberation move-
ments, deriving moral and legal vitality from the concept of
self-determination, invoked the right of armed struggle to ght
against colonial rule, alien domination, apartheid, and occupation.
Many such movements received moral and material assistance from
the Soviet Union. Others secured support from the United States
and its allies. During this period, the Palestinians relied on the
Soviet Union to launch a violent campaign against Israeli occupa-
tion. And the Afghans obtained arms from the United States and
its allies to ght the Soviet occupation of their country. In these
times, the label of terrorism served as an ideological weapon to
selectively condemn specied theatres of terrorism, but not others.
The Palestinians were terrorists, and still are, in the eyes of Israel
and the US. But they were freedom ghters in the eyes of many
others, including the Soviet Union. By contrast, the Afghans were
portrayed as freedom ghters in the Western literature but were
4 Introduction
seen as terrorists in the Soviet ofcial press. These conicting char-

acterizations of the same phenomenon of violence were part of the
Cold War. They frustrated the attempts to dene terrorism on a
consensual basis.
The collapse of the Soviet Union transformed the ontology of ter-
rorism. Ideological battles lost their inherent respectability. The
romantic notion of militant violence perpetrated for a higher cause
began to disappear. In absence of the Soviet support, several inde-
pendence movements were orphaned. The Russian Federation,
which inherited the international assets and liabilities of the Soviet
Union, was too feeble and confused to offer any protection to national
liberation movements. The Russian Federation was further forced
to change its ideology of militant violence when the Chechens
resorted to armed struggle to demand independence. Moscow rul-
ing elites, who under communism had touted themselves as liber-
ators of the oppressed, earned a new reputation in the world as
brutal oppressors and human rights abusers. Facing armed resis-
tance in its own backyard, Russia distanced itself from character-
izing any phenomenon of violence as legitimate armed struggle.
Washington ruling elites regarded the Soviet Unions dismem-
berment as a unique opportunity to offer American leadership to
the world. The combination of prosperous democracy at home and
genuine respect abroad furnished the US a historic opportunity to
arrest the phenomenon of violence by bringing it under the rule of
law. The emergence of the US as the sole superpower was received
as a good omen in most parts of the world, except perhaps in
Afghanistan where al-Qaeda was assembling its own resources to
further change the world. Despite threats from Afghanistan, the
Clinton Administration wore the saviors cloak to resolve long-stand-
ing disputes that had spawned terrorism. It led an efcacious coali-
tion of European states to save Bosnian Muslims from Serbian
brutalities. It engaged Palestinians and Israelis in a credible peace
process, inviting Yasser Arafat, who had previously been condemned
as a master terrorist, to the White House. President Clinton even
engaged India and Pakistan, seeking assurances that these nuclear
rivals would undertake condence-building measures to resolve the
Kashmir dispute. The US criticism of Russia over its suppressive
policies in Chechnya, though muted in tone, added consistency to
the dynamics of consistent leadership.
This engaging US leadership collapsed after the September 11
attacks. The stunning assault on Twin Towers of the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon caught the Bush Administration off guard,
Introduction 5
though conspiracy theorists assert that the US government had

ignored clear warnings of the coming calamity. Most surprisingly,
the US constitutional democracy failed to absorb the terrorist attacks
with legal grace. The Patriot Act was hurriedly promulgated to dra-
matically reduce civil liberties that had distinguished the US as a
nation of liberties and freedoms. The invasion of Afghanistan, the
home of al-Qaeda, began to unravel American commitment to the
laws of war, a commitment that further deteriorated when the US
occupied Iraq. The ill treatment and torture of Iraqi detainees
exposed the inefcacy of the law of human rights to restrain a
superpower from unlawful behavior. In sum, the September 11
attacks have exposed how the US, a nation of freedoms and liber-
ties, when challenged with adversity, threw away its hard-earned
values and began to see law as a barrier.
In addition to jolting American values, the September 11 attacks
introduced Islamic militancy to the world in an unprecedented way.
Islam was repainted in the global consciousness as a religion of
violence. A new paradigm began to emerge in the non-Muslim world
that Islamic militancy in the Middle East, Kashmir, Chechnya, and
other places derives its unrelenting impulse for violence from the
faith itself and that Islamic terrorism is unique and that it has
nothing to do with concrete grievances, such as invasions, occupa-
tions, territorial appropriations, or human rights abuses. The
September 11 attacks were interpreted as proof certain that Muslim
militants would strike any nation to quench their thirst for vio-
lence. The September 11 attacks changed the ontology of Islamic
terrorism. The Bush Administration argues that Muslim militants
are inherently evil.
Ontology of Terrorism
Part II of the book presents the changing ontology of Islamic ter-
rorism, that is, how terrorism experts understand, analyze, and
explain Islamic terrorism to the world. It examines the concept of
the essentialist terrorist to capture the gravitas of vast literature
that US terrorism experts have produced under the rubric of new
terrorism. New terrorism is a code phrase to describe violence
associated with religions, but its main focus is on Islamic terrorism.
A generation of terrorism experts is determined to persuade the
world that Islamic terrorism is mystical violence that has little to
do with concrete grievances. Most of this literature is manufactured
6 Introduction
to minimize the geopolitical causes of Muslim militancy and to

undermine the critical signicance of liberation movements, espe-
cially the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation, theft of
resources, and human rights abuses. Although this literature has
been gradually surfacing years before the September 11 attacks, it
gained new momentum and respectability after the attacks. Highly
inuential terrorism experts, many of whom had served in US
National Security establishment, have been relentlessly pounding
a common thesis that Islamic terrorism is addictive, metaphysical,
and incorrigible, always nding new excuses to perpetrate violence.
Heartless Muslim militants, these experts further warn, would use
the weapons of mass destruction to annihilate Western cities.
Another theme related to the ontology of Islamic terrorism is
value imperialism. It contends that Muslim militants wish to impose
Islamic values on the non-Muslim world, particularly the West.
The phrase They wish to change our values and the way we live
exemplies the political rhetoric used to combat Islamic terrorism.
This fear is not completely groundless because the al-Qaeda lead-
ership, in its communications through letters, audio, and video-
cassettes, has invited the West to embrace Islam as its faith. This
invitation to Islam has been interpreted to argue that al-Qaedas
primary goal is to spread Islam by means of terrorism, an inter-
pretation that reafrms the stereotypical thesis that Islam has
always spread by force of the sword. Islamic imperialism reinforces
the ontology of mystical violence that new terrorism nds in the
doctrine of jihad. The two concepts are then combined to distin-
guish Islamic terrorism from conventional terrorism. Whereas con-
ventional terrorism stemmed from geopolitical grievances, the
ontological argument goes, Islamic terrorism is essentialist and
imperial in its purpose. The notion of Islamic imperialism imposed
through essentialist jihad also minimizes the critical signicance
of concrete grievances that Muslim communities carry in occupied
Palestine, Chechnya, and Kashmir.
To further discredit Muslim militancy, the notion of jihad is being
attacked and equated with terrorism. For fourteen hundred years,
Muslims have used the Qurans concept of jihad to defend them-
selves against oppression, alien domination, and persecution. After
the September 11 attacks, the US and its allies have launched a
campaign to ban to the teaching of jihad in religious schools. This
daring demand has gone nowhere, since Muslim governments know
that jihad could not be severed from Islamic consciousness. Nor
could the Quran be amended to eliminate the verses sanctioning
Introduction 7
jihad. The chapter on jihad and hijra, that is ght and ight, pre-
sents the Qurans prescriptions for ghting against persecution.
Ordinarily, Muslims live in peaceful communities and the notions
of jihad and hijra are non-operational. These strategies become rel-
evant only if the Muslim community suffers persecution.
Jihad and hijra are reactive, not proactive, strategies. They are
responses, not gratuitous initiations. Muslims are inspired by the
notion of jihad to ght, but the reason for ghting is persecution
and not jihad. Terrorism experts distort this fact to argue that
Muslims are addicted to violence because jihad is the mystical
prompting for killing. Nothing is farther from the truth. Even under
persecution, jihad is not the only option. Muslims may opt for hijra
(migration) if they lack the means to ght, as the Prophet himself
did and left Mecca. They opt to ght if the enemy is relentless and
would pursue Muslims wherever they migrate. Muslims use a com-
bination of the two strategies to defeat treacherous enemies. Of
course, some militants abuse the doctrine of jihad to perpetrate
violence contrary to the Islamic laws of war. These abuses malign
the notion of jihad, just as excessive collateral damage sullies the
reputation of a professional army. Note, however, that jihad is not
an end in itself. It is the means to ght persecution. Jihad is no
longer necessary if the persecution has ceased to exist.
By shifting the focus from concrete grievances of Muslim com-
munities to abstract notions of essentialist terrorism, value impe-
rialism, and addictive jihad, the ontology of Islamic terrorism has
persuaded the US government and its allies to take an unforgiv-
ing stand against Muslim militants. War on terror is the preferred
prescription. Muslim militants are painted as incorrigible warriors
in pursuit of martyrdom, who have no respect for life, property, or
liberty. It is then proposed that they be treated mercilessly and
wiped out. Extra-judicial killings and indenite detention without
any charges or trial are defended on the theory that Muslim mil-
itants must be eliminated or disabled without concerns for the rule
of law. Some ofcials and experts even argue that the exception-
less law of torture is unrealistic in soliciting critical information
from Muslim devotees of jihad.
Turning the September 11 attacks into a unique opportunity, the
US has mobilized international institutions, including the United
Nations, to wage a coordinated campaign against Muslim militants.
The UN Security Council is emerging as a lead institution in the
war on terror, primarily because the Councils ve permanent mem-
bers share the fears of Muslim militancy. The United Kingdom and
8 Introduction
France have substantial Muslim populations refusing to melt into

Western culture. The London subway bombings in 2005 carried out
by British Muslims and the violent protests by French Muslims
spell out the dangers of homegrown Muslim militancy. Russia has
every incentive to crush what it calls the bandits of Chechnya.
China is facing a secessionist movement from Uighurs in its Western
province. In 2003, China listed the East Turkestan Independence
Movement as a terrorist organization, a decision that the US sup-
ported. Thus each permanent member has its own reasons to crush
Muslim militancy. The ve together will force the Security Council
to take a stiff approach toward eradicating Islamic terrorism. The
Security Council is already using its executive power to make deci-
sions that otherwise might have been relegated to the treaty-mak-
ing process.
Unlike the Security Council that sees the world through the eyes
of the ve permanent members, the UN General Assembly repre-
sents the world. Comprised of nearly two hundred nation-states
representing the peoples of the world, including 57 Muslim states,
the General Assembly interweaves more complex factors into its
understanding of terrorism, expressed in yearly resolutions. On the
surface, the General Assembly is moving towards an absolutist
principle against all forms of terrorism, including state terrorism,
declaring that nothing justies terrorism. This overly inclusive con-
demnation of violence however is placed in the context of self-deter-
mination, a right that allows the peoples to seek liberation from
alien domination, occupation, apartheid, and hegemony. The General
Assembly does not ignore the phenomenon of aggrieved popula-
tions or their grievances. In ghting terrorism, the General Assembly
is also committed to the protection of human rights. It reminds the
international community that human rights cannot be abandoned
in the global war on terrorism. One resolution reafrms that States
must ensure that any measure taken to combat terrorism complies
with their obligations under international law, in particular inter-
national human rights, refugee and humanitarian law. The reso-
lution further reminds the international community that under the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, certain rights
and freedoms, such as the right to life and freedom from torture,
cannot be suspended under any circumstances.1
1
GA Resolution 59/191 (2004). Protection of human rights and fundamental
freedoms while countering terrorism
Introduction 9
Consistent with General Assembly resolutions, A Legal Theory

of International Terrorism rejects the ontology of Islamic terrorism
and its prescriptive warfare. A lawless war on Muslim militants,
waged within and across national borders, that throws away the
constraints of international human rights and humanitarian law
will contribute little to the maintenance of international peace and
security within the framework of international law. Nor is it likely
to eradicate violence. Concrete grievances will continue to engen-
der violence. Focusing on the phenomenology of terrorism, the the-
ory offers peaceful solutions deeply embedded in treaty and customary
international law.
Peaceful Solutions
Part III offers two sets of solutions to minimize and possibly erad-
icate triangular terrorism. In many ways, the two sets are the oppo-
site of each other. However, they both facilitate the emergence of
Free State. In previous books, The Extinction of Nation-States (1996)
and A Theory of Universal Democracy (2003), I have developed the
concept of Free State, a socio-political entity that evolves out of the
nation-state. Sharing many attributes with the nation-state, Free
State is a territorial unit without sovereign borders. Free State,
however, does have administrative borders, just as Kansas does. A
world without sovereign borders is Free State writ large. Just as
empires broke down into nation-states, nation-states will evolve
into Free States. The emergence of Free State is uncertain, for Free
State is no revolutionary entity that can be instituted through mil-
itary coups, the peoples revolutions, or other such dramatic reor-
ganization of communities. Free State is a social organism that
evolves with time under suitable conditions of peace and prosper-
ity. On the way, communities elect intimate governments in accor-
dance with local traditions and culture, sharing at the same time
a global civilization founded on diversity and universal values. It
is predicted that regional Free States will emerge before global
Free States. The European Union has initiated a process that may
lead to regional Free States.
The concept of negotiated solutions argues that the terror tri-
angle constitutes a dispute under international law. The UN Charter
and customary international law bind parties to resolve interna-
tional disputes through peaceful means. Likewise, Islamic law
encourages Muslims engaged in armed conict to resolve disputes
through peaceful means. It is further proposed that international
10 Introduction
institutions recognize the critical signicance of concrete grievances

that generate violence, and refrain from accepting the ontology of
mystical and metaphysical violence that distorts the phenomenon
of the terror triangle. Relying on these norms, the chapter offers
the concept of durable deal that requires parties to offer mutual
concessions without preconditions. Principal suppressive states
must grant the right of self-determination claimed by aggrieved
populations such as Chechens, Palestinians, and Kashmiris. As a
quid pro quo, the aggrieved populations must give up the right to
armed struggle. International institutions such as the UN Security
Council must move the parties to the triangle toward negotiated
solutions. Instead of forcing supportive states to abandon aggrieved
populations and join suppressive states in the war on terrorism, a
more productive approach involves supportive states as partners
in nding negotiated solutions. The isolation of Muslim militants
might be useful for killing them, but such massacres are unlikely
to wipe out the causes of militancy.
Finally, Free State solutions are offered on the theory that the
phenomenon of the terror triangle is the pathology of the nation-
state. The triangle is formed when the existing nation-states, such
as India and Russia, refuse to relinquish territory or when aggrieved
populations strive to secede and establish their own nation-states
or when imperial or predatory nation-states engage in aggressive
behavior to dominate smaller nation-states or take their resources.
Free State solutions furnish a new way of thinking about orga-
nizing communities in the world. Territorial integrity, sovereignty,
self-defense, secessions, national interests, and national liberation
movements, these and related concepts constitute the language of
nation-states, just as terra nullius, conquest, colonialism, white
mans burden, etc., were the concepts of empires. A conscious, though
not revolutionary, journey towards Free State minimizes the vio-
lent language of nation-states. As discussed in the previous books,
Free State may never appear or mature if nation-states remain the
primary mode of social organization. In that case, terrorism will
remain a malady without cure and the world will unlikely emerge
from the abyss of violence perpetrated in the name of the nation-
state. In the Middle East, for example, Israeli and Palestinian
nation-states will create more problems than they would solve. An
independent Palestine will threaten the existence of Israel and a
dependant Palestine will continue to generate militancy and tri-
angular terrorism. If Israel and Palestine begin to develop as Free
States with open borders within a regional community, the era of
violence might gradually fall behind them.
PART I:
PHENOMENOLOGY OF TERRORISM
Chapter 1
Aggrieved Populations
In moments the village was gone, not a single bread oven remained,
men and stones were powdered by enemy tractors.
But Zeita rises again as tulips do.
Sulafa Hijjawi
Stories constitute and sustain aggrieved populations.1 Grace Halsell,

a renowned journalist and White House speechwriter under President
Lyndon Johnson, wrote several narratives to capture life in Pales-
tinian refugee camps. In her book Journey to Jerusalem, Halsell
compares refugee camps with medieval ghettos in which narrow
alleyways run in conuence with open sewage ditches. Small shel-
ters indistinguishable from each other are stacked in rows on name-
less streets with no sidewalks, patios, or trees. Occupants residing
in these one- or two-room boxes are the uprooted, stateless, scattered
people and their small children, the third generation of Palestinians,
born here in the ghettos. Someone has said that for every Jew
who was brought in to create a new state, quotes Halsell, a Pales-
tinian Arab was uprooted and left homeless.
1
Frank Pommershiem & Sherman Marshall, Liberation, Dreams, and Hard
Work, Wisconsin Law Review 411 (1992) (In struggles for liberation, stories some-
times provide nurture and sustenance more important than food itself ).
14 Chapter 1
Halsell befriends a sixteen-year-old Palestinian girl in the camp

and requests to live with her family. Her name is Nahla. The request
is generously granted. Halsell enters Nahlas shelter and sees two
women on their knees scrubbing a concrete oor. Blankets stacked
against the wall serve as beds, and a hole dug in the oor as a toi-
let. The family living in this one-room house consists of seven mem-
bers, four men and three women one of whom is pregnant. The
additional two members of the family, Nahlas brothers, are in
Israeli prisons. The United Nations provides funds to meet the
basic needs, but men of the house do labor jobs to supplement
income. In this grinding poverty, the hope of a bigger space and a
fuller life seems, and is, elusive. Pointing out the differential of for-
eign help, Halsell mentions in a complaining tone that every year
Americans give ve hundred and twenty-eight dollars to each Israeli
but allocate only three dollars for each Palestinian.
Living in crowded conditions is particularly hard for Muslim fam-
ilies who must respect gender privacy essential to the Islamic way
of life. Small daily chores that one normally does without psycho-
logical hardship become a challenge in one-room houses where every
member of the family is already present or might walk in. Teenage
sisters must change their clothes while their brothers must train
their eyes not to see. Any physical changes in bodies of the inhab-
itants, such as menstruation, cannot be kept as personal events.
Not seeing or not acknowledging personal events that occur before
your eyes become the tools to protect each others privacy. Halsell
makes these observations while she lives as a member of Nahlas
family. The mother of the house cooks for the entire family, though
the food cooked is often modest. Halsell reports how one evening
after supper when hot tea is being served, due to an inadvertent
clash of body motions, the kettle slips and the boiling tea pours
down the mothers thigh. The mother screams, curses, and slaps
the son who seemingly caused the accident. The mother writhing
with pain orders Nahla to go and get the ointment. Nahla runs to
a small cardboard box and brings back Crest toothpaste. Still gri-
macing in pain, reports Halsell, the mother lifts her skirt and Nahla
applies the paste.
Aggrieved Populations 15
Eye of the Storm

Aggrieved populations, such as Palestinians, Chechens, and
Kashmiris, are located at the center of terrorism. They are eye of
the storm. When international institutions fail to resolve conicts
involving aggrieved populations, this systemic failure spawns vio-
lence in forms of terrorism. While aggrieved populations subjected
to occupation, subjugation, and degradation suffer indignities of
daily life, their militant members resort to armed struggle, attack-
ing suppressive entities that engineer their servitude and deny
political liberty. Militants form terror cells to avenge state terror-
ism.2 They attack state soldiers who occupy their streets and demol-
ish their houses. They also attack soft targets, expanding the sphere
of vindictive violence. They blow up buses, abduct tourists, and
behead contractors who apparently have come to build their water
supplies, sewer systems, and roads. Locked in the spiral of violence
and caught between the ght of militants and suppressive entities,
aggrieved populations lose the normalcy of life.
Terrorism is a story of violence. It is the pathology of unresolved
grievances. This chapter furnishes the narrative of grievances,
called facts in the realm of law, facts that capture aggrieved pop-
ulations sufferings and existential abuses. Law, after all, responds
to narratives. No theory of law may divorce itself from the narra-
tive that it wishes to capture in the abstract. The enterprise of law
is thus inseparable from facts and the sum of facts, called the nar-
rative. But narratives can be distorted, falsely accentuated, or
understated to deceive listeners or readers. The narrative of griev-
ances presented in this chapter shuns distorted viewpoints. It sim-
ply tells the story of aggrieved populations. It captures the lens
through which aggrieved populations see their misery, injustice,
and oppression, and thereby construct their narratives. It explores
genetic connections between narrative and violence. Narrative
objecties experience. This is what gives narrative its commu-
nicative power; it is what makes narrative a powerful tool of per-
suasion and, therefore, a potential transformative device for the
disempowered.3
2
State terrorism is a term not recognized in international law. But many schol-
ars have begun to use the term to describe violence that government perpetrates
in the name of state. Noelle Quenivet, The World after September 11: Has it
Really Changed? 16 European Journal of International Law, 561 (2005) (citing
European scholars who acknowledge the concept of state terrorism).
3
Steven Winter, Legal Storytelling, 87 Michigan Law Review, 2228 (1989).
16 Chapter 1
Forms of Terrorism
Note the following two stories. On September 1, 2004, armed Chechen
militants, men and women, burst into a school in the city of Beslan,
in the North Caucasus of Russia, taking over a 1000 people as
hostages, including parents, teachers and children depriving
them of food and water for over 48 hours; issuing repeated death
threats against them; and the subsequent deliberate killing of many
hostages. This is a story of militant terrorism. Compare February
5, 2000, when Russian security forces entered a Grozny suburb in
Chechnya, and went from house to house executing residents. Some
men and women were executed because they did not have enough
money and jewelry to meet demands of the soldiers, others did not
carry identity papers. Several witnesses stated that the soldiers
forcibly removed the victims gold teeth or stole jewelry from corpses.
This is a story of state terrorism.
If grief were the dening attribute of an aggrieved population,
no morally meaningful distinction could be made between the res-
idents of Beslan and those of Grozny because both populations were
terrorized. In both cases, the torment fell on the innocent and
unguarded. One might draw diagrams to display the brutality of
soldiers exceeding that of militants, or vice versa. One might count
numbers to aver that more innocent people have died in Grozny
than in Beslan. The character and quantum of terrorism and the
attendant loss of life and liberty expose the depth of violence, and
numbers can tell the tales of horrors. The Western media may high-
light the death of Europeans and the Islamic world may mourn the
death of Muslims. These varied narratives afrm the same fact
that intense grief engulfs a population whether the terror is the
handiwork of Muslim militants or state soldiers. There exists no
legal or moral superiority of one suffering over the other. The death
of innocents in Beslan ought to be no more horric than death of
innocents in Grozny. Killing in name of the nation-state (Russia)
is no nobler than killing on behalf of an aggrieved population
(Chechens). State terrorism and militant terrorism are intertwined.
For analytical purposes, however, not every grief-stricken popula-
tion will be considered an aggrieved population.
Aggrieved Populations Dened

Aggrieved populations dened in this treatise have special mean-
ing. They are the people ghting for self-determination.4 Here, how-
ever, the right of self-determination is not conned to colonial or
occupation contexts.5 Nor is it conned to formalistic constraints
of the denition of people. Such technical restrictions are the arti-
facts of outdated value imperialism; they do not recognize the
expanding scope of self-determination under the law of human
rights. If a population has been forcibly denied the right to shape
its political, social, and religious life, and is seeking independence
to do so, its struggle may be characterized as one for self-determi-
nation.6 If the population is engaged in a struggle to free itself from
an external source, its struggle may be dened as one for external
self-determination. If the population is seeking autonomy without
any desire to break off and establish a separate nation-state, its
struggle falls within the meaning of internal self-determination. In
Kashmir, Chechnya and Palestine, the people are ghting for the
right of external self-determination, since their struggle for inde-
pendence is primarily to break off from the occupying state. In con-
trast, the people in Iraq are struggling to remove US occupation,
overcome insurgency, and establish a democracy. Each struggle is
for liberty and self-actualization. When a population is denied the
right to political liberty, its grievances begin to form. These griev-
ances multiply when suppressive entities resort to systematic bru-
tality of the population. Sooner or later, the aggrieved population
gives birth to an army of militants, called terrorists.
Construction of Aggrieved Populations

Constructed over a period of decades, even centuries, an aggrieved
population undergoes at least two distinct ordeals of formation.
4
Zejnulla Gruda, Some Key Principles for a Lasting Solution of the Status of
Kosovo, 80 Chicago-Kent Law Review 353 (2005) (problems in Kashmir, Palestine,
Bosnia, Chechnya, and Kosovo embody the aspirations of a Muslim population
for self-determination denied by the international community.)
5
Hurst Hannum, Rethinking Self-Determination, 34 Virginia Journal of
International Law 23 (1993) (arguing for a restricted scope of self-determination).
6
Frederic L. Kirgis The Degrees of Self-Determination in the United Nations
Era, 88 American Journal of International Law 304, (1994) (arguing for an
expanded scope of self-determination).
18 Chapter 1
The originative ordeal involves the denial of self-determination.

Aggrieved populations are created through the process of invasion,
occupation, alien domination, apartheid, mass dispossession, or
forced exile. In all such ordeals the right of self-determination is
asserted and denied. Here are a few examples of how an aggrieved
population may originate. The 2003 United States invasion of Iraq
was a dramatic originative ordeal that turned the population of
Iraq into an aggrieved population. Although some segments of
the Iraqi population, like Kurds and Shias, were released from the
Saddam regime, almost the entire Iraqi population suffered the
trauma of invasion and occupation.7 Once the Saddam regime was
overthrown, the Iraqi population began to express its resentment
against the US occupation, repudiating the virtues of transforma-
tive occupation that promises to transform a nation through benevo-
lent aggression.8
The creation of Israel in 1948 and the consequent mass exodus
of Palestinians from their villages and homes into refugee camps
in neighboring states originated Palestinian grievances. The par-
tition of British India in 1947, which ultimately led Hindu Prince
Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir to accede his kingdom to India
and the consequent failure of his predominantly Muslim popula-
tion to exercise their right of self-determination originated Kashmiri
grievances. The break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991 released sev-
eral communities from its imperial rule, except for Chechnya that
could not successfully secede to establish a separate nation-state.
This failure to acquire political liberty has re-originated (since the
Chechen struggle for independence is much older) Chechen grievances.
The second formational ordeal is punitive. It is unleashed when
an aggrieved population in asserting its right of self-determination
is subjected to gross human rights violations, including extra-judi-
cial killings, torture, deportation, rape, demolition of houses, house
to house searches, and indenite detentions. The punitive stage
lasts for decades, if not centuries, indeed as long as the originative
cause of grievances is unresolved. If the aggrieved population gen-
7
Les Roberts & others, Mortality before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq,
Lancet (November 20, 2004) (100,000 excess deaths happened after invasion; most
excess deaths occurred due to air strikes from coalition forces).
8
Nehal Bhuta, The Antinomies of Transformative Occupation, 16 European
Journal of International Law 721 (2005) (distinguishing between belligerent and
transformative occupation).
erates militancy that assaults persons and properties of the sup-

pressive entity, the punitive ordeal thickens and state terrorism
adopts unforgiving strategies. In most cases, the two layers merge
and constitute a systematic degradation of the aggrieved popula-
tion. The aggrieved population may then be dened as a popula-
tion that has lost its right to self-determination, political liberty,
and human dignity. Even when the punitive ordeal aims at crush-
ing militants, the aggrieved population suffers direct abuse and
loses the normalcy of life.
Once an aggrieved population is subjected to suppressive ter-
rorism and once its militancy arises, vicious violence compounds
the terror triangle. When state terrorism is unleashed to kill, detain,
and torture militants, the grievances of the impacted population
multiply because families experience the death and detention of
their sons and daughters. This in turn deepens the cause of mili-
tancy. Militants ght not only for the original right of self-deter-
mination but also to avenge human rights abuses perpetrated on
the entire aggrieved population. Even supportive entities broaden
their criticism of the suppressive infrastructure, because now they
not only support the aggrieved populations original right of self-
determination but also condemn the suppressive entitys gross
human rights violations. They may also sponsor militants to engage
in a more effective armed struggle. Thus, state-sponsored violence
interfaces with the violence of suppressive state and that of mili-
tants, spawning triangular terrorism. All these forms of terrorism
are inextricably related to primary and secondary grievances of an
aggrieved population.
1.1 PRIMARY GRIEVANCES
An aggrieved population constructed through originative and puni-

tive ordeals accumulates corresponding grievances. Primary griev-
ances emerge from the originative ordeal whereas secondary
grievances accumulate during the punitive ordeal. With time, the
two sets of grievances fuse with each other. However, it is impor-
tant to note that triangular terrorism would not cease to exist
unless primary grievances are resolved. Palestine, Kashmir, and
Chechnya conicts, which have been three major theatres of vio-
lence, provide examples of primary grievances. These conicts share
similarities in that each theater has produced massive violence;
20 Chapter 1
each involves a Muslim population ghting for the right of self-

determination; each faces a militarily strong suppressive state
(Israel, India, and Russia respectively); each enjoys wide-spread
international support for the independence or autonomy of the
aggrieved population; and each is fully supported by the Muslim
World including governments and peoples. Palestine, Kashmir, and
Chechnya are stories of colonization, usurpation of land and re-
sources, and, most important, of the failure of the nation-state to
interweave diverse populations into a single polity.
Palestine and Kashmir

The primary grievances of Palestine and Kashmir are identical to
the extent that they embody the unnished business of the British
Empire. In one case, the British left Palestine after creating two
states on paper but one in reality, Israel. In the other case, the
British left India after creating two states in reality but without
nishing the paper work regarding princely states, including that
of Kashmir. As a result, the paper state of Palestine could not come
into existence, and the unnished paper work plunged the future
status of Kashmir in doubt and contention. In both cases, the newly
formed United Nations was petitioned to resolve the colonial patholo-
gies. In the case of Palestine, the United Nations Security Council
passed a resolution to divide the colonial Palestine into two states.
In the case of Kashmir, the Security Council passed a resolution
demanding that a plebiscite be held to decide the territorys future
in accordance with wishes of its people.9 These conicts are still
smoldering with violence because Security Council resolutions have
not been implemented.
The following account furnishes insights in how an aggrieved
population is constructed over time. Each aggrieved population car-
ries a unique historical background and authors its own narrative
of grievances, some genuine and some not. Historical accounts may
differ, as the suppressive perspective is often radically different
9
Security Council Resolution 47 (1948). Paragraph B7 states: The Government
of India should undertake that there will be established in Jammu and Kashmir
a Plebiscite Administration to hold a Plebiscite as soon as possible on the ques-
tion of the accession of the State to India or Pakistan.
from that of the aggrieved population. Chechnya provides a good

case study for understanding the dynamics of an aggrieved popu-
lation since its population has gone through centuries of subjuga-
tion and militant deance. Russian Czars, communist politburos,
and newly placed democratic institutions, all have failed to per-
suade the Chechens that they should give up their right to politi-
cal liberty.
Chechens as an Aggrieved Population
In contrast to Palestine and Kashmir, Chechnya presents a more

serious pathology of a failed international legal system founded on
the concept of nation-states. Chechnya has been part of Russia for
more than two centuries and the United Nations has passed no
resolutions to grant Chechens any right of self-determination. As
such, the primary grievances of Chechnya do not emerge from
unnished business of an Empire, as do those of Palestine or
Kashmir. On the surface, the armed struggle in Chechnya is a sep-
aratist movement, challenging the territorial integrity of Russia as
a nation-state that forces Chechnya to remain its constituent
province. Below the surface, however, the Chechnya conict too is
a story of colonialism. The Russian Empire in the guise of the Soviet
Union fell to pieces, but the nation-state of Russia still carries
within its fold imperial accretions of territories and peoples. Some
such accretions have lost their will to separate from parent Russia.
Chechnya has not.
The Chechnya story furnishes profound insights into the dynam-
ics of self-determination that gradually come into play: an histor-
ical process of subjugation, assimilation, and control on the one
side, and an indomitable will to be free on the other. Russian efforts
to erase Chechens historical memories have been noticeably fruit-
less. Despite Russian propaganda and the cultural assaults of com-
munism, Chechens have steadfastly held on to their religion, local
traditions, customs, and laws. Su shrines scattered throughout
Chechnya, some built on high hills covered with thick forests, almost
all lled with stories of mysticism and heroic resistance to Russian
imperialism, serve as congregation places where militants meet
and plan new attacks on Russian soldiers who have destroyed the
peace, security, homes, and villages of Chechnya.
22 Chapter 1
Unlike some colonized peoples around the world, Chechens per-

sistently refused to assimilate into the culture of their conquerors.
Even the Soviet Unions communist philosophy failed to alter the
Chechens cultural self-awareness.10 In the words of Alexander
Solzhenitsyn, Only one nation refused to submit to the psychol-
ogy of submission . . . the Chechens. This is so because once a com-
munity submits to Islam, it refuses to submit to any other idea,
nation, or power. Islam is a religion of peace but not of cowardice.
No Muslim community allows itself to be permanently conquered
because Islam furnishes an indomitable frame of mind that sub-
mits to no god but One God. Suppressive entities often forget this
simple fact. So has Russia.
Language Promotes Political Liberty

Two related factors have forged Chechnyas aspirations for politi-
cal liberty from Russian domination: language and spiritual self-
awareness. Successive Russian conquests, rst spearheaded by
Peter the Great, highlighted for Chechens the hitherto dormant
forces of language and religion. Before, Chechens had lived in clans,
spoke an unwritten language, and were tied to the land in com-
mon ownership. Anatol Lieven argues that Russia did not invent
Chechens but Russia might have unwittingly consolidated the nation
of Chechnya. In the 1920s, to consolidate its communist power and
inuence, the Soviet Union turned the Chechen language into a
written language. Despite protests from Muslim clergy, the alpha-
betization of Chechen language was switched from Arabic to Latin,
a move designed to weaken the inuence of Islam that came through
the learning of Arabic, the language of the Quran.11 The written
Chechen language might have weakened the study of Arabic but
it further cemented the cultural-religious identity of Chechens who
could now read and write the same language they spoke.
Su Islam
Chechnyas spiritual self-awareness began to take roots in the eight-
eenth century through Su Islam. Before, Chechens were mostly
10
Anatol Lieven, Chechnya, at 33034 (1998).
11
Valery Tishkov, Chechnya, at 22 (2004).
animists, though carrying mild traces of Christianity. Su Islam

came in two overlapping waves. The rst wave introduced the
Naqshbandiya Su Order from Bukhara in Central Asia; the sec-
ond wave, much stronger in intensity and inuence, brought the
Qadiriya Su Order that had originated in Baghdad in the twelfth
century.12 Both Su Orders emphasized the oneness of God through
zikr, that is, the remembrance of One God through simple phrases,
such as Allah Hu, repeated until the chanting person or the group
experiences holy trance. Susm, however, is not conned to verbal
rituals or cult spirituality; its main purpose is to teach Islam.
Whereas conventional teachings of Islam focus on law and theol-
ogy, Susm emphasizes interior development of the soul. In most
cases, Susm paves the way for theological and legal Islam.
Eventually, both paths must merge for a fuller understanding of
Islam, as they did in Chechnya.
Mysticism and Militancy

In Chechnya, however, Su Islam cultivated a unique trait. In view
of Russian domination, Chechen Sus began to combine mysticism
with armed militancy. This combination was most effective in ght-
ing Russian expansionism. Submission to One God alone, which
both Su Orders emphasized, meant that Chechens would not bow
to Russians as their masters. The mystical part of Susm created
a strong psychology among Chechens not to surrender to anyone
but to One God. The militant part of Susm taught that passive
resistance amidst occupation was no longer sufcient to keep faith
in One God. Inspired by militant mysticism, Muslim commanders
ghting the Russians, such as Imam Shamil, came to be identied
as both humble Sus and fearless warriors at the same time. And
the Chechens killed in the ghazavats (holy encounters) were both
martyrs and murids (followers of Sus). The proliferation of shrines
in Chechnya bears witness to the success of Sus in romanticizing
mystical martyrdom in the cause of freedom from occupation and
alien domination.
Here, witness a point that is often misunderstood. Su Islam in
Chechnya is not teaching terrorism. It is teaching resistance and
a determined refusal to submit to alien domination. Su militancy
12
Carlotta Gall & Thomas de Waal, Chechnya, at 3136 (1998).
24 Chapter 1
is aggression against aggression, but not aggression per se. Ordinarily,

Sus are lovers in the realm of Islam, but not in Chechnya, because
there successive Russian conquests have left little to love. When
cruelty has taken over, Islam teaches hatred. Hatred is as much
an Islamic value as is love. Muslims are taught to love and to hate,
since the Prophet of Islam was emphatic in telling his followers
that if they cannot correct a wrong, they at least must hate it. In
teaching militancy to their followers, Chechen Sus were showing
that Islam has no place for unconditional love for the wrongdoer.
It teaches ferocity and an eye for an eye, though always poised to
forgive, when Muslims are subjugated and degraded. This spiri-
tual militancy is indomitable under all forms of cruelty.
Communist Suppression of Susm

Soviet communism, with its ofcially sanctioned atheistic propa-
ganda against religion, was the new Russian offensive against
Chechnyas spiritual roots. In the 1920s, Chechnya had nearly three
thousand mosques and religious schools and around a thousand
religious teachers. The communist authorities closed down the entire
religious infrastructure and banished religion from Chechens lives.
Despite this outward suppression, Su Islam continued to inform
Chechen consciousness. And despite prohibition of religious prac-
tices, social gatherings in Chechen homes continued to practice
zikr, the remembrance of One God. Outwardly, Chechens were sec-
ularized and urbanized; inwardly, they remained a ercely free peo-
ple holding on to a militant spiritual consciousness.
The communist assault on Chechens was not conned to psy-
chological warfare. In 1943, the Politburo under the leadership of
Joseph Stalin decided to expel the entire Chechen and Ingush pop-
ulation to barren lands of Central Asia. Some members of the
Politburo proposed to abolish the autonomous region of Chechen-
Ingushetia. Others oated the idea of liquidation. In 1944, mass
deportation with genocidal intent was indeed carried out. The suf-
fering was immeasurable. Thousands of Chechens and Ingush died
on the forced journey to Kazakhstan. At least 100,000 deportees
died of starvation and sickness. In 1957, Nikita Khrushchev reversed
Stalins deportation orders, allowing Chechens and Ingush to return
home. Hundreds of thousands deportees came back to Chechnya,
with a new generation of children born and raised in forced exile.13
13
Gall, supra note 2, at 57.
In the ofcial press, deportations were presented as resettlements,

the peoples efforts to cultivate the virgin lands. In reality, it was
state terrorism.
Grievances Giving Birth to Aspirations for Liberty

The memories of mass deportation and its untold suffering, long
suppressed by ofcial propaganda, gradually came to surface and
were emotionally expressed in poems, plays, short stories and other
narratives. Youth pop songs played on local TV channels inuenced
a new generation of Chechens. One song captures the agony: We
were like cattle driven into freight trains/What woeful time we had
to love through/Torn from our dear mountains of the Caucasus. A
consensus began to emerge among Chechens that the forced exile
amounted to genocide. Grievances grew, anger simmered, and the
call for assuming control over the republic of Chechnya began to
make resonance with the people. To end the nightmare and the
Russian occupation of the land, the movement for independence
couched in the right of self-determination began to take roots; it
gathered momentum after the dismemberment of the Soviet Empire,
frustrating the authorities in Moscow. Chechen leaders summed
up the struggle in a simple slogan: Chechnya was never part of
Russia, and the Chechens never thought of themselves as citizens
of Russia.14 The historical account of Chechnyas voluntary merger
with Russia was rejected as imperial propaganda.
To the great dismay of Kremlin communists who wanted to pre-
serve the empire, Mikhail Gorbachevs perestroika fueled the con-
cept of self-determination. Radical Moscow democrats supported
ethno-national identities as the basis of statehood. The empire was
dismembered but Chechnya could not receive independence. In
1990, the Supreme Court of the Soviet of the Chechen-Ingush repub-
lic adopted a declaration of sovereignty and claimed North Ossetia
as part of the republic. More radical Chechen groups asserted the
right to return and demanded that Chechens deported out of the
republic be brought back home. In July 1991, demonstrations for
a separate Chechnya, held in the Sheikh Mansur Square of Grozny,
had an air of festivities. Animals were sacriced in the Square to
feed demonstrators. Elder Chechens performed the Su dance and
14
Tishkov, supra note 3, at 4951.
26 Chapter 1
chanted in unison the names of God. Thus the zikr blessed the call
for independence.15
Geopolitical Barriers to Chechnyas Freedom

After dismantling of the Soviet Union, Russia was determined to
hold on to Chechnya, partly because of the geographically strate-
gic importance of the land, partly because of its oil resources, partly
because of the trans-Caucasus oil pipeline passing through it, and
partly because of Russias old imperial habits to bully conquered
territories to submission even if brutal force has to be used. An
additional reason was the Russian aversion to the establishment
of a Muslim state in the heart of the Caucasus, an idea that few
neighboring states would enthusiastically support. With regard to
Russias additional reason, even Western Europeans and Americans
who criticized Russias human rights violations in Chechnya were
reluctant to support Chechens right to self-determination and
statehood.
Chechnya is not free partly because traditional arguments of
international law available to evict Russia from Afghanistan are
unavailable in the case of Chechnya. Even Muslim governments
stood silently as Russia brutalized Chechens with overwhelming
destruction. Several factors emboldened Russia to continue its poli-
cies of defeating what it called the bandits of Chechnya. Russia
was a nuclear giant and a permanent member of the UN Security
Council. Russia continued to have favorable ties with several Muslim
states, including Iraq, Iran, and Syria. The principle of territorial
integrity lay in the background to weaken the arguments for inde-
pendence. After all, Chechnya has been part of Russia for more
than two hundred years.
But the most important reason for the world to gradually mini-
mize its criticism of Russian atrocities was the growing rhetoric
of terrorism associated with Chechnyas guerillas. As long as the
theatre of violence was conned to Grozny and other towns and
villages in Chechnya, human rights groups highlighted the plight
of Chechens and criticized Russia. But once the guerillas took the
ght inside Russia, including Moscow, Chechnya began to lose sym-
15
Id. at 60.
pathy of Western human rights non-governmental organizations

(NGO) and the Western press. The bombings in Moscow, the siege
of the theatre, the death of children at Beslan, and other violent
episodes turned the ght for self-determination into terrorism. After
the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Russia joined other suppressive states
to bless a global war on terror. Chechens, like Kashmiris and
Palestinians, were to be suppressed by all means necessary.
1.2 SECONDARY GRIEVANCES
Primary grievances involving the right to self-determination are

considered legitimate in colonial contexts, but not so when national
liberation movements challenge the integrity of the nation-state.
It is universally feared that if populations are allowed to break
away from parent nation-states, the world will become chaotic. This
unfounded fear ignores the fact that for centuries before the dawn
of the nation-state, human beings had lived without sovereign bor-
ders. When national liberation movements, such as the ones in
Chechnya and Kashmir, are suppressed in the name of territorial
integrity, secondary grievances emerge in the form of human rights
abuses. If primary grievances are the product of imperialism, sec-
ondary grievances are the handiwork of state cruelty. This section
highlights human rights abuses, which aggrieved populations suf-
fer on a daily basis, particularly after militants attack the persons
and properties of suppressive entities. These abuses inicted on
the aggrieved population are also known as state terrorism.
State Terrorism
Zachistki
No part of Chechnya has been exempt from zachistki a horror-
lled, ugly Russian word that means house-to-house raids. It also
means the surgical removal of dangerous terrorists, bandits, and
criminals. In zachistki operations, entire villages are sealed off,
every house is entered and searched, every persons identity is
veried, every valuable household chattel is checked for documen-
tation. To make matters worse, every household chattel is subject
28 Chapter 1
to conscation (ofcial looting) while every household member is

subject to detention. Mothers fear for their sons, wives for their
husbands, sisters for their brothers. Almost all Chechen men and
now young women too are terror suspects and therefore remov-
able from homes and exportable to the dreaded prison of pits, that
is, holes dug in the ground. Russian laws require that detainees
be charged or released after 10 days. Some families bribe security
forces to get their loved ones back. However, some detainees dis-
appear without a trace even without being charged or released from
detention. Many are summarily killed, ofcially in encounters with
security forces, in reality with execution bullets shot in their heads
or murderous daggers driven in their throats. Bodies retrieved from
dump sites and unmarked graves conrm how some Chechen
detainees, men and women, still wearing the same clothes in which
they were last seen at the house, had been executed upon arrival
at the pits. Some soldiers sell directions to unmarked graves, with
a contract warranty to the relatives that money would be returned
if bodies found are not theirs. Raiding, looting, detaining, disap-
pearing, summary execution, selling maps to unmarked graves, all
these and more are the horrors of zachistki.16
Vakha and His Folder

Anna Politikovskaya, a Russian journalist, writes in the vicinity of
the Russian literary tradition, shared by Chekhov and Solzhenitsyn,
which daringly exposes the horrors and atrocities unleashed in
name of the motherland. In her book, A Small Corner of Hell,
Politkovskaya describes the ordinary Chechen life in wartime.
Though the books narrative embodies ctional style and literary
diction, the stories are told with pitiless honesty are nonetheless
real. One telling story is that of Vakha found lying on withered
autumn grass along with hundreds of other eeing Chechens while
Russian helicopters y so low that you can see the gunners hands
and faces. Women and children wail. With his mouth pressed to
the ground and wearing a black suit with a white shirt and a black
tie, Vakha tells his prostrating comrades, all folded up in the fetal
position, how it is the folder that has saved his life. For every time
16
Paul Quinn-Judge, In the Ruins of Grozny, TIME (April 2, 2001); The Dirty
War in Chechnya, Human Rights Watch (March, 2001).
the helicopters come, I take my folder, get out some paper, and pre-
tend to write. This way the pilots believe that I am not a terror-
ist. Those who can hear him laugh, nding fault with his nave
logic; says one, what if the pilots think youre taking down their
license plate numbers. Vakha equipped with his life-saving folder
is hoping to join his mother, wife, two unmarried sisters, and six
children, all of whom ed a week ago. As helicopters circle above
and machine guns shoot mercilessly in nearby elds, the folder
jokes begin to multiply: Putin will wonder why all the Chechens
are running around with folders. Vakha, what color should the
folders be? You dont know how lucky you are, man; they might
think youre counting us. And that means youre on their side.
Relishing the folder jokes and believing in a happy future, Vakha
and his new buddies are slowly crawling toward the checkpoint. A
bit tired, Vakha concedes that all is in Allahs hands but still
insists that the folder has always helped him, in Russias rst war
against Chechnya, and this one. Perhaps exhausted from waiting
in the long line, Vakha veers off into a nearby eld infested with
landmines. Within minutes, Vakha is dead in an explosion. He,
however dened, is still lying on the ground but no more in the
fetal position. His hands rest quietly several feet away from the
shredded contents of his black jacket and his legs have vanished.
His magic folder with its blank sheets has also turned into anony-
mous dust.
Operation Desert Scorpion

If zachistki is an ugly word for Chechens, the word operation has
acquired a similarly dreaded meaning for Iraqis. Following the
invasion of Iraq, the US military initiated its own benevolent
zachistki, called operations, to search and kill Muslim militants.
Operation Desert Scorpion, for example, was a manipulative mix
of raid and aid. Show of force was theoretically aimed at insur-
gents while humanitarian goodies were reserved for the general
public. Operationally, however, the line between raid and aid has
been hard to draw, particularly because insurgents and civilians
freely melt into each other and also because young soldiers equipped
with war gadgets are looking for action. The search for targets
assumes imminence when the need for military action is deliber-
ately hyped. Psyched up on Wagners martial music and on the
musical The End from the Vietnam War lm Apocalypse Now (Kill,
30 Chapter 1
kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, This is the end, Beautiful friend) American
troops patrol sometimes deserted and sometimes overly crowded
streets of Iraq. At nighttime, they crash metal doors and barge into
Iraqi homes to catch bad guys and subversives. On entering
houses, soldiers soil the hand-woven carpets and prayer rugs, shout
and curse in English, order men to fall on the ground like but-
teries. Seeing their houses invaded and men mistreated, women
wearing Islamic head covers wail and invoke Gods wrath for America.
In the morning, when American military engineers toil to clear
garbage from rotting elds to build a new soccer stadium, to their
great surprise, Iraqi children throw stones at them. The nights
search and seize operations turn into the mornings ingratitude and
resistance.17
Deaths that Are Not Counted

The US invasion of Iraq has generated countless stories of brutal-
ity and death. These stories that circulate over the internet, are
published in newspapers, and told in family gatherings through-
out the Muslim world. Robert Fisk, a renowned anti-war journal-
ist from Great Britain, has made a commitment to tell the Iraqi
side of pain and suffering.18 In September 2003, reacting to a New
York Times article that highlighted the terrible toll of casualties,
that is, 72 American soldiers, Fisk was struck by the quietude over
the death and maiming of Iraqi civilians. Thereafter, he started to
write a series of articles on excesses of war and the concomitant
misery of Iraqi life under American occupation. The invasion of
Iraq unleashed the forces of lawlessness, reports Fisk, increasing
violence at all fronts. Family feuds, inter-tribal vendettas, depres-
sion, powerlessness, and killings by thieves, all surfaced to add to
the brutalities of trigger-happy U.S. soldiers. Many Iraqi civilians
are killed at US checkpoints either because the cars approach too
quickly or soldiers come under re and they respond without wast-
ing time on investigating the direction of incoming re, killing civil-
17
William Booth, US Forces Mix Carrots and Sticks, Washington Post (June
16, 2003).
18
Robert Fisk, Terror in London: The reality of this barbaric bombing,
Independent (London) (July 8, 2005) (When Muslims die, it is collateral damage,
when Westerners die, it is barbaric terrorism).
ians in the rush. Such shootings are rarely investigated to nd out

who the troops shot down, who they killed, who they wounded.
Many Iraqi civilians have been killed at wedding parties repeat-
edly because US forces take their celebratory ring in the air as
an attack. An accurate reporting of civilian deaths or causes of
casualties, however, is made difcult, reports Fisk, because jour-
nalists are rarely issued permits to visit hospitals and morgues.
This absence of reporting has hurt the American image because
even when Iraqis kill Iraqis, the blame is shifted to the US. Some
Iraqis believe that Americans have deliberately caused insecurity
so that criminals can harass civilians. Even less critical Iraqis, who
shun conspiracy theories, generally believe that US troops have lit-
tle regard for Iraqi lives. There are few takers of the proposition
that Americans staked their lives in an altruistic way to liberate
Iraq.
Western journalists interviewing Iraqis hear countless allega-
tions of abuse by US troops. Kim Sengupta, another British jour-
nalist, reports the killings of unarmed civilians in Fallujah. Although
exaggerations and even disinformation, as rightfully pointed out
by US authorities, decorate the narratives of carnage, the refugees
from Fallujah consistently paint scenes of pitiless American assaults
on houses and hospitals. Sengupta reports the killings of patients
in hospital beds despite assurances by doctors that clinics will not
be attacked. A common complaint heard from diverse sources reveals
a pattern of negligent killings by American snipers and soldiers
patrolling in Humvees. American snipers have killed men, women,
and children. The youngest one I saw was a four-year-old boy.
Almost all these people have been shot in the head, chest or neck.
Soldiers in Humvees often kill out of situational nervousness or
because of lack of communication. The US does offer monetary com-
pensation if someone is killed by mistake. However, the stories of
Humvees blasting moving cars on the road and instantly blowing
away their human contents spawn hateful memories that dig deeper
into Iraqi consciousness than any stories of greenbacks tendered
for mistaken homicides.
Sexual Torture of Muslim Men, Women, and Children

General Antonio Taguba, who investigated charges of torture in
Iraq, reported numerous episodes of porno-torture. At Abu Gharaib,
Muslim boys were sodomized, Muslim girls raped and Muslim men
32 Chapter 1
stripped naked and stacked in pyramids. Some were forced to engage

in oral sex with each other. Some were forced to wear female under-
wear. Reports from the Guantanamo gulag are no less pornographic.
One prisoner was smeared with the menstrual blood of a prosti-
tute. Another was led to believe, through long therapy sessions,
that he was a closet homosexual torture aimed at dismantling
the detained persons self-identity. Yet another prisoner reported:
Americans stripped me, hit me and beat me up. I pointed to where
the pain was but they treated it as a joke. They laughed.
Porno-torture is not dened in law. However, laws do dene
pornography and torture separately. Pornography is visual depic-
tion, including photograph, lm, and video, of actual or simulated
sexually explicit conduct, such as lascivious exhibition of the gen-
itals, sexual acts, sadistic or masochistic abuse. Torture is the inten-
tional iniction of severe physical or mental pain for the purposes
of punishment, intimidation or obtaining information or a confes-
sion. Porno-torture may therefore be dened as the intentional
iniction of severe physical or mental pain for interrogative, puni-
tive, or abusive purposes by forcing a person to engage in sexually
explicit behavior, which is recorded, or staged before a live audience.
Note that porno-torture is not the same as porno conduct. What
distinguishes the two is the element of consent. A person engaged
in porno conduct may have consented to visual depictions of his or
her actual or simulated sexual acts. By contrast, porno-torture
forces the person against his or her will to engage in actual sex-
ual acts for or before an audience. Like porno conduct, porno-tor-
ture is photographed, lmed, or videotaped for the gratication of
others. At Abu Gharaib, for example, stacking naked prisoners in
a pyramid was an act of torture. It turned into porno-torture when
it was photographed. Recording of sexual torture, however, is not
critical since it may be committed for the gratication of a live
audience.19
Rape of Kashmiri Women

Sexual torture is by no means a practice exclusive to Americans.
Rape is the premier method that Indian security forces use to sup-
19
L. Ali Khan, The Invention of Porno Torture, Daily Times (Pakistan) (October
3, 2005).
press insurgency in occupied Kashmir. Though not ofcially sanc-

tioned, security forces use rape to bring shame and anguish to
Muslim homes. Rape is employed as a weapon to punish, intimi-
date, coerce, humiliate and degrade. Rape is also justied on the
assumption that raped households will teach others to restrain
their male family members from joining militancy. Rape comes easy
as Indian federal laws vest security forces with wide powers to cor-
don and search Muslim suburbs and villages in Kashmir. In these
mop-up operations, men in the area are rst detained and held for
identication in parks and schoolyards, away from homes. Then
soldiers search homes for hiding militants. Upon nding no terrorists,
security soldiers display their rage and power by burning homes,
ransacking some, and looting others. If women in the homes protest
security searches or if they themselves are perceived to be militant
sympathizers, they are gang-raped by the searching soldiers.
The Palestinians
Nothing evokes more passion than the Middle Eastern conict

between Jews and Muslims locked in an epic struggle in what was
once Palestine. Muslims believe that the creation of Israel is the
worst catastrophe that Muslims have ever faced. Jews believe that
the world is inherently anti-Semitic and that it singles out Israel
for condemnation. The world sees the Middle Eastern conict with
a torn consciousness. The conict over historic Palestine has many
similarities with Chechnya and Kashmir. Yet it is unique in that
a native population has been occupied, forcibly exiled, tortured,
and brutalized to make room for European immigrants; these immi-
grants assert title to the land under a complex set of claims derived
from Judaism, British imperial edicts, and United Nations resolu-
tions. The European immigrants claim to historic Palestine is no
different from that of earlier Europeans who dispossessed native
populations in the Americas and Australia, claiming land under a
composite rationale of conquest, the international law of terra nul-
lius, Christianity, and a superior civilization.
Banishment and Forced Exodus

The expulsion of the indigenous population of Palestine carries the
reality and perception of injustice and cruelty. The 1948 memories
34 Chapter 1
of forced exile have been transmitted to succeeding generations of

Palestinians. These memories carry massive depopulation and
destruction of over 500 villages, done primarily to discourage the
ousted populations from ever returning to their homes. Villages
were entirely erased to obliterate pathways, road signs, homes,
orchards, olive trees, shops, playgrounds, everything so that their
expelled inhabitants could no longer trace tangible images of their
memories. Once these villages were emptied, the occupying armed
forces adopted shoot to kill policies to prevent the return of
refugees. Shukri Salameh, an Anglican Christian Palestinian, who
practiced law in Jaffa until April 26, 1948, reports in an eyewit-
ness account of how a clandestine radio production urged the pop-
ulation of Jaffa to escape with their families before their houses
were demolished. The broadcast also reminded the inhabitants of
the events of Deir Yassin, a village destroyed on April 9, where over
100 Palestinians were massacred an event that shook the Arab
world.20 Such stories, the veracity of which is contested, construct
memories of expulsion and become folk narratives of oppression.
According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency
(UNRWA), around ve million registered Palestine refugees live in
Gaza, West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.21 UNRWA denes
Palestinian refugees as persons whose normal place of residence
between June 1946 and May 1948 was Palestine, and who lost their
homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Israeli-Arab
conict. Palestinians were displaced because some ed their homes
to avoid the conict, others were expelled to make room for Jews
immigrating to the newly established state of Israel. The UNRWA
denition also covers the descendants of these refugees. The num-
ber of displaced Palestinians is signicant considering that in 1967
Israel occupied Gaza (previously held by Egypt) and the West Bank
(previously held by Jordan) where hundreds of thousands of
Palestinians, already refugees since 1948, left the occupied terri-
tories and spilled over into neighboring countries, swelling the pre-
vious crowds of refugees. One third of registered refugees live in
20
http://www.deiryassin.org. This website has been created to remember Deir
Yassin. Irgun and Stern Gang, Jewish militant (terrorist) groups, perpetrated the
massacre. Irgun was led by Menachem Begin, who later became Israels Prime
Minister and won Nobel Peace Prize.
21
http://www.un.org/unrwa. This UN website contains information about Pales-
tinian refugees and the Relief Agency.
59 ofcial camps small pieces of land that the host states have
placed under the UNRWAs jurisdiction.
For years, Palestinian refugees lived in make-shift tents. Most
of them now live in shelters with some access to water and other
utilities. The refugees living in shelters, however, acquire no prop-
erty or ownership rights. Unregistered refugees not living in ofcial
camps are concentrated in areas (ghettos) near ofcial camps or
around big cities such as Damascus.
Joseph Donnelly of Caritas Internationalis visited the Jenin
refugee camp in April 2002, after Israeli forces invaded the camp
to ush out militants.22 As the Caritas delegation enters the refugee
camp, echoes of grief mix and multiply in uid Arabic and broken
English men telling stories of crushed houses, women and little
girls sitting atop the remains of their homes, boys mourning their
slain families in stunned silence. One woman says to the delega-
tion in faltering English: You see it now and it is so bad. It was
worse while it was happening. The delegation then visits an empty
building turned into a makeshift mourning room lled with plas-
tic chairs. Here men sit and hear each other groan and talk about
martyrs of the Jenin community. Members of the delegation are
invited to pray for the dead and drink bitter coffee from small cups.
This pause overwhelms many in the delegation as the essential
human charity of walking with others in their pain and loss removes
all barriers.
Security Roadblocks
Suppressive barriers however share no such pain. Security soldiers
in occupied Palestine use roadblocks to control entry to cities and
villages. These roadblocks inict unnecessary and sometimes cruel
suffering on civilians waiting in lines. Pregnant Palestinian women,
for example, have gone into labor on the ground near checkpoints
with no medical care, exposing themselves and newborns to life-
threatening risk. As a result, checkpoints have become psycholog-
ical haunting places for many pregnant women who fear that they
will be unable to give a normal birth. Due to similar delays, seriously
22
Caritas Internationalis is a confederation of 162 Catholic relief, development
and social service organizations working in over 200 countries and territories.
http://www.caritas.org
36 Chapter 1
ill civilians have died at checkpoints, some in stranded ambulances.

All young men are assumed actual or potential terrorists and treated
with indignity. They are searched, insulted, cursed, and harassed.
And, if someone makes a wrong move out of exhaustion or naivety,
he or she can be instantly killed. In their less dramatic but equally
harmful effects, extensive roadblocks chop up roads and pathways
into numerous small zones of surveillance, reminding civilians that
they are under occupation. At a more practical level, roadblocks
infringe upon the civilians freedom of movement a human right
protected in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. They also
interpose barriers between student and school, effectively curtail-
ing access to education. Families are afraid to send their children
to schools and colleges for they might be detained or wounded at
checkpoints. Stopping at checkpoints has become a part of the
daily routine for . . . going to work, visiting family, and even run-
ning errands or seeing a doctor. It has become commonplace, but
it is not normal.23
Torture
Israels Shin Bet has earned a reputation for inventing ne-tuned
forms of legally permissible torture. As the counterespionage and
internal security service, it monitors the activities of Palestinian
militants. Picked up by Israeli soldiers patrolling occupied territo-
ries, including refugee camps, the detainees are handed over to
Shin Bet for interrogations. Despite Israels ratication of the
Convention against Torture and the Israeli Supreme Courts rejec-
tion of operational exceptions to the Convention, Shin Bet contin-
ues to employ newer forms of torture as interrogation tools. The
detainees are deprived of food, water, and sleep for days, they are
violently shaken, and they are required to defecate in their own
clothing. While Shin Bet uses torture to extract information from
detainees, Israeli patrols enjoy their own legal authority to impose
collective torture on Palestinian neighborhoods, the purpose of
which is not to gather information but to punish. Bulldozing
Palestinian houses is a favorite, though universally condemned
23
www.miftah.org (July 1, 2003).
punishment meted out to neighborhoods and villages presumably

connected to militants and suicide bombers.
House Demolitions
The Israeli policy of house demolition is a punitive measure that
adds to grievances of the occupied Palestinian population.24 It also
reinforces the policy of settlements. The two policies of destruction
of Palestinian homes and the construction of new homes for Israeli
settlers go hand in hand with narrowing the space available for
Palestinians. Exact gures of house demolitions are still unavail-
able. BTSELEM, the Israeli Center for Human Rights in the
Occupied Territories, established in 1989 by academics, attorneys,
journalists, and Knesset members, has provided a count of houses
that Israeli Occupation Forces have demolished since 1987, the
year when the rst intifada (resistance) began in the occupied ter-
ritories Of Gaza and West Bank. This popular Palestinian upris-
ing lasted for ten years (December, 19871997). During this period,
Israel demolished around ve hundred houses and sealed off almost
an equal number. Most demolitions occurred in the rst three years
of the intifada. No demolitions were carried out in the years 1999
and 2000, a time of hope and partial reconciliation where Palestinians
and Israelis attempted to negotiate peace with the assistance of
then US President, William Clinton. The failure, however, of the
peace process gave rise to the second intifada. The more militant
Israeli government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon reactivated the
policy of house demolitions. In October 2001, riding on the 9/11
global wave against terrorism, Israel began to demolish a record
number of houses (476) in the succeeding two years. In addition to
demolition, hundreds of homes have been completely or partially
sealed denying any habitation to their residents. The policy of house
demolitions, however, is not tied to intifada. After the 1967 war,
according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, Israel
demolished over a thousand houses in the rst ve years of occu-
pation of West Bank and Gaza. Per Palestinian sources, the count
is much higher.
24
Marco Sassoli, Legislation and maintenance of Public Order and Civil Life
by Occupying Powers, 16 European Journal of International law 661 (2005)
(occupying power may not impose its own values and interests on the occupied
population).
38 Chapter 1
Ironically, house demolition is a colonial practice registered into

law in 1937 by the British government that held Palestine as a
trust territory under the mandate of the League of Nations. (The
British had used this punitive method of demolishing houses in
South Africa and Ireland as well.) Successive Israeli governments
have relied on this British legal authority, arguing that the Defense
(Emergency) Regulations are part of the laws applicable to British
Palestine. Rule 119 of these regulations authorizes troops in overly
broad language to forfeit and demolish any house of which the
inhabitants have committed, or attempted to commit, or abetted
the commission of, or been accessories after the fact to the commis-
sion of, any offence . . . involving violence or intimidation. Although
the British repealed Rule 119 prior to withdrawing from Palestine
(and before Israel came into existence), the Israeli legal system
nonetheless continues to assert the validity of the rule, asserting
that the revocation of the rule was not ofcially published in the
Palestine Gazette. Israels High Court has upheld the legality of
Rule 119 on the theory that demolition of houses is efcacious
deterrence.25
In addition to reliance on Rule 119, Israeli governments have
demolished homes built without valid permit obtained from Israeli
authorities. Strict zoning laws have been enacted to deny permits.
Permits are often denied in areas considered necessary to expand
and protect Israeli settlements. These permits are also used to
interrupt the natural expansion of Palestinian communities. Some
homes built forty years ago by owners on their own lots have been
demolished for failure to produce valid construction permit. Thus
demolition of homes for lack of permit serves two distinct purposes.
First, it clears real estate for the infrastructure supporting Israeli
settlements, such as roads, shops, and recreational centers. Second,
it acts as a deterrent to prevent the construction of new Palestinian
homes for few owners would choose to spend their savings in build-
ing houses subject to swift demolition.
The Israeli Committee against House Demolitions, headquar-
tered in Jerusalem, documents the stories of Palestinians whose
houses have been demolished. These stories highlight human suf-
fering of losing homes to striking bulldozers. The Committee lists
25
John Quigley, Punitive Demolition of Houses, 5 Saint Thomas Law Review
359 (1993).
the story of Moussa and his family who built a house in 1989 on
their ancestral land in Anata a Palestinian village located in the
West Bank but isolated and circumscribed all around by Israeli set-
tlements. After the 1967 war, the Israeli government expropriated
over half of Anata to build settlements and the supporting infra-
structure. Most residents of Anata have few options but to work
for Israeli factories. Moussa however made a living to support a
family of eleven children (5 boys and 6 girls) by raising chickens.
The poultry farm was attached to the house. To save their house
and the chicken farm from demolition the Moussa family spent
over $10,000 in legal fees, but the attempt was unsuccessful. About
60 days after the notice of demolition, 30 cars of soldiers came to
demolish the house. The family was given an hour to vacate the
house. The soldiers demolished the house and the attached chicken
farm. Moussas children were shocked at the destruction of their
home, household belongings, furniture, and chickens whose bones
and feathers lay mangled in the midst of twisted metal and other
debris. Now the Moussa family lives in a relatives small house,
desperately trying to obtain a building permit.
1.3 OBJECTIFICATION OF GRIEVANCES
Aggrieved populations use complex strategies to objectify their pri-

mary and secondary grievances. They give birth to militants who
vow to ght the injustices done to their families, villages, and the
community. They plead to international journalists and scholars to
tell their story to the peoples of the world. They ght and kill. They
murder occupying soldiers. They bomb the infrastructure of oppres-
sion. They nurture suicide bombers who simultaneously die and
kill. They negotiate with suppressive entities. They seek the help
of international institutions such as the United Nations to demand
political liberty and an end to human rights abuses. They express
their anguish and sorrow through literature that in turn consoli-
dates and deepens the feelings of shared struggle. They write poems,
stories, and essays to expose and nurse their wounds.
40 Chapter 1
Literary Resistance
Story tellers, poets, journalists, op-ed writers, and other intellec-

tuals arising from aggrieved populations actively participate in
objectifying, through diverse literary forms, the shared grievances
of the larger community. This objectication stems from a profound
human need to search for artistic beauty and romantic value under
all forms of living conditions, including misery, occupation, degra-
dation, and even outright slavery. Once objectied, stories, poems,
slave songs, and other literary products and narratives serve to
deepen the sense of grief and injustice. These literary treasures
are, moreover, to a large extent immune from the wrath of the
enemy. Militants can be killed, fugitives can be arrested, women
can be raped, and houses can be demolished, but poems, folk sto-
ries, and narratives highlighting the oppressors cruelty and the
heroism of fearless children throwing stones at ferocious tanks
cannot be harmed. Material property is assuredly subject to consca-
tion and destruction, but intellectual property created under con-
ditions of servility assumes the aura of mythic indestructibility.
Militant Fantasies
Salaam al Jubourie, a journalist and gifted linguist, describes how
after the US invasion, the University of Baghdad, his alma mater,
turned into a militarized campus of intellectual decay, shared frus-
tration, and hatred. Guards with guns screen the entry of students
while American helicopters ying at low altitudes over the campus
provoke disgust and feelings of revenge. Explosions in the vicinity
frequently disrupt lectures and cautious conversations. Despite
security and screening, beggars and vendors end up roaming around
on campus. Students personalities have changed since the war.
They nd no motivation to study, because many professors, par-
ticularly the most brilliant, have been assassinated. The College
of Languages, with its lovely club and nice gardens, has lost its
pre-war romance in the midst of ies feasting on a huge mass of
rubbish beside the colleges gate. A female student accuses the
interim government for the decay on the campus saying, they are
tools in the hands of the Americans, and the Americans like this
situation. They want us to live in chaotic conditions and ght each
other. Unarmed students in the Arabic department express the
desire to shoot down the helicopter equipped with M 16s hovering

over their heads. When students leave for the day, the empty cam-
pus lled with uncollected garbage and openly running sewage
invite the evening dogs to explore with liberty, as the occupiers
promised, a place reserved for higher education.
Occupied Voices
My name is Shaaban, and I fear no one but God. This is how a
Palestinian introduced himself to Wendy Pearlman, a Jewish-
American writer, who went to the West Bank and Gaza during the
second intifada (20002005) to live with the Palestinians and record
their experiences under occupation. Initially, Pearlman hid her
Jewish identity but later found out that the Palestinians who wel-
comed her in their houses and lives knew who she was but feigned
ignorance to make her feel comfortable. Pearlmans book Occupied
Voices consists of poignant human stories narrated with disarming
honesty. My name is Muna. My family is originally from Abbassia,
a village near Lydda. We used to have a lot of property near what
is now Ben-Gurion Airport. The documents and the key to the house,
theyre all here. Mahmouds story describes the pain of losing
homes to bulldozers. We had just gotten married so everything
was new. I had new furniture, including a television, a refrigera-
tor a bed and dresser, curtains, everything, everything. I had worked
for eight years to get married and buy a house, and it was ruined
in a single moment.26
Sana, a ninth grader, shares with Pearlman the fear of living in
a house hit by shelling. The shelling was coming from the Osama
school, which is not far from our house. The Israelis took over the
school because it was the tallest building in the neighborhood.
Sanas school not far from her house is equally unsafe. There are
settlers living in the houses surrounding the school. They go up on
the top oors and re dumdum bullets down from above. Ahmed,
a clinical psychologist in Gaza, tells Pearlman that Palestinian chil-
dren are undergoing social phobia. Theyre not safe at home, theyre
not safe at school, theyre not safe on the streets. In one incident,
sixteen children on their way to school were injured when Israeli
26
Wendy Pearlman, Occupied Voices 142 (2003).
42 Chapter 1
settlers shot at all of them. Since the settlers use silencers on their
guns, the children suddenly found themselves on the ground in a
pool of blood. Soha whose brother was killed for throwing stones
at the soldiers admits that we have stopped having mercy. Now
if a suicide bomber kills their children, says Soha, few Palestinians
would say Thats terrible. What have these children done?
Palestine Was Stolen from Us

Saber, a professor of Mathematics in Texas, who received his degrees
from Emporia State University in Kansas, was born in Beersheba,
ve years before the creation of the state of Israel. My parents
and family were forced out in 1948. Sabers family moved to Gaza
where he grew up in a refugee camp. But the memories of Beersheba,
real and imagined, never left the family. During the 1967 war,
Saber was studying in Kuwait. Under the new occupation laws,
Saber could not return to Gaza because under the law he was non-
existent. Saber, however, did return to Gaza as an American citi-
zen on a Fulbright grant. After seeing the humiliations of occupation,
checkpoints, identity cards, tear gas, bullets, the double occupation
of Israeli soldiers and settlers, Saber is far from pessimistic about
the future of his people. Saber told Pearlman. This place, Palestine,
was not lost because of anything we had done. It was stolen from
us. The feeling of injustice will always be with me. It will never go
away. I will never be able to forget it. I see the same thing in kids
today, this longing for Palestine.
But Zeita Rises Again

Palestinian poets living under Israeli occupation express complex
emotions of helplessness, indignity, survival, deance, and the need
for action. Talha Muhammad Ali (b. 1931), whose native village
(Saffouria) was razed to the ground in 1948, meanders through
grief-laden determination in order to survive through hard times
and tells the world that a child I was when I fell into the abyss
but I did not die. Abd al-Latif Aql (b. 1942) laments the vacuous
existence under occupation by pointing out that the birds that once
ocked to his house have disappeared but their abandoned nests
still cling to the roof; and that though the Ramadhan is over, he
cannot go out to sit in the caf for the soldiers have silenced the
gunre that announces the feast. Mureed Barghouthy (b. 1944)
captures the longing of a wife whose husbands leather belt hangs

on the wall and his scattered papers tell her that he will be gone
a long time but she is there still waiting and at the end of the day
reaches out to touch a naked waist. In pessimistic and predictive
gloom, he alerts mothers and fathers to store plenty of milk for
children and prepare what light for them you can, for the night
means to inhabit us for a longtime. Sulafa Hijjawi (b. 1934), a
native of Nablus, mourns the destruction of her lovely village, Zeita.
In moments the village was gone, not a single bread oven remained,
men and stones were powdered by enemy tractors. But Zeita rises
again as tulips do.
Darwishs Diary
Mahmoud Darwish, one of the greatest living poets in the Arab
world, was born in Birwe, an Upper Galilee village. Upon the cre-
ation of Israel in 1948, Darwishs family ed to Lebanon. Birwe,
along with 400 other villages, was attened and erased to make
room for the new states immigrant citizens. Darwishs family moved
back to Israel but arrived too late to be included in the ofcial cen-
sus. Darwish thus lost his citizenship. He was no longer a legal
resident either, because he had no certicate of residence. Having
lost all legal rights to live in his homeland, Darwish raises an exis-
tential question; Am I here, or am I absent? Additionally, Israel
placed the Arab population under emergency regulations designed
to restrict their freedom of movement. Lacking identity papers but
overowing with memories of his village, the poet was imprisoned
several times for traveling without a permit and writing subver-
sive poems and songs. The poet raises the question: what crime
did I commit to make you destroy me? But he is not about to lose
his inspiration because, for the poet, what makes life worth living
are indeed the tyrants fear of songs and the invaders fear of mem-
ories. Despite bravery shown in poems Darwish left Israel (his
homeland) in 1971 and embarked upon a journey over this end-
less road with nothing to lose but dust, what has died in me, and
a row of palms pointing toward what vanishes. But there is no
permanent leaving, for the poet has a rm conviction that the fur-
ther we move away, the closer we come to our reality and the bound-
aries of exile.
The shock of leaving the homeland acquires a permanent status
of ideology in Darwishs poetry. I have learned and dismantled all
44 Chapter 1
the words in order to draw from them a single word: Home. In

expressing his longing for the lost homeland, the poet mixes real-
ity with fantasy, just as poets do. Poems sorrow and militancy
determined to retrieve the homeland, snatched by seagulls, are
nurtured by memories solidly embedded in olive trees, saturated
meadows, tents of prophets, fathers who ed at knife point, the
Lady of Earth, mothers of all beginnings and ends. She was called
Palestine. I belong there, says the poet. This belonging to the home-
land draws its power not only from re-imagined memories but also
from a re-invented consciousness that haunts the poet, constantly
reminding him that he was deprived the opportunity to live his
childhood fully by the olive trees. The poet laments that he did not
yet know his mothers way of life, nor her familys, when the ships
came in from the sea. The hurt is deep and the wounds are open.
And there is no messiah. The longing for the homeland is both
physical and spiritual. What has been taken away are not just vil-
lages but the songs of doves. And what has been inicted are not
just wounds, since no life can escape from them. What is new is
the atrocity shown to the wounds. When Christ walked in Galilee,
says the poet, our wounds rejoiced in happiness.27
In addition to the love for the lost homeland, death is the other
theme that persists in Darwishs poetry. Death surfaces under many
masks, in diverse contexts, sometimes as a sorrowful event, some-
times as an act of determination, sometimes emanating from the
body of the freshly killed, and sometimes embodied in the killers
indomitable will. My longing (for the homeland) shoots back at
me, to kill or be killed. In the face of shackles that bind the life
of Palestinians in occupied territories, in refugee camps, and in
Diaspora, Darwish sees death as a force of liberation, not from life
itself for that would be pessimistic plunge into fruitless nothing-
ness, but in terms of options that death offers. Darwish cannot say
with poetic integrity that Palestinians are entitled to live anyway
they wish, because any such statement would be empty rhetoric,
a jurisprudence of life bearing no relationship with reality. When
the poet claims We have the right to die any way we wish, the
statement is neither hollow, nor inconsequential. Because now inher-
27
Mahmoud Darwish, Unfortunately, It was Paradise (Trans Munir Akash &
Carolyn Forche) (University of California Press, 2003). All references to poems in
this excerpt are taken from this publication.
ent in the statement is a meaningful freedom of choice. This free-

dom to die any way the oppressed wish makes life worth living
for this freedom strikes fear in the oppressors heart. Death in the
service of freedom has no comity with sorrow of any kind, personal
or professional. When the martyrs go to sleep, says Darwish, I
wake to protect them from professional mourners.28
Spiral of Violence
In addition to producing poets and storytellers, aggrieved popula-

tions prepare their sons and daughters to ght suppressive enti-
ties. Violence is considered necessary to resist a mighty enemy that
relies on its superior war machinery to deny primary and secondary
demands of an abused population. This violence is known as ter-
rorism. But A Theory of International Terrorism refuses to dene
terrorism in this narrow sense. It includes state violence in the
denition and dynamics of terrorism, because state violence is insep-
arable from the violence of the aggrieved population.29 This fusion
of violence is most vivid in the tragic events of Sabra and Shatila.
In September 1982, three months after the Israeli invasion of
Lebanon, a massacre shook the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps
located in a popular residential area of Beirut. Many of these
Palestinian refugees had been expelled from their homes in Gaza
and the West Bank in 1967. Many came in the 1950s. Others were
driven out of Jordan in the 1970s, under pressures from Israel and
the US.
Sabra and Shatila embodied the reality and symbols of Palestinian
grievances comprising of statelessness, poverty, hopelessness, and
powerlessness. Sabra grew out of a cemetery. Shatila originated as
a town of tents. In strong wind, tents would swell out like balloons.
Men would stretch out their chests against the wind to save the
ceiling from ying away. Local laws prohibited concrete roong,
28
Barry Feinstein, Operation Enduring Freedom: Legal Dimensions of an
Innitely Just Operation, 11 Journal of Transnational Law and Policy 201 (2002)
(showing how Palestinian literature afrms martyrdom and the sentiments to kill
Jews).
29
M. Cherif Bassiouni, Legal Control of International Terrorism: A Policy-
Oriented Assessment, 43 Harvard International Law Journal, 83 (2002) (state
terrorism includes genocide, torture, crimes against humanity, an war crimes).
46 Chapter 1
because it symbolized permanence and continuity, ideas contrary

to the rationale of refugee life and the right to return.
In subsequent years, however, as the Palestinian Command moved
to Lebanon, the Lebanese camps, including Sabra and Shatial,
began to evolve into centers of temporary permanence and even
prosperity. Refugee tents were replaced with houses, dirt roads
were paved, neighborhood shops mushroomed, and the life within
the camps generated vibrant commerce in the vicinity. The Sabra
and Shatila districts were still poor but no longer wretched as they
had been before the arrival of the Palestinian Command.30 Under
the leadership of the Palestinian Command, the transformation of
the refugee camps from wretchedness to respectable poverty was
a mixed blessing since it spawned increased militancy fueled by an
acute awareness of forced expulsions from Palestine, occupied ter-
ritories, and brotherly Arab countries.
Hotbeds of Militancy
A new generation of refugee ghters was ready to pursue the right
to return by use of violence. The refugee camps soon turned into
hotbeds of militancy. The 1982 Israeli invasion was launched to
expel the Palestinian Command from Lebanon, to crush camp mil-
itancy, and to prevent attacks on its people and settlements. Through
a negotiated deal, sponsored by the US, the Palestinian Command
left Lebanon. The deal assured protection to refugees in the Lebanese
camps but no logistical machinery was put in place to effectuate
the promised security. Asserting that the eeing Palestinian
Command had cheated and left behind over 2,000 ghters in the
camps, the Israeli Occupation Forces under the military command
of General Ariel Sharon contracted with the Lebanese Christian
militias to mop up the terrorists. The assassination of the Lebanese
Christian president added a further incentive to search for the
assassins allegedly hiding among refugees. For many Lebanese and
Israelis, Sabra and Shatila refugee camps had become synonymous
with terrorist bases. As such, when the militia entered the camps,
their residents were not seen as helpless refugees but as support-
30
Bayan Nuwayhed al-Hout, Sabra and Shatila 2735 (Pluto Press, 2004).
ers and protectors of terrorists. When killings began, the invading

militia threw away constraints of discrimination and erred on the
side of destruction.
Judeo-Christian Violence
Before ushing out terrorists from the camps, the Israeli Occupation
Forces ringed Sabra and Shatila camps with armor and sealed off
all escape routes. Loren Jenkins of the Washington Post led a
report with the following opening lines: Troops from the Christian
militia units that have been accused of murdering hundreds of men,
women and children in Palestinian refugee camps here were seen
moving into Israeli-controlled security areas and fraternizing with
Israeli troops before, and during, the rampage of killing, reliable
witnesses said today. The witnesses included survivors, diplomats,
and foreign medical workers. Robert Fisk of the Times reported
that even 24 hours after the massacre, no one was sure how many
had been killed but, down every alleyway, corpses were lying together,
knifed or machine gunned to death. David Shipler of the New York
Times reported that the massacre was made possible primarily
because the refugee camps had lost the protection of the Palestinian
Command and partly because General Sharon had opposed the
presence of any multinational force on the theory that such force
would stand in the way of mopping up operations. For many in
the Muslim world, who resent the phrase Islamic terrorism, which
in their view maligns Islam, the Sabra and Shatila massacre was
an embodiment of Judeo-Christian terrorism, a term that might
similarly capture the anguish of those who see nothing both good
in the hyphenated tradition.
Memories of Judeo-Christian Terrorism

Ghada Khouri, a free-lance Arab journalist based in Washington,
D.C., reported the story of the massacre through the memories of
a Palestinian survivor, Munir, an eyewitness of the massacre at
the camp, who now lives in the US. On that vengeful September
night when the Christian militia entered the Shatila camp, Munir
was 12 and lived with his family. Munir survived by faking death
throughout the night, lying still amid a pile of dead and dying bod-
ies. He could hear his mothers moans and his baby sisters cries,
both of whom lay beside him. After a few hours, the moaning and
48 Chapter 1
crying stopped and they both died. The next morning, Munir was
pulled out of a heap of corpses and taken to a local hospital. When
killings stopped, the estimates of the dead varied. The Israeli
Occupation Forces under the leadership of General Ariel Sharon
reported 600 deaths while Palestinian sources called it a genocide
of around 3,000 men, women, and children a loss of life roughly
equal to the number of deaths in the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the
twin towers in New York City.
In 1999, Yasmin Subhi Ali, a Palestinian-American medical stu-
dent, toured several Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon includ-
ing Shatila. She reports that children in the camp are being raised
with an overowing and ever-present consciousness of a lost home-
land. The childrens library in Shatila shows the determination of
memories to stay alive for years to come. Children have decorated
the walls of the library with posters, drawings, hand-written accounts
of the books that each student has read, and a Wall Magazine
that consists of writings of Shatila children. Through these writ-
ings, tacked on the wall, children fantasize the virtues of the home-
land that they have not seen. Subhi Ali reports that the following
statements on the Wall Magazine are the most eye-catching:
Palestine is a very, very beautiful land . . . there is a sea of choco-
late in Palestine . . . children are always happy in Palestine . . .
women dont gossip in Palestine . . . the streets are very clean in
Palestine . . . it is always Eid [Feast Day] in Palestine . . . par-
ents dont die in Palestine. Singing the songs of homeland, the
children study the culture of Palestine and learn about its poets
and writers inside and outside the occupied territories. Each class
of refugee students chant with zest the now famous song known
as Fedai a song that extols the sacrice for the homeland and a
song that might become the national anthem of the Palestinian
state. Hanging by the wall is the slogan and the denition of
Palestinian. We are what we do, not what we say Are you
Palestinian?
Palestinian Terrorism
We are what we do is the theme of the Palestinian terrorism. Inspired
by nationalism and verses of the Holy Quran, and driven by bit-
ter memories of dispossession, forced exile, torture, demolition of
homes, massacres, the Palestinian violence has been strategic as
well as indiscriminate, causing harm to Israeli men, women, and
children. Palestinian terrorism is reactive and proactive. It is reac-

tive in afrming the paradigm that violence begets violence. It is
proactive in reafrming the right to armed struggle against an occu-
pier who is determined to usurp more land and resources. Day after
day, the Palestinian terrorism is becoming as sharp and creative
as are the Palestinian poems that dispossessed poets write in mid-
dle of the night. Suicide bombings, for example, rattle an unpre-
pared Israeli audience with the ferocity of a well-staged play. Violence
fuses the victim with the victim, obliterating the distinction between
the guilty and the innocent.31
Wafa Idris (19752002) is the paragon of Palestinian terrorism.
She was born and raised in al-Amari refugee camp in occupied
West Bank. In 2002, about 6,000 refugees lived in this dense and
crowded camp where unemployment was high and life miserable.
In 2002, many families waited for their sons to return from Israeli
prisons. Wafa was ten years old when her brother, Khalil, was
arrested on charges of militancy and sentenced to eight years impris-
onment in an Israeli prison. She would travel once a month, bear-
ing indignities at numerous security roadblocks, to see her beloved
brother in the prison. Wafa was twelve years old when the rst
Palestinian popular rebellion (intifada) erupted in 1987 against the
Israeli occupation of West Bank and Gaza. The rst intifada was
a war of stones, a low-tech mutiny, a shared civilian reaction against
real and perceived Israeli atrocities, including extra-judicial killings,
indenite detentions, torture, deportations, home demolitions, set-
tlements, raids, security blocks, searches, seizures, and miserable
economic conditions. For twelve-year old Wafa, intifada was per-
sonal loss. A friend lost her eye. When Israeli Defense Forces imposed
curfew on refugee camps, Wafas other brother, a cab driver, lost
his job, further distressing the family.
Life in al-Amari grinded on, but Wafa developed an optimistic
personality, the one that inspires others not to quit when the going
is tough. At 16, she married someone she loved. A supportive hus-
band helped her graduate from college. Happiness continued to
elude her. Social pressure at the refugee camp destroyed her
marriage because Wafa, after giving birth to a stillborn, could have
31
Suicide bombing is not a Palestinian invention. Tamils practiced suicide bomb-
ings with explosive belts in 1970s. Killing and dying for the sake of an idea are
common in human history that cuts across times, religions, and cultures. Achilles
engages in battle knowing that gods would kill him. Socrates refuses to escape
from the prison, change his views, or accept possible execution. He commits suicide.
50 Chapter 1
no more children. This was particularly difcult because having

children (future militants) is a commitment that Palestinian women
have made to refugee camps. Determined to nd utility in life, Wafa
joined the local medical emergency service, the Red Crescent. There,
she experienced the brutality of occupation from close and saw rst
hand what it means to be smashed by bullets. There she saw men
without limbs, children dying from gun wounds, and pregnant
women who lost babies at military checkpoints. Wafa was ready
to die and kill. But suicide bombing is no emotional outburst. It is
a planned undertaking.
On January 27, 2002, Wafa detonated herself in a shopping mall
in Jerusalem. One Israeli old man was killed, and many were
wounded. I saw the head of a girl with long black hair lying in
the street. I didnt recognize it at rst. I thought it was a chicken
or some animal, but when I looked closer it was clearly a girl. The
body I couldnt see anywhere, though, said an Israel witness. Under
the laws of Israel, body parts of suicide bombers are not returned
to the family. Wafas remains have been buried in an unmarked
grave in Israel.
Wafa was the rst Palestinian female suicide bomber, the rst
shahida (martyr). American investigative journalist Barbara Victor
visited al-Amari refugee camp to document the effects of Wafas
death. Nobody was home as her family had abandoned the house.
The house had been ransacked by the Israeli military. There were
bullet holes in the walls, drawers had been tossed, beds turned
upside down, and slashed cushions strewn around the oor of the
living room. The only intact items were Wafas pictures taken in
various stages of her brief life. They were hung on the wall of
the abandoned house. In narrow alleys of the camp, says the jour-
nalist, Palestinian children were playing and each wanted to be
photographed.32
Supportive Entities
While suppressive entities condemn suicide bombings as barbaric
and morally blind, many in the Muslim world understand their
logic and even need in the Palestinian context.33 Note the response
32
Barbara Victor, Army of Roses (2003).
33
Avishai Margalit, The Suicide Bombers, The New York Review of Books
(January 16, 2003) (Israelis see suicide bombings with an intense mixture of hor-
ror and revulsion).
that Wafa received in the Muslim world. Egypts grand sheikh

stressed that Wafas suicide mission was an act of sacrice. One
newspaper compared Wafas feminism with Western feminism, point-
ing out that Muslim feminists carry guns, and not lipsticks, in their
purses. Another newspaper compared Wafa with Mona Lisa, reg-
istering her dreamy eyes and the mysterious smile on her lips.
A London-based Muslim newspaper interviewed a Muslim woman
using the code-name Umm Osama, the mother of Osama Umm
Osama praised suicide bombings and vowed to build a Muslim
womens network of suicide bombers that will make the US for-
get its own name. These reactions demonstrate that the dynam-
ics of militant terrorism are not conned to aggrieved populations
but encompass a wider support. The next chapter examines sup-
portive entities that defend and assist aggrieved populations in
their struggle for liberation and restoration of dignity.
Chapter 2
Supportive Entities
The United Nations General Assembly stresses the need for the
realization of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, primarily
the right to self-determination and the right to their independent
State. (December 2004).
In re Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001, more than three

thousand survivors, family members, representatives of victims,
and insurance carriers brought action in US courts to seek mone-
tary relief for suicide jet attacks on the World Trade Center in New
York City, the Pentagon in Virginia, and the crash in Pennsylvania
the three nearly simultaneous acts of suicide terrorism in which
thousands of people on the planes, in the buildings, and on the
ground perished, countless others were injured, and property worth
billions of dollars was destroyed. The lawsuit alleged that over two
hundred defendants directly or indirectly provided material sup-
port to suicide jet attackers. These defendants included Osama bin
Laden, al Qaeda and its members and associates; nation-states that
sponsored the attacks; and individuals and entities, including char-
ities, banks, front organizations, and nanciers who provided nan-
cial, logistical, and other support to the perpetrators. The theories
pleaded in the consolidated lawsuit varied from aiding and abet-
ting to conspiracy, intentional iniction of emotional distress, neg-
ligence, survival, wrongful death, trespass, and assault and battery.
The lawsuit casts a wide net in naming the defendants, some of
Supportive Entities 53
whom might not be blameworthy. It nonetheless makes a valid

point that the September 11 attackers did not act alone, but were
directly or indirectly supported by many others who seriously (though
perhaps mistakenly) believed that the US had played a critical role
in causing or perpetuating primary and secondary grievances in
the Muslim world, including those of Palestinians.
A Theory of International Terrorism maintains that supportive
entities are an essential party to the terror triangle. They are called
supportive entities because they support an aggrieved populations
primary and secondary demands. As noted in the rst chapter, an
aggrieved populations primary demands originate from the right
of self-determination; their secondary demands are related to the
restoration of human rights. Supportive entities include states,
international governmental organizations (IGO) such as the United
Nations (UN), regional communities such as the European Union
(EU), and non-governmental organizations (NGO) such as Amnesty
International. Supportive entities can also be corporations, churches,
and citizen groups that directly or indirectly support the grievances
of a population under occupation, alien domination, apartheid, or
general surveillance. Even individuals are not excluded from the
denition of supportive entities, for they too can be effective advo-
cates for the rights of an aggrieved population. Journalists, lawyers,
scholars, teachers, poets, artists, musicians, and producers of doc-
umentaries and movies, all contribute in disseminating informa-
tion about hardships, misery, and sufferings of an aggrieved
population. Some individuals support the militancy of an aggrieved
population. In sum, any entity is a supportive entity if it furnishes
moral, political, economic, informational, or military support to
advance or defend the rights of an aggrieved population.
Legitimacy Test
Supportive entities facilitate the operational success of militants
who resort to violence. They are critical for the legitimacy of an
aggrieved population. If an aggrieved population is unable to gar-
ner the backing of supportive entities, the demands of the aggrieved
population are suspect and its moral and legal claims to violence
are accordingly weakened. But when an aggrieved population draws
extensive support from states, IGOs, NGOs, businesses, and indi-
viduals, primary and secondary demands of the aggrieved popula-
tion are vested with legitimacy. If these demands, particularly those
54 Chapter 2
of a highly supported aggrieved population, remain unmet and the

condition of oppression worsens, the populations claims to armed
struggle gather legality and moral authenticity. The Universal
Declaration of Human Rights captures this idea in its preamble,
stating it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse,
as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that
human rights should be protected by the rule of law.
The Palestinians, for example, meets the test of an aggrieved
population because their grievances are supported by diverse enti-
ties across the continents. All Muslim nations along with much of
the Western world support the Palestinian right to self-determi-
nation. The UN also recognizes Palestinian rights. This recogni-
tion is evident in the UN Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) for
Palestinian Refugees in the Near East, which was established in
1948 and to this day provides continuous basic relief to over 4 mil-
lion displaced Palestinians in the Middle East. In addition, the UN
for years through its General Assembly and its Commission on
Human Rights has passed resolutions in support of the Palestinian
right to be free from Israeli occupation. Numerous human rights
NGOs, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International,
regularly expose state violence of oppression and occupation that
aggrieved populations, including Palestinians, suffer on a daily
basis.
In the presence of this worldwide support, the Palestinians griev-
ances cannot be dismissed as frivolous or inauthentic. Inuential
individuals, such as journalists, artists, and international jurists,
also support lawful demands of the Palestinians. Law professors
Falk and Weston explain the Palestinian uprising (the rst intifada)
in the following words:
There are some obvious candidates for explanation: (1) cramped cities
and towns as well as refugee camps made worse by high birth rates
and restrictions upon Arab urban and rural expansion; (2) squalid
social and economic conditions exacerbated by declining employment
opportunities (among the Palestinian youth especially), by conscated
natural and nancial resources, and by a consequent dependency
upon an increasingly colonizing Israeli economy; (3) draconian gov-
ernmental practices that have resulted in stied cultural and politi-
cal expression, and swollen detention centers and jails; and (4) a lethal
mixture of humiliation, frustration, and anger from years of foreign
rule (Ottoman, British, Egyptian, and Jordanian as well as Israeli),
abetted by a profound disillusionment about the will and capability
of the outside world including, perhaps most importantly, the out-
side Arab world to provide a solution. Few of the total Palestinian
population of the occupied territories have known anything other than

these crabbed conditions. Almost none of the youth have known any-
thing else.1
This explanation of Palestinian uprising does not support violence.
Nor does it sanction the right to armed struggle as the rst or the
only option available to solve the Israel/Palestine conict. Falk and
Weston simply highlight the wretched conditions of an aggrieved
population, which generate violence. By highlighting Palestinian
grievances, Falk and Weston assume the role of supportive enti-
ties, adding scholarly legitimacy to the proposition that Palestinians
qualify as an aggrieved population.
The legitimacy test provides objective criteria to identify aggrieved
populations. In the absence of such a test, any population may
dene itself as an aggrieved population claiming the right to armed
struggle. Furthermore, the test distinguishes the violence of aggrieved
populations from gang violence or drug-related violence. Any over-
inclusive denition of terrorism that puts all acts of violence in the
same pot is analytically fruitless, morally confusing, and legally
misguided.2 One key purpose of law is to make material distinc-
tions that safeguard fairness and promote precision in solving prob-
lems. If international law were to treat all acts of violence alike,
making for example no distinction between drug-masters and
Palestinian militants, it is unlikely to succeed in nding durable
solutions. A Theory of International Terrorism does not foreclose
the study of drug-related, gratuitous, or other causes of violence.
It however limits the scope of its own study to the terror triangle
for nding meaningful solutions to international conicts involv-
ing aggrieved populations, suppressive and supportive entities.
Important Caveat
One need not assume that all supportive entities aid and abet ter-
rorism. In fact, most supportive entities that advance and defend
the primary and secondary demands of aggrieved populations do
1
Richard Falk & Burns H. Weston, The Relevance of International Law to
Palestinian Rights in the West Bank and Gaza: In Legal Defense of the Intifada,
32 Harvard International Law Journal 129, 132 (1991).
2
Louis Rene Beres, The Meaning of Terrorism Jurisprudential and Denitional
Clarications, 28 Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law 239 (1995) (operative
denitions of terrorism are overly broad).
56 Chapter 2
not support the armed struggle of militants representing the ag-

grieved population. Some supportive entities publicly condemn mil-
itants and their resort to violence. Some supportive entities might
support the militants right to armed struggle and yet may disap-
prove of their tactics and targets of violence. Some supportive enti-
ties, however, do support militants and their right to use force
against suppressive infrastructures. Such supportive entities provide
nancial, logistical, and military support and actively participate
in the enterprise of armed resistance to occupation, hegemony, and
theft of land and resources. Some individuals who are not members
of an aggrieved population may join militants out of universal
brotherhood or sympathy, to ght with them. The role of support-
ive individuals is much more exible, as is seen in support vary-
ing from moral support to co-ghting. Thus the contribution of
supportive entities varies from entity to entity, depending on the
character and nature of the entity. Supportive IGOs, such as the
UN, rarely ght on behalf of an aggrieved population. But they
have formidable legal resources to support a liberation movement.
The Permanent Five as Single Entity
Of all intergovernmental supportive entities, the UN Security Coun-

cil sits at top of the pyramid. When this institution supports a lib-
eration movement, the problem is resolved and violence is minimized.
Its inaction, on the other hand, complicates the dynamics of vio-
lence. A Theory of International Terrorism argues that militant vio-
lence seeking national liberation escalates when international
institutions fail to resolve long-festering disputes. Of all interna-
tional institutions, the UN Security Council has the primary respon-
sibility to promote and restore international peace and security.
The UN Security Council is a unique international body empow-
ered to use coercive means, including the use of force, to modify
unlawful state behavior. Within the Council, the ve permanent
members, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, China, and the US,
carry formidable power to inuence decisions. The structural imper-
ative of the Security Council contemplates a coordinated action of
the permanent ve. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US
has attained a leadership position within the Security Council, and
other permanent members defer to US wishes. Nonetheless, each
permanent member remains a veto-wielding barrier to concerted

action. And even if casting veto is no longer as fashionable as it
once was, each permanent member can inuence the initiation and
nalization of Security Council resolutions. For all practical pur-
poses, the permanent ve must serve as a single entity.
There is a growing perception among Muslims of the world that
the permanent ve act contrary to interests of the Islamic world.
This perception is reinforced when the permanent ve hasten to
break up Muslim nations, such as Pakistan and Indonesia, but do
little to support liberation movements involving Muslims, such as
in Kashmir and Palestine. Each permanent member seems to have
its own reasons to oppose Muslim liberation movements. China and
Russia themselves are resisting Muslim liberation movements in
their own territories. China crushes Muslim Uighars and Russia
brutalizes Muslim Chechens. The United Kingdom has occupied
Muslim Iraq. France is determined to secularize and marginalize
French Muslims. The United States, the leader of the permanent
ve, is waging a global war on Muslim militants. Under the com-
bined effect of these factors, the anti-Islamic perception of the per-
manent ve generates frustration, cynicism about the rule of law,
and feelings of helplessness among Muslim communities. This per-
ception constructs the image of an unfair world, hostile to Muslim
interests, a vexatious world led by the permanent ve.
Liberation of East Timore

Nothing is more vexatious for Muslim communities than the swift
liberation of East Timore, which the permanent ve actively sup-
ported and successfully engineered. East Timore, a predominantly
Christian community of a million people, had been a Portuguese
colony since the middle of the 16th century. In 1975, eight years
after the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, Muslim
Indonesia occupied East Timore and later declared it as its province.
By all standards, just like the Palestinians, East Timorese consti-
tuted an aggrieved population with primary and secondary griev-
ances. Secondary grievances surfaced when Indonesian occupying
army employed high-handed tactics to crush Timorese militants
ghting for independence. While the press rightfully highlighted
Indonesian brutality, the label of terrorism was rarely used to char-
acterize Timorese militants.
58 Chapter 2
In 1999, the permanent ve welcomed the wishes of East Timorese

to seek independence from Muslim Indonesia. To facilitate the lib-
eration process, the permanent ve established a UN body, called
the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timore
(UNTAET) to provide security and law and order throughout the
territory of East Timore.3 UNTAET was also empowered to sup-
port East Timore in its capacity-building for self-government.
These benevolent measures were in complete accordance with inter-
national law, self-determination, human rights, and responsibili-
ties of the UN Security Council. The permanent ve committed no
wrong in facilitating the independence process of East Timore in
a safe and lawful manner. What was most ironic was the inaction
of the permanent ve in other parts of the world, including Palestine
and Kashmir, where Muslims were seeking independence from the
remains of colonialism, occupation, settlements, theft of land and
resources.4
In January 2002, a few months after the September 11 attacks
on the US, the UN Security Council anticipated, and proactively
endorsed, the declaration of independence that the Constituent
Assembly of East Timore were to make on May 20, 2002.5 Three
days before the scheduled declaration of independence, the Secu-
rity Council passed another resolution, commending the courage
and vision of the people of East Timore in bringing East Timore to
the point of independence by peaceful and democratic means.6
Recognizing that East Timore was fragile in its newly acquired
independence, the Security Council established a UN Mission of
Support in East Timore (UNMISET) for the new nations internal
and external security. Again, all these measures were consistent
with the UN Charter, International Covenants of human rights,
and the right of self-determination. Though lawful, these measures
constructed a different perception of the permanent ve in the
minds of Muslim communities. It is a perception of double stan-
3
UN Security Council Resolution 1272 (1999).
4
Elias Davidsson, The U.N. Security Councils Obligations of Good Faith, 15
Florida Journal of International Law 541 (2003) (Israel has invaded numerous
neighboring countries without any legal UN action) (Elias Davidsson, a Jew born
in Palestine, before the creation of Israel, is a persistent critic of Israeli policies
and US support of Israel).
5
6
dards.7 It is an inference that the permanent ve harbor ill feel-

ings toward the Muslim world, an inference further reinforced when
the US began to lead, with the assistance of the permanent ve, a
global campaign to kill Muslim militants, close down charities, and
suppress any support of liberation movements in Kashmir and
Palestine.
2.1 SUPPORTING THE RIGHT TO ARMED STRUGGLE
An aggrieved populations right to armed struggle, if such a right

is recognized under international law, legitimizes its violence aimed
at legally appropriate targets belonging to the principal suppres-
sive entity. Great international effort is underway to reduce, and
possibly eliminate, such a right. Nothing justies terrorism has
been the new paradigm of suppressive entities. In response, sup-
portive entities are determined to make distinctions between law-
ful and unlawful forms of violence. Accordingly, they refuse to
condemn violence associated with liberation movements as terror-
ism. A great debate is under way over the continuing validity of
the right to armed struggle. It is unlikely that this debate will be
settled in the foreseeable future. For a fuller understanding of the
terror triangle, it is instructive to examine how supportive entities
are determined to keep alive the right to armed struggle and sup-
pressive entities to extinguish it.
Major new developments have confused the right to armed strug-
gle. The global war on terrorism openly denies that any such right
exists. The collapse of the Soviet Union has undermined the Marxist-
Leninist concept of armed struggle, which overthrew numerous old
regimes. Nations, such as Iran and Syria, which allegedly support
the right to armed struggle, have been designated as terrorist states
by the US. The US is building tactical nuclear weapons to incinerate
caves and bunkers that might shelter any infrastructure of resis-
tance and militancy. Despite these background developments, inter-
national law has not yet repudiated the right to armed struggle.
7
Carlos Ortiz, Does a Double Standard Exist at the UN? A Focus on Iraq,
Israel and the Inuence of the United States on the UN, 22 Wisconsin International
Law Journal 393 (2004) (Israel has been permitted to remain in violation of inter-
national law, but Iraq was swiftly punished for its occupation of Kuwait).
60 Chapter 2
Given the ineffectiveness of international institutions to prevent

aggression and resolve disputes peacefully, the right to armed strug-
gle is considered indispensable to ght international wrongs against
aggrieved populations. Otherwise, predatory states would be embold-
ened to subjugate weak nations. And if a people under occupation
and alien domination have no right to seek and receive support
from outside sources, they will be unable to engage in any effec-
tive resistance. Suppressive states wish to change the law and
morality of armed struggle so that they can easily crush the will
of the subjugated. Commenting on Israel/Palestine conict, Richard
Falk argues that Israel as an occupying power in the West Bank
and Gaza has failed to discharge its responsibility under interna-
tional law to safeguard the rights of Palestinians under their con-
trol. Israel has also deantly refused to comply with numerous UN
resolutions that call for an immediate withdrawal from territory
occupied in 1967. These Israeli violations of international law, Falk
says, validate Palestinian resistance, though under the constraints
of international humanitarian law that forbids violence against
civilians.8 Even the issue of civilians, he adds, is unclear with
respect to Israeli armed settlers occupying Palestinian lands.
Supporting Liberation Movements
Great confusion exists regarding supporting liberation movements

founded on the right to self-determination. Suppressive entities
deny that states have right to support militants of a liberation
movement. In fact, any such support of militants groups is con-
sidered aggression, justifying for the target suppressive state to
invoke the right of self-defense and attack the supportive state.
Evan racist regimes such as South Africa and Southern Rhodesia
invoked the right of self-defense to attack neighboring countries
that housed militant groups ghting the apartheid.9 The rhetoric
of terrorism appears to have diluted the right to armed struggle
8
Richard Falk, Facts, Rights, and Remedies: Implementing International Law
in the Israel/Palestine Conict, 28 Hastings International & Comparative Law
Review 331 (2005).
9
Tom Ruys & Sten Verhoeven, Attacks by Private Actors and the Right of Self-
Defense, 10 Journal of Conict and Security Law 289 (2005).
and the right to provide assistance to aggrieved populations. This

dilution of law, however, is unlikely to change the reality of armed
resistance and supportive entities.
Denition of Aggression
In 1974, the General Assembly adopted the Denition of Aggression.
Although the UN Charter forbids the use of force in conducting
international affairs, it does not offer any details of the forbidden
conduct. The Denition of Aggression, adopted to provide major
details, expresses customary international law. It cannot be dis-
missed as mere political opinion. Under highly formalistic notions
of international law, GA resolutions are treated as political state-
ments carrying no legal obligations.10 This jurisprudence is chang-
ing to the extent that resolutions are now furnishing legal raw
materials from which binding norms are harvested. Furthermore,
not all resolutions are political. Some reafrm the applications of
legal rules in concrete situations. Some clarify and provide textual
embodiment to customary international law. The Denition of
Aggression is adopted through a GA resolution, and it itself is not
a resolution.11 It is an expression of customary international law12
both in dening instances of aggression as well as in articulating
the right to armed struggle.
The Denition, for example, prohibits attacks and invasions and
forbids states and any coalition of states from any military occu-
pation, however temporary. This norm is part of customary inter-
national law. Per the resolution, the US invasion of Iraq and its
consequent occupation is illegal and a violation of the Charter. The
Denition upholds the notion of territorial integrity, a principle
enshrined in the UN Charter, by prohibiting the armed forces of
any state from bombardments, blockades, or forced annexations,
10
Michla Pomerance, The ICJs Advisory Jurisdiction and the Crumbling Wall
between the Political and the Judicial, 99 American Journal of International Law
26 (2005) (criticizing the ICJs Courts expansive view of law and its reliance on
UN resolutions to bolster its position on substantive as well as jurisdictional
issues).
11
GA Res. 3314, UN doc. A/9631 (1974).
12
Case Concerning Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua
(United States v. Nicaragua), ICJ (June 27, 1986), para. 195 (stating that the
Denition of Aggression reects customary international law).
62 Chapter 2
which compromise or diminish the territorial integrity of another

state. Even a declaration of war furnishes no legal basis to com-
mit aggression. Article 5 of the Denition claries that no consid-
eration, whether political, economic, military or otherwise, may
serve as a justication for aggression. Any land acquisitions or spe-
cial advantages received through aggressive acts have no legal
validity. And acts of aggression are crimes against international
peace. The Rome Statute, which established the International
Criminal Court, lists aggression as a crime over which the Court
may, in the future, exercise its universal jurisdiction.
The Denition of Aggression, however, provides an exception.
Article 7 states: Nothing in this Denition . . . could in any way
prejudice the right to self-determination, freedom and indepen-
dence, as derived from the Charter, of peoples forcibly deprived of
that right and referred to in the Declaration on Principles of
International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation
among States in accordance with the Charter of the UN, particu-
larly peoples under colonial and racist regimes or other forms of
alien domination: nor the right of these peoples to struggle to that
end and to seek and receive support, in accordance with the prin-
ciples of the UN Charter and in conformity with the (resolution).
Although the text mentions struggle and not armed struggle,
its contextual meaning includes both. Even logic yields such an
interpretation. Since the Denition lists unlawful uses of force, the
exception must refer to the lawful use of force. Accordingly, the peo-
ple under occupation, apartheid, and alien domination may resort
to armed struggle in pursuit of freedom and independence. They
may also seek and receive arms and other support from external
sources. This is the law of armed struggle.
Right to Independence
Article 7 of the Denition is the international law that supports
militancy against external subjugation. It enshrines the law of rev-
olutions. It allows armed struggle in pursuit of the right to self-
determination, freedom and independence. In retrospect, the
American Revolution against the British Empire was a lawful exer-
cise of force. The use of force is particularly lawful if the oppres-
sor state refuses to meet the aggrieved populations legitimate
primary demands of freedom and independence and even more so
if it engages in gross and systematic violations of human rights.
Thus, Muslim militants ghting occupations, blockades, aggressive

economic sanctions that harm the countrys territorial integrity,
theft of land and resources, and bombardments are not terrorists
in the pejorative sense but lawful militants engaged in defending
the right of self-determination, freedom and independence. In using
this supportive rule of international law, however, Muslim mili-
tants must observe the laws of war that prohibit deliberate attacks
on non-combatants. They may lawfully attack occupying forces, set-
tlers, and other oppressive agents that forcibly deny the right of
self-determination. However, they cannot lawfully harm civilians
even if these civilians support the acts of aggression. Accordingly,
Muslim militants ghting in occupied lands cannot pick and choose
the rules of international law that favor them and discard the ones
that do not.13 No legal system can function or survive on any such
normative selectivity.
Furthermore, Article 7 allows Muslim militants ghting for self-
determination to seek and receive support from supportive enti-
ties, including states, organizations, and individuals. This right to
assistance is un-controversial if militants are ghting racist and
colonial regimes. If the right to armed struggle for the actualiza-
tion of self-determination is to be meaningful in evolving contexts,
the aggrieved population must have the right against neo-colo-
nialism under which an imperial force exercises occupation and
control through puppet regimes. It has been argued that the Israeli
occupation of Palestine is racist and colonial; therefore, Muslim
militants ghting against Israeli armed forces and settlers have a
protected right to seek and receive arms to put up effective resis-
tance and thereby reverse Israels ill-gotten gains of occupation. Of
course, suppressive entities reject any such reading of the Denition
of Aggression and have invented the label of terrorism to condemn
all militant violence even when it is directed against soldiers who
enforce occupation or theft of land.
Limitations on Armed Struggle

When read too broadly, Article 7 of the Denition becomes a freely
available license of violence for seeking liberty and independence
13
The chapter on Jihad examines the Islamic laws of war, which place simi-
lar constraints on Muslim militants.
64 Chapter 2
against any state. Accordingly, any aggrieved population might

invoke Article 7 as a legal basis to justify violence against the state
that allegedly opposes self-determination. To avoid any such infer-
ence, the scope of Article 7 must be limited. In no case does the
right to self-determination automatically sanction violence as a law-
ful method. International law, just like any other legal system,
prefers that all disputes be resolved peacefully. If a suppressive
state is willing to negotiate questions of independence, the aggrieved
population must do the same. Supportive entities must also facil-
itate the negotiation process and encourage parties to resolve their
differences without using force. In real life, however, a suppressive
state is rarely a pacist state. Most often, it uses force to crush
what it sees as threats to its territorial integrity and geopolitical
goals. Often, a suppressive state engages in gross human rights
violations to suppress an aggrieved populations primary demand
of self-determination. When the joint burden of primary and sec-
ondary grievances is unbearable and blatantly unjust, supportive
entities use international institutions to highlight the plight of the
aggrieved population. If international institutions persistently fail
to rescue the aggrieved population from its subjection, the right to
armed resistance gathers increasing legitimacy.
Armed Struggle Not Limited to Colonialism

The right to armed struggle is most denitely available against
colonial forces that are almost always alien entities and that occupy
territories, directly or indirectly through puppet governments, to
control the colonys vital resources, including strategically located
land, natural resources, or economic assets. Armed with superior
weapons, the colonial force has in the past exercised control through
aggressive law enforcement and military power.
Neo-colonialism is more abstract, indirect, even hidden. It has
shifted its strategy from occupation to control. Occupation requires
physical presence whereas control is exercised through complex
structures that involve no overt signs of physical presence. One
way to exercise control is to entice, bribe, threaten, or blackmail
local rulers to do biddings of the colonial power. Even ofcers of
territorial militaries may be hired to impose the colonial regime.
In all these arrangements, the purpose is to use the controlled ter-
ritory, its resources, and even its labor force for the benet of the
colonial power. Neo-colonialism also ts the concept of alien dom-
ination that could be overt or hidden.
Ordinarily, hidden alien domination does not produce armed resis-

tance. The people may notice the signs of alien domination, and
may even resent it. But they do not resort to violence to change
what they see and resent. Given increased interdependence of the
world, no corner of the world is immune from foreign inuence. In
the evolving One World, crosscurrents of inuence are natural and
the peoples of the world are gradually coming to terms with new
realities. Imperial entities may therefore exploit the dynamics of
the evolving One World to implant neo-colonialism in near and dis-
tant lands. Predation, to some extent, is the natural condition of
human civilization. So is pyramiding. Aggressive nations and peo-
ples nd ways to dominate others and position themselves on top
of the pyramid.
Effect of Lack of Supportive Entities

If an aggrieved populations claim to self-determination obtains lit-
tle or no support from foreign states and international organiza-
tions, the aggrieved populations status remains suspect and any
violence on its behalf is not protected under the law of armed strug-
gle. Article 7 allows a people ghting for self-determination to seek
and receive support for its liberty. In reality, however, Article 7
functions backwards. External support appears to be a prerequi-
site or at least a co-requisite, for the legitimacy of a liberation move-
ment. If no state or international organization supports a populations
primary demands for independence, the populations right to armed
struggle is rarely considered legitimate. The Abu Sayyaf Group, for
example, claims to be ghting for the independence of western
Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago Muslim areas in the south-
ern Philippines. However, no Muslim or non-Muslim state supports
the secession of these lands from the Philippines. No international
organization supports this independence movement either. In the
absence of international support, the Abu Sayyaf Groups use of
violence does not fall under Article 7 of the Denition. The Group
further loses its credibility because it uses violence for prot. Raising
funds for an internationally supported right of self-determination
is lawful, since no armed struggle can survive without money. But
when personal prot is the primary motive of violence, the mili-
tant group lacks legitimacy even if the represented population has
an internationally supported right of self-determination. When the
represented population has no internationally supported liberty
claims and the militant group uses violence for personal gains, the
66 Chapter 2
entire enterprise is unlawful and, in such cases, the use of the term
aggrieved population is inappropriate.
Re-Afrmation of Armed Struggle

A comprehensive denition of terrorism has so far eluded interna-
tional law, as states view violence through different moral and prag-
matic lenses. The concept of Article 7 however continues to be
reafrmed in successive international treaties. For example, the
International Convention Against the Taking of Hostages (1979)
outlaws the taking of hostages as an acceptable means to modify
the behavior of a suppressive entity. In its preamble, however, the
Convention reafrms the principle of self-determination of peoples
as enshrined in the Charter and . . . other relevant resolutions of
the General Assembly. It is unclear whether the Convention bans
hostage-taking under all circumstances, including alien domina-
tion, apartheid, racist regimes, and occupation. It appears that the
international community is employing a piecemeal approach to ban
specic acts of violence, thus creating exceptions to the right to
armed struggle. If the treaty ban on hostage-taking allows no excep-
tion whatever, an aggrieved population is deprived of an important
tool of resistance and self-defense. In that case, the right to armed
struggle would be subjected to a suppressive entitys unlawful acts
of racial exploitation, domination, and occupation. In real life, such
an unjust rule would be universally breached since fear of crimi-
nal sanctions is unlikely to deter militants ghting for liberation.
It comes as no surprise that insurgents and other militants in Iraq
have not obeyed the law of the Convention.
In the 1990s, partly due to diplomatic pressure of suppressive
entities, anti-terrorism treaties have become textually opaque in
their recognition of self-determination and the attendant right to
armed struggle. For example, the International Convention for the
Suppression of Terrorist Bombings (1998) criminalizes any inter-
national detonation of explosive devices targeted at public places,
government facilities, and transportation infrastructure. The Con-
vention does not explicitly refer to self-determination although
Article 19 has an indirect reference to the right, which states:
Nothing in this Convention shall affect other rights, obligations
and responsibilities of States and individuals under international
law, in particular the purposes and principles of the UN Charter
and international humanitarian law. This language of exception
includes self-determination, a principle enshrined in the UN Charter.

Therefore, one could argue that the Convention does not apply to
bombings that target occupying soldiers and settlers. Bombing of
civilians would still be prohibited because it would violate inter-
national humanitarian law. If this reading is correct, the Convention
loses its prohibitive universality. If, on the other hand, the Convention
allows no exception whatever, the right to armed struggle is seri-
ously compromised, tilting international law in favor of occupation,
alien domination, and racist regimes.
Armed Struggle Subject to Humanitarian Law

The right to armed struggle is subject to humanitarian law, that
is, jus in bello. No aggrieved population may totally exempt itself
from observing the laws of war, just as no suppressive state may
use military force without legal constraints. For example, the laws
of war, mostly codied in the four Geneva Conventions and Additional
Protocols, prohibit willful attacks on non-combatants, extensive
destruction or appropriation of property, torture or inhuman treat-
ment, taking of hostages, mistreatment of prisoners of war, bio-
logical experiments, forcible transfers of population, settlements,
practices of apartheid, unjustiable delay in the repatriation of
prisoners of war, and attacking historic monuments or works of art
or places of worship or other places that embody cultural and spir-
itual heritages of peoples. Any such military undertaking is par-
ticularly forbidden if not justied by military necessity and carried
out unlawfully and wantonly.
The laws of war are primarily designed for professional armies
in combat against each other. Even professional armies invoke the
doctrine of military necessity, sometimes unjustiably, to inict
harm that otherwise is forbidden. Arguably, militants may also
invoke the doctrine of military necessity. An overly strict applica-
tion of the laws of war would completely weaken militants ght-
ing on behalf of a population besieged by a professional army, thus
taking away the aggrieved populations right to armed struggle.
Though insurgents and guerillas have in the past mounted heroic
resistance in many parts of the world, they are frequently unable
to effectively combat and defeat a well-equipped professional army.
The odds against militants worsen if they receive no external sup-
port. That is why perhaps the Denition specically provides that
an aggrieved population ghting a suppressive entity is entitled to
68 Chapter 2
seek and receive support from outside sources. If contrary to the

right to armed struggle all external support were withheld, the
doctrine of military necessity would force militants to ignore the laws
of war and ght the occupying force by any means necessary. Even
under such dire circumstances, militants are not free to completely
ignore the laws of war because a modicum of nobility in the con-
duct of war itself is an effective moral weapon that protects good-
will as well as the ghting spirit, and it also boosts the morale of
the aggrieved population and that of supportive entities.
Normative Confusion within the Denition

The Denition contains a possible normative confusion regarding
supporting militants. Article 7 of the Denition allows states to
provide assistance to aggrieved populations ghting alien domina-
tion or racist regime. By contrast, Article 3(g) denes aggression
as the sending by or on behalf of a State of armed bands, groups,
irregulars or mercenaries, which carry out acts of armed force
against another State. A supercial reading of this provision would
conclude that any support of militants ghting a racist suppres-
sive state, for example, would constitute aggression. But such a
conclusion would be absurd under a plain reading of Article 7. There
exists no confusion whatever if Article 7 is read as an exception,
which it is, to entire Article 3, including its (g) provision. Supporting
militant groups that carry out acts of armed force against another
state is prohibited except if the target state falls into a category
described in Article 7. Thus supporting a militant group ghting
on behalf of an aggrieved population under colonial and racist
regimes or other forms of alien domination is not an act of aggres-
sion prohibited under Article 3(g). The supportive acts are protected
under the liberation language of Article 7.
Suppressive states have abandoned Article 7 in favor of Article
3(g). They invoke Article 3(g) to declare that any support of a mil-
itant group ghting any regime, whether the target regime is colo-
nial or racist in character, is an act of aggression. The rhetoric of
terrorism is so powerful and morally raucous that it has devoured
the exception to aggression. Furthermore, suppressive states invoke
the concept of self-defense to use force or threaten to use force
against a supportive state that might invoke Article 7 to defend its
assistance of a militant group ghting a wrongful regime. If the
exception contained in Article 7 is abandoned or declared unlaw-
ful, aggrieved populations will lose the right to armed struggle and
the law may force them to use non-violent means to seek redress.
Morality of Non-Violence
Supportive entities reject the hypocritical morality of non-violence.
Critics of militancy argue that peaceful resistance is more effective
in changing suppressive behavior. History is full of great reform-
ers who shunned violence and yet revolutionized societies. Non-vio-
lent movements frequently emerge from aggrieved populations, for
suppressive entities themselves maintain their subjugation through
the use or show of force. The morality of non-violence is thus directed
at the aggrieved population and not the principal suppressive state.
Suppressive states promote the ethic of non-violence for it assures
the safety of their life, liberty, and property while they contemplate
change. Furthermore, concessions given through a non-violent cam-
paign ennobles the suppressive state that claims moral superior-
ity by ceasing to commit a wrong. In August 2005, the Israeli
decision to remove settlements from occupied Gaza has been hailed
as a great moral gesture, although the return of stolen land is a
moral obligation; it is not a morally heroic act.
The right to armed struggle may not work in situations where
the suppressive state is militarily strong and has no moral qualms
in using violence to enforce its domination. In such cases, non-vio-
lent campaigns are equally ineffective. Ironically, a non-violent cam-
paign is most efcacious when the alternative threat of violence is
credible. In the absence of a believable threat of militancy, non-vio-
lent campaigns are taken as vacant reactions and they rarely change
a suppressive entitys aggressive behavior. In British India, for
example, Gandhi was effective not because his moral sermons per-
suaded the British to give up their empire, but because the possi-
bility of India rising against colonial ofcers was too large a threat
for the British government to ignore. In reality, therefore, an effec-
tive non-violent campaign to unseat a suppressive state is simply
the rst round in exercising the right to armed struggle.
70 Chapter 2
2.2 SUPPORTIVE STATES AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
Supportive States
Supportive states vary in their support of aggrieved populations.

Some support both the primary and secondary demands of aggrieved
populations. Some condemn only gross human rights violations per-
petrated against an aggrieved population and yet they do not sup-
port the populations self-determination claims. Many European
states, for example, criticize India for its brutal suppression of the
Kashmiri people. At the same time, many European states do not
support Kashmirs right to unilaterally secede from India. In con-
trast, some states not only support an aggrieved populations pri-
mary and secondary demands but, most important, they also support,
consistent with the law of armed struggle, the populations right
to use force in self-defense and for the realization of self-determi-
nation, liberation, and independence. These states may nance an
armed struggle, furnish weapons, and provide sanctuary and free
passage to militants who ght a suppressive infrastructure. These
states may be called principal supportive states. In suppressive
language, these states are called terrorist states. The US, for
example, has designated Syria and Iran (and pre-invasion Iraq) as
terrorist states because they provide active assistance primarily to
Palestinian militants.
Principal Supportive States

What distinguishes a principal supportive state from other sup-
portive entities is its support of the armed struggle of an aggrieved
population. Any state that by its deeds champions the cause of mil-
itancy against a suppressive infrastructure is a principal support-
ive state. In a given context, numerous states may be simultaneously
principal supportive states. International law employs the doctrine
of attribution to identify principal supportive states. If a state has
effective control over the organizational structural or decision-mak-
ing of a militant group, it is undoubtedly a principle supportive
state.14 The developing doctrine of attribution, however, no longer
14
Case Concerning Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua
requires a showing of effective control.15 Lesser liaison would be

sufcient to constitute control. In Prosecutor v. Tadic, the Interna-
tional Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia appears to have
softened the doctrine of attribution. International law would assume
the control to exist if a state plays a role in organizing, coordinat-
ing or planning the actions of a militant group, in addition to nanc-
ing, training and equipping or providing operational support to
that group.16 Once a states ties with the militant group have been
identied, suppressive states will invoke the right of self-defense,
and may even attack the principal supportive state.
Suppressive states prefer to dilute the doctrine of attribution. A
diluted doctrine strengthens the right of self-defense of suppres-
sive states, and puts pressure on principal supportive states to
sever the liaison with militants or risk invasion. It is becoming
increasingly difcult for weaker nations to be principal supportive
states even for authentic causes of liberation or independence. The
global war on terrorism has increasingly de-legitimized any active
support for Muslim militants ghting for the right of self-deter-
mination. As noted above, principal supportive states run the risk
of being labeled as terrorist states. Perhaps under the lingering
effects of the law of armed struggle, the concept of terrorist state
is no part of international law. And no state has been declared a
terrorist state under the international legal system. The concept
is essentially unilateral in that individual states under its national
laws or policies may designate a certain state as a terrorist state.
Any such designation may or may not carry any international
signicance. Syria, designated a terrorist state under US laws, has
been able to obtain sufcient votes in the UN to win a seat in the
Security Council. Very few states exercise the unilateral right to
declare other states as terrorist states. The US is most certainly
at the forefront of exercising this unilateral right.
Because of US economic power, the designation of states as ter-
rorist states has serious legal and economic consequences. In fact,
(Nicaragua v. United States of America), 14 ICJ Rep. para. 195, (Judgment of 27

June 1986).
15
Mary Ellen OConnell, Enhancing the Status of Non-State Actors through
a Global War on Terror, 43 Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 435 (2005)
(The international community attributed al Qaeda actions to the Taliban,
Afghanistans de facto government in 2001, although evidence did not support
that the Taliban effectively controlled al Qaeda).
16
Prosecutor v. Tadic, Judgment, No. IT-94-1-A, para. 137 (July 15, 1999).
72 Chapter 2
the designation imposes limited economic sanctions, punishing both

the terrorist state as well as US companies and individuals deal-
ing with the designee state. A designee state cannot buy arms from
American companies, nor can it import duel-use items, items that
signicantly enhance military capability, without an export license.
Federal laws also prohibit US persons from entering into any nan-
cial transaction with the designee state without a prior autho-
rization from the Treasury Department. Any income earned in a
designee state does not qualify for tax credits. A terrorist state may
also be unable to receive international loans from the World Bank,
the International Monetary Fund, and other international nan-
cial institutions because federal laws require the US government
to oppose any such nancial assistance. Furthermore, the designee
state loses its sovereign immunity under US laws, allowing the
families of terrorist victims to le civil actions in US courts.
Intergovernmental Organizations
If an aggrieved population fails to receive the support of an IGO,

its demands remain suspect. An IGO, as a formal association of
numerous states, internationalizes the demands of the aggrieved
population. Since states and international organizations are impor-
tant players in the international legal system, their support legit-
imizes the conict between an aggrieved population and a principal
suppressive state, such as the conict between Chechnya and Russia.
Due to various geopolitical reasons and diplomatic concerns, states
may be individually reluctant to champion the cause of an aggrieved
population. International organizations provide the necessary cover
for individual states to pool their support in a joint action. Further-
more, international organizations, as separate legal entities, have
their own inuence over international events. Support from an IGO
doubly boosts the demands of an aggrieved population because the
grievances are legitimized by both the organization and its mem-
ber states. When several IGOs support an aggrieved population,
an aggrieved populations demands draw even more legitimacy and
the principal suppressive state comes under increased international
pressure to settle the dispute and desist from human rights violations.
UN support for Palestinians

Each year, the UN passes resolutions supporting Palestinians pri-
mary and secondary grievances. In 2004, the UN General Assembly
passed over a dozen resolutions, covering various aspects of Israeli
occupation and its detrimental consequences on the Palestinian peo-
ple. These resolutions uphold the right of self-determination, and
condemn settlements, destruction of natural resources, and Israeli
practices affecting human rights of the Palestinians. They also call
for a peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine, the applica-
tion of the Geneva Convention relative to the protection of civilians
in time of war, and providing assistance to Palestinian refugees and
children. The US voted against all resolutions. All resolutions under-
score Palestinians just grievances, they all passed with a majority
vote, and some are controversial and split the world. However, three
resolutions are most telling in their universal approval.
Self-Determination
First, Resolution 59/179 reafrms the right of the Palestinian peo-
ple to self-determination, including the right to an independent
State of Palestine. The resolution invokes the advisory opinion by
the International Court of Justice on the Legal Consequences of the
Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, to
acknowledge that the right to self-determination is erga omnes,
that is, a universal right that cannot be compromised, diminished,
or abandoned. The resolution specically asserts that the construction
of the wall impedes the right of self-determination. Moreover, the
resolution is not simply an abstract approval of an abstract right.
Inviting action, the resolution urges all States and UN specialized
agencies and organizations to support and assist the Palestinian
people in the early realization of their right to self-determination.
This call for action might be taken as imposing no legal obligation
under dubious formalism that General Assembly resolutions do not
create law. They nonetheless generate moral pressure that cannot
be dismissed. Most important, they express the will of the peoples
of the world.
The voting record reveals an interesting story. Resolution 59/179
was passed by an overwhelming majority of nations, thus embody-
ing the will of the peoples of the world. 179 nations voted for the
resolution; 5 states (Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall
Island, Palau, and the US) voted against it; and, three states
74 Chapter 2
(Australia, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu) abstained. The voting

pattern shows that Israel, Australia, and the US were the only
independent states that did not vote for the resolution. Others not
voting for the resolution are dependent states that cannot afford
to have an independent foreign policy. Israels opposition to the res-
olution is understandable since it is a key party to the dispute and
the resolution directly condemns Israels activity in the occupied
territories. In the complex and unknowable realm of causation, it
is unclear whether Australia and the US voted against the reso-
lution to show their displeasure over Islamic terrorism or whether
Muslim militants earmark and attack these countries for defying
the will of the peoples of the world and standing shoulder to shoul-
der with Israel in its occupation and construction of the wall.
Australias no vote in this and similar resolutions incites hatred
that Muslim militants actualized by bombing Australian tourists
in Bali.
Natural Resources
Second, Resolution 59/251 drew wide international support as 156
states voted for it, with the same ve states voting against it. The
resolution reafrms the inalienable rights of the Palestinian peo-
ple over their natural resources, including land and water. It men-
tions that Israel is engaged in extensive destruction of agricultural
land and orchards in occupied Palestine, including the uprooting
of a vast number of olive trees. It also mentions the detrimental
impact of the separation wall and Israeli settlements in occupied
territories, since they are the tools to conscate land, and divert
natural and water resources that are critical for the social and eco-
nomic development of the Palestinian people. Inviting concrete
action, the resolution calls on Israel to stop exploiting, damaging,
depleting or endangering the natural resources in the occupied ter-
ritories. It also recognizes the Palestinians right to claim restitu-
tion for any such loss of the resources. The resolution repeatedly
refers to Israel as an occupying power, implying that Israel has no
lawful claim to any such natural resources.
Protection of Civilians
Third, Resolution 59/122, passing with 160 favoring votes, supports
the Palestinians secondary grievances against the unlawful practices
of Israeli armed forces. It reafrms the International Court of

Justices holding that the Geneva Convention relative to the Protec-
tion of Civilian Persons in Time of War applies to the Occupied
Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and that Israel is
in beach of several of its provisions. The resolution demands that
Israel accept the de jure applicability of the Convention in the occu-
pied territories and that it comply scrupulously with its provisions.
Furthermore, the resolution calls upon all signatory states to the
Geneva Conventions to exert all efforts to ensure respect for its
provisions by Israel in accordance with article 1 common to the
four Geneva Conventions. Article 1 places an obligation on all states
to respect as well as to ensure that the Convention is enforced
under all circumstances. The US, along with its customary client
allies, voted even against this resolution.
European Parliaments support for Chechnya

The European Parliament, which represents the people of Europe,
has passed several resolutions over the years to condemn the
appalling human rights situation in Chechnya. In July 2003, the
Parliament adopted a resolution on the basis of facts gathered by
an ad hoc European delegation that visited Chechnya a month ear-
lier. The resolution highlights a number of Chechnyas grievances.
It underscored the fact that the Chechen Republic has been expe-
riencing, for more than a decade, a situation of armed conict, inse-
curity and instability in all spheres of life. It observed that the
armed conict between Muslim militants and Russian security
forces lays its primary burden on the people of Chechnya who must
bear disastrous living conditions since the water supply, the sewage
system and electricity grid are severely damaged, unemployment
is high, security is low, and more than 110,000 Chechen refugees
live in temporary shelters. While both sides engage in lawless pros-
ecution of the armed conict, the resolution specically criticizes
the Russian security forces for their persistent and recurring mass
violations of the law of war against the civilian population, which
constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity. The resolu-
tion also mentions legal and logistical barriers that Russia has
erected against international humanitarian relief reaching the peo-
ple of Chechnya.
As noted elsewhere, supporting an aggrieved population or for
that matter criticizing a principal suppressive state does not amount
76 Chapter 2
to supporting violence. This distinction is most obvious in resolu-

tions that the European parliament has passed to condemn mili-
tary excesses of Russian security forces in Chechnya. The 2003
resolution unequivocally denounces acts of terrorism. It condemns
all terrorist attacks in Chechnya and considers that the total erad-
ication of terrorism in the province is also part of the international
ght against terrorism. And yet, it does not adopt the linear sup-
pressive logic that terrorism is the sole cause of all the problems
in Chechnya. Taking a more wholesome and grounded view of the
Chechen conict, the resolution states that several causes, includ-
ing the struggle for independence, a deterioration in the rule of
law leading to mounting crime, the emergence of a failed state,
obscure economic activities, terrorism and violent repression con-
tribute to the armed conict and its tragic consequences in the
Chechen Republic.
Support of Secondary Grievances is More Common

International organizations, such as the European Parliament, are
more likely to support the secondary grievances of an aggrieved
population, which include mostly human rights violations. This
support is relatively easier since all nations have vowed, through
a complex network of regional and global treaties, to protect human
rights. The primary grievances of a population, centered on the
right of self-determination, are often supported in mufed language
or not supported at all. A more robust support for the right of self-
determination, it is commonly feared, would encourage secessions
and unnecessary dismemberment of nation-states. The European
Parliament, for example, does not seem to support the Chechens
primary demand for secession. However, it does advise Russia, the
principal suppressive state, to nd a political solution to the armed
conict. Since nation-states strive for self-preservation, they prefer
the autonomy solution to that of independence. Accordingly, the
European Parliament advises Russia to engage as many Chechen
leaders as possible in a peace process that might lead to a mutu-
ally acceptable autonomous republic of Chechnya within the Russian
federation.
Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)

The OIC is the most vivid example of a supportive IGO that cham-
pions the cause of aggrieved populations and of militants engaged
in liberation movements. The OIC is the ofcial voice of the Islamic
world. Composed of fty-six Muslim states, the OIC represents
Muslims of all faiths, of all ethnicities, and from all continents. It
was established in 1969 while Muslims of the world were in a state
of shock, over terrorist actions of the extremist Jews who attempted
to set on re the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the rst Qibla and the third holi-
est Islamic shrine, located in occupied Jerusalem. Muslim states
came together and formed the OIC entrusting it, in absolute pri-
ority, with liberating Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa from Zionist occupa-
tion. Though conceived in a state of shared terrorist trauma, the
OIC has expanded its vision and multi-lateral activity beyond its
initial, narrow goal of liberating Jerusalem. While it is still com-
mitted to safeguarding holy places and supporting the struggle of
the Palestinian people, the OIC now confronts a much more com-
plex mix of multifaceted terrorism that has swept through the
Islamic world, including terrorism perpetrated by Muslims against
Muslims.
OIC Convention on Combating International Terrorism

In 1999, the OIC drafted a Convention on Combating International
Terrorism, the rst comprehensive Islamic treaty on terrorism. The
OIC Convention denes terrorism as any act of violence or threat
thereof notwithstanding its motives or intentions perpetrated to
carry out an individual or collective criminal plan with the aim of
terrorizing people or threatening to harm them or imperiling their
lives, honor, freedoms, security or rights or exposing the environ-
ment or any facility or public or private property to hazards or
occupying or seizing them, or endangering a national resource, or
international facilities, or threatening the stability, territorial
integrity, political unity or sovereignty of independent States. This
broad denition of terrorism is not conned to violence against
civilians nor is it limited to non-state actors as the exclusive per-
petrators of violence.
The OIC denition of terrorism contains both state terrorism and
state-sponsored terrorism. Cherif Bassiouni makes an important
distinction between state terrorism and state-sponsored terrorism.
State terrorism is the employment of terror by the state itself.
78 Chapter 2
When state instrumentalities including defense forces and law

enforcement agencies use torture, genocide, and crimes against
humanity either in attempts to defeat foreign enemies, including
states, or to control specic groups within its own territory or
abroad, such activity may be called state terrorism. Thus, state ter-
rorism can be both national and international, directed at state or
non-state actors. In contrast to state terrorism, state-sponsored ter-
rorism occurs when the actual perpetrators of terrorist acts are
non-state actors operating with overt or covert support of a state.17
The state sponsoring terrorism is still involved but its role is now
to provide moral, nancial, and military support to private groups
who are now primarily responsible for carrying out the acts of ter-
ror against the persons, properties, institutions and instrumental-
ities of enemy states.
Under the OIC Convention, acts of violence that threaten the
stability, territorial integrity, political unity or sovereignty of inde-
pendent states refer primarily to state terrorism, although private
groups are not excluded. The Israeli invasion of Lebanon and its
attacks inside Syria, and the US invasion of Iraq in which all OIC
members refused to be any part of the coalition of the willing,
fall under the OIC denition of terrorism. The denition also includes
state-sponsored terrorism such as the Israeli governments support
for Jewish settlers who occupy and seize private property in the
Palestinian lands. Thus, what distinguishes the OIC Convention
from other international treaties is that the Conventions concep-
tion of terrorism contains both suppressive and supportive terror-
ism, that is, violence committed against an aggrieved population
as well as some violence committed by Muslim militants. As dis-
cussed below, violence in the context of a liberation movement is
exempted from the denition of terrorism.
Like the UN General Assembly resolutions passed in the 1990s,
the OIC Convention accepts the emerging UN doctrine that motives
and intentions are irrelevant to the denition of terrorism. This
emphasis on the nature of terrorist crimes rather than on motives
or intentions of their perpetrators expands the denition of ter-
rorism, as it refuses to recognize political crimes as exceptions to
terrorism. The OIC Convention lists a number of UN anti-terror-
17
M. Cherif Bassiouni, Legal Control of International Terrorism, 43 Harvard
International Law Journal 83 (2002).
ist treaties that criminalize specic acts of terrorism directed at

civil aircrafts, diplomats, and other internationally protected per-
sons. It appears that Muslim militants engaged in liberation move-
ments, though they may engage in armed struggle, are nonetheless
prohibited from undertaking specically prohibited acts of terrorism.
However, the OIC Convention does not seem to embrace the
bolder version of the UN doctrine that nothing justies terrorism.
The OIC Convention specically distinguishes terrorism from armed
struggle in the pursuit of the right of self-determination. Article 2
states in unambiguous terms that Peoples struggle including armed
struggle against foreign occupation, aggression, colonialism, and
hegemony, aimed at liberation and self-determination in accordance
with the principles of international law shall not be considered a
terrorist crime. This allowance for armed struggle, however, is not
unbridled. Militants ghting for liberation and self-determination
must launch their struggle within the connes of international law.
No terrorist organization is free to design its own rules for the con-
duct of warfare contrary to the mandates of international law. If
private militant groups are free to dene the parameters of their
armed struggle, regardless of international law constraints, inter-
national law and order will likely collapse. The OIC Convention,
therefore, allows armed struggle but places international law as a
constraint on the conduct of liberation warfare. Muslim militants
ghting in Palestine, for example, may not threaten the safety of
civil aviation or engage in any other method of warfare specically
prohibited under international law.
Supportive Human Rights Organizations

Both intergovernmental and nongovernmental human rights orga-
nizations provide support to aggrieved populations. They do not
advocate an aggrieved populations primary demands involving self-
determination. But they expose and disseminate to the world the
gross and systematic human right abuses, the secondary griev-
ances, which the aggrieved population suffers by the hands of sup-
pressive entities. This exposure weakens the principal suppressive
states will to crush the liberation movement. It also emboldens the
aggrieved population to conduct ercer resistance. Even support-
ive entities draw renewed inspiration to champion the aggrieved
populations ght for life against the principal suppressive state.
In fact, nongovernmental human rights organizations, such as
80 Chapter 2
Amnesty International, are often the rst to expose and report

human rights abuses. This, in turn, empowers supportive states to
raise human rights issues in intergovernmental human rights insti-
tutions, such as the UN Commission on Human Rights. If sup-
portive states are successful in gathering enough votes in the
intergovernmental institution, often though not always a political
body, to ofcially condemn human rights abuses, the combined pres-
sure of intergovernmental and NGOs de-legitimizes the principal
suppressive states claims that the aggrieved population is engaged
in a completely unjustiable armed struggle.
In 2005, just as before, the UN Commission on Human Rights,
in its 61st session, supported the Palestinians primary and sec-
ondary grievances. In one resolution, it reafrmed the Palestinian
right of self-determination, and urged all member states and rel-
evant bodies of the UN system to support and assist the Palestinian
people in the early realization of their right to self-determination.
In another resolution, the Commission condemned the use of force
by the Israeli occupying forces against Palestinian civilians, result-
ing in extensive loss of life, vast numbers of injuries and massive
destruction of homes, properties, agricultural lands and vital infra-
structure. It requested the Commissioner to address the issue of
pregnant Palestinian women giving birth at Israeli checkpoints
owing to denial of access to hospitals. It demanded that Israel cease
the construction of the wall and make reparation for all damage
caused by the construction of the wall. These resolutions embody-
ing the Palestinians primary and secondary grievances show the
success of supportive states in using an IGO to put pressure on a
principal suppressive state to yield to an aggrieved populations
primary and secondary demands. Suppressive entities dismiss these
resolutions as a political product having dubious legal force.
18
Steve Charnovitz, Two Centuries of Participation: NGOs and International
Governance, 18 Michigan Journal if International Law 183 (1997) (tracing the
historical involvement of NGOs in international governance); Martin A. Olz, Non-
Governmental Organizations in Regional Human Rights Systems, 28 Columbia
Human Rights Law Review 307 (1997) (an entity is a human rights NGO if its
work is guided by the idea of international human rights).
Nongovernmental Organizations
Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are highly active in dis-

seminating information about primary and secondary grievances
of aggrieved populations.18 IGOs, such as the UN Commission on
Human Rights, may be accused of political bias and geopolitical
maneuvering, as states use these institutions to advance their own
values and inuence and embarrass their foes. By contrast, NGOs
are perceived to be neutral and credible. Even though most inuen-
tial NGOs are Western in origin, and may thus analyze situations
from Western perspectives, their ndings and reports shape and
inuence opinions of national governments and international insti-
tutions. Some NGOs have formal links with international institu-
tions, such as the UN Economic and Social Council, and submit
their reports directly to decision makers.
Among NGOs, human rights groups are the most inuential in
exposing the abuses of occupation and human rights violations that
suppressive states commit in the name of security. Suppressive
entities are often critical of such human rights groups and see them
tilting the empathy balance in favor of the aggrieved population.
Some suppressive states ban such groups from investigating human
rights abuses in the occupied territories or disturbed areas. Some
deny the truth of investigative reports and some declare them one-
sided. Despite such discounting, the reports of NGOs nurture a
global moral environment that supports the primary and secondary
grievances of an aggrieved population. These reports may also, to
some extent, legitimize the armed struggle that militants have
undertaken against the principal suppressive state.
In India, Hindu nationalist governments have denied access to
Amnesty International (AI) to visit Kashmir and report the excesses
of Indian security forces in suppressing Muslim militants. AI, how-
ever, has been persistent in its opposition to the Armed Forces
(Special Powers) Act, a law that empowers Indian security forces
to search, seize, and kill even when security soldiers are not at
imminent risk. According to AI reports, the law has facilitated grave
human rights abuses, including extrajudicial executions, disap-
pearances, rape and torture. AI also condemns the criminality that
Muslim militants perpetrate in Kashmir. It however repeatedly
urges the government of India to repeal the Armed Forces (Special
Powers) Act because its provisions contravene non-derogable human
rights, such as the right to life. The Act empowers security forces
82 Chapter 2
to re upon an unlawful assembly of ve or more persons, even if

the ring causes death. This security authority is incompatible with
the right to life that cannot be compromised under any conception
of emergency. Indian civil society groups have also opposed the Act
and the related anti-terrorism laws.
In Chechnya, AI has also compiled reports with the assistance
of Russian NGOs that oppose human rights abuses. In a July 2005
report, AI estimates that between 3,000 and 5,000 people have dis-
appeared in Chechnya. Due to fear generated by Russian security
forces, journalists are reluctant to investigate and relatives are
afraid to tell about missing persons. Search and seize operations
mostly take place at night, usually by armed men, in camouage
and often masked, who often arrive in a large number of military
vehicles whose identication plates are covered, and in which one
or more people are taken away in an unknown direction. It is often
difcult to attribute responsibility for these abductions and inves-
tigations under the Russian Criminal Code fail to identify the cul-
prits. Under the prevailing climate of impunity, AI reports very
few effective measures have been taken. Only very few cases of dis-
appearance, torture and ill-treatment or extrajudicial execution
have reached the courts.
2.3 SUPPORTIVE GROUPS AND INDIVIDUALS
Ad Hoc Militancy
It is inaccurate to assume that Muslim militancy has a well-dened,
organized global network. The al Qaeda global network served as
a vibrant force of resistance against the Soviet Union because it
received moral, military, and logistical support from the US, Saudi
Arabia, and Pakistan. But after the US invasion of Afghanistan,
the network was to a large extent destroyed and dismantled, giv-
ing impetus to ad hoc militancy. Individuals, who feel they must
to do something to help their fellow brothers and sisters under sup-
pression and occupation, may resort to violence on an ad hoc basis,
which simply means, that the individuals plan and execute vio-
lence against targets that they choose. Ad hoc militancy may be
the work of a single individual or groups of individuals without
any ties to any international network. Individual acts of violence
may be perpetrated against a suppressive home government or a
foreign government or institution, such as the UN. It may involve

bombings, suicide missions, and even more powerful attacks depend-
ing on the resources that individuals might be able to bring to their
ad hoc undertaking. Ad hoc militancy has been witnessed in all
parts of the world against principal suppressive states. The US,
which is perceived as to be the super suppressive state, is most
often the favorite target of ad hoc missions of violence.
Isolated Acts of Terrorism

One need not conclude that every terrorist act perpetrated any-
where in the world by Muslims is part of some International Coalition
of Muslim Militants. There are individual and even group acts of
terrorism that are neither part of any international coalition nor
are they inspired to air the plight of aggrieved populations. They
are isolated acts of despair, revenge, hatred, or frustration. In April
2005, for example, an 18-year old engineering student blew him-
self up and killed three tourists in Cairo. Investigations revealed
that the bomber acted alone out of personal frustration over the
global state of affairs. Diaa Rashwan, a senior Egyptian political
analyst, discounted the possibility that the act was the work of a
militant organization. Whenever the US ignores the UN, or engages
in unilateral actions that terrorize Arabs and Muslims, reported
Al Ahram Weekly, such attacks increase. State-led violence against
Muslim states or aggrieved populations provides the climate for
disturbed and frustrated young people to believe such operations
might be the only way for them to express their anger and regain
their lost pride.19
International Coalitions of Muslim Militants

Just as the armed forces of nation-states pool their resources to
launch or threaten to launch a collective attack, private armies of
militants do the same. The 1999 annual report of the Canadian
Security Intelligence Service captured this phenomenon in coining
the phrase an international ad hoc coalition of terrorists who have
expressed the intention of causing harm to Americans and their
19
Al-Ahram, (April 1420, 2005).
84 Chapter 2
allies. The word ad hoc in the Canadian phrase is also appropri-

ate because the coalition is neither formal, nor for a xed period
of time. The purpose of the coalition, however, seems larger than
to cause harm to the US and its allies. The coalition seems equally
willing to ght on behalf of any Muslim aggrieved population,
whether in Chechnya or Kashmir. Terrorist attacks on Russian and
Indian national and international interests are perpetrated by a
collection of militants extracted from the Middle East, South Asia,
and North Africa. It appears that private armies have joined their
resources to attack the suppressive infrastructure and to defend
rights of Muslim aggrieved populations across the world.
It appears that there is not one but many ad hoc coalitions of
militants operating in different areas of the world. This phenome-
non of international coalitions of Muslim militants (ICMMs) is com-
plex and cannot be reduced to any one structural framework. ICMMs
come into existence without any formal or negotiated deals. An
ICMM may or may not have a single leader at the head of the mil-
itary chain. In fact, there may or may not be a military command
as one expects from a regular armed force. Total exibility is the
ICMMs organizing principle. In all its phases, including recruit-
ment of militants, training, raising resources, planning attacks,
methods of communication, operational coordination, the ICMM
acts in an ad hoc manner. By virtue of its formless and exible
being, the ICMM is no efcient machine, nor is it necessarily effec-
tive, nor does it work in accordance with any timetable. Even its
strategic and tactical goals are uid and mutable. The ICMMs own
existence is not assured because it will dissolve in thin air if its
operations have become impossible to perform or they no longer
carry any terror value. Just as sand grains freely move in a desert
swept by strong winds, so do private armies of militants.
Another distinction is worth noting. Whereas members of the
national armed forces work full-time, militants of private armies
may or may not. Some militants work part time for an ICMM, leav-
ing most of their time for regular jobs and family affairs. Some con-
tribute once or twice to the affairs of militancy, and live normal
lives. In Iraq, for example, the US is facing a unique form of insur-
gency that it has never fought before. The ICMM operating in Iraq
is disorganized, its goals and operations constantly vary, its mili-
tants are indistinguishable from civilians. It contracts with crimi-
nals and gangsters to seek abductions. All alliances within, and on
behalf of, the ICMM are temporary. Nothing is written in stone
except one thing that the ICMM would ght a slow and steady bat-
tle until the Americans are forced out of Iraq. Commenting upon
the unpredictability and shifting alliances of the ICMM in Iraq,
Bruce Hoffman, a RAND counterinsurgency expert who served as
an adviser to Paul Bremers occupation administration, admits:
Vietnam was not easy, but it was certainly far less complex and
more straightforward.20
Supportive Charities
Throughout the world, supportive charities raise funds for aggrieved
populations. The line between nancially supporting an aggrieved
population and funding its militants is thin and disputed. Funds
raised for peaceful purposes may or may not be diverted for mili-
tant operations. After September 11, major Islamic charities were
closed down in the US for their alleged links to Muslim militants
in occupied Palestine and elsewhere. In Holy Land Foundation for
Relief and Development v. Ashcroft, US courts upheld the govern-
ments decision to designate the largest Muslim charitable foun-
dation in the US as a terrorist charity and to block its assets. The
courts formulated the issue in a rather provocative language, stat-
ing that there is no constitutional right to fund terrorism. The
Holy Land Foundation (HLF) allegedly supplied funds to Hamas,
a Palestinian political organization, which supports suicide bombers
in occupied territories. There is no evidence that Hamas has com-
mitted any terrorist act against the US. Blocking the assets of a
US national for the benet of a foreign suppressive state is indeed
unprecedented legal action.
Suppressive US laws for blocking assets are written in sweep-
ing language. They punish guilt by association. For example, any
person who is found to act for or on behalf of or is owned or con-
trolled by or assist in, sponsor, or provide support for, or is other-
wise associated with a designated terrorist is also considered a
terrorist. Despite these broad provisions, the laws provide the
humanitarian aid exception. In blocking assets of a designated ter-
rorist organization, the President has no authority to prohibit dona-
tions of articles, such as food, clothing, and medicine, intended to
be used to relieve human suffering. The courts, however, have
20
Jim Krane, US Faces Complex Insurgency in Iraq (Associated Press, Oct 4,
2004).
86 Chapter 2
applied this exception to articles and not to money, concluding that

monetary donations for the humanitarian aid may be lawfully
blocked. When lawful channels for supporting an aggrieved popu-
lation are blocked, informal methods of raising and transferring
funds come into existence.
Informal Funds Transfer Systems

Militants ghting on behalf of an aggrieved population invent infor-
mal funds transfer systems (IFTS) to nance attacks on suppres-
sive targets. These informal systems bypass legal payment systems
such as promissory notes, bills of exchange, drafts, checks, credit
cards, debit cards, letters of credit, wire transfers, and electronic
transfer of funds. It would be inaccurate to assert that all nanc-
ing of militancy is informal. If funds are moving from one country
to another, the transfer is highly complex. Across international bor-
ders, funds are transferred through formal channels and later deliv-
ered to militant groups through an IFTS. In reality, therefore, the
transfer system is far from linear. It is built upon a series of for-
mal and informal transfers. The complexity of the transfer would
depend upon the depth of the militant groups. If a group is large
and scattered throughout a region or across the world, funds may
transfer through several intricate steps, involving banks, busi-
nesses, charities, NGOs, and individuals.21
Suppose A transfers funds to B, B transfers to C, C to D, and so
on, until funds reach M. In this series of transactions, C may not
know how (formally or informally) funds were transferred from A
to B, or what the quid pro quo (consideration) was for the trans-
fer. A to B transaction may be a gift, a sale, or the payment of a
debt. The transaction between A and B may be real or fake. C may
or may not even know who A is or what A does or where A is located.
A may be a Muslim, Christian, Jew, Hindu, or anyone. A may be
a natural person or a corporation or a government. A may be a real
21
Terrorist nancing is not the same as money laundering. Money laundering
originates in illegal activity such as narcotics trafcking. Terrorist nancing orig-
inates with lawful funds. John D.G. Waszak, The Obstacles to Suppressing Radical
Islamic Terrorist Financing, 37 Case Western Journal of International Law 673
(2005) (money laundering cleans dirty mean whereas terrorist nancing dirties
clean money; one is for greed, the other for revolution).
or ctitious person. C deals with B, having little or no knowledge

about A or about the transaction between A and B. As funds reach
B and move from B to C, A is irrelevant. Likewise when funds reach
C, A and B are both irrelevant. This journey continues until funds
reach M (the militant). M does not know, nor does he care, whether
the funds originated in his own country or a neighboring country
or a country far away from the place of nal transfer. In this chain
of transactions, it is highly probable that most parties are unaware
of the origination and nal destination of the funds. It is often fruit-
less to trace funds on the assumption that everyone in the chain
is aware that funds are being transferred to a militant group.
In the Islamic world, the IFTS takes place in myriad forms that
cannot be reduced to any concept, formula, or even a complex equa-
tion. This is so because moving parts can be numerous and time
involved can be months and years for the loop of transactions to
fully close. In many cases, an IFTS can be inefcient, dysfunctional,
and may not even succeed in fully closing the loop, which occurs
when a key party is unwilling or unable to discharge the debt. In
the above example, even if D pays M, there is no guarantee that
B would pay C. And thus, the loop of transactions would remain
unclosed until B discharges his debt to A by paying to C. When D
pays M, the cause of militancy has been served even though the
funds end up coming from C who might be a non-Muslim or a
Muslim who detests the use of force in solving problems related to
occupation, alien domination, or hegemony. Any theory of terror
nancing that ignores the indeterminate complexity of the IFTS is
likely to deter lawful transactions more than it would succeed in
cutting off funds that grease the wheel of militancy. The closing
down of Muslim charities in the US, for example, was such an over-
reaching attempt to solve the problem of terrorist nancing.
Hawala System
Attempts have been made to explain the process of the IFTS through
the concept of Hawala, an Arabic word for transfer. The hawala
system provides a pipeline to transfer funds from one location to
another through service providers known as hawaladars. The sys-
tem has developed over the centuries to nance a variety of busi-
ness transactions, and it is still attractive to nations and peoples
with minimal banking habits. It is particularly popular among
Muslims of South Asia and the Middle East. Suppose A wants to
88 Chapter 2
transfer $500 to D. Instead of using banking services, A transfers

$500 to H, a person known as hawaladar. This transfer may be
done using cash, cashiers check, or a personal check. A also sup-
plies information about the particulars (name, address, etc.) of the
payee, i.e., D. H instructs (by means of phone, email, or fax) his
local agent (perhaps another hawaladar) to pay $500 to D. No
money is transferred from H to the local agent for this particular
transaction to go through. The local agent can settle his accounts
with H through a variety of means, including transfer of funds
through the banking system. Now if D pays $500 to M, the IFTS
is blameless for neither H nor his local agent knew that the money
was being transferred to nance a terrorist operation. Experts agree
that the hawala system is simply an IFTS that competes with
expensive, cumbersome, and slow international banking systems.
Economic and cultural factors explain the attractiveness of the
hawala system. It is less expensive, swifter, more reliable, more
convenient, and less bureaucratic than the formal nancial sector.22
If the hawala system were curbed to tilt the market balance in
favor of formal banking, necessity of speedier transfers would invent
other more convenient methods. The hawala system is not critical
to funds transfer. Suppose A sells a carpet to B for $500. B does
not pay right away and so B owes $500 to A. In some other trans-
action, D owes $500 to C. A, B, C, & D do not know each other. By
means of contacts that could be completely coincidental, A ends up
instructing D to pay $500 to M. D may or may not know M. When
D pays to M, A owes $500 to D. D instructs A to pay $500 to C, a
debt that D owes to C. A instructs B to pay $500 to C, a debt that
B owes to A. So D pays to M and B pays to C. These transactions
may be removed in time. If all parties live in the same country, no
foreign exchange is involved. However, if parties live in different
currency areas, even then no funds may be transferred across bor-
ders. If D and M operate in the same currency area, no funds are
directly transferred across borders for the cause of militancy. If B
& C live in one currency area, no funds cross international borders
in the entire series of transactions. In this example, no funds have
crossed international borders and A has donated no funds to mili-
tancy. And even when funds are transferred across currency bor-
ders, the transaction involving the transfer could be perfectly legal
22
Mohammad Al-Qorchi, Hawala, 39 Finance & Development 4 (December 2002).
and above suspicion. In either case, A ends up donating a carpet

to the cause of militancy. It is also quite likely that A had no inten-
tion of donating anything to any militant group at the time he sold
the carpet to B. In these highly uid transactions in terms of time,
motive, and networking, any tracing of funds can lead to errors
and false prosecutions.
Supportive Divestments
Divestments are efcacious supportive tools to defend and promote
legitimate demands and rights of an aggrieved population. These
strategies exert economic pressure on, and coerce businesses and
institutions to cease cooperating with, principal suppressive states.
The most successful use of these tools occurred to oppose apartheid
in South Africa.23 A case in the US captures the graphics of divest-
ment protests. In University of Utah Students Against Apartheid
v. Peterson, student groups petitioned the US District Court for
injunctive relief against the university that had ordered the stu-
dents to remove shanties erected on university grounds. Student
groups erected shanties, which symbolized ghetto degradation that
the white apartheid regime had imposed on the black majority, to
protest the universitys investment policies. These groups were act-
ing as supportive entities. The university allowed the shanties to
stand for six months, despite campus violence against them. Twice,
the shanties were destroyed in nighttime attacks. However, the
shanties protest failed to persuade the universitys Institutional
Council to withdraw funds from companies that contributed to the
longevity of apartheid. As the Council voted against divestments,
student groups were ordered to dismantle the shanties and clear
university grounds.
In the court, the university made several arguments to seek
removal of the shanties, including the attendant risk of physical
harm and the increased expense of liability insurance. One argu-
ment was aesthetic in that the shanties spoil the beauty of the
23
Kevin P. Lewis, Dealing with South Africa: The Constitutionality of State
and Local Divestment Legislation, 61 Tulane Law Review 469 (1987) (As state
and local governments joined the divestment campaign against South Africa, some
commentators challenged the constitutionality of state actions on the ground that
the legislative campaign infringes upon the Executive plenary power to conduct
foreign policy).
90 Chapter 2
campus. Upholding the students right to free speech, the court con-
cluded that the students intended to convey a particularized mes-
sage through construction and display of the shanties. The shanties
were not mere dispensable structures. They embodied the message.
Words and drawings embossed on outside walls of the shanties
were designed to explain the anti-apartheid/pro-divestiture mes-
sage of the protesters. To further air grievances of the black major-
ity in South Africa, student groups, acting as supportive entities,
maintained a constant vigil at the shanties to discuss the apartheid/
divestiture issues and to further communicate their ideas to others.
Removal of these shanties, said the court, would be tantamount to
dismantling the message.
Divestments campaigns on American university campuses have
also been initiated against Israel, despite the broad good will Israel
enjoys in the US. Students and faculties in Michigan and Wisconsin
universities are leading the way. In the Dearborn campus of the
University of Michigan, students petitioned the Board of Regents
to investigate the moral and ethical implications of the univer-
sitys investments in companies which directly support and benet
from the ongoing illegal Israeli occupation. In Wisconsin, the pro-
fessional association representing the faculty and staff of all 25
University of Wisconsin campuses has called on the university sys-
tem to divest from companies that help Israel perpetrate human
rights abuses against Palestinian civilians. Divestment drives have
been launched at many university and college campuses, which are
actively opposed by Jewish students groups.
The idea of anti-Israel divestments is not conned to university
campuses. Even Christian churches that support Palestinians law-
ful demands have begun to consider divestments.24 In August 2005,
the Presbyterian Church, which claims a membership of around
2.5 million and more than 11,000 congregations, announced that
it would sanction ve companies that contribute to violence in
Israeli-Palestinian conict. This action was taken in response to
the Churchs General Assembly resolution that the Churchs invest-
ments carry moral responsibilities. Caterpillar was one the ve tar-
geted companies. The Church targeted Caterpillar because it
24
Desmond Tutu, Build Moral Pressure To End The Israeli Occupation Of The
Palestinian Lands, International Herald Tribune (June 14, 2002) (proposing an
international campaign of divestiture to end Israeli occupation).
manufactures heavy equipment used for demolition of Palestinian

homes, the uprooting of olive trees, construction of roads and infra-
structure in the occupied territories for use only by Israeli settlers,
and facilitating by the Israeli military. Caterpillar is in the spot-
light, ever since Rachel Corrie, an American student, while protest-
ing house demolitions in occupied Palestine, was killed by a
Caterpillar bulldozer. In addition to the Presbyterians, many other
Protestant denominations are considering divestments as a moral
strategy to oppose Israels suppressive policies. Pro-Israeli groups
have labeled such moves as New anti-Semitism. But a spirited
discussion of the Middle East conict need not split on racial or
ethnic fault lines.25
Principled Rigidity
Edward Said, a supportive entity and a Christian Palestinian who
spent most of his academic life teaching literature at Columbia
University in New York, wrote copious resistance literature high-
lighting the degradation of Palestinians and their moral right to
armed struggle. He deeply resented the cowardly silence of American
intellectuals who recognize that a wrong is being committed in the
Middle East but refuse to even study, analyze, and write about the
Israeli-Palestinian conict. At its core, Saids work is a militant
call to struggle against injustice without compromising the princi-
ples. Said captures the essence of Nelson Mandela a clenched st
that Mandela raised in 1990 after walking out of twenty-seven
years in captivity in his writing. In prison, writes Said, Mandela
was able to convince the government of South Africa that he was
not going to give up his principles, regardless of how much power
the government brought to bear upon him, and regardless of how
much he was made to pay for his position.26 Mandela refused to
negotiate with apartheid because any such accommodation would
have conferred elements of legitimacy on a morally empty concept.
Mandela refused to renounce the principle of armed struggle even
25
Annalisa Jabaily, 1967: How Estrangement and Alliances between Blacks,
Jews, and Arabs Shaped a Generation of Civil Rights Family Values, 23 Law and
Inequality 197 (2005) (Just as race consciousness may talk about race without
advocating racism, so can a Middle East consciousness may talk about Israel with-
out advocating anti-Semitism).
26
Edward W. Said, The Politics of Dispossession 367 (Pantheon Books, 1994).
92 Chapter 2
though white power in South Africa at the time was insurmount-

able and the label of terrorism was demeaning. In addition, Mandela
did not appeal to the US on the theory that American inuence
would soften the cruelty of apartheid. Mandela showed no exi-
bility or pragmatism with regard to the need to dismantle apartheid,
says Said. There is even a hint now and then, especially in the
US media, that maybe Mandela is a bit of a disappointment, that
he remains in essence a hard, tough, unbending guerilla leader,
not a saint or a sage like King or Gandhi. Said also admired the
principled rigidity of Vaclav Havel and Lech Walesa, the two East
European leaders who fought against communism, for they too pre-
vailed not by being clever at compromise but by completely iden-
tifying with unchanging principles whose moral content in the end
triumphed over their adversaries.
Chapter 3
Suppressive Entities
The Israeli military has fostered a climate of impunity in its

ranks by failing to thoroughly investigate whether soldiers have
killed and injured Palestinian civilians unlawfully.
Human Rights Watch (June, 2005).
Suppressive entities along with aggrieved populations and sup-

portive entities complete the triangle of terrorism. Suppressive enti-
ties may be states, corporations, groups, or individuals. While
supportive entities generally support legitimate demands of the
aggrieved population, suppressive entities do the opposite. All sup-
pressive entities condemn the variant forms of militancy. But that
is not their dening attribute. Even supportive entities may also
denounce militant violence. What distinguishes suppressive enti-
ties is their own violence, either in the form of state terrorism or
supporting state terrorism, primarily aimed at suppressing the pri-
mary and secondary demands of an aggrieved population. Sup-
pressive entities are the source of grievances of the aggrieved
population. They simultaneously cause and deny grievances of the
target population, often propounding an ontological theory that the
militants ghting on behalf of an aggrieved population are inher-
ently evil or that they are addicted to violence or that they are
motivated by their religion or culture and not by their griev-
ances to perpetrate violence, a point developed in the chapter on
essentialist terrorism.
94 Chapter 3
3.1 SUPPRESSIVE TERRORISM
As already explained, primary grievances of an aggrieved popula-

tion arise from the denial of political liberty including the right of
self-determination; secondary grievances stem from gross human
rights violations of the same population. Suppressive states, such
as India, Israel, and Russia, deny that the people of Kashmir,
Palestine, or Chechnya deserve political and territorial indepen-
dence. In the name of suppressing bandits, fanatics, and terrorists,
suppressive entities resort to organized violence, called state ter-
rorism, and violate basic rights of these populations, including the
rights to life, property, and physical safety, safeguards against tor-
ture, cruel, and degrading treatment. Every suppressive entity
builds up a negative relationship with an aggrieved population, but
depth of the negative relationship varies from entity to entity. Some
suppressive entities simply deny the claims of an aggrieved popu-
lation whereas others, mostly nation-states, are actively engaged
in abusing and tormenting the same population.
State Terrorism
State terrorism is an emerging international term to characterize

the nation-states violence against an aggrieved population and its
militants. The purpose of state terrorism is to terrorize a popula-
tion into submission. States use several methods to perpetuate
occupation, domination, apartheid, or hegemony over an aggrieved
population. Indenite detentions, torture, extra-judicial killings,
searches, disappearances, roadblocks, invasions, and bombings are
some tools of state terrorism. Private groups use terror to modify
the behavior of suppressive entities. States use terror for not only
modifying the behavior of an aggrieved population but also to crush
militancy and to gain control over land and resources. State ter-
rorism is thus the use of armed force to deter militants from armed
struggle. It is also a tool to acquire material advantages. In tradi-
tional literature, terrorism is a term used to describe private vio-
lence. Increasingly, the term is being expanded to include all forms
of terrorism, including state terrorism.
The UN General Assembly (GA) resolutions condemn terrorism
in all its forms. State terrorism is not specically mentioned in
Suppressive Entities 95
these resolutions, but it is implied. The 2004 Measures to elimi-

nate international terrorism GA resolution, for example, strongly
condemns all acts, methods and practices of terrorism in all its
forms and manifestations as criminal and unjustiable, wherever
and by whomsoever committed.1 This language is broad enough
to include state terrorism. However, few suppressive states would
concede such a reading of the resolution. Rather, they would conne
the text of the resolution to private terrorism in all its form. Such
fundamental disputes about the denition of terrorism confuse
international legal responses to terrorism. All nations condemn ter-
rorism using broad language but each nation has different perpe-
trators in mind. A Theory of International Terrorism includes state
terrorism within the denition because the terror that suppressive
armies unleash on an aggrieved population cannot be morally dis-
tinguished from the violence of militants against the innocents of
suppressive entities. Even if such an autoimmune distinction upholds
the supremacy of state-centered international law, it serves no use-
ful purpose in solving the international dynamics of violence.2
Justication for State Violence

State violence is defended and justied in the name of combating
terrorism. Militancy waged against a nation-state reinforces the
right to national security and provides a basis for suppression that
otherwise would have been plainly unjust. An occupying entity,
such as Israel, can assert no universally recognized claim that it
has a right to occupation (even though some Israeli private groups
claim such a right derived from history and religion). In fact, the
law and morality are rmly on the side of the Palestinians. The
shared will of the peoples of the world, expressed in UN General
Assembly Resolutions, has repeatedly, year after year, afrmed the
Palestinians right of self-determination. Even many Israeli orga-
nizations of citizens actively argue that the occupation of Gaza and
West Bank is both illegal and immoral. Even Israeli governments,
liberal and conservative, have begun to recognize the Palestinians
1
GA Resolution, A/Res/59/46 (2004).
2
W.J.T. Mitchell, Picturing Terror: Derridas Autoimmunity, 27 Cardozo Law
Review 913 (2005)(Terrorism is so reduced to an ideological slogan, a synonym for
absolute evil, that it has become impossible to think clearly about it).
96 Chapter 3
right to some degree of independence. Against these moral and

legal odds, Israel has no valid basis to continue its occupation. The
only credible argument that Israel makes for not relinquishing the
occupied territories is the so-called national security justication.
The national security argument is the offspring of militancy. When
an aggrieved population ghts for its liberation and its militants
take up arms to resist occupation or alien domination, the sup-
pressive entity almost always invokes the right to security, for it
cannot invoke the right to occupation or imperialism to suppress
militancy, since no such right exists. Thus, militancy of the sup-
pressed confers on the suppressive entity a right to security that
does not exist in the absence of militancy. And in the absence of
militancy, the wrong of occupation or alien domination is stark but
receives little attention from the world. When the militants begin
to attack the suppressive infrastructure, the right to security begins
to emerge even though it lacks the moral strength often associated
with law enforcement. When militancy becomes robust and when
civilians sympathetic to the suppressive entity become the target
of militancy, the suppressive right to security gathers moral mass,
for now the right to security of civilians is as strong as the right
of the aggrieved population to be liberated. This way, militant ter-
rorism weakens its own moral rooting, for now the suppressive
entity has gathered moral and legal claims to protect its civilians
against murder and mayhem.
Denition Battles
In addition to punishing states that support militancy, suppressive

entities engage in profound denition battles to de-legitimize the
armed struggle of aggrieved populations. The label of terrorism
itself is part of the denition battle. Gone are the days when nations
were free to label some militants as terrorists, and the others as
freedom ghters. Suppressive entities have launched a spirited
campaign to root out freedom ghters from the legitimate vocab-
ulary of international discourse. Even legitimate armed struggles
against brutality and blatant injustice are called terrorism. The
mythic Western revolutions that are celebrated as great events of
human civilization, such as the American and French Revolutions,
would be reduced to terrorist showdowns under current denitions.
The purpose of the denitions battles is to broadly de-legitimize
armed struggle. More specically, its purpose is to condemn the

methods and weapons that militants use to attack suppressive
entities.
For generations, suppressive entities have outlawed weapons that
challenged their control and domination. The international law of
warfare is to a large extent a persistent and continuing effort to
ban the enemys weapons, declaring them unlawful. During the
colonial period, the Europeans made every effort to forbid the use
of lances, the premium weapon that indigenous populations pos-
sessed to ght the colonists. In our own times, suppressive enti-
ties are making every effort to deny weapons to Muslim states,
such as Iran, which support militancy ironically, the same weapons
suppressive entities own in abundance. Furthermore, suppressive
entities make every argument under the sun to condemn suicide
bombings that have breached their mighty fortresses. Aggrieved
populations facing an otherwise indomitable enemy seem to con-
done the deaths of their sons and daughters who undertake sui-
cide missions and kill soldiers and citizens of principal suppressive
entities.
The battle over the characterization of suicide bombing furnishes
telling insights into the use of language in the war on terror.
Interestingly, though, suicide bombing is a controversial label for
both suppressive and supportive entities, even though both sys-
tems recognize the same essential facts of the operation. Suicide
bombing involves a person, male or female, who wears a belt of
explosives around the chest area underneath his or her garments,
walks into the target area, a bus, a checkpoint, a market, a sol-
diers hangout, or a discotheque, and detonates the charge, killing
himself and killing and wounding the people present at the target
place.
Suppressive entities prefer to characterize suicide bombing as a
homicide bombing, a label that shifts the emphasis from the killers
to the victims. Critics of the phrase suicide bomber argue that
the phrase lends an air of undeserved romance to the bombers. In
April 2002, White House Press Spokesman Ari Fleischer formally
introduced the phrase homicide bombing into the suppressive lexi-
con to describe the phenomenon of suicide bombing. Fleischer
explained this change of terminology as follows: The reason I
started to use that term is because its a more accurate descrip-
tion. These are not suicide bombings. These are not people who
just kill themselves. These are people who deliberately go to mur-
der others, with no regard to the values of their own life. These
98 Chapter 3
are murderers. The President has said that in the Rose Garden.
And I think that is just a more accurate description of what these
people are doing. Its not suicide, its murder. Soon thereafter, sev-
eral top administration ofcials, including the Secretary of State,
some senators, some media personalities such as Larry King, and
conservative Fox News Network and New York Post, discarded the
phrase suicide bombing in favor of homicide bombing. Even a
professor of linguistics at Georgetown University praised the switch
as a step in the right direction. Unsatised even with this switch,
a communication expert suggested that even the word bomber
should be replaced, since the bombing of Afghanistan and Iraq that
we do is not at the same moral footing as is the bombing that
they do. He suggested that the phrase suicide bombing be replaced
with suicide murderers. David Brooks, a suppressive journalist,
describes suicide bombing as the crack cocaine of warfare because
it inicts death and terror on its victims but that also intoxicates
the people who sponsor it.
Supportive entities prefer to call suicide operations as sacred
explosions since suicide is forbidden in Islam. Nasra Hassan, a
Pakistani journalist who interviewed the families, friends, and
accomplices of suicide bombers in Palestine, discloses that many
who support such operations are uncomfortable with the phrase
suicide bombing. She reports: They were not inclined to argue, but
they were happy to discuss, far into the night, the issues and the
purpose of their activities. One condition of the interviews was that,
in our discussions, I not refer to their deeds as suicide, which is
forbidden in Islam. (Their preferred term is sacred explosions.) One
member of (the militant group) said, We do not have tanks or rock-
ets, but we have something superior our exploding Islamic human
bombs. In place of a nuclear arsenal, we are proud of our arsenal
of believers. The Arabic term for suicide bombing is Shahadat,
which means an act of witnessing, that is, dying in a religious cause
and thus testifying faith in God. Sacred explosions recognize the
involvement of human beings and their certain death if the mis-
sion is accomplished. However, the label of sacred explosions avoids
the apparent implications of illegality associated with suicide bomb-
ings and suicide in general. As noted elsewhere, the use of human
beings as weapons the arsenal of believers is justied on the
ground that Palestinian militants ghting Israeli tanks, helicopters
and missiles have no other effective weapons. Since surrender is
no option and since ghting is inevitable, Palestinian militants
must invent deadly weapons from indigenous available resources.
Once a weapon has been successfully introduced into the war, oth-
ers adopt it. Suicide bombing has now become a lethal weapon of
choice for Muslim militants around the world. Regardless of its
international legality or theological validity, suicide bombing will
continue to rattle suppressive entities.
Nothing Justies Terrorism

Suicide bombing will remain a controversial weapon in the realm
of armed struggle. Suppressive states have waged a broader war
on the right to armed struggle that liberation movements claim as
part of the lawful struggle against occupation, alien domination,
hegemony, and apartheid. They appear to have won a great victory
at the UN General Assembly. Recent GA resolutions repeat a sim-
ple idea that nothing justies terrorism. Former Israel Prime
Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, calls the idea moral clarity. The
GA resolutions state that criminal acts intended or calculated to
provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons
or particular persons for political purposes are in any circumstances
unjustiable, whatever the considerations of a political, philo-
sophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or other nature that
may be invoked to justify them.3
This pronouncement seems to ban the private use of force by any
group for any reason. But there is nothing in the resolution that
excludes state terrorism. On closer scrutiny, however, pertinent
questions remain unanswered. For example, it is unclear whether
liberation movements may use force against an occupying army.
Will the killing of Israeli soldiers stationed in Gaza and West Bank
amount to criminal acts intended to provoke a state of terror in
the general public? If one places emphasis on the element of pro-
voking a state of terror, even a brutal slaughter of occupying sol-
diers can terrify the general public. The public is terried because
it feels more vulnerable when highly armored soldiers are attacked
and killed. On the basis of this logic, if the resolution prohibits any
attacks on an occupying army, the occupied population is denied
the right of self-defense. Furthermore, such restrictions on occu-
pied populations right of self-defense tilt the international nor-
mative balance in favor of occupation. And if the occupier is a
3
GA Resolution, A/Res/59/46 (2004).
100 Chapter 3
permanent member of the Security Council, this normative shift

leads to oppression for now the international machinery will be
unable to function and remove occupation without jeopardizing
international peace and security.
On the other hand, if the occupied population retains the right
of self-defense and may lawfully exercise it against an occupying
army, the denition of terrorism undergoes a signicant change.
Now the emphasis of the denition is on the target rather than
terror. The militants ghting an occupation may not attack the
civilian population of a suppressive state, a prohibition consistent
with the law of war, customary international law, and general prin-
ciple of international law and morality. However, militants may
lawfully attack occupying soldiers and their occupation machinery,
even if these attacks provoke terror in the occupying military force
or among state ofcials that the suppressive state has installed in
the occupied lands. In fact, creating a state of terror in the hearts
of a suppressive force is an efcacious way to resist and possibly
reverse occupation. And by targeting occupying soldiers, if the state
of terror is intentionally or coincidently extended to the general
public of the suppressive state, causing casualties, that too is law-
ful and might even be desirable since the general public might pres-
sure its government to withdraw soldiers and end occupation. This
legal justication is no different than the one embodied in the con-
cept of collateral damage that professional armies invoke to defend
unintended civilian casualties.
Private Suppressive Terrorism
Even those who wish to exclude state terrorism from the denition
of terrorism concede that the denition must include violence com-
mitted by private groups or individuals who may or may not be
ofcially afliated with suppressive states. These groups or indi-
viduals are often the nationals of suppressive states. They want to
contribute to the struggle in which their home state is engaged.
Armed with feelings of revenge, anger, and hatred against the
aggrieved population, suppressive terrorists commit violence to ter-
rorize the aggrieved population. Their targets are not the militants
of the aggrieved population but the population itself. And the pur-
pose of their terror is no different than that of the militants ght-
ing on behalf of an aggrieved population. Suppressive terrorists
want to reinforce in their private capacity the actions of the armed

forces of suppressive states. Suppressive terror sends a message to
the aggrieved population that not only the armed forces of the sup-
pressive state but also its citizens actively support, defend, and
preempt any attempts by the militants to inict injury on the sup-
pressive population. Thus suppressive terrorism is the opposite of
militant terrorism. Its purpose is to negate what militant terror-
ism asserts; it denies rights of the aggrieved populations that mil-
itant terrorists espouse and promote.
Ethnic Cleansing
One vivid episode of suppressive terrorism took place in early 1994
in Hebron. Baruch Goldstein, a physician by profession, was a mem-
ber of Kach, a militant group founded by Meir Kahana, an American
Jewish rabbi. Kach, now part of an Israeli political party advocates
that the entire Palestine including the occupied territories of the
West Bank and Gaza (and even parts of Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan,
Lebanon, Cyprus, Turkey, and Iraq) belongs to the Jews, and that
Arabs must be expelled from every inch of the sacred soil, Eretz
Yisrael. Kach further argues that democracy is incompatible with
Judaism, and Israel has to choose one or the other. Embracing the
Kach ideology of ethnic cleansing, and determined to do something
about what he believed in, Dr. Goldstein decided to kill Muslim
worshippers during the month of Ramadhan in the al-Ibrahimi
Mosque (a place where Prophet Abraham is buried in a vault).
Clearing Israeli check posts surrounding the mosque, Goldstein
entered the premises of the mosque where about 500 Muslim wor-
shippers were standing in the morning prayer. Goldstein, armed
with a Galil semiautomatic rie, waited for the worshippers to pros-
trate on the oor. As they did, Goldstein opened re. Twenty-nine
worshippers were killed and many others wounded. Goldstein was
overpowered and killed by the enraged congregation.
The massacre was widely condemned in Israel. Baruch Goldstein
however is a hero to many Jews. Some supporters see Goldstein
as a man who engaged in preemptive self-defense on the theory
that Arab militants were planning to destroy the settlement, Kiryat
Arba, where Goldstein lived. Others minimize the signicance of
his massacre by matching it with another Hebron massacre in 1929
when Arabs killed Jews. Still others believe that the Goldstein mas-
sacre is unnecessarily emphasized to draw attention away from the
102 Chapter 3
horrendous acts of Arab militants. For many Israelis and Jews out-
side Israel, Baruch Goldstein is not a terrorist to be condemned or
compared with Arab terrorists. He is seen as an intellectual, a reli-
gious man, a man devoted to Israel and to its survival. Goldstein
is buried in Kiryat Arba, the illegal settlement in Hebron. His grave
serves as a shrine and a place of pilgrimage for many radical Israelis
and Jews around the world. Israeli soldiers stationed at the set-
tlement protect the grave and the pilgrims. The tombstone reads:
Here lies the saint, Dr. Baruch Kappel Goldstein, blessed be the
memory of the righteous and holy man, may the Lord avenge his
blood, who devoted his soul to the Jews, Jewish religion and
Jewish land. His hands are innocent and his heart is pure. He
was killed as a martyr of God on the 14th of Adar, Purim, in the
year 5754.
Ironically, Baruch Goldstein was born and raised in the US, where
the Ku Klux Klans racist agenda also aims at ethnic purication.4
The Klan believes in the purity of the white race and advocates
that America should be exclusively reserved for white Christians.
Just like the Kach, the Klan would like to expel all non-white per-
sons including Jews from America. In pursuit of its ideology, the
Klan has done everything from micro aggressions of verbal assaults
to criminal acts of murder and lynching to intimidate and ter-
rorize its enemies, though African Americans have been the Klans
central target of hatred. In its historical context, the Klans sup-
pressive terror aimed to slow down the national movement that
demanded that civil rights and liberties be extended to African
Americans. In some Southern states, the Klan worked closely with
state ofcials to perpetrate its suppressive terror, although state
ofcials denied any such collusion and even claimed opposition to
Klan activities. In other states, even the population at large sym-
pathized with some goals of the Klan, such as legally-enforced seg-
regation, even when they disapproved the larger Klan thesis of
persecution and expulsion. However, the Klan began to lose its
4
Michael J. Whidden, Unequal Justice: Arabs in America and United States
Anti-Terrorism Legislation, 69 Fordham Law Review 2825 (2001) (The group was
allowed to raise funds in the US since the government was afraid that by deny-
ing access, it would stigmatize Jews and Israel).
inuence as the Civil Rights Movement matured and a fundamental

cultural shift towards some semblance of equality and fair play
began to be materialized in both law and fact.
Principal Suppressive Entities
In each major theater of violence, there exists a principal sup-

pressive entity, almost always a nation-state, which suppresses the
lawful demands of an aggrieved population. The principal sup-
pressive state is usually the one that effectuates occupation, alien
domination, apartheid, or general surveillance of an aggrieved pop-
ulation, and thus denies the right of self-determination. As a result,
it is also the main target of terrorist attacks. Israel with respect
to Palestinians, Russia with respect to Chechens, and India with
respect to Kashmiris are the principal suppressive entities. Soldiers,
lawmakers, courts, law enforcement agencies, prison ofcials, even
ordinary citizens of a principal suppressive state, are all seen as
parts of a huge suppressive infrastructure. Even journalists and
scholars defend abusive policies of the principal suppressive state.
They disseminate, defend, and intellectualize state terrorism as
indispensable violence that, in their view, has no moral equiva-
lency with the violence that militants perpetrate in the name of
an aggrieved population. Alan Dershowitz of Harvard Law School
and Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, for example, paint
Israel as the undeserved victim of the Palestinian terrorism. They
rarely blame Israel for its state terrorism that stirs the Muslim
worlds deepest anger.
For the Muslim world, the expulsion of the indigenous popula-
tion of Palestine carries the reality and perception of Israels injus-
tice and cruelty. The 1948 memories of forced exile have been
transmitted to succeeding generations of Palestinians. These mem-
ories include massive depopulation and destruction of over 500 vil-
lages, done primarily to discourage the ousted populations from
ever returning to their homes. Villages were entirely erased to oblit-
erate pathways, road signs, homes, orchards, olive trees, shops,
playgrounds, everything so that their expelled inhabitants could
no longer trace tangible images of their memories. Once these vil-
lages were emptied, the occupying armed forces adopted shoot to
kill policies to prevent the return of refugees. Shukri Salameh,
an Anglican Christian Palestinian, who practiced law in Jaffa until
104 Chapter 3
26 April 1948, reports in his eyewitness account how in April, a

clandestine radio was urging the population of Jaffa to escape with
their families before their houses were demolished. The broadcast
also reminded the inhabitants of the events of Deir Yassin, a vil-
lage destroyed on April 9, where over 100 Palestinians were sys-
tematically massacred and many bodies, including those of pregnant
women, were cast into the village well. According to another account,
fty-three orphaned children were dumped along the wall of the
old city. Such stories, which may or may not be fully accurate, con-
struct memories of expulsion and become folk narratives of oppres-
sion. Even though Muslims across the world sympathize with
Kashmiris and Chechens in their struggle for independence, their
heartfelt sympathies reside with the Palestinians who have been
uprooted from their villages and scattered in the region and the
world as permanent refugees and as a stateless population.
United States as Super Suppressive State

For a long time, Muslims have hated Israel the most. Now the US
is fast approaching that dubious distinction. For Muslim militants,
the US has earned the status of the super suppressive state. For
decades, the US foreign policy has been overly biased in favor of
anti-Muslim forces. The most vivid thorn in the heart of the Islamic
world has been the US support for the Jewish colonization of
Palestine. Muslims across the world believe that without US weapons
and US vetoes in the UN Security Council, Israel would be more
willing to lift its siege of the Palestinians. Several Islamic nations,
including Iran and Syria, which actively opposed Israeli policies in
the occupied territories and furnished support to Muslim militants,
are placed on the US domestic list of terrorist states. In contrast,
the US has supported friendly authoritarian governments in the
Muslim world, such as the ones in Egypt and Algeria, which bru-
tally suppressed dissidents, particularly Islamic political parties
that advocated both for Islamic law and free elections. This sup-
port for secular, non-democratic governments, despite the US rhetoric
for universal human rights and the rule of law, confuses ordinary
Muslims and convinces Muslim militants that the US is an impe-
rial force devoted to maximizing its national interests by all means
necessary. Oil politics adds further complexity to US policies spawn-
ing conspiracy theories under which turmoil in the Middle East is
seen as a deliberate plot to keep Arab populations engaged in
regional and domestic conicts so that Arab governments remain

vulnerable and in constant need of arms to defend themselves. Oil
for arms is a policy that Muslims resent deeply.
Osama bin Ladens speeches delivered over a period of last ten
years, the audience of which is primarily Muslims, paint Israeli
and American policies as the Zionist-Crusaders alliance. This
characterization is designed to identify Israelis and Americans, on
a continuous basis, with historically condemned movements dis-
paraged in literature, religious and secular, Western and non-
Western. The Zionist movement has lost its momentum and support
since its fundamental tenet of ethnic cleansing has come under
severe criticism, even among Jews themselves. Many Jewish and
Israeli groups nd it incompatible with their deepest faith that an
immigrant population may lawfully evict an indigenous population,
as it has been done in occupied Palestine. For the rest of the world,
particularly Muslims, Zionism is a new form of colonialism that
has dispossessed a native population in the name of residential
rights derived from interpretations of the Bible. The term cru-
saders carries even more historical baggage of faith-based cruelty,
undertaken by medieval Europeans, to defeat Muslims, slaughter
Jews, and conquer Jerusalem. Crusades have been thoroughly con-
demned in the European literature, and few Christians nd any
redeeming value in these unfortunate adventures of bloodletting.
Put together, the phrase Zionist-Crusaders alliance invokes the
images of colonialism, barbarism, predation, and moral vacuity. It
dehumanizes Israeli and American armed forces ghting in the
Islamic world. More importantly, the phrase dehumanizes sympa-
thizers of Israeli occupation and American foreign policy. These
sympathizers, whether they are journalists, contractors, or civil-
ians, are also perceived as Zionist-Crusaders and therefore legit-
imate targets of terrorist violence.
Before the September 11 attacks, US policies toward the Muslim
world were much more complex than as portrayed in militant cir-
cles. By no means were they all anti-Islamic or anti-Muslim. They
were not all anti-Islamic because millions of Muslim immigrants
from all over the world have been free to build mosques, study and
practice Islam, and even embrace new converts without fear or gov-
ernment scrutiny. In addition, they were not anti-Muslim because
the US has championed many Muslim causes throughout the world.
US support for Afghan ghters against the Soviet occupation, though
anchored in the dynamic of Cold War, nonetheless beneted a
Muslim nation. US support for Muslims in Bosnia against Serbian
106 Chapter 3
atrocities was even more authentic in law and morality. The Russian
mistreatment of Chechens has also been condemned in US politi-
cal and military establishments. US toleration of Pakistans nuclear
capability indicates that the US is not determined to weaken the
Muslim world at all costs and in all ways.
After September 11, however, US policies are perceived as being
more anti-Islamic. While the invasion of Afghanistan and disman-
tling of the Taliban regime was carried out swiftly to avenge the
September attacks, the reaction of the Muslim world was muted.
In contrast, the unnecessary war on Iraq, however, shocked the
Muslim world. When no weapons of mass destruction were found,
the Muslim world re-interpreted the war was as a lethal US pol-
icy to weaken the Middle East. US threats to invade Syria and
Iran further reinforce Muslim doubts that the US is hostile to the
Islamic world. While Muslims may still practice Islam in the US,
their freedom of religion has been curtailed. Mosques and Islamic
centers are under surveillance. Freedom of speech is also doubtful
since Muslim preachers in US mosques cannot freely express their
religious views about jihad. The US media and terrorism experts,
as explained in the Chapter on essentialist terrorism, has unleashed
a hostile propaganda war against Islam, arguing that Islam is
inherently violent and produces essentialist terrorists who are
addicted to violence. The growing perception that the US is both
anti-Islamic and anti-Muslim is no longer a gment of imagina-
tion. The US war on terror, also discussed in later Chapter, has
sown the seeds of a long conict in the years to come. Muslim mil-
itants seem to have earmarked the US as the super suppressive
entity hostile to both Islam and Muslims.
Coalition of Suppressive States

The September 11 attacks on the US furnished a golden opportu-
nity for suppressive states to act together and reinforce suppres-
sive infrastructures to clamp down on all liberation movements
regardless of merits of their struggle or the misery of aggrieved
populations. The emerging norm that nothing justies terrorism
received further impetus from international institutions including
the UN Security Council. The Security Council passed a resolution
on September 12, a day after the attacks, to call on the interna-
tional community to redouble their efforts to prevent and suppress
terrorist acts. It also issued a threat of accountability to those
responsible for aiding, supporting or harboring the perpetrators,

organizers, and sponsors of terrorist acts.5 This threat was not
aimed only at terror groups that committed the September 11
attacks. Its reach was broad and wide. It addressed the entire sup-
portive infrastructure of terrorism operating throughout the world.
Russia gladly voted for the resolution because its war against
Chechnya received new international legitimacy. Israel who has
been an unrelenting critic of the UN received the resolution with
open arms. Even China, whose Western regions have experienced
Muslim unrest, saw in the resolution an opportunity to suppress
Muslim militants and their call for independence in its North-
Western region of Xinjiang. It was a win-win day for suppressive
states on the Security Council.
But to the chagrin of Muslim militants, more suppression was
on the way. The US launched a global campaign to dismantle the
al Qaeda organization that was allegedly involved in the perpe-
tration of September attacks. The US attacked Afghanistan, home
of al Qaeda, and toppled the Taliban government that allegedly
sponsored terrorists. In pitched battles and aerial bombings, mili-
tants and innocent civilians alike were killed. Several hundred sus-
pected terrorists were arrested and sent to the Guantanamo prison
camp as enemy combatants, deprived of all rights and privileges
available under the Geneva Conventions. The top al Qaeda lead-
ership, however, has not yet been killed or captured.
Americas vigorous pursuit of al Qaeda and the military attack
on al Qaedas supportive state, Afghanistan, established two points.
First, suppressive states may hunt, attack, capture, and kill ter-
ror groups, including their political leadership, after massive attacks
that kill innocent civilians and damage substantial property. Legal
constraints that the suppressive state provide credible evidence for
its allegations were weakened, as most of the world, particularly
governments, accepted the US version of the story that blamed the
Taliban and the al Qaeda for September 11 attacks. Some private
groups, however, have challenged the US ofcial story and blamed
Israel and the Bush administration itself for engineering such
sophisticated assault. Conspiracy theories continue to emerge and
dispute the ofcial truth that the al Qaeda was primarily respon-
sible for September 11 attacks.
5
S/Res/1368 (2001).
108 Chapter 3
The US invasion of Afghanistan opened a new chapter in the

war on terror. This was the rst time in international legal his-
tory that the government of a sovereign state, accused of sponsor-
ing terrorism, was dismantled through the military means of a
suppressive state. By dismantling Afghanistans government, the
US enforced the September 12 Security Council resolution under
which those supporting and harboring terrorists were to be held
accountable. Governments worldwide seemed to support the inva-
sion of Afghanistan, and even the Muslim world was quiet, resigned,
and even willing to help the US in its efforts to punish the sup-
porters of al Qaeda. Pakistan is an example of a Muslim country
that threw itself behind the US. Pakistan had previously recog-
nized the Taliban government, but after September 11, Pakistan
abandoned its course. Under threats to its own survival, Pakistan
reversed its foreign policy and provided the US moral, political,
and logistical assistance in attacking Afghanistan, its Western
Muslim neighbor.
Status Criminality
Suppressive states employ status criminality to punish designated
supportive states as terrorist states. The US, for example, has
enacted laws under which US nationals may seek money damages
in US courts against foreign states if they suffer personal injury
or death caused by the foreign states ofcials, employees, or agents,
through criminal acts, such as torture and extrajudicial killing.
One essential requirement for the availability of this remedy is
that the US has designated the defendant state as a terrorist state.
In Alejahdre v. Cuba, the relief was granted to the plaintiffs because
the defendant state, Cuba, had been designated a terrorist state.
On similar facts, however, US nationals would have had no rem-
edy under the same laws if the foreign state, whose ofcials engaged
in torture or extrajudicial killing, had not been declared a terror-
ist state. Thus US nationals tortured by Iran and Syria, both des-
ignated as terrorist states, may lawfully seek money damages in
US Courts, but US nationals tortured by Israel and Russia, which
are not designated as terrorist states, would have no lawful claim
to similar damages.
Exaggeration of Terror Threats
It is both in the interest of militant groups and suppressive enti-

ties to exaggerate the threat of terror to peoples lives and proper-
ties, though the purpose of exaggeration for each contestant is
different. Terror groups exaggerate the threat of terror simply
because the purpose of the terror enterprise is to strike fear in the
hearts of suppressive entities as well as general public. Destruction
caused by terror attacks, despite its occasional ferocity, is almost
always a secondary terror consideration. The primary purpose of
terror is to create conditions of fear under which the imminence
of attack looms larger than the attack itself, and the nightmare of
possible destruction is far deadlier than actual damage. Since most
terror cells can plan and execute small-scale attacks, exaggeration
plays a central role in dramatizing the present and future effects
of terror threats. Big attacks, such as the September 11 destruc-
tion of New Yorks high-rise trade towers, are rare but when suc-
cessfully executed they deepen the fear among suppressive entities,
making future terror threats even more credible.
Brian Havel offers credible insights into how governments man-
ufacture public memory to inuence legal processes. Ruling elites
use public events such as September 11 to cultivate a new mem-
ory that redenes the past and that creates a new normative real-
ity expressed through laws. The September 11 attacks gave birth
to the redemptive ideology of state survival. The mythologized safety
of the past was transformed into mythologized vulnerability in the
future. The Bush Administration used the spectacular events of
September 11 as a new foundational moment in legal culture to
persuade the American public that a luxuriant republic founded on
individual liberties and freedoms must now be reconstructed into
a pragmatic nation that takes its survival seriously. The regime of
civil liberties at home and of human rights abroad was no longer
compatible with the mythologized need to protect the vulnerable
nation from unknowable dangers of terrorism. The adoption of the
Patriot Act, Havel points out, is a legal embodiment of the redemp-
tive ideology that the ruling elites permanently afxed to the ofcial
memory of September 11 attacks.6 Mitchell points out a similar
6
Brian Havel, In Search of a Theory of Public Memory: The State, the Individual,
and Marcel Proust, 80 Indiana Law Journal 605 (2005).
110 Chapter 3
phenomenon of fantasizing terrorism through the monumentaliza-

tion of September 11.7
Further complicating the phantom of terrorism is the employ-
ment of counterfactual analysis.8 The concept of what if begins
to dene a dreadful future that unknowable terrorism can bring to
destruct suppressive entities. Counterfactual analysis has been
used to gain insights into historical events, posing questions such
as: What if President Lincoln had dodged the bullet? Counterfactual
analysis also informs law and its analytical techniques, sharpen-
ing the theories of causation. In the realm of terrorism, however,
counterfactual analysis can lead to adopting policy choices that a
more factual analysis would not even begin to suggest. Hypothetical
facts are superb pedagogical tools but they are rarely reliable sources
to make or enforce laws. And the actual use of force based on coun-
terfactual analysis produces unnecessary violence.
The invasion of Iraq, for example, was justied on the basis of
counterfactual analysis. The Bush Administration invaded Iraq to
preempt the counterfactual possibility that Iraq might be develop-
ing the weapons of mass destruction. The evidence that Iraq was
building nuclear weapons was insufcient for factual analysis but
not for counterfactual analysis. The Bush Administration likewise
toppled the Taliban regime in Afghanistan on the counterfactual
assumption that a consortium of the Taliban and al Qaeda had
engineered the September 11 attacks, even though no factual evi-
dence was available to establish the hypothesis. The detention of
thousands of Arab and Muslims men living in the United States
was also carried out on the counterfactual basis that these men
might have possible links with terrorism. Legal choices derived
from counterfactual analysis may hit the jackpot. Often, though,
they lead to misdiagnosis of the problem and wrong prescription
for its resolution.
Counterfactual assumptions may also be made with respect to
the kind of weapons that might be used in terror attacks. For exam-
ple, the fear that terrorists might use the weapons of mass destruc-
tion, such as dirty bombs or anthrax, is real even though it is
unclear whether any terror group has indeed acquired the capa-
7
Mitchell, supra note 2.
8
James Kraska, Fear God and Dread Nought, 34 Georgia Journal of Inter-
national and Comparative Law 43 (2005) (Counterfactual analysis employs method-
ology constructed around ctional questions).
bility and mustered the resources to construct suitcase nuclear

devices or chemical weapons. Terror groups have no reason to deny
their capability or resources or willingness to use non-conventional
weapons. In fact, they have every reason to spread counterfactual
rumors about their technical prociency in constructing and obtain-
ing such weapons. Real or fantasized, the fact that terror groups
might possess and use the weapons of mass destruction, if gener-
ally believed, exaggerates the fear of terror. In this case, the pur-
pose of exaggeration is to obliterate the line drawn in the sand
between fact and fantasy so that fact supports fantasy and fantasy
deepens the dread.
Suppressive entities must develop sophisticated measurement of
intelligence to accurately decipher the reality and severity of ter-
ror threats. The task is difcult. If suppressive entities are unable
to detect the exaggerated elements of terror threats, they spend
huge resources in combating a fantasized version of terrorism,
resources that can be used for more productive public welfare causes.
On the other hand, if they dismiss terror threats as mere exag-
gerations and propaganda devices, they expose state institutions
and the general public to probable harm. It seems to be a no-win
situation because suppressive entities must either take terror
threats, real or exaggerated, on their face value and prepare cred-
ible defenses accordingly or leave open gaps of vulnerability. In
order to study terror groups and correctly analyze their rhetoric to
separate truth from falsehood, suppressive entities end up with
huge and sometime unaffordable intelligence budgets.
Sometimes, suppressive entities themselves have vested inte-
rests in exaggerating terror threats. Intelligence bodies and law-
enforcement agencies may exaggerate terror threats rst to legitimize
their existence and second to justify the receipt of more state funds.
The dramatic September 11 attacks, for example, has been an
occasion to increase the budget for homeland defense, directly
beneting federal instrumentalities that combat terrorism and its
consequences. Even if the likelihood of another attack of the
September 11 magnitude is minimal, the monies allocated to fund
the homeland defense infrastructure will continue only if the threat
of terror is both real and severe. Bureaucracies are known for per-
petuating themselves by all means necessary and counter-terror
bureaucracies would not be an exception. The US Department of
Homeland has already been accused of terrorizing the public by
periodically elevating the threat of probable attack. Such percep-
tions of exaggeration begin to gather legitimacy when no terror
112 Chapter 3
attack occurs despite repeated elevation of terror threats by sup-

pressive entities.
3.2 PAIN AND SUFFERING OF SUPPRESSIVE ENTITIES
No theory of terrorism may claim moral respectability that dis-

counts or justies the pain and suffering of suppressive entities.
The populations of suppressive states, which become the soft tar-
gets of militant terrorism, suffer much of the same agony that an
aggrieved population does due to state terrorism. In addition to liv-
ing under a constant threat of terror, the populations of suppres-
sive states suffer huge economic losses.9 Israels economy, for example,
has declined signicantly during the second intifada, the popular
Palestinian uprising in occupied territories of Gaza and West Bank.
Terrorism-related economic decline has been most apparent in the
tourism industry, causing a net loss of $2 billion per year, which
constitutes more than 2% of Israels GDP. The number of jobs avail-
able in the tourism industry dropped from 45,000 before the intifada
to around 1215,000 in 2003. The psychological impact of intifada
has also hit foreign investments hard, since foreign businesses are
unlikely to invest in a terror-infested country due to increased
uncertainty and cost of security. Higher costs of security not only
shut out foreign investors but they also introduce inefciencies in
domestic businesses as funds are shifted from key business needs
and promotions to providing security to the premises and employ-
ees against terror attacks. The cost of maintaining military defense
forces to combat terrorism also drains resources from other sectors
of the economy. The Israeli defense budget has been steadily increas-
ing thereby distorting the balance of economic forces. Some of these
distortions are compensated by reducing welfare and social secu-
rity benets. Israels international credit rating also went down,
making it difcult to borrow money at affordable rates and for longer
periods of maturity. Israels economy would have nosed down even
more sharply had the US failed to provide the needed funds to sus-
tain a more graduated decline.
9
Jason Mazzone, The Security Constitution, 53 University of California of
Los Angeles Law Review 29 (2005) (each time the terror alert in the US is raised
from yellow to orange, the enhanced security measures cost $1 billion per week).
Palestinian Bus Attacks

Since the second intifada erupted in September 2000, Israel has
suffered relentless bombing attacks by Palestinian militants. Israeli
buses, nightclubs, and shopping areas are often the chosen targets.
The intifadas rst bombing occurred in November 2000 when a
car bomb exploded in Jerusalems Yehuda market. In 2001, suicide
bombings replaced car bombings, and city buses became the favorite
targets. No city seems safe. Buses are blown up in Jerusalem, Haifa,
Tel Aviv, Beersheba. The suicide bombers are both Palestinian men
and women, complicating the equation of Israeli surveillance; for
now all Palestinians are potential terrorists. Two days before the
September 11 attacks on the US, history is made in Israel on
September 9 for the rst time as an Israeli-Arab carries out a sui-
cide bombing attack at a crowded railway station in Naharia. The
militancy is no longer conned to Palestinians locked out of Israel.
It spreads into the citizenry of the suppressive state. On the receiv-
ing end, the equation is similarly complex. The victims of suicide
bombings are Israelis, foreigners, Arabs, soldiers, civilians, men,
women, and children. Dictated by the logic of such bombings, the
number of the wounded almost always exceeds the number of the
dead. The stories of terror, told by survivors, deepen Israelis mis-
trust of Arabs in general and the Palestinians in particular.
Physical and Emotional Injuries

Though unique to each bus explosion, stories of shock and sorrow,
which militant terrorism causes, have nonetheless a sense of uni-
versality that transcends the unique realities of a suppressive state.
The explosion was so strong that I fell to the oor, a passenger
sitting behind the bus driver narrated. I looked back and quickly
got off the bus, then it burst into ames. We succeeded in getting
one soldier off the bus. Two minutes after that, more explosions
started . . . and we couldnt get on the bus because it was on re.
Some of the soldiers climbed out the windows and survived. A dri-
ver of the Egged bus company reported: I opened the doors, the
people asked me to, and I did it immediately. The rst blast was
on bus 6, and then about 15 seconds afterwards there was an explo-
sion on my bus. I didnt see anyone suspicious. It came just out of
the blue. The mayor of Ariel stated how passengers were help-
lessly trapped in a bulletproof civilian bus on re because its doors,
damaged in the explosion, could not be opened. It was terrible, a
114 Chapter 3
real massacre. A passenger recalls that he was sitting next to the

suicide bomber, who was young and had long hair, possibly a wig.
But I got up to give my seat to a woman. Im sure that it was (the
bomber). I saw his body, he was just parts, and beside him the body
of the woman I gave my spot to. Strung along eyewitness accounts
of suicide bombings are jokes that circulate to minimize the shared
pain. To cast a slur on driving skills of the Egged bus company,
whose buses are mostly attacked, the joke runs as follows. A rabbi
arrives in heaven. He notices that the Egged companys driver is
ahead of him in the queue. The rabbi complains loudly, why should
he go rst? Because when you speak, people sleep. When he dri-
ves, they pray. Hurt by jokes and explosions, Egged sued the
Palestinian Authority in an Israeli Court for damages and obtained
a default judgment of $10 million.
Truce and Terror Strategies

Suppressive states may face sophisticated aggrieved populations,
which pursue a complex strategy of truce and terror. Truce is made
to solicit concessions, facilitate negotiations, obtains international
respectability, or blunt and stop punitive counter-measures. Terror
is unleashed to put pressure on the suppressive entity to take nego-
tiations seriously and to meet demands of the aggrieved popula-
tion. It also serves as a reminder that the aggrieved population is
engaging in negotiations as an equal partner and cannot be forced
to give up its demands out of weakness. The simultaneity of truce
and terror is designed to reinforce the impression that not all groups
within the aggrieved population support terror, that some are more
reasonable than others, and that some favor negotiation over armed
struggle. This pairing of truce and terror mimics the dynamics of
hawks and doves within a state legislature or an executive cabinet.
The pairing of truce and terror may be a deliberate or collusive
strategy among diverse groups of the aggrieved population. However,
any collusive truce and terror strategy is bound to fail because it
underestimates intelligence of the suppressive entity to gure out
the plot. Suppressive entities spend huge resources to inltrate
political wings as well as terror groups of an aggrieved population
and can discover even the most tenuous collusive elements. The
Israelis refused to negotiate with Yasser Arafat, did everything to
weaken his power, bulldozed parts of his Ramallah headquarters,
virtually imprisoned him in remaining dysfunctional parts of the
building, severed him from the population he ruled, refused his

requests to travel abroad, and constantly threatened to kill him.
All this was done because the Israelis had reasons to believe that
Arafat was pursuing a deliberate policy of truce and terror. As the
Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, Arafat enjoyed formal pow-
ers to negotiate with Israeli governments. However, while Arafat
was engaged in negotiations, Al-Fatah and its progeny, the armed
wing of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), was con-
ducting terror attacks against Israeli soldiers, settlers in occupied
territories, and sometimes civilians inside Israel. Obvious connec-
tions between Arafat and PLOs armed wings weakened Arafats
legitimacy to be what Israelis called a serious peace partner. Even
the US under President Clinton, who was playing the role of a
mediator, abandoned Arafat and accused him as the reason for the
failure of peace negotiations.
A more effective truce and terror strategy is put in action when
diverse groups of the aggrieved population are in fact divided over
the methods to deal with the suppressive infrastructure. This occurs
when some groups are inclined to resolve the issues of self-deter-
mination through negotiation while others are engaged in armed
struggle. Again, examples can be found in the Israeli-Palestinian
conict. After Arafats death, the new political Palestinian leader-
ship under Abu Mazen declared a ceasere with Israeli and the
stalled peace process was presumably re-started. The ceasere pre-
sumptively, and informally, included militants that traditionally
ght with Israeli soldiers and settlers, though militant factions did
not ofcially sign the ceasere. A few days after the ceasere, how-
ever, a suicide bomber detonated himself outside a nightclub in Tel
Aviv, killed four Israelis and wounded about 50 people. None of the
known Palestinian terror groups claimed responsibility for the
attack. The Israelis accused the new political leadership for fail-
ing to stop terror. The Palestinian leadership accused outside ter-
ror groups, perhaps from Lebanon, maintaining the apparent
commitment to ceasere. Hezbolla, the well-known Lebanese ter-
rorist group, denied the charge. Terror experts exhumed historical
examples from the Arafat era to point out that the truce and ter-
ror strategy, under which all factions root for truce and none accept
responsibility for terror, is not new in this part of the world.
In the triangulation equation, the truce and terror strategy reveals
important stresses and triumphs. The fact that the suppressive
entity has agreed to a ceasere or to a peace process indicates that
war on terror has failed to subdue militants and that a negotiated
116 Chapter 3
solution is inevitable to resolves the issues. The truce part of the

strategy shows political and even military weaknesses of the sup-
pressive infrastructure. If truce is seen as a symptom of military
weakness, the militants are further emboldened to continue their
terror campaign. Politically, truce demonstrates that the suppres-
sive entity is under tremendous domestic and international pres-
sures to nd peaceful solutions to demands of the aggrieved
population. If supportive entities have been using pressure towards
a ceasere, they see the truce agreement as a triumph of their sup-
port for the aggrieved population if not for the militants.
By no means is truce a complete and exclusive victory only for
militants. Truce also benets suppressive entities. By agreeing to
ceasere or peace process, the suppressive entity comes across as
a reasonable international player that respects the rule of law and
has faith in pacic settlement of disputes, a norm now rmly
entrenched in the UN Charter, General Assembly resolutions, and
numerous regional and global treaties. A relentless war on terror
or against supportive entities brings little goodwill to the sup-
pressive state. If collateral damage is high, state terrorism begins
to lose all legitimacy at least in the eyes of the world. If casualties
are high, the suppressive government might lose domestic public
support, a signicant factor in genuine democracies. For all these
reasons, therefore, truce with militants helps suppressive govern-
ments in consolidating domestic power and international reputa-
tion. If the suppressive military has actually weakened in its will
and ability to ght militancy, truce brings a necessary timeout for
rebuilding resources and morale.
Showcasing Injuries for Propaganda Purposes

While the pain and suffering that populations of suppressive states
undergo are authentic, the terrorist damage is also used to dis-
credit the larger movement of an aggrieved population ghting
occupation, alien domination, apartheid, or hegemony. There is
nothing wrong in highlighting ones injuries to expose the perpe-
trators. However, injuries may also be showcased for propaganda
purposes or to win support for suppressive policies. The journey of
Bus No. 19 is a remarkable story of real suffering and its drama-
tization for discrediting the Palestinian liberation movement in
occupied territories.
On January 29, 2004, as the morning rush of commuters was

subsiding around 9 A.M., a suicide bomber exploded Bus No. 19 in
an upscale neighborhood near Gaza and Arlozorov streets in
Jerusalem. The blast killed 11 people, wounded 50, and twisted the
bus into mangled metal. The bomber was a Palestinian policeman.
An eyewitness, who was on her way to have a rare Chagall print
framed, heard the enormous blast. She saw the ames and the
smoke and heard the whimpering. She rushed to help but the scene
was horrendous. I couldnt look, she says. I realized that I didnt
have the stomach to help. The day was important for other rea-
sons as well. It was the day when Israel was releasing long-held
prisoners, a deal brokered over a period of three years. It was the
day when Americans were meeting Israelis and Palestinians to
negotiate the easing of Israeli travel restriction imposed on Gaza
and West Bank. But even the day earlier was no less tragic, for
that day the Israeli army raided a Muslim militant group in Gaza
and killed eight Palestinians, including at least three innocent
bystanders. Contextually, the suicide bombing highlighted the con-
troversy over the wall that Israel was building to separate the occu-
pied territories from the mainland.10
To dramatize the horrors of terrorism and to possibly inuence
the hearings at the International Court of Justice considering the
international legality of the separation wall, Bus No. 19s charred
skeleton was sent to the Hague. Christians for Israel International,
a Holland-based suppressive group, donated the funds to transport
the remains of the bus for display at the Peace Palace. Other sup-
pressive Jewish and Christian groups joined the display rally.
Suppressive Jewish students were own from Israel to Holland to
tell the stories of terror victims. Enlarged photos of carnage were
placed on hand-held posters to augment the story of Bus No. 19.
Suppressive Foreign Ministry Spokesman for Public Affairs Gideon
Meir briefed the Knessets subcommittee on foreign relations about
the plan to win the PR battle outside the Peace Palace. The aim
of this publicity offensive, Meir told the committee, is to make the
Palestinians regret the day they ever sent the matter to the court. 11
10
Hene Prusher, Bus No. 19, and hope, blasted in Jerusalem, Christian Science
Monitor (January 30, 2004).
11
David Parsons, Israeli PR more assertive as Hague hearing looms (ICEJ
News, February 19, 2004).
118 Chapter 3
Thereafter, Bus No. 19s wrecked remains acquired a celebrity

status. An American suppressive organization, called the Jerusalem
Connection International, which believes that God gave Israel exclu-
sively to Jews, purchased the remains of the bus and brought them
to the US to raise the consciousness of Americans about Palestinian
atrocities committed against Israel. Sitting on the back of a atbed
trailer, Bus No. 19 made stops across America including Washington
D.C., North Carolina, Texas, Florida, California to furnish visual
effects of terrorism. A Berkley anti-terrorism rally featuring the
bus turned briey violent when a pro-Palestinian crowd showed up
to neutralize effects of the bus. Two, four, six, eight, we are mar-
tyrs, we cant wait, chanted the protest group, many wearing
kafyehs the male head-cover closely associated with Palestinian
militants. An Arab man, who had come with his wife and four chil-
dren to the counter-protest rally, said: They (Israelis) stole our
land, raped our women, destroyed our olive trees and destroyed
our homes. Other counter-protestors carried signs with faces of
slain Palestinian children.12
3.3 DEHUMANIZATION OF AGGRIEVED POPULATIONS
Each era invents its own language of dehumanization. And in each

era, dissenting voices are raised to criticize and condemn the lan-
guage of dehumanization. But the success of the dehumanization
language depends on its broad public approval, for the very pur-
pose of such a language is to provide a moral coping mechanism
to the public at large, on whose behalf violence is often justied,
if not perpetrated. In our times, the process of dehumanization has
become more sophisticated and more covert. The language used to
denigrate the victims of violence is constrained in public; often, it
is hidden in new metaphors; and sometimes it is condential. These
overt constraints on the rhetoric of dehumanization underscore
some gains in the evolution of human civilization. Open contempt
for racial, ethnic, religious, and national groups is no longer accept-
able, particularly when expressed by state ofcials. Despite these
12
Patrick Hoge, Violence ares briey at anti-terrorism event, San Francisco
Chronicle (January 17, 2005).
constraints, the process of dehumanization is live and well, for as

long as there is resort to force, some form of accompanying de-
humanization would continue to exist.
Human beings carry deep inclinations to defend and justify the
harm they inict. They need an intellectual cover to hide their
atrocities. Dehumanization and sub-humanization are tested meth-
ods to create moral excuses to inict pain. This strategy of dehu-
manization, an old warfare technique practiced in many parts of
the world, is primarily aimed at creating a politically and morally
acceptable climate to punish militants with minimal popular dis-
approval. In fact, dehumanization is part of psychological warfare
designed to convert the humanity of the enemy into worthless thing
because things have far less value than human beings and worth-
less things have no value. This process of conversion from valuable
humanity into worthless nothingness facilitates destruction, by
extinguishing moral anguish that one might experience at exter-
minating human beings.13 While dehumanization can occur in inter-
personal cases in which one person wishes to punish another, its
most horrendous use occurs when a suppressive entity aims at
destroying an entire group, community, or nation. This mass dehu-
manization is targeted at racial, national, cultural, and religious
groups.
Denial of Individuality
A profound trait of suppressive dehumanization is the denial of
individuality. Dehumanization paints an entire population with a
single brush in one color. It begins with denying individual dignity
and uniqueness of the person and treating the aggrieved popula-
tion as one big mass with no internal human distinctions. Before
the genocide in Cambodia, the target population was driven out of
their homes and brought into a vast open ground. This forced sev-
ering of each person from his or her unique familial and individ-
ual identity was the rst step towards dehumanized homogenization.
The persons so brought into the open space were treated as fun-
gible individuals, doing the most ordinary chores of survival imposed
by the suppressive army. Each person was substitutable by another.
A similar homogenization occurred at the Nazi concentration camps,
13
Ashley Montagu & Floyd Matson, The Human Connection (1979).
120 Chapter 3
where individuals, men and women, with their shaved heads and
starved human bodies, looked alike. The suppressive infrastruc-
ture reduced all inmates to identical objects so that torture and
cruelty would have to make no distinctions.
Intellectualization of Dehumanization
The process of dehumanization is not the work of the cruel few. It
is an intellectual enterprise that attracts brilliant minds. Blind to
their times, men and women with good intentions and noble thoughts
end up denying others the essential characteristics of humanity.
For example, the European colonists sincerely believed that indige-
nous populations of the Americas were savages far removed from
the qualities of human civilization. Sepulveda announces that the
Spanish have a perfect right to subjugate the barbarians of the
New World for there exists between the two as great a difference
as between apes and men.14 A French writer narrates the physical
description of the inhabitants of the New World, alleging that their
genitals are small, they have no activity of mind, and their heart
is frozen, their society cold, and their empire cruel.15
Even the American Declaration of Independence, written by
Thomas Jefferson, a man of letters and conscience, paints indige-
nous populations as the merciless Indian Savages, whose known
rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes
and conditions. George Washington wrote that Indians were
wolves and beasts who deserved nothing from the whites but total
ruin.16 Reecting the persistent ethos of its times, the US Supreme
Court later joined the enterprise of dehumanization, stating that
the Indians were erce savages . . . whose subsistence was drawn
chiey from the forest. To leave them in possession of their coun-
try was to leave the country a wilderness.17 Even noted scholars,
known for their ethics and morality, could not escape the prejudice
of dehumanization. Oliver Wendell Holmes, an American jurist of
great profundity and poetic temper, described native people as a
14
Juan Gines de Sepulvda, The Second Democrats (1547).
15
Georges-Louis Leclerc & Comte de Buffon, Histoire Naturelle, Gnrale et
Particulire (174989).
16
David Stannard, The American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World,
at 241.
17
Johnson v. McIntosh, 21 US 543, 573, 587, 590. Even the institution of slav-
ery was justied by denigrating slaves to a non-human or sub-human species.
sketch in red crayons of a rudimental manhood, defending why

the white man is inclined to hate the Indian and to hunt him
down like the wild beasts of the forest, and so the red-crayon sketch
is rubbed out, and the canvas is ready for a picture of manhood a
little more like Gods own image.18
In our own times, dehumanization is embodied in dubious psy-
choanalytical theses. Rex Hudson, in a report prepared for the
Library of Congress, cites several studies to map terrorists men-
tal congurations. Even though the study focuses on militants, its
ndings appear to be applicable to perpetrators of state terrorism.
One mental need that impresses upon terrorists is the rational-
ization of violence moral disengagement that terrorists use to
insulate themselves from the human consequences of their actions.
In this process of moral disengagement, terrorists see suppressive
entities as evil, lacking the virtues of humanity. Others label,
such as pigs, indels, may also be used to dehumanize suppressive
state ofcials and others who cooperate with them. By contrast,
they see themselves as members of a heroic community of gener-
ous people ghting for a just cause. Most researchers agree that
terrorists often see themselves as soldiers, liberators, martyrs, free-
dom ghters, and revolutionaries. This need for renaming and char-
acterization of the struggle between good and evil, oppressed and
oppressor, allows terrorists to see violence as a morally mandated
weapon to blunt the will of a subhuman suppressive infrastructure.19
Violence as an Attribute of the Dehumanized Group

One persistent feature of dehumanization is the element of vio-
lence associated with dehumanized groups. It was customary for
European colonists to describe indigenous populations of the New
World as violent beasts. The metaphor carries the elements of
dehumanization and violence. Drawing a parallel between Negro
slaves and Indian tribes, Josiah Nott writes that both races are
inherently intellectually inferior and cannot be civilized. Whereas
Negro slaves are willing to wear the yoke of submission, Indian
tribes cannot be tamed. Therefore, the solution is their exter-
18
David Stannard, The American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World.
Oxford University Press, 1992.
19
Rex A. Hudson, The Sociology and Psychology of Terrorism, Library of Congress.
122 Chapter 3
mination.20 But the violence associated with the target group is

base, treacherous, unmanly, and ignoble. Mark Twain describes the
Red Man (the Indian) as one whose heart is a cesspool of false-
hood, of treachery, and of low and devilish instincts. Calling him
the scum of the Earth, Twain denes the violence of American
Indians in the following words: All history and honest observation
will show that the Red Man is a skulking coward and a windy brag-
gart, who strikes without warning usually from an ambush or
under cover of night.21
If the Arab represents the quintessential Muslim, Hollywood
movies have successfully portrayed Arabs/Muslims as brute mur-
derers, sleazy rapists, religious fanatics, oil-rich dimwits, and abusers
of women. Jack Shaheen, a professor of mass communications, has
studied more than 900 lms, released between 1896 and 2001, to
document Arab stereotypes that have rmly occupied American
movie plots over more than a hundred years. The distortions of the
Arabs, their culture and religion have become even more grotesque
as the Arab-Israeli conict matured in years. Some Jewish pro-
ducers have actively participated in the making of these grotesque
images of Arabs, ignoring the fact that Jews themselves have been
targets of Hollywoods stereotyping crusades of 1930s. Menachem
Golan and Yoram Globus, for example, have produced more than
26 movies, including Hell Squad (1985), Killing Streets (1985), and
Delta Force (1986) to vilify Arabs and portray them as heartless
terrorists who understand no logic but that of brute force. In Hell
Squad, Las Vegas girls terminate Palestinian terrorists who have
kidnapped an American ambassador son. The Palestinian terror-
ist group demands that the ambassador provide the secret formula
to make the ultra-neutron bomb or by Allah, your son will be
returned to you, organ by organ. In Killing Streets, Americans kill
dozens of Palestinians belonging to a terrorist group called the
Guardians of the oppressed. In Delta Force, an elite US military
unit destroys Palestinian hijackers. The lm is mostly shot in Israel
and the F-16s used in the aerial dogght were provided by the
Israeli armed forces, though the movie documents no such credit.
Ra Bukaee, Israels award-winning lmmaker, said, I hate lms
like Delta Force [They] dont show [Arabs as] human beings.22
20
Josiah Nott, Types of Mankind (1854).
21
Mark Twain, The Noble Red Man (1870).
22
Jack G. Shaheen, Reel Bad Arabs (Olive Branch Press, 2001).
In 2000, a year before the catastrophic attack on the World Trade

Center and the Pentagon, Rules of Engagement, an anti-Arab thriller
written by former Secretary of Navy James Webb, was released
one among many movies produced in cooperation with the US
Department of Defense and the US Marine Corps. The plot involves
a 30-year veteran Marine colonel who orders to shoot into the crowd
surrounding the US embassy in Yemen. The crowd consists of veiled
Muslim women, bearded men with missing teeth, children throw-
ing rocks, and snipers on rooftops. When three marines are shot
and killed in the embassy compound, the colonel orders his men
to open re and Yes. Waste the mother-fuckers! 83 dead men,
women, and children ll the screen. At the bidding of an outraged
world, the colonel is tried before a military tribunal. A fellow marine-
lawyer who goes to Yemen to collect the evidence defends the colonel.
An audiotape, a la Osama bin Laden, offered in the colonels defense
contextualizes the mobs motive in following words: [This is a] dec-
laration of Islamic jihad against the US . . . We call on every Muslim
who believes in God . . . to kill Americans and their allies, both civil-
ian and military. It is the duty of every Muslim, everywhere . . .23
The colonel is acquitted in the movie in line with sentiments of the
moviegoers who stand up and cheer when marines kill Muslim pro-
testers by the dozens. In its subliminal message, the movie nor-
malizes the killing of Muslim men, women, and children.
Muslims as a Violent People

Walter Laqueur, an accomplished scholar who offers valuable insights
into the terrorist phenomenon, writes from a unique Jewish per-
spective rooted in experiences of refugees who ed Germany. His
work on Jewish history and holocaust is superb but his analysis of
Islamic militancy suffers from the same bias that infests volumes
of literature on terrorism. Laqueur, a suppressive intellectual, who
wishes to protect his beloved state, Israel, uses two techniques,
both diversionary, to minimize Israeli atrocities against the
Palestinians. First, he throws everything in the sink to hide the
lth that chokes the pipe. His book No End to Terrorism (2003),
for example, expands the denition of terrorism to such an extent
that it includes everything from the Fenians and the Russian
23
Id.
124 Chapter 3
revolutionaries to terrorists in the Indian state of Tripura. This

deliberate stretching of the terrorism canvas is designed to demon-
strate that for some bizarre and perhaps conspiratorial reasons,
the international media overly highlights the Arab-Israeli conict.
In our age the Palestinians received far more publicity than other
nationalist terrorist movements, even though the number of vic-
tims in other terrorist campaigns (Algeria, Colombia, Sri Lanka,
Central Asia, India, etc.) was much higher. If there were no such
curious imbalance, claims Laqueur, the people would not pay
much attention to problems in the Middle East. This suppressive
argument, which has been made by many other analysts, though
not frivolous, contributes little to the understanding of terrorism.
It seeks diversion and demands lesser exposure of a certain the-
atre of terrorism. Analytically, the argument misses the logic in
that any focus by denition is an exercise in selectivity, whether
the focus is on the atrocities of a suppressive state, on the misery
of an aggrieved population, or on the injury that terrorists cause.
Laqueurs second analytical technique diverts the core blame
from Israel to Muslims in general. Laqueur attacks all Muslims,
not just militants, in a comprehensive manner, depicting them as
a thoroughly violent people. Here are some of the statements he
makes: A review of wars, civil wars, and other contemporary conict
shows indeed a great incidence of violence and aggression in Muslim
societies than in most others. Muslims have a hard time living
as minorities in Non-Muslim countries . . . Muslims nd it equally
difcult to give a fair deal to minorities. For the Muslim world
at large, Israel is a symbol and a catalyst of their rage rather than
the cause. These statements are designed to show that Muslims
are inherently violent and that Islam is a religion of conict and
aggression. Laqueur goes further to paint Muslim militants as incor-
rigible demons who would not stop violence even if Israel ends occu-
pation of Gaza and West Bank. The radical Islamists have a bigger
sh to fry; they aim at the punishment and if possible destruction
of America and Western civilization. Israel is a small Satan com-
pared with the various big Satans on their political horizon. And
as always, such authors speculate the reasons for which Muslim
militants are so willing to die. Laqueur ridicules the Quran and
those who die in jihad in the following words: The martyrs will
recline on thrones and eat and drink meat and fruit with happi-
ness. Some seventy thousand servants will wait on the martyrs
and seventy black-eyed women, all of them fair virgins, young and
full-breasted with wide lovely eyes, will be at their call. This
description, partly taken from the Quran, is constructed to show

that young men from Gaza and Jenin might be dying more for sex-
ual gratication in the life hereafter, than for ending occupation.24
Laqueur argues that Islamic terrorism is destined to burn out
with time. Most fanatical movements, he observes, fade with time
for it is hard to maintain the intensity through inter-generational
changes. But before Islamic fundamentalism fades, Laqueur fears,
massive terrorist attacks involving the use of weapons of mass
destruction might occur. By and large, therefore, the predictions
about the impending demise of Islamism have been premature,
while no doubt correct in the long run. Nor do we know what will
follow.25 If Laqueurs observation is correct, suppressive states can
just wait out terrorist attacks but hang on to their territorial or
other gains. In the Middle East, for example, Laqueurs reasoning
would encourage Israel to hang on to occupied territories and set-
tlements and wait for a time when the Palestinian resolve to ght
has run its course. However, as Laqueur suggests, the waiting
period might be too deadly to count on it. Furthermore, history also
shows that unjust political and economic structures, such as
apartheid and slavery, have been unable to perpetuate themselves
even when armed resistance against them has been broken. Thus,
the waiting period is rarely benecial to suppressive states. A lin-
gering injustice only increases the chances of massive carnage.
Moral Injuries of Wrongdoing

Much has been written, including in this book, about the misery
of Palestinians, Kashmiris, and Chechens, and in fact of all the
people who live under oppression, occupation, apartheid, and per-
sisting persecution. However, what remains unexamined is the
moral misery of the wrongdoer. A study of this unique form of mis-
ery is important to understand the helplessness, neurosis, and self-
degradation of individuals, groups, governments, communities, even
entire nations that are trapped in the vicious cycle of wrong-doing,
not as victims of wrongdoing but as its perpetrators, sympathiz-
ers, legislators, and theoreticians. The moral cost of wrong-doing
is often hidden in the benets accruing to the wrong-doer, such as
24
Walter Laqueur, No End to Terrorism (Continuum Publishing Group, 2003).
25
Walter Laqueur, The Terrorism to Come, Policy Review (Hoover Institution,
AugustSeptember 2004).
126 Chapter 3
acquisition of territory, control over natural resources, more say in

decision-making, or other benets that wrongdoing may bring.
Morally underdeveloped nations may derive sadistic pleasure in
wrongdoing and nd pride, feelings of superiority, self-esteem, etc.
in acts such as occupation, invasion, conquest, or control.
The occupation of Palestinian villages, towns and cities, for exam-
ple, furnishes many benets to the Israeli government and its cit-
izens. The Israeli government can appropriate the occupied land
with or without compensation. It can demolish houses and clear
the land for building new settlements for its own citizens. The occu-
pation also renders more control over agricultural and water
resources, and the government can shift these resources for the
exclusive or predominant benet of its own people. And since
Palestinians are mostly dependent on a strangulated occupation
economy, Israel gets cheap labor that contributes directly to its cit-
izens higher standard of living. In addition to these material benets,
Israeli citizens might enjoy a sense of pride and feelings of supe-
riority since the Arabs, despite their individual and joint efforts,
have failed over the decades to undo the occupation either through
war or peaceful means. One can similarly identify material benets
that Russia receives by controlling Chechnya or India obtains by
using force to hold on to the disputed territory of Kashmir. These
tangible gains obtained through oppression leave indelible marks
of guilt, shame, and self-hatred on the wrongdoer.
The cost of wrongdoing was most obvious to Socrates who roamed
around the grimy streets of ancient Athens, advocating a life of
virtue for the simple but not-so-obvious reason that wrongdoing
harms the doer. Socrates argument, captured by Plato in Gorgias,
is not moralistic in the sense that wrongdoing ought to be shunned
because it inicts harm on others. Nor is it altruistic in the sense
that one should sacrice benets that ow from a wrongdoing.
Rather the argument is anchored in enlightened self-interest in
that one should avoid wrongdoing for self-protection. The argument
acknowledges the harm suffered by the victims of wrongdoing. It
further asserts, however, that wrongdoing is a losing game for the
wrongdoers as well. Even if the benets of wrongdoing are appar-
ent and tangible, they conceal the moral harm that wrongdoers
inict on themselves. Nations or systems built on wrongdoing are
eventually undone.
PART II:
ONTOLOGY OF TERRORISM
Chapter 4
Value Imperialism
You use women to serve passengers, visitors, and strangers to

increase your prot margins.
You then rant that you support the liberation of women.
Osama bin Laden
We respect people of all faiths and welcome the free practice
of religion; our enemy wants to dictate how to think and how
to worship even to their fellow Muslims.
George W. Bush
Value imperialism is the imposition of ones values on other com-

munities. These values can be social, political, economic, or religious.
Two distinct versions of value imperialism inuence international
terrorism involving Muslim militants. One version, which may be
called holy imperialism, asserts that Muslims wish to impose Islamic
values on the rest of the world, particularly the West. The other
version, which may be called secular imperialism, contends that
the West, under the American leadership, is determined to under-
mine Islam by forcibly secularizing the Muslim world. Both ver-
sions assert that the West and the Muslim World are on a collision
course. The clash is imperial in nature and purpose since each side
is allegedly striving to dominate the other.1 Islams holy imperialism
1
Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations (Simon & Schuster, 1997)
130 Chapter 4
supposedly challenges Western freedoms and liberties derived from

secularism, individualism, consumerism, and futurism. Secular
imperialism supposedly supports Muslim communities right to
internal self-determination provided they do not establish Islamic
state. But secular imperialism is determined to prevent Muslim
nations from regressing into what it considers to be non-progressive
and inherently intolerant Islamic orthodoxy that subjugates women
and persecutes religious minorities.
Violence and envy are dominant components of value imperial-
ism. Muslims employ terrorism, it is argued, to denigrate and mod-
ify Western values.2 The West uses its superior military power to
compel Muslim communities to adopt secular values. Envy com-
pounds violence. Backward Muslim communities are allegedly envi-
ous of developed Western nations; and Muslim militants express
this shared envy through violence. It is also contended that the
West is envious of natural resources, such as oil, which the Muslim
world has in abundance. Envy contributes to violence, as each side
resents the resources the other has. If the West uses invasions and
occupations to assure the availability of resources, Muslims employ
terrorism to wound Western economies. Muslim militants and
Muslim states such as Iran are accused of covertly acquiring weapons
of mass destruction. It appears to be a preferred policy of secular
imperialism to deny Muslim nations any acquisition of nuclear, bio-
logical, or chemical weapons, although secular democracies them-
selves have monopolized these weapons.
Value imperialism as the primary explanation of terrorism, how-
ever, fails to appreciate the phenomenon of terrorism. Part I has
examined concrete grievances as the source of triangular terror-
ism. Occupation, invasion, the denial of self-determination, and
gross human rights abuses constitute the phenomenon of terror-
ism, which impels aggrieved populations and suppressive entities
to use violence against each other. The conict in Iraq, for exam-
ple, is imperial to the extent that America has unjustiably occu-
pied a weaker nation. This conict, however, does not arise from a
clash of civilizations, nor does it embody the uncontrollable will of
(The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values but rather
by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this
fact non-Westerners never do.)
2
Kenneth Lasson, Incitement in the Mosques: Testing the Limits of Free
Speech and Religious Liberty, 27 Whittier Law Review 3 (2005) (the author mis-
takenly believes that Muslims are obligated to gain power over other nations).
Value Imperialism 131
Muslim militants to engage in jihad. Iraqi insurgents ghting the

US occupation are Muslims and some use the concept of jihad to
explain their insurgency. Yet, their resistance has little to do with
Islam. Likewise, American armed forces are supposedly ghting to
democratize Iraq and the war is wrapped in the cause of freedom.
Yet, the invasion has little to do with democratization. Both inva-
sion and resistance may be condemned in grandiose terms, such
as secular imperialism or holy imperialism. The fact remains that
Iraqi war is a ght over resources, geopolitical interests, and the
right to self-determination. The war also reveals the powerlessness
of the international legal system to restrain a superpower from
invading another nation.
Contributory Role of Value Imperialism
Grandiose explanations obfuscate the obvious. They serve as diver-

sionary strategies to minimize the signicance of blatant wrongs.
A Theory of International Terrorism, as a pragmatic theory grounded
in reality, discards exclusivist ontological explanations of violence.
It does not deny, however, that cultural differences between Muslim
and Western societies are real. These differences undoubtedly com-
pound, as well as confuse, the dynamics of violence. Reasonable
analysts and policymakers may be distracted into believing that
real roots of terrorism lie in diverse cultural visions and practices.
Cultural misunderstandings deepen international conicts, but they
are rarely the original cause of violence. In the Middle East, vio-
lence does not sprout from any ontological conict between Islam
and Judaism. Muslims and Jews have lived peacefully for centuries
in many parts of the world, sharing and building common civi-
lizations. The Middle Eastern violence erupts from the clash of ter-
ritorial interests between the immigrant and native populations of
Palestine. Grandiose theories of the Middle East violence may be
spun to blame Islamic fundamentalism, anti-Semitism, Arab bar-
barism, or, for that matter, Jewish domination of the world, or
European-Jewish colonialism. The fact remains however that the
Palestinians are ghting for their homes, farms, families, olive
trees, and children; and the Jews in Israel, having been persecuted
for centuries, are ghting to deepen the roots of their newly founded
nation-state in the heart of a hostile Middle East. This clash of
interests produces violence. A major part of the clash is tied to the
132 Chapter 4
concept of the nation-state, as each population, Jews and Palestinians,

is aspiring to construct a separate but sovereign nation-state. Each
state poses a real and potential threat to the other, and is so per-
ceived. Most important, the Middle Eastern violence persists and
frequently escalates because international institutions have failed
to nd a durable solution.
Placing concrete grievances at its center, A Theory of International
Terrorism nonetheless examines the dynamics of value imperial-
ism to assess their contributory role in deepening the tensions
between the West and the Muslim world. Suppressive governments
invoke the language of holy imperialism to explain and condemn
militant violence. They argue that Muslim militants are ghting
to impose Islam on the rest of the world. A counter-claim of value
imperialism is also asserted. Muslim militants ghting in various
parts of the world allege that suppressive entities are determined
to undermine the purity of Islam and subjugate Muslims as an
imperial strategy. In the rhetoric of this epic battle, each side
strongly believes in the universality of its own values. The West
proposes to forcibly democratize the Muslim world because free
nations do not breed the ideologies of murder. Muslim militants
invite suppressive states to embrace Islam, the faith of peace and
submission to One God. Value imperialism thus compounds the vio-
lent logic of concrete grievances.
If value imperialism is indeed a contributory cause of violence,
the following discussion would provide guidelines in constructing
a more healthy competition between the two great civilizations, the
Western and Islamic, which have signicantly dened, determined,
and enriched human history in the past, and would continue to do
so in the foreseeable future. Peaceful competition among diverse
value systems of the world is benecial for the entire human race,
as each system learns from the other. What is objectionable is not
the clash per se, but the means by which the clash is conducted.
Honest and vigorous debate over clashing values is a medium of
learning. But when violence is used to impose or defeat values, the
clash threatens international peace and security. It is this pathol-
ogy of the clash that needs to be cured. Otherwise, value competi-
tion between Western and Muslim civilizations need not be eliminated
or even minimized. Each civilization ought to be free to promote
its values for universal acceptance.
4.1 ATTRIBUTES OF VALUE IMPERIALISM
Value imperialism emerges from a sense of superiority and self-

righteousness. Throughout history, distinct racial, religious, national,
and social groups have believed that they are superior to the rest
of the world in their intellect, piety, morality, or intelligence. While
a moderate sense of pride is perhaps healthy for a nations sur-
vival and development, excessive pride leads to aggressive behav-
ior and disrespect for others. Value imperialists wish to universalize
their values. Any challenge to the imperialists own values, however,
is taken as an attack worth avenging. Furthermore, imperial enti-
ties believe that their values ought to be universalized by any
means necessary. This missionary zeal to manufacture the world
in ones own normative framework is value imperialism. Its jus-
tication may be constructed from the need to maximize national
interests to more benevolent explanations of saving or beneting
other peoples. While voluntary cross-cultural inuences are nat-
ural and mutually benecial, value imperialism is often overbear-
ing and aggressive. While voluntary imitation of others is an ancient,
if not an inherent, human trait, forced imitation is value imperialism.
Value imperialism may be distinguished from ideological impe-
rialism, though they share numerous common elements. An ideol-
ogy such as communism is indeed a set of values, carefully distilled,
packaged, and exported. So is value imperialism. Often, there exists
no difference between these two forms of imperialism. However,
value imperialism may be less ambitious in its scope and mission.
Instead of imposing the entire ideological package, value imperi-
alism may choose to export part of the package. Value imperialism
may also custom-design the package by varying its contents to suit
target communities. Value imperialism is often a more sophisti-
cated form of ideological imperialism. It is exported for both overt
and covert purposes. In many cases, the exporters strategic goals
are to maximize its sphere of inuence, create goodwill, expand
investment markets, sell surplus products or labor, draw material
benets, or nd military outlets.
Collaborative agents
Value imperialism often uses indigenous resources to prevail. Where-
as colonial imperialism was effectuated through actual control of
134 Chapter 4
target territories, value imperialism is imposed through collabora-

tive agents in target communities. Direct control of target com-
munities is rarely required to impose value imperialism. Soviet
communist ideology was disseminated throughout the world by
means of collaborative local leaders, students, scholars, and activists.
Successful communist revolutions engineered by means of local
assets, however, expanded the Soviet inuence. The US is experi-
menting similar logistics to expand its value imperialism designed
to entrench American domination. It is recruiting local leaders,
journalists, scholars, and military professionals to promote American
values of individual liberties, consumerism, secularism, democracy,
and free markets. A Muslim head of the state vouching for American
values serves as a collaborative agent, eliminating the need of any
direct American action. Indirect control of foreign nations is also
known as hegemony. Hegemonic dissemination of value imperial-
ism is thus subtle, strategic, outwardly benign, less paternalistic,
and perhaps more effective. Ironically, though, even subtle forms
of imperialism may generate violent reaction.
Value Imperialism Distinguished from Reception of Values

If the world is willing to accept the American model of free mar-
ket capitalism or the Islamic conception of One God, there is noth-
ing wrong even with value imperialism, since in that case value
imperialism is simply a pejorative name for a more positive con-
cept called the reception of values, which is, borrowing values from
other legal and cultural systems. All too often, values rst emerge
from specic civilizations and later become universal when nations
and communities across the world accept them. Islam itself arose
from a small town in the Arab desert and soon became a global
idea, not riding on the sword, as it is falsely alleged, but by its
inherent appeal for living a more fullling life. And yet billions of
people do not accept Islam as their religion. Likewise, the idea of
free market as opposed to state-controlled economy has prevailed
in many parts of the world not because the US possess superior
arms but because free markets are relatively, though not completely,
more successful in creating plentiful and reliable supply of goods
and services. The critics of the free market, however, disapprove
its dynamics of distributive justice. Over the centuries, human com-
munities have freely borrowed from each other and continue to do
so. Reception of foreign values should not be confused with value
imperialism. Reception is a voluntary exchange of values. Value

imperialism is coercive and imposes values on communities against
their free will.
Imperial Values Distinguished from Suppressive Values

Imperial values may be distinguished from suppressive values. As
discussed in Chapter 3, suppressive entities deny the legitimate
demands of aggrieved populations, such as the right of self-deter-
mination. They may also advocate overly harsh treatment of Muslim
militants so that aggrieved populations would effectively lose their
demands for political liberty or territorial secession. Suppressive
entities, however, may or may not assert that a deep imperial
conict drives the dynamics of violence. By contrast, value impe-
rialism offers an ontological explanation of violence. It asserts that
Muslims are opposed to the Western civilization, that even if legit-
imate demands of aggrieved populations are met, Muslim militants
would continue to perpetrate terror because their goals are inspired
by an expansionist, imperial vision of Islam, and that they wish to
impose Islam on liberal societies. Likewise, Muslims see Western
domination, invasions and occupations as the means to undermine
Islam and impose liberalism on Muslim communities. Ironically,
both sides articulate each others imperialism in the following words:
They hate us not what we do but who we are. The response from
each side may also be the same: We do not hate you, but we ght
you when you commit aggression against us.
Value Imperialism Generates Violence
The most objectionable form of value imperialism occurs when val-

ues are imposed upon a community through economic sanctions,
diplomatic pressure, or violence. Take, for example, the denigra-
tion of prophets and holy books, which is protected under the laws
of the United States. If the US were to dictate Muslim nations to
show a similar secular tolerance when the Prophet or the Quran
are desecrated, such a demand would be value imperialism.
Pornography raises a similar issue. Sex magazines freely available
in the US are often banned in Muslim nations. The US may demand
that the ban be lifted to maximize individual liberty. Many Muslims
136 Chapter 4
would consider any such demand as an attack on Islam that teaches

a conservative sexual morality. They would not think any differ-
ently even if it were shown that some individuals or segments
within a Muslim community prefer to have vigorous freedom of
speech. Though the protection of individual preferences is a cred-
ible liberal goal, any such move would be considered value impe-
rialism. Even if a weak or Americanized Muslim government were
coerced into repealing blasphemy laws, the Muslim community at
large would resent the US imposed secularism.3 The militants might
choose violence to express their anger, particularly if no legal means
are available to register dissent. This form of militant violence
sprouts from value imperialism imposed through coercive means.
Likewise, Muslims are free to believe in One God who has no
father or son. They are free to persuade the rest of the world,
through peaceful dialogue, that the Islamic conception of One God
is most sensible and rational. But if Muslim governments or Muslim
militants resort to overt or covert force to impose this conception
of One God on Americans or others, such an imposition would con-
stitute violent value imperialism. The argument that by denying
One God, Americans are living a spiritually wretched life does not
justify holy imperialism. Such self-righteous arguments, no mat-
ter how credible they seem to their advocates, contain seeds of mis-
chief and intolerance. Even One God would not allow any such holy
imperialism. That is why the Quran instructed the Prophet to sim-
ply relay the message of One God, but to use no coercion or manip-
ulation in promoting the message. Any Muslim entity that employs
violence or threats of violence to impose the conception of One God
on others is acting contrary to the letter and spirit of the Quran.
Such entity is also engaging in violent value imperialism.
Imperial degradation
Value imperialism not only imposes its own values on others, it
also degrades others values. Imperial imposition is inextricably
tied to imperial degradation. Violence accompanies imperial degra-
dation when economic or military force is used to degrade values.
3
Lama Abu-Odeh, The Politics of (Mis)Recognition: Islamic Law Pedagogy in
American Academia, 52 American Journal of Comparative Law 789 (2004) (given
the emotionally-charged offering between secularism and sharia, most Muslim
communities would opt for shariah).
Violence may also be used to resist the degradation of values. An

imperial entity may use violence to impose or degrade values. This
may be called imperial terrorism. When a targeted entity employs
force to resist imperial imposition or degradation, the use of force
may be called counter-imperial terrorism. For instance, if the Iranian
theocracy were forcibly dismantled, the force would exemplify impe-
rial terrorism the purpose of which was to degrade a form of Islamic
democracy. One need not assume, however, that imperial terror-
ism is always the handiwork of an empire or a superpower or even
a state. Any entity, including private groups, such as the al Qaeda,
may commit imperial terrorism if the purpose of violence is to
impose its own values or degrade others values. Any use of force
to dismantle nightclubs or places of recreation is imperial violence
if its purpose is to degrade a way of life that offends the perpetra-
tors self-righteousness.
Value imperialism degrades in yet another way. It presumes that
target communities are intellectually decient in choosing the right
values. Secular imperialism, for example, presupposes that Muslim
societies do not comprehend the benets of separation of religion
and state and that they must be so taught. And when force is
used to teach, value imperialists further degrade target communi-
ties. For now they presume that target communities are obstinate,
brutish, or intellectually bankrupt. The US benevolent occupation
of Afghanistan and Iraq are examples of teaching by the rod. Value
imperialism becomes even more degrading when it aims to change
an entire civilization. Imposing Western values on distant tribes
and nations, an idea that originated in colonialism but that con-
tinues to be advanced through new institutions such as the World
Bank and the International Monetary Fund, stems from a demean-
ing assumption that peoples in the non-European worlds are lack-
ing in their own ideas as to how their societies should be structured,
and what values they should prescribe and adopt.4 Even under
this dubious standard, imposing Western secularism on the entire
Muslim world is overly ambitious. This crusade fails to recognize
that the Muslim world has rich internal intellectual resources to
weigh the costs and benets of secularism.
4
Andrew Coleman & Jackson Maogoto, Democracys Global Quest: A Noble
Crusade Wrapped in Dirty Reality? 28 Suffolk Transnational Law Review 175
(2005). Antony Anghie, Civilization and Commerce: The Concept of Governance
in Historical Perspective, 45 Villanova Law Review 887 (2000).
138 Chapter 4
International Law Prohibits Value Imperialism
For several centuries, international law has been the embodiment

of value imperialism, sanctioning predatory norms such as terra
nullius and the right to discovery, and derogatory norms such as
civilized nations, Third World, North-South, etc. These norms were
initially designed to lawfully colonize non-European populations
and usurp their land. Colonization was most certainly predatory
but it was not conned to the taking of natural resources. It also
assaulted local cultures, languages, and religions, attempting to
diminish their inherent worth and vitality. Colonialism was thus
value imperialism, what Rudyard Kipling called the white mans
burden to harness new-caught, sullen peoples, half-devil and half-
child. Edward Said equates colonialism with an ideologies of lies
concocted for pillage and aggression.5 The effects of Western colo-
nialism remain even though the emerging principles of interna-
tional law empower the peoples of the world to shape a multicultural,
multi-religious, multilingual, pluralist world, made in the image of
no single civilization.
Value imperialism is incompatible with the emerging theory of
international law, even though dominant nations continue to sub-
vert the ideals of a free, pluralistic world. In theory, emerging inter-
national law rejects value imperialism and allows each nation to
live its own vision of a shared life. Some of these emerging prin-
ciples came out of the struggle against colonization of the past cen-
turies that had placed the entire planet under a few Western
empires. Several distinct principles of emerging international law
repudiate value imperialism. The United Nations Charter offers
the twin principles of territorial integrity and political indepen-
dence. These principles may be supercially interpreted to mean
the sovereignty of the nation-state. But they carry a profound par-
adigm of existential integrity. This integrity requires that each com-
munity, its people, its land, and its natural resources be physical
safe from foreign invasions, attacks, and forced takings. The prin-
ciple of territorial integrity forbids any usurpation of a commu-
nitys natural resources, thus preserving their primary benets for
the community. It accordingly assures the states physical integrity.
5
Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism (1993).
The principle of political independence further preserves the par-

adigm of integrity on the assumption that physical integrity is more
meaningful when the community also has control over its social,
political, economic, and intellectual resources. If a Muslim com-
munity is coerced to relinquish its traditions, its culture, its vision
of law, and its literature, because secular imperialism has branded
them inferior or regressive or reactionary, the Muslim community
begins to lose authentic independence and existential integrity.
The international human rights movement has further fortied
communities against value imperialism, although even this move-
ment has not been immune from the pathology of dichotomies and
domination.6 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in pro-
tecting rights of the individual, correctly emphasizes the individuals
duties to the community in which alone the rights and free-
doms . . . can be fully realized. Thus, individual rights and free-
doms, conceived under liberalism, cannot be used to forcibly open
inlets for the importation of foreign values that distort the concept
of duties and introduce confusion and subversion in Muslim com-
munities. Human rights themselves provide sufcient guarantees
against state machinery and social prejudice that may harm indi-
viduals in the broader cultural and moral contexts. In the name of
protecting individual rights and freedoms, however, secular impe-
rialism has no justied basis, much less through the use of mili-
tary force, to change cultural practices of a Muslim community.
Muslim communities are free to preserve and develop their own
values and shun conicting foreign values. No foreign entity has a
legal basis to subvert, by military or economic force, a Muslim com-
munitys right to internal self-determination. Before its 2001 inva-
sion of Afghanistan, the US condemned the Islamic veil for women
as an odious imposition of the Taliban government, believing that
the governments forcible removal would liberate Muslim women.
After the invasion, however, the US has discovered that many
Afghan women, just like many other Muslim women, including
American converts to Islam, wear the veil out of conviction and
choice, and not compulsion. This discovery, however, has not shaken
American value imperialism.
6
Deborah M. Weissman, The Human Rights Dilemma: Rethinking the
Humanitarian Project, 35 Columbia Human Rights Law Review 259 (2004) (show-
ing how cultural practices in Africa, such as female genital surgeries, are con-
demned as barbaric but cosmetic surgeries in the West are tolerated as deviations
from the mainstream culture).
140 Chapter 4
Even the rhetoric of universal human rights has been American-

ized. The US has installed itself as the imperial enforcer of these
rights throughout the world. Each year, the US Department of
State releases Country Reports on Human Rights Practices to hold
governments accountable to their obligations under universal human
rights norms and international human rights instruments.7 While
this monitoring policy seems elegant, its reality is repellent. The
US has one set of standards for friendly governments, another for
enemies. Negative reports provide pretexts to degrade and punish
nations that refuse to cooperate with US foreign policies. US allies
that brutalize human beings, however, suffer no visible consequences.
The use of human rights concept begins to symbolize cultural dom-
inance, the same way Christianity was used to pacify indigenous
Americans in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.8
Despite double standards and despite its own gross human rights
violations pursuant to the war on terror, the US continues to rely
on a self-proclaimed divine right to police the world. American rul-
ing elites often present US hegemony as a humanitarian gesture
to aid less fortunate people.
Understanding American Imperialism
Throughout the ages, one distinctive feature of value imperialism

has been the construction of inherent faults in the people to be
exploited, enslaved, conquered, colonized, occupied, or subjugated.
The ontological concept of inherent aw presupposes that certain
people are naturally predisposed to a serious defect or abnormal-
ity such as violence or irrationality. America has expanded this
ontology even further as it sees the whole world inherently awed.
Michael Hunt points out that a presumption of greatness informs
American foreign policy. In separating from Old Europe infested
with monarchies, violence, and intolerance, American elites have
nurtured a celebratory ideology that America is destined to recre-
ate a better world for itself and for others.9 This narcissist deter-
7
US Department of State Website for Monitoring Human Rights, Bureau of
Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor <http://www.state.gov/g/drl/hr/>.
8
William Joseph Wagner, Universal Human Rights, the United Nations, and
the Telos of Human Dignity, 3 Ave Maria Law Review 197 (2005).
9
Michael H. Hunt, Ideology and US Foreign Policy, New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1987.
minism leads the US to resort to economic sanctions, diplomatic

pressures, and outright aggression when other nations assert self-
rule, cultural self-determination, or refuse to accept American leader-
ship. In order to fully understand American value imperialism, a
brief account of Hindu and Greek imperial traditions might be illu-
minating. This account provides insights into how America rst
practiced value imperialism domestically against its own non-white
populations, but has now externalized its race-based imperialism
internationally against the peoples of the world.
In Hinduism, value imperialism is internal; it is conned to
Hindus. Hindu imperialism has produced a caste system that
degrades the untouchables, the lowest caste, allocating them a des-
tiny to perform the meanest social jobs, such as cleaning the sew-
ers and picking up the garbage A holy hymn is invoked to assert
that the four major Hindu castes started off from different body
parts of Purusa, the original super being who was sacriced and
dismembered to create human beings. The highest caste of Brahmins
originated from Purusas mouth, the lowest caste came from his
feet. This mythological origin of human beings rejects the notion
of equality and places huge segments of population at different lev-
els of the totem pole. Some Hindus are born noble whereas others
are born as barbarians. Early on, the untouchable child learns
that he is unclean and impure, and that he cannot touch, let alone
play with, the children of higher classes. He is forced to drink from
separate wells and worship in separate temples.10 To further cement
social hierarchy, Hinduism offers the concept of Karma under which
one gets in the cycle of life what one deserves. Brahmins are enti-
tled to good life not only because they are born superior but also
because they have earned it under the dictates of Karma. Likewise,
the lowest caste must accept their servitude under the combined
force of birth and their Karma.
This remarkable construction of value imperialism supports Hindu
social and economic hierarchies and justies it by nding inherent
faults in those who have been degraded. If the untouchables have
been excluded from the notion of good life founded on dignity, oppor-
tunity, freedom and liberties, the theory of inherent aw blames
the untouchables. Degradation is their destiny because the untouch-
ables are born inferior, and they deserve their destiny under the
10
Ali Khan, The Dignity of Labor, 32 Columbia Human Rights Law Review
289 (2001).
142 Chapter 4
dictates of Karma. And if the untouchables demand the same rights

that privileged castes enjoy, they are engaging in a false and fruit-
less ght. And if the untouchables resist servitude, take up arms,
resort to violence, and shatter the calm Brahmin life, they must
be crushed for they disturb social order and choose terrorism over
peaceful protests.
The theory of inherent aw is not conned to Hinduism. The
same theory, though in a different form, appears in the ancient
Greek literature, a theory brilliantly captured and narrated by
Aristotle, and one that would later contribute towards the con-
struction of colonialism, American slavery, and general ideas about
the superiority and inferiority of races. According to Aristotle, nature
itself produces two kinds of people, the ruler and the ruled. The
most distinguishable factor between the two groups, maintains
Aristotle, lies in their respective physical structures. The slave race
is born with sturdy bodies, most suitable for physical labor, whereas
the ruling class is naturally equipped with intellect and powers to
plan, organize, and look ahead. Therefore, the intellectually gifted
becomes the master and one biologically designed for labor tasks
becomes the slave.
In consonant with Hindu and Greek imperialism, American impe-
rialism also creates inequality. However, American imperialism is
unique. It invents an essential linkage between race and inequal-
ity. Hindu imperialism has imposed servitude on the basis of caste,
but within the same race. Aristotles slavery is biological, but within
the same race. Ironically, however, Aristotle, a non-Greek himself,
reserves the best qualities for Greeks. American imperialism sees
populations through the lens of race. In American mythology, race
is the dening attribute of superiority or inferiority. If you are not
white, you are inherently inferior. America was to be built as a
nation primarily for white European immigrants. Racial imperial-
ism provided the glue needed to construct a viable white nation.
Poor whites accepted this false paradigm of pride as willingly as
rich whites. This white imperialism, however, unleashed cruelty
and inequality against non-white races, particularly blacks and
Indians.
Despite sincere efforts to eradicate racial imperialism from
American culture, white supremacy lingers. And although the overt
language of racism is no longer part of American imperialism, a
new domestic code has emerged to sustain racial hierarchies. Suburbs
(whites), inner cities (blacks), reservations (Indians), illegal immi-
grants (Hispanics), test scores (racial differences), afrmative action
(unjustied handouts to non-whites), political correctness (muz-

zling white backlash), these and similar terms are racially loaded
phrases that dene life in America, which is supercially enshrouded
in the equal protection of laws.
Externalization of American Imperialism

For most of its history, American racial imperialism has been aimed
at domestic non-whites (Blacks, Indians, Hispanics, Chinese, etc.).
Americas overseas battles, for the most part, have been with other
white nations (Spaniards, Germans, and Russians). Even when pri-
marily engaged with white enemies abroad, American racial impe-
rialism has treated non-white enemies more severely. In the Second
World War, the US primarily fought white Germans who, ironi-
cally, were advocating a genocidal form of racial imperialism.
However, Americas severest treatment was reserved for the non-
white Japanese. The internment of Japanese-American citizens at
home and the atomic incineration of Japanese cities were not purely
military operations. Race was a covert factor in these decisions.
Likewise in the Cold War, white Russians were the primary focus
of US policies and strategies but the Wars massacres took place
against non-white populations, including the Vietnamese. The US
support of Israel as against Arabs might also be seen as part of
racial hierarchies because Israel is considered part of the Judeo-
Christian West.11 The war on terror has not been cast in racial
terms, but the concept of inherent aw continues to inform the
American understanding of Muslim militancy. As racial imperial-
ism goes underground, since it is no longer acceptable to openly
talk about racial ontology, America has begun to promote and export
freedom in the form of value imperialism.
4.2 SECULAR IMPERIALISM
US policymakers and terrorism experts frequently argue that Muslim

militants hate the Western culture of freedoms and that their vio-
lence embodies a preemptive methodology to block freedoms from
11
See discussion of the mistaken notion of Judeo-Christian in Chapter 9.
144 Chapter 4
reaching Muslim societies. Included in this explanation is the addi-

tional charge that Muslim militants are jealous of material suc-
cesses, natural domination, and objective superiority of the Western
civilization.12 If militants are defeated, it is further assumed, Muslim
nations will freely adopt Western values, improve their economies,
abandon backward elements of the Sharia, and accept peaceful and
prosperous values that have transformed Western and non-Western
regions (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan) alike. Based on these assump-
tions, several strategies are offered to transform Muslim societies
and to eliminate militant violence that allegedly opposes change.
These strategies vary from forced democratization of Muslim nations
to waging a lethal war against militants. The geopolitical goal of
these strategies is to defeat and dismantle Islamic political parties
and secularize legal systems in the Muslim world. The combined
aims of these diverse transformative strategies are tantamount to
secular imperialism.
Forced Democratization
The US has launched an expensive campaign to export liberal demo-

cratic values to the Middle East and beyond, hoping that an aware-
ness of liberal democratic freedoms will persuade Muslim populations
to reject the ideology of Muslim militants. It is also hoped that
democratization would weaken the foundation of militancy, reduc-
ing terrorism. The idea of democratization is founded on an onto-
logical assumption that all peoples of the world prefer individual
freedoms and liberties. Even if this assumption is empirically valid,
conceptions of freedom and liberties vary from culture to culture.
Western freedoms make sense in the West but they threaten the
social fabric of the Islamic world. Because of cultural differences,
Western efforts at forced democratization of Muslim nations are
interpreted as an imperial imposition.
Words such as freedom and liberty have negative connotations
for traditional Muslims just as the phrase law and order car-
ries an ominous message for African Americans. American crimi-
nologists are well aware that white Americans hear the phrase law
12
Bernard Lewis, The Crisis of Islam (2003).
and order as police efforts to prevent crime whereas African Ameri-

cans associate the same phrase with police brutality. Freedom and
liberty mean one thing in America, quite another in Muslim coun-
tries. Freedom and liberty are positive concepts for Americans who
see in these words assurances for self-expression and self-develop-
ment. For most Muslims, these words mean sexual promiscuity,
disrespect for parents, selshness, breaking away from social mores,
ignoring religion, and pursuing irresponsible lifestyles.
Responsibility and not freedom constitutes the ethos of Muslim
cultures. When Muslims hear that US elites wish to bring free-
doms and liberties to their communities, they become instantly
apprehensive and defensive. They infer that America is waging a
cultural war to undermine their family and religious values. And
they see alcoholism, abortion, pornography, high divorce rate, run-
away children, and nursing homes where elders rot in grief and
sorrow, all this and more that they associate with caricatured views
of American life inltrating and infesting their societies.
Despite their profound concerns about US-sponsored freedoms
and liberties, Muslims nonetheless aspire to institute a conception
of democracy under which governments are removable and account-
able. Presently, however, corrupt and incompetent governments,
many pro-American, rule the Muslim world. And they become abu-
sive when the people challenge their power. Ironically, many Muslim
populations blame the US for supporting, and now installing, sham
democracies and puppet rulers. No one disputes that Muslims need
democracy. Unfortunately, liberal imperialism confuses the process
of democratization in the Muslim world. Rightly or wrongly, most
Muslims see the US democracy initiative as part of a larger war
against Islam.
Misgivings about US Intentions

Islam teaches Muslims to pay careful attention to intentions so as
not to be fooled by deeds. Intentions and not mere deeds consti-
tute Islamic critical consciousness. Due to mistrust of the West,
Muslims seriously doubt that democratization project carries good
intentions. Exportation of liberal democracy to Muslim nations,
therefore, is feared as a Trojan horse. It is seen as an interest max-
imizing US strategy. The US Department of State, on its website,
describes its efforts to support democracy in the world in the fol-
lowing words: Democracy and respect for human rights have long
146 Chapter 4
been central components of U.S. foreign policy. Supporting democ-

racy not only promotes such fundamental American values as reli-
gious freedom and worker rights, but also helps create a more
secure, stable, and prosperous global arena in which the US can
advance its national interests. This statement, a near perfect spec-
imen of democratic imperialism, rst claims ownership to certain
democratic rights by calling them American values, as if no other
culture or community has practiced religious tolerance or protected
worker rights, and then boldly proposes to share these American
values with other nations to promote US security and economic
interests. Such assertions weaken the value of the democracy gift.
It is further asserted that liberal democracy creates and assures
prosperity. The West is most certainly prosperous. Even Asian coun-
tries that emulate the Western model have become prosperous.
Nonetheless, Muslims are unlikely to accept the argument that
liberal/secular democracy is the only way to manufacture prosper-
ity. Centuries ago and for centuries, and long before the rise of
Western nations, Muslims were able to establish prosperous com-
munities in compliance with Islamic principles. Muslim empires
that ruled vast areas of the world for more than a thousand years
were neither democratic, nor liberal, and nor secular. But they were
successful in generating creative energies in all walks of life.
Mathematics and algebra, for example, was non-existent in the
world until Muslims invented them. Muslim communities also
remember how they lost their way under Western colonization and
domination. They also do not take the claimed virtues of liberal
democracy seriously because they see how brutal slavery, theft of
land, racism, apartheid, and discrimination have been part and
parcel of Western democracy.
Islamic Democracy a Threat to US Interests

Muslim populations are also skeptical about the US commitment
to free and vigorous democracy in Muslim nations. If Islamic polit-
ical parties were allowed to contest elections, they are feared to
win elections on anti-US and anti-Israel platforms.13 In Jordan and
Egypt, for example, anti-Israel religious parties would easily sweep
freely held general elections. If democratically elected Islamic par-
13
Arnaud de Borchgrave, Jihad roots and ripples, Washington Times (December
16, 2005).
ties come to power, they would denounce the peace treaties with
Israel and adopt anti-US foreign policies. Knowing this, Israelis
see an existential threat in democratization of the Muslim world.
Since US national interests may diverge from those of Israel, a
democratic Muslim world may drive a wedge between Israel and
the US. If the US were to sacrice its own interests for the sake
of preserving the US-Israel alliance, a democratic Muslim world
would be further estranged from the US. In either case, free democ-
racy in the Middle East would pose new challenges to US military,
security, and economic interests in the world. To avoid these devel-
opments, both the US and Israel support a distorted notion of
democracy that suppresses religious parties from contesting elec-
tions and assuming power.
Forced Secularization
The democratization project proposed for the Muslim world is essen-

tially secular. However, the proposed model of secularism is lib-
eral. It is not the same as communist secularism, the one that the
Soviet Union imposed on its client states. Soviet secularism was
atheistic and anti-religious. Liberal secularism respects freedom
of religion but it does not allow the fusion of church and state.
Democracy alone does not assure that a nation would opt for sec-
ularism. The Iranian system, for example, contains elements of
democracy and yet it is not secular. Only when secularism is com-
bined with democracy and individual rights and freedoms do we
have a liberal democracy. It is this model of democracy that
secular imperialism wishes to impose on the Muslim world. Many
in the Western world propose that Muslim nations adopt the
Turkish model of democracy, under which the government is secu-
lar even though the people are free to practice Islam. In exporting
secularism, Western nations draw conclusions from their own
unique historical experiences, such as the Thirty Years War (1618
48) over religious conicts between Catholics, Lutherans, and
Calvinists, and wish to share their hard-earned lessons, such as
benets of secularism, to the Muslim world. But Muslims have had
no such parallel history of sectarian slaughter, though the emerg-
ing Shia-Sunni conict in Iraq and elsewhere appears to be geno-
cidal. Shia or Sunni, however, each declines to accept the gift of
Western secularism.
148 Chapter 4
There are numerous reasons why democracy has failed to take

root in the Islamic world, a topic I have examined at length in A
Universal Theory of Democracy. Here, I would like to discuss how
the West, in its efforts to promote secularism, uses the armed forces
and bureaucracy of Muslim nations to promote secularism, to defeat
and dismantle Islamic parties. In its commitment to secularism,
West is prepared even to sacrice democracy and political freedoms
that it otherwise touts. Disenfranchised Muslim militants resent
Western intervention and resort to violence against domestic insti-
tutions and public ofcials perceived to be Western agents. Domestic
terrorism thus interfuses with international terrorism.
The tension of choosing between democracy and secularism arises
when Islamic political parties participate in the democratic process.14
Secular imperialism colludes with oppressive military and heredi-
tary governments to subvert the democratic process, because it
fears that a victory for Islamic parties will be a victory for an
Islamic state that would dismantle secularism and liberal values.
Torn between democracy and secularism, secular imperialism almost
always chooses secularism over democracy. A secular dictatorship
is far more acceptable to advocates of liberal democracy than is a
religious democracy, even though secular dictatorships rarely respect
individual liberties and freedoms. Sacricing democracy and indi-
vidual freedoms in order to institute secularism, secular imperial-
ism appears to be most hostile to the fusion of Islam and state.
Muslims see this as more a war on Islam and less a crusade for
democracy.
Most frequently, Islamic political parties offer to institute an
Islamic legal system as well as to reform existing laws found to be
incompatible with the Basic Code (Quran and Sunna). Islamic par-
ties reject secularism, the separation of law and Islamic morality,
and undue foreign inuences. They are most suspicious of Western-
ized local elites who promote Western thought and see the Islamic
state as a barrier to their way of life. Nostalgic and idealistic,
Islamic parties draw inspiration from earlier periods of Islamic civ-
ilization when Muslims were inventors, explorers, and rulers of the
world. They view the existing backwardness of Islamic societies as
a direct consequence of straying away from the Islamic path and
14
John F. Murphy, Brave New World: U.S. Responses to the Rise in International
Crime An Overview, 50 Villanova Law Review 375 (2005) (labeling Islamic polit-
ical parties in Algeria and Egypt as terrorist organizations).
imitating the West that had colonized their communities, minds,

and way of life.
In view of their opposition to liberal democracy, Islamic parties
are excluded from the political process in many Muslim nations.
In Algeria, for example, Islamic political participation was effec-
tively foreclosed by national armed forces on the theory that if
Islamic parties were allowed to contest elections, they would dis-
mantle the democratic process upon winning the elections and insti-
tute an authoritarian theocracy. In Egypt, Islamic political parties
are banned and their leaders have been incarcerated. In Turkey,
the secular constitution prohibits any fusion of religion and state.
Until recently, Islamic political parties have been banned and
excluded from contesting elections or forming government. Even
though secular provisions of the Turkish constitution cannot be
amended, some de facto accommodation has been made to allow
Islamic parties into the political process provided they vow not to
upset the secular model of government.15
Distinct domestic constituencies advocate the exclusion of Islamic
political parties. National armed forces, mostly trained in the
Western tradition, are the mightiest foe of Islamic parties. Thus,
the professional culture of the armed forces, the most organized
institution in the state, is incompatible with the ideology of Islamic
parties that wish to cleanse national institutions from undue for-
eign inuence. When an Islamic political party is suppressed,
banned, or forcible excluded from the political process, a direct con-
frontation occurs between national armed forces and Muslim mil-
itants, causing what is known as domestic terrorism. The clearest
example of this phenomenon occurred in Algeria. The suppression
of Islamic forces in Egypt and newly independent central Asia states
has similarly caused domestic unrest and killings.
In addition to national armed forces, the national bureaucracy
is often opposed to Islamic parties as well. The reasons are some-
what similar. National bureaucrats are often trained in the Western
tradition, some have studied at Western universities, and many
interact with Western bureaucracies. If the dominant professional
culture of the national bureaucracy is anchored in Western tradition,
which indeed it is for the most part in most Muslim countries,
15
Susana Dokupil, The Separation of Mosque and State: Islam and Democracy
in Modern Turkey, 105 West Virginia Law Review 53 (2002) (arguing that free-
dom of religion strengthens secularism).
150 Chapter 4
national bureaucrats dread Islamic political parties and see them

as opponents of their privilege, power, and liberties. Westernized
intellectuals, university professors, business leaders, and some
human rights organizations also oppose Islamic political parties.
Deprived of this support, Islamic political parties turn towards the
poor, the disenfranchised, and the people who live in villages and
small towns, away from big cities teeming under the Western
inuence.
The third constituency that opposes Islamic political parties con-
sists of ruling cliques, royal families, or ideological parties that
have entrenched their political monopoly through unaccountability,
charisma, ideology, or brute force. The Bath party in Syria, royal
families in Gulf emirates, military charlatans in Libya and Algeria,
all these ruling elites have a vested interest in not allowing demo-
cratic institutions to emerge, develop, and challenge unaccountable
regimes. Accordingly, they oppose any political force that threat-
ens their hegemony, particularly Islamic political parties. Vested
interests in maintaining power create fabulous contradictions. Even
a highly religious regime in power, such as one in Saudi Arabia,
opposes the emergence of Islamic political parties that believe in
democracy and not inheritance as the source of political power.
Domestic terrorism in Muslim countries is often related to sec-
ular imperialism. When Muslim militants realize that foreign
secular forces have won the support of national armed forces, bureau-
cracy, or ruling families, they turn their wrath against these domes-
tic constituencies. Outside observers fail to understand why Muslim
militants will attack their own people, reinforcing the ontological
thesis that puritanical Islam is inherently violent.
Inventing Moderate Muslims

American value imperialism has invented the concept of moderate
Muslims to undermine traditional Islam, which is perceived as a
threat to democracy, world peace, and US global interests. The
denition of moderate Muslims is elusive. However, Muslims who
believe in the jurisprudential supremacy of the Quran and the
Sunna are not considered moderate. Those who wish to institute
an Islamic state are considered extremists. Moderate Muslims are
not atheists. They believe in Islam. But they are secularists who
advocate that religion is a private matter. They believe in the
Westernized human rights, and promote a conception of female
freedom touted in the West. They see the traditional Muslim woman
as an embodiment of oppression, false consciousness, and a sym-
bol of Islamic orthodoxy. Some prefer individual freedoms to rela-
tional responsibilities that Islam teaches. Some would discard
traditional jurisprudence embodied in the classical ve madhabs.
In America, the inventors of moderate Islam wish to subject American
Muslims to US patriotism. They wish to create American Islam.
In the US, moderate Muslims would be constructed in ways sim-
ilar to Anglicized Blacks. African slaves were denied their faith,
languages, and historical consciousness. American value imperial-
ism imposed on blacks was designed to cleanse descendants of the
slave population from remembering the wrongs of their masters,
and from nurturing any sentiments of counter-aggression. This
imperceptible genocide and concomitant pacication of the black
population, carried out over the centuries, has been highly suc-
cessful in creating an imitation culture in which the dominated
populations willingly adhere to Anglo-Saxon traditions. A similar
genocide perpetrated against the descendants of Muslim immi-
grants would deny them their ethnic, linguistic, cultural, and reli-
gious traditions. American patriotism, which subsumes identities,
would devour a universal religion that in its true state cannot be
reduced to the connes of a nation-state. It remains to be seen
whether the invention would succeed in its mission.
Islamic Cultural Barbarism
Just as the 18th century slave masters held that African slaves
were essentially inferior, the inventors of moderate Islam tend to
believe that Muslims in their natural state of faith are inherently
barbaric. Muslim nations have been unable to evolve democratic
institutions that assure governments are accountable and remov-
able. Kingships, military dictatorships, one party rule, personal
cults, and other authoritarian political structures frustrate Muslims
aspirations to participate in government formation. In an increas-
ingly democratized world, and in view of material successes of demo-
cratic nations, the democratic decit in Muslim nations causes
confusion, anger, disenchantment, and violence among the people.
This negativity impedes social and economic development and inter-
poses a barrier to the release of creative energies and dynamism
that keep nations alive and self-engaged.
152 Chapter 4
Some Western experts argue that Islamic culture is inherently

barbaric and unt for democracy. It is ontologically inclined to pro-
duce violence. Most articulate, though by no means the most bril-
liant, American scholar who solidly manufactures and effectively
communicates the clash between barbaric Islam and democratic
West is Victor Davis Hanson. A military historian, a think-tanker
at the Hoover institution, a teacher at Stanford, a raisin farmer, a
controversial media gure, both revered and despised, Hanson has
earned singular respect among American conservatives. Through
his popular writings on culture and foreign affairs, Hanson has
become an inuential consultant after September 11. Value impe-
rialism is an essential part of Hansons thesis.
Hansons most oft-repeated thesis highlights the seemingly irre-
solvable contradictions between the democratic West and the auto-
cratic Islamic world, particularly the Arab countries. Examining
root causes of terrorism, his imperial argument goes as follows:
instead of blaming Israel, the United States, or the man in the
moon for Arab problems sit down, take a deep breath and ask
yourself, Why is there no democracy, no equality of the sexes, no
religious tolerance, no free press . . . Hanson answers this ques-
tion by pointing out that something is terribly wrong with the
Arab/Islamic culture. In his view, Islamic terrorism sprouts from
conditions of barbarism that exist in the Islamic world. The con-
ditions of barbarism, however, are partly tied to lack of social, eco-
nomic, and political development, but for the most what sustains
and nurture Islamic barbarism is the nature of the culture that
seemingly transcends economic prosperity. Under the covert, implied
logic of Hansons thesis, Islamic barbarism is not phenomenal; it
is no mere reection of socio-economic underdevelopment, as was
the case in pre-Renaissance Europe, for such barbarism fades away
when the people become prosperous. According to Hanson, Islamic
barbarism is ontological. It emerges from a deeper immutable gram-
mar of the Arab culture, a grammar that created the religion of
Islam, incorporated its raw barbarism in the religious doctrine of
jihad, and later exported the package to other regions and peoples.
According to Hanson, Islamic terrorism reects the inherent bar-
barism of the Arab culture that has been universalized in the form
of Islam.
From a liberal democratic viewpoint, Hansons critique of the
Middle East, though exaggerated and unfair, has traces of truth.16
16
Maxwell O. Chibundu, For God, For Country, For Universalism: Sovereignty
Most Islamic and Arab countries have indeed failed to embrace

notions of democracy. To x the democratic decit and to transform
the Islamic world, two distinct approaches are offered. First, the
benevolent approach argues that process democracy (holding peri-
odic elections on the basis of universal suffrage) will change the
Islamic culture of religious intolerance, economic backwardness,
gender apartheid, muzzled press, militarism, terrorism, etc., etc.
This faith in process democracy as a transformative agent is naive
to the extent that it refuses to see the power of culture that can
survive diverse forms of government. Second, the imperial approach,
the one that Hanson adopts, asserts that the Arab/Islamic culture
must be defeated, and not transformed. This is so because Arab/
Islamic culture is inherently resistant to democracy. Therefore, the
argument goes, process democracy will not work in the Muslim
world, since it cannot bring about a fundamental transformation
of the culture. Hanson prescribes a decisive battle that completely
defeats Islamic resurgence and its militaristic terrorism.
Hansons imperial approach recognizes the power of Arab/Islamic
culture beyond the democratic process, but he sees this power
though an ontological lens, describing it as an inherent source of
barbarism and terrorism. Skeptical at heart that Islamic culture
can change through peaceful means, and certain that Arabs would
continue to use terror as a tool of global harassment, Hanson deliv-
ers a tough message to the Islamic world. Few serious scholars
would ordinarily employ ghting words, since a scholars task is to
diagnose problems and prescribe solutions, and not to issues threats
of a lethal war. As an activist scholar, however, Hanson sees no
wrong in issuing the following ultimatum: We must remind the
Arab Islamic World that we wish to be friends and partners in their
painful ordeal of change, but should they either send terrorists
against us, or aid such killers for the psychological benefaction of
ameliorating envy, we will make war so terrible that they will regret
it in ways one cannot imagine.17 Note Hansons phrases of painful
ordeal of change and ameliorating envy. These phrases carry an
ontological view of Arab/Islamic culture that is too stubborn to
as Solidarity in Our Age of Terror, 56 Florida Law Review 883 (2004) (arguing
that an unreective mix of blind patriotism and fear of terrorism produces aggres-
sive policies).
17
Victor Hanson, Response to Readership, available at <www,victorhanson.com>
(September, 2004).
154 Chapter 4
change but too envious to be resigned to its own inner truth. If mil-
itarily superior Western governments were to take Hansons the-
sis seriously, warfare is likely to escalate to a degree not seen before
in the Middle East.
From a suppressive viewpoint, the accusation that Arab/Islamic
culture generates terrorism seems highly credible, and useful for
propaganda purposes. It shifts the focus from concrete grievances
of aggrieved populations to their inherent existential/cultural bar-
barism. It also shifts the focus from the atrocities of suppressive
states to their inherent cultural superiority. Hanson, for example,
de-emphasizes Israels cruelty towards occupied Palestinians and
emphasizes that Israel is a democratic state with a free press,
open society, gender equality, and a vocal opposition. Hanson de-
links terrorism from concrete grievances and ties it to a dubious
ontology. It is not Israeli occupation of Palestine that generates ter-
rorism, Hanson would say, but it is the inherent Arab/Islamic cul-
ture of Palestinians that forces them toward violence.
Imperial Carnage
Hanson frequently receives SOS calls from the White House and
Pentagon. This remarkable political rise of a militant scholar reveals
the popular attraction of the idea of clash of civilizations. Trapped
in the clash paradigm to a point of no return, Hanson thrives on
contradictions that he believes are beyond intellectual repair. He
proposes strong militaristic strategies in dealing with Muslim mil-
itants. He openly advocates that the US must aggressively support
Israel in the Middle East conict. The West, he argues, must employ
its traditional methodology of unrepentant carnage to wipe out
Islamic fundamentalists.
In his book Carnage and Culture, Hanson offers a formidable
theory of Western imperialism. Throughout the centuries, he argues,
the West has won because its broader culture has been far more
superior to that of its enemies. Leaving aside moral questions from
the equation, Hansons thesis studies the effectiveness of war as a
killing machine. My curiosity is not with Western mans heart of
darkness, but with his ability to ght specically how his mili-
tary prowess reects larger social, economic, political, and cultural
practices that themselves seemingly have little to do with war.
Alexander defeated the Persians because the Greeks were cultur-
ally superior. Europeans defeated Asians, Africans, and Native

Americans not because they were smarter or braver but because
of the singular lethality of their culture. At Rorkes Drift, 139
British soldiers held off 4,000 Zulus. Can we envision the oppo-
site? When non-Western armies win in the battleeld, Hanson
maintains, it is primarily because they successfully adopt Western
war practices and use Western weaponry. The Vietminh defeated
the French not with indigenous weapons but with weapons made
in the West.
Hanson lists a number of cultural values that produce superior
Western armies. In addition to military qualities, such as organi-
zation, discipline, morale, initiative, exibility, and command,
Western armies possess superior weapons, and benet from the
marriage of capitalism and nance. Constitutionalism, democracy,
democratization of property, freedom of expression, and individu-
alism, all these cultural values add to the lethality of the Western
war machine. He does not mention international law as a Western
value. Above all, Hanson surmises, the Western way of war is lethal
precisely because it is so amoral shackled rarely by concerns of
ritual, tradition, religion, or ethics, by anything other than mili-
tary necessity. This view is incompatible with the modern law of
warfare that places considerable constraints on warring parties.
Even the doctrine of military necessity is a legal concept and whether
destructive force employed by armed forces was legitimate is not
an exclusively military decision.
If American armed forces are following Hansons imperial model
of warfare, many things begin to make theoretical sense in the US
war on terror. Per Hanson, the war on terror is (and ought to be)
amoral. Its focus is on its lethality rather than the law of warfare.
It appears that the US has made every effort to minimize legal con-
straints on the conduct of war. The US war on terror is not com-
pletely lawless since the internal military code continues to be
operative and binding. And yet, the US has thrown away many
constraints of the laws of war. Even going to war in Iraq, in deance
of the world opinion and without a specic authorization from the
UN Security Council, supports Hansons thesis of military neces-
sity. The Bush Administration considered it prudent to take out
Saddam even if Iraq possessed no weapons of mass destruction.
Hansons logic might further dictate that Irans militant theocracy
be dismantled, if need be by force, for such regimes add to, and not
subtract from, terrorism directed at the US. If the US is serious
about winning the war on terror, Hanson would suggest, the only
156 Chapter 4
logic in the crosshairs be that of military necessity. Any other

normative constraints are distractions and could be the causes for
failure.
Discarding moral and legal constraints even with respect to jus
in bello might advance Hansons thesis of lethality. Extra-judicial
killings, torture, civilian casualties, and destruction of towns and
cities explain the amoral character of war and, possibly, the inher-
ent immorality of liberal imperialism.18 Detaining terrorists with-
out trial or due process and without benets of humanitarian laws
might highlight the heart of darkness but would be consistent with
amoral lethality. Furthermore, the US has opted out of the Inter-
national Criminal Court and has made bilateral agreements to pre-
empt any prosecution of its soldiers and generals for war crimes
and crimes against humanity. These legal maneuvers allow the US
armed forces to conduct wars in the realm of amorality, dictated
only by military necessity. Legal constraints of human rights, human-
itarian laws, and international criminal law diminish the lethality
of war.
While Hanson documents the amorality of Western warfare and
nds it as its core strength, suppressive war propaganda paints
Muslim militants as warriors without values. September 11 attacks
are condemned as cowardice, the killing of the innocent, acts of
evildoers. This criticism is valid because it incorporates a moral
perspective, an ethical judgment. From an amoral viewpoint,
September 11 attacks on the twin towers and their dramatic col-
lapse before open eyes of the world were by all standards a ghastly
practice that Hanson associates with Western warfare. In the
Japanese and Islamic ways of war, says Hanson, surprise, sudden
attack, and disgrace are designed to force the enemy to the bar-
gaining table. Both warfare traditions, however, lack the Western
desire for continual and sustained shock encounters until one side
was victorious or annihilated. Hanson believes that the Japanese
attack on the Pearl Harbor was brilliant and yet the Japanese
failed to bomb the island into submission, a fatal aw in their the-
ory of lethality. The same can be said about the September 11
attacks. They were isolated acts of brilliance but in Hansons
words, there was no follow-up plan.19
18
David Luban, Liberalism, Torture, and the Ticking Bomb, 91 Virginia Law
Review 1425 (2005) (liberal ideology of torture amounts to intellectual fraud).
19
Victor Davis Hanson, Carnage and Culture 363 (2001).
Legitimacy of Democratic Terrorism
The most unsettling part of liberal/secular imperialism lies in its

claim that liberal democracies use violence in the most legitimate
and responsible way. Since in a democracy the decision to use vio-
lence is participatory, made in representative chambers by persons
whom the people have elected in free elections, the decision is con-
sidered inherently lawful and profoundly moral, particularly if it
is compared to a similar decision that a dictator makes either alone
or with the help of subservient consultants. Riding on this logic,
the Israeli violence against Palestinians, the Indian violence against
Kashmiris, and the American violence against Muslim militants
around the world, all this democratic violence is considered excus-
able, if not legitimate, since Israel, India, and the US are liberal
democracies.20 The Russian violence against Chechens might sim-
ilarly be defended if democracy nds rmer roots in Russia. The
most absurd claim of this thesis arose in South Africa where a
white exclusivist democracy enforced a brutal apartheid against
native black populations. Blacks ghting apartheid were labeled
terrorists.
A related thesis of liberal democratic imperialism refuses to accord
similar value to similar events of violence. If Muslim militants kill
civilians, the act is considered blatantly immoral. If a liberal democ-
racy kills civilians, the act is defended as collateral damage on the
presumption that the armed forces of a democracy obey the rules
of warfare and therefore when they slaughter civilians, their action
is most frequently blameless under the doctrine of military neces-
sity. More broadly, the thesis asserts that even an aggressive use
of force by a democracy is morally superior to a similar aggression
by others. The two acts are not considered morally equivalent. Thus
if Palestinians kill an Israeli leader, the act is branded as com-
pletely inexcusable. But if Israeli defense forces assassinate Pales-
tinian leaders, including political and spiritual heads, these acts
of state violence are considered legitimate under the self-serving
concepts of self-defense and just war.
20
Arunabha Bhoumik, Democratic Responses to Terrorism, 33 Denver Journal
of International Law and Policy 285 (2005) (criticizing the war model as incon-
sistent with civil liberties and too sweeping in its will to kill).
158 Chapter 4
Muslim communities do not accept the legitimacy of democratic

violence. Even international law makes no such distinctions. Under
the UN Charter, democracies do not have a preferred right to self-
defense, nor do they enjoy any exclusive international right to use
proactive or preemptive violence. As a matter of documented real-
ity, it is also inaccurate that democracies are restrained in the use
of violence. Nazi Germany was democratic but turned demonic
under humiliation imposed by the victors of the First World War.
The two great World Wars were essentially European wars between
states that had colonized the world under the pretext of imparting
civilization. The US invasions of Vietnam, Korea, Panama, Grenada,
Nicaragua, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and the use and threats of force
against Sudan, Libya, and Iran, all in the past fty years do not
constitute a peaceful resume.
4.3 HOLY IMPERIALISM
An antithesis to liberal/secular imperialism, holy imperialism is an

ideology that supposedly disseminates a religion by any means nec-
essary, including violence. Many world religions, including Islam
and Christianity, allow proselytizing. Numerous Christian denom-
inations strive to spread the message of their faith to other nations
and peoples of the world. Christian missions spend millions of dol-
lar in propagating their religious views. The international law of
human rights recognizes the right of individuals to have or to
adopt a religion, a right which may legitimize missionary work.
But when proselytizing is obtained through economic coercion or
armed force, the mission acquires the attributes of imperialism. As
discussed below, Islam forbids any coerced proselytizing. However,
a charge has been made that al Qaeda has openly declared that
it considers violence as a lawful means to spread Islamic laws
and values. If the charge is correct, al Qaeda is engaging in holy
imperialism.
A Letter to America
In November 2002, Osama bin Laden (OBL) issued a letter on the

internet in which he explained the reasons for the conict between
America and the Muslim world.21 No credible studies demonstrate

whether the letter represents the views of militants or mainstream
Muslims. It is also unclear from the letter whether OBL recom-
mends the use of force to achieve all the goals he has laid out in
the letter. Some western leaders, perhaps in response to this let-
ter, conclude that al-Qaeda and other Muslim militants strive to
forcibly impose their values on the West. After the London under-
ground bombings in 2005, Prime Minister Tony Blair stated: Its
important that those engaged in terrorism realize that our deter-
mination to defend our values is greater than their desire to impose
extremism on the world. Tony Blairs statement is a perfect exam-
ple of Western inclination to interpret militant violence as holy
imperialism.
In his letter, OBL frames the following two questions: Why are
we opposing you? What do we want from you? In answering these
questions, OBL lists a number of grievances including American
support of Israel, India, and Russia against Muslims ghting for
liberation in Palestine, Kashmir, and Chechnya. Thus, OBL pre-
sents al Qaeda as a classical supportive entity ghting on behalf
of aggrieved populations. This support reafrms the dynamics of
the terror triangle discussed in Part I of this book. OBL sees the
US as the super suppressive entity that discounts the primary and
secondary grievances of Muslim populations.
In addition to mentioning grievances as the cause of ght, OBL
makes two distinct references to value imperialism. One reference
charges the US of value imperialism. OBL states that the US has
imposed puppets governments in Muslim countries that act as
your agents. Agent or viceroy governments (perhaps a reference
to Egypt, Jordan, and Pakistan, though OBL mentions no nation
by name in the letter) defend and advance a number of imperial
goals. They, under American supervision, consent and orders, pre-
vent the establishment of Islamic Sharia, thus degrading and com-
promising Islamic values. They suppress and subdue Muslim groups
and political parties that wish to establish Islamic governments
and enforce the Sharia. Advocates of the Sharia, charges OBL, are
arrested and humiliated. And these imperial agents give away nat-
ural resources at a paltry price. According to OBL, US imperialism
21
Full Text: bin Ladens letter to America, The Guardian/Observer (November
24, 2002).
160 Chapter 4
is not conned to the degradation of Islamic values; it is also exploita-

tive and predatory.
The removal of viceroy governments that defend and promote
US imperial designs, says OBL, is an obligation on us. And our
ght against these governments is not separate from our ght
against you. This statement claries that OBL permits the use of
force against agent governments as he does against the United
States. Al Qaedas assassination attempts against Pakistani President
Pervez Musharraf are part of the ght to kill American agents.
President Musharraf s crackdown on Muslim militants and restric-
tions placed on madrasahs are perceived to be the doings of an
American agent, and not that of an authentic Muslim. The per-
ception, though larger than reality, is far from purely ctitious
because the US has put diplomatic pressure on the Musharraf gov-
ernment to reform religious schools and to arrest or even kill Muslim
militants who live in Pakistan but support various liberation move-
ments in the Muslim world. The ensuing battle between local author-
ities and militants causes domestic terrorism. Domestic terrorism
in Muslim nations is thus ideologically connected to international
terrorism committed against foreign entities. In such cases, vio-
lence is perpetrated and justied as obligatory resistance to value
imperialism that America is imposing on Muslim communities
through its local agents.
The second reference to value imperialism is embodied in OBLs
invitation (Dawa) to Americans to accept Islam. OBL presents the
conception of One God and draws attention to the Quran, which
will remain preserved and unchanged, (since) other Divine books
and messages have been corrupted. OBL calls on Americans to
completely submit to Gods Laws and discard all contrary opinions,
theories, and religions. More specically, OBL points out a num-
ber of US laws and practices that contradict righteousness, mercy,
honor, purity, and piety. Usury, prohibited under all religions, has
become the foundation of American economy and investment.
Immorality, says OBL, is being promoted in the guise of personal
freedoms. Gambling, intoxicants and drugs are widely promoted.
Women are used as trading tools to serve visitors, passengers, and
strangers to increase prot margins. The environment has been
destroyed with industrial waste and gases. OBL also points out
that American values are anchored in duality, hypocrisy, racism,
situational morality, and selectivity. All manners, principles and
values have two scales: one for you and one for the others. To cap
it all, OBL declares, American civilization is the worst civilization

witnessed by the history of mankind.
OBL is engaging in classical value imperialism. He is simulta-
neously promoting Islamic values and degrading those of America.
As noted above, degradation is an essential part of value imperi-
alism. Degradation is a degree more offensive than critique. Cross-
cultural critiques can be the tools of learning, but degradation of
cultures and civilizations is often based on unjustied contempt,
anger, or frustration. Regardless of motivation, the degradation of
an entire value system contributes little to an instructive discourse
and the culture so attacked is likely to erect defensive barriers,
learning nothing. Even for outsiders who have little stake in the
clash, the degradation assault on an entire civilization is nothing
more than spiteful vendetta. To this extent, OBLs value imperial-
ism is ineffective in both its message and methodology.
Outside the hateful realm of imperial degradation, OBL has every
right to invite Americans to Islam. Such missionary invitations are
protected under international law, Islamic law, and US laws. Inter-
national law, specically the universally subscribed International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, protects the right to free-
dom of expression, which includes freedom to seek, receive and
impart information and ideas. Under Islamic law, any invitation
to Islam must be gentle, sincere, and non-coercive. The Quran pro-
hibits imposition of Islamic faith on any individual, group, or nation
against their will. Furthermore, it requires that invitation to Islam
be suffused with wisdom, good manners, and fairness. The invita-
tion is deeply anchored in the inviters personal humility, rejecting
even the perception of value imperialism, because not even the
Prophet was given the power to convert anyone to Islam. The Quran
teaches the Prophet non-imperial humility in the following words:
Say It is not in my power to cause you harm or to bring you to
the Right Path (Islam).22 Islamic law allows missionary invita-
tions but leaves open the options for non-Muslims to embrace or
not to embrace Islam.
OBLs invitation to Islam is protected under US laws as well.
Under the First Amendment, OBLs missionary invitation to Islam
poses no legal question. The relaxed interpretation of the First
22
Quran 72:21.
162 Chapter 4
Amendment might even protect OBLs methodology of imperialist

degradation, since free speech in the US invites dispute; it induces
a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they
are, or even stirs people to anger. The government cannot sup-
press the expression of an idea simply because society nds the
idea itself offensive or disagreeable. In fact, OBL himself would
reject many freedoms granted under the First Amendment since
speakers and artists are allowed to make fun of prophets, holy
books, religious leaders, and missionaries. It is quite ironic that
US laws would vigorously protect OBLs value imperialism directed
against Americans whereas Islamic law would severely limit his
options in content, methodology, manners, and expectations.
Is Violence Part of OBLs Holy Imperialism?

It is unclear whether violence is part of OBLs missionary invita-
tion to Islam. Muslims may invite non-Muslims to accept Islam.
OBL has that right too. It is unclear how effective his invitation
would be in promoting the faith of Islam since most non-Muslims
associate his name and deeds with unlawful violence. OBLs invi-
tation to Islam is part of the ght that he says he is engaged in
with the Americans. Here, the word ght may have only metaphor-
ical meaning in that OBL wishes to engage Americans in a moral
discourse that includes discussions about One God, the signicance
of revelation in human affairs, and the role of traditional moral-
ity in shaping cultures and communities. Rational and peaceful
ght over spiritual and moral issues can indeed be useful in cross-
cultural contacts and mutual learning.
If by ght he means violence, OBL is charting new territory in
the history of Islamic jurisprudence, since it would tantamount to
imposing Islamic faith and laws on Americans. In that case, al
Qaedas armed struggle takes on ominous meaning since it would
presumably continue until Islam fully prevails in the United States.
It is perhaps on the basis of this understanding of OBLs speeches
that US terrorism experts have manufactured the concept of essen-
tialist terrorist, who ghts not for rectifying worldly injustices and
grievances, such as in Chechnya and Palestine, but for the impo-
sition of Islam. As discussed above, any forcible imposition of Islamic
faith, laws, and values is contrary to Islams fundamental teach-
ings. OBLs claim to be an Islamic scholar, qualied to issue decrees
(fatwas), is seriously undermined if he has chosen the ways of vio-
lence to impose Islam on Americans. Violence as a tool of conver-

sion is no part of Islamic jurisprudence. According to the Quran,
the power to convert anyone to Islam has not been delegated to
human beings, including the Prophet. Islam thus repudiates faith-
based imperialism.
Satans Extinction is Not Gods Design

OBL nds serious satanic aws in American culture ranging from
the use of intoxicants, the commoditization of women, the xation
with prot and usury, to degradation of the environment. In Islamic
theology, Satan plays a central role in confusing and corrupting
human beings. Satan is the source of all mischief. Man is innocent
and gullible. Satan is devious and clever. According to the Quran,
it is the Satan who duped Adam and Eve and caused their evic-
tion from the Paradise. Satan says to God, My Lord, since You
have willed that I go astray, I will surely entice them (human
beings) on earth; I will send them all astray.23 However, accord-
ing to the Quran, Satan has no inuence over those who worship,
and believe in, One God. Accordingly, human acts of immorality,
injustice, dishonesty, and aggression are perpetrated at the Satans
bidding. Immoral acts ourish in a Godless society. An atheistic
culture where such acts are spawned in abundance is the Satans
success story. Seeing from this theological perspective, Muslim mil-
itants call the US as the Great Satan for they see nothing else but
overt acts of immorality in this country. They rarely hesitate to
add that even some Muslim nations are corrupt, woefully dishon-
est, and unjust.
Suppose that the US is indeed the Great Satan in that it repre-
sents everything that the Satan does to corrupt the world. Even
this accusation does not warrant the use of violence to mobilize
Americans away from the Satan and toward the fold of Islam. The
Quran nowhere recommends any aggression against the Satans
representatives. Only three days out of the year have been allo-
cated to throw stones at the Satan, at a designated place located
in what is now Saudi Arabia. The stoning ritual, performed dur-
ing the Hajj, celebrates the biblical story at a site where the Satan
23
Quran 15:39.
164 Chapter 4
appeared to Prophet Abraham, his wife Hegira and son Ishmael.

Prophet Abraham and his family each cast seven stones at the
Satan. The stoning ritual is conned to the designated site, the
stones are small in size, and nothing theological has been derived
from this ritual to conclude that Muslims are obligated to cast
stones at the Satan or the Satans representatives.
If God had wanted to construct a pure world without evil, He
would have created no Satan. But, according to the Quran, God
lets Satan freely entice and corrupt human beings, with or with-
out success, so that good and evil are engaged in constant dialogue
and perpetual struggle. The design of creation, according to the
Quran, is dialectical. It is neither all good, nor all evil. Creation is
an ever changing design suffused with good and evil. Human beings
develop moral intelligence to make good choices for their persons
and communities. Any individual or community that fails to nur-
ture moral intelligence may fall into the Satans trap and make
evil choices. Thus, God has created a free world in which human
beings may exercise options and choose ways of life, good, bad, or
a combination of the two. No Muslim is empowered to tinker with
Gods design. A Muslim may personally overcome the Satans entice-
ment and live a morally elegant life. But no Muslim has been
empowered to slay the Satan. This indeed is a core theme of Islam.
When this core theme is applied to the US, the option of violence
as a tool to face the Satans chief representative appears to be mis-
guided. In its alleged satanic role, the US may entice Muslims and
other believers to leave their faith and embrace spiritually empty
freedoms, separation of church and state, and laws that repudiate
Gods singular sovereignty. The answer to enticement is not vio-
lence but spiritual strength. The US may even entice Muslim gov-
ernments to shun the teachings of Islam and embrace the secular
way of life. Such temptations are part of Gods design. The chal-
lenge for Muslims and other believers is to strengthen their com-
munities and show moral resolve to stay the spiritual course. Only
if a Muslim community is physically attacked does it have the right
of self-defense. Otherwise, any enticement to an immoral life pro-
vides no justication for a violent response. Violence is totally pro-
hibited to Islamicize the American way of life. No human being has
been empowered to bring any person or community towards Gods
path. Peaceful invitation to the fold of Islam, as discussed above,
cannot be described as holy imperialism.
Islamic Madrasahs
Much controversy has generated around private Islamic schools,

called Madrasahs, located in Pakistan and elsewhere. A common
perception has thickened in the West that private Islamic schools
are teaching hatred and violence in the guise of jihad. The 2005
bombings of London underground trains revealed that the bombers,
though born and raised in the United Kingdom, had visited Islamic
schools in Pakistan, further reafrming the sensational theory
that Islamic schools are inherently lethal and even minimal con-
tact with them can turn normal persons into terrorists. Suppressive
states, under the leadership of the United States, urge Muslim
countries to close down these schools of hatred or at least reform
them. This unprecedented request that Muslim countries forcibly
restructure privately funded schools is a clear evidence of value
imperialism. It will be equally unprecedented if Muslim nations
request the US for closing down or reforming groups that spread
the ideology of white supremacy.
Madrasahs are not a new concept. They have existed, in one form
or the other, ever since the dawn of Islam, fteen hundred years
ago. The word madrasah is derived from the Arabic root word dars
that means lesson or teaching. Since Islam places a very high pre-
mium on learning, and offers itself as the anti-thesis to the state
of ignorance, dars has been a key educational tool. Over the cen-
turies, dars has been incorporated into distinct institutions, such
as the khutba (Friday sermon), the dars-ul-Quran (teaching of the
Quran), the maktab (teaching to the illiterate), and majlis (con-
gregation of scholars). Madrasahs are also related to khanaqahs.
Khanaqahs were places of learning where Sus taught the secrets
of the Quran, whereas madrasahs have been more rigorous cen-
ters of learning where students learned religion but also history,
logic, interpretive skills, and other analytical and normative meth-
ods to understand the epistemology of Islam in relation to secular
subjects. However, since Islam teaches the unity of knowledge,
derived from One God, no articial separations are erected among
diverse forms of knowledge. The separation of church and school,
a communist idea that originated in the Soviet Union to teach sci-
entic atheism, and a secular idea that public schools have been
forced to practice in the United States, has no place under tradi-
tional Islam. In most Muslim states, private and public schools are
required to teach the fundamentals of Islam.
166 Chapter 4
After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the madrasah under-

went a signicant logistical and conceptual transformation.
Logistically, the madrasah was reduced to the maktab devoted to
offering literacy and basic education to sons and daughters of mil-
lions of Afghan refugees stationed in Pakistan. Due to lack of fund-
ing and other resources, the intellectual rigor of the historic madrasah
was no longer affordable. Whereas the historic madrasah was a
place of comprehensive learning for all Muslims, the new madrasah
came to be associated with minimal education for the indigent and
the homeless. Additionally, the new madrasah was also conceptu-
ally transformed. In addition to teaching literacy and the funda-
mentals of Islam, it was geared towards inculcating a spirit of
ghting the Soviet occupiers, a spirit that the Quran furnishes with
irresistible power when there is a genuine need for jihad. All out-
side powers, including the United States, ought to have been aware
of the contribution of madrasahs in the resistance movement against
the Soviet Union.
Although the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan, the
madrasahs continued to function within the framework of minimal
education and maximal spirit of jihad. The unresolved refugee prob-
lem continued to demand such schools. The rise of the Talibans,
trained in madrasahs, further legitimized and ennobled the exis-
tence of these schools. Funding infrastructure and jobs created and
services provided, all maintained a steady momentum for the sur-
vival of the new madrasah. Even global geopolitical context gave
no clues that madrasahs should be closed down or ideologically
modied. If anything, there was every need to prepare Muslim war-
riors to liberate Muslim populations from occupation, alien domi-
nation, domestic tyranny, and value imperialism.
After defeating the Soviets, therefore, Muslim militants as well
as madrasahs turned their attention to other Muslim lands under
occupation and found that the ideology of ghting for liberation
was still needed. However, the new suppressive state was the yes-
terdays supportive state, the United States. Even though the US
had not occupied any Muslim lands, its support of Israeli occupa-
tion of Palestine was blatant. The disappearance of the Soviet Union
from the superpower scene further highlighted the signicance of
the US as the principal suppressive state. The US troops stationed
in Saudi Arabia came to be equated with near-occupation. The rst
Gulf War and economic sanctions against Iraq added fuel to the
re, consolidating the perception that the US treats the Muslim
world as its new enemy. The placing of Iran, Syria, and Sudan on
the US list of terrorist states was further evidence that the US for-
eign policy is thoroughly anti-Islamic. Thus in 1990s, Muslim mil-
itants around the world were ready to take on the US as their
principal target.
The madrasahs that have so effectively served US policies in the
past were now seen as the source of terror. After 9/11 attacks, the
US demand for their closure was loud and clear. The Pakistani gov-
ernment was prepared to do its part in curbing extremism, but it
was almost impossible to close down more than half a million
madrasahs. Logistical barriers were formidable. Many million chil-
dren attending these schools will have nowhere to go. Many jobs
would be lost and the poor children occupying the streets would be
no less dangerous. More important, no government could close down
Islamic schools in a Muslim country, on the biding of a foreign
power, since that would unleash the peoples wrath.
Furthermore, the teaching of jihad can be initiated more easily
than it can be halted. As a Qurans concept, jihad is part of Islamic
faith. Active recruitment for jihad, however, depends on actual need.
There is no reason to prepare a huge army if there is no war. But
if Muslim communities face military threats, most religious groups
would ercely resist any government ban on teaching jihad. In
August 2005, Pakistans government under pressure from the US
issued a presidential ordinance requiring that all madrasahs be
registered and that they submit their yearly income and expendi-
ture accounts for governmental scrutiny. This nancial account-
ability is sought to assure that no funds are transferred to militants.
Most important, the ordinance demands that no madrasah teach
or publish any literature which promotes militancy or spreads sec-
tarianism or religious hatred. However, the religious alliance of
political parties that operate most madrasahs has refused to com-
ply with the ordinance, arguing that they would accept no gov-
ernment restrictions on syllabus.
Intrusive policies toward madrasahs infuriate Muslim militants.
It is unclear why some militants target Western nightclubs and
discotheques. Muslim militants mistakenly believe that recreational
places represent the Western culture. In one sense, bombing dis-
cotheques and nightclubs seems nonsensical because these places
have little connection with the phenomenon of terrorism. In another
sense, discotheque is the counterpart of madrasah. If the West is
determined to forcibly close down religious schools, militants are
168 Chapter 4
determined to destroy what they call places of sin. This tit for tat
violence adds further complexity to the dynamics of terrorism.
Beyond Value Imperialism
The controversy over Islamic madrasahs raises a key international

legal question. May a nation teach hatred to its children? The
emerging human rights movement for children strongly prohibits
any such brainwashing. The Convention on the Rights of the Child,
a treaty that every nation except the United States has signed,
provides guidelines. In its preamble, the Convention recognizes
that a full and harmonious development of the childs personality
needs a nurturing environment lled with love and understand-
ing. The preamble further requires that the child be brought up
in the spirit of the ideals such as peace, dignity, tolerance, free-
dom, equality and solidarity. In its substantive text, the Convention
draws a balance between international ideals and national customs
and religion. The child should be brought up with a strong sense
of community with other members of his or her group so that the
child may enjoy his or her own culture, to profess and practice his
or own religion.
Applying the Convention principles to Islamic madrasahs, Muslim
countries are under treaty obligation to raise children who appre-
ciate the values of peace and tolerance. Muslim children must not
be taught to hate non-Muslims, nor must they be taught that vio-
lence is permissible against other religious groups who do not pro-
fess the faith of Islam. Any such teachings are also contrary to the
Basic Code (Quran and Sunna). The demand of the international
community that madrasahs be supervised to assure that no hateful
teaching is taking place cannot be dismissed as value imperialism.
Families, communities, nations, and the international community,
each has a right to hold educational institutions accountable for
what they teach to children.
Non-Muslim countries also have an obligation not to teach their
children to hate Muslims or Islam. American children, for exam-
ple, must be protected from stereotypes about Islam and Muslims.
They must also be brought up in the same spirit of ideals proposed
for Muslim children. Nations in conict with Muslim militants,
including the US, Russia, India, and Israel, cannot use terrorism
as an excuse to malign Islam or to paint an unreal picture of
Muslims or even Muslim militants. Proactive measures must be

taken to shield children from prejudice and violence-prone bigotry.
The next chapter examines the concept of the essentialist terror-
ist that has been created to persuade the people, including chil-
dren, that something is inherently wrong with the faith of Islam,
and that the Muslim militant is the product of an essentially vio-
lent faith.
Chapter 5
Phenomenology of Jihad
The Basic Code, consisting of the Quran and Prophets Sunna,

strongly disapproves a do-nothing, fatalistic approach to oppres-
sion. Stoic indifference to a state of servitude, occupation, tyranny,
religious persecution, or any such wrong is not part of the Islamic
way of life. Oppression is not Gods Will. And acquiescence to oppres-
sion is not Gods Way. Therefore, Muslims are obligated to nd
appropriate, and possibly peaceful, solutions to end persecution.
This obligation to vacate the oppression of man against man is
placed on individuals, families, communities, and nations. Prayers
are helpful, but they alone are insufcient to lift the siege of oppres-
sion because God mandates Muslims to use self-help. In empha-
sizing the principle of self-help, the Quran states in candid terms:
God does not change the state of a people unless they themselves
change.1 Self-help, however, should not be equated with criminal-
ity or limited to violence. It includes peaceful resolution of disputes.
Islam is not a religion of compulsive warriors predisposed to
resolve their conicts only through the use of force.2 Nor do teachings
of the Quran allure Muslims to shun peaceful means of dispute
1
Quran 13:11.
2
Ahmed Z. Yamani, Humanitarian International Law in Islam: A General
Outlook, 7 Michigan Year Book of International Legal Studies 189 (1985) (claim-
ing that Islam humanized the Grec-Roman brutality of war and transmitted this
humanization to the Western world).
Phenomenology of Jihad 171
resolution and adopt violence. Muslims have no a priori, ontologi-

cal commitment to violence. Islam is a religion of peace and teaches
its followers to show forgiveness3 and not to be cruel and hard-
hearted.4 Nonetheless, Islam is not a utopian ideology or a set of
ideals that are easy to cherish but difcult to follow. Islam is a
functional religion rooted in human reality. Accordingly, Islam guides
its followers to deal with real situations in a practical manner. By
allowing combat as an alternative under specic circumstances,
Islam recognizes the phenomenon of brute force that some groups
and nations use to take advantage of the powerless and impose
harsh conditions on the helpless. Against such groups and nations,
Islam does not teach non-violence or stoic tolerance. In fact, the
language of the Quran acquires a stern tone: And slay them wher-
ever you catch them, and turn them out from where they have
turned you out; for tumult and oppression are worse than slaugh-
ter.5 The Qurans preference for slaughter over oppression is rooted
in the moral imperative that the phenomenon of brute force must
be resisted and fought without losing heart or falling into despair6
until justice prevails and the oppression is vacated.
The Basic Code offers two basic approaches to dealing with exis-
tential danger, ght and ight that is jihad and hijrah. Offering
yourself or your family or your community as a feast to the preda-
tor is not an acceptable Islamic option, nor is it always wise to
engage in an armed ght with the enemy. In exercising the option
between jihad and hijra, Muslim individuals, families, and com-
munities may assess the strength of the enemy, their own resources,
logistics, geography, long-term consequences, and the size of the
population under persecution. They also may assess whether the
persecution is religious, social, economic, ethnic, or comprehensive,
and whether it is temporary or likely to be permanent. Decoding
the intentions of the enemy is as important as devising a strategy
to defeat oppression. After carefully considering all the relevant
factors, Muslims choose a course of action. Sometimes, ghting is
inevitable. At other times, migration is a better option.
3
Quran 7:199.
4
Quran 3:159.
5
Quran 2:191.
6
Quran 3:139.
172 Chapter 5
5.1 ISLAMIC LAW OF HIJRA
Migration is a fundamental dynamic of Islamic history. The rst

Islamic state was founded after migration, called hijrah. In 622,
the year of hijrah, the year that ofcially begins the Islamic cal-
endar, Prophet Muhammad and his followers were forced to leave
the city of Mecca, which had become a place of persecution and
religious intolerance. In search of peace and freedom, Muslims
moved to Medina, establishing migration as a principle of survival.
The Medina Constitution, a social contract among Muslims, Jews,
and pagans, drafted and signed in 622, launched the new state
built on religious freedom for all. The remarkable features of the
Medina Constitution repudiate the notion of the nation-state built
on the exclusivity of tribe, faith, language, ethnicity, or any such
criterion. All these identities are important and should not be
rejected, disrespected, or forced to extinction. Any model of forced
assimilation is contrary to the Islamic principle of diversity. The
622 Medina state was a multi-ethnic and multi-religious legal order
in which the distinction between the native and the immigrant was
also rejected, thus expanding the concept of Islamic citizenship.
This remarkable rst Islamic constitution established Free State,
a concept that I have presented in The Extinction of Nation-States.
Free State repudiates barriers to One Earth.
The Qurans ight principle is given in an exchange between
angels and the oppressed at the time of the latters death. The
angels ask the oppressed about their lives, to which the oppressed
reply, We were weak and oppressed on earth. The angels say,
Was not the earth of Allah spacious enough for you to emigrate
therein?7 This verse captures the plight of a people who did noth-
ing but passively suffered their existential condition of servitude
and tyranny. They did not migrate. The lesson to be drawn from
this prescription is that eeing from an atrocious condition is a
solution that Muslims must consider. In fact, the tone of the com-
mandment is not simply permissive or suggestive, but mandatory.
Muslims are obligated to migrate to leave oppressive cities, towns,
and countries and move to safer places. The ight principle is not
a principle of convenience but one of afrmative obligation. Just
7
Quran 4:97.
like jihad, hijra is mandatory, particularly if the persecuted are

being forced to abandon their faith. To those who leave their homes
in the cause of Allah, after suffering oppression, we will assuredly
give a goodly home in this world; but truly the reward of the
Hereafter will be greater if they only realized (this)!8 And the peo-
ple who refuse to exercise the option of hijrah, even though they
have the opportunity and the means to do so, will nd their abode
in Hell.9 The Qurans commandment of migration, however, is not
without exceptions. While migration to alleviate a life of misery
and forced conversion to another religion is mandatory for those
who have the means, the Quran places no such obligation on the
weak ones among men, women and children who cannot devise a
plan, nor are they able to direct their way.10 (4:98). Under the doc-
trine of necessity, the weak and the helpless may nd other appro-
priate solutions to repel aggression and religious persecution.
Obligatory and Permissive Migration
While the Quran prescribes mandatory migration, the Sunna explains

the concept of permissive migration. An authentic Hadith, the truth
of which is fully established in Islamic sources, states diverse rea-
sons for which Muslims migrate to foreign lands and countries. The
second caliph, Ummar, heard Prophet Muhammad say:
Actions are but by intention and every man shall have but that which
he intended. Thus he whose migration (hijrah) was for Allah and His
Messenger, and he whose migration was to achieve some worldly
benet or to take some woman in marriage, his migration was for
that which he migrated.11
In addition to introducing the importance of intentions behind
acts, the Hadith explains that Muslims may lawfully migrate from
one place to another for various reasons. Many Muslims have
migrated to the United States in order to provide a better stan-
dard of living for themselves and their families. Other Muslims,
men and women, migrate to join their spouses. Some migrate to
8
Quran 16:42.
9
Quran 4:97.
10
Quran 4:98.
11
Al-Bukhari 3:706.
174 Chapter 5
disseminate the teachings of Islam (dawa). The Hadith does not

prohibit economic or marital migration. It simply offers migration
as an example to teach the signicance of intentions that gener-
ate acts.
The concept of migration mentioned in the Hadith must be dis-
tinguished from the one embodied in the Quran. Economic or marital
migrations are primary examples of permissive, but not obligatory,
hijrah. No Muslim is under any obligation to seek a foreign spouse
or migrate to another country to achieve a more afuent life. But
there is no harm if he or she does so.12 And such migration might
even be a preferred option if it improves the familys standard of
living. Even marital migration is a preferred course of action if the
alternative is to live without a spouse. Despite these advantages,
such migrations are not mandated. Even migration for the sake of
dawa does not appear to be obligatory, though it will be an act of
great service to the cause of Islam. Muslims are obligated to take
care of their families, and any dawa migration that distresses the
family or places them in difculty is beyond the call of duty.
These permissive migrations are not the same as the obligatory
migration that the Quran commands in the context of oppression.
If a Muslim individual or family faces oppression, and if they have
the means to leave the place of oppression, then migration is manda-
tory. It might even be a preferred course if the only other alternative
is to engage in qital ghting and killing. In the face of oppres-
sion, qital/jihad is not an automatic response, nor is it a preferred
response in each and every case of oppression. If oppressors are
militarily strong, migration is a safer solution to avoid persecution.
The Prophet migrated to Medina because at that time the enemies
of Islam were much more powerful than Muslims, and a decision
to resort to jihad would have been extremely harmful to the long-
term interests of the Muslim community. The choice between jihad
and hijrah is one based on common sense and strategy, informed
by a full awareness of relative outcomes. That is why the Quran
does not mandate migration for weak members of the Muslim com-
munity, because in their case, the loss from migration might exceed
that of living under oppression and nding other means to allevi-
ate the situation.
12
Muslims, however, are ordinarily reluctant to migrate to a non-Muslim coun-
try where they are likely to lose their faith.
Hijrah Not Mandatory for Large Populations

While Muslims should prefer hijrah over jihad to avoid unneces-
sary bloodshed, the option of hijrah is not always available, nor
would it be the right of course of action in certain situations. For
example, the Palestinians living in Israel and the occupied terri-
tories may opt for hijrah and migrate en masse to other countries,
leaving the entire land for Israelis. Those who dream of building
a greater and purer Jewish Israel would welcome the prospect of
Palestinians voluntarily leaving the land. Thus, hijrah is a possi-
ble solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conict. Similarly, Russia
would not mind if Chechens were to migrate to Muslim countries
and leave the resourceful land for the Russians. India would also
raise no objections if Kashmiri Muslims were to migrate to Pakistan.
In all of these cases, migration is a possible solution to local and
regional conicts. Yet, Islamic law does not make it mandatory for
these large populations under occupation and persecution to choose
hijrah as the solution to their problems.
It appears that hijrah is a temporary, micro-solution to problems
of persecution. Hijrah is a mandatory option only when the perse-
cuted group is small in size. It is not applicable to large popula-
tions. In other words, the Quran does not mandate that an entire
population migrate to avoid persecution. For any such rule will be
exploited by persecutors and occupiers. It also appears that the
hijrah is a temporary solution. Muslim refugees are entitled to
return to their homeland, just as the Prophet and his followers
returned to Mecca when they had accumulated the means to ght
and overcome the persecutors. Mandatory hijrah, therefore, does
not require an entire population to migrate to another place, nor
does it require permanent migration, nor does it mandate a per-
manent relinquishing of all rights to the land or other properties
left behind.
Hijrah Distinguished from Forced Exile

Mandatory migration must not be confused with forced exile, though
the two might merge under some circumstances. Mandatory migra-
tion is a Quranic concept under which individuals and groups, fear-
ing persecution, are required to migrate to a safer place even though
persecuting authorities have not asked them to leave. By contrast,
forced exile occurs when the authorities in control of an area put
legal or de facto pressure on targeted inhabitants to leave their
176 Chapter 5
homes and businesses. One could argue that persecution and threats
to life and property constitute pressure that forces inhabitants to
leave, even though the authorities have made no such overt demand.
Likewise, individuals and groups who choose to leave an area of
persecution are in fact forced to do so if the fear or fact of perse-
cution leave no other meaningful options. In view of these merg-
ing realties, it should not be assumed that if Muslims opt to leave
under intense pressure of persecution, that the persecuting author-
ities are blameless. The Quran provides a way out of persecution
for the victims; it does not condone oppressors acts and decisions
of deportations, forced exile or transfer of populations.
Hijrah Compatible with International Law

From facts constituting the Prophets hijrah and the law embod-
ied in the Basic Code, hijrah emerges as a principle of compulsion
and necessity, a concept similar to that of refugees. The interna-
tional law of refugees binds states not to return persons who have
ed their countries in legitimate fear of persecution. In this sense,
the Medina constitution was a forerunner of the law of refugees.
If no such protection exists in law, persecuted groups will have no
option but to perish or accept some fundamental change in their
lives. For example, if a certain group is being persecuted for prac-
ticing a certain religion, the group faces physical and spiritual
extermination. The law of migration allows the persecuted group
to leave the hostile land, and it obligates communities to open their
doors and provide shelter to the refugees. A successful application
of the law would preserve the groups physical and spiritual sur-
vival. In this sense, the protection of refugees is a fundamental cri-
tique of the nation-state. For if state borders were truly sovereign,
the persecuted group would perish behind the curtain of sover-
eignty because no state would be obligated to lift the curtain and
admit refugees.
The concept of Islamic hijrah is fully compatible with the emerg-
ing international law of human rights. For example, states are pro-
hibited from forcing a population to leave a country so that their
homes and businesses may be granted to another population. Under
the Rome Statute, which establishes the International Criminal
Court, an act of forcible transfer of population when committed as
part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civil-
ian population is a crime against humanity. In armed conicts,
mass forcible transfers of populations are war crimes. The Fourth

Geneva Convention, Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons
in Time of War, prohibits any individual or mass forcible transfers
from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or
to that of any other country, occupied or not. No motive can ever
justify such transfers. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
grants individuals the right to seek asylum in other countries from
persecution. But it also recognizes the right of these individuals to
return to their home countries. In addition, the Declaration pro-
tects the property rights of all individuals, including refugees.
Regional human rights treaties, such as the European Convention
on Human Rights, ban the collective expulsion of aliens.13
5.2 FORMS OF JIHAD
Jihad, including the use of force in the cause of Allah, is an inte-

gral part of Islamic faith. Ever since the inception of Islam, about
fourteen hundred years ago, Muslims have engaged in jihad to
defend themselves against external aggression, to overthrow inter-
nal tyrants, to re-conquer lost lands, and to restore fundamental
Islamic values ignored or set aside under secular regimes.14 The
rapid expansion of Islam in the early period; the ensuing triumph
over ancient civilizations such as Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia and
India; and the establishment of Muslim dynasties and empires in
many regions of the world came about in part because Muslims
were willing to use force, when inevitable, to defend their core objec-
tives. Inspired by the example of Prophet Mohammad, who him-
self provided military leadership in armed expedition, Muslims
understand the reality of force in human affairs. Generally, Muslims
are a peaceful and forgiving people. However, they are prepared to
die and to kill if their Islamic way of life is in extreme jeopardy.
This militancy is a unique element in the realm of spirituality,
which distinguishes Islam from the more pacist religions of the
world.15 The Quran states that Allah has granted a grade higher
13
Protocol No. 4.
14
Shaheen Sardar Ali & Javaid Rehman, The Concept of Jihad in Islamic
International Law, 10 Journal of Conict and Security Law 321 (2005).
15
Quran 2:216 (ghting is obligatory).
178 Chapter 5
to those who strive and ght with their goods and persons than to
those who sit at home.16 Accordingly, Muslims are continually oblig-
ated to spend their resources for good causes. But when a Muslim
community is oppressed, occupied or subjugated, they are even
more obligated to ght with their goods and persons, forging a
fearless, non-submissive, militant resistance.
Peaceful Jihad
Peaceful jihad is the struggle for the cause of God, without resort-
ing to violence. Conducted through peaceful means, the spiritual
jihad is a primary Islamic duty as are the daily prayers and fast-
ing.17 Accordingly, Muslim men and women are under a legal
obligation to engage in jihad. It is important to bear in mind that
Islamic jurisprudence does not adopt the positivist distinction
between law and morality, often made in secular legal systems, by
which the state has the exclusive authority to make and enforce
laws even if they are incompatible with the norms of a generally
shared morality. In Islam, injunctions of the Quran constitute law,
placing a direct obligation on Muslims to behave accordingly; no
state has any authority to repeal or modify the laws of the Quran.
Some Islamic countries have formally adopted the Quran as the
most superior source of legal norms and any legislation incompat-
ible with the principles of the Quran is void ab initio. A few Muslim
countries, however, contain the principle of secularism in their con-
stitutions, and consequently the laws of the Quran are not enforced
through the state system. In such countries, Islamic groups chal-
lenge the existing state institutions and demand that the legal sys-
tem be subjected to the supremacy of the Quran. Invoking the label
of Islamic Fundamentalism, secular governments reject these
demands and sometimes suppress the groups. Although Islamic
Fundamentalism is a controversial and uid concept, its legal impli-
cation is clear: it requires that the Quran be the ultimate source
of legal norms in every Muslim community. But even when a state
refuses to formally incorporate the supremacy of the Quran in its
16
Quran 4:95.
17
ABUL ALA MAUDUDI, TOWARDS UNDERSTANDING ISLAM 141 (1980).
legal system, many Muslims in that state continue to draw their

inspiration directly from the text of the Quran and believe that
they are obligated by its norms. Thus, the concept of jihad is a legal
doctrine for millions of Muslims who elevate the obligations of the
Quran to the highest status of law.
Conceptually, the spiritual jihad is a ceaseless effort to guide
human civilization to the straight path.18 It is based on a funda-
mental presumption that the ultimate objective of human advance-
ment is for the individual to become a spiritually free human being
who submits to no one but God. At the individual level, the spiri-
tual jihad begins with introspection and cleansing of the self. Only
after the individual has mastered the self and overcome the forces
of greed, impatience, revenge and deliberate falsehood can he or
she embark upon the course of living a spiritually meaningful life.
Being a practical religion, however, Islam does not encourage
Muslims to renounce the world or embrace poverty a materially
enriched life is compatible with the Islamic faith. Islam proposes
a middle path, striking a balance between worldly pursuits and
spiritual freedom. A total devotion to God by discarding responsi-
bilities towards the family and the community is not the purpose
of spiritual jihad, because asceticism torn off from all communal
obligations is not a preferred way of life.
At the community level, Muslim men and women work towards
establishing and maintaining a just socioeconomic system conducive
to maximum spiritual freedom for all including non-Muslims. The
Quran mandates that Islamic society be a community justly bal-
anced.19 Accordingly, the spiritual jihad seeks to establish equi-
librium between the material and the spiritual needs of the people.
A justly-balanced community constructs efcient and reliable insti-
tutions to provide basic necessities of life for all. The spiritual jihad
generates a cooperative and compassionate moral psychology rooted
in the teachings of the Quran.
Spiritual jihad shuns all forms of violence and instead conducts
a peaceful struggle, without causing physical harm to anyones life
or property. Its aim is to spread the good values of Islam and to
challenge unjust civilizations by offering the concept of a justly-
balanced community in which the material and the spiritual, the
individual and the family, and the family and the community, are
18
Quran 1:7.
19
Quran 2:143.
180 Chapter 5
all poised in harmony. Due to its unique and difcult nature, spir-
itual jihad is a signicant form of jihad. It requires Muslim men
and women to offer their material and personal resources, as specied
in the Quran. But the use of such resources in the service of spir-
itual jihad involves creativity, strategy, and an unremitting faith
to provide an example to non-Muslims that the Islamic character
and its way of life are most conducive to achieving a balanced
human evolution. Therefore, qital (armed ghting) should never be
confused with spiritual jihad; offering life and property in qital is
not the same thing as the contribution of these resources in wag-
ing an effective spiritual jihad.
Financial Jihad
The Quran commands: Go forth, lightly or heavily (equipped), and

engage in jihad with your property and your beings in the Cause
of God. That is best for you if you but knew.20 This mandate
addresses all Muslims and solicits varying contributions from them
according to what they can afford. Two fundamental contributions
are mentioned with great clarity: physical jihad and nancial jihad.
And the two contributions are by no means exclusive of each other.
A Muslim can offer both, just as many companions of the Prophet
engaged in jihad with their physical and nancial assets. Financial
jihad places no obligation on the poor who themselves are entitled
to receive help. The obligation of nancial jihad is placed on wealthy
and middle class Muslims. There is no xed formula for nancial
contribution, as Muslims donate for jihad causes according to need
and their own capability.21 Go lightly or heavily armed is the part
of the command that makes it clear that the jihad obligation is not
equal but equitable. You give from what you have, and you give for
jihad in the context of many other obligations that coexist. A Muslim,
for example, is obligated to pay zakat; he is obligated to take care
of his family; and he is obligated to help the needy and feed the
20
Quran 9:41.
21
The Islamic law of wills places quantity constraints on the power of the tes-
tator to donate his or her property to charitable causes. For example, the law pro-
hibits a testator with children to donate more than 1/3 of his or her net estate to
charity. The Prophet said: One-third (for charity) is sufcient, though one-third
is too much also. Al-Bukhari 4:7.
hungry. All of these obligations require nancial resources. However,

these obligations do not rest on the same legal footing. Zakat is
obligatory in both a moral and a legal sense. Other nancial oblig-
ations, including the one for jihad, are moral and spiritual, but not
legal.
The concept of nancial jihad must be placed in the larger Quranic
framework of spending. The Quran repeatedly instructs Muslims
to spend from what God has given them. The Qurans opening lines
(Sura 2) identify the qualities of persons, men and women, who
will benet the most from its teachings. One essential quality of
victorious Muslims is that they spend out of what has been pro-
vided to them.22 This emphasis on spending is the antithesis of
hoarding that the Quran condemns with no equivocation. They vie
each other in hoarding, says the Quran, until they visit the graves.
Islams spending doctrine, of course, does not promote indulgence
or foolish wasting of resources, because any abuse or misuse of
resources is utter ingratitude, a behavior prohibited under Islam.
Islamic spending is not blind or frivolous consumerism. Instead,
the Quran promotes spending on good causes that serve family,
enhance social welfare, and support liberation from slavery, difculty,
occupation, domination, and hegemony. Instructions against hoard-
ing highlight the fact that funds lying under the carpet are dead
money. Instructions for spending underscore the benet that accrues
when money circulates in the arteries of a dynamic and fruitful
economy.23
The doctrine of spending, including nancial jihad, is not just a
worldly doctrine to boost an economy or achieve freedom from an
oppressive enemy. Its mainstay is spiritual self-development. Two
Quranic words most associated with spending are zakat and sadaqa.
Whereas zakat is an obligatory yearly tax, sadaqa is voluntary giv-
ing throughout the year. Whereas zakat is measured in terms of
monetary value, sadaqa is a more exible charity that includes giv-
ing money but is not conned to it. Rendering useful services and
even good manners, such as a friendly smile, are manifestations of
sadaqa. Both zakat and sadaqa are the lawful means of spending
in Gods way. Both forms of giving are retail in nature. Each Muslim
22
Quran 2:3.
23
This spending doctrine read with the Qurans concept of tijara (contract free-
dom of business transactions) further strengthens the ow of money and the con-
sequent prosperity.
182 Chapter 5
gives something. No one is just the taker. Even beggars who receive
sadaqa return the favor by wishing you well. And wishing some-
one well is sadaqa.
The etymology of zakat and sadaqa reveals their spiritual root-
ing. The word zakat is derived from zakd, which means both growth
and purication. By giving zakat, Muslims purify their savings.
And giving zakat does not diminish the value of property, but helps
it grow. Paying zakat, therefore, is an antecedent condition for spir-
itual health and economic prosperity. The word sadaqa is derived
from sidq, which means truth. Sadaqa as a concept is an inex-
haustible reservoir of resources, for God is sadiq. Sadaqa as a prac-
tice is sharing ones resources with others and includes voluntary
gifts. It is not merely help extended to others. It is also self-help.
It benets the giver as much as it benets the receiver of sadaqa.
Muslims in touch with the teachings of the Quran sincerely believe
that sadaqa is essential for living a morally intelligent life. A life
without sharing ones resources for good causes is stagnant and
dirty. And a person who hoards property without giving sadaqa
crosses the boundaries of healthy materialism, becomes warped,
and loses touch with the truth.
It is in this spiritual context that nancial jihad is related to
zakat and sadaqa. All three are tied together with the same rope.
At one level, monetary contribution towards a lawful jihad is a sure
help to others. At another level, such contributions help the giver.
If a Muslim community is under occupation, apartheid, hegemony,
or alien domination, nancial jihad obligates Muslims across the
world to share the cost of liberation. Furthermore, Muslims around
the world cannot in good conscience just sit and do nothing to elim-
inate the injustice. The Islamic way of life is neither stoic, nor
selsh self-protection. It is permanently communitarian. As such,
Muslims who live far away from the theatre of injustice would still
feel obligated an obligation arising from the deep spiritual struc-
ture of being a Muslim to send food and medicine to the com-
munity under distress, and if need be, guns to the warriors who
are engaged in military jihad with an unrelenting enemy.
Military Jihad
Arising from the colonial subjugation, the Islamic world has entered
into a new era of self-assertion. In the past few decades, many
nation-states with predominantly Muslim populations have gained

independence. Several such states achieved freedom by waging a
successful armed struggle against the colonial ruler. The most heroic
war against foreign occupation occurred in Afghanistan where the
Mujahedeen launched a protracted campaign against the Soviet
forces. In many parts of the world, Muslim communities still live
under foreign occupation and oppression. In accordance with the
Quranic injunction that mandates ghting until there is no more
tumult or oppression and until justice prevails,24 diverse groups
and organizations have sprung to wage an armed struggle against
the oppressor. The ethnic cleansing of Muslims in Bosnia includ-
ing the forced starvation of incarcerated men, the organized rape
of women and the random massacre of children, reinforces the
Islamic belief that the oppressor shall trample over the powerless.
The Quran therefore places an afrmative duty on every Muslim
to be always prepared to ght for men, women, and children whose
cry is: Our Lord! Rescue us from this (ruthless) town.25
In Islam, the use of force is not the exclusive or even the pri-
mary means for attaining legitimate Islamic objectives. In fact, the
military jihad is allowed only when the peaceful means of vacat-
ing oppression are unavailable or have failed. Islamic jurisprudence
makes a functional distinction between jihad and qital.26 Both
words are found in the Quran and Hadith, and they are not syn-
onymous. The word jihad means exertion or striving, and the
word qital means ghting or killing. The Quran uses the word
jihad to signify moral, intellectual and material activism in the
name of Allah. Drawing a distinction between jihad (action) and
quud (inaction), the Quran assigns the word jihad to the activity
of believers who spend their material and personal resources in
the cause of Allah. Accordingly, jihad is an existential struggle that
each and every Muslim is duty bound to undertake for performing
and promoting goodness.27
24
Quran 2:193.
25
Quran 4:75.
26
Abdulaziz A. Sachedina, The Development of Jihad in Islamic Revelation and
History, in ISLAM IN CROSS, CRESCENT, AND SWORD 35, at 37 (James Turner Johnson
& John Kelsay eds., 1990).
27
Ahkam al-Bughat contains the rules regulating the treatment of religious
and political dissidents who rebel against the Imam of the Islamic state. Khaled
Abou El Fadl, Ahkam al-Bughat: Irregular Warfare and the Law of Rebelion, in
ISLAM IN CROSS, CRESCENT, AND SWORD (James Turner Johnson & John Kelsay eds.,
1990). The law of internal rebellion may be further distinguished from ordinary
184 Chapter 5
In contrast to jihad waged with material and intellectual resources,

qital is physical, as it requires killing and dying. The Quran not
only allows but mandates qital, though under exceptionally oppres-
sive circumstances, called zulm. The most legitimate use of qital
is to ght a ruthless oppressor who unleashes zulm (oppression)
on a Muslim city, nation or community. The Qurans injunction is
clear: Any why should you not engage in qital in the cause of Allah
and of those who, being weak, are subjected to zulm Men, women
and children whose cry is Our Lord! Rescue us from this town
whose people are oppressors.28 This Quranic verse captures a sce-
nario under which a genocidal oppressor is determined to assault,
rape, torture, mutilate and kill Muslim men, women and children;
evict them from their houses; cut their supplies of food, medicine
and drinking water; and prevent their access to schools and mosques.
Under such an extreme form of oppression, the Quran mandates
qital on the theory that zulm is a greater evil.29 Balancing com-
peting values is the core logic of reasoning used in the Quran. For
example, the Quran prohibits gambling on the theory that there is
more loss than gain in this activity.30 On the basis of similar rea-
soning, the Quran allows qital to ght zulm if the material and
spiritual loss under zulm is greater than the loss suffered through
qital. Thus qital is permissible when the zulm is unbearable and
the qital is the only option to undo the suffering of the Islamic
community.
According to the Quran, Muslims have a binding covenant with
Allah to ght against the extreme forms of injustice, a covenant
under which they kill others and are killed.31 The covenant of
qital is not limited to killing. It also imposes a duty on Muslims
not to be afraid of dying. In addition to promising paradise to
Muslims killed in qital, the Quran immortalizes them: Do not say
that those who are slain in the cause of Allah are dead; they are
alive, although you are not aware of them.32 For skeptics who
doubt the usefulness of the covenant of qital, the Qurans message
criminal activity. The law of rebellion applies to a baghi (rebel) who commits a
Khuruj (an act of rebellion) with a ta"wil (reason) while enjoying shauka (power).
Id. at 155. A rebel is treated as an ordinary criminal if he lacks a reason or power.
Id.
28
Quran 4:75.
29
Quran 2:217 (Fitna is greater than qital).
30
Quran 2:219.
31
Quran 9:111.
32
Quran 2:154.
is clear: Qital is prescribed to you, even if you dislike it.33 Hence,

the covenant of qital is not reserved for those who are naturally
inclined to ght or kill. It imposes a duty on every able-bodied
Muslim to die and to kill under exceptional circumstances of zulm.34
Even women are allowed to join the battleeld, assuring food sup-
plies and taking care of the wounded.35
Although the covenant of qital is binding on all Muslims, it does
not allow unrestricted personal brutality, nor does it mean that
each Muslim is free to adopt violence at will.36 Under the covenant,
the decision to kill or die cannot be an arbitrary, revenge-based,
emotional decision. Qital is a rational choice that only the Imam,
the leader of the Muslim community, is authorized to make. Though
the Imam exercises the formal power of making such a decision,
even he must not order qital without careful deliberation. Under
the shura (consultation) principle a principle at the heart of
Islamic life that demands consultation for any and all important
decisions affecting the community the Imam must consult with
his advisers about the logistic and strategic ends of qital. After due
consultation, if the Imam orders qital, Muslims are then under a
legal obligation to carry out the Imams orders. Of course, Muslims
may disobey the orders if they violate clear rules of the Quran.37
The means and methods of qital are neither rigid, nor lawless,
nor historically determined. They are deliberate, rational and always
rooted in Islamic values. Of course, the best way to ght is to ght
well and fearlessly. Open battle, ambush, and guerilla ghting, are
all compatible with the notion of qital. The means and methods of
qital reect the needs of the time, the size and power of the enemy,
and the logistical situation on the ground. In all cases, however,
exibility is the key of qital to the extent that Muslims should use
the most effective means to smite at their necks.38 This Quranic
injunction does not advocate brutality or indiscriminate use of force,
but demands a commitment to ght hard when the decision of qital
is taken.
33
Quran 2:216.
34
No duty is imposed on the blind, the lame, and the sick. Quran 48:17.
35
Al-Bukhar 4:134. During the battles led by the prophet, the women provided
the people with water and brought the wounded and the killed back to Medina.
(Im not sure what this source is).
36
Perdy is also prohibited under Islamic law. See Yamani, supra note 2, at
202.
37
Al-Bukhari 4:203.
38
Quran 47:4.
186 Chapter 5
Qital is mandatory only when peaceful means of jihad are unavail-

able or have become ineffective; qital for the sake of qital is pro-
hibited. Even when summoned by the leader, qital is executed
within the constraints of Islamic values including forgiveness and
reconciliation. Once the ghting is over and the oppression is vacated,
the Quran mandates that qital come to an end, without any more
loss of life.39 Muslims may even show generosity toward the defeated
oppressor, once a binding treaty of peace and justice has been
concluded.40
The relationship between jihad and qital is both complex and
exible. Qital is a means of jihad, but certainly not the only means.41
Since the ultimate goal of jihad is to serve the cause of Allah, good
sense dictates that Muslims choose the most effective means to dis-
seminate Islamic values and use qital only when the oppressor is
unrelenting and when the peaceful means to create and sustain
conditions conducive to spiritual freedom are unavailable. The
supreme jihad in the cause of Allah is ordinarily done through per-
suasion, moral examples, and taking moral positions.
Thus, jihad not qital is a fundamental Islamic value, as impor-
tant as saying daily prayers and being good and dutiful to ones
parents.42 The ultimate objective of qital is to vacate the extreme
forms of oppression. The ultimate objective of jihad is to nurture
peaceful conditions of spiritual freedom for all, including non-
Muslims, so that every individual, man or woman, is released from
servitude to other human beings.43
The distinction between jihad and qital is essential for the under-
standing of Islamic faith. Jihad is a more comprehensive struggle
that includes, but it is not limited to, mere qital. In fact, qital is a
small part of jihad, undertaken only under exceptional circum-
stances. Thus, whereas qital is a rare effort, jihad is a perpetual
activity. Whereas qital aims at vacating the badness of the oppres-
sor, jihad strives to promote the goodness of the people. In other
39
Quran 47:4.
40
Id.
41
There are constraints even on qital as a legitimate means of jihad.
42
When asked What is the best deed? the prophet replied, to offer prayers
at their xed times. When asked What is next? the prophet replied, to be good
and dutiful to your parents. When further asked, what is next? the prophet
replied, to participate in Jihad in Allahs cause. Al-Bukhari 4:41.
43
Sayyid Qutb, MILESTONES 58 (Ahmed Zaki Hammad trans., 1990) (The
rst edition appeared in Cairo in 1964).
words, the obligation to die or kill arises under extreme forms of

oppression; the obligation to do good with material and intellec-
tual resources exists under all circumstances. Therefore, even when
Muslims are engaged in qital with guns and grenades, jihad waged
with money and mind does not lose its distinctive signicance.
5.3 TERRORISM AND MILITARY JIHAD
In the past few decades, the notion of jihad has become synony-
mous with the concept of terrorism. Even though the term ter-
rorists is used to designate and condemn diverse groups ghting
for countless causes, terrorism is frequently associated with Muslim
ghters. The slaughter of Israelis in Tel Aviv, the abduction of
tourists in the Indian-occupied Kashmir, and the armed resistance
in Chechnya, to name a few ongoing scenes of violence, present
Islam as a religion that inspires its followers to use force instead
of nding peaceful solutions to existing conicts. This violence-
drenched image of Islam is reinforced when Muslim groups ght-
ing in the name of Allah turn their guns at each other, or against
their own rulers, governments and home states. The United Nations
General Assembly and Security Council have passed resolutions
condemning the acts of violence that the Muslim groups have
allegedly perpetrated. Even the Organization of Islamic Conference,
a community of Muslim states of the world, has expressed concern
over the growing world-wide identication of Islam with terrorism.
On the ontological assumption that Muslim warriors only under-
stand the language of force, violence begets violence. The sup-
pressive states, determined to root out terrorism directed against
their property and persons, use both symbolic and massive force
to punish Muslim groups and their infra-structure, a punishment
that covers the globe. The United States, for example, bombed a
pharmaceutical complex in the Sudan and Oasma bin Ladens secret
networks in Afghanistan, both allegedly involved in the destruc-
tion of American embassies in Africa. The Soviet Union has waged
a brutal war against the rebels in Chechnya, destroying the city
of Grozny and forcing hundreds of thousands of Muslim women
and children to ee from their homes. Israeli response to armed
attacks from Muslim groups is often swift and sturdy. Indias secu-
rity forces do not hesitate to use excessive force in suppressing
Muslim warriors in Kashmir.
188 Chapter 5
In addition to punishing the so-called acts of terrorism, sup-

pressive states put diplomatic pressure on Muslim states to curb
Muslim groups operating within their boundaries from waging any
armed struggle or even engaging in any armed training. When
Muslim states refuse to do so, they are declared terrorist states,
thus losing international respect and trade benets, as well as risk-
ing armed reprisals. The United States, for example, has placed
several Muslim nations on its list of terrorist states, imposing eco-
nomic sanctions. The United Nations Security Council has also
imposed economic sanctions on some Muslim states for refusing to
hand over persons accused of terrorism.
Not too long ago the right to jihad, in the context of a liberation
movement, was fully compatible with the international right to self-
determination, freedom and independence, a right that supported
peoples under colonial and racist regimes or other forms of alien
domination to struggle to that end. This right to liberation, avail-
able both under the dictates of jihad and international law, also
allowed the oppressed groups to seek and receive support from
friends and allies.44
The new rhetoric, which brands Muslim groups ghting for the
independence of Kashmir, Chechnya, and Palestine as terrorists,
and Muslim states supporting them as terrorist states, is incom-
patible with the international right of self-determination through
armed struggle. Yet, legal scholars and public ofcials defend the
counter-measures of suppressive states as lawful responses to the
violent acts of Muslim groups ghting for the liberation of their
homelands. It appears that international institutions are now mov-
ing toward outlawing all forms of armed struggle by any group
against any state, even if a state maintains unlawful occupation
or alien domination in violation of international law. The new
rhetoric that equates armed struggle with terrorism may indeed
weaken or even terminate the right to self-determination through
the use of force. But whether this change in law will also persuade
Muslim ghters that their Quranic right to jihad has now been
extinguished raises an important and difcult question.
Of course, no rule of international law will be inherently stable,
nor perhaps enforceable, except at a very high cost, if it opposes a
fundamental belief of one billion Muslims who inhabit almost every
44
UN Denition of Aggression.
corner of the world, and who control more than fty nation-states.
The right to jihad, as explained later in this chapter, is a funda-
mental belief of Islamic faith, clearly stated in the Quran. There-
fore, any arbitrary prohibition of jihad will be unacceptable to the
Muslims of the world. In fact, violence will escalate if the right to
jihad is suppressed as a matter of international law, without accom-
modating the legitimate aspirations of Muslims ghting against
occupation, foreign domination and outright oppression.
This section examines the relationship between terrorism and
jihad. Terrorism is a broad and controversial phrase; no one denition
can capture the complexity of causes for which individuals use force
to terrorize states, governments and communities. Muslim ghters
active against Israel, the United States, Russia, and India have
bombed army barracks, embassies, and trade centers. They have
made hostages, hijacked planes, and abducted tourists. The target
states condemn Muslims as bandits, cowards, and barbarians. But
the word terrorists is the most common label to both character-
ize and reject the armed struggle of Islamic groups engaged in the
liberation of Palestine, Chechyna and Kashmir.
Some Muslim and non-Muslim commentators argue that terror-
ism is incompatible with the Basic Code, and that Muslim groups
engaged in violence distort Islam to serve their narrow political or
ideological agendas,45 which of course, some do. Furthermore, not
every act of violence committed in the name of Islam is jihad. Over
the centuries, Islam has restrained its followers from unleashing
unlawful violence for which there is no clear basis in the teachings
of the Quran. And whenever a ruler ordered unlawful qital, his
orders were criticized and condemned.46 This is so because the Quran
orders Muslims not to take life which Allah has made sacred
except for just cause.47 The Quran also prohibits Muslims from
forcibly converting anyone to Islam, for there is no compulsion in
religion.48
Under zulm, however, the Islamic message of peace yields to more
militant behavior. Unlike Christianity, Islams love is conditional;
45
David Aaron Schwartz, International Terrorism and Islamic Law, 29 Columbia
Journal of Transnational Law 629 (1991) (concluding that Shariah strongly con-
demns acts of terror-violence).
46
M. Khadduri, The Islamic Conception of Justice 166 (1984) (There is no
justication for attacking a Christian city without any provocation).
47
Quran 17:33.
48
Quran 2:256.
190 Chapter 5
it not only ceases to exist under zulm, but turns into belligerence,
provoking among Muslims a stern and uncompromising response.
A militant response to zulm is not a concoction of Muslim extrem-
ists, nor is it an artifact of the Arab culture. It is a response that
the Quran demands from, and imposes upon, every Muslim under
the covenant of qital. And it is in ghting zulm that the nexus
between qital and terrorism becomes one, fused and inseparable.
The Quran, for example, states forcefully that the Muslims ght-
ing zulm must strike terror in the hearts of their enemies.49 This
terror may be caused by a show of force, either of men willing to
kill and die or of weapons that Muslim ghters are willing to use.
The terror so produced is not simply directed at the enemies, but
also at others besides them whom you do not know but Allah
does.50 These others include the overt and covert allies of the
perpetrators of zulm. So, if terrorism means causing a credible fear
of harm in the heart of the enemies not any enemy but the one
who perpetrates zulm it is fully compatible with the teachings of
the Quran. This is what the Muslim groups ghting zulm in
Palestine, Chechnya and Kashmir believe they are doing. And if
this is what suppressive states regard as Islamic terrorism, they
are in no way defaming Islam. So in the realm of unvarnished
truth, the word terrorism is an accurate description of the vio-
lence of Muslim groups engaged in qital.
If Muslim groups engaged in qital are spiritually trained to strike
terror in the hearts of the enemies, the question remains whether
they themselves can be deterred by a larger show and use of force.
The armed struggle for the liberation of Palestine and Chechnya,
for example, demonstrates that Muslim groups ght harder when
the odds are high while zulm remains unabated. The Russian
destruction of the cities of Chechnya failed to deter Muslim ghters
from inicting harm on Russian soldiers. The relentless Israeli
bombing of Southern Lebanon could not mitigate the resolve of
Islamic Jihad, an organization ghting for the liberation of Lebanon.
In fact, the cycle of violence escalates when suppressive states use
more force to resist Islamic qital.
Again, the determination to ght zulm under all odds is not sim-
ply the product of Islamic extremism. Any reader of the Quran can
see that the militancy to ght zulm under all odds is the Qurans
49
Quran 8:60.
50
Id.
irrefutable message. For example, the Quran prepares the Muslims

for qital by discounting the strength of the enemy, promising that
one Muslim freedom ghter is roughly equal to ten men ghting
for the perpetuation of zulm.51 This is so, the Quran argues, because
those ghting for the perpetuation of zulm are a people without
understanding.52 For example, despite its superior strength, the
Israeli army had to leave the occupied Lebanon because Muslim
ghters were relentless in their acts of violence whereas Israeli sol-
diers (and citizens) began to question the wisdom of unlawful occu-
pation and the consequent loss of life. Furthermore, the Quran
eliminates the fear of death from the mind of a Muslim ghter. Of
course, no soldier, secular or religious, can ght well unless he over-
comes the fear of death. Yet, a Muslim soldier is much more pre-
pared to give his life in the cause of Allah, and therefore, he is
much more willing to undertake exceptionally dangerous acts that
strike terror in the hearts of the enemies.53
The Basic Code creates the institution of shaheed: the one who
dies in a lawful qital. The Quran promises that the shaheed shall
be gathered together.54 Moreover, every shaheed is assured a high
place in heaven. The Prophet said: Nobody who enters Paradise
likes to go back to the world even if he had everything on the earth,
except a Mujahid who wishes to return to the world so that he may
be martyred ten times because of the dignity he (the shaheed)
receives (from Allah).55 Dying in a lawful qital is a source of pride
not only in the life hereafter, but even in this life. The Islamic com-
munity highly values the courage of the shaheed and the sacrice
of his family. This is why many young men have been willing to
undertake suicidal bombings in the heart of Israel. While a shaheed
is a courageous man for an Islamic community, suppressive states
have often called these suicidal bombers cowards and terrorists.
Islamic Law of Armed Conict
The secular law of war makes a fundamental distinction between

jus ad bellum and jus in bello. Jus ad bellum is the law of why
51
Quran 8:65.
52
Quran 8:65.
53
Quran 8:60.
54
Quran 3:158.
55
Al-Bukhari 4:72.
192 Chapter 5
nations go to war, and more importantly, whether the reasons for

going to war are just or unjust. Jus ad bellum, however, is not
conned to norms of morality. It is a legal concept and addresses
the question whether a war is legal or illegal. The United Nations
Charter, for example, prescribes an ambitious general rule under
which any aggressive use of force is unlawful. However, the Charter
still leaves open two distinct exceptions for jus ad bellum: (1) self-
defense; and (2) the Security Councils decision to authorize an
aggressive war. In addition, states have offered new lawful reasons
to justify war. Humanitarian intervention, that is, the use of force
to alleviate a situation of gross human rights violation, though con-
troversial, has some support in the international community. In
launching its invasion of Iraq in 2003, the United States introduced
yet another basis to legitimize jus ad bellum. Called preemptive
self-defense, the concept allows the aggressive use of force to pre-
empt a future attack that the aggressor perceives to be coming.
The idea of preemptive self-defense has been largely rejected as a
dangerous exception available only to powerful states. The United
Nations Secretary General declared the Iraqi war illegal.
Jus in bello is the law that regulates the conduct of warfare, once
the war has begun. Jus in bello applies to all wars whether they
are just or unjust, legal or illegal. In modern legal vocabulary, jus
in bello is known as the law of armed conict, a substantial por-
tion of which is codied in the four Geneva Conventions. Soldiers
are obligated to follow jus in bello, for otherwise they are declared
unlawful combatants. Impersonating the enemy by wearing its uni-
form, for example, is perdy and is considered unlawful under jus
in bello. The emerging law of human rights, encompassing inter
alia prohibitions against torture, has furthered deepened the scope
of jus in bello. Since some weapons are more inhumane than oth-
ers, an attempt has been made to ban the use of certain weapons.
However, the control of weapons is a more complex regime not sim-
ply inspired by humanitarian concerns. In a nutshell, the primary
purposes of jus in bello are to humanize the war; save gratuitous
destruction of enemy personnel and property; minimize suffering;
and safeguard the rights of prisoners of war, the sick, the wounded,
and civilians.
The most controversial aspect of contemporary jihad is the use
of force against persons having only indirect connection with the
oppressor. Often dened and condemned as terrorism, the indis-
criminate use of force against noncombatant targets draws wide-
spread criticism and is universally condemned. Even though it is
hard to precisely dene an unlawful target, any defensible concept

of jihad must distinguish between the permissible and the prohib-
ited use of force. Critics of Islam often use negative labels to dis-
parage even the legitimate armed struggle of the unjustly occupied
Muslim populations. Semantic distortions are deliberately designed
to confuse the people and in themselves constitute psychological
warfare. Therefore, Muslims ghting oppression do not pay much
attention to derogatory characterizations, nor do they give up their
legitimate ght merely to avoid labels designed by the oppressor.
Nonetheless, Islamic law does not allow any arbitrary use of force.
Many radical groups have engaged in the imprudent use of force
injuring and even killing innocent men, women and children. Any
reckless use of force that puts at risk the life or property of the
innocent has no place within the concept of permissible jihad.56 The
Quran rejects aggression and makes it clear that ghting is per-
missible only against those who ght against you.57
In light of the Quran and the Sunna, Muslim militants would
have no lawful basis to use highly destructive weapons that kill
hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. Great fear, however,
exists among suppressive entities that Muslim militants would not
hesitate to use weapons of mass destruction. Some terrorist experts
are skeptical of such doomsday scenarios, for in their judgment
terrorists are more in the business of scaring than killing. Others
do not rule out the possibility. Some view Muslim militants as inher-
ently lawless, capable of doing anything. For most educated militants,
humanitarian restraint is an intrinsic value of military jihad. Before
sending troops to the battleeld, Prophet Muhammad instructed
them in the following words: Go forward in the name of God. Do
not kill an elderly person, nor a child, nor a woman, and do not
exceed the bounds.58 Accordingly, the Islamic law of warfare prohibits
poisoning wells, downing trees, destroying crops, and inicting any
unnecessary environmental injury with no military justication.
As a broad guiding principle, any use of weapons of mass destruc-
tion would inict great environmental damage prohibited under
the Islamic law of warfare.
Furthermore, the Quran ordains the principle of proportionality
in all punitive countermeasures. And if you punish, then punish
56
Karima Bennoune, As-Salamu Alaykum? Humanitarian Law in Islamic
Jurisprudence, 15 Michigan Journal of International Law 605 (1994).
57
Quran 2:190.
58
Anis Malik, Al Muwatta.
194 Chapter 5
with the like (bi-mithli) of that you were punished but if you show
patience, that is indeed the best [course] for those who are patient.59
The Qurans commandment prescribes reciprocal punishment only.
Even here, under the constraints of reciprocity, it encourages a pol-
icy toward patience-based countermeasures rather than revenge-
based retaliation. Additionally, the Quran mandates the cessation
of military jihad when persecution has stopped. And ght them
on until there is no more persecution.60 Thus, the use of force can-
not be lawfully continued once the oppressor has lifted the siege.
Given the Islamic principles of mercy and decency and trust in
God, Muslim militants use their good judgment and stop military
operations upon reaching an appropriate and credible agreement
with the enemies. Such an agreement is one under which the oppres-
sor has agreed with good intentions to vacate occupation, restore
the lost rights of an aggrieved population, or more generally mend
its oppressive ways and amend its draconian laws. These are the
teachings of the Quran, and if so educated, Muslim militants are
unlikely to use weapons of mass destruction.
Terrorism, however, is the art of tactical deception. Creating a
credible fear of mass destruction might be justied as an effective
tool of behavior modication. If the oppressor will change its cruel
behavior under high-powered threats, one might argue, the threat
of the use of weapons of mass destruction should not be taken out
of the toolbox. The Islamic law of warfare allows tactical maneu-
vers such as credible threats. It does not, however, allow a course
of deception that destroys the normalcy of life for Muslims and
non-Muslims. Even in times of war, Islam remains a religion of
peace and submission to God. The principle of proportionality that
the Quran prescribes applies to military threats as well, whether
the threats are real or tactical. Under ordinary circumstances,
therefore, any casual or calculated threat to use weapons of mass
destruction breaches the Islamic law of warfare.
In his interviews with the media, Osama bin Laden has been
elusive about the possession and use of weapons of mass destruc-
tion. In one interview, he was asked whether he was seeking chem-
ical or nuclear weapons. Osama replied: Acquiring weapons for
the defense of Muslims is a religious duty. If I have indeed acquired
these weapons, then I thank God for enabling me to do so. In
59
Quran 16:126.
60
Quran 2:193.
another interview, he made a similar statement: If I seek to acquire

such weapons, this is a religious duty. How we use them is up to
us.61 These statements made in 1998 embody terror effects but
stop short of making any blatant threats to use them. Most experts
agree that the Osama organization has lost its infrastructure to
acquire weapons of mass destruction. Still, Osamas statements
reveal the mind of Muslim militants. It appears that Muslim mil-
itants will continue to use the rhetoric of acquiring weapons of
mass destruction to enhance terror effects. They will also not rule
out the possibility of using such weapons, for any no-use public
commitments weaken rather than strengthen the enterprise of fear.
Whether Muslim militants will actually use the weapons of mass
destruction is far from clear.
One might ask whether the use of weapons of mass destruction
is ever justied under the Islamic law of warfare. It appears that
if Islamic holy places in Mecca, Medina or Jerusalem are ever
attacked by any national armed forces, Muslim militants (and gov-
ernments) are likely to respond with all the weapons they have at
their disposal to punish the aggressive state. If the destruction of
holy places were brought about by private groups, it is unclear how
Islamic governments would respond. Great pressure would likely
be exercised on Islamic armed forces across the world to punish
the national state of the perpetrators. Calls for private jihad would
be made from every minaret and the response would likely be highly
deadly and unmanageable. It is perhaps for such extraordinary
eventuality that the Quran mandates jihad in the following words:
And kill them wherever you nd them, and drive them out from
whence they drove you out, and persecution is severer than slaugh-
ter, and do not ght with them at the Sacred Mosque until they
ght with you in it, but if they do ght you, then slay them; such
is the recompense of the unbelievers.62 Without fail, the level of
cooperation among ordinary Muslims, national armed forces, and
private militant groups will dramatically increase, reinforcing the
infrastructure of supportive entities. That this coalition would be
prepared to use weapons of mass destruction is a certain bet.
61
Kimberly McCloud and Matthew Osborne, WMD Terrorism and Usama bin
Laden, CNS Reports (Center for Nonproliferation Studies).
62
Quran 2:191.
196 Chapter 5
Policy of Ambiguity
Key questions that face the Muslim world are whether private jihad
is authorized, and if it is, whether private jihad is compatible with
international law. In any legally organized society, particularly in
the era of nation-states, the private use of violence is prohibited
for internal law enforcement needs as well as for external conduct
of foreign affairs. Some nation-states allow individuals to possess
and carry guns. But even these states impose heavy restrictions
on the private use of force. In almost all states, the criminal jus-
tice system leaves little leeway, restrictively embodied in the con-
cept of self-defense, for individuals to lawfully use violence. Outlawing
letters of marquee and reprisal and raising national armed forces
have likewise centralized the means of violence in state institu-
tions. As discussed elsewhere, private entities continue to possess
the means of violence, use violence with the consent of govern-
ments, and often assist regular armed forces in conducting war-
fare. Under the near universal model on the monopoly of force,
however, the private use of force without the consent of govern-
ment is considered unlawful.
On the surface, Muslim states seem to subscribe to the prevail-
ing model. The fty-six member states of the Organization of Islamic
Conference (OIC) are active players of international law. They fully
participate in international institutions, have ratied the United
Nations Charter, and have institutionalized national armed forces
and domestic law enforcement agencies. Even states that allow
individuals to possess and carry guns, such as Pakistan, have placed
legally sound restrictions on their use. If anything, Muslim states
seem somewhat behind in the emerging practice of delegating war-
fare functions to private contractors and corporations. Despite this
apparent adherence to the universal model, private jihadi groups
exist and operate in many Muslim states. In resistance to the Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan, many Muslim states openly and vigorously
supported private jihadi groups with money, guns, and tactical and
logistical support. The West did the same. After the September 11
attacks on the United States, most Muslim states seem to have
reversed their public stance on private jihadi groups. Almost all
deny that they support such groups. Some claim to actively oppose
them. Some even go further and stage encounters with jihadi groups
to demonstrate to the world that jihadi groups are no longer welcome.
Some Muslim states claim that jihadi groups are unlawful not only
under modern state laws, but also under traditional Islamic law.
The Taliban government in Afghanistan was a unique Islamic

experiment whereby a Muslim state had openly given refuge to
anti-American jihadi groups. This experiment might have succeeded
in challenging the power of the United States had there been a
superpower protecting the Taliban government. The collapse of the
Soviet Union and the refusal of China to support any such jihadi
groups left minor regional powers to support the experiment.
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia helped until the September 11 attacks
changed their supportive policy. The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan
and the overthrow of the Taliban government have introduced a
new dimension to state-sponsored private jihad. A state that openly
sponsors anti-American jihadi groups is vulnerable to invasion.
This development might also encourage other superpowers such as
Russia and China, and even minor powers such as Israel and India,
to attack states that openly support jihadi groups against them.
The failure of the Taliban experiment has forced present and future
jihadi groups to hide any relationships with Muslim states and
governments.
As international opposition to jihadi groups solidies, jihadi groups
are likely to go underground. That is an obvious and expected sur-
vival response. However, the role of Muslim states toward jihadi
groups might be especially intriguing. It is unlikely that they would
opt to completely suppress jihadi groups. Several reasons dictate
such an outcome. Any aggressive suppression of jihadi groups will
fracture the social order, an outcome that no Muslim government
would want. Since public support for some of the causes for which
jihadi groups are ghting, including the liberation of Palestine, will
remain high in most Muslim states, governments cannot defy these
sentiments and eliminate jihadi groups. The presence of jihadi
groups enhances the clout and negotiating postures of the resident
Muslim state. The United States, for example, has extended mon-
etary and military help to Pakistan and Afghanistan in the hope
that they would suppress Muslim jihadi groups. Ironically, these
assistance programs might prolong the life of jihadi groups, for
these governments know that some jihadi presence is needed to
justify a continual demand for foreign assistance.
Furthermore, jihadi groups serve as surrogate armies; they do
what Muslim national armed forces cannot do. Since most Muslim
states are militarily weak, they know that they will be unable to
ght against the regular armies of suppressive states. Wars with
Israel have shown that, as have the wars between India and Pakis-
tan. The U.S. invasion of Iraq has further cemented the perception
that military confrontations with suppressive states constitute a
198 Chapter 5
losing proposition. Jihadi groups, on the other hand, continue to

ght against and inict harm on suppressive states. The insur-
gency in Iraq has been much more successful in resisting occupa-
tion than a regular army would have been. Israels ouster from
Lebanon was made possible by Hezbollahs private soldiers. Likewise,
a slow bleeding of Israeli armed forces at the hands of Hamas has
been much more effective than the Arab wars with national armed
forces. The effectiveness of surrogate armies is an open secret for
all to know, including Muslim governments. Out of necessity, most
Muslim governments will keep jihadi groups in play since their
elimination would shift the entire pressure on national armed forces
to ght, or do something to stem the excesses of suppressive armies
against Muslim communities.
Consequently, Muslim states appear to have adopted a policy of
ambiguity toward jihadi groups. Rhetorically, this policy condemns
terrorism and paints jihadi groups as extremists acting beyond the
realm of Islam and state interests. Tactically, domestic law enforce-
ment agencies, including the armed forces, are periodically sum-
moned to stage encounters with jihadi groups, arrest a few terrorists
and freeze accounts. These countermeasures are taken to convince
suppressive entities that credible efforts are being made to elimi-
nate terror cells. Strategically, however, jihadi groups are preserved,
even supported through private channels as well as through rogue
elements within the government. This policy of ambiguity is no
different than the policy Israel has adopted toward Jewish settlers
in the Palestinian territories. The government condemns some of
the things the settlers do, even erases some of their illegal set-
tlements, but at the same time militarily protects these settlers
and their properties erected on the stolen land. Even in the United
States, during the period of segregation and lynching, state gov-
ernments would both condemn and support private white vigilantes
engaged in physically attacking vulnerable blacks and burning their
houses and churches.
New Military Jihad
Islam has entered an era of Renaissance the second period of ijti-

had (legal creativity). For centuries, Islamic law and jurisprudence
de-emphasized the distinction between original sources of law and
commentaries of law. As a result, the deen of Islam was inextrica-
bly fused with the ve madhabs. The rules of law embodied in the
Quran and the Sunna constitute the deen of Islam. The Quran is
the original source, and the rules are embodied in its immutable
text, which has been preserved over the centuries. The Sunna
includes the rules that the Prophet offered during his lifetime to
explain the Quran or to otherwise prescribe behavior. The Prophets
rulings were collected with meticulous scholarly care, though sev-
eral decades after his death. Each rule so collected was called a
Hadith. These rules, or ahadith, emanating from the Prophet, are
collectively known as the Sunna. The Quran and the Sunna con-
stitute the Basic Code of Islamic law. Once the authentic ahadith
was collected, the Basic Code was no longer conned to the Quran.
Islamic scholars began to treat the Sunna as an authentic original
source of Islamic law on the theory that the Prophet would know
best what the Quran meant and how it ought to be applied.
Despite the use of the Sunna in solving problems and nding
answers to an ever-unfolding complexity of life in communities
established after the Prophets death, more rules were needed to
build a comprehensive legal system. The task of building such a
system fell on Islamic scholars. Among hundreds of scholars who
contributed to the evolution of legal methods and procedural and
substantive rules, ve Imams (Abu Hanifa, Malik, Sha, Hanbal,
and Jaafer) successfully established the great Islamic schools of
jurisprudence. A school associated with a particular Imam came to
be known as a madhab. In subsequent centuries, Muslims began
to identify themselves with one or the other of the ve madhabs.
The rise of madhabs was necessary to solve problems and offer
solutions to legal problems for which there were no clear solutions
in the Basic Code of the Quran and the Sunna. No one was allowed
to change the Qurans words or ignore them or blatantly misin-
terpret them. Even the most pious and able followers of Islam were
prohibited from changing the words of God as revealed in the
Quran.63 Without changing the text, however, the Quran authorizes
and even encourages reection over its text, inviting good faith
interpretations. This permission to interpret the Quran, and by
implication the Sunna as well, opened the gates of ijtihad, and
Islamic law ourished in the fertile minds of scholars.
The second era of ijtihad, which began over a hundred years ago,
is founded on the assumption that the rules developed within the
63
Quran 10:64.
200 Chapter 5
classical ve madhabs are not sacred; only the Basic Code is sacred.
The laws of God and his last Prophet are sacred, but the laws
derived by scholars are subject to change. Very few Islamic schol-
ars, however, take the extreme position that all rules developed
within the ve schools should be completely discarded. And very
few individuals, having no following within the Islamic world, argue
that the Quran and the Sunna themselves should be altered to
modernize Islam. The critique of non-Muslim scholars of the Basic
Code or classical madhabs carries little weight, since Islamic law
is unlikely to change according to the wishes of non-Muslim schol-
ars. Traditionally, only the believers of Islam have had the pre-
rogative to propose changes. This exclusivity should come as no
surprise since secular legal systems have even more rigorous self-
protective structures. For example, no legislature other than Congress
may make laws for the United States.
The most acceptable position within the second era of ijtihad
accords due respect to classical madhabs, and their rules are con-
sidered generally binding. However, a designated national or inter-
national Islamic institution may overrule a classical precedent found
in a madhab on the theory that a new rule is more suitable for
present social, economic, political, or geopolitical reasons. The new
rule, however, must be consistent with the Basic Code. Just like
the rst era of ijtihad, the second era empowers no national or
international scholar or Islamic institution to construct rules con-
trary to the letter and spirit of the Basic Code. New legal methods
may be constructed to interpret the Quran and the Sunna, but the
supreme authority of the Basic Code cannot be undermined either
directly or through interpretation. Any such development in Islamic
law and jurisprudence will be ineffective.
It appears that the second era of ijtihad is already having a seri-
ous impact on the concept of military jihad. New rules are being
constructed that dene tactics, strategies, and uses of the military
jihad. The most remarkable development in military jihad is the
practice of suicide bombing, appearing across the Islamic world.
Suicide bombers have attacked targets in occupied Palestine, Iraq,
and Afghanistan. Although suicide is strictly prohibited under Islam,
suicide bombing remains controversial. Classical qh (give English
denition) has nothing to say about the legality of suicide bomb-
ing as a weapon against the enemy. It is a question that the sec-
ond era of ijtihad must answer. Islamic scholars are divided, some
arguing that suicide bombing is inherently unlawful since it involves
the prohibited act of suicide, with others arguing that suicide bomb-
ing is a lawful attack on an otherwise impenetrable enemy. Of

course, no Islamic scholar would contend that each and every sui-
cide bombing is lawful. A suicide bombing that kills non-combat-
ant civilians, without any military necessity, causing gratuitous
collateral damage, cannot be defended under the Islamic law of
warfare. It is also questionable whether suicide bombing is lawful
when other means of ghting the enemy are more or less equally
effective.
It is also unclear whether private jihad without the rulers per-
mission is lawful. The Basic Code presents two competing norms.
One norm obligates Muslims to obey those charged with author-
ity among you.64 Under this norm, Muslims must lay down guns
if the ruler bans private jihad. The competing norm of the Basic
Code solicits jihad from private parties. Let there arise from among
you a group inviting people to that which is good, commanding
them to do what is good and forbidding them to do what is evil.65
Although this command is not specically aimed at military jihad,
its scope is comprehensive. It also supports the Prophets Sunna,
under which the obligation to correct a wrong is placed on indi-
viduals. Whoever among you sees what is wrong, let him change
it by force. If he is not able to do that, then he must speak out. If
he is not able to do that, then he must hate it in his heart. That
is the weakest of faith.66 Correcting a wrong with force is an indi-
vidual obligation and the highest expression of faith. This hadith
should not be construed, however, to mean that every wrong must
rst be corrected with force. Under the combined effect of the Quran
and the Sunna, private jihad is allowed, particularly if the ruler
has not proscribed it.
In the era of nation-states, the denition of the Muslim ruler has
become geographical and secular. As such, no one ruler has author-
ity over all Muslims. If Pakistans ruler bans private jihad, the rul-
ing has no obligatory effect on Muslims elsewhere. Not even the
king of Saudi Arabia, the original home of Islam, has any univer-
sal authority over the entire Muslim world. Furthermore, rulers
lack even local authority to change or legislate Islamic law. Ever
since the end of the rst four caliphs, Muslim rulers have lost their
jurisprudential powers. They may manage executive affairs of the
64
Quran 4:59.
65
Quran 3:104.
66
Sahih Muslim 1:79.
202 Chapter 5
state, but the states legislative and judicial functions are to be

performed by other qualied people. Accordingly, local rulers are
rarely seen as credible interpreters of the Basic Code, since for cen-
turies now Muslim scholars, who devote their lives to the study of
law, have been the exclusive guardians of the institution of ijtihad.
Accordingly, as a matter of history, Islamic law has been built
through the accumulation of scholarly decrees ( fatwas) rather than
executive orders or legislative statutes. National laws made through
secular legislatures, even if they are democratically elected, carry
no religious authority. And if the national legislature, like the one
in Turkey, is constitutionally bound to separate church from state,
the gap between secular and religious laws widens even more.
Religious forces see these legislatures and their secular laws as
great deviances from Islamic jurisprudence. They continue to rely
on fatwas to fashion their individual and social lives.
In non-democratic Muslim states, the legislative dynamic is no
better. Many Muslim rulers have lost credibility with Muslim pop-
ulations because they are seen as the agents of suppressive states.
Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, Mohammar Gadda of Libya, Pervez
Musharraf of Pakistan, the kings of Jordan and Saudi Arabia, the
rulers of oil kingdoms in the Gulf, all lack a genuine following
among the masses of their nations. They have installed themselves
in power by undemocratic means. They remain in power through
institutional coercion and with the backing of national armed forces.
They are less than fully accountable to the people for their foreign
policies. Finally, they enjoy no credibility with religious forces likely
to engage in national and international jihad. If these rulers for-
bid private jihad by means of a secular statute or executive decree,
the law will be derided as a suppressive tool installed on behalf of
suppressive entities. Jurisprudentially, such laws have little anchor-
ing in the Basic Code.
If an international organization of Muslim rulers, such as the
Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), were to ban private jihad,
such a ruling would come close to having universal effect. Even so,
one could dispute whether Muslim rulers constituting the OIC have
the requisite jurisprudential background to engage in doctrinal ijti-
had. But if the OIC assembly of rulers were to anchor its decision
to ban private jihad on the fatwa of Islamic scholars, a new chap-
ter of Islamic jurisprudence would come into being. If such a devel-
opment is possible, suppressive entities would likely put pressure
on the OIC to ban private jihad. It is, however, unlikely that the
OIC would centralize the development of Islamic law, considering
that Islamic law respects local cultures and synthesizes customs

with norms of the Basic Code.
Free Market of Fatwas
Since the classical concept of fatwa is still intact and has not been
replaced by any effective national or international institutions
(except perhaps in Iran), the second era of ijtihad is essentially a
scholarly enterprise, as decentralized, uid, and open as was the
rst era. In fact, there exists a free market of fatwas. Any scholar
with real, ctional, or no following may issue fatwas. The
qualications of the fatwa-issuing scholar may or may not be ade-
quate or meet the meticulous standards of tradition. It is all left
to the discretion of followers who must decide whether they want
to follow a particular scholar. Although a free market of fatwas is
important for all issues facing Islamic communities, its contribu-
tion to the institution of military jihad has serious consequences.
The free market approach worked most effectively in the rst
era, as the best scholars were naturally selected almost on the basis
of survival of the ttest. Imam Abu Hanifa became a great Islamic
scholar not because he represented the caliphate, but because of
his personal inuence over the marketplace of ijtihad. In fact, Abu
Hanifa turned down the caliphs request to assume the ofce of the
chief qadi and for this refusal was thrown into prison. Likewise,
Imam Malik, another great scholar of the rst era of ijtihad, turned
down a similar request from the local ruler of Medina. The rise of
great jurists in the rst era demonstrates the power of the free
market of qh, as the people followed scholars who made the most
sense, whose personal piety added good faith to their interpreta-
tions, whose lack of ambition for personal aggrandizement fur-
nished credibility to their scholarly station, and whose knowledge
of the Basic Code the Quran and the Sunna provided staying
power to their opinions.
In the second era of ijtihad, the free market of scholarly activi-
ties is even more robust. Unlike the rst era that was conned to
the Middle East, the second era is truly global in its origin and
impact. More than one billion Muslims span the earth, living on
all continents, belonging to diverse cultures, speaking many lan-
guages languages, and celebrating various traditions. Since the
Quran and the Sunna, originally available only in Arabic, have
204 Chapter 5
been translated into dozens of other languages, non-Arabic speak-

ing scholars are equal participants in the new global market of ijti-
had. The competition among scholars is intense and of very high
quality, primarily because translations of great works are readily
available. The presence of millions of Muslims in the United States,
Europe, and other developed countries has further opened up the
scholarly market for a vigorous exchange of ideas with non-Muslims.
The second era of ijtihad is thus highly informed about non-Islamic
critical perspectives. A fatwa issued by an Islamic scholar is not
only reviewed by other Muslim scholars but by non-Muslim jurists
as well. This extensive review will make it impossible for weak
opinions to survive in a robust and informed market.
While weak fatwas with little grounding in the Basic Code will
be easily weeded out in the free market, controversial fatwas will
nonetheless continue to exist. A controversial fatwa is one that has
substantial grounding in the Basic Code but fails to obtain uni-
versal approval of scholars across the Islamic world. The existence
of controversial fatwas does not in any way undermine the author-
ity or integrity of the Basic Code. It simply indicates that reason-
able and informed Muslim scholars see the issues differently. In
secular jurisprudence, controversial opinions are common. In the
United States, for example, the nine justices of the Supreme Court
are often divided on issues. What ve justices rule becomes the
law, but their opinion may remain controversial.
Controversial fatwas regarding military jihad have indeed sur-
faced over the years. During the rst Gulf War in 1990, Muslim
scholars were divided over the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Some argued
that the U.S. invasion must be resisted, while others reached the
opposite conclusion and favored the forced eviction of Iraq from
Kuwait. The controversy involved an important legal question of
whether Muslims may lawfully support a non-Muslim army that
attacks a Muslim state. The scholarly debate over the issue was
not free from political bias and manipulation. The Islamic confer-
ence of scholars that convened in Iraq opposed the U.S. invasion,
whereas the conference held in Saudi Arabia supported it. Perhaps
scholars on both sides of the divide were acting in good faith.
Another example of controversial fatwas involves the killing of
enemy civilians. Osama bin Laden and his men have issued fat-
was urging Muslims to kill Americans wherever and whenever
you nd them. The classic Islamic law of warfare prohibits the
deliberate killing of enemy civilians. However, bin Ladens fatwa
deviates from the classical rule on the theory that American armed
forces have little regard for civilian life in Muslim countries. Wrapped
in the benign language of collateral damage, Muslim civilians
have indeed been killed in large numbers in Afghanistan and Iraq.
According to one estimate, more than 100,000 civilians have been
killed in Iraq. However, the United States, while contesting the
accuracy of these numbers, makes a rhetorical argument that killing
civilians is not its military goal or policy. These rhetorical claims
might be deceptive but they are nonetheless important, for they
provide standards to critique inconsistent behavior. Rejecting the
value of these rhetorical claims, bin Ladens fatwa incorporates the
ethic of an eye for an eye a most fundamental human ethic that
works when everything else fails. Even if tit for tat has some philo-
sophical value or practical utility, the scope of the fatwa is so broad
that it fails to recognize that millions of American civilians oppose
U.S. foreign policies, as strongly as bin Laden himself does, and
therefore, at least logically, they do not deserve to be killed.
Chapter 6
The Essentialist Terrorist
Can the Ethiopian change his skin? The leopard his spots?
As easily would you be able to do good, accustomed to evil
as you are.
Jeremiah 13:23
The essentialist terrorist is a violent monster that the Highly

Inuential Terrorist Literature (HITLit) has successfully invented
and made real and believable. It is the new terrorist. It is dark
and evil, part real and part phantom, part human and part ani-
mal, part man and part woman, part bearded and part veiled, part
strategic and part crazy. A noted trait of this grotesque but cow-
ardly creature is that it kills innocents. But this monsters most
dening characteristic is that it is driven to violence by its nature,
compelled by an ingrained mental/psychological/cultural/religious
formation. Its violence has little to do with any outward political
or geopolitical grievances. It hates Israel and America and the West.
It loathes democracy and liberties and freedoms. It subjugates
women. It is warped and jealous and vengeful. Addicted to violence,
this monster resides in sleeping cells, prays to Allah, lurks in tun-
nels and airports, wears a belt of explosives, and craves traveling
in buses, trains, and airplanes. One day it explodes, killing inno-
cents. Amazingly though, even after dying a thousand deaths, it
The Essentialist Terrorist 207
does not die. It constantly reproduces itself into many more similar-
looking monsters.1 It must be obliterated.
The HITLits essentialist terrorist is the Muslim militant who
uses violence to terrorize governments and communities. He is a
religious fanatic, raised in fundamentalism, trained in religious
schools, made to memorize the Quran by heart, and recruited to
unleash violence against the unbelievers particularly Jews and
Christians. He is in spiritual love with violence. The essentialist
terrorist is new because he is distinguishable from the conventional
terrorist who used violence to gain personal or communitarian goals.
Whereas the conventional terrorist uses violence as a means to an
end, the essentialist terrorist uses violence as an end in itself.
According to HITLit, even when the essentialist terrorist justies
violence in political or geopolitical terms, the justication must not
be taken seriously, for this monsters addiction to violence nds a
legion of excuses. This HITLit thesis has been called the new ter-
rorism. The 9/11 Commission, summoned to study terrorist attacks
on the United States, adopted the terminology of new terrorism,
thus conferring validity on the HITLit.
The HITLits new terrorism is intellectualized propaganda. It
was written and published in the United States years before the
September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
It is still being produced and published. The HITLit consists of aca-
demic books published by elite university presses, popular books,
magazine articles, and syndicated columns. This literature is highly
inuential in that it shapes, defends, and justies U.S. government
policies towards the Muslim world. As referenced in this article,
the 9/11 Report adopted many concepts that the HITLit has been
spawning for years.
Most HITLit authors, known as terrorism experts, are research
associates with inuential think tanks such as RAND and the
American Enterprise Institute, and some teach at Harvard Univer-
sity. Some have worked for the National Security Council and the
U.S. Defense Department. These authors include Bernard Lewis,
Bruce Hoffman, Steven Simon, Jessica Stern, Daniel Benjamin, and
Richard Perle. They appear on National Public Radio and major
radio and television networks to comment on terrorist events and
1
Blaming the Victims: Spurious Scholarship and the Palestinian Question
14958 (Edward W. Said & Christopher Hitchens eds., 1988).
208 Chapter 6
disseminate their views to the general public. The HITLit themes

of the essentialist terrorist are further disseminated through the
views of collaborating journalists such as Thomas Friedman, Charles
Krauthammer, David Brooks, and William Kristol.2
Studied in isolation, each HITLit theme seems credible. Collectively,
HITLit themes are perilous propaganda. They are the half-truths
that Cass Sunstein, himself a HITLit sympathizer, has in another
context called enclave deliberation. HITLit authors have pooled
their arguments, citing each others dubious research, to malign
Islam, boldly painting it to be a violent religion, ignoring the canons
of interfaith respect for a fourteen-centuries-old religion practiced
by more than one billion people in all countries of the world. Yet
in doing so, the enclave authors claim they wish to make a better
world. The Quran describes such persons as mufsidun,3 which may
be translated as mischief-makers. These mufsidun have successfully
inuenced U.S. foreign policy and are determined to further deepen
the conict between the United States and the Islamic world. They
use essentialist terrorism as a wedge between civilizations.
The HITLit themes, specically the distinction between conven-
tional and essentialist terrorists, have played a critical role in shap-
ing the George W. Bush Administrations views with respect to
Muslim militants. The rhetoric it employs to describe Muslim mil-
itants reveals how the Bush Administration has latched on to the
HITLits new terrorism. While the conventional terrorist is a moral
being, the new terrorist is evil. Repeatedly, Bush ofcials use the
word evil to describe Muslim militants who ght U.S. occupation
in Iraq and Afghanistan or commit violence elsewhere against U.S.
interests. The word evil highlights the essentialist nature of the
Muslim militant who is evil, not only because of what he does, but
who he is. And perchance, the Old Testament furnishes a parallel
to the HITLit concept of the essentialist terrorist: just as the
Ethiopian cannot change his skin, and the leopard cannot change
2
Other noted journalists spreading HITLit themes are Martin Peretz, Norman
Podhoretz, and Judith Miller. They also add empirical news to the HITLit mes-
sage that Islam is violent. Norman Podhoretz, the grandfather of neoconservatism,
supports the preemptive use of force in international affairs. He received a
Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award, from President George
W. Bush.
3
Quran 2:1112. When it is said to them: Make not mischief on the earth,
they say: We are only ones that put things right. Of a surety, they are the ones
who make mischief, but they realize (it) not.
his spots, the Muslim militant cannot change his propensity to

do evil.
The HITLits new terrorism is not simply a rhetorical device to
engage in propaganda war against Muslim militants or Islam. It
also has serious consequences in the realm of law. The distinction
proposes and defends that the law treats Muslim terrorists differ-
ent from how the law treats conventional terrorists. Since the con-
ventional terrorist is a moral being, his rehabilitation through law
is possible; therefore, he is entitled to rights and legal protections.
The essentialist terrorist has no claim to demand traditional legal
rights and protections, because he is fundamentally immoral and
irredeemable.
Consequently, the Muslim militant is humiliated, tortured, detained
without charges or a trial, and even killed without any judicial
process. Conventional terrorists are the subjects of the traditional
criminal justice system, but essentialist terrorists are unlawful
combatants who may be denied protections available under domes-
tic and international law, including the prisoner of war status under
the law of war. In addition to government lawyers, a cadre of law
professors such as John Yoo, Ruth Wedgwood, Jack Goldsmith, and
Alan Dershowitz propose and defend morally odious and legally
questionable treatments of Muslim militants ghting against occu-
pation, settlements, theft of land and resources, and for the right
of self-determination. Although initially muted and bamboozled,
the American legal academy has made vigorous protests to Bush
ofcials lawlessness. The HITLit authors clumsy and unconvinc-
ing exercise in conjecture,4 however, has remained for the most
part unexposed.
The HITLit conjectures and consequent prescriptions are geno-
cidal and generally lawless. One proposed prescription for dealing
with Muslim militants is to engage them in battle and kill them.
No legal process is recommended to wipe them out. The other pre-
scription is to capture Muslim militants and completely disable
them. Disability rather than accountability must be the fate of
essentialist terrorists. Accordingly, the Guantnamo prison em-
bodies the concept of comprehensive disability, which suspends
4
Jonny Burnett & Dave Whyte, Embedded Expertise and the New Terrorism,
Journal for Crime, Conict and the Media, May 2005, at 1, 3 (2005), available at
http://www.jc2m.co.uk/Issue4/Burnett&Whyte.pdf.
210 Chapter 6
essentialist terrorists in legal limbo. Essentialist terrorists are

guilty without proof. The proof of their monstrosity is in their being.
But in law, they are neither charged with any crime nor released.
They are neither tried in courts, nor declared innocent. They are
neither criminals, nor prisoners of war. Their status dees exist-
ing legal categories. They are a category of their own. They are sui
generis. They are unique. Therefore, the law or the lawyer cannot
help them, should not help them.5 As the mantra goes, September
11 changed everything.
The legal outrage over the suspension of civil liberties is often
doctrinal. It points out the betrayal of the U.S. Constitution,
specically the Bill of Rights, and the deeply entrenched case law.
Although U.S. courts have begun to review and even modestly slash
the Presidents executive powers to dene the law of war on ter-
ror,6 the debate over treatment of essentialist terrorists has barely
reached the doors of law. Important legal questions pertaining to
treatment of Muslim detainees have not yet been conclusively
answered as cases are still evolving and passing through the appel-
late process.7 Bush ofcials continue to argue that they are deal-
ing with a new enemy who falls outside legal parameters of
constitutional assumptions and precedents.8 Their aim is to create
new law for the new enemy. They insist that critics and courts are
still hanging on to old law and the old paradigm, refusing to appre-
ciate the threat that essentialist terrorists pose to U.S. security at
home and its interests abroad.
5
See United States v. Stewart, No. 02 CR. 396 JGK, 2002 WL 1300059, at *1
(S.D.N.Y. June 11, 2002) (Criminal defense attorney Lynne Stewart was arrested
for communicating with Sheikh Rahman, an Egyptian Islamic scholar who had
been convicted for terrorism. Stewarts law ofce was searched and documents,
folders, ledgers, notebooks, address books, calendars, hard discs, and several other
items were seized. Later, Stewart was convicted under terrorism laws.); see also
Elaine Cassel, The Lynne Stewart Guilty Verdict: Stretching the Denition of
Terrorism To Its Limits, FindLaws Writ, Feb. 14, 2005, http://writ.news.ndlaw.
com/cassel/20050214.html.
6
See, e.g, Rumsfeld v. Padilla, 124 S. Ct. 2711 (2004) (plurality opinion); Rasul
v. Bush, 124 S. Ct. 2686 (2004); Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, 124 S. Ct. 2633 (2004) (plu-
rality opinion); Detroit Free Press v. Ashcroft, 303 F.3d 681 (2002).
7
See, e.g., Padilla, 124 S. Ct. 2711; Rasul, 124 S. Ct. 2686.
8
Memorandum from Alberto R. Gonzales to the President (Jan. 25, 2002), avail-
able at http://www.nytimes.com/ref/international/24MEMO-GUIDE.html; Memo-
randum from John Yoo & Robert J. Delahunty to William J. Haynes II, General
Counsel, Department of Defense (Jan. 9, 2002), available at http://www.nytimes.
com/ref/international/24MEMO-GUIDE.html.
It remains to be seen how U.S. laws will develop to deal with

Muslim militants that the administration kills or detains without
due process. In fashioning appropriate laws, some jurists side with
the Bush Administration and some do not; the battle to dene the
Muslim militant under U.S. laws will be long and tedious. Much
depends on whether there would be another massive attack on U.S.
interests here or abroad. A security-conscious Congress has extended
the life of the Patriot Act, which shows that the old law of civil lib-
erties might have changed forever, formalistically for everyone,
even though Muslims are the laws primary targets.
In addition to explaining HITLit theses girding the concepts of
new terrorism and the essentialist terrorist, this article provides
a historically-informed critique of the concepts. Note, however, that
essentialist agendas have had a checkered history. In the United
States, essentialist arguments were made to justify laws of slav-
ery, segregation, and persecution of African Americans. The geno-
cide of indigenous populations, labeled savages, and the theft of
their land had essentialist dimensions. Likewise, under the inher-
ited common law, the subjection of women was essentialist since
laws reected the fundamental nature of women. Globally, the
Nazi philosophy grew from essentialist visions of racial superior-
ity and Jewish stereotyping. HITLit authors are working hard to
paint Muslims as Nazis and communists, and Islam as a murder-
ous ideology. They have popularized the term Islamism that rhymes
with Nazism and communism.
6.1 PROFILING ISLAMIC TERRORISM
Essentialist theories often rely on nature, genes, hard wiring, or

innate formations to associate specic traits to specic groups.
Aristotle, who was perhaps the rst to articulate the concept of
essentialism, relied on nature to argue that some persons are
born as natural slaves, some as natural masters. Slaves, said
Aristotle, are born with sturdy bodies to perform physical tasks;
they also lack mental abilities to undertake complex intellectual
functions.9 This description of the natural slave is an example of
9
Aristotle, The Politics 69 (T. A. Sinclair trans., Penguin Books 1992).
212 Chapter 6
pure essentialism under which social factors play no role. The

HITLit does not advocate a genetic view of Muslim terrorists for
obvious difculties;10 more than one billion Muslims, belonging to
hundreds of racial, ethnic, and cultural groups, carry diverse genes,
and not every Muslim commits terrorism. Furthermore, new con-
verts to Islam do not automatically resort to violence. To the con-
trary, many hard-core criminals reform their lifestyle after converting
to Islam. In the absence of these facts, the essentialist theory would
have gathered credibility by establishing a connection between
genetic inclinations to violence and attraction to Islam. HITLit
authors are therefore restrained in labeling Muslim militants as
genetic terrorists.
HITLit authors, however, do argue that Muslim terrorists are
the products of essentially violent Islamic teachings, culture, theo-
logy, and pathos. They malign the aggregate, not just the individ-
ual. An essentialist terrorist derives his addiction to violence
primarily from Islam, and not necessarily from his genes or indi-
vidual life experiences. His essentialism is rooted in the teachings
of Islam. The closer he gets to the puritanical version of Islam, the
more likely he will embrace terrorism as an essentialist response
to feelings of frustration and mal-adaptation. This is the core the-
sis that each HITLit author advocates from a different perspective.
HITLit authors offer numerous psychoanalytical perspectives to
manufacture the essentialist terrorist.11 These themes deny the
10
Alan Dershowitz denies that pro-Israeli advocates believe that Arabs and
Muslims have terrorism in their genes. However, he claims that the Palestinian
political and religious leadership glorify terrorism as part of their culture and
religion. They are responsible for its proliferation. ALAN DERSHOWITZ, THE CASE
FOR ISRAEL 129 (2003).
11
Carl Goldberg, Terrorism from a Psychoanalytic Perspective, in Terrorism,
Jihad, and Sacred Vengeance 212, 21315 (Jerry Piven, Chris Boyd, & Henry
Lawton eds., 2004). This essay argues that Islamic fanatic violence is generated
by self-hatred, feelings of worthlessness and inner evil. These people commit ter-
rorist acts because they want to sacrice their worthless lives for good and go
to the promised paradise. Id. Jerry Piven argues that Islamic terrorists often
suffer from the absence of empathic psychological structures usually developed
with loving and nurturing maternal care. Jerry S. Piven, The Psychosis (Religion)
of Islamic Terrorists and the Ecstasy of Violence, in Terrorism, Jihad, AND SACRED
VENGEANCE, supra at 6263. Joan Lachkar argues that Islam is an orphan soci-
ety in search of an idealized father, God. Joan Lachkar, The Psychological Make-
Up of a Suicide Bomber, in Terrorism, Jihad, and Sacred Vengeance, supra at
127. To escape the abandoned orphan syndrome, Lachkar concludes, Muslims
become suicide bombers and terrorists. Id. Ruth Stein argues that Muslim ter-
rorists are not pursuing secular political action, but are engaging in a mystical
experience that turns self-hatred and envy into love of God. Ruth Stein, Evil as
Love and as Liberation, in Terrorism, Jihad, and Sacred Vengeance, supra at 45.
obvious that Muslim militants are ghting occupation, alien dom-

ination, hegemony, settlements, colonization, and the denial of the
right of self-determination. Instead, they nd fault in Islamic civ-
ilization, in Muslim cultures, and in calls for faith that invite
Muslims to embrace the Quran and the Prophets traditions. HITLit
authors have invented the essentialist terrorist to divert attention
from festering regional disputes. They go from the supercial to
the deep, from Muslims concrete grievances to their alleged mys-
tical propensity towards violence. Their themes, as the following
discussion demonstrates, denigrate Islam as a religion unleash-
ing powerful propaganda that an unknowing but trusting public
embraces and provide democratic support for proposed policies
to wage war. The following discussion also shows how HITLit authors
orchestrate their ndings to assert that Muslim terrorists are the
product of a defeated Islamic civilization and an intolerant and vio-
lent faith. Ironically, these authors prescribe exactly what they con-
demn. They prescribe violence to overcome violence. They propose
to defeat a supposedly defeated civilization.
Islamic Defeatism
Eighty-six-year-old Bernard Lewis, the so-called doyen of Middle

Eastern Studies, has nurtured the ground for blossoming HITLit
theses. Lewis, a prolic writer, has studied the interaction between
Islam and the West for nearly sixty years, often nding faults with
Arab and Muslim cultures. He presents a broad thesis, though clev-
erly interwoven with mal de compliments, that Islamic civiliza-
tion is profoundly ill at its heart.12 It is Lewis who coined the famous
phrase the clash of civilizations that Samuel Huntington bor-
rowed and made popular. Lewis presents the Muslim world as a
defeated civilization that resents Judeo-Christian Western para-
mountcy. Lewis conjectures that all these alien, indel, and incom-
prehensible forces such as loss of domination, invasion of foreign
ideas and laws, and emancipated women and rebellious children
12
Edward Said, a Christian Arab, was a vigorous critic of Lewiss historical
scholarship, calling Lewis a prolic neoconservative . . . polemicist and his schol-
arship shoddy and sleazy propaganda. Edward W. Said, The Politics of
Dispossession 33740 (1994).
214 Chapter 6
generate rage among Muslims, who express it through violence.

Thomas Friedman, an inuential journalist and HITLit dissemi-
nator, splashes Lewiss thesis across the world through various
media outlets, suggesting that Muslim violence has little to do with
occupation, hegemony, theft of land, and killings, but rather is
caused by something deeper within Muslims own sick socio-psy-
chological formation.
In his popular book published after the September 11 attacks,
Bernard Lewis provides a framework, a psychoanalytical narra-
tive, a deeper understanding, for Americans and other readers to
think about Islam. The rise of Islamic fundamentalism, proclaims
Lewis, is a sour reaction to defeats that Muslims suffered at the
hands of Western powers, on the battleeld as well as in the mar-
ketplace. The gradual demise of the Ottoman Empire forced Muslims
to ask a basic question: What did we do wrong? The diagnosis
that still command[s] wide acceptance in the Middle East is that
Muslims have been defeated and have declined because they turned
away from Islam and world domination. The corresponding pre-
scription dictates that they can restore the good old ways by a
return to them. Lewiss thesis, which was adopted in the 9/11
Report, asserts that Islamic militancy against the West is Muslims
pathological nostalgia for old glory. It argues that Muslims hate
the United States because of its leadership of the West.
The implications of Lewiss psychoanalytical thesis of Islamic
defeatism, which analyzes the past to explain the present day behav-
ior, are clear: (a) Muslims are envious of the United States because
it embodies the highest achievements of the Western civilization;
(b) the defeated, belittled, and humiliated Muslims have turned to
Islam in search of old glory; (c) Islamic fundamentalism teaches
violence against Jews and Christians; and (d) terrorism is the
enraged response of Muslim militants. This mischievous thesis pur-
ports to furnish historical motivations for present day violence
against the West and Israel. In his warped conception of the Judeo-
Christian West, Lewis overlooks the expulsion of Jews from Spain,
their massacre in the crusades, and their genocide as recent as
sixty years ago. He fails to mention that there is little Islamic vio-
lence against most countries of the West, including Canada,
Germany, Greece, Italy, Austria, and Eastern Europe (except Russia,
which occupies Chechnya).
More importantly, Lewis refuses to credit present day causes for
present day violence. He does not mention that Muslims are angry
over the colonization of their lands and resources. He does not
acknowledge that Muslims are irate because the United States has
aided and funded the forced settlement of European immigrants
in Palestinian towns and villages. He does not indicate that the
United States has invaded and bombed major cities in Libya, Sudan,
Afghanistan, and Iraq, spawning Newtonian terrorism. Finally, he
does not point out that Muslims in Palestine, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan,
and other Muslim nations want to determine their own political
destiny without alien domination, occupation, foreign intervention,
and U.S. sponsored puppet regimes. Going for contrived depth at
the expense of what is obvious is neither respectable history, nor
is it believable psychoanalysis.
Islamic Intolerance
Whereas Lewis diagnoses the ills of a defeated Islamic civilization,

other HITLit propagandists claim that Islamic societies are violent
and intolerant. Walter Laqueur,13 who greatly admires co-historian
Lewis, and who popularized new terrorism, provides truncated
empirical evidence to assert that [a] review of wars, civil wars,
and other contemporary conicts shows indeed a greater incidence
of violence and aggression in Muslim societies than in most oth-
ers. He recounts several incidents occurring after 1945 to support
his claim. For example, according to Laqueur, the bloodiest war
has been between two Islamic countries, Iran and Iraq, and the
bloodiest terrorist campaign took place in Algeria between gov-
ernment forces and Muslim militants. His claim, however, excludes
millions of soldiers and civilians killed in two World Wars and in
genocides in Cambodia, Vietnam, and Burundi. Furthermore,
Laqueur contends that Muslim states are hostile to minorities;
Muslims nd it hard to live as minorities; and even when Muslims
are aggrieved populations such as Chechens, Palestinians, and
Kashmiris the moment they get the opportunity, they turn against
suppressive states with greater injustice. For example, according
to Laqueur, the Palestinians want to destroy Israel. Laqueur seems
to suggest that aggrieved Muslim populations should not be released
13
Walter Laqueur is a prolic writer who has written extensively on European
and Jewish history. His best-known work is The Terrible Secret, a book that urges
the world to properly disseminate the available information on the Holocaust.
216 Chapter 6
from their oppression, because their freedom poses a great threat

to suppressive states. Charles Krauthammer, a HITLit opinion
maker, spreads Laqueurs thesis to the general public through pages
of the Washington Post in the following words: From Nigeria to
Sudan to Pakistan to Indonesia to the Philippines, some of the
worst, most hate-driven violence in the world today is perpetrated
by Muslims and in the name of Islam.
The way Laqueur measures Islamic violence shows the bias of
his thesis. He excludes millions of soldiers and civilians killed in
deadly wars of the twentieth century. For example, the massacres
in Vietnam, Korea, Cambodia, Laos, Angola, and Rwanda had noth-
ing to do with Islam or Muslims. The nuclear annihilation of
Nagasaki and Hiroshima was anything but Islamic. To win his spu-
rious argument, Laqueur even excludes the genocide of six million
Jews, a staggering number when compared to deaths in Muslim
nations. Even if all Islamic violence of the last one hundred years
is measured and counted, it would be much smaller than the vio-
lence perpetrated in Europe during the First or the Second World
War. Ignoring facts and introducing arbitrary cut-off lines in the
assessment of violence, Laqueur appears to have a different agenda.
As a result, he discredits an entire Islamic civilization and deni-
grates the entire religion of Islam.14
In what appears to be orchestrated propaganda, Steven Simon15
and Daniel Benjamin,16 two cardinal HITLit authors, reinforce
14
Edward Said has criticized terrorism scholarship that uses truncated evi-
dence. He asserts that such scholarship is spurious scholarship. In other words,
it is disingenuous and inauthentic. According to Said, [m]ost writing about ter-
rorism is brief, pithy, totally devoid of the scholarly armature of evidence, proof,
argument. Blaming the Victims, supra note 2, at 150.
15
Steven Simon is a senior analyst with RAND, a non-prot research organi-
zation in Washington, D.C. Prior to that, he worked at the International Institute
for Strategic Studies in London. He also served as the Senior Director for
Transnational Threats on the U.S. National Security Council, coordinating U.S.
military operations in the Middle East and terrorism policy and operations. Simon
worked at the State Department for twenty years in several high prole positions.
16
Daniel Benjamin, a well-connected journalist, opinion-maker, and terrorism
expert, is a Washington, D.C. insider. He has held several positions in the fed-
eral government. He has published articles in major newspapers, including the
New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Financial Times, and New
York Review of Books. From 199497, he served as special assistant to President
Bill Clinton and as National Security Council director for speechwriting. From
199899, he served the Council as a counter-terrorism director, dealing with inter-
national threats to U.S. security. Benjamin frequently appears on major news net-
works to disseminate his views on Islamic militancy. As of 2005, he is a senior
fellow at the Center of Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Laqueurs thesis by arguing that Islam carries the seeds of vio-

lence. They contend that jihad is no spiritual undertaking as Islamic
revisionists would have us believe, but that it is primarily warfare
against the unbelievers. Bernard Lewis made this case most fa-
mously, say the authors. Simon and Benjamin attack Islamic the-
ological history by arguing that Muslims who follow the teachings
of Ibn Taymiyya (12631328) and Sayyid Qutb (190666) are anti-
Semitic and prone to violence.17 They conveniently assume that all
Muslim militants who resort to violence are what they call the child-
ren of Ibn Taymiyya. Perhaps under the inuence of Simon and
Benjamins distorted theological discovery, even the 9/11 Report
scapegoats the thirteenth-century Ibn Taymiyya a century when
neither Israel, the United States, nor even a formidable Europe
existed as the source of modern Islamic extremism.
Distorting Taymiyyas and Qutbs complex theological works and
reducing their comprehensive teachings to the singular concept of
anti-West and anti-Jewish military jihad, Simon and Benjamin con-
struct the following even more absurd thesis: the military jihad
against unbelievers is the most important pillar of the Islamic faith,
even more important than the traditional ve pillars of the decla-
ration of faith, prayer, charity, fasting, and pilgrimage. According
to the authors, this obligation to engage in military jihad, which
Taymiyya allegedly extracted from the scriptures, as if it were hid-
den, came to fruition when Qutb and other modern Islamic schol-
ars provided the targets: Jews and the West. This thesis claims to
locate the mysterious loaded gun in search of a target, and argues
that Islamic terrorism is an ideology that has nothing to do with
social, political, or geopolitical grievances, but that it is an ideo-
logy to ght the unbelievers and by force impose the Islamic way
of life on them.
While the Bush Administration distinguishes Muslim militants
from the majority of Muslims, Simon and Benjamin refute the
17
Ibn Taymiyya and Sayyid Qutb are revered theologians, but in the rich schol-
arly history of Islamic civilization, no single author has determined the course of
events. The scholarly history of Islam is a constant struggle to go back to origi-
nal sources. All Islamic political revolutions are towards the center and not away
from it. Scapegoating any one or two scholars for modern ills of terrorism is a
profound misreading of Islamic ethos. In Islam, all Muslim scholarly works are
commentaries on the Islamic Basic Code consisting of the Quran and the Prophets
Sunna. Non-Muslim scholarly works on the Basic Code have had almost no
inuence. In Islam, all Muslim and non-Muslim commentaries are dispensable,
particularly if they veer off the track. In Islam, all roads lead back to the Basic
Code.
218 Chapter 6
administrations politically correct distinction meant to appease

the Islamic world. The Bush distinction states that although Islam
is a peaceful religion and its followers are also predominantly
peaceful, Muslim terrorists who constitute a minority are evil and
are corrupting mainstream Islam. It is unclear whether the Bush
Administration believes in the distinction or disingenuously draws
it for pragmatic reasons. In its war on terror, the Bush Administration
seeks support from Muslim states. The distinction provides a sav-
ing face for cooperating Muslim states and comforts Muslims in
general. It would be a tactical mistake to connect terrorists with
the essentialist violent nature of Islam. For in that case, friendly
Muslim governments would refuse to cooperate with U.S. armed
and intelligence forces that hunt, capture, and kill Muslim mili-
tants. Simon and Benjamin understand the utility of the distinc-
tion that the U.S. government draws for geopolitical reasons. They
nonetheless want to tell the truth that Muslim militants are the
product of an essentialist violent theology.
Whereas Simon and Benjamin dress their dubious thesis in veiled
language, David Frum and Richard Perle, two neoconservative pro-
pagandists of the American Enterprise Institute, write the same
thesis in a more robust prose aimed at winning over the general
public. They argue that militant Islam is the cause of violence
against Israel and the United States. These authors see symbiotic
connections between Muslim militants and the larger Islamic world,
thus refusing to draw what they perceive is a politically correct
but bad faith distinction between militant and moderate versions
of Islam. And though it is comforting to deny it, they say, all the
available evidence indicates that militant Islam commands wide
support, and even wider sympathy, among Muslims worldwide.
Frum and Perle ridicule the U.S. and world leaders who dread
pronouncing out loud the enemys name. The enemy, in their view,
is Allahs radical Islam.
By shifting the spotlight from victims grievances to victims reli-
gion, Frum and Perle see Islam as the source of essentialist ter-
rorism. They reject the notion that Muslim militants are ghting
to liberate occupied Palestine from Israels iron clutch or that they
are ghting U.S. occupation of Iraq, a war that these authors actively
advocated. Instead, Frum and Perle argue that militant Islam is
striving to overthrow our civilization and remake the nations of
the West into Islamic societies, imposing on the whole world its
religion and its law. But to do so, Muslim militants have no plans
to ignite an intellectual debate in which they would highlight Islams
virtues and the Wests moral decadence. They are not planning
seminars to propagate puritanical Islam. To achieve [their] cos-
mic ambitions, say Frum and Perle, Islamic terrorists wish and
are preparing to commit murder on a horric scale. In militant
Islam, the authors assert, lies an aggressive and opportunistic
ideology, no less perverted than that of communism or Nazism.
Addiction to Violence
Relying on themes fabricated by the Lewis-Laqueur enclave, other

HITLit propagandists inform the world that Islamic violence is
sacred and addictive. Bruce Hoffman,18 whom the media has por-
trayed as a world-renowned terrorist expert, traces the historical
evolution of the denition of terrorism to conclude that religious
terrorists are unique. While in his major HITLit work he does not
single out Muslim militants as unique religious terrorists, his writ-
ings as a whole are devoted to analyzing Islamic terrorism. Hoffman
offers a basic distinction between secular and religious terror-
ists. He seems to have a soft corner for secular terrorists and dar-
ingly posits the thesis that originally secular terrorism has been
closely associated with the ideals of virtue and democracy. One
essential characteristic of secular terrorists is that they use violence
to obtain political objectives. Even ethno-nationalist/separatist ter-
rorism, some inspired by Marxism, and some supported by the
Soviet Union during the Cold War era, was secular in nature and
driven by the ideals of territorial and economic independence.
The anti-colonial terrorism against the British for the creation
of the state of Israel, according to Hoffman, is the example of ide-
alistic, secular, and successful terrorism.19 Furthermore, secular
18
Bruce Hoffman is the Director of RANDs ofce in Washington, D.C. He has
worked for the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.K.s Ministry of Defense.
He writes extensively in popular journals to disseminate his views and regularly
appears on the U.S. electronic media to comment on terrorist events.
19
Hoffmans doctoral dissertation at Oxford University explored more deeply
Jewish terrorist activities against the British between 1939 to 1947. Hoffman also
argues that the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) has been a secular
independence movement supported by the Soviet Union. Hoffman nonetheless
notes a number of treacherous aws in the PLOs organization and operations.
The PLO actively pursued the accumulation of capital and wealth as a priority,
which it did by mentoring terrorists for other nations. The PLO has violated its
220 Chapter 6
terrorists are not indiscriminate killers on a massive scale because

such carnage is not consonant with their political aims and there-
fore [is] regarded as counterproductive, if not immoral. They ter-
rorize in a measured manner to make political points, since their
objective is not to kill but to realize political dreams.
In contrast to secular terrorism, Hoffman contends, religious ter-
rorism is inspired by theological demand and not by political con-
cerns. Religious terrorists see violence as a sacramental act or
divine duty. Whereas secular terrorists have an external audience,
including aggrieved populations on behalf of which they are ght-
ing against colonial or oppressive regimes, religious terrorists are
their own audience. They speak to no human constituency but to
God. They need no approval from external constituencies since they
are spiritually self-sufcient. They can both perpetrate violence and
justify it. And because they have no external audience, they are
not restrained in the use of force. According to Hoffman, [t]his
sense of alienation also enables the religious terrorist to contem-
plate far more destructive and deadly types of terrorist operations.
Another characteristic of religious terrorists is their open-ended
denition of the enemy; they would strike anyone who in their
fancy is Gods enemy.
While these core characteristics are common to religious terror-
ists of all faiths, Hoffman argues that they are most closely asso-
ciated with Islamic terrorist groups.20 He traces the roots of modern
Islamic terrorism back to the 1979 Iranian revolution that over-
threw the Shah and installed the Shia theocracy. The rhetoric
that the Iranian revolutionaries used to justify and perpetuate the
establishment of the Islamic state was unfailingly universal in that
the concept of One Muslim Community is vital to the teachings of
Islam, regardless of Shia/Sunni cleavage.21 To this extent, Hoffmans
assessment is accurate. But from the universal rhetoric of Iranian
declared commitments not to expand the theatre of violence beyond occupied

territories.
20
The other religious group that Hoffman highlights is American Christian
White Supremacists who use religion for racist and anti-Semitic purposes. Such
American groups, says Hoffman, are bound together by vilication of Jews; they
belie in the conspiracy theory that Jews control the government, banks, and the
media; and they aim at overthrowing the U.S. or Zionist Occupation Government.
They also mistrust state and federal governments and are obsessed with racial
purication. Hoffman also briey examines Jewish terrorism, primarily focusing
on Rabbi Meir Kahanes virulent hatred of Arabs.
21
The concept of One Muslim Community is contained in the word Ummah.
revolutionaries, Hoffman concludes a remarkable non-sequitur:

Violence and coercion are not only permissible to achieve the world-
wide spread of Islamic law, but a necessary means to this divinely
sanctioned end. That the revolutionaries aim at spreading Islamic
law, rather than Islamic faith, is a bizarre conclusion, in part
because Islamic law to some extent has always been cultural and
varies from nation to nation, and in part because Islamic law can-
not exist without Islamic faith.
Hoffmans view of Shia Islam is historically and theologically
inaccurate because the Quran clearly states, let there be no com-
pulsion in religion.22 Assuming, for the sake of argument, that
Hoffmans claim that Shia Islam sanctions violence for its own dis-
semination is theologically or historically correct, the claim refutes
Hoffmans previous assertion that religious terrorism is an end in
itself and that it pursues no objective goal. If Shia militants are
using violence to achieve the worldwide spread of Islamic law,
their violence is didactic, purposeful, a means to an end. Ignoring
these contradictions, Hoffman wants to have it both ways. On the
one hand, he asserts that Muslim terrorists engage in violence for
no other reason but to get a spiritual high. But he also wants to
alarm the world that Shia terrorists are vying for world domina-
tion. It appears that he really wants to paint Iran-supported Shia
militant groups, particularly the Hezbollah, which resists Israel in
Lebanon, as illegitimate, cold-hearted killers.
Despite his focus on Iran as the theological source of modern
Islamic terrorism, Hoffman also examines Sunni terrorism and
zeros in on the Hamas, an Islamic militant group that resists Israeli
occupation in the West Bank and Gaza. He points out that Hamas
is committed to the extinction of Israel and that its leaders employ
grandiose rhetoric of exterminating Jews from Palestine. These
Hamas commitments are consistent with Hoffmans archetypal
religious terrorist who is always over-inclusive in dening the
enemy. Just like the Iranians, says Hoffman, Hamas also wishes
to establish an Islamic state in occupied Palestine. Hoffman seems
to believe that Muslims who wish to establish an Islamic state are
inherently prone to violence.
In discussing suicide bombings that Hamas has introduced in
the Israeli-Palestinian conict, Hoffman describes religious motives
for which young Palestinian men and women die and kill Israelis.
22
Quran 2:256.
222 Chapter 6
Embracing the HITLits favorite thesis of ridicule, Hoffman argues

that suicide bombers embrace death for pleasures of the afterlife,
including alcohol and sex with virgins that Islam promises to mar-
tyrs. This ridiculing thesis discounts Israeli occupation as the pri-
mary source of violence in the occupied territories. It ignores a
simple fact that many Palestinians kill and die because occupying
soldiers in Gaza and the West Bank have brutalized their families.
Ignoring grievances, Hoffman goes for a deeper explanation. It is
the attraction of getting drunk and having sex in the afterlife, he
concludes, which motivates religious terrorists to die and kill. This
caricatured view of Islam is most surprising, coming from a world-
renowned terrorist expert who has free access to U.S. media, the
U.S. Defense Department, and academic circles.
Jessica Stern23 is another enclave author. She dutifully toes the
line that Laqueur, Benjamin, Simon, and Hoffman have drawn in
the sand. She uses vivid language to describe Muslim militants as
irrational pursuers of violence. The titles of her essays and arti-
cles Caliphate of Terror, Terrorisms New Mecca, and Explaining
the Addiction to Jihad reveal the deeper connections she wants
to interweave between violence and the Islamic faith. Afrming the
HITLit thesis, Stern argues that Muslim militants are not just
ghting for political goals, but they are responding with anger to
values like tolerance and equal rights for women that are supremely
irritating to those who feel left behind by modernity. This picture
of the Muslim militant as the guardian of backwardness minimizes
the value of solving geopolitical oppressions and occupations for
the leopard cannot change his spots and emphasizes the cultural
re-engineering of Islamic societies.
Sterns explosive language of smear, along with that of the other
HITLit authors, is highly inuential because such language causes
a visceral reaction among readers and listeners. As Said observed,
terrorism has spawned uses of language, rhetoric and argument
that are frightening in their capacity for mobilizing opinion, gain-
ing legitimacy and provoking various sorts of murderous action.
The unnecessary but lethal war in Iraq, which HITLit authors
23
Jessica Stern is a lecturer at Harvard Universitys John F. Kennedy School
of Government. Under the Clinton Administration, Stern served at the National
Security Council where she invented policies designed to reduce the threat of
nuclear smuggling and terrorism with regard to Russia. She has written exten-
sively on Muslim militancy.
actively promoted, demonstrates that the use of murderous lan-

guage was highly purposeful.
Introducing a little twist, Stern concedes that a Muslim militant
group might start with a moral purpose, but once in business the
group becomes professional. Muslim terrorist organizations, Stern
stresses, alter their missions in many ways. Some nd a new mis-
sion when the old one is completed. Some broaden the mission to
make it attractive to a wider variety of potential recruits. In this
sense, jihad is an end in itself and Muslim terrorists are no longer
ghting just for aggrieved populations. They resent modernity,
Western domination, and humiliation. After interviewing Muslim
militants,24 Stern pretends to anchor her ndings in facts and empir-
ical knowledge that she correctly believes is more respectable than
mere analytical inferences. But empirical knowledge is no conver-
sational quackery. It is not talking to a few chosen terrorists.
Undeterred by the frivolity of her methodology, Stern is determined
to nd something hidden in the terrorists hearts. Fusing jihad
with violence, she shares with the readers that one of the most
chilling things [terrorists] have told me is that jihad becomes addic-
tive. This addiction to violence is so compelling and irresistible
that any action becomes acceptable, including cooperating with
enemy terrorist groups and criminal rings, killing innocent Muslims,
or attacking friendly forces.
Just like Hoffman, Stern asserts that religious terrorists are more
violent than their secular counterparts.25 As an alarmist, Stern
warns that Muslim militants are also more likely to use weapons
of mass destruction.26 The ultimate terrorists are thus Muslim
24
Stern interviewed a retired terrorist, Firdous Syed, who once fought for the
liberation of Kashmir. According to Stern, the retired terrorist realized the spir-
itual error of helping the Muslim community. He seemed to reject the faith of
Islam, since it failed to make him understand the sufferings of all peoples. This
retired terrorist admitted that Muslim militants initiated violence and destruc-
tion in Kashmir. He made the sweeping conclusion that [w]ith each generation
Islamic fundamentalism becomes uglier. He also said, [t]o hate is venom. When
you hate, you poison yourself. This is the typical mentality of the fundamental-
ist movement today.
25
Hoffmans Inside Terrorism and Sterns The Ultimate Terrorists were pub-
lished in close proximity in time. Their discussion of the historical evolution of
the denition of terrorism is similar, as is their treatment of Muslim and Christian
terrorist groups.
26
In 1999, long before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Stern made a case that Iraq
possessed weapons of mass destruction, that it would likely use them perhaps
against Israel or the United States, and that Iraq sponsored terrorism outside its
borders. These are the same arguments that President George W. Bush made to
justify the invasion.
224 Chapter 6
fanatics27 who, addicted to jihad, would kill for the sake of killing,
and the more they can kill, the more their addiction is deepened,
until they can kill with massive doses of chemical or biological
weapons. This doomsday scenario is probable because Muslim fanat-
ics possess the right recipe: they can obtain the weapons of mass
destruction, they are addicted to violence, they are motivated by
revenge, and they believe that God is with them. As is common in
the HITLit enclave, Stern also believes that pure Islam is inher-
ently violent. She compares todays violent Islamist extremists
with Muslim Assassins of past centuries (10901275) and concludes
that a common thread binding these killers is their desire to spread
a puried version of Islam. To make matters sound worse, Stern
further insists that this purist, violent, and dangerous conception
of Islam is infested with greed, power, and attention.28 According
to Stern, Muslim militants are ghting to promote and defend a
backward way of life, and not to reverse occupations, settlements,
theft of land, or military hegemony.
Promoting the enclave theme that Islam is a violent religion,
Michael Ledeen,29 a relatively less erudite but pungent HITLit
author, draws his inspiration from Walter Laqueur whom he calls
one of the most astute analysts of terror and from Bernard Lewis,
whom he describes as the greatest Western expert on Islam.
Ledeen alleges that Islam draws an ideological border between the
world of Islam and the rest of the world; one is sacred and the
other is profane. This allegation is problematic to the extent that
Islam treats Judaism and Christianity with high respect and does
not consider these faiths as profane.30 Assuming that Ledeens
27
Stern not only singles out ad hoc groups of radical Muslim fundamentalists,
but also Christian Patriots as the most dangerous in that they would not hesi-
tate to use weapons of mass destruction.
28
Building on this assumption, Stern argues that suppressive states should
sow discord, confusion, and rivalry among terrorists and between terrorists and
their sponsors.
29
Michael Ledeen was the rst executive director of the Jewish Institute for
the National Security Affairs, an organization that describes him as one of the
worlds leading authorities on contemporary history and international affairs.
Ledeen actively supports a regime change in Iran and has co-founded another
organization called Coalition for Democracy in Iran. As of 2005, Ledeen is a res-
ident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. The Bush Administration has
regularly consulted Ledeen for advice on foreign affairs.
30
Quran 2:13 (describing that the Quran is a book of guidance for those who
believe in this revelation and the revelation before, a reference to Old and New
Testaments).
charge is accurate, the distinction that Islam allegedly draws is

not unique in that all ethical and moral systems draw lines between
adherents and non-adherents. What Ledeen asserts further, how-
ever, contributes to the HITLit thesis that Islam is inherently vio-
lent and its followers are accordingly addicted to violence. Whereas
Jessica Stern identies puritanical Islam as the source of violence,
Michael Ledeens Islam is bloodthirsty in all its forms and sects.
He quotes Elias Canetti31 whom he calls one of the great thinkers
of the last century to assert that Islam is a religion of war. He
quotes Bernard Lewis to make an unsupportable claim that there
exists only one verse in the Quran that praises peace and peace-
makers, implying that the rest of the Quran supports warfare.32
This war-mongering ideology of Islam, contends Ledeen, forces
Muslim militants, Shia and Sunni, to hate and kill Jews and Chris-
tians. Just like other HITLit authors, Ledeen does not believe that
Muslim militants are ghting to reverse theft of land and resources,
settlements, invasions, and occupations.
Denial of Grievances
The denial of others suffering is perhaps a common defensive strat-

egy. In offering intellectual profundity and psychoanalytical expla-
nations, HITLit authors, who rightfully resent Holocaust denial
and call it bigotry, vociferously deny that Muslim militants are
31
Elias Canetti (19051994), a Noble Prize Laureate in Literature, was a
Jewish/German/English novelist. He was, however, no expert in Islamic history,
theology, or law.
32
There are several verses that encourage Muslims to stop ghting when the
enemy has stopped ghting; so either Ledeen misquoted Lewis, or Lewis was mis-
taken. Examples of verses of the Quran that belie Lewiss claim include: Fight
in the cause of Allah those who ght you but do not transgress limits; for Allah
loves not transgressors. Quran 2:190; And ght them on until there is no more
persecution and the religion becomes Allahs. But if they cease, let there be no
hostility except to those who practice oppression. Quran 2:193; But if the enemy
incline towards peace, do thou (also) incline towards peace, and trust in Allah:
for He is the One that hears and knows (all things). Quran 8:61; Therefore if
they withdraw from you but ght you not, and (instead) send you (guarantees of )
peace, then Allah hath opened no way for you (to war against them). Quran 4:90;
and Except those who join a group between whom and you there is a treaty (of
peace), or those who approach you with hearts restraining them from ghting you
or ghting their own people. Id.
226 Chapter 6
ghting for concrete grievances such as theft of land, hegemony,

and occupation. By painting Muslim militants as essentially vio-
lent crazies, having religious grievances, who are constantly look-
ing to murder innocent victims, the HITLit minimizes the importance
of political and geopolitical objectives for which Muslim militants
are ghting. As mentioned above, the metaphor of addiction that
Jessica Stern uses to describe Islamic militancy captures the HITLit
linkage between essence and excuse. Essence comes from within,
the excuse from without. Essence propels action, and excuse pro-
vides the exterior rationale. That Muslim militants are ghting to
restore human dignity of the Palestinian people who have been dis-
possessed of their properties is an excuse. That Muslim militants
are ghting to participate in the Algerian democratic process from
which they are forcibly excluded is an excuse. That Muslim mili-
tants are ghting to resist U.S. occupation of Iraq is an excuse.
That they would ght anyway against anyone is their spiritual
essence. Their compulsion to ght is inexhaustible. Muslim mili-
tants need for violence is unlimited.
Driven by this profound essence, the HITLit maintains, Muslim
militants continue to nd excuses to feed their murderous instincts
and when none are left, they begin to manufacture them. This com-
pulsive behavior to seek violence is no different from that of a
cocaine-addict who needs the x come rain or shine. Journalist
David Brooks, a HITLit disseminator, articulates the charge as fol-
lows: Suicide bombing is the crack cocaine of warfare . . . it intox-
icates the people who sponsor it. It unleashes the deepest and most
addictive human passions the thirst for vengeance, the desire for
religious purity, the longing for earthly glory and eternal salva-
tion. This is perfect imaging of the essentialist terrorist and con-
summate denial of the terrorists personal and group grievances.
Brooks denies that a Palestinian dies and kills because Israeli tanks
have decimated her family or her village.
The HITLits essentialist terrorism benets suppressive entities,
such as Israel, for it diverts attention from oppression to resistance.
Instead of condemning the occupier, it nds faults with the occu-
pied. It minimizes the signicance of injustice but highlights the
cruelty of violence against injustice. It stands the issue on its head.
It supports Israeli governments when they come under severe attack
for their treatment of the Palestinians. It disagrees with the world
community when it condemns Israels extra-judicial killings of
Palestinian political and spiritual leaders. It blasts the International
Court of Justice when it declares that the Separation Wall that
Israel has built is contrary to international law. It nds faults with

Human Rights groups that are highly critical of the mistreatment
of Palestinians at checkpoints. It dismisses the grievances that
Palestinian militants invoke to justify their armed resistance. It
pollutes the air of sympathy for the Palestinians. It even criticizes
Israeli allies, including the United States, when they muster the
courage to show disapproval of Israeli mistreatments of an occu-
pied population. It charges the critics of Israel as anti-Semites.
The essentialist terrorism is designed to minimize the impact of
these injustices. If the HITLit can successfully persuade the world
that Muslim militants ghting oppressive infrastructure in occu-
pied Palestine or Iraq are crazies who need violence to satisfy their
essence, the worlds focus might begin to shift towards the con-
demnation of compulsive terror. After all, the HITLits strategy is
to shift the focus from oppression to terror. It is unlikely that the
world would simply forget or forgive Israeli atrocities perpetrated
on the Palestinians, but it would begin to sympathize with the
argument that no nal settlement of the Palestinian problem can
be reached unless crazies are rst completely crushed.
The HITLits denial of grievances is often accompanied by a
related phenomenon, which may be called loss exceptionalism. All
injury to noncombatants, including civilians, is unjustied. However,
suppressive states minimize the injury inicted on an aggrieved
population and highlight a similar injury suffered by a suppressive
states own civilians. Palestinians often complain that the Western
media allocate much less coverage to the injury they receive from
Israeli occupying soldiers than to the injury that Muslim militants
cause to Israeli civilians, which is splashed on the front pages of
major newspapers. Likewise, the September 11 attacks on the
United States in which two huge buildings collapsed and around
3,000 civilians died, though shocking and reprehensible, have
nonetheless been immortalized as an exceptional loss, one that
changed the world. This is true even though since then, the U.S.
armed forces have destroyed scores of buildings and houses, and
killed many thousands of innocent civilians in wars against
Afghanistan and Iraq. A skewed measuring of loss and injury, though
natural to some extent, as each injured group highlights its own
injury, adds to the logic of violence.
228 Chapter 6
6.2 HITLIT INFLUENCE OVER POLITICAL RHETORIC
The inuence of HITLit theses over political rhetoric is vivid and

tangible. Speechwriters for the U.S. President and cabinet Secretaries
employ terrorism vocabulary that promotes and voices HITLit ideas.
The U.S. ofcial political rhetoric paints Muslim militants as heart-
less, immoral murderers and worse. The rhetoric is designed to
defend aggressive policies against Muslim militants both at home
and abroad. Ofcial words prepare the public to think about Muslim
militants as an unprincipled enemy who relies on a decadent ver-
sion of Islam to attack the Wests modern, civilized, and innocent
way of life.
President George W. Bush employs the word evil to describe
Muslim militants. Most often in his speeches, he uses the word evil
as a noun and not as an adjective, implying the character and the
internal formation of Muslim militants, and not their acts. Muslim
militants are therefore inherently evil, and not merely because they
commit evil acts. In his speech at the 2002 Graduation Exercise of
the United States Military Academy at West Point, President Bush
captured the morality of the war on terror in the following words:
We are in a conict between good and evil, and America will call
evil by its name.33 Muslim militants are evil, the President said
in this speech, because they target innocent civilians for murder
and commit brutality against women. The charge that Muslims
oppress women, a well-accepted thesis in the Western world, accen-
tuates the moral depravity of puritanical teachings of Islam. It
33
President George W. Bush, Graduation Speech at West Point (June 1, 2002),
available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/06/200206013.html.
Although the President did not use the words Muslim militants in his speech,
the reference is obvious. The part of the speech that articulates the concept of
good and evil runs as follows:
Some worry that it is somehow undiplomatic or impolite to speak the lan-
guage of right and wrong. I disagree. (Applause). Different circumstances
require different methods, but not different moralities. (Applause). Moral truth
is the same in every culture, in every time, and in every place. Targeting
innocent civilians for murder is always and everywhere wrong. (Applause).
Brutality against women is always and everywhere wrong. (Applause). There
can be no neutrality between justice and cruelty, between the innocent and
the guilty. We are in a conict between good and evil, and America will call
evil by its name. (Applause). By confronting evil and lawless regimes, we do
not create a problem, we reveal a problem. And we will lead the world in
opposing it. (Applause). Id.
furthers the HITLit thesis that Muslim militants resort to violence

because they oppose universal values of the modern world.
The focus of political rhetoric is not limited to crazy militants.
It also highlights the murderous ideology that supposedly inspires
Muslim militants to die and kill, a theme that the more radical
HITLit authors, such as Perle and Frum, advocate. Speaking to
soldiers at Fort Bragg, President Bush repeated the HITLit thesis
in the following words: The terrorists who attacked us and the
terrorists we face murder in the name of a totalitarian ideology
that hates freedom, rejects tolerance and despises all dissent.34
This was a reference to militant Islam that Frum and Perle and
other HITLit authors have espoused in their books and articles.
Furthermore, the President also embraced HITLit ideas that essen-
tialist terrorists murder the innocent, despise free societies, and
wish to remake the Middle East in their own grim image of tyranny
and oppression. This portrait of the essentialist terrorist shifts the
entire blame to the teachings of militant Islam as portrayed in the
HITLit, and it refuses to recognize that Muslim militants might be
ghting for less grandiose causes such as occupation, theft of land,
settlements, home demolitions, or grief over the collateral dam-
age that occupation forces have caused in Tikrit, Baghdad, or
Falluja.35
Believing that Muslim militants resort to violence because they
are essentially evil, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice embraces
the HITLit thesis of grievances denial. When are we going to stop
making excuses for the terrorists and saying that somebody is mak-
ing them do it? No, these are simply evil people who want to
kill. . . . This isnt about some kind of grievance. This is an effort
to destroy, rather than to build. However, she does not advocate
that Muslim militants are indeed inspired by Islam. Instead, she
embraces what the HITLit describes as politically correct lan-
guage. Namely, that Muslim militants want to kill in the name of
a perverted ideology that really is not Islam, but they somehow
34
Such rhetoric is not conned to the Bush administration. Senator John McCain
used similar rhetoric in condemning the London attacks in July of 2005. He
referred to this cruel and despicable enemy who wants to destroy not only
America but the West and our values and everything we stand for.
35
According to one study done by the United Kingdoms leading medical jour-
nal, over 100,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq as a direct consequence of the
U.S. invasion. This gure excludes Falluja, a city where civilian casualties were
extremely high.
230 Chapter 6
want to claim that mantle to say that this is about some kind of
grievance.
The HITLit theses have begun to shape some foreign leaders
political rhetoric as well. Reacting to the July bombings of London,
Prime Minister Tony Blair stated, It is important . . . that the ter-
rorists realize our determination to defend our values . . . is greater
than their determination to . . . impose their extremism on the
world. This characterization of violence (assuming that the bomb-
ings were indeed the work of Muslim militants, for which no cred-
ible proof existed at the time of Blairs statement) casts the bombing
in grandiose terms. When translated, the statement means: Muslim
militants bombed London because they desire to impose an extreme,
purist version of Islam on the world. This characterization, which
appears to be a non-sequitur, provides only the remotest accusatory
logic to the effect that Muslim militants foolishly believe that the
world, or London, would embrace puritanical Islam through sheer
fear. It declines to acknowledge more mundane explanations for
the bombings, such as that the militants were unhappy about the
United Kingdoms participation in the U.S. invasion of Iraq. It com-
pletely ignores Osama bin Ladens famous statement: If you bomb
our cities, we will bomb yours.
While political leaders continue to equate Islamic violence to
Islams puritanical rooting, some U.S. military generals have the
taken the rhetoric even further. After the September 11 attacks,
some American military generals launched a campaign of propa-
ganda, using religious, national, and racial contempt to prepare
soldiers to ght hard in Afghanistan and Iraq, and to win the sup-
port of Christian conservatives who see Islam as a global threat to
notions of goodness and American power. General William Boykin,
who believes God chose Bush for the White House to ght evil,
attacked Islam in the clearest possible words. Speaking to a con-
gregation of Baptists in Florida, the General narrated the story of
a Muslim warlord in Somalia, who had boasted that Allah (God)
would shield him from American soldiers. I knew . . . my God was
bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God, and his was
an idol, General Boykin said. This religious contrast was drawn
to persuade Christian conservatives that the war on terror is against
the false faith of Islam. This was not just a one-time slip of the
tongue. Beginning in January 2002, General Boykin traveled the
nation in dress uniform, addressing religious-oriented events, stag-
ing a slideshow, displaying pictures of Osama bin Laden and Saddam
Hussein, and saying to the audience, Satan wants to destroy this
nation, he wants to destroy us as a nation, and he wants to destroy

us as a Christian army.
Boykins speeches drew unprecedented media attention for a num-
ber of reasons. He was the general charged with hunting Osama
bin Laden and reforming Abu Ghraib prison. He also allied him-
self with the Faith Force Multiplier, a conservative group that advo-
cates applying military principles to evangelism. Boykins sermons
were perhaps designed to cheer American soldiers and their fam-
ilies into believing that they were ghting a dangerous faith, Islam,
and that they were destined to prevail. It is unclear, however, how
Boykins speeches were supposed to affect Muslims who serve in
the U.S. armed forces.36
The demonization of Muslim militants and the concomitant rhetoric
continues to ow into the news, afrming the fact that the HITLit
has penetrated deeper into the military. During a panel discussion
in San Diego, General James Mattis, who commands the First
Marine Division in Iraq ghting insurgents and who also fought
in Afghanistan, said he relished the opportunities to kill people.
Actually, its quite fun to ght . . . you know. Its a hell of a hoot . . .
You go into Afghanistan, youve got guys whove slapped women around
for ve years because they didnt wear a veil. You know, guys like
that aint got no manhood left anyway, so its a hell of a lot of fun to
shoot that.
The Generals message replays the HITLit thesis that puritanical
Islam, which the Taliban was allegedly enforcing, produces impo-
tent ghters who assert their manhood through the oppression of
women. It also prescribes that such men may be eliminated with-
out any moral quandary.
Political speeches made in the United States demonstrate that
the HITLit theses have penetrated deeply into political conscious-
ness. The public has been mobilized into believing that Islam
preaches violence and that its followers hate the United States for
its glory and dominance. The next step is to wipe out Muslim ter-
rorists, dismantle governments that pay stipends to families of sui-
cide bombers, forcibly change Islamic cultures, shut down parochial
36
Commenting on Boykins statements, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
remarked that individuals are entitled to their views as [w]e are free people.
However, on the recommendation of the Pentagon Inspector General, appropriate
corrective action was taken against Boykin.
232 Chapter 6
Islamic schools, and put an entire population of one billion Muslims

on the defensive.
6.3 HITLIT PROPOSALS TO COMBAT MUSLIM MILITANCY
The HITLit proposes new approaches to combat Islamic militancy.

Most proposed solutions carry an aura of lawlessness. Lawless
responses such as illegal war, extrajudicial killings, detention
without trial, degrading treatments, torture, the suspension of
client-attorney privilege, and renditions to combat Muslim mili-
tancy are justied on the theory that essentialist terrorists are
unique. It is asserted that conventional law-based approaches would
not work. Karl Rove, President Bushs top advisor, summed up the
new approach in the following words: Conservatives saw the sav-
agery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw
the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments
and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers. Roves
remarks ignited a huge controversy. Liberals insisted, though defen-
sively, that they were not soft. The liberals defensiveness has fur-
ther empowered the HITLit idea that indictments of militants
and understanding of causes of their militancy are woefully in-
adequate responses to Islamic terrorism.
Before September 11, the United States employed the criminal
justice approach to capture, indict, and punish terrorists both at
home and abroad. For example, Congress enacted a broad hostage-
taking statute to punish terrorists who seize any person, not just
U.S. nationals, whether inside or outside the United States, to com-
pel the behavior of a third person or a governmental organization.37
The statute impinges upon the sovereignty of foreign states and
asserts criminal jurisdiction over hostage takers who perpetrate
their crime on foreign soil against foreign nationals. In light of this
statute, the FBI engaged in international abductions to capture
terrorists abroad.38 Despite its jurisdictional overreaching, the
statute nonetheless offers a legal approach to dealing with terror-
37
See 18 U.S.C. 1203(a) (2000).
38
Under this statute, Fawaz Yunis, a Lebanese who hijacked a Jordanian air-
line, was arrested abroad in an FBI sting operation and brought to the United
States. U.S. v. Yunis, 681 F. Supp. 896, 898, 903, 90506 (D.D.C. 1988).
ists, an approach that assures a traditional trial within the frame-

work of criminal justice restraints and defendants rights. U.S.
courts upheld the validity of this overreaching statute on the the-
ory that if a foreign state is unwilling or unable to prosecute ter-
rorists, it is left to the world community to respond and prosecute
the alleged terrorists.39
The HITLit authors, such as Ruth Wedgwood, seemed unsatised
with the criminal justice approach with its inherent restraints and
rights. They urged the United States to adopt more aggressive poli-
cies, such as the ones that Israel has used in combating Palestinian
resistance and terrorism. Even though they had been arguing the
case for some time, the September 11 attacks furnished a perfect
opportunity for HITLit authors to offer the closing argument. A
sympathetic Bush Administration, bafed by the enormity of the
attacks, succumbed to the HITLit advocacy. It embarked upon a
new paradigm that would generate increasingly lawless policies,
as one lawless policy triggered another, and yet another. Soon, the
Administration was engaged in a questionable war in Iraq. It deed
world opinion, mocked the United Nations, invaded Iraq, and ignored
the UN Charter rules on the use of force. Ignoring prohibitions on
extra-judicial killings, it began to murder suspected terrorists, even
if they were U.S. citizens.40 Muslim prisons were set up in Iraq,
Afghanistan, Guantnamo Bay, and at secret places where detainees
were interrogated contrary to customary and treaty-based inter-
national law. Some detainees were rendered to friendly Muslim
nations for interrogation by means of torture. In Iraq, Muslim pris-
oners were tortured in a U.S.-operated prison. At home, hundreds
of Muslim immigrants and citizens were detained without any legal
process. Some were beaten in detention. Others were deported on
technical violations of immigration laws. These stories were no dif-
ferent from the ones originating in Israeli-occupied territories, where
Palestinian militants have been detained, tortured, killed, and
expelled. The United States was being re-made in the image of
Israel. But this was no mere coincidence; it was the result of the
hard work that HITLit authors have put in for years.
39
Id. at 907.
40
Dana Priest, CIA Killed U.S. Citizen in Yemen Missile Strike; Actions Legality,
Effectiveness Questioned, Washington Post, (Nov. 8, 2002), at A01, available at
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/110805.htm. See also Alan Dershowitz,
They Dont Have to Wear Combats to Be a Fair Target, Times (London), Apr. 22,
2004, available at 2004 WLNR 5495079.
234 Chapter 6
Moreover, when the Bush Administration adopted legally ques-

tionable policies at home and abroad, a slew of legal experts began
to defend these policies as legal and mandated by the new para-
digm. Professors John Yoo, Ruth Wedgwood, Jack Goldsmith, and
others published law articles in prestigious law journals defending
violation of the UN Charter on the use of force, resorting to war,
refusing to apply Geneva Conventions to captured Muslim mili-
tants, renditions, and even suspending civil liberties in the United
States. These experts made the legal case for the justication of a
questionable practice, but stated that they were not recommend-
ing that the U.S. government adopt the policy. Yoo, for example,
argued that the United States may lawfully transfer detainees to
foreign countries for interrogation, but would not say whether the
government should indeed adopt the policy. The message of U.S.
government lawyers, including John Yoo, Jay Bybee, and Robert
Delahunty, was something like this: do it if you want to; we have
done our job by making it sound legal.
Proactive Aggression
The invasion of Iraq was no sudden, existential leap of faith. For

years, HITLit authors have been advocating proactive aggression
to crush Muslim nations that support militancy against Israel and
the United States. Arguing that essentialist terrorists cannot be
reformed through punishment or rehabilitation, these authors have
been proposing to kill them. The best way to kill Muslim militants
is to engage them in wars fought in Muslim lands. These wars are
proposed not only to kill militants, but to dismantle regimes that
support Muslim militancy. President Bush has embraced the HITLit
prescription of proactive aggression as follows: U.S. troops are
ghting to defeat these killers abroad before they attack us at
home. HITLit legal experts defend proactive aggression, turning
lawlessness into law.
Michael Ledeen proposes proactive aggression and massive defeat
of the forces of Islamic fundamentalism throughout the Middle
East. If Iraq, Iran, and Syria are crushed and pro-Western gov-
ernments are installed, says Ledeen, it would have a decisive effect
on the thinking of Islamic leaders and on the passions of the Islamic
masses. Ledeens proactive and effective aggression prescribes a
complete behavior modication of Muslim militants, their leaders,
and the masses from which they emerge. After defeating govern-
ments and killing militants, Ledeen proposes that the United States
use democratization as a tool to change Islamic culture and puri-
tanical versions of Islam, including Saudi Arabias Wahabbism, just
as the United States rooted out the Nazi ideology from the German
culture after defeating Hitler. And if radical Muslims seize Saudi
Arabia, war may be extended to the Arabian Peninsula because
the West needs Saudi oil.
Ruth Wedgwood, commenting on the HITLit thesis that Muslim
militants have no programmatic demands as conventional terror-
ists do, but rather ght to seek martyrdom, concludes that these
operators cannot be deterred in an ordinary fashion. We face an
adversary, she writes, repeating the HITLit mantra, who really
does not seem to care about earthly things, only about the triumph
of an eschatological ideology. Criminal justice that looks backwards
and presupposes that deterrence is possible, is therefore inadequate
to deal with Muslim militants. We need to think about the antic-
ipatory moves that one makes in war.
Victor Hanson, who advises the U.S. Department of Defense,
argues that war must be lethal and conclusive. Leaving aside moral
questions from the equation, Hanson studies the effectiveness of
war as a killing machine. My curiosity is not with Western mans
heart of darkness, but with his ability to ght specically how
his military prowess reects larger social, economic, political, and
cultural practices that themselves seemingly have little to do with
war. Alexander defeated the Persians because the Greeks were
culturally superior. Europeans defeated Asians, Africans, and Native
Americans, says Hanson, not because they were smarter or braver
but because of the singular and continuous lethality of their cul-
ture. If the U.S. armed forces are following Hansons analytical and
ideological models, many things begin to make sense in the U.S.
war on terror. Per Hanson, the war on terror is (and ought to be)
amoral. Its focus is (and ought to be) on lethality rather than ethics
or law.
U.S. lethality in Iraq has been effective in killing, but it has also
served militant organizations by recruiting new ghters and sui-
cide bombers. It was correctly anticipated that Muslim militants
from all over the world would come to ght troops invading Muslim
nations. But consequences of anticipatory moves are less certain.
Suppressive states create battleelds to attract militants and to
kill them. Muslim militants welcome legally questionable invasions
as recruitment opportunities, for they present these invasions as
236 Chapter 6
modern-day crusades.41 Israel tasted a bitter defeat in Lebanon

when a coalition of militants from all over the world volunteered
their services to ght the invading army. The U.S. invasion of
Afghanistan was successful in killing a number of militants, though
the best Taliban ghters and the al Qaeda leadership survived the
war. The U.S. war against Iraq has been a lethal draw so far. Many
militants have been killed, but many more have been recruited
because most Muslims believe that the Iraqi war was unjust, and
therefore, jihad is obligatory.42 The Iraqi war further lost its moral
grounding when no weapons of mass destruction were found. If
HITLit authors are successful in persuading the U.S. administra-
tion to invade Syria and Iran, new battleelds are likely to be even
more complex and bloody. In all such invasions, the costs that
Muslim civilians pay are enormous.
In pursuing the destruction of Muslim militants, HITLit authors
care little whether wars are illegal. The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan
was legal, but the invasion of Iraq was not.43 The entire world sup-
ported the toppling of the Taliban, who sheltered al Qaeda, but the
international community was highly skeptical of both the legality
and the wisdom of the Iraqi war. Ignoring world opinion and the
rule of international law, HITLit authors and their counterparts in
the U.S. government were determined to pursue a policy of proac-
tive aggression against Saddams Iraq. President Bush originally
defended the war as a measure to stop Iraqs dictator from fur-
nishing weapons of mass destruction to terrorists. This rationale
was the child of HITLit authors who had persuaded the Bush admin-
istration into believing the following: (1) that Iraq possessed weapons
41
Toppling the Taliban in Afghanistan was considered necessary to uproot al
Qaeda, which allegedly perpetrated the 9/11 attacks. Toppling Saddam Hussein
was considered necessary to cut off funding to families of suicide-bombers who
attacked Israel. Likewise, Syria and Iran are accused of sheltering and support-
ing terrorists who mastermind attacks on Israel and reinforce insurgency in Iraq.
42
The Quran states as follows:
And why should ye not ght in the cause of Allah and of those who, being weak,
are ill-treated (and oppressed)? Men, women, and children, whose cry is: Our
Lord! Rescue us from this town. Whose people are oppressors; and raise for us
from Thee One who will protect; and raise for us from Thee One who will help!
Quran 4:75.
43
Under the U.N. Charter, only two circumstances exist in which the use of
force is permissible: (1) in collective or individual self-defense against an actual
or imminent armed attack; and (2) when the Security Council has directed or
authorized use of force to maintain or restore international peace and security.
The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan fell under the second circumstance. However,
the war in Iraq meets neither circumstance.
of mass destruction; (2) that Saddam Hussein would supply these

weapons to essentialist terrorists; and (3) that essentialist terror-
ists had no moral qualms about using these weapons against the
United States and Israel.
Extra-Judicial Killings
Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon propose that the United States
consider targeted killing of Muslim militants involved in con-
spiracies against the United States. The authors approvingly
refer to Israels employment of extra-judicial killings to eliminate
Palestinian militants, including political and spiritual leaders of
Hamas. In targeted killings, the perpetrator state charges mili-
tants with crimes, collects and weighs evidence to prove alleged
charges, convicts, and imposes the death penalty. This procedure
involves no judicial trial and no opportunity for the targeted per-
son to mount any legal defense. International law opposes extra-
judicial killings. Ignoring international legal restraints, these two
authors propose that the United States adopt the Israeli practice
of targeted killings. They even suggest that such killings fall within
the states right of self-defense. Not totally comfortable with the
morality of their proposal, however, the authors concede that a pol-
icy of targeted killings is unsavory and should be thoroughly
debated. But in a new strategic context, they conclude, unsa-
vory may not be the same as unacceptable.
Despite this coaxing, the United States has been reluctant to
undertake extra-judicial killings as a routine practice. However,
the rules have been relaxed. In November 2002, for example, a
remote-controlled CIA Predator aircraft shot a ve-foot long
Hellre missile and destroyed a moving vehicle in a desert about
one hundred miles east of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa.44 In the
vehicle six terrorists were incinerated, including one naturalized
U.S. citizen. According to U.S. ofcials, the missile strike was exe-
cuted with prior approval of the Yemeni government. In this lethal
mission, the high value target was a senior al Qaeda leader, Abu
Ali al-Harithi, accused of masterminding the October 2000 attack
44
Priest, supra note 41.
238 Chapter 6
on the military ship USS Cole. U.S. ofcials did not admit or deny
that CIA operatives knew that one of the passengers in the target
vehicle was an American citizen. It is unlikely that any such knowl-
edge would have stopped the deadly strike.
Torture
Universal prohibition against torture has acquired the status of

jus cogens. The Convention Against Torture is cast in absolute
terms, leaving no room for exceptions. Article Four of the Convention
specically states, Each State Party shall ensure that all acts of
torture are offences under its criminal law. Alan Dershowitz acknowl-
edges the universal and absolute character of the prohibition against
torture embodied in the Convention. And yet, he points out that
the United States will remain in technical compliance with the
Convention obligation if it resorts to mental and psychological
torture to save lives, since the Eighth Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution, and not the Convention, provides the ultimate stan-
dards of ofcial conduct. Furthermore, Dershowitz challenges the
conventional wisdom that torture does not work, arguing that tor-
ture has indeed produced truthful information. If torture were inef-
fective as an investigation tool, nations would have abandoned it
long ago; but they have not. Dershowitz recognizes the moral pain
that comes with allowing torture, but he concludes that allowing
torture is a tragic choice that we will have to make in the age of
weapons of mass destruction.45
Dershowitzs logic dictates that state ofcials may use torture,
though it is morally uncomfortable, to seek information from Muslim
militants because they will most likely use weapons of mass destruc-
tion. In discussing Muslim militants, Dershowitz compares them
with Hitler. There are indeed haunting and frightening similari-
ties between what Hitler said he would do to the Jews and what
many Islamic leaders are now saying they intend to do. . . . This
similarity is drawn to highlight the point that Muslim militants
45
To limit ofcial abuse of torture techniques, Dershowitz invents the concept
of the torture warrant that ofcials must obtain from a court. Torture warrants,
he argues, will protect the rights of the suspect. He also believes that most peo-
ple misunderstand his stance on torture.
will use weapons of mass destruction to kill Jews and Americans

because, just like Hitler, Muslim leaders mean what they say. And
just as ordinary Germans were responsible for creating and sus-
taining Hitler, tens of millions of Muslims, says Dershowitz, sup-
port militants threats of slaughtering large civilian populations,
including children, women, and elderly as they have already done.
In line with his HITLit peers, Dershowitz sees Islam as a basically
violent religion in that tens of millions of its adherents support the
annihilation of innocents.
In the realm of law, Alan Dershowitz has distinguished himself
in promoting HITLit terror-related policies that do not t with his
public image as the protector of civil liberties for all, including the
worst criminals. In advocating the HITLit thesis that Muslim mil-
itants seek violence for the sake of violence, Dershowitz appears
to be less dogmatic than his HITLit peers. He draws a distinction
between Palestinian terrorism and al Qaeda terrorism. Palestinians
terrorism has been changing its objectives to pressure Israel in giv-
ing more and more concessions, says Dershowitz, but al Qaedas
terrorism aims at destroying American symbols of power and the
people associated with these symbols. Like the religiously inspired
terrorists of old, the means and the ends seem to be the same: mass
murder for its own sake, based on religious zealotry. This rhetoric
has no informative value, except that it puts down Islam as a source
of violence and paints Muslim militants as bloodthirsty maniacs.
If Dershowitz is arguing that al Qaeda terrorism has no justi-
cation because it has no grievances of its own as Palestinians do,
he has a point, though a small one. Even this small point loses
signicance if al Qaeda is seen as an ideological force of solidarity
that assists regional Muslim militants ghting for legitimate griev-
ances. It is unclear how Dershowitz would distinguish a coalition
of suppressive states, such as the one that occupies Iraq, from a
coalition of Muslim militants of different nationalities. Just as some
Western states have pooled their resources to invade and occupy
Iraq, so too have Muslim militants in resisting this occupation. The
fault is not in the idea of coalition; it is in the morality of their
action. The international dimension of militancy (terrorism) is
viewed with horror because Muslim militants shared goal of resist-
ing occupation, settlements, hegemony, or alien domination is seen
as illegitimate.
240 Chapter 6
Suspension of Civil Liberties and Laws of War
Jack Goldsmith and Cass Sunstein, HITLit sympathizers, take a

devious stand on the Bush Administrations suspension of civil lib-
erties. They do not come out and say that the monitoring of attor-
ney-client phone calls, the degrading treatment of the Guantnamo
prisoners, the detention of American citizens as enemy belliger-
ents, and the indenite detentions and deportations of Muslims on
technical immigration violations are constitutionally defensible.
We do not express a view on these practices, say Goldsmith and
Sunstein.46 However, they note that compared to past wars led by
Lincoln, Wilson, and Roosevelt, the Bush Administration has, thus
far, diminished relatively few civil liberties. That might be so, but
instead of appreciating the present legal culture that restrains the
Executive branch from suspending civil liberties, the authors see
a potential danger in the revolution. Invoking threats of weapons
of mass destruction posed by al Qaeda and other terrorists, they
caution against the gravitational pull of a liberties-protective legal
culture that might lead some to underestimate the threat we . . .
face. Perhaps insensitive to the fact that a counter-revolution in
the legal culture of liberties will disproportionately affect minori-
ties, Goldsmith and Sunstein nonetheless are willing to trade off
even more liberties for national security in the context of asym-
metrical warfare involving suicidal terrorists.
Social Engineering of Muslim Societies
In addition to recommending lawless approaches to crush Muslim

militants, HITLit authors strongly advocate that the United States
46
Jack Goldsmith & Cass R. Sunstein, Military Tribunals and Legal Culture:
What a Difference Sixty Years Makes, 19 Constitutional Comment 261, 288 (2002).
After completing this article, Jack Goldsmith took a leave of absence to serve as
Special Counsel at the U.S. Defense Department. In another article that he co-
authored after having served at the Defense Department, Goldsmith offers a new
approach to justify indenite detentions of enemy combatants. The traditional
law of war requires that captured enemy combatants be released after the war
is over. This rule, according to Goldsmith and his co-author Curtis Bradley, must
be reread to mean that a captured terrorist may never be released if he contin-
ues to pose a security threat to the United States. Curtis A. Bradley & Jack L.
Goldsmith, Congressional Authorization and the War on Terrorism, 118 Harvard
Law Review 2047, 2124 (2005).
undertake profound social re-engineering of Islamic societies. If the

Muslim culture that produces militancy is fundamentally trans-
formed, HITLit authors believe that Islamic terrorism would fall
apart. Accordingly, they suggest changes in education, the eradi-
cation or dilution of the Qurans concept of jihad, and exportation
of liberal freedoms and liberties. Even the democratization gift to
the Islamic world is designed to reduce the inuence of religion
over Muslim populations. Contrary to the rhetoric that Muslim mil-
itants want to impose their values on the rest of the world, HITLit
authors themselves are engaged in an ambitious enterprise of
remaking Muslim societies through coercion and manipulation.
Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon propose a bargain under
which Muslim nations would receive continued and perhaps expanded
economic and military assistance if they undertake reforms in their
educational, economic and political systems aimed at ending anti-
Americanism and anti-Semitism. The authors argue that democra-
tization would lessen the appeal of jihad, and political competition
would expose the incompetence of religious parties in running state
affairs, since they would be unable to deliver a higher standard of
living that citizens demand. Democratization, however, may not be
useful for the United States, warn the authors, since it might bring
anti-American and anti-Israel parties to power. In prosecuting the
war on terror, say the authors, undemocratic regimes in Pakistan,
Egypt, Yemen, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia have been highly cooper-
ative in hunting down and handing over terrorists. This might
change if governments are more accountable to the people.
Despite these short-term risks, Benjamin and Simon offer a num-
ber of strategies to alter the minds of Muslim populations. Pop
music, chat shows, propaganda of good Muslim life in America, and
news from the Western perspective strategies adopted under the
Clinton Administration all have failed to mold Muslim opinion
in the desired direction, say the authors, because Muslims believe
the United States is under the spell of Jews. The United States
must engage the Muslim world in a more candid dialogue in which
both parties can critique each others values. After suggesting a
more honest approach to problems facing the Muslim world, how-
ever, the authors slip back into more manipulative strategies. They
suggest, for example, that Washington nd creative ways to fun-
nel monies to moderate clerics and mosques whose voices we
want to amplify. It is unclear how the authors believe that an hon-
est dialogue can be constructed if the United States is funding
views it likes and disseminating them via cassette and the Internet
to increase their audience.
242 Chapter 6
While Benjamin and Simon are more cautious in their democ-

ratization proposals, Frum and Perle are more combative and
straightforward. They disagree with Secretary Ko Annan, who
remarked that democracy could not be imposed by force. They give
examples of Western Europe and Japan to rebut Annans thesis.
Outside help, and even outright war, is critical in transforming the
Muslim world because militant Islam is a lie. It proposes to restore
the vanished glory of a great civilization through crimes that hor-
rify the conscience of the world. Once militant Islam is disman-
tled with force, the authors believe that the road to liberal democracy
may be more easily constructed. Ordinary Muslims want to be like
America, and only Iranian mullahs, Saudi Imams, and Palestinian
would-be dictators dread the excitement and appeal of American
life. At another place in their book, however, Frum and Perle point
out that even educated middle class Muslims such as diplomats,
engineers, and university professors denounce the United States
and show little sympathy for U.S. losses suffered in the 9/11 attacks.
Ironically, these authors, who would impose democracy even with
guns, have good reason to pray for Pervez Musharraf, a military
man who overthrew a duly elected government and seized power,
because ordinary Pakistanis are anti-America and anti-Israel.
Similarly, Michael Ledeen draws on history to wage an ideolog-
ical war against Islam. We defeated the Soviet Empire both mil-
itarily and ideologically, and there was a dynamic interplay between
the two. Building on this logic, Ledeen prescribes a combination
of war and democratization to challenge the Muslim world. He pro-
poses the following course of action: hate-preaching schools and
mosques must . . . be closed or fundamentally changed; Iraqi Shi"ism
should be used against Tehran for dismantling Iranian theocracy
and promoting the separation of church and state; al Qaeda must
be destroyed; and pro-Western governments must be brought to
power in Syria, Iran, and Iraq. Ledeen is unsure whether democ-
racy can be brought to Saudi Arabia, where puritanical poison has
penetrated very deeply into the body of the nation. Just like other
HITLit authors, Ledeens commitment to democracy is not absolute.
If radicals win elections and come to power, says Ledeen, we might
have to attack Saudi Arabia and defeat the radicals, because other-
wise they will deprive the West of Saudi oil. To justify all this,
Ledeen gives the last word to Machiavelli: If you win, he tells us,
everyone will judge the means you used to have been appropriate.
Jessica Stern proposes a more passive-aggressive warfare to engi-
neer Islamic societies. Manipulation rather than violence is her
preferred method. Instead of killing militants, she wants to sow

confusion and conict among them so that they kill each other.
Instead of shutting down religious schools (madrassahs), she pro-
poses to establish alternative schools. Stern correctly points out
that madrassahs are popular among poor Muslims because they
provide free education. Whether Western-supported alternative
schools providing free education would likewise attract the child-
ren of poor families is unclear. But surely, alternative schools will
sow confusion in the values of the society. She rightfully points out
that some of the values that are being preached to Muslims, such
as glorication of vulgarity and violence, are abhorrent. Of all the
HITLit authors, Stern appears to be the most respectful of human
rights and refrains from proposing crass self-serving agendas. Since
Stern is so preoccupied with psychological warfare as the method
of transforming Islamic societies, Muslims are unlikely to trust her
proposals. For example, Muslim families will not send their child-
ren to alternative schools that prohibit the study of the Quran.
6.4 A CRITIQUE OF ESSENTIALIST TERRORISM
Grievances Matter
A few select scholars and terrorist experts vigorously dispute the

HITLit notion of essentialist terrorism. Michael Scheuer, who served
in the Central Intelligence Agency for more than twenty years and
was chiey responsible for tracking Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda,
vigorously opposes the HITLit thesis that Muslim militants, pro-
pelled by a violent religion, are waging an ideological war against
the West. In his books, articles, and media interviews, Scheuer
argues that Muslim militants are ghting hostile, exploitative, and
disrespectful U.S. policies toward the Islamic world, and not, as
the HITLit authors assert, because Americans vote, have civil lib-
erties, and allow women to drive cars. In his book, Imperial Hubris,
Scheuer points out several factors that turn Muslims against the
West generally and the United States particularly: the U.S. sup-
port for Israel, the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, the station-
ing of troops in Islamic countries, the forcing of Muslim oil-producing
countries to extract more oil and sell it cheaply, the U.S. friend-
ship with countries such as Russia and India that deny the right
244 Chapter 6
of self-determination to the Muslim populations of Chechnya and

Kashmir, and the U.S. support for occupying and dismembering
Muslim lands. All these factors paint the United States as a one-
eyed giant that has turned its wrath against the Muslim world.
Likewise, Robert Pape, in his study of suicide attacks, concludes
that concrete grievances rather than mystical addiction to violence
drive persons to kill themselves and others. Nearly all suicide
attacks are perpetrated to compel foreign military forces to with-
draw from the territory that the terrorists consider to be their
homeland. Religion is rarely the root cause, although it is often
used as a tool by terrorist organizations in recruiting and in other
efforts in service of the broader strategic objective. Contrast this
grievances-centered view to that of the HITLit, which offers a mis-
chievous and scandalous explanation to the effect that Muslim mil-
itants seek martyrdom so that they can enjoy sexual pleasure that
the Quran promises in the life hereafter. Pape counters another
HITLit thesis that Muslim societies ought to be re-engineered so
that they discard the jihadist aspects of Islam. He warns that any
policy that seeks to conquer societies in order, deliberately, to trans-
form their culture is folly. Even if our intentions are good, anti-
American terrorism would likely grow, and grow rapidly.
Similarly, Paul Craig Roberts, who served as Assistant Secretary
of Treasury in the Reagan Administration, argues that a strategy
of denying grievances is counterproductive. Terrorism requires that
grievances be acknowledged and addressed. He is also skeptical
of a military solution to the terrorist problem. As we are belat-
edly learning in Iraq, there are no easy military solutions to ter-
rorism. If there were, Israelis would have achieved security many
years ago. Roberts goes further to argue that U. S. military adven-
tures in the Middle East constitute a strategic blunder and that
history is unlikely to favorably view Bush Administration neocon-
servatives (including HITLit authors). The neocon dream of con-
quering the Middle East for Israel and destroying Islam as a force
is now in historys trash heap of failed adventures along with such
miscalculations as Hitlers march into Russia and the Japanese
attack on Peal Harbor.
The Two Faces of Essentialism
Essentialist terrorism is new in the sense that it is distinguished

from traditional terrorism. But the linkage between essentialism
and terrorism was foreseeable because such is human history that

almost all major movements come to be dened in essentialist
terms. It is perhaps a human desire, a compulsive habit, or an urge
to simplify that complex phenomena are broken down into essen-
tialist terms and traits. Slavery, racism, sexism, colonialism, nation-
alism, discrimination based on sexual orientation, classism, dialectical
materialism, and the martial character of a people, to name but a
few, have all been explained, defended, and promoted in essentialist
terms. Examples of essentialist statements include: slaves are intel-
lectually decient, whites are beautiful, women are emotional, and
West civilizes the rest.
Essentialism has two faces: self-dening and other-dening. Self-
dening essentialism highlights a groups own benecial traits,
demands certain social goods, and justies certain undertakings.
Racial superiority, for example, stems from self-dening essential-
ism. By claiming superior genes, a racial group may defend its hold
on power, land, and other resources. It may justify its domination
over other racial groups, and it may resort to abusive treatments
of others to maintain its superiority. Other-dening essentialism
denes others, mostly negatively. Racial inferiority is an example
of other-dening essentialism. No racial group is likely to dene
itself negatively. By dening native Africans in essentialist terms
as intellectually inferior, violent, or lazy, the white minority in
South Africa defended its apartheid and justied its domination.
Often, though not always, the two faces of essentialism are con-
genitally joined. In racism, essentialist superiority demands that
racial inferiority also be dened in essentialist terms, for one can-
not exist without the other. When women are dened as essentially
emotional, it implies that men are not. The HITLit advocates a
similar two-faced terrorist essentialism. It denes secular terror-
ism as rational, purposeful, and limited in violence. By contrast, it
denes Islamic terrorism as irrational, addictive, and unlimited in
violence. In the HITLit, terrorist violence has two faces: one face
is more ugly and lethal than the other.
For a clearer understanding of other-dening essentialism, one
might ask who is dening whom, since the dener and the dened
are two distinct entities.47 The thesis that Muslim militants are
essentialist terrorists obviously falls into the denition of other-
dening essentialism. No Muslim culture, nation, or tribe has
47
In cases of self-dening essentialism, the dener and the dened are the
same entities.
246 Chapter 6
dened itself as essentially violent. Nor have they dened Islam

as an essentially violent faith. To the contrary, self-dening essen-
tialism of Islam proclaims it to be the faith of peace, an essential
meaning of the word Islam. The HITLit that paints Muslim mil-
itants as essentially violent is the literature produced by non-
Muslims. Likewise, the HITLit thesis is popular only among
non-Muslims. Muslim governments, intellectuals, and lay people,
even when they sincerely condemn the violence of Muslim mili-
tants, do not accept the HITLit thesis that Islam is essentially vio-
lent or that Muslim militants are the products of an essentially
violent culture.
Other-dening essentialism is not merely an academic exercise.
Nor is it merely political rhetoric. It almost always has concrete
purposes. The HITLits purpose in dening Muslim militants in
essentialist terms has two interlocked goals. One goal is to heav-
ily discount their grievances. The other is to furnish a justication
for their harsh treatment in law and reality.
If the HITLit propaganda behind essentialist terrorism were to
take a rm rooting, U.S. laws would dilute or abandon many civil
liberties and human rights to deal with a fast growing Muslim pop-
ulation in the country. U.S. constitutional law would change fun-
damentally and for the worse as the paradigm of national security
eats at the foundation of law. Even the First Amendment, the citadel
of the U.S. Constitution, might be weakened to punish outspoken
critics of the war on terrorism, because critics could be seen as ter-
rorist sympathizers.48 U.S. Muslim immigrants and citizens might
face unprecedented ofcial discrimination and social prejudice, pro-
ducing more resentments and terrorism. This untoward develop-
ment can be arrested only if policymakers, legislators, and judges
reject the HITLit propaganda mounted behind essentialist terror-
ism. Regardless of whether the U.S. legal system slides into bias
and persecution, Islamic terrorism is unlikely to go away unless
concrete grievances are addressed and festering international dis-
putes are resolved. Nothing is farther from the truth than the idea
that Muslim militants are addicted to violence or that Islam is an
48
University professors have drawn public attention and criticism for their
comments. They have called for the death of U.S. troops in Iraq, blamed American
colonialism for the September 11 terrorist attacks or jokingly praised the attack
on the Pentagon. Universities are under government pressure to monitor profes-
sorial research before publication, for it might contain sensitive information.
inherently violent religion. By branding Islam, the faith of more

than one billion people, as a violent and intolerant ideology deter-
mined to destroy Western civilization, HITLit propagandists are
forcing the United States to collide with the Muslim world in an
apocalyptic war.
Chapter 7
War on Terror
Thou shall not kill But we will.
In July 2005, Ahmed Ressam was sentenced to 22 years of impris-

onment after a jury convicted him of an attempt to bomb Los Angeles
International Airport on the eve of the millennium. Emphasizing
the rule of law in punishing terrorists, US District Judge John C.
Coughenour made the following comments during the sentencing
hearing:
I would like to convey the message that our system works. We did
not need to use a secret military tribunal, or detain the defendant
indenitely as an enemy combatant, or deny him the right to coun-
sel, or invoke any proceedings beyond those guaranteed by or con-
trary to the US Constitution . . . Despite the fact that Mr. Ressam is
not an American citizen and despite the fact that he entered this
country intent upon killing American citizens, he received an effec-
tive, vigorous defense, and the opportunity to have his guilt or inno-
cence determined by a jury of 12 ordinary citizens. Most importantly,
all of this occurred in the sunlight of a public trial. There were no
secret proceedings, no indenite detention, no denial of counsel. The
tragedy of September 11th shook our sense of security and made us
realize that we, too, are vulnerable to acts of terrorism. Unfortunately,
some believe that this threat renders our Constitution obsolete.
The war on terror is the antithesis of the criminal justice system
that Judge Coughenour describes above. The criminal justice sys-
tem is the peacetime legal infrastructure to arrest, indict, prose-
War on Terror 249
cute, and punish persons accused of committing terrorists acts. The

war on terror is an undertaking to eliminate militants suspected
of committing terrorist acts. The criminal justice system is a com-
plex legal framework consisting of law enforcement, intelligence,
lawyers, judges, and appeals to high courts. The war on terror pri-
marily consists of military operations designed to kill with speed
and efciency. Although these military operations are not lawless
killings, the urgency of the battleeld minimizes legal restraints.
When the traditional constraints of the laws of war are set aside
or diluted, the war on terror furnishes a more liberal license to
kill.1 The war on terror is thus a unique war with few legal con-
straints on suppressive governments in pursuit of Muslim mili-
tants. These minimal restraints against killing provide a vivid
contrast to the criminal justice system, which is designed to assure
a fair trial and conviction before a person is punished with capital
punishment or life imprisonment.
In waging the war on terror, suppressive entities are adopting
aggressive unilateral and multilateral policies against Muslim mil-
itants. Aggressive policies consist of surveillance of suspected ter-
rorists, preventive detentions, renditions, torture, extra-judicial
killings, deportations, convictions, indenite imprisonments, and
nancial strangulation of businesses, charities, and any other orga-
nization allegedly involved in supporting terrorism. In exceptional
circumstances, suppressive states invade, attack, and occupy sup-
portive states to stem the tide of terror. These aggressive policies
are collectively known as war on terrorism or war on terror.
7.1 CHARACTERISTICS OF WAR
This section examines three important dimensions of the war on

terror. First, the war appears to be lawless, though it is not. The
US, like a classical Western hegemon, obeys the laws of war and
other rules of international law but in doing so it carves out exemp-
tions and exceptions to serve its warfare interests. Second, the war
1
Eric Posner, Terrorism and the Laws of War, 5 Chicago Journal of International
Law 423 (2005)(arguing that laws of war do not apply to the conict between the
US and al Qaeda and that the US should continue to explore possibilities of nor-
mative restraints that promote US interests).
250 Chapter 7
on terrorism is primarily a US war against Muslim militants. The

US makes certain assumptions about the character of Muslim mil-
itants, which I call the ontology of war. These ontological assump-
tions portray Muslim militants as irrational and violent extremists
who ght without rules. This portrayal allows the US to further
manipulate international law to promote its hegemony. Third, the
war on terrorism has been privatized, generating strong corporate
interests. The corporatization of war may also have weakened the
rule of international law, particularly by granting immunities to
protect corporate participation in the armed conict. The combined
effect of these three characteristics of war has confused the regime
of international law. Uncertainty prevails as new rules of behav-
ior collide with old expectations.
US Hegemony
Following the classical behavior of past European hegemons, the

US is ambivalent toward the constraints that international law
places on the use of force. History demonstrates that hegemons are
not inherently opposed to international law. A hegemon needs inter-
national law to predict the behavior of its competitors and enemies.
But it also needs a freer hand to promote its interests that may
not be consonant with international law. When a hegemons vital
interests conict with the existing rules of international law, it
seeks exemptions and exceptions to protect its deviant behavior.
Even in its deviancy, a hegemon does not repudiate international
law; it simply custom designs the law to t its special needs. Thus,
a hegemon is not a brute force without regard for international
law. A hegemon remains a law-abiding entity, but the law it obeys
is of its own choice and making.
Nico Krisch examines the historical conduct of Spain to explain
hegemonic behavior.2 In the 16th century, Spain did not renounce
international law to expand its empire. It simply designed new
international rules to legalize its territorial acquisitions. It invoked
a general Christian right to rule the world, and sought papal bulls
2
Nico Krisch, International Law in Times of Hegemony: Unequal Power and
the Shaping of the International Legal Order, 16 European Journal of International
Law 369 (2005).
War on Terror 251
to take lands from indigenous populations. It also relied on the sec-

ular rule of discovery to defend its imperial acquisitions, primar-
ily because it was often the rst to discover new territories. These
rules however also beneted its rival, Christian Portugal. When
another competitor, the Netherlands, asserted freedom of high seas,
Spain opposed legal innovations and proposed a quasi-territorial
order of the sea. In the realm of force, Spain sought to establish
rights to use force for itself, not to make war lawful for all states.3
Thus in each case, Spain was acting as a law-abiding hegemon,
sometimes by making self-serving changes to international law and
sometimes by opposing changes that its rivals proposed to serve
their own needs.
US behavior is no different from that of 16th century Spain. The
US actively participates in the shaping of international law but
signs few multilateral treaties, including human rights treaties.
Multilateral treaties rarely serve interests of the hegemon because
the solidarity of weaker states tips the balance of negotiation against
the hegemon. A hegemon prefers the regime of bilateral treaties
because it can obtain a better deal in bilateral negotiations. It is
therefore perfectly understandable that the US is uncomfortable
with the rules of international law that emerge through multilat-
eral processes. The US rarely raties multilateral treaties, and
even those that are ratied are rarely made self-executing or oth-
erwise enforceable. The International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, for example, though ratied, has no enforceability in US
courts.
The US has adopted numerous attributes of a classical hegemon.
The US advocates bringing terrorists to justice but it refuses to
accept the multilateral jurisdiction of the International Criminal
Court. The US deed the will of the international community and
bypassed the UN Security Council to wage war against Iraq. And
yet the US wrapped its invasion in the innovative doctrine of pre-
emptive self-defense, imparting a legal dimension to its seemingly
lawless conduct. It has ratied the Convention against Torture,
which allows no exceptions for torture. And yet its commitment to
the Convention wavers between holding the letter of the law and
keeping its hands open. It is highly doubtful that the US would
allow another state to engage in preemptive self-defense. It is
3
Id. Krish also examines the British conduct in the 19th century to further rein-
force his thesis of self-serving but law-abiding hegemons.
252 Chapter 7
equally doubtful that the US would allow an enemy state to law-

fully invent an exception to the torture treaty to obtain informa-
tion from US captured soldiers. These normative dualities leave
the impression that the US is acting lawlessly in its international
relations.
Professor John Yoo has emerged as a dominant legal scholar
favoring the Bush Administrations hegemonic conception of inter-
national law. Yoo argues that criticisms of the US use of force are
often doctrinal. International legal scholars, such as Thomas Franck
and Richard Falk, show despair because, according to Yoo, they
focus their ruminations on the wrong question. Any measurement
of state behavior against the formal standards of the UN Charter,
says Yoo, would lead to the obvious conclusion that violations are
rampant and that the Charter itself had been slain. But if the focus
is shifted to the function of the rules on force, which is to mini-
mize death and destruction from massive armed conicts, the emerg-
ing rules of international law including preemptive self-defense
make perfect sense. US conduct regarding the use of force is derived
from functional rather than doctrinal jurisprudence. Viewed from
a functional jurisprudential viewpoint, Yoo concludes, the US inva-
sions of Afghanistan and Iraq were consistent with the purposes
of the UN Charter, because these Muslim nations, and the terror-
ists they sponsored, if left unchecked, could have caused massive
death and destruction.4
It is difcult to demonstrate that Yoo has inaccurately described
the US international behavior. Yoo makes a credible case that suc-
cessive US governments in the past twenty-ve years have defended
the use of force through functional rather than doctrinal interpre-
tations of the UN Charter. Yoo might be criticized for defending,
in addition to describing, the uses of force that deviate from doc-
trinal parameters of the Charter. However, the truth remains that
the US acts as a hegemon that does not totally repudiate interna-
tional law but draws different interpretations from it. Functional
jurisprudence, which is inherently exible, provides more room for
stretching and narrowing the rules of law. Formalistic jurispru-
dence is much clumsier in providing exibility. Thus Yoo simply
provides more details to the legal literature on the behavior of hege-
mons. His analysis is neither innovative nor surprising. It offends
4
John Yoo, Using Force, 71 University of Chicago Law Review 729 (2004).
War on Terror 253
those who demand strict normative equality and expect that hege-
mons should act within the same formalistic strictures as weak
nations do. The US has not repudiated the notion of normative
equality in international relations. It simply demands exibility in
its conduct of war that it is waging against an allegedly irrational
and violent enemy, the Muslim militants.
Ontology of War
A unique attribute of the war on terror is its ontological assump-

tions. The war makes a priori assumptions that Muslim militants
are inherently violent; that their addiction to violence is rooted in
their religious fundamentalism; and that they keep nding newer
pretexts to commit violence. These assumptions negate the phe-
nomenon of concrete grievances such as invasion, occupation, ter-
ritorial acquisitions, or human rights abuses inicted on Muslim
communities as the possible causes of militant violence. Based on
ontological assumptions, the laws of war have been dramatically
changed. In fact, the laws of war have been relaxed to the extent
of lawlessness. What is unlawful is deemed acceptable in dealing
with Muslim militants. Entrenched laws of war and universal
human rights are put aside in combating Muslim militancy. Extra-
judicial killings are forbidden under the law of human rights
enshrined in regional and global treaties. Yet, suppressive states
have openly killed what they call terrorists without any trial or
conviction.
Lawless policies command the war on terror. In most suppres-
sive states, the regime of civil liberties has suffered a great set-
back that not only affects declared terrorists, but harms innocent
civilians who have nothing to do with terrorism.5 Muslim popula-
tions living in suppressive states are special targets of these poli-
cies, and their fundamental rights have been severely compromised
on the a priori assumption that Muslim families protect and nur-
ture terror cells. Young Muslim men and women are particularly
vulnerable, as they all are seen as potential terrorists. These sweep-
ing ontological generalizations about Muslim families and Muslim
5
Laura K. Donohue, Terrorist Speech and the Future of Free Expression, 27
Cardozo Law Review 233 (2005)(chilling effects of post-9/11 detentions on the will-
ingness of American Muslims to voice their views).
254 Chapter 7
youth cause bitterness, depression, anger, and sentiments of venge-

fulness. In fact, these generalizations might serve as self-fullling
prophecies, forcing Muslim youth living in suppressive states to
embrace more lethal forms of militancy, thus further escalating the
war between Muslims and suppressive entities.
The ontological war on terror is unlikely to persuade Muslim mil-
itants to give up their armed struggle. This conclusion is derived
from the phenomenology of violence examined in Part I of this book.
Concrete grievances and not ontological xation with violence lie
at the heart of Muslim militancy. Driven to ght worldly injustices
and drawing the ghting spirit from the theology of jihad, Muslim
militants are a breed of warriors who have overcome the fear of
losing liberty, family, property, and life. Though highly pragmatic,
strategic, and tactical, most hardcore militants have prepared them-
selves to lose everything in Gods Way ( sabeel lil Allah). They do
not die easily or stupidly. The fear of death rarely persuades them
to cease ghting for causes that they have determined are just and
mandated by the teachings of the Basic Code (the Quran and the
Sunna). The war on terror will also fail because the availability of
Muslim militants is endless. If there were a xed number of mili-
tants, the war on terror could succeed by physically eliminating
them. But that will not work in the case of Islamic militancy, which
produces a constant and inexhaustible ow of militants seeking
martyrdom.
Two Prongs of War
Military Prong
The war on terror has many prongs. The most conspicuous and
dramatic prong consists of aggressive military action against Muslim
militants as well as against Muslim governments that allegedly
support Muslim militants. These militants and governments are
respectively known in the US legal vocabulary as foreign terrorist
organizations and terrorist states. The 2001 invasion of Afghanistan,
which ironically had not been designated a terrorist state, was a
military action against the militant group al-Qaeda and its sup-
portive government, the Taliban. The union of al-Qaeda and the
Taliban is unique in the history of Islamic militancy, since no other
Muslim government has been so intimately involved with a group
War on Terror 255
of Muslim militants. The 2003 invasion of Iraq, which the US pre-

viously designated a terrorist state, was aimed at dismantling a
government that allegedly supported terrorist groups. Although
Saddam Husseins government had no effective relationship with
al-Qaeda, Saddam Husseins government did provide stipends to
families of Palestinian suicide bombers. The invasion was also
justied on the theory that the Iraqi government was developing
weapons of mass destruction, which might end up in the hands of
terrorists, posing a much greater threat to the US and its allies in
the Middle East. The proposed invasions of Syria and Iran, both
of which are listed in the US as terrorist states, are similarly based
on allegations that these Muslim nations harbor terrorists and fur-
nish them nancial and other material support. The perceived dan-
ger is greater in the case of Iran, since Iran is accused of developing
nuclear weapons under the guise of nuclear energy.
Business Prong
Next to military operations, the war on terror generates signicant
business ventures. Private military corporations are actively engaged
in conducting the war and making prots. A terrorism economy has
also surfaced, creating thousands of jobs. For certain sectors of the
American economy, it is in the best interest of the businesses
involved for the war to continue. Sectors such as defense, manu-
facturing, energy, logistics, security and risk management, and war
technology are thriving on military spending. The energy sector
has beneted from mixed perceptions about oil supply. Perceived
disruptions to the oil supply generate volatile oil markets with con-
comitant price increases. US prospects of gaining favorable access
to Iraqi oil reserves have boosted oil companies share prices. The
stock price of Halliburton Company, for example, has quadrupled
in the last three years (20032005).
The terrorism economy has specically beneted insurance com-
panies that have reaped enormous prots in the wake of September
11 attacks.6 Unforeseeable catastrophic events rst cause big losses
to the insurance industry. But they also create new insurance
6
Robert J. Rhee, Terrorism Risk in a Post-9/11 Economy: The Convergence of
Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Action, 37 Arizona State Law
Journal 435 (2005).
256 Chapter 7
opportunities. Companies sell new insurance products to cover new

risks. Before September 11, terrorism risk insurance was almost
non-existent as a separately covered category. After the attacks,
terrorism risk to life and property became a vivid reality and a
source of premiums for the insurance industry. The industry fur-
ther beneted from capital inow when investors bought insurance
stocks, predicting that they insurance stocks would outperform the
general market, which they did. By enacting the Terrorism Risk
Insurance Act of 2002, the US government assumed the responsi-
bility against extreme terrorism risk. This federal backstop mea-
sure freed insurance companies to exploit the terrorism insurance
market without fear of extreme losses. Thus, the war on terrorism,
which maintains the threat of terrorism looming on the people and
businesses, has generated a new opportunity for the insurance
sector.
It is unclear whether the terrorism economy has beneted banks
and other money transfer institutions. Within weeks after September
11, the US government issued Executive Order 13224, which imposes
dramatic penalties on suppressive entities that provide nancial
support to terrorist organizations. Executive Order 13224 man-
dates that nancial institutions of the world freeze terrorist assets.
Foreign banks that refuse to comply with the Order are denied
access to US markets. According to the US State Department,
approximately 150 countries and independent law-enforcement
jurisdictions, such as Hong Kong and Taiwan, blocked the assets
of suspected terrorists and organizations. The US was able to obtain
a UN Security Council Resolution to disrupt and block terrorist
nancing throughout the world. The UN Counter Terrorism
Committee (CTC) has also been empowered to help improve the
capability of countries to meet their obligations under the resolu-
tion to combat terrorist nancing. In sum, the war on terror is no
longer conned to the battleeld. It involves private sectors that
manage and monitor the dynamics of militant violence.
7.2 CORPORATIZATION OF WAR
The rise of professional national armies with monopoly over the

use of force is of relatively modern vintage. For centuries, warfare
was the exclusive domain of private armies. Wealthy families main-
tained private armed forces to defend their property, land resources,
War on Terror 257
and even foreign trade. In the absence of a strong central govern-

ment, private armies were the logical and pragmatic growth for
self-protection and self-projection in the realm of power. A theo-
retical framework derived from natural law justied the mainte-
nance of private armies. If the prince is unable or unwilling to offer
meaningful protection, the theory asserted, individuals are pre-
sumed to have a natural right to self-help. Even governments, when
unable to afford standing armies, used private armies to defend
themselves.
The use of private commissions was so deeply entrenched in cus-
tomary law that the US Constitution specically empowers Congress
to issue letters of marque and reprisals, a practice deeply rooted
in the English tradition of warfare.7 The provision was included to
acknowledge and regulate the use of private force. Through letters
of marque and reprisal, Congress as grantee, is able to authorize
a private commission to use force against a foreign state that has
inicted wrongful injury against the US.8 These letters are an alter-
native to full-scale war. They are a legal tool and not an arbitrary
license to use unlimited force. The force authorized under the let-
ter is neither excessive, nor arbitrary. Force is subject to the doc-
trine of proportionality. If the grantee of the letter ignores legal
constraints on the use of force, the target state can wage a full-
edged war against the granting state. In practice, letters of mar-
que and reprisal, letters of marque and reprisal were issued only
to responsible individuals and primarily against weak states that
were unlikely to retaliate by war. Often, the target of the letter
was a merchant ship belonging to a foreign nation. The grantee of
the letter was known as a privateer, a word having linguistic con-
nections with the word pirate. Operationally, it was sometimes
difcult to distinguish between pirates and privateers, as both were
engaged in seizing merchant ships.
The US constitutional provision of marque and reprisal reveals
yet another international legal development. At the time of the
7
In the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth issued letters of marque to English pirates
to harass Spanish trade ships. However, the Queen would react with feigned hor-
ror when the Spaniards complained that English pirates were terrorizing Spains
coastal cities. See Douglas R. Burgess, The Dread Pirate Bin Laden, Legal Affairs
(July-August 2005).
8
Jules Lobel, Covert War and Congressional Authority: Hidden War and
Forgotten Power, 134 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 1035 (1986) (trac-
ing the history of the clause).
258 Chapter 7
Constitution was drafted, private armies were in the process of

being outlawed. Regulation by means of letters of marque and
reprisal was one way to reduce their menace. It was a compromise.
The authority to issue letters acknowledged the power of the nation-
state to be the nal arbiter of the use of force against international
targets. And any private use of force against a foreign state or its
nationals would be illegal if employed without the state letter. But
the legal mechanism of letters fell short of completely outlawing
private use of force. In fact, they recognized the right of individu-
als to use force against foreign states, their nationals, and their
property. In modern language, any such private use of force will
be regarded as state-sponsored terrorism.
In 1856, international law took yet another developmental turn
by banning the letters of marque and reprisal. Considering that
maritime law in the time of war had long been the subject of
deplorable disputes, the 1856 Declaration of Paris abolished pri-
vateering. However, since international law at the time was rigidly
based on explicit state consent, it was accordingly agreed that the
Declaration is not and shall not be binding, except between those
Powers who have acceded, or shall accede, to it. The US did not
accede to the Declaration, as it would have required an amend-
ment to the Constitution. However, Congress has refrained from
issuing the letters of marque and reprisal. Thus the 1856 Declaration
of Paris effectively abolished private armies as lawful tools in inter-
state conicts. The use of force is now lodged in the exclusive sov-
ereignty of the nation-state.
Private Military Corporations
While the international law of war is founded on the dynamics of

nationalized armed forces and the corresponding de-legitimization
of private armies, nation-states are increasingly outsourcing their
key operations to private military corporations (PMCs).9 A PMC is
a for-prot company organized under the law to provide military
9
Peter W. Singer, War, Prot, and the Vacuum of Law: Privatized Military
Firms and International Law, 42 Columbia Journal of International Law 521
(2004).
War on Terror 259
services and personnel. PMCs are not new in concept or function

since private companies have served for centuries as surrogates to
advance and protect imperial and state interests. They were, for
example, the front operators of colonization. The English East India
Company and similarly organized French and Dutch companies
were chartered to engage in colonial trade, but they were also
granted broad powers to raise military forces, negotiate treaties,
conduct war, and govern fellow nationals. With the breakdown of
colonial empires and with the rise of national armies deriving their
exclusivist monopoly from the concept of the nation-state, PMCs
suffered a market downtrend. But as the doctrine of efciency made
inroads in key human concepts, including that of sovereignty, PMC
businesses started to ourish again. State management of military
resources is now being outsourced to private companies that pre-
sumably furnish expertise, innovation, and savings. This PMC
resurgence is different from colonial companies because PMCs enjoy
no independent mandate or legal authority to initiate or engage in
military conicts. In theory at least, they serve states and do not
compete with national armed forces. In reality, however, they might
act contrary to the orders of national armed forces. In Iraq, for
example, private contractors breached the law of war, sometimes
with tacit approval of the US military command and sometimes on
the assumption that the military leadership would not object to
their operations.10
While PMCs defer to the authority of strong states, their inter-
action with weak developing countries is more daring.11 PMCs have
been recruited to suppress domestic terrorism. This enterprise of
violence management is quite protable. The most intriguing sto-
ries of combating terrorism are associated with Executives Outcomes
(EO) and Sandline International (SI). Both companies are South
African PMCs, launched by men who previously supported the
South African regime of apartheid. These companies have provided
military services to governments in Asia, Africa, and South America.
EO and SI either have close corporate connections with natural
resources companies, or they launch their own subsidiaries, doing
10
Joanne Mariner, Private Contractors Who Torture, Find Laws Writ (May
10, 2004).
11
Laura Dickinson, Government for Hire: Privatizing Foreign Affairs and the
Problem of Accountability under International law, 47 William and Mary Law
Review 135 (2005).
260 Chapter 7
business in the areas of oil drilling and mining. SI contracted to

provide military services to the government of Papua New Guinea
to crush rebels, the Bougainville Revolutionary Army, which had
waged a low intensity war against the degradation of its countrys
environment by mining companies. In 1993, EO was hired to ght
rebels in Angola who refused to accept the outcome of UN-moni-
tored national elections. Several international oil companies sup-
ported the hiring of EO. Upon successfully defeating the rebels,
EO received a $40 million oil exploration contract. In 1995, the
government of Sierra Leone hired EO to crush the Revolutionary
United Front (RUF), a guerilla organization ghting the govern-
ment. For $35 million, EO defeated the RUF, destroyed their head-
quarters, and recaptured key mines. The government paid the
contract money primarily with mining rights. But just like in any
other armed conict, the involvement of PMCs in civil wars does
not prevent injury to civilians. It is estimated that in the Sierra
Leone conict, close to 15,000 people were killed and around 1.5
million others were made refugees.12
A PMC does not have to be a multinational corporation, like
Halliburton, even though active involvement of big companies in
the future cannot be ruled out. A network of small PMCs essen-
tially can provide the same services as a multinational corporation
with numerous subsidiaries. The business of private violence (ter-
rorist or corporate) needs obscurity and anonymity; it is most effec-
tive when planned and executed away from the public eye.
Blackwater USA, for example, operated with little publicity until
its four employees were burnt and hung on a bridge over the
Euphrates River in Iraq. These shocking images forced the popu-
lar press to pay attention to the role of private contractors in the
equation of state violence. Barry Yeoman reported in the International
Herald Tribune: Blackwater, which operates from a 5,200acre, or
2,100 hectares, training ground in the Great Dismal Swamp of
North Carolina, is a private military rm that provides an array
of services once performed solely by military personnel. The com-
panys website identies its ve subsidiaries and advertises its
most comprehensive private tactical training facility in the US.
The website also identies its major clients as federal law enforce-
12
Eugene B. Smith, The New Condottieri and U.S. Policy: The Privatization of
Conict and Its Implications, PARAMETERS (Winter 2002).
War on Terror 261
ment agencies, the Department of Defense, the Department of

State, the Department of Transportation, local and state entities
from around the country, multinational corporations, and friendly
nations from all over the globe. Yeoman further reports that
Blackwater is hardly alone. Some 10,000 private contractors are
ghting the war in Iraq. Ann Scot Tyson of the Washington Post
reports that the role of private contractors in the war is cloudy
and controversial. They shoot to kill, but they arent legally con-
sidered combatants.
PMCs have a special role in counter-terrorism. They offer pri-
vate armies to ght private armies. They also provide obscurity
and exibility in ghting terrorism. Military adventures through
private contractors are obscure, whereas they would be exposed
using national armed forces. The death of state soldiers could be
a media event, particularly in countries such as the US where each
soldiers death is honored through media recognition. In contrast,
the death of private soldiers is rarely viewed as a loss to the nation,
so body bags can be quietly sent to the families. Governments
exploit this death discrimination by sending private soldiers on
missions for which little public support exists. Furthermore, PMCs
furnish tactical and legal exibility. Private soldiers enjoy certain
immunities not available to state soldiers. For example, abuses by
private soldiers are not prosecuted under military law. Further-
more, private soldiers may be granted immunity from criminal
jurisdiction of the territorial state in which they are operating. For
example, Paul Bremers occupation government in Iraq granted
immunity to private contractors, an immunity that continued even
after the ofcial occupation ended. Immunity from both the mili-
tary code as well as from laws of the territorial state establish an
iron bubble in which private contractors can ght the militants
with few legal constraints. In this bubble, lawless actions against
civilians are also immune from any legal prosecution.13
13
Report on the Question of the Use of Mercenaries as a Means of Violating
Human Rights and Impeding the Exercise of the Right of Peoples to Self-
Determination, U.N. ESCOR, 50th Sess., at 13, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/1994/23 (1994)(doc-
umenting the cruelty of mercenaries).
262 Chapter 7
Proteers of Terrorism
In addition to PMCs, weapons manufacturers, arms dealers, and

legion of benign industries prot from terrorism. They make money
when suppressive states build up defense budgets. Their business
is boosted when armed conicts surface, fester, and worsen. As
rational businesses, they have little interest in the resolution of
armed conicts. Such is the nature of their enterprise that they
inevitably prefer war to peace. Terrorism is therefore a gift, and
war on terror is a promise of prots to companies engaged in man-
ufacturing combat aircrafts, bombers, missiles, bunker-busters,
tanks, trucks, guns, boots, uniforms, medals, cofns, surgical instru-
ments, gauze, articial limbs for amputees, cosmetic gloves to cover
prosthetic hands, and so forth. Even without going to war, a ter-
rorized nation spends money on homeland security, and by doing
so creates jobs in defense-related industries, a phenomenon that
trickles down into the entire economy. High-tech surveillance, bor-
der checks, and airport safety all material efforts to spot and
catch terrorists trigger jobs in sectors ranging from steel to soft-
ware, just as the home-coming of the wounded brings more work
for orthopedic surgeons, physical therapists, orthodontists, and
physiatrists. First by an unconscious compulsion and later by a
deliberate design, a terror economy comes into being. As a terror
economy spreads and deepens its tentacles, terrorism is embraced,
if not welcomed as a necessary evil. When products are selling and
the business is good, few proteers wish terrorism to go away.
When chances of actual terrorism are slim, the threat of terror-
ism lls the gap and keeps the economy going. Preparing a nation
for future terrorist attacks in a rational, deliberate, and calculated
manner unleashes the same forces of production, invention, and
distribution that a real attack does. A real attack of substantial
severity is a godsend for the future of a terror economy. Frida
Berrigan, a senior research reporter at the World Policy Institute,
documents how companies cashed in on the tragedy of September
11. Defense stocks soared as the Pentagon asked for billions from
Congress. Raytheons Tomahawk missiles were in high demand.
Northrop Grumman, the manufacturer of F-14 ghter planes,
B-52 bombers, AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System)
radars, and Global Hawks, had thousands of job openings due to
increased demand for its war products. Lockheed Martin, the biggest
giant in the defense market, the maker of F-16 ghter planes,
War on Terror 263
bunker-buster munitions, and missiles, had already obtained a $200

billion deal by paying more than $9.8 million on lobbying members
of Congress and the President. September 11 simply opened more
gates of bounty for this unmatched defense giant. Even Boeing, a
company under pressure in its commercial aircraft division, got a
boost when the government placed new orders for the companys
smart bombs.
Terrorist Financing
Suppressive entities exploited the September 11 attacks on the US

to stop terrorist nancing. For years, efforts have been made to
generate an international agreement that would obligate states to
monitor the ow of money to terrorists both inside and across
borders. These efforts were based on a simple, though somewhat
naive, concept that militancy in support of liberation movements
would come to a jolting halt if it received no funds from internal
or external sources. This concept has some merit since signicant
military attacks require money to make bombs, buy guns, and sup-
port related activities and persons involved. But this concept is
nave to the extent that it presumes militancy will stop by chok-
ing the money pipeline. It ignores the role of supportive entities,
states, businesses, charities, non-governmental organizations, and
individuals that would nd legal and criminal ways to bypass
suppressive restrictions.
In the absence of a universal denition of terrorism, Muslim
states are reluctant to consent to any new international obligation
regarding terrorist nancing that includes drug monies, money
laundering, monies obtained by arms smuggling, and kickback
monies with monetary contributions to liberation movements ght-
ing alien domination, occupation, apartheid, and hegemony in the
Middle East, Chechnya and Kashmir.
A Failed Treaty
The 1999 International Convention for the Suppression of Financing

of Terrorism, a global treaty drafted at the urging of France, is a
huge failure. Very few states have expressed their consent to be
264 Chapter 7
bound by it. The treaty is founded on the presumption that the

number and seriousness of acts of international terrorism depend
on the nancing that terrorists may obtain. By implication, the
treaty concedes that retail acts of militancy can still be carried out
with little or no money. Sweeping broadly, the treaty denes funds
as assets of every kind, whether tangible or intangible, movable or
immovable, however acquired, and legal documents or instruments
in any form, including electronic or digital, evidencing title to, or
interest in, such assets, including, but not limited to, bank cred-
its, travelers checks, bank checks, money orders, shares, securi-
ties, bonds, drafts, letters of credit.
Article 2 of the 1999 treaty denes the crime of nancing ter-
rorism. A person commits a crime under the treaty if he provides
or collects funds to intentionally or knowingly support a terrorist
act. Terrorist acts are dened as those listed in the nine counter-
terrorist treaties on the safety of civil aviation, taking of hostages,
safety of maritime navigation, protection of diplomats, and so forth.
Article 2 also prohibits the funding of any act intended to harm
civilians or non-combatants when the act is designed to intimi-
date a population, or to compel a government or an international
organization to do or to abstain from doing any act. Again, the
denition seems to make a distinction between nancing a libera-
tion movement that attacks the infrastructure of occupation on the
one hand and alien domination, apartheid, and hegemony enforced
through military means on the other hand. The treaty seems to
allow the nancing of liberation movements and the consequent
attacks on suppressive soldiers. As discussed elsewhere, the
denitions of civilian and non-combatant are becoming disputed
since states are increasingly delegating military functions and oper-
ations to private contractors and corporations. It appears that any
occupation, domination or hegemony carried out by means of civil-
ian contractors will fall into the denition of armed conict, and
therefore, the funding of operations to harm such contractors will
not be terrorist nancing under Article 2.
Thus, the 1999 treaty fails to close important doors in the cham-
bers of militancy. On an operational level in closing down the retail
funding of militancy because supportive entities are simply unwill-
ing or unable to suppress militancy at the micro level. If no monies
are available to launch major attacks, micro-militancy will be fur-
ther strengthened and escalated. The quality of attacks will yield
to quantity. On a theoretical level, the treaty allows for the fund-
War on Terror 265
ing of liberation movements and insurgencies ghting occupations.

For example, the funding of insurgency against the US armed forces
and possibly US civilians contractors employed to assist military
operations is not necessarily unlawful under the 1999 treaty.
Security Council Resolution 1373

After September 11, all of these nancing loopholes in the sup-
pressive infrastructure were closed. International lawmaking on
terrorist nancing moved away from the stalling process of nego-
tiated treaties and was lodged in UN Security Council resolutions.
What suppressive states could not achieve through universal con-
sensus was imposed upon all states by means of a coercive reso-
lution that the Security Council adopted less than three weeks after
the September 11 attacks. Obtaining this resolution was a remark-
able victory for the US the super suppressive state and the vic-
tim of the most horrendous terrorist attack. The whole world
sympathized with the US, rst because the loss was indeed dra-
matic and mind-boggling, and second because the media success-
fully projected the event to the world as an unprecedented injury.
In this moment of hyper crisis, the Security Council invoked its
enforcement powers under Chapter VII of the UN Charter and
passed resolution 1373.
Resolution 1373, adopted on September 28, 2001, aims at exter-
minating the nancing of terrorism. In a remarkable assertion of
institutional power, the resolution is addressed to all states, includ-
ing suppressive, supportive, and neutral states whether or not they
are members of the United Nations. Paragraph 1 of the resolution
orders states to prevent and suppress the nancing of terrorist
acts. The resolution also requires states to criminalize the will-
ful provision or collection, by any means, directly or indirectly, of
funds by their nationals or in their territories with the intention
that the funds should be used, or in the knowledge that they are
to be used, in order to carry out terrorist acts. Furthermore, para-
graph 1 mandates that all states freeze the nancial assets of
terrorists and supportive entities, including businesses that serve
as terrorist fronts. The freezing rule is cast in expansive language,
so that it reaches entities even if only remotely connected to ter-
rorists. In somewhat convoluted language, paragraph 1 asks states
to prohibit nancial or other related services that facilitate the
266 Chapter 7
ow of funds to terrorists and their supportive entities. This pro-

vision targets banks, exchange brokers, and hawaladars who
assist in transferring funds from location to location and country
to country.
Security Councils Expanding Authority
This unprecedented authority to force states to add new crimes to

their national legal systems was perhaps justied under the Charter
principle of peace and security that the Security Council has been
empowered to maintain and restore. The resolution was a power-
ful step in weakening the traditional sovereignty of the nation-
state. At the same time, the resolution poses a challenge to the
theory of democracy because the Security Council is forcing domes-
tic legislatures to enact criminal law, even if they have no electoral
mandate to do so. The implementation of legislation pursuant to a
treaty that a state freely ratied also adds to domestic law. But
treaty-based legislation does not pose the same normative chal-
lenge as does legislative compliance with a Security Council reso-
lution. The rst is compatible with the democratic theory because
a state that signs a treaty must implement it too; the second is
incompatible because states that signed the UN Charter did not
foresee that the Security Council would venture into legislating
domestic criminal law.
Whether the US, the chief sponsor of the resolution, considers
itself bound to make national laws in compliance with Security
Council resolutions is an open question. Under prevailing jurispru-
dence, neither state and federal legislatures nor state and federal
courts can make laws contrary to the US Constitution. Under the
constitutional principles of federalism, the federal government has
no explicit treaty power to shape the criminal law of the states. In
ratifying human rights treaties, such as the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights, the federal government often makes
reservations to treaty provisions (such as capital punishment), the
implementation of which would require changing state laws. It is
unlikely that US legislatures and courts would give any more def-
erence to Security Council resolutions than they do to properly
ratied treaties. Furthermore, the US has been under no domes-
tic obligation to provide implementing legislation even when a
treaty it ratied cannot be domestically enforced without such leg-
War on Terror 267
islation. Under these jurisprudential practices, it is highly unlikely

that Security Council resolutions will have the binding domestic
effect that Resolution 1373 envisions for all states.
Despite its apparently strong language, Resolution 1373 fails to
dene the boundaries of terrorism. Unlike the 1999 Terrorist
Financing Convention, which leaves out attacks on non-civilians
in armed conicts from the denition of terrorism, the resolution
fails to make any such distinctions. One could argue that Resolution
1373 establishes a new comprehensive denition of terrorism under
which any attack on civilians or soldiers will be considered a ter-
rorist act. This expansive denition of terrorism ts well with the
emerging international doctrine that nothing justies terrorism.
Such an interpretation of the resolution, however, raises serious
jurisprudential difculty. It implies that even if the international
community is divided over a denitional issue, the Security Council
can preempt such controversies by furnishing the denition. If this
line of argument is accepted, the Security Council will become much
more powerful than the Charter envisaged. It would also under-
mine the rationale of lawmaking by means of treaties; what can-
not be achieved by means of a treaty will be supplied by passing
a Security Council resolution.
The Counter Terrorism Committee (CTC), established to moni-
tor the implementation of the resolution, will enforce the scope and
the substance of the resolution. It seems unlikely that Resolution
1373 will be read in a manner inconsistent with the 1999 Convention,
because the resolution calls on states to become parties to the
Convention. Therefore, it makes more legal sense to read the res-
olution in the context of the nine counter-terrorist treaties that
have been universally accepted as well as in light of the 1999
Convention. An overly broad reading of the resolution would likely
weaken its strength.
Implementation of the resolution is unlikely to be even across
the world in part because the resolution requires states, and not
the CTC, to implement legislation to prevent and suppress terror-
ist nancing. States will most likely build appropriate distinctions
into their domestic laws. Few will abandon the distinction between
civilians and soldiers engaged in armed conicts. No state is likely
to embrace the thesis that any attack on occupying soldiers con-
stitutes terrorism. Countries, such as members of the Organization
of Islamic Conference, which draw distinctions between terrorism
and armed struggle for liberation, will face a greater challenge
to enforce the resolution without compromising their normative
268 Chapter 7
viewpoints. Even the US, which nanced Iraqi opposition groups

against Saddam Hussein by providing them with military articles,
defense services, and military education will be unable to embrace
the full sweep of Resolution 1373.14
The 2004 CTC reports disclose that terrorist nancing is highly
complex and places huge monitoring costs on nancial institutions.
Monitoring is difcult because the origin of terrorist nancing is
often legal. Privacy laws hide international nancial transactions,
making the system less transparent. And states are unwilling to
pass effective legislation to prevent inows of criminal money. Even
if the banking system cooperates, the CTC reports warn, terrorist
nancing cannot be prevented because some sources of nancing
are illegal; others are informal and cannot be effectively regulated.
The CTC recommends that it should be possible to freeze funds at
the initiative of third parties, including the Security Council or
other states. This highly intrusive machinery, if ever authorized,
may or may not prevent the transfer of terrorist monies but it will
certainly add more confusion to the global banking system, mak-
ing it subservient to the national interests of a few powerful states.
In resisting intrusion, target states may refuse to cooperate with
the CTC or simply adopt the lawless policy of running with the
hare and hunting with the hounds.
7.3 LAWLESSNESS OF WAR
In pursuing Muslim militants, the US has created numerous excep-

tions and exemptions to the laws of war that the US has been
accused of waging a nearly lawless military war on terrorism. Most
suppressive states dene hot pursuit of Muslim militants in a lim-
ited way. India captures and kills Muslim militants only in the dis-
puted states of Jammu and Kashmir, territories technically located
within Indias national borders. Russia has similarly limited its hot
pursuit of Chechnya to its own borders. Israel has adopted a more
expansionist view of hot pursuit and has killed Muslim militants
not only in occupied Palestine, but also in Lebanon and Syria. After
the September 11 attacks, the US opened a new chapter in the
hot pursuit of terrorists. The US started to wage a global war on
14
Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 (PL 105338).
War on Terror 269
terrorism. Arguing that since al Qaeda, which perpetrated the

attacks on the US, operates active cells in more than sixty nations,
the US has the legal right to pursue terrorist enemies wherever
they are. If the US claim is taken seriously, its war on terror is a
war without borders. The war claims universal jurisdiction to pur-
sue, capture, and kill Muslim militants anywhere in the world,
with or without the permission of national and local governments.
No such rule exists in international law that empowers a sup-
pressive state to capture or kill persons that it considers terror-
ists. The US might claim to have universal jurisdiction, but it does
not yield any such authority to its enemies, and perhaps not even
to its allies.
Rhetoric and Reality of US War on Terror
The US war on terror challenges state sovereignty that lies at the

heart of the international legal system. Will the US respect state
sovereignty in conducting its war on terror? It appears that the US
has undertaken two distinct approaches. One approach is the
straightforward invasion of a state that the US believes is closely
tied to terrorism. The invasion of Afghanistan under the Taliban
and the invasion of Iraq under Saddam Hussein are examples of
completely discarding the barrier of state sovereignty. The legally
questionable invasion of Iraq added a new dimension to the US
war on terror in that the US established a new norm that it would
attack a terrorist state even if the Security Council does not sanc-
tion such an attack. This norm, if universalized, would dismantle
the authority of the Security Council and the UN Charter. The sec-
ond approach that the US adopted was to woo and coerce Muslim
states into cooperating with the US in rooting out Muslim mili-
tants within their borders. The stark binary principle that you are
either with the US or with the terrorists served as a reminder to
reluctant Muslim states that the US would unleash its economic,
diplomatic, and military power against a Muslim state unwilling
to support the US war on terrorism. The periodic threats to Syria
and Iran, the two Muslim states that resist cooperation with the
US, are examples of the second approach to the war on terrorism.
Using its superior military strength and its status of superpower,
the US was able to persuade the world into supporting its efforts
to root out global terrorism. Initially, Muslim and non-Muslim states
270 Chapter 7
cooperated with the US. But as US policies assumed overly aggres-

sive unilateralism, nations of the world began to withdraw coop-
eration. In the US invasion of Iraq, for example, most nations
refused to join. Muslim states in particular declined to participate
in the occupation of Iraq, and no Muslim troops were sent there to
assist the US in overthrowing Saddam Hussein or discovering the
weapons of mass destruction that Iraq supposedly possessed. This
nearly global non-cooperation on the part of states, Muslims and
non-Muslims, seems to suggest that the international community
refused to concede that the US invasion of Iraq was legal.
Despite the rhetoric, the US is not pursuing a global war on ter-
ror. For example, it has no interest in killing Muslim militants
ghting other suppressive states such as India, Russia, or Israel.
The US war is focused on al-Qaeda, a militant organization headed
by Osama bin Laden. This organization is alleged to have engi-
neered attacks on US ships, embassies, and later on the World
Trade Center and Pentagon. Even though the US claims universal
military jurisdiction to pursue enemy terrorists, its operations are
conned to a few select terrorist outts.
While U.S. military actions are limited abroad, it has cast a wider
net in identifying and de-legitimizing Muslim resistance groups
across the world. In addition to al-Qaeda, the US designated almost
all Muslim organizations ghting in occupied Kashmir and occu-
pied Palestine as terrorist organizations. The designations make it
a criminal offense to provide any nancial support to such organi-
zations. Furthermore, US nancial institutions must freeze the
funds of designated groups. Members of the groups are ineligible
for US visas and, if they are aliens, deportable. The 2001 Patriot
Act empowered the government to declare other Muslim resistance
groups as terrorist organizations. The President signed an Executive
Order to block the assets of nearly 200 supportive entities, which
include Muslim charities, individuals, businesses and banks. This
domestic measure was considered necessary to match the rhetoric
of global war, and to demand international cooperation from other
states in suppressing the nancing of Muslim militants.
Arguments for Lawlessness
In waging war on terrorism, the US reaps the benets of war with-

out accepting the burdens that the laws of war place on states
War on Terror 271
engaged in international armed conicts. As discussed below, the

wars greatest benet is the opportunity to kill on the battleeld
without legal blame. The legal burdens of war are placed on war-
ring states to minimize the unnecessary brutality of war. One such
legal burden is the humane treatment of prisoners of war and civil-
ian detainees. Customary laws of war as well as laws codied in
the 1949 Geneva Conventions and scores of human rights treaties
require that prisoners of war and civilian detainees not be sub-
jected to cruel treatment and torture. They further assure that
the personal dignity of all detainees will not be disrespected, thus
outlawing humiliating and degrading treatment. In offering these
minimum protections to all detainees, the laws of war allow no
exceptions on the basis of status, nor do they condition these pro-
tections on any doctrine of reciprocity. The law of human rights
has further reinforced the availability of these protections to all
individuals. Article 2 of the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, a treaty to which the US is a party, embraces a
universal principle that civil and political rights are available to
all individuals within a signatory states territory or in a territory
subject to its jurisdiction. In extending these rights, the Covenant
prohibits distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language,
religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, prop-
erty, birth or other status. Legal protections embodied in the laws
of war (called humanitarian protections) and laws of human rights
(called human rights protections) are universal in that they are
available under all circumstances and at all places. Any violations
of Geneva protections are war crimes.
In waging war on terrorism, the US refuses to accept customary
and treaty-based legal burdens. Under its declared policies, cap-
tured Muslim terrorists are not entitled to rights codied in the
Geneva Conventions. The US has nonetheless promised to treat
these prisoners in a humane manner, though out of no legal oblig-
ation. The discretionary rather than obligatory humane treatment
of Muslim detainees empowers US ofcials to suspend Geneva
Conventions protections with respect to all or some detainees.
Furthermore, since the war on terrorism, due to its elusive nature,
is unlikely to come to an end with some dramatic peace treaty or
armistice, as does a traditional war, the release of any and all
Muslim detainees is completely at the mercy of the US.
In refusing to extend humanitarian and human rights protec-
tions to Muslim terrorists, the US makes several arguments. It
argues that Muslim terrorists are not prisoners of war, mistakenly
272 Chapter 7
embracing the status argument and consequently assuming that

legal protections are available only to prisoners of war as dened
by the detaining state. The Legal Advisor to the US State Department
warned the President that the structure of the Conventions does
not allow status distinctions, and that if a decision is made to
adhere to the laws of war, Geneva Conventions would be applic-
able to all persons involved in the conict al Qaeda, Taliban,
Northern Alliance, US troops, civilians, etc.15 The President and
his administration ignored the State Department advice and seem-
ingly opted out of the law.
The US also argues that the war on terrorism is a unique war,
a new paradigm, which dees the rationale underlying humani-
tarian and human rights laws. The new paradigm argument builds
on the theory that captured terrorists have valuable information
about terrorist organizations, their ideology, tactics, and plans to
commit future terrorist acts. The new paradigm renders obsolete
Geneva prohibitions, which place strict limitations on interroga-
tion of detainees, and it requires that US ofcials be able to extract
valuable information from captured terrorists.16 The valuable infor-
mation argument, however, is spurious. Even in a traditional war,
captured army ofcers and generals may possess critical informa-
tion that would save lives or defeat enemy battle plans. However,
customary and treaty-based laws of war prohibit interrogating tra-
ditional information-rich detainees in violation of legal protections.
Apparently rejecting this comparison, US authorities are deter-
mined to treat Muslim militants contrary to the laws of war.
Opportunity to Kill
The war on terror is not a metaphor, but a legal opportunity to

kill. It empowers suppressive states to do what they cannot do in
peacetime. For example, peacetime laws prohibit the killing of
another person. In time of war, however, soldiers enjoy legal immu-
nity if they kill enemy combatants.17 Thus, what is murder in peace-
15
William H. Taft, Memorandum to Counsel to the President (Feb. 2, 2002).
16
Alberto R. Gonzales, Memorandum for the President (Jan. 25, 2002).
17
Joanna Woolman, The Legal Origins of the Term Enemy Combatants do
not Support its Present Day Use, 7 Journal of Law and Social Challenges 145
(2005)(tracing the origin of the term in the US Supreme Court case law).
War on Terror 273
time becomes lawful killing in time of war. Killing without legal

penalty is the prize of war. In addition to killing, soldiers may rely
on the doctrine of military necessity to destroy private and public
property, human dwellings, and other structures. Bombing build-
ings from which enemy soldiers are ghting is a legally permissi-
ble act of war. Thus, war not only permits the killing of an enemy
individual, it also allows the complete destruction of an entire group
of enemy individuals. The laws of war do not furnish an unre-
stricted license to kill, but they do confer legality on deadly vio-
lence that would be illegal in peacetime.18
The language of war on terror is problematic to the extent that
war in the traditional sense means an armed conict between
professional armies or other armed groups, called belligerents or
combatants. The war on terror is an asymmetrical war between
professional armies and Muslim militants who may or may not
qualify as guerillas. Some militants are more organized than oth-
ers. Some attack suppressive targets and hide among the civilian
population. Some kill themselves in terrorist operations. This dis-
organization and intermittent warfare on the part of Muslim mil-
itants gives them an advantage since they act as an invisible private
army whose formation, command, logistics, and strategies are in a
perpetual state of uidity and uncertainty. On the basis of these
structural ambiguities, some legal scholars and governments argue
that terrorists ought to be treated as ordinary criminals. Until the
September 11 attacks, the US itself distinguished terrorism from
armed conict and accordingly treated terrorists as criminals and
not as war combatants.
By declaring war on terror, suppressive states obtain the license
to kill what they regard as terrorists. The advantages are numer-
ous. In peacetime, terrorists would have to be arrested, charged
with crime, and prosecuted within the due process of law. Further-
more, suppressive states must prove their guilt beyond a reason-
able doubt to convict them, and if convicted must house them in
appropriate prisons. Even in prisons, terrorists would have privi-
leges consistent with the law of human rights. This entire legal
infrastructure is instantly dismantled when war is declared.
Terrorists are no longer criminals who may demand protections
18
Rosa Ehrenreich Brooks, War Everywhere: Rights, National Security Law,
and the Law of Armed Conict in the Age of Terror, 153 University of Pennsylvania
Law Review. 675, 693 (2004).
274 Chapter 7
that Judge Coughenour highlights under the constitutional scheme.

They are enemy combatants with no protections under the laws of
war. They can now be killed. The war on terror is thus a more
efcient means of exterminating terrorists.
In fact, the war on terror empowers suppressive states in ways
not available in traditional wars. In a traditional war, soldiers of
opposite armies ght each other according to military strategies in
battleelds. The concept of the battleeld provides logistical and
psychological constraints on the scope of war. In such wars, the
distinction between the battleeld and civilian neighborhoods is at
least theoretically maintainable, a distinction that rarely survives
when the war breaks out and turns nasty. The war on terror has
no traditional battleelds, and therefore, even theoretical civil/mil-
itary distinctions make little sense. Since terrorists are not tradi-
tional soldiers but civilians ghting a professional army, they operate
from civilian neighborhoods. This forces a professional army to con-
sider an entire country as a seamless battleeld. In fact, since
Muslim militants live in almost all countries of the world, the US
war on terror has turned the entire earth into one large global bat-
tleeld. Accordingly, Muslim militants can be killed anywhere in
the world, with or without the permission of local or national author-
ities. In 2002, for example, a remote controlled CIA Predator air-
craft red a missile destroying a moving vehicle in a Yemeni desert.
Five terrorists, including a naturalized citizen were killed in the
inferno.
These killings highlight a number of points. They show that US
authorities will use the war on terror as a legal medium to kill
Muslim militants anywhere in the world. Friendly Muslim gov-
ernments, such as Yemen, will actively cooperate or at least per-
mit the completion of these missions. Reluctant governments will
be pressured to cooperate with the US. Muslim governments that
permit a foreign war machinery to kill Muslim militants within
their territory will eventually face opposition from their own pop-
ulations and Muslim militants. Unfriendly Muslim governments,
such as Iran and Syria, will resist US moves to kill Muslim mili-
tants within their territory. But such governments run the risk of
US invasion. Either way, Muslim governments will be torn and
confused, complicating the war on terror for all parties.
Further complications are even more mind-boggling. Assume that
the US had legally sufcient evidence to conclude that the perpe-
trator of the attack on the USS Cole was riding in the target vehi-
War on Terror 275
cle destroyed in the Yemeni desert. Killing him two years after the
2000 attack would add new exibility to the war on terror. Temporal
proximity, a requirement for exercising the right of self-defense, is
no longer a legal restraint on lethal responses to terrorist attacks.
Under the new rule, Muslim militants who harm a suppressive
state can be killed even years after the terrorist incident. This
uncompromising approach to kill Muslim militants might produce
more deaths, but it might not end the war on terror. Facing the
new rule, Muslim militants are likely to become more deadly and
extremist in perpetrating terrorist acts since they know that sup-
pressive states with the help of their own governments would surely
kill them. If death is made certain, it further fuels the developing
institution of suicide bombers.
Defying Peremptory Norms
In its lawless orientation, the US war on terror has deed peremp-

tory norms of international law that cannot be derogated from
under any circumstances, including public emergencies, wars, etc.
The Convention Against Torture or Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment prohibits torture, cruelty, and
personal humiliation in absolute terms, both in peacetime and
wartime. It specically closes all loopholes and exceptions, stating
that no exceptional circumstances, whatsoever, whether a state of
war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other
public emergency, may be invoked as a justication of torture. This
total prohibition against torture embodies a larger legal commit-
ment to nonbrutality and human dignity. 19 Furthermore, the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provides a
similar prohibition against torture and no pretext of public emer-
gency is allowed to derogate from this prohibition. In fact, there
exists a universal consensus that prohibition against torture has
obtained the status of a peremptory norm, and all states are oblig-
ated to comply with the norm, regardless of their formal adherence
19
Jeremy Waldron, Torture and Positive Law: Jurisprudence for the White
House, 105 Columbia Law Review 1681 (2005).
276 Chapter 7
to treaties against torture. Prohibitions against torture are so deeply

implanted in the international legal system that any ofcial use of
torture is a crime. In peacetime, any systematic use of torture
against a civilian population is a crime against humanity. In wartime,
when torture or inhuman treatment is committed as part of a plan
or policy, it is a war crime falling within the jurisdiction of the
International Criminal Court.
Ignoring these peremptory norms, the post-September 11 US has
been determined to nd a rationale to effectively interrogate Muslim
militants. Driven by the new paradigm that valuable information
must be extracted by all means necessary, torture surfaced as a
possible tool. Government lawyers were asked to explore the effect
of peremptory norms against torture and degrading treatment of
Muslim militants detained by the US Armed Forces during the
conict in Afghanistan. The US Department of Justice prepared a
legal brief, now popularly known as the Torture Memo, which
concluded that Muslim detainees may be subjected to the inten-
tional iniction of pain.20 The memo invokes necessity and self-
defense to justify harsh interrogation tactics and to eliminate any
criminal liability. Relying on this memo, which was broadly approved
within the Bush Administrations legal and advisory circles, secret
detention facilities were set up outside the US to interrogate Muslim
detainees under newly approved tools of torture and degrading
treatment. Several senior military lawyers, however, opposed new
interrogation policies and challenged their legality under domestic
and international laws.
Media reports on the treatment of Muslim detainees at Guant-
namo, Abu Ghraib, and other prisons have been consistent with
the Torture Memos proposed lawlessness. Extreme cases of torture
and abuse such as killing detainees by beating or suffocation, or
sodomizing Iraqi boys were perhaps isolated criminal events that
occurred outside the parameters of ofcial policy. Permissible inter-
rogation tactics, such as hooding, sleep deprivation, standing or
kneeling in painful postures, and waterboarding, have been used
and defended as a matter of law. General Antonio Tagubas report
about Abu Ghraib prison abuses concluded that US soldiers have
committed egregious acts and grave breaches of international law.
20
Jay S. Bybee, Memorandum Re: Standards of Conduct for Interrogation
(Aug. 1, 2002).
War on Terror 277
According to this report, questionable episodes of torture and degrad-

ing treatment included pouring phosphoric liquid on detainees,
beating them with broom handles, using military dogs without muz-
zles to frighten and bite them, and sodomizing them with chemi-
cal light. It is unclear whether these abuses at any US-operated
prison were effective in obtaining useful information from mal-
treated Muslim detainees.
Gratuitous degrading treatments of Muslim detainees have been
both sexual and religious. Perhaps knowing that sex is sacred under
Islam, Muslim militants, male and female, have been exposed to
rape, sodomy, and degrading sexual treatment. The Taguba report
exposed the following sexual indignities: some detainees were
stripped naked and placed on top of one another to experience
shared humiliation and shame; some were stacked on top of each
other insuring that the penis of the man on the bottom touched
the butt of the man above him; some were accused of being homo-
sexual; some were forced to dance naked; some were asked to mas-
turbate while being videotaped; some Muslim men were led to
believe that they were indeed women; some were forced to wear
female underwear; and some female Muslim detainees were raped.
These sexual abuses were designed on assumptions that Muslim
detainees are opposed to abnormal sexual behavior, homosexual-
ity, dancing, or just being naked.
Religious torture was practiced on the belief that Muslims take
their faith seriously. Attacks on God and the Quran were intended
to inict severe mental pain on detainees. Guards cursed God, to
leave the impression on detainees that God is helpless in saving
them from degrading treatment. Some guards urinated on the
Quran or ushed its pages down the toilet. Some scratched an
obscenity on its inside pages. Some stepped on it, and some kicked
it. These acts of violence against the Quran were perpetrated to
break the spirit of Muslim detainees, to show them that their reli-
gion was ineffective and disrespectful.
Unusual Weapons
The war on terror has employed unusual weapons, including clus-

ter bombs and white phosphorous, which cause severe injuries to
civilians at high rates. Cluster bombs are sophisticated weapons
278 Chapter 7
designed for saturation coverage of an enemy area. They can carry

explosives, chemicals, and biological agents. A conventional cluster
bomb consists of tennis ball-sized bomblets packed in a metal dis-
penser or container. Each container, sometimes called a cluster
bomb unit, holds several hundred bomblets, each of which is lled
with several hundred metal fragments. A fully operative cluster
bomb unleashes around 200,000 metal fragments, as packed bomblets
detonate in orchestral unison, creating a killing eld. Cluster bombs
are usually dropped by aircrafts, but they can be delivered by rock-
ets and artillery. A cluster bomb dropped on a small village comes
down like a heavy downpour of cutting blades. Each fragment ying
at a high velocity can penetrate a human body and destroy inter-
nal organs the heart, lungs, kidney, or spleen. This is not an
unfortunate, unintended side-effect; these bombs are designed to
do this.21 Unexploded bomblets are no less deadly as they quietly
wait for foot soldiers, tanks, terrorists, women, and children
indeed anyone who might step on their fury.
Suppressive states have used cluster bombs to pursue terrorists.
When the US attacked Afghanistan in October 2001, it dropped
scores of cluster bombs on presumed al Qaeda military camps.
However, the use of cluster bombs was far from precise. According
to UN ofcials, several US cluster bombs fell on villages and killed
civilians. In addition to causing injury and death, dozens of yellow
soda can-like objects (bomblets) scattered on the ground remained
unexploded, sending a wave of fear and terror that forced villagers
to remain in their homes. The factual irony that the US was simul-
taneously dropping yellow cluster bombs and yellow food packets
further confounded the villagers.
The US is not alone in pursuing Islamic militants with cluster
bombs. Israel has used cluster bombs to pursue Hezbollah mili-
tants in Lebanon. Russia has killed hundreds of Chechen civilians
with cluster bombs. Documenting the use of cluster bombs in the
Russia-Chechnya war, Virgil Weibe reported: A notable example
early in the war was the January 3, 1995, cluster munition bom-
bardment of Shali, Chechnya. Two Russian jets hit a roadside mar-
ket rst and then the hospital where wounded had been taken.
Also hit were a Muslim cemetery (while a funeral service was in
21
www.itvs.org/bombies/bombs.html. (Independent Television Service).
War on Terror 279
progress), the village school, and a collective farm. At least fty-

ve people were killed, and 186 were wounded.22
Suppressive states often deny the use of unusual weapons. For
months, the US denied using white phosphorous in the assault on
Falluja, an Iraqi city. White phosphorous is an incendiary weapon
that can be used to illuminate enemy positions. But it also burns
to the bone and kills. Ex-marine Jeff Englehart says that he saw
bodies of burnt children and women after the phosphorous use. An
Italian television documentary shows that the US used white phos-
phorous shells in a massive and indiscriminate manner, killing
scores of civilians. Although the US has admitted employing white
phosphorous in Falluja, it still asserts that the use was not offen-
sive but only for illuminating purposes. The truth remains unknown.
Propaganda and Perdy
Information, according to the U.S. Air Force, is both a potent

weapon and lucrative target. Just as armed forces protect persons
and properties from harm, they also protect information, which is
a critical asset in the conduct of war. Private armies of militants
do the same. Both ofcial armed forces and private armies under-
stand that critical information about the movement of soldiers,
strategies, tactical movements, plans of attack, and almost every
other aspect of warfare ought to be protected from leakage. Both
also understand the value of misinformation and disinformation as
potent weapons that must be unleashed to confuse and distort, thus
protecting critical information. Propaganda, half-truths, and out-
right lies are used as weapons by all sides in the war on terror-
ism. This information manipulation is part of the psychological war
to defeat the enemy by all means available. When good informa-
tion and false information are mixed together, the information pool
becomes muddy and unreliable, raising the cost of information
purication. Private armies are at a substantive disadvantage
because ofcial armed forces have many more resources to muddy
the pool. However, the playing eld is not completely tilted in favor
of ofcial armed forces, since private armies, due to their size and
22
Virgil Weibe, Footprints of Death, 22 Michigan Journal of International
Law 85 (2000).
280 Chapter 7
lack of bureaucratic constraints, enjoy more exibility, and speed

in distorting information. And the coalition of private armies car-
ries a huge competitive advantage because the disinformation com-
ing from disconnected multiple terror cells scattered around the
world has an inherent muddying effect.23
Suppressive infrastructure disseminates false and tainted infor-
mation to perpetrate and defend its unlawful actions against ter-
rorist cells and the aggrieved populations. Suppresive infrastructures
also manipulates information to hide its own embarrassing and
illegal activities. Suppressive entities often command more resources
to advance and defend their particular viewpoint, and thus possess
an advantage over aggrieved populations who either totally lack
the resources to present their story or have an ineffective supportive
infrastructure. For example, the number of scholars, journalists,
politicians, think-thanks, artists, and lawyers supporting the cause
of Israel is far greater than those supporting the cause of Palesti-
nians. The intellectual, journalistic and legal inputs in favor of
Israeli policies distort the truth against Palestinians, particularly
in those information markets where pro-Israeli forces outnumber
those of pro-Palestinian. Truth is sacriced when huge resources
are used to disseminate false or tainted information.
Supportive infrastructure also falsies and spins information to
exaggerate sufferings of the aggrieved population and to minimize
the injury caused by terrorist atrocities. Supportive infrastructure
paints suppressive entities as being devoid of moral values and dis-
putes their peace gestures. Even aggrieved populations may engage
in their own propaganda to highlight the injustices of suppressive
states, although they often lack the means to do so effectively.
The print and electronic media are the most effective means to
disseminate false and tainted information about terrorism. Manipu-
lation is easier when national media are state-controlled, for in
these countries the ofcial news is the only news, and critical per-
spectives on terrorist stories are unavailable. But even where the
media enjoys freedom of the press, such as in India, Israel, and the
US, governments are often successful in manipulating information
about terrorism. Journalists taint the truth because they are blinded
by patriotism, peer pressure, and close ties with state ofcials. Still,
23
Richard Aldrich, The International Legal Implications of Information Warfare,
Airpower Journal (Fall 1996, Maxwell Publishers).
War on Terror 281
as compared to a state-controlled press, a free press is harder to

inuence. But when a free press is successfully manipulated, it is
the most effective means to engineer falsehood because the free
press enjoys credibility and a presumption of fair reporting. People
are often skeptical about state-controlled media; they know that
the information is slanted in favor of the state and state ofcials.
That skepticism does not exist in the case of free press. Ironically,
therefore, information manipulation through free press serves the
most severe blow to truth in reporting and analyzing the dynam-
ics and theories of terrorism.
Is Disinformation Unlawful?
In the realm of international humanitarian law, disinformation
raises difcult questions. Article 24 of the 1907 Hague Regulations
concerning the Laws and Customs of War states: Ruses of war and
the employment of measures necessary for obtaining information
about the enemy and the country are considered permissible.
However, Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions states, It is pro-
hibited to kill, injure or capture an adversary by resort to perdy.
Both ruses and perdies are informational trickeries. Both serve
to deceive the enemy, though a theoretical line can be drawn between
the two. As in most cases, the law has set up binary criteria under
which one type of informational deception is lawful, but the other
is not. In the war on terror, suppressive entities appear to have
abandoned even the theoretical distinction. Any informational trick-
ery that would successfully capture, injure, or kill a terrorist is
considered lawful. On the other hand, the lawful uses of ruses seem
unavailable to private armies, since any informational deception
that results in injury or death is considered an unlawful perdy.
Article 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights specically mandates that signatory states prohibit by law
any propaganda of war. It also prohibits any advocacy of national,
racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimi-
nation, hostility or violence. These prohibitions are designed to
deter aggressive state policies promoted through disinformation
and advocacy of hatred. Despite its categorical language, this pro-
vision of the Covenant is weak to the extent that a signatory state
can invoke public emergency that threatens the life of the nation
to derogate from its obligation. Thus, a state, such as Russia or
the US, that has suffered a dramatic terrorist attack might ofcially
282 Chapter 7
proclaim public emergency and then employ propaganda, even

hatred of the enemy, to prepare its people for a possible war against
terrorist groups or supportive states. And if the war on terrorism
is perpetual and open-ended, so too is the states inclination to use
disinformation and hatred as the military means to defeat the
enemy abroad and to seek support from the public at home. The
Covenant prohibitions are reduced to empty norms if a signatory
state makes a reservation to them, as has the US.
Imprudent Propaganda
After the September 11 attacks, American military generals launched
vigorous propaganda to malign Muslim militants and to prepare
US soldiers for the war on terrorism. This propaganda wooed
Christian conservatives who support Israel and predict an apoca-
lyptic war with Islam. General William Boykin painted Allah as
an inferior and false god. The message was relayed to establish the
US moral superiority in the war on terror. It was also aimed at US
soldiers for the purpose of boosting their morale and ghting spirit.
Foolishly, though, the message overlooks the fact that many US
soldiers are Muslims. Another US general made a similar propa-
ganda mistake when he told an audience in San Diego that US sol-
diers enjoyed killing Afghan militants who aint got no manhood.
It is unclear how this propaganda or hatred was benecial in win-
ning the hearts and minds of Muslim populations.
Conclusion
The war on terror has killed thousands of Muslim militants in
numerous countries. Some of these killings have been contrary to
the laws of war. Other aspects of the war have been equally legally
questionable. The use of torture has deed the peremptory norms
of international law that places complete ban on the iniction of
torture for punitive or information-seeking purposes. The lawless
war on terror is being waged on the ontological assumptions that
Muslim militants are addicted to violence and that they constantly
nd new excuses to commit violence and that Islamic fundamen-
talism is inherently violent. These ontological assumptions ignore
the phenomenon of concrete grievances that Muslim populations
of Chechnya, Palestine, Kashmir, and other regions have against
suppressive entities. A Theory of International Terrorism rejects
War on Terror 283
the ontological assumptions about Muslim militancy and Islam,

recognizing though that Muslim militants violate the laws of war.
It focuses on concrete grievances involving the right of self-deter-
mination and human rights abuses to argue that Muslim militancy
is the product of injustices, occupations, invasions, and other excesses.
Submission to subjugation is not Gods Way. The Quran teaches
militancy to counter oppression and not to perpetrate aggression.
It also teaches Muslims to resolve conicts through negotiations
and peace treaties.24 The next Part of the book offers peaceful solu-
tions to end the lawless spiral of violence called terrorism.
24
Quran 9:4 (Muslims must fulll treaties made with non-Muslims).
PART III:
PEACEFUL SOLUTIONS
Chapter 8
Negotiated Solutions
No one suggests that it would be an easy set of negotiations.

Canadas Supreme Court
The concept of negotiated solutions is based on a simple historical

observation that violence rarely produces durable and just out-
comes. Renouncing all forms of violence, A Theory of International
Terrorism proposes that parties to the terror triangle (aggrieved
population, suppressive entities, and supportive entities) repudi-
ate violence and construct negotiated solutions to festering prob-
lems of occupation, hegemony, alien domination, and denial of
self-determination. This move toward negotiated solutions means
that suppressive entities such as Israel, Russia, and India must
recognize the right of self-determination for aggrieved populations
in Palestine, Chechnya, and Kashmir. It also means that aggrieved
populations must relinquish their right to armed struggle, and sup-
portive entities must stop providing moral, political and military
assistance to the aggrieved populations. Thus, every party to the
triangle must move in the direction of negotiated solutions. Addition-
ally, international institutions such as the UN Security Council
must facilitate and demand negotiated solutions, particularly when
the parties to the terror triangle stall, stumble, or blatantly refuse
to engage in the peace process.
But what do negotiated solutions mean? Conceptually, negoti-
ated solutions constitute a comprehensive methodology that includes
288 Chapter 8
settlement of disputes through direct negotiation, conciliation, medi-

ation, arbitration, and judicial settlement.1 It includes temporary
ceaseres but consists primarily of durable solutions that effec-
tively minimize the phenomenology of terrorism. Philosophically,
the concept of negotiated solutions rejects the ontology of Islamic
terrorism that nds the location of violence in Islamic conscious-
ness rather than in injustice. According to this ontology, no nego-
tiations will be fruitful because Muslim militants are essentialist
terrorists pathologically oriented to violence in that they know vio-
lence as the only means of dealing with problems.2 In rejecting
ontological explanations of Islamic terrorism, the concept of nego-
tiated solutions acknowledges the normal humanity of Muslim mil-
itants and considers them perfectly capable of resolving intricate
disputes through peaceful methods.
Legally, the concept of negotiated solutions is derived from both
international law and Islamic law. Both legal systems mandate
that disputes that threaten peace and security be resolved through
instrumentalities of negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and adju-
dication. International law is critical to the resolution of terrorism
disputes because most entities involved in the terror triangle are
nation-states that have accepted explicit obligations under the UN
Charter to resolve disputes through peaceful means. This chapter
examines Islamic law of negotiated solution to repel the ontologi-
cal thesis that Muslim militants are driven to violence by Islamic
theology that emphasizes violence as the primary method of set-
tling conicts. While the norms of both legal systems support
pacism, the barriers to negotiated solutions are formidable. Some
of these barriers are removable, but some are embedded in the
aggressive imperative of the nation-state. Finally, this chapter offers
the example of Quebec to show that terrorism can be dramatically
preempted if the principal suppressive state and the aggrieved pop-
ulation determine to resolve a self-determination dispute through
peaceful solutions.
1
Robert Mnookin, When not to Negotiate: A Negotiation Imperialist Reects
on Appropriate Limits, 74 University of Colorado Law Review 1077 (2003) (US
talks to terrorists but does not negotiate).
2
Id. Mnookin makes ontological assertions about the credibility of the Taliban
government and concludes that the Bush decision to wage war and not negotiate
with the Taliban was wise.
Negotiated Solutions 289
8.1 LAW OF NEGOTIATED SOLUTIONS
The law of negotiated solutions is part of every national and inter-

national legal system. Jurisprudentially, the very concept of law is
a methodological substitution for violence and self-help. The accep-
tance of negotiated solutions, however, has been more successful
in national legal systems than in the international legal system.
National legal systems prohibit the use of violence and self-help to
resolve disputes. They furnish courts and tribunals to hear and
decide disputes. Most national legal systems also support dispute
resolutions through alternative, non-judicial means. In the inter-
national legal system, judicial settlement of disputes is not a pre-
ferred method of dispute resolution. Nation-states often choose
direct negotiation, mediation, and arbitration to settle disputes.
Pacic settlement of international disputes however is still in the
early stages of human civilization. Despite prohibition on the aggres-
sive use of force, nation-states continue to nd excuses to go to war.
This inability to avoid aggression stems from the structural imper-
ative of the nation-state. Empires and imperial nation-states resent
the normative regime of peaceful resolution of disputes. Prone to
aggression, their submission to negotiated solutions is reluctant
and uncertain. Therefore, the entrenchment of negotiated solutions
in the international legal system has been difcult.
International Law of Negotiated Solutions
The Emergence of Pacism

The dening characteristic of post-1945 international law is its
manifest pacism. The road to pacism, however, has not been easy.
After the First World War, a number of attempts were made to
renounce war and afrm peaceful settlement of disputes. These
efforts, spearheaded by the League of Nations, failed primarily
because well-established and newly emerging empires that occu-
pied the world could not accept the constraints of negotiated solu-
tions on their international conduct. Empires are structurally
predatory and aggression is their chief weapon. Any rm commit-
ment to peaceful settlement of disputes strikes at their foundation.
That is why the 1928 General Act of Arbitration for Pacic Settlement
290 Chapter 8
of Disputes had limited success. This treaty was designed to encour-

age nations to resolve disputes through conciliation, arbitration,
and litigation before the Permanent Court of International Justice.
A number of countries, including Germany, Japan, the United States,
and the Soviet Union, refused to sign the General Act. Spain
denounced the Act within a few years after accession. The erup-
tion of the Second World War signaled the failure of the General
Act. The demise of the League of Nations and the failure of the
Permanent Court of International Justice provided clear symptoms
that Pacic Settlement of Disputes could not be achieved in the
era of imperialism. The General Act nonetheless continued to assert
a dubious existence. In the 1970s, however, this dubious existence
became even more precarious when the United Kingdom and France
denounced the General Act. India followed suit and notied the
world that it was never a party to the General Act since its inde-
pendence in 1947. Other states, including Turkey and Australia,
had also denounced the General Act.
These denunciations of the General Act did not spell the end
of pacism. The establishment of the United Nations in 1945
ushered international law into a new normative era an era of
organizational pacism which repudiates violence and institu-
tionalizes peaceful settlement of disputes. The UN Charter specically
forbids the threat or use of force in international relations. It out-
laws war as an acceptable instrument to promote national inter-
ests or values. Chapter VI of the UN Charter, specically Article
33 states that the parties to any dispute, the continuation of which
is likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and
security, shall, rst of all, seek a solution by negotiation, enquiry,
mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to
regional agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means of their
own choice. This sweeping language is designed to minimize pre-
texts for the use of violence.
The Charter empowers the Security Council to intervene in unre-
solved disputes that threaten international peace and security. The
Security Council may recommend specic peaceful procedures to
the parties, including adjudication by the International Court of
Justice. In recommending any Article 33 procedures, the Security
Council should respect the procedures that parties themselves have
adopted for the settlement of the dispute. However, nothing seems
to prevent the Security Council from recommending and even man-
dating new procedures if the parties are unable to resolve a long
standing dispute through their bilateral efforts. A classical exam-
ple of such dysfunctional bilateralism is the almost 60-year old

conict between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, a stalemate dis-
cussed below.
Terror Triangle as a Dispute

The rst question is whether the terror triangle is an international
dispute that falls under the scope of Article 33 of the UN Charter.
The Articles plain language is broad because it refers to any dis-
pute. It is unclear, however, whether the parties to any dispute
must be states. A narrow interpretation of Article 33 would limit
its scope to inter-state conicts. Even under such a narrow inter-
pretation, the terror triangle constitutes an Article 33 dispute given
that it involves suppressive and supportive states on opposite sides
of the terror triangle, holding opposite views about the primary
and secondary demands of aggrieved populations. Once the scope
of Article 33 is expanded to include entities that do not qualify as
states, such as the Palestinian Authority, the obligation to resolve
disputes through peaceful means extends to all parties to a terror
triangle. This broad reading of who may qualify as a party with
the expanding notion of international law that is no longer conned
to nation-states. Customary international law also mandates that
international disputes be resolved through peaceful means, regard-
less of whether parties to an international dispute are state or non-
state actors. The international communitys condemnation of
terrorism in all forms, embodied in General Assembly resolutions,
is in itself a call for resolving terror-related disputes through peace-
ful means.
Therefore, the existence of a terror triangle consisting of an
aggrieved population, a supportive entity, and a suppressive entity
constitutes a dispute under international law. In makes little sense
to exclude the people whose grievances comprise the heart of the
dispute. Such exclusion is akin to staging Hamlet, without Hamlet,
the central character.
Such exclusion also dees reality. No single party to the terror
triangle, not even an aggrieved population, is the exclusive source
of all violence. In a terror triangle, each party produces violence.
An aggrieved population produces militants who commit violence
against suppressive entities. A supportive entity sponsors violence
by furnishing moral, political, logistical, nancial, and military
support to the aggrieved population and its militants. A principal
292 Chapter 8
suppressive entity produces violence against an aggrieved popula-

tion in the form of state terrorism. Other suppressive entities pro-
duce violence by assisting the principal suppressive entity. As a
result, a terror triangle is a complex mix of non-state violence,
state-sponsored violence, and state violence. Since numerous inter-
national entities are involved in the production of triangular vio-
lence that threatens peace and security of the world, the dispute
ought to be treated as an international dispute.
The popular understanding of terrorism distinguishes state vio-
lence from non-state violence. In Chechnya, for example, Russian
violence against Chechens is state violence that not only responds
to, but also incites Chechen violence. Both types of violence are ter-
rorism. Even if state violence is distinguishable from non-state vio-
lence, and the concept of terrorism is limited to non-state violence,
the parties to the terror triangle are nonetheless involved in an
international dispute. Suppressive entities may claim, as they often
do, that state violence is a lawful defense against terrorism and
that what is unlawful is the violence of the aggrieved population
and its supportive infrastructure. This claim by suppressive enti-
ties does not alter the nature of the triangular violence; it simply
allocates a different legal value to each source of violence. Even
under this discriminating view of violence, parties remain locked
into an international dispute over the demands of the aggrieved
population. Furthermore, the differing characterization of violence
in the terror triangle itself becomes an essential part of the under-
lying international dispute.
As a general principle, a terror triangle must be treated as an
international dispute. International law imposes obligations on key
parties to the terror triangle, as well as on international institu-
tions, specically the UN Security Council, to resolve these dis-
putes through peaceful means. Article 33 cannot be restricted in
its application to inter-state conicts, since any such restriction is
contrary to the expanding scope of international law. No dispute
that causes international violence is national. And no violence-lled
dispute may be permanently relegated to dysfunctional bilateralism.
Dysfunctional Peace Process

States engage in bad faith peace process designed to maintain the
status quo. For example, India and Pakistan have intermittently
started the peace process to resolve their conict over Kashmir.
Almost always, they disqualify aggrieved Kashmiris as a party to

the dispute. India, a superior military power and also the princi-
pal suppressive state, takes a complex stand over the conict. India
recognizes the existence of the conict over Kashmir. It is even
willing to resolve the dispute. But it contends that bilateralism is
the only acceptable peaceful means. But bilateralism has failed to
produce any positive outcome since its establishment in the 1972
Simla Agreement. India refuses to submit the dispute to other
peaceful methods, such as mediation or arbitration. It also demands
that Pakistani-sponsored terrorism stop before a solution can be
found. Indias restrictions and preconditions on a resolution to the
Kashmir conict has exacerbated the peace process, frustrating
aggrieved Kashmiris and enabling Pakistan to support and sus-
tain a level of violence in Kashmir, which keeps the dispute alive
and dangerous at the international level.
Because of the bilateral clause in the Simla Agreement, inter-
national institutions such as the UN Security Council refuse to
pressure India and Pakistan to adopt a more efcacious method of
conict resolution. Similarly, the International Court of Justice has
reafrmed the parties obligation to settle their disputes through
bilateral negotiations. In 1999, Pakistan instituted proceedings
before the International Court of Justice to demand reparations
from India for shooting down an unarmed aircraft within Pakistans
borders, killing 16 men on board. Pakistan relied on a number of
bilateral and multilateral treaties, including the 1928 General Act,
to argue that the Court had jurisdiction over the aerial incident.
The Court declined to exercise jurisdiction on the theory that India
and Pakistan have chosen bilateralism under the Simla Agreement.
Moreover, the Lahore Declaration of 21 February 1999 reiterated
the determination of both countries to implement the Simla
Agreement. However, the Court reminded the parties that its lack
of jurisdiction does not relieve States of their obligation to settle
their disputes by peaceful means. The parties may choose peace-
ful methods of their choice but they remain, the Court said, under
an obligation to seek such a settlement, and to do so in good faith
in accordance with Article 2, paragraph 2, of the Charter.3
3
Aerial Incident of 10 August 1999 (Pakistan v. India) (19992000).
294 Chapter 8
Powerful States Use Force as Part of Negotiation

The Courts message is clear. Even when international institutions
decide not to intervene or they fail to provide leadership in resolv-
ing disputes, states remain bound to avoid war and use peaceful
mechanisms to contain, manage, and resolve conicts. Left to their
own discretion, however, powerful states rarely sacrice their inter-
ests. When international institutions stall, the law of negotiated
solutions loses its efcacy and even normative validity. When power-
ful members of the international community refuse to comply with
their obligations or carve out self-serving exceptions to negotiated
solutions, war and violence raise their heads. Not surprisingly, the
threat to the vitality of pacic norms embodied in the UN Charter
comes from imperial entities that, driven by their structural need
for expansion and domination, do not repudiate aggression in inter-
national affairs.
Presently, the US, which has acquired the attributes of an impe-
rial entity, poses the most formidable threat to peaceful settlement
of international disputes. While the US allows and even pressures
other nation-states to resolve their disputes through peaceful means,
the US does not practice what it preaches. The US has reserved
the right to use force, not limited to self-defense, to promote its
interests and values across the world. This assertion of power sim-
ply means that if the US is a party to a dispute with another entity,
it may choose war if the other party rejects the solutions that the
US offers. While many states choose not to defy the US, some
Muslim states such as Iran and most Muslim militants across the
globe refuse to submit to the US hegemony. This refusal escalates
terrorism. This refusal, however, is interpreted as an ontological
sign of Muslim addiction to violence, as if Islam embodies no con-
cept of negotiated solutions.
Islamic Law of Negotiated Solutions
Throughout the world and in particular the US, the character of

Muslim militancy is gravely misunderstood. American private and
public sectors have manufactured massive literature to propagate
a powerful but erroneous theory that Muslim militants are addicted
to violence, and that the metaphysical and mystical drive of Islam,
rather than geopolitical grievances, propels Muslims toward vio-
lence. The reason for this propaganda lies in the concerted effort
to deny the phenomenon of primary and secondary grievances that
generates militancy and resistance. The ontology of Islamic ter-
rorism paints Islam as an inherently violent faith. It argues that
Muslim militants are driven to violence by their deep and perhaps
inalterable religious subjectivity. This dubious ontology undermines
the concept of negotiated solutions. It also proposes war as the nal
solution. The invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq and threats of mil-
itary intervention in Syria and Iran are direct effects of this ontol-
ogy, which forcefully argues for the complete annihilation of Muslim
militants all over the world, regardless of the suffering and human
rights abuses of the aggrieved populations.
Contrary to the dubious ontology of Islamic terrorism, Islam is
much more complex than it is presented in terrorism literature.
Under conditions of justice, Islam is inherently peaceful. However,
Islam is by no means pacist under all circumstances. Islam teaches
militancy, not surrender, under conditions of persecution, oppres-
sion, and subjugation. It also teaches Muslims to resist worldly
gods and superpowers that conduct themselves in a cruel and unjust
manner. Islam is most resilient under stress. Instead of giving up
faith under adversity, Muslims embrace Islam even more closely
when the worldly injustice is unbearable. As a result, the sup-
pressive strategy of attacking Islam as the source of violence is
rarely effective. The more oppression is perpetrated in Palestine,
Chechnya, or Kashmir, the more Muslims will become militant in
resistance to injustice. That has been the history of Islamic move-
ments against alien domination. Jihad is an essential part of Islamic
faith. No worldly force can outlaw it.
But military jihad is not a permanent condition of Islamic life.
Military jihad is unnecessary if a Muslim community faces no exter-
nal threat. Peace and submission are natural conditions of the
Islamic faith. Furthermore, Islam does not prescribe military jihad
as the only means to resolve conicts. As the following discussion
demonstrates, Muslims are obligated to make peace with the enemy
and resolve conicts through peaceful means. In the peace process,
Muslims may offer great material concessions to the enemy to obtain
a durable compromise. Islam does not recommend exploiting the
weak bargaining power of the enemy to force upon him an unjust
deal. However, the enemy that uses force to deal with Muslim com-
munities fails to obtain a durable peace because Muslim militants
will continue to ght, despite agreeing to intermittent, logistical
cease-res, until a solution is negotiated to mutual satisfaction.
296 Chapter 8
Clever enemies know that the Islamic consciousness does not buckle
but thrives under oppression. They also know that they can clench
a good bargain through negotiation with Muslims because the
authentic Islamic consciousness is supposedly most forgiving and
generous when the peace process appears to be genuine. The fol-
lowing principles highlight the Islamic law of negotiated solutions.
Al Baqra Principle
Islamic law embodied in the Basic Code (the Quran and the Sunna)
encourages, and in some cases mandates, Muslims to cease ght-
ing and nd negotiated solutions to disputes involving armed conicts
with non-Muslims. Sura al Baqra states: Keep on ghting (qital)
against them until mischief (tna) ends and the way prescribed by
God prevails. But if they desist, then know that the state of war
(adawat) is only against the oppressors.4 This Al Baqra principle
does not allow perpetual ghting against non-Muslims, but pre-
scribes ghting (qital) as a means to end mischief (tna) and oppres-
sion (zulm). If the enemy is determined to perpetrate tna and
zulm, Muslims are obligated to engage in qital until the oppressor
is defeated and authentic tranquility prevails. But qital is not the
only option to end tna and zulm. The other option is to nd a
negotiated solution to resolve the conict. If the enemy desists from
tna or zulm, Muslims are obligated not only to stop killing (qital)
but also end the state of war (adawat). Furthermore, the al Baqra
principle is not reactive. It may not be interpreted to conclude that
the enemy must rst offer to end tna before Muslims would cease
qital. Muslims may proactively engage the enemy into nding a
negotiated solution to end tna and zulm. Of course, any proactive
engagement with the enemy for nding negotiated solutions does
not mean that Muslims would surrender and accept an unjust out-
come. Any such surrender would violate the way prescribed by
God.
Al Anfal Principle
The Islamic law of negotiated solutions is codied in the al Anfal
principle. Sura al Anfal states: And if they incline to peace, so you
4
Quran 2:193.
must incline to it. And trust in God, for He hears and knows all.5
The al Anfal principle reinforces the al Baqra principle in impor-
tant ways. It mandates that the enemys peace gestures be accepted.
This obligation, however, must be read in light of the al Baqra prin-
ciple. No enemys peace offer may be accepted if it is designed to
perpetuate an injustice. Any negotiated solution, which fails to
eradicate tna or zulm, is contrary to the al Baqra principle dis-
cussed above. However, the al Anfal principle encourages Muslims
to be proactive in accepting the enemys peace offers and not be
overly suspicious of the enemys motives. This principle invites
Muslims to trust in God while accepting the enemys peace offers,
which simply means, that Muslims may be cautious in interpret-
ing the enemys peace gestures but they cannot dismiss them out
of unfounded fears that the enemy is seeking truce for less than
noble reasons. The trust in God part of the al Anfal principle
instructs against cynicism and dehumanization of the enemy. The
al Anfal principle does not obligate Muslims to accept every peace
gesture that the enemy makes. Muslims may assess the enemys
intentions. If the enemys peace intentions are sincere, Muslims
are obligated to respond in kind, end qital and the state of war.
Again, one need not interpret the al Anfal principle in a reactive
manner. Muslims may proactively seek peace with the enemy and
if they nd that the enemy is sincerely prepared to end tna and
zulm, they may initiate a negotiated solution to end the state of
war.
Al Nasaa Principle
The Al Nassa principle mandates that Muslims cease hostilities if
the enemy demonstrates a commitment to peace. Sura al Nasaa
states: So if they stand disengaged and do not commit qital, and
they speak the language of peace, then God has given you no way
(to ght) against them.6 This al Nassa principle claries the con-
ditions under which qital is no longer permitted. If the enemy by
his deeds and words offer peace, Muslims are obligated to end ght-
ing. Thus, the enemy must satisfy two distinct conditions. He must
speak the language of peace. This verbal commitment to peace,
5
Quran 8:61.
6
Quran 4:90.
298 Chapter 8
however, is a necessary but not a sufcient condition for Muslims

to stop ghting. The enemy must also perform a disengagement
act to reinforce his verbal offerings of peace. The disengagement
act may be withdrawal of troops, surrender of occupied territory,
removing weapons of war, or any such concrete conduct that embod-
ies a convincing proof of the enemys peaceful intentions. Once the
enemy makes a disengagement act and verbalizes his intention
towards peace, Muslims are obligated to cease all hostilities and
respond these gestures by stopping all armed attacks on the enemy.
This mandatory ceasere paves the way for a negotiated settle-
ment of the underlying conict.
Peace Treaty of Hudaibiya

The Peace Treaty of Hudaibiya (628) furnishes a remarkable exam-
ple of a negotiated solution that the Prophet himself initiated to
end years of wars and hostilities. In 622, the Prophet and his fol-
lowers had been forced to leave Makkah, the city of his birth. In
the next six years, Muslims fought three wars (Badr, Uhud, Khandaq)
with powerful forces of the Quraish who controlled Makkah. In 628,
the Prophet and his followers decided to visit Makkah for the pil-
grimage. They camped at a place called Hudaibiya before entering
the city. There, the Quraish sent emissaries to persuade the Prophet
not to enter the city for that would trigger another war. Although
Muslims were in a much stronger position than before, the Prophet
offered not to enter the city provided the Quraish would demon-
strate their sincere commitment to peace. The Quraish sent Suhail
ibn Amr to negotiate the terms of the treaty. The Prophet negoti-
ated the terms of the treaty with Ibn Amr, even though he was a
notorious enemy of Islam and of the Prophet. Furthermore, the
Prophet gave generous concessions to obtain a ten-year no war pact
with the Quraish. The Prophet agreed to postpone the pilgrimage
for one year.
The Prophet also accepted unequal extradition provisions of the
treaty under which any converts to Islam who would leave Makkah
and join the Muslims would be extradited to Makkah but any
Muslims who abandoned the Prophet and ed to Makkah would
not be returned to Muslims. These unequal extradition provisions
would most certainly stop the inow of new converts from Makkah
and possibly reduce the number of Muslims if many defected to
join their families in Makkah. Many followers of the Prophet did
not like unequal terms of the treaty of Hudaibiya. But the Prophet
was determined to end the era of warfare with Islams strongest
enemies, thus preferring peace to proselytism.
Failure of the Two Systems

Despite clear mandates for negotiated solutions to conicts in both
international law and Islamic law, terror triangles have failed to
abandon violence. There are many reasons for this failure. Ontological
explanations of Islamic militancy oppose the peace process, and
promote war. By violating the laws of war in their use of force and
choice of targets, Muslim militants sow confusion and mistrust.
Muslim governments are too timid to actively advocate for the
rights of aggrieved populations and demand effective mediation.
Powerful suppressive states continue to employ the option of war.
Major conicts involving the right of self-determination and human
rights abuses stem from the structural imperative of the nation-
state that refuses to relinquish aggression. The barriers to negoti-
ated solutions are raised higher when nation-states behave as
empires, which are inherently predatory entities. An empire dic-
tates solutions and is willing to use force to achieve its geopoliti-
cal objectives.
8.2 BARRIERS TO NEGOTIATED SOLUTIONS
Imperialism Knows No Compromise

Value imperialism is the greatest barrier to negotiated solutions.
Subjugation and not compromise is the coin of imperialism. When
an entity imposes its values on others, it has little interest in nego-
tiating with the resisting population. For example, if al Qaeda
wishes to impose its spiritual values on Americans, al Qaeda is
unlikely to compromise. Americans would most likely resist such
spiritual imperialism and would use force to counter any threats
of violence accompanying such spiritual imperialism. Likewise, if
American governments coerce Muslim nations into accepting lib-
eral secularism or Judeo-Christian democratic values, Muslims will
resist and ght to defend their faith-based civilization. Value impe-
rialism invites submission but in reality breeds resistance.
300 Chapter 8
Lack of Mutual Respect

Suppressive entities insert irrational barriers to negotiation that,
upon scrutiny, are indefensible. First, there is the linguistic/psy-
chological barrier. The phrase terrorist has been so thoroughly
condemned that it invokes visceral feelings of repulsion and even
hatred. Propaganda asserts that Muslim militants possess inhu-
man qualities, have no sense of morality, no respect for law, and
that they have embraced a murderous ideology that kills the inno-
cents without any rhyme or reason. This view of Muslim militants
does not encourage negotiations. Successful negotiations depend on
parties having some sense of mutual respect.
Negotiations presuppose that parties act rationally and that,
despite their mutual distrust and differences on the issues, they
would prefer to nd a negotiated solution. Suppressive entities may
overcome this barrier by treating Muslim militants as private armies
ghting to obtain certain military, political, or geopolitical goals.
While suppressive entities may still condemn the enemy in nega-
tive language and continue to use the label of terrorism for tac-
tical reasons, they must negotiate with Muslim militants for strategic
reasons. In other words, suppressive entities may treat Muslim
militants as terrorists to obtain a tactical/psychological advan-
tage, but they must not shut the door on the strategic utility of
reconciliation through bargaining. This tactical/strategic split does
not worry warring nations, which condemn each others armed
forces for violating the laws of war, but use negotiation to secure
a truce or peace treaty.
Respecting Muslim Militants

The second barrier to negotiation is somewhat formal in nature. It
arises from the asymmetrical relationship between a professional
suppressive army and an unconventional private army. Professional
armies see no wrong in negotiating with each other. But they have
not been inculcated to retain the same professional respect for pri-
vate armies. Professional armies are distinguishable from uncon-
ventional private armies. Professional armies wear uniforms, use
heavy weapons, and operate within the command structure of mil-
itary ranks. In contrast, unconventional private armies such as
Muslim militants, have more coded symbols of mutual identication.
They wear no uniforms since part of their effectiveness against
professional armies rests on their efcacy to conceal identity.
Unconventional private armies do not use heavy weapons, even

though they try to obtain as many lethal weapons as they can.
Muslim militants might also have a command structure, which may
or may not be as dened as that of a professional army. As far as
the laws of war are concerned, both armies may ght or accuse
each other of ghting without rules. The asymmetry between the
forces, however, should not be a real barrier to negotiation. History
is replete with examples where huge armies have fought and nego-
tiated with private armies, despite the imbalance in their respec-
tive numbers, quantity and quality of weapons, war traditions,
military ethics, and tactical and strategic viewpoints. The tradi-
tion of negotiating with the armed enemy is much older than the
emergence of uniformed armies.
The same argument can be made regarding adherence to the
laws of war. Armies have fought and negotiated with each other
long before the emergence of the law of warfare. One complaint
against Muslim militants is the suppressive charge that they do
not obey the laws of war in that they attack legally prohibited tar-
gets. This charge is partly suppressive propaganda, designed to
dehumanize the enemy. It is partly true in that some Muslim mil-
itants do commit violations of the Islamic law of warfare that places
stringent rules on the Muslim conduct in the battleeld, a law that
is much older, and no less ethical and egalitarian, than the mod-
ern jus in bello. There is also collateral damage caused under the
doctrine of military necessity, the types of damages that regular
armed forces do not consider as violations of jus in bello. Collateral
damage is associated with professional armies, conceding no such
doctrine to militants. Suppressive propaganda refuses to accord
any credit to Muslim militants that they ght within the constraints
of the laws of war. Suppressive media report war stories on the
unquestioned assumption that Muslim militants are lawless ghters
and engage in mindless butchery. This well-established suppres-
sive image of Muslim militants makes its harder for suppressive
governments to explore the option of negotiation.
Militarization of the Negotiation Process

The concept of negotiated solutions is founded on the assumption
that an aggrieved populations primary and secondary grievances
may be rationalized, moderated, and met through a deliberate
process of mediation and reconciliation. Several factors, however,
302 Chapter 8
complicate the process of negotiated solutions. The most disturb-

ing factor is the complex presence of violence.
Principal suppressive entities, such as Russia in Chechnya or
Israel in Palestine or India in Kashmir, almost always deploy secu-
rity forces to subdue militancy and maintain law and order. If secu-
rity forces engage in gross human rights abuses, a scenario that
most frequently occurs in combating militancy, military violence
itself becomes part of the problem. Militancy adds its own violence
to the equation. Engaged in liberation movements, Muslim mili-
tants invoke the right of armed struggle to resist occupation, inva-
sion, and brutalization of the aggrieved population. When they take
the ght to the territory of the principal suppressive state and
attack its civilians, the spiral of revenge escalates violence. The
dynamics of violence are further deepened when supportive enti-
ties furnish manpower, weapons, and other resources to Muslim
militants. This multidimensional violence impedes the negotiation
process, especially if a party to the conict, suppressive state or
militants, is determined to nd a military solution.
Violence is also used as a deliberate pressure strategy to clinch
a better deal on the negotiating table. This form of violence mili-
tarizes the negotiation process. In the Middle East, for example,
both Israelis and the Palestinians employ a simultaneous strategy
of violence and negotiation. While political leaders are engaged in
talks, Israeli security forces kill Hamas operators, and Palestinian
militants attack occupying soldiers and settlers or explode bombs
inside Israel. A complete ceasere or decommissioning of militants
as a precondition to the negotiation process is often demanded but
rarely granted.7 After a violence-prone stalemate of years, if not
decades, it is unclear how a few more deaths of the enemy would
facilitate the negotiating process. And yet, governments and groups
of militants are unwilling to suspend violence while negotiations
are under way. But when a ceasere is held and violence suspended
as a gesture of simultaneous goodwill, the peace process assumes
a more positive orientation conducive to a durable deal.
7
Heidi L. Wushinske, Politicians and Paramilitaries: Is Decommissioning a
Requirement of the Belfast Agreement? 17 Temple International and Comparative
Law Journal 613 (2003) (the agreement provides each party what it wants and
hence the agreement is ineffective and the stalemate continues).
Vacuous Presumptions of War

When the peace process is abandoned in favor of the war option,
the terror triangle becomes even more violent. So far, the war
against Muslim militancy has failed because it is founded on two
questionable presumptions deterrence and physical eradication
of Muslim militants. Both presumptions are vacuous. The deter-
rence presumption fails because most Muslim militants are will-
ing to die for their causes. Deterrence is most effective when
perpetrators of violence place high value on their lives. But when
militants willingly die, deterrence loses its rationale and power.
The invention of suicide bombing is a clear proof that Muslim mil-
itants cannot be deterred by the threat or use of force against them
or their families. The other presumption underlying the war on ter-
ror is the physical eradication of terrorists. This presumption fails
because Islamic concepts of jihad and martyrdom are perpetual
sources of recruitment. There is no shortage of new and young blood
summoned to ght in the name of God. Once a militant movement
is successfully dened in religious terms, the supply of private sol-
diers is assured. These voluntary armies summoned to protect the
causes of Islam are more self-perpetuating than the Greek Hydra
and Typhon, because more than a billion Muslims in the world can
generate sufcient number of militants to replenish supplies exter-
minated in wars. These vacuous presumptions of war demonstrate
that in dealing with Muslim militants negotiated solutions are
superior strategies.
Phenomenal Militancy Distinguished from Retail Terrorism

One popular argument asserts that negotiation rewards terrorism.
Abductions, hijackings, and other criminal actions would escalate
if concessions were made to terrorists. This argument fails to dis-
tinguish between phenomenal militancy and retail violence.
Phenomenal militancy is tied to an aggrieved population and it
emerges from an unresolved clash of interests and values. By con-
trast, retail terrorism is akin to ordinary criminality with no roots
in the plight of an oppressed population. Negotiating with retail
terrorists who are ghting for their personal narrow demands might
be objectionable as it rewards blackmailing. However, parties to a
terror triangle must negotiate to resolve conicting interests that
directly affect millions of people. It is their moral and legal obligation.
The negotiation process cannot be abandoned even if militants have
304 Chapter 8
arisen from the aggrieved population and even if they target and
harm persons and properties of suppressive states. Refusing to
make concessions to a terrorist group pushing drugs is not the same
as refusing to negotiate with leaders of a large population demand-
ing the end of occupation or apartheid. Any broad collapsing of phe-
nomenal militancy with other forms of terrorism into one grand
category is an unacceptable legal strategy. Any over-inclusive
denition of terrorism in itself is a suppressive ploy to de-legit-
imize the armed struggle of an aggrieved population.
Finding Negotiating Counterparts

There is another important distinction between phenomenal mili-
tancy and retail terrorism. In a retail abduction case, for example,
negotiations must be conducted directly with the abductors. In a
phenomenal militancy case, negotiations are done with the politi-
cal leaders of an aggrieved population and not necessarily with mil-
itants engaged in armed struggle. This is similar to a case where
political leaders of warring states negotiate with each other while
their soldiers are ghting in the battleground. The warring states
may of course agree to a ceasere before they engage in negotia-
tions or they may negotiate without halting the armed conict.
Both forms of negotiations are familiar in international affairs, and
each can be effective in its proper context. A ceasere could oper-
ate as a precondition for negotiations or it could be the result of a
negotiated deal. Likewise, if political leaders of an aggrieved pop-
ulation have control over militants, a ceasere may precede nego-
tiations. But if militants refuse to give up armed struggle unless
negotiations produce some tangible results, the parties may still
negotiate. Any suppressive demand that no negotiations can take
place unless militants rst cease operations may, in some circum-
stances, be an unreasonable demand aimed at stalling the negoti-
ation process.
Separation of Political and Militant Wings

Some aggrieved populations generate two separate liberation groups
to ght for their demands. The political group composed of politi-
cians, intellectuals and professionals operates in the civil world. In
contrast, the militant group focuses on armed struggle and gener-
ates military pressure on the suppressive state. The two groups
belong to the same aggrieved population but they may differ with
each other on strategy, tactics, ideology, methods of resistance, and
liberation demands. In most cases, militant groups are more assertive
and demanding than political groups. This separation works to the
benet of political groups who come across as more reasonable part-
ners in negotiation. Some militant Palestinian groups, for exam-
ple, argue for a complete dismantling of the state of Israel whereas
political groups are more accommodating and willing to accept par-
tition of the historic Palestine.
The dual demands between political and militant groups may be
real or strategic. It is real when the groups genuinely disagree with
each other, and it is strategic when the groups disagree with each
other for negotiation purposes. Rarely do the two groups openly
admit that their differences are strategic for the purpose of gain-
ing advantage at the negotiation table. In most cases, different
viewpoints are presented as authentic ideological splits. This is not
surprising considering that in highly fractured and traumatized
aggrieved populations, representatives of the group ghting sup-
pression are likely to be similarly fractured and traumatized, some
arguing for softer solutions and some pursuing harder, more mili-
tant options.
When a liberation organization, such as the Palestinian Authority
or Hamas, contains both political and militant wings, the organi-
zation represents the aggrieved population more as a regular gov-
ernment. The organizations political wing serves as the civil
government and its militant wing provides the armed forces. In
such cases, the organization devises a unied negotiating position
because its military and political wings cannot make different
demands. In such cases, the suppressive state often demands that
the organizations militant wing stop attacks before any meaning-
ful negotiation can begin with the organization. International pres-
sure may also be exercised over the representative liberation
organization to shun the use of force, particularly so if the sup-
pressive state has successfully cast the armed struggle as terror-
ism. Pressure is compelling because the organizations political wing
may lose its negotiating mandate with the suppressive state if the
organization fails to stop militancy. The organization may also lose
credibility if it promises to restrain violence but does not do so in
reality. The organization appears weak if its militants refuse to
obey orders from its political wing.
306 Chapter 8
Exclusion of militants impedes negotiated solutions

Suppressive entities have launched a vigorous international cam-
paign to isolate Muslim militants and reduce their ghting capa-
bility. This campaign focuses on supportive entities and threatens
to punish them. If a Muslim state openly supports a cause of lib-
eration, it is branded as a terrorist state. Most Muslim govern-
ments are under intense military, economic, and diplomatic pressure
to cease all assistance to militant groups. Muslim governments are
being recruited by suppressive states to disrupt militant cells, arrest
and kill ghters, their leaders, and any other aiders and abettors.
This militaristic approach has alienated Muslim governments from
militant groups, turning them against each others. This strategy
to ght militancy supposedly weakens militant groups since they
cannot operate openly. But such a strategy is rarely effective in the
dissolution of militant groups. In most cases, militants simply go
underground. Perhaps even worse, they plot covert operations. In
some cases, they become more lethal out of frustration. In all cases,
suppressive Muslim governments lose leverage over militants, since
they are no longer seen as supporters. This forced cleavage between
Muslim militants and Muslim governments, most of which are still
sympathetic to the demands of the aggrieved population, does not
facilitate resolution of the conict through negotiations based on
mutual respect and trust.
Forcibly isolated Muslim militants may be less organized but
they are no less lethal. The destruction of militants command and
control may also lead to more sporadic and unpredictable attacks
on suppressive entities. A highly organized militancy, if and when
open to the negotiation process, is likely to function as a unit, just
as a highly organized army, though lethal, is also more control-
lable. But when soldiers are forcibly severed from command and
control, they are certainly less organized but by the same token
their ghting is more chaotic and unwieldy. And if soldiers are inde-
pendently committed to ghting, as most Muslim militants are, the
destruction of command and control unleashes a decentralized lethal
force. When fully charged militancy loses sponsors, it falls into rud-
derless extremism. It is harder to negotiate with a scattered mili-
tancy that has lost unifying leaders and supportive states. Therefore,
the concept of negotiated solutions requires that militant leaders
not be killed and the militant command structure not be destroyed,
because a militaristic approach by suppressive entities shatters the
very infrastructure needed for an effective negotiation process.
Using Supportive Entities as Negotiation Partners

Supportive entities may be used as negotiating partners. This can
occur only if supportive entities, including inuential individuals
and states, enjoy credibility with an aggrieved population and its
soldiers. Jordans King Abdullah is generally seen as an American
man. As such, he lacks the needed credibility to urge more mili-
tant Palestinians to turn to a negotiated solution with Israel. Instead
of forcing King Abdullah to cooperate in crushing Muslim militants,
a better approach would be to let him cultivate a close relationship
of trust with the Hamas and other militant groups inside and out-
side the occupied territories. This close relationship would enhance
the Kings leverage and would later provide an effective medium
to communicate with militants and possibly bring them to the nego-
tiating table. Likewise, Pakistan can contribute substantially more
to the negotiation process if it remains an openly supportive entity.
A suppressive Pakistan loses its power in moderating Muslim mil-
itants and steering them towards negotiated solutions.
The emerging international consensus that no support should be
given to terrorists is counter-productive in one important way. It
pressures supportive entities to cut off all relations with Muslim
militants. Instead of using supportive states as negotiating part-
ners, the new trend forces them to deny that they have any links
with militants. This forced separation of militants from supportive
states is based on the premise that isolated ghters will eventu-
ally give up armed struggle. The premise is too optimistic because
it underestimates the resourcefulness of a liberation movement.
The international consensus is also supercial. Few supportive enti-
ties will abandon the cause of aggrieved populations espoused by
militants, and many will nd more secretive ways to provide mate-
rial assistance. A more effective approach to negotiated solutions
dictates that supportive states be used to facilitate the negotiation
process.
Two Ways of Looking at Militancy

The negotiated solutions approach is the opposite of the militaris-
tic approach. The militaristic approach loathes militants and sees
them as the enemy. The negotiated solutions approach respects mil-
itants and sees them as peace partners. The militaristic approach
focuses on degrading the militants ghting capability by closing
off all resources that feed militancy. Its exclusive focus is on the
308 Chapter 8
isolation and destruction of Muslim militants. The militaristic

approach kills the leadership, disrupts command and control, and
punishes entities that support militants. The negotiation approach
does not aim at isolating or destroying militants. It instead draws
them into complex networks of interdependence with each other
and supportive entities. A militant group that enjoys access to and
respectability with Muslim governments is more likely to act as a
political entity, willing to resolve issues through peaceful means
and under the cover of law. The establishment of the Palestinian
Authority in Gaza, for example, furnished an organized entity that
can speak on behalf of the Palestinians. Any degradation of this
entity might serve the cause of occupation but it would not con-
tribute to the negotiation process.
Duality Toward Negotiation

Most suppressive entities take a dual stand on negotiation with
Muslim militants. Publicly, they adopt a propagandistic policy of
make no concessions to terrorists. Secretly, they talk, bargain,
and trade concessions. This duality, however, is detrimental to the
negotiation process, since its dynamics are anchored in disrespect,
uncertainty, and reluctance. In Iraq, for example, an American team
reportedly met in June 2005 with representatives of Iraqi insur-
gent groups including Ansar-ul-Sunna, a group that has master-
minded suicide bombings and killed 22 American soldiers in the
dining hall of an American base in Mosul. In the meeting, the
American negotiating team acted under the gnawing pressure of
duality. Instead of negotiating with insurgent leaders, the American
team was asking questions about the groups hierarchy and logis-
tics, revealing a clumsy attempt to discover more about the enemy
than about nding solutions. The meeting failed. According to an
Iraqi insider, the tone of the Americans was offensive. They were
talking with a tone of more superiority, arrogance and provoca-
tion.8 This disrespectful and consequently fruitless attitude toward
negotiation tells more about dysfunction of duality rather than
about Americans skills of negotiation.
8
The London Sunday Times, June 26, 2005.
Negotiation and Concessions

Often, negotiation is so closely tied to making concessions that a
policy of no concessions may be understood to mean as a policy of
no negotiations. Negotiation is unlikely to succeed where one party
concedes everything while the other nothing. By necessity, negoti-
ation implies making mutual concessions whether the concessions
are cosmetic or real. Despite the proximity between negotiating
and conceding, the two are nonetheless severable, at least in the-
ory. A suppressive state may negotiate with terrorists without mak-
ing any concessions. In this sense, negotiation means talking to
terrorists, either directly or indirectly. Talking may contain threats
of sanctions and moral persuasion. It may also help in buying time
so that an effective strategy may be devised to counter terrorist
actions. The business of any purposeful talking, however, is so tricky
that the make no concessions policy falls apart in a thousand ways.
For example, if a suppressive state demands that hostages be
released on Monday morning while the kidnappers insist on releas-
ing them on Monday afternoon, no rational suppressive state will
risk the lives of hostages killed by doggedly adhering to make no
concessions to terrorists policy. In real situations, such micro-con-
cessions become inevitable as soon as suppressive states begin to
talk to terrorists. In view of this inevitability, the make no con-
cessions policy might mean that suppressive states would concede
to some but not to all demands of terrorists a scenario that ts
almost all cases of negotiation.
The make no concessions policy, though formulated in a grandiose
and sweeping language that seemingly applies to all acts of ter-
rorism, is predominantly applied to situations of hostage-takings,
abductions, and aircraft-hijackings. In post-Saddam Iraq, for exam-
ple, terrorists take foreigners as hostages and demand that their
home state pay a sum of money, release certain prisoners, or recall
occupying troops. Some hostages are beheaded whereas others are
released. One may conclude that beheadings resulted because the
home state either refused to talk, or talked but made no conces-
sions, or made concessions but not enough to win the release of
their captured nationals. One may similarly conclude that states
whose nationals were released and not beheaded entered into some
sort of successful negotiation, with or without making concessions.
When a suppressive state refuses to negotiate, it often uses mili-
tary means to seek the releases of hostages or to end a hijacking.
Rarely does a suppressive state leave hostages to their fate by doing
310 Chapter 8
nothing. One may, therefore, reasonably conclude that when no mil-

itary action is taken but hostages are killed, the suppressive state
probably entered into some sort of negotiation but failed to clinch
concessions from terrorists.
Fate of Spies
Even Muslim militants refuse to negotiate with certain hostages
whom they consider to be spies. In such cases, the make no con-
cessions policy has little force since militants are unlikely to release
captured spies. And worse, some such spies are swiftly beheaded.
In 2002, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was abducted
and killed in Pakistan. He was captured while working on an inves-
tigative terrorist story linking a Pakistani militant to shoe-bomber
Richard Reid who attempted to sabotage in air an aircraft full of
passengers. His captors rst demanded that the US release Pakistani
prisoners at Guantanamo. Under the make no concessions policy,
the US could not have met the demand. The no concessions policy
began to lose its centrality, however, when the captors accused the
Jewish reporter of being a spy. Now Pearls fate was sealed. Despite
appeals from American and Pakistani governments, Pearl was mur-
dered. The CIA denied that Pearl was a spy. But what matters in
such cases is the evidence on which terrorists come to rely. And
the evidence they count on is often hearsay and easily refutable.
A negotiation approach to Pearls kidnapping would have required
that the US supply credible evidence in a timely fashion to counter
the accusation that Pearl was a spy. It is unknown whether any
such attempt was made. And it is anybodys guess whether an effort
to refute the spying charge would have saved Pearls life.
Hegemonic Negotiations
Even if parties to the terror triangle agree to negotiate, the process

might fail or produce unsatisfactory outcomes if stronger parties
are determined to overwhelm their opponents. Negotiating with
the US, for example, might seem fruitless, if not impossible, because
of the enormity of power that American negotiators bring to the
table. Americans possess effective and exclusive tools of pressure
that Muslim nations or aggrieved populations cannot match. US
economic power is the most formidable tool that both facilitates

and impedes negotiations. The US may threaten trade sanctions,
oppose loan grants at international nancial institutions, such as
the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, or persuade
the UN Security Council to impose economic sanctions. US mili-
tary power is no less effective. American bombings of Libya and
Sudan and the US invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq have perpet-
uated a global perception that a frustrated US will use force to
impose solutions on recalcitrant parties.
Add to these tools the hegemonic style of American negotiators.
Although they are genuinely driven by a sense of fairness and enjoy
a reputation of being tough but honest bargainers, most American
negotiators tend to persuade, sermonize, or browbeat negotiating
counterparts into acceding to American positions. They bring the
power of multifaceted resources to the negotiating table, and cre-
ate calculated and deliberate linkages between issues, incentives,
costs, and benets, to convince their counterparts of the benets
of reaching an agreement on U.S. terms and the costs of failing to
do so. A group of senior diplomats, policymakers, and scholars
unanimously concluded that, regardless of shifting policy priorities
and differences in personalities, U.S. negotiating behavior is fun-
damentally forceful and pragmatic. Individual negotiators may be
genial, or moralistic, or pushy, but ultimately all share a business
like concern to achieve results in the shortest time.9
Despite US hegemonic power, style, and goodwill, the US has
been unable to play an effective role in mediating international dis-
putes that spawn violence. US engagement towards resolving the
Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan has been minimal,
in part because India allows no third party to participate in the
conict. The US is engaged in the Middle East and enjoys tremen-
dous leverage over Israel on whose behalf it has vetoed numerous
Security Council resolutions. Successive US administrations, how-
ever, have failed to bring peace to the Middle East in part because
the pro-Israeli lobby in the US has consistently been successful in
scuttling bold initiatives. In the case of Chechnya, the US has vig-
orously exposed Russias gross and systematic violations of human
rights. Since 9/11, however, the US has been more interested in
9
US Institute of Peace (Nigel Quinney & Emily Metzgar), Special Report 94,
U.S. Negotiating Behavior (July 2000).
312 Chapter 8
seeking Russian cooperation in its war on terror than pressuring

it over Chechnya. When the US itself is a party to an international
dispute, such as one in Iraq or Afghanistan, it is perceived as an
uncompromising hegemon. It either refuses to negotiate with the
enemy or fails to win a durable deal.
8.3 THE CONCEPT OF DURABLE DEAL
The purpose of negotiated solutions is to produce a durable deal

that is genuinely acceptable to parties to the terror triangle, that
is, the principal suppressive state, the aggrieved population, and
supportive entities. Any deal extracted out of the suppressive state
or imposed upon the aggrieved population is inherently unstable;
it can even be dangerous, as the dissatised party will most likely
sabotage the deal through non-compliance or engage in violence to
undo the outcome. No party can be coerced, cajoled, tricked, or
bombed into accepting a negotiated settlement. The issues must
not be muddled, split, ignored, or left unresolved to obtain a par-
tial deal or to draw an unfair advantage or to deceive one or the
other party. A durable deal is the outcome of hard bargaining by
legitimate representatives of the parties, after a deliberate, open,
and bold examination of all the issues that constitute the heart of
the conict. Concessions given through such a good faith process
are meaningful and the outcome is stable. Parties comply with the
negotiated settlement and open a new chapter in their relations.
These requirements of a durable deal apply to both direct and medi-
ated negotiations.
Negotiating with Hawks

More specically, a durable deal is one that is acceptable to con-
servatives within the suppressive state and militants within the
aggrieved population for these two forces compose the hardest parts
of the conict. Stated differently, a durable deal is one struck between
the hawks, and not the doves, of negotiating parties. Doves are ide-
alistic, easy to work with, but they are usually incapable of deliv-
ering durable solutions. Hawks are pragmatic, sometimes overly
obsessed with the use of force in resolving disputes, and have a
tremendous ability to live with a festering dispute. A durable deal
invites hawks and doves, preferably hawks, to the negotiation table.

This emphasis on the critical signicance of hawks in the negoti-
ation process does not diminish the value of doves. Doves are needed
to prepare a moral climate and a humanistic dimension to the
conict, for they represent the idealistic and softer dimension of
the human psyche. Without doves, hawks can lead a nation to bar-
barism, a ruthless course of vengeful atrocities. Doves and hawks
constitute the psyche of a state community, and one without the
other is incomplete and inadequate.
Sometimes, the demands of hawks on both sides are mutually
exclusive and no genuine settlement can be reached. Any effort to
reconcile their opposing interests might be a sheer waste of time.
If hawks indeed represent a good portion of their respective popu-
lations, the conict might indeed be irresolvable through negotia-
tion. Consequently the conict would fester until an effort is made
to change the mindsets of hawks. In such a case, international
input may be indispensable to educate conservatives and militants
that their respective positions and interests must be softened before
negotiations can begin to resolve the conict. Any approach that
dismisses the participation of hawks into the negotiation process
is not conducive to a durable deal. Hawks can be ignored out of
the negotiation process only if they represent extreme positions
with little or no following in their respective populations.
Fruitless Assassinations
The war on terror commits a serious mistake when it kills the polit-
ical leaders of militants, including radical members of the aggrieved
population. Killing political militants of an aggrieved population
satises nothing but bloodlust. Such extra-judicial murders exac-
erbate the conict by creating hostility and resentment, and by
pushing the negotiation process away from a durable deal. Killing
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas, and Yitzak
Rubin, the political leader of the Likud party, are examples of sense-
less murders. The murder of Sheikh Yassin was more outrageous
since it was carried out by state assassins after due deliberation,
whereas Rubins murder was private, though symptomatic of an
ideological split within the Likud conservatives. These murders
demonstrate a fruitless way of thinking that certain leaders have
to be killed to win a negotiation contest. No militancy can succeed
in its mission by killing conservatives leaders of a suppressive
314 Chapter 8
population nor can a suppressive state win a durable deal by

physically eliminating conservative militants. If anything, there
ought to be solidarity, a sense of sportsmanship, between hawks
on all sides of the conict, for they are the true bearers of peace
and no durable resolution of the conict can be found without their
active and sincere participation.
Representative Legitimacy
A durable deal is achieved when persons engaged in negotiation
are legitimate representatives of their respective constituencies. If
the government of a suppressive state is democratically elected, it
enjoys credibility not only with its own people but also with nego-
tiating partners, and possibly with the aggrieved population as
well. From the viewpoint of an aggrieved population, credibility
should not be confused with likeability. A staunch Hindu govern-
ment in New Delhi might not win the hearts and minds of the
aggrieved people of Kashmir because staunch Hindu governments
are opposed to any further dismemberment of India and they are
unlikely to concede to the Kashmiri demands for independence.
Despite their opposition to an independent Kashmir, staunch Hindu
governments do not lose their credibility to negotiate on behalf of
India. In fact, any decision by such a government to negotiate the
Kashmir dispute is much more credible and of consequence than
a more liberal government that has no resonance with staunch
Hindu constituencies.
In the Middle East, a popularly elected Israeli government has
much more negotiation credibility than would an un-elected, auto-
cratic government. Even in democratic systems, all governments
do not enjoy equal credibility at the negotiation table. Theoretically,
all elected governments have institutional legitimacy to negotiate
on behalf of the state. In the real world, however, some govern-
ments can deliver more legitimacy than others. A conservative Likud
government in Israel comes to the negotiation table with much
more credibility than does the Labor government. Part of this cred-
ibility comes from the fact that Likud party is much less willing
to give concessions to the Palestinians. Thus if a Likud govern-
ment cuts a deal with the Palestinians, it is likely to have more
staying power because it has credibility with both doves and hawks.
A deal made with doves is seen as a soft deal and hawks may sab-
otage it and even reverse it when they come to power. Accordingly,
it is better to negotiate with hawks of a suppressive state because

they can deliver more, and more permanently, than would the doves.
Puppet Representatives
Lack of political legitimacy is a barrier to negotiated settlement, a
barrier that might hold off suppressive states from negotiating with
liberation organizations. If an aggrieved population does not view
a government or an organization as its legitimate representative,
no negotiated settlement is likely to win the peoples approval.
Suppressive states may like to negotiate with a puppet govern-
ment that claims to represent an aggrieved population, but does
not. It is easier to get a better deal from a puppet government than
from one that represents legitimate aspirations of the people. For
example, a pro-India local government in Kashmir is unlikely to
be viewed with any legitimacy either by the people of Kashmir or
by Pakistan and therefore any negotiated solution to the Kashmir
problem reached between India and a local puppet government will
not solve the problem. In fact, any such effort at negotiation demon-
strates bad faith on part of the suppressive state.
8.4 THE QUBEC MODEL
While liberation movements in Chechnya, Kashmir, and Palestine

produce triangular terrorism, the Quebec secessionist movement
offers a counter-trend most consistent with the concept of negoti-
ated solutions. It is unclear whether Canada would have behaved
with the same prudence and understanding if the Quebecois pop-
ulation were Muslims. The Quebec story nonetheless furnishes
hopeful insights into preventing the dynamics of triangular ter-
rorism through genuine negotiated solutions.
Recognition of Qubecois Identity

Calling it a frozen wasteland and after keeping it for more than
two hundred years, the French ceded Quebec to the British Empire.
In 1774, while a revolution was brewing in American colonies, the
British Parliament passed the Qubec Act, a law that recognized
the uniqueness of the colony of Quebec. The British law was enacted
316 Chapter 8
for the more perfect Security and Ease of the Minds of the Inha-
bitants of the said Province. It allowed its inhabitants to have,
hold, and enjoy, the free Exercise of the Religion of the Church of
Rome and preserve its System of Laws, by which their Persons
and Property had been protected, governed, and ordered, for a long
Series of Years. Though couched in a language of generosity and
understanding, the 1774 law was no act of British charity but a
geopolitical chess move meant to mitigate French support for the
American Revolution. The law was also a maneuver to grab land
by stretching boundaries of the province southward to Mississippi/
Missouri and Ohio rivers. The law made sense to inhabitants of
the province because a number of Anglophone refugees, loyal to the
British Crown, were eeing north, rst from the uncertainty of the
separatist revolution (1776) and later from the fear-lled, written
novelty of American constitutionalism (1791). Whatever the moti-
vation behind its enactment, the law recognized the power of cul-
tural differences and rejected the assimilation model that would
dene the philosophy of the newly-independent US in the centuries
to come.
The 1774 Act (or the 1763 Royal Proclamation) did not create a
separate Quebecois identity. It simply recognized the emerging facts
of a distinct people. Inhabited by the French-speaking immigrants,
Quebec, a colonial territory whose geographical boundaries would
ebb and ow in vagaries of history, natural ambiguity of its loca-
tion, and by statutory extensions, would continue to nurture its
separate identity from three non-territorial sources: language, reli-
gion, and legal tradition. Quebecs French language, its Roman
Catholic faith, and its civil law tradition, the trinitarian identity
continues to stir among its people paranoia and a longing for free-
dom. Periodically, fears of drowning mount when the people of
Quebec realize the enormity of the Anglophone, Protestant culture
all around them, including the American elephant they see in their
living room. Strong feelings about a historically well-articulated
but existentially threatened identity sets the Francophone popu-
lation of Qubec apart from other Canadians who speak English,
predominantly subscribe to the Protestant faith, and have inher-
ited the common law system (WASP). In its gradual unfolding,
Quebec has become the largest geographical province of Canada
and the second most populous. It is the only Canadian province
where English is not an ofcial language. This is a miracle con-
sidering the Quebecois identity came to near extinction in the
1840s.
Development of an Aggrieved Population

The assimilation model practiced in the US began to create a more
viable single nation. The model invited, persuaded, and coerced
European immigrants to voluntarily give up their histories, their
languages, their cultures to become American, a disguised euphemism
for the Anglicization of white immigrants. Partly inspired by the
success of the US assimilation model, and partly concerned about
inefciencies that the dual Anglo/French systems had created in
the province of Quebec, Lord Durham of the British Empire, in his
1839 report, proposed an assimilation model to forge a new unity
between Anglo and French populations, a unity decidedly detri-
mental to the Francophone identity of Quebec. The proposal car-
ried some subterranean, but gentlemanly expressed, racist motives
in establishing, what the French call, the Anglo-Saxon domination.
These are times in the British Empire when its Parliament enacted
into law what the Lords demanded. Accordingly, Lord Durhams
proposal was enacted into a statute, called the 1840 Union Act.
The Union Act united English and French constituencies under
one Legislative Council and one Assembly. Each population was
equally represented in the Assembly, even though the French con-
stituted 60% of the provincial population. No person could run in
elections unless he owned property worth 500 British pounds. The
property qualication was more of a burden on the French who
were poorer than the English. These democratic dilutions were
intended to reduce the power of the French majority. Furthermore,
the law dethroned the French language, declaring: All ofcial jour-
nals, entries and written or printed proceedings of the Council or
the Assembly, all writs of summons and elections and all writs of
public documents shall be in the English language only. French
translations of proceedings, entries, and documents were allowed
but lacked the force of an original record. Although the Union Act
preserved existing laws, the Assembly was empowered to change
them. This meant that the civil law tradition was not to be annulled
in a wholesale manner but its integrity was no longer assured.
This legal and linguistic subordination was justied, in Lord
Durhams report, to raise the standard of living of the poor French
(the argument that a minority language in itself is a source of
poverty continues to raise its head in many parts of the world).
Ironically, however, the Upper Canada (the Anglophone) brought
debt to the Union whereas the Lower Canada lled the joint trea-
sury with credit. The popular reaction to the Union Act among the
318 Chapter 8
French inhabitants was that of an imposition, a giant step towards

the Anglicization of their laws and institutions. The Union Act of
1840 directly threatened the existential identity of the Quebecs
francophone and gave birth to an aggrieved population.
Like any other aggrieved population facing a crisis of existential
survival, Francophones in British North America began to think of
liberty and independence. Unlike Palestinians or Chechens or
Kashmiris, however, the historical predicament of the French-
Canadians has been markedly different. Whereas existential iden-
tities of the Palestinians, Chechens and Kashmiris are tied to
dened territories with claims of historical ownership of the land,
the identity of French Canadians is far less territorial in its genetic
formation. For the French Canadians, the crisis of existential iden-
tity has preceded that of territorial identity. In the United Province
of Canada, created at Lord Durhams recommendation, it was one
immigrant group threatened by another immigrant group in a for-
eign land that had belonged to marginalized and forgotten natives.
The identity crisis of the French Canadians unlike the crisis of
Palestinians was less aggravated by a lost sense of territorial own-
ership. This lack of territorial identity, however, began to correct
itself as Quebec began to emerge as a distinct territorial unit, with
vast but yet denable boundaries. As the guilt of stripping native
populations of the ownership of land receded, the French-Canadians
developed the same emotional sentiments with Quebec as other
populations have over a period of time.
As Quebecs territorial denition evolved, particularly after the
statutory partition of the Province of Canada into Ontario and
Quebec, a Quebecois territorial identity associated with the French
Canadian struggle for survival began to assert itself within the
emerging concept of One Canada. The grievances of French
Canadians, now tied to Quebec, began to gather multiple and diverse
dimensions expressing themselves in political, legal, linguistic,
and economic formats. The underlying theme of these grievances
has been the same. The French Canadians are not free, or free
enough, to run their affairs according to their own wishes. The
Anglo culture, its Protestant individualism, its materialistic pur-
suits distort and impede a genuine and luxuriant development of
the Quebecois culture. Quebec must breathe fresh air free of Anglo
domination that permeates the province. Such feelings are by no
means universal among all French Canadians, but they shape the
Quebecois identity. Just like the Chechens, the Quebecers ask the
same fundamental question: whether they should ght to achieve
more autonomy within the existing Canadian federal system or

whether they, exercising the right of self-determination, should opt
for secession and become an independent nation-state.
Front de Libration du Qubec

In the 1960s a period of universal decolonization and prolifera-
tion of nation-states, a period of militant fronts and organizations
launched to speed up the right of self-determination, and a period
in which terrorism has not yet sullied liberation movements the
French Canadians, as an aggrieved population, also generated a
militant wing, known as the Front de Libration du Qubec (Quebec
Liberation Front) (hereinafter referred to as FLQ), to reinforce the
struggle for sovereignty. The FLQ did everything that terrorists do.
The FLQ engaged in abductions, bombings, and political murders.
The targets were the symbols of Anglo domination of Quebec, includ-
ing English-Canadian businesses, English-Canadian homes in
Montreals wealthy suburbs, the Montreal Stock Exchange, a sym-
bol of English-Canadian economic domination over the markets
that have condemned the French Canadians to live as proletariats.
With its strong leftist leanings, the FLQ published manifestos
that fused territorial independence with economic freedom from
Anglo-American capitalism. The Second Manifesto (June 1970)
articulated the need for a Common Front against corporate monop-
oly of information, nancial syndicates, big companies, and the
puppet French-speaking politicians. It rejected the need to speak
two languages because we are Quebecois. Rejecting racism and
overly obsessive nationalism, the Manifesto welcomed immigrants:
We are with all the immigrant workers in Quebec, and it is along-
side them that we want to ght the common enemy: Anglo-American
capitalism. Most importantly, it vowed to ght violence with counter-
violence, thus introducing terrorism into the liberation equation.
The Fronts Manifesto was a great departure from the identity
that the Quebecois had constructed over the centuries. There was
no mention of Catholicism and the civil legal tradition, the two
essential pillars of the Quebecois identity. The inclusion of non-
white immigrants diluted even the third pillar, the ethnic identity
of Quebecois. But the Manifesto was in line with other liberation
movements across the world, including the Palestinian Liberation
Movement, which joined Marxism with territorial independence.
320 Chapter 8
Parti Quebecois
The political wing of the secession movement has been the Parti
Quebecois (PQ), a provincial political machine that Rene Levesque
launched in 1960s to demand sovereignty. The party have won sev-
eral provincial elections and formed the government in Quebec. So
far, the party has made two unsuccessful attempts at secession. In
1980, the PQ government under Levesques leadership held the
rst referendum to enable Quebec to acquire the exclusive power
to make its own laws, levy its taxes and establish relations abroad
in other words, sovereignty and, at the same time to maintain
with Canada an economic association including a common cur-
rency. Though the question posed in the referendum was convo-
luted, almost 60 percent of voters defeated the move. The second
referendum, held in 1995, garnered more support but still failed
to gain a vote for secession. The PQ has not dropped the idea of
secession retaining, though, some loose monetary and political asso-
ciation with the rest of Canada.
As the party in power, the PQs major achievement was the con-
solidation of nationalist feelings. In its rst government, the party
emphasized enthronement of the French language, which emerged
as the primary attribute of the Quebecois identity, particularly after
the dilution of Catholic faith in the new generation. The people
began to see the state as an instrument, and not a barrier, to the
development of their distinct society. Logically, therefore, the state
must be fused with the language, even if such a move compromises
the rights of minorities or discourages businesses from entering or
ourishing in the province. Seeing the language as the chief marker
of the Quebecois identity, the PQ passed a law, titled Charte de la
Langue Francaise, also known as Bill 101, making French the lan-
guage of all matters in Quebec. Ofcial records, school instructions,
even billboards and commercial signs must be exclusively in French.
The laws were to be enacted in French, though English transla-
tions are available. Thus the PQ turned the 1839 Durham report
on its head. The francophones appreciate the law as an expression
of nationalism. The Anglophones and other linguistic groups inhab-
iting the province see it as a move incompatible with their human
rights. While the rest of Canada, governments and the people,
reacted to this language revolution with dismay and concern, it
made no overt attempts to sabotage the PQ or its attempts at the
francization of Quebec.
In a recent decision, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the

constitutionality of Charter of the French Language, under which
the children of the French speaking families are denied access to
Quebecs publicly-funded English schools reserved for the children
of Anglophone families.10 The Court rejected the argument that
equality requires that all children in Quebec be given access to
publicly funded English language education. The Court further
stated that the right to equality is not a trump right that defeats
others; the protection of minorities, religious schools, and aborigi-
nal rights are, by their nature, special rights that cannot be sacriced
in the name of equality.
Canadas Supreme Court Decision

In 1998, the Supreme Court of Canada delivered its opinion on two
important questions: 1. Do the people of Quebec have the right of
self-determination to secede from Canada? 2. Is Quebecs unilat-
eral decision to secede effective and binding on Canadas other
provinces?11 Taking a dynamic view of constitutionalism, the Court
ruled that no federal or confederal order is permanent or immutable;
and an evolutionary view, which has been the basis of Canadas
constitutional order, requires that changes be accommodated.
Accordingly, the Court concluded: a clear majority vote in Quebec
on a clear question in favor of secession would confer democratic
legitimacy on the secession initiative which all of the other par-
ticipants in Confederation would have to recognize. In granting
this right to secession, the Court declined to anchor its reasons in
the international right of self-determination, arguing that Quebec
does not meet the threshold of a colonial people or an oppressed
people, for the people of Quebec had enjoyed the democratic right
to govern itself, although under federal constraints.
While the people of Quebec may lawfully decide to secede and
nothing in law prevents them to do so, still, the Court ruled, Quebec
cannot unilaterally cut itself loose from Canada. Quebec must nego-
tiate its withdrawal from Canada with other provinces and the
10
Gosselin v. Quebec, Supreme Court of Canada, 2005 SCC 15.
11
Supreme Court of Canada, Reference re Secession of Quebec, 37 I.L.M. (1340)
(1998).
322 Chapter 8
federal government. This burden to negotiate, however, does not

confer a veto power on other units or on the federal government to
stall the process of secession. The Canadian constitutional order,
the Court cautioned, could not be indifferent to a clear expression
of a clear majority of Quebecers that they no longer wish to remain
in Canada. Consequently, other provinces and the federal govern-
ment cannot deny the right of Quebec to pursue secession, should
a clear majority of the people of Quebec choose that goal, so long
as in doing so, Quebec respects the rights of others. Secession is
not simply a political play among constituent provinces of a legal
order. Any negotiations for secession must recognize the presence
and protection of minorities in Quebec, whose rights cannot be
sacriced under any broad and unrestricted democratic right to
self-determination.
Conclusion
Despite public assertions that suppressive states do not negotiate
with terrorists, the reality is otherwise. Intense negotiations take
place in all regions of the world to resolve terror-related disputes.
In the Middle East, the rehabilitation of Yasser Arafat from a con-
demned terrorist to a recognized political head of the Palestinian
Authority demonstrated that no region could be immune from nego-
tiating with militant leaders. However, negotiated solutions fail to
produce results if militant leaders are humiliated or killed. The
decision of the Irish Republican Army to suspend the right to armed
struggle provides another example of how violence can be sub-
stantially reduced when a militant organization ghting for polit-
ical objectives on behalf of an aggrieved population is brought into
a framework of negotiation.
Chapter 9
Free State Solutions
Free State promotes diversity without sovereignty
Consistent with the concept of Free State developed in The Extinction

of Nation-States (1996) and A Theory of Universal Democracy (2003),
triangular terrorism will be dramatically reduced as nation-states
evolve into Free States. Free State is a territorial entity without
sovereign borders, although it has administrative borders, just as
Kansas does within the federation of the US. In the European
Union, member nation-states are evolving into regional Free States
as they shed their sovereign borders in favor of administrative bor-
ders. The fuller evolution of the world toward Free States is a dis-
tant eventuality, which may or may not occur, an eventuality
pursuant to which the world will eradicate sovereign borders that
nations have erected around themselves, freeing the planet as it
once was, restoring One Earth for all the peoples of the world. Free
States will begin to appear in a rudimentary form as nations and
communities solve problems of extreme poverty, governments become
local and democratic, and universal values inform international
law. Terrorism in the realm of Free States will be an anomaly, just
as human sacrice is in our present condition of civilization. This
chapter analyzes the possible reduction in triangular terrorism as
nation-states move towards Free State.
Triangular terrorism discussed in previous chapters demonstrates
that the concept of the nation-state embodies violence. Nation-states
324 Chapter 9
perpetrate violence to safeguard their territorial integrity, sover-

eign borders, national security, and vital resources. They also employ
aggression for predatory purposes, as did empires. Occupation, sub-
jugation, and hegemony are the classical attributes of an empire.
These imperial attributes, though not inherent to the concept of
the nation-state, have nonetheless been embraced by powerful
nation-states. Terrorism by militants is a violent response to these
imperial impositions. Chechnya, Kashmir, and Palestine are exam-
ples of aggrieved populations determined to ght imperial imposi-
tions of powerful nation-states.
Russia brutalizes Chechens because a successful Chechnya seces-
sion would diminish the territorial size of the Russian nation-state.
Furthermore, Chechnyas vital resources and geopolitical location
are too important for Russia to let go. India suppresses Muslim
Kashmiris because a successful Kashmir secession would shrink
Indias territorial borders. The secession would also deprive India
of critical water resources that originate in Kashmir. The creation
of Israel has grafted a seemingly irreconcilable nation-state in the
Muslim Middle East. It forced hundreds of thousands of native
inhabitants, Muslims and Christians, into neighboring lands as
refugees, creating an irresolvable problem. The refugees wish to
return to their country but Israel is determined to preserve the
Jewish character of its nation-state by denying the Palestinians
right to return. Under various pretexts, Israel has expanded its
borders beyond its initial territorial mandate under the British
imperial decree. These moves invite terrorism by the militants.
Legally, the dynamics of the terror triangle are confusing. Both
aggrieved populations and suppressive nation-states justify violence
under the porous concepts of international law. Aggrieved popula-
tions defend violence invoking the right of self-determination. They
also invoke the rights of armed struggle and self-defense to counter
gross human rights abuses that suppressive states inict on them.
Suppressive nation-states perpetrate state terrorism in the name
of national security and territorial integrity. Supportive nation-
states assist aggrieved populations in their liberation struggle for
a variety of geopolitical reasons including their own national self-
interests. But, ironically, in the midst of this terror triangle, the
ultimate goal of aggrieved populations is none other than to estab-
lish their own nation-states. Thus, the nation-state occupies the
center of the triangular terrorism. Battles that produce terrorism
involve the creation, preservation, predation, and aggrandizement
of nation-states that resist secessions, territorial concessions, and
open borders.
Free State Solutions 325
9.1 THE FOUNDATION OF FREE STATE
Free State acknowledges a new world beyond the sovereign connes

of the nation-state. The social psychology of the nation-state builds
upon the egocentric, proprietary, and exclusivist nature of man. In
contrast, Free State recognizes that humans are generous, shar-
ing, and interdependent. By focusing on mutual respect and empow-
erment, Free State allows diverse populations to exercise maximum
autonomy and self-rule, thus removing many of the causes that
spawn terrorism. For example, Israel and Palestine are unlikely
to co-exist as peaceful nation-states since each doubts the intentions
of the other. The evolution of Israel and Palestine as Free States
thriving within a regional union, much like the example-setting
experience of nation-states in the European Union, will make the
wall of separation meaningless. Such evolution may propel these
states to draw from each others strengths and resources. However,
the evolution of Free States in the Middle East faces formidable
barriers. European Jews and Arabs may take decades to accept
each others right to live in peace and dignity. Furthermore, Free
State does not come into being if geopolitical forces maintain the
inertia of privilege, oppression, or injustice.
Beyond a Commitment to Inertia

Antonio Cassese coined the phrase, a commitment to the is, to de-
scribe deep-seated human inclinations across the world to main-
tain the status quo and resist change. A commitment to the is
amounts to a commitment to inertia. In law, a commitment to iner-
tia idealizes precedent and tradition. This commitment assures
seamless continuity. It forces participants to nd solutions without
changing the law. A commitment to inertia is reactionary if it pre-
serves a legal construct that has lost exibility and ability to accom-
modate change, and that has failed to nd adequate and acceptable
solutions to problems plaguing the community, the region, and the
world. When threatened, a commitment to inertia sanctions vio-
lence to resist change. It also furnishes a normative basis to sup-
press, ght, and defeat all those people and groups who strive to
establish a new reality
When applied to nation-states, a commitment to inertia preserves
the legal constructs of sovereignty and territorial integrity. It rejects
secessions and independence movements. In some cases, it denies
326 Chapter 9
even autonomy to regions within the nation-state, fearing that

autonomy would become a launching pad for such regions to secede
from the motherland. For example, India fears an autonomous
Kashmir and Russia fears an autonomous Chechnya. Any such
autonomy would unleash new energy, empowering the radicals in
both Kashmir and Chechnya to organize and ght for national inde-
pendence. A commitment to inertia could also mean the continua-
tion of occupation of foreign lands and territories on the pretext
that the occupied territories, when freed, would pose a threat to
the territorial integrity or national security of the occupying nation-
state. Israel is reluctant to allow the creation of an independent
Palestine because Muslim militants determined to dismantle Israel
would gather a formidable advantage in reinforcing their resistance
and military power. Thus, the nation-state is an inert framework.
It is founded on a commitment to inertia because its survival
depends on such a commitment.
Toward Ceaseless Evolution

Free State rejects commitment to inertia. As a dynamic entity, Free
State presumes that human communities experience ceaseless evo-
lution and that any attempts to block human dynamism through
inertial frames breed violence. With its focus on sovereign borders,
patriotism, and national identity, the nation-state is a limiting as
opposed to liberating structure. By contrast, Free State rejects the
psychological and sociological limits of sovereign borders by letting
each community experience vigorous connections with the rest of
the humanity. This optimization of inter-cultural contacts gives
birth to a One World that is diverse and yet undivided. Cultural
diversity is celebrated and not seen as a barrier to social harmony
or to the development of universal values. Free State communities
seek intimate rather than secluded lives. Perpetual self-determi-
nation lies at the heart of Free State.
Perpetual self-determination
Dismantling Empires and Apartheid

Self-determination has been an efcacious tool to de-construct colo-
nial empires. Its greatest champion has been none other than the
nation-state. The international institution that sharpened this

tool to its maximum cutting power has been none other than the
UN General Assembly, a congregation of nation-states. In 1960,
General Assembly Resolution 1514 (XV), known as Declaration on
the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples,
reafrmed the principle of self-determination by acknowledging a
universal value that all dependant peoples have the passionate
yearning for freedom. Resolution 1514 further claried that the
notion of inadequacy of political, economic, social, or educational
preparedness should never serve as a pretext for delaying inde-
pendence. These groundbreaking formulations contained in
Resolution 1514 repudiated the imperial theory, which held that
the colonized peoples were presumptively unable to stand by them-
selves under the strenuous conditions of the modern world.1 For
centuries, European imperialism treated colonized peoples as chil-
dren in need of adult supervision.
Resolution 1514 infused a new spirit into the UN Charter that
in 1945 recognized the right of self-determination but could not
completely cleanse international law of the imperial theory of depen-
dence. The resolution unwittingly embraced the concept of trust
territories. The trusteeship system embodied an imperial assump-
tion that colonized peoples were not prepared for self-rule; and
therefore, they must be placed under the administration of devel-
oped states until obtaining maturity.2 Resolution 1514 did not pro-
pose to dismantle the trusteeship system but it rejected the notion
of un-preparedness. It urged the taking of immediate steps toward
the liberation of trust territories and other colonial holdings that
had not yet attained independence. Under the energized principle
of self-determination, numerous territories in Africa, America, Asia,
and the Middle East emerged as independent nation-states out of
dying colonial empires.
The right of self-determination gathered even more momentum,
when the post-imperial world was drawn into the human rights
movement. In 1966, the General Assembly adopted, and opened for
signature, the two Human Rights Covenants that would challenge
the inertial frame of the nation-state.3 Common article 1 of the
1
Article 22(1), League of Nations Covenant (1919).
2
Rosalyn Higgins, Problems and Process 11128 (1994).
3
GA Resolution 2200 (XXI), International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Optional
328 Chapter 9
Covenants recognizes the right of self-determination for all peo-

ples. This lodging of the right of self-determination in global treaties
eliminated all doubts about the rights positive legality. The right
of self-determination could no longer be denied or disputed on for-
malistic grounds that rights embodied in General Assembly reso-
lutions are political statements and not legal norms. In the same
year, the General Assembly vigorously condemned South Africas
policies of apartheid. It also censured three of the ve permanent
members of the Security Council (France, the United Kingdom, and
the US) for their increasing collaboration with the apartheid regime.
The condemnation of apartheid paved the way for the invocation
of the right of self-determination to reform the core of the nation-
state, which had previously been immune from the reach of inter-
national law. National legal systems were no longer immune from
the reach of human rights.
Post-Colonial Right to Self-Determination

Despite an emerging human rights movement across the globe, the
right to self-determination began to lose ground, particularly after
the colonial empires had been largely dismantled. The same nation-
states that had used the concept of self-determination to gain free-
dom from empires began to oppose the concept to grant freedom to
the peoples within their own borders. Large and heterogeneous
nation-states expressed unease with any renewed vitality of the
right to self-determination, which could be used to promote seces-
sionist movements. Numerous nation-states, including Pakistan
and India, carved out of colonial empires faced secessionist move-
ments. A continued liberal grant of self-determination would have
dismembered many newly emerged nation-states. Therefore, a more
restrictive application of self-determination was in order. The right
of self-determination was still needed to clean up the imperial rem-
nants. But its denial was also indispensable to preserve the era of
nation-states.
Opposing any unbridled expansion of the right to self-determi-
nation poses little theoretical difculty. The principles of territor-
ial integrity and political independence embodied in the UN Charter
Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. (December,

1966).
are perfect counterweights to the right to self-determination. Nations

may use the principle of territorial integrity to oppose secessions
and they may invoke the principle of political independence to
oppose any international scrutiny of their internal legal systems.
In a dramatic shift, many new nation-states viewed any breach of
these principles as neo-colonialism, especially if the sponsors of
secession or intervention into their internal affairs were former
colonial empires. Territorial integrity and political independence
thus became the preservation tools of the newly independent nation-
states.
In 1970, the UN General Assembly reinforced the concept of ter-
ritorial integrity and political independence, in its rst compre-
hensive post-colonial articulation of the fundamentals of international
law, embodied in a resolution known as the 1970 Declaration on
Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and
Co-operation among States in accordance with the Charter of the
United Nations (2625/XXV). The Declarations primary focus was
no longer on de-colonization, even though apartheid in South Africa
and a few lingering colonial matters still bedeviled the world. Rather,
the Declarations new focus was on the preservation of nation-states
carved out of colonial empires. It therefore emphasized territorial
integrity and political independence, and not the right of self-
determination.
Confusion over Self-Determination

A year later, in 1971, the principle of territorial integrity embod-
ied in the Declaration clashed with the right to self-determination,
when East Pakistan sought independence. East Pakistan, though
an ethnically distinct territorial unit, lay within the internation-
ally recognized borders of Pakistan. A powerful secessionist move-
ment that India supported challenged Pakistans territorial integrity.
Yet, the UN Security Council or the General Assembly made only
half-hearted efforts to preserve Pakistans territorial integrity. Under
the uniting for peace resolution, the General Assembly called for
withdrawal of Indian troops that had intervened on behalf of the
secessionists. However, the secessionist movement thriving on the
support of Indian armed forces was too strong to be reversed with
resolutions. Indias military success forced international institu-
tions to accept Bangladeshs right to self-determination, without
invoking any such language in any UN resolution. The Soviet Union,
330 Chapter 9
with its vetoes in the Security Council, was at the forefront in advo-
cating Bangladeshs independence, a consequence that would reg-
ister an indirect defeat for the US that supported Pakistans
territorial integrity.
The Cold War confused the concept of self-determination, most
evidently in General Assembly resolutions. The Cold War threat-
ened the new nations political independence and territorial integrity,
as both the Soviet Union and the US forced newly emerged states
to choose sides, ghting proxy battles in Asian and African nation-
states. In this global context of superpower rivalry, the 1970
Declaration on Principles of International Law heavily supported
by new states emphasized territorial integrity and state sovereignty.
In a futile attempt to stem the hot wars of the Cold War reaching
their lands, new states prohibited the use of force to resolve terri-
torial disputes or to violate armistice borders. They also re-con-
ceived the principle of self-determination. They cast the principle
of self-determination as freedom from external interference so
that they could freely pursue their economic, social, and cultural
development. This re-conceptualization of the right to self-deter-
mination was aimed at protecting new nation-states from encroach-
ing inuences of the Cold War, an ideological warfare imposed on
the developing world forcing it to choose loyalty to one or the other
superpower.
The collapse of the bipolar Cold War world has further confused
the right of self-determination.4 The US, as the sole superpower,
claims the authority to democratize the world, even through force.
This violent reformation of nation-states violates principles of polit-
ical independence and territorial integrity. It may also violate the
concept of external self-determination since the peoples of each
state should be free to choose their own political system without
foreign intervention. Ironically, however, violent democratization
may promote the right of internal self-determination, if it dismantles
domestic tyrannies imposed contrary to wishes of the people. Still,
violence as a tool of reformation is a contradiction that Free State
does not accept.
4
Thomas Lee, International Law, International Relations Theory, and Preemptive
War, Law and Contemporary Problems 147 (2004) (explaining why humanitarian
intervention, and not self-determination, was the basis of scholarly discourse
regarding Kosovo).
Nations Distinguished from Nation-States

In the transitional period, the devolutionary force of self-determi-
nation allows territorial units of the nation-state to freely deter-
mine their political, cultural, religious, and linguistic liberty. It
welcomes the dissolution of large nation-states, such as the Soviet
Union and Yugoslavia, into more cohesive political units with local
governments. Overly large nation-states with mammoth popula-
tions, such as India and China, are essentially quasi-imperial nation-
states that must eventually break down into smaller units. China
as a nation may still survive to the extent that the Chinese peo-
ple share a sense of commonality. But China as a nation-state is
too large to evolve into Free State as a single unit. As explained
in A Theory of Universal Democracy, Free State is an intimate polit-
ical unit in which government is closely tied to the people. Free
State would oppose the incorporation of Taiwan into China. Taiwan
is an ideal single unit to evolve into Free State. Taiwan need not
sever its profound ties with the nation of China, but it need not
become part of the nation-state of China.
Federated nation-states, including the US and Australia, are
likely to evolve into Free States through a prolonged process of
devolution that shifts control from federal governments to states
that would emerge as Free States. When devolution is completed,
the federated nation-state is reduced to an empty shell that may
be remembered as a nation. Devolution thus introduces a distinc-
tion between nations and nation-states. A nation-state is a legal
construct; it is a territorial unit with sovereign borders, whereas
a nation is uid, symbolic entity with no borders. One or more Free
States may identify themselves to be the parts of a single nation,
but not the subunits of a single nation-state. Nations are likely to
survive as symbolic entities while nation-states shun sovereign bor-
ders and gradually transform into Free States.
Pacic Evolution of Self-Determination

In its evolution, Free State does not forcibly break away from
any parent nation-state. Secession is a conception of violence that
belongs to the nation-state and not Free State. Likewise, Free State
government is not the product of a violent revolution. Violence can-
not establish Free State government. And no government estab-
lished by means of violence is Free State government. No violence
is needed to overthrow Free State government, which is always
332 Chapter 9
accountable and removable. In every aspect, Free State is an evo-

lutionary entity that originates and matures in the realm of self-
determination. As a dynamic entity, Free State allows the people
to constantly change and develop their political, cultural, religious,
and linguistic institutions peacefully. In its evolutionary self-
determination, Free State does not seek the exclusivity of sovereign
borders. Free States are interdependent and acknowledge interde-
pendence as a benecial source of strength rather than detrimen-
tal constraint on their freedom. Accordingly, Free State exercises
the right to self-determination within a framework of interdepen-
dence rather than within the failed notions of sovereignty, territo-
rial integrity, and political independence. Violence is completely
absent from Free States constitutive and genetic structure.
Repudiation of value imperialism
Free State repudiates value imperialism in all forms. It allows com-

munities of the world to live and develop freely consistent with
their own moral, social, religious, and legal norms. As discussed in
Part II, value imperialism is a source of violence. Its champions
use force to impose values on unwilling communities and nations.
Value imperialism is a source of additional violence because target
communities use force to defend their religious traditions, customs,
and cultural practices against value imperialism. Two models of
value imperialism in direct conict with each other are responsi-
ble for generating a huge amount of terrorism. Liberal imperial-
ism proposes to change Muslim communities; and Islamic imperialism
intends to transform Western communities. Both models use force
to achieve their goals. However, each model contains precious val-
ues that must be respected and even borrowed. What Free State
repudiated are not the values but violence as the driver of values.
Value imperialism must not be confused with cross-cultural
inuences. Value imperialism is coercive and combative, whereas
cross-cultural inuences are natural, healthy, and necessary for the
forging of a human civilization founded on the combined norms of
universality and diversity. In repudiating value imperialism, Free
State does not seal communities from cross-cultural inuences but
develops proactive contacts among diverse religious, social, and cul-
tural groups to promote respect for diversity and to facilitate learn-
ing from each other. If a community freely adapts itself to the values
of another through peaceful contacts, and without economic and

military pressures, any such adaptation does not represent value
imperialism. In fact, Free State allows vigorous contacts and con-
versations among communities for understanding and possibly bor-
rowing each others best values.
The evolution of Free State is a natural step away from value
imperialism. Value imperialism is a tool of empires. Muslim empires,
such as the Umayyad, the Abbasid, and the Ottoman, not only con-
quered lands and communities, they also propagated the message
of Islam to the new peoples, thus fusing conquests with Islamic
values. The fact that the Egyptians, the Iranians, and the Central
Asians have embraced Islam furnishes powerful clues that empires
impart and impose the values of the emperor and his ruling elites.
European empires, such as the Spanish, the French, and the British,
not only colonized non-European territories and populations, they
also imparted their culture, language, customs, and laws to the
colonies. The fact that the Indians speak English or that the Algerians
speak French is no historical accident but a concrete product of
value imperialism. Odd that it is, empires rule the people they con-
quer and exploit their resources but in the process they also end
up sharing some of the best values that constitute the genius of
the empire.
History also reveals that communitarian will is such that it
opposes imposition of values and seeks normative development in
the realm of freedom. The dismantling of empires in the twentieth
century and the consequent rise of newly independent nation-states
witnessed the demise of empires and the associated value imperi-
alism, because distinct communities aspired to forge their own des-
tiny. The principles of territorial integrity, political independence,
and self-determination, embodied in the United Nations Charter,
fortied the nation-state against value imperialism. The Charters
prohibition against the use of force as a tool of foreign policy repu-
diated violence as an acceptable method of disseminating imperial
values. The human rights movement rejected the paradigms of
racial, cultural, and religious superiority, striking at the roots of
value imperialism promoted and imposed in past centuries. The
establishment of nearly two hundred nation-states carved out of a
few empires European, Ottoman, and Mogul was supposedly
the defeat of value imperialism.
Yet, in the era of nation-states, value imperialism has not been
successful in fully repudiated. The rise of the Soviet Union and
its violence-ridden dissemination of communism was an imperial
334 Chapter 9
enterprise. Technically, the Soviet Union was a nation-state. In

reality, it acted as an empire. During the Cold War, the Soviet
Union used violence to impose its brand of communism over Eastern
Europe and in other parts of the world, including Afghanistan. The
US, also a nation-state, acquired its own imperial attributes. The
US countered Soviet imperialism not only by resisting it, but also
by using violence to impose American imperial values, though not
as consistently as the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union justied its
domination in the name of communism, though its national inter-
ests lay in the background. By contrast, the US was less artful in
its resistance to the Soviet Union. The US abandoned its democ-
ratic values to resist the Soviet imperialism. For example, the US
overthrew several left-leaning democratic governments to preempt
Soviet inuence. The US also supported authoritarian and mili-
tary governments to defeat communist totalitarian ideologies. The
Cold War may be seen as a clash of two imperial models that col-
lided with each other through proxy wars fought in poor countries,
such as Viet Nam and Afghanistan.
The collapse of the Soviet Union signaled another defeat of value
imperialism. It signied that even nation-states were unable to
impose imperial ideologies over the world, and that ideological
empires consisting of nation-states are bound to disintegrate. The
dismemberment of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia provided proof
that no ideology is strong enough to prevent the evolution of Free
State, a sociopolitical arrangement founded on cultural diversity
and intimate governments. The implosion of the Soviet Empire also
demonstrated that state violence, no matter how overpowering it
is, fails to permanently support the reign of an ideology.
In recent years, the US has attempted to impose liberal imperi-
alism through a global democratization campaign. The invasion of
Iraq added violence to the theory of liberal imperialism. Among
many shifting justications for a failed Iraqi war, the US has also
argued that violence employed to dismantle an authoritarian gov-
ernment and replace it with authentic democracy is morally, and
perhaps legally, justied. The people of Iraq have been skeptical of
American claims of bringing liberation through occupation. So has
the rest of the world. Despite its unmatched armed force, the US
has not obtained a swift victory as it had predicted. It appears un-
likely that the US will be able to completely extinguish Iraqi counter-
violence to what the US calls insurgency and terrorism. An American
defeat in Iraq, however, is not necessarily the insurgents victory.
It is the repudiation of value imperialism. Not even a superpower
can impose values on a nation determined to preserve its identity.

The Iraqi experiment through violence-driven imperialism failed
for two, among many, distinct reasons. First, the US failure to win
the war conrms the relevance of international law. The Iraqi war
was waged contrary to the world opinion, in deance of interna-
tional institutions such as the UN, and without a valid cause sup-
ported by international law. In a rare show of solidarity, Muslim
states refused to assist the US. Even powerful European States
did not support the war. Some states that originally supported the
war, such as Spain, later withdrew their forces. All these factors
weakened the legality and morality of the US invasion. The war
further lost its credibility when it appeared that the US ignored
the laws of war and resorted to torture and inhuman treatment of
Iraqi prisoners, contrary to the provisions of the Four Geneva
Conventions containing humanitarian law ( jus in bello). It is now
apparent that value imperialism promoted through lawless means
authors its own defeat.
The second reason for the US failure to impose liberal imperial-
ism over Iraq is the same reason that has always defeated value
imperialism. That is the human will to repudiate alien domination,
no matter how benevolently packaged. The promise of democracy,
imposed through violence, is as offensive to self-respecting com-
munities as is the promise of an egalitarian socio-economic system
launched through barrel of the gun. The people of Iraq aspires to
institute a democratic system but they prefer to do it themselves.
The presence of Western occupying soldiers, belonging to a dis-
tinctly separate culture, has complicated the dynamics of the demo-
cratic process and has contaminated the air of freedom and
self-determination needed to plant the roots of democracy. Despite
the US occupation, Iraqi political leaders, some of whom are regarded
as imperial agents, would not frame a constitution informed by the
liberal separation of church and state. Instead, they recognized the
Islamic foundation of the Iraqi constitution and state, to the great
disappointment of advocates of liberal imperialism.
An American failure in Iraq is a good omen for the evolution of
Free State that loathes all forms of value imperialism, particularly
if it is imposed through violence. Violent efforts to impose Islamic
values on the West will also fail because Islam itself does not allow
any form of coercion to convert even a single individual to Islam,
let alone the proselytization of an entire nation or continent.
Promoting Islam on the fear of violence is a proposition with no
future. It has no place in Free State that repudiates the jurisprudence
336 Chapter 9
of fear and the modication of behavior brought about by the threat

of sanctions.
Free State Jurisprudence
The nation-state embodies a coercive jurisprudence that ties law

to violence. It is, structurally, an entity of fear in which the enforce-
ment of rules carries a sanction or a penalty. Compliance with law
is produced through fear of punishment. And violations of law are
avenged through the loss of liberty, property, or life. The systemic
threat of punitive responses for unlawful behavior is called deter-
rence. Specic deterrence is aimed at the individual violator. It is
the iniction of punishment that supposedly deters the individual
from repeating an impugned act. But general deterrence is aimed
at the entire community. The individual is punished for a law vio-
lation to send a message to the community. This message of pun-
ishment has terrorizing effects on the community as it warns
everyone in the community not to repeat the impugned act. Thus,
violence permeates the notion of law and systemic terror is used
to demand and shape behavior consistent with laws of the nation-
state.
Free State is not a state of fear. In Free State people develop
high moral intelligence. They obey laws because they appreciate
laws intrinsic utility and morality. Laws invite voluntary compli-
ance. This is so because the law is no longer seen as unjust, oppres-
sive, predatory, or absurd. A higher content of spirituality in the
formation of laws facilitates voluntary compliance. This is no utopia.
Consider the state of mind of a person who obeys Gods laws revealed
in a book, such as the Quran. He obeys Gods laws, without ques-
tioning, and without fear of worldly punishments, and sometimes
by forgoing worldly benets. He draws pleasure and profound sat-
isfaction from submission to these laws. From a secular viewpoint,
one may disagree with Gods laws. But no secular viewpoint can
deny the existence of a spiritual state of mind that propels indi-
viduals to obey these laws for their intrinsic value, without any
fear of worldly sanctions.
Free State gradually evolves into a normative stage where citi-
zens experience a state of spirituality under which there is no ten-
sion between law and compliance. In such a realm of authentic
freedom, violence as a reason for the institution of law or for the
laws compliance nds no room. Cannibalism, for example, is no

longer practiced not because of fear of punishment but because
human minds across the globe has attained a level of moral intel-
ligence that automatically and voluntarily tell them not to engage
in the practice. As human moral intelligence further develops, fear
of law will no longer be the reason for its existence or compliance.
Even the laws themselves will undergo transformation: nothing
that demands violence, justies violence, threatens violence, or pun-
ishes with violence will be regarded as law.
So informed and structured, Free State erases terror from the
concept of law. It rejects the jurisprudence of violence embodied in
sanctions, loss of liberty or property or life, threat of the use of
force, and force. It rejects violence completely, discarding all dis-
tinctions between aggressive and defensive forms of violence. Free
State repudiates violence in domestic affairs of the community in
that the internal legal system rejects violence as a reason for law.
Free State repudiates violence in international affairs in that the
international legal system rejects violence as a reason for inter-
national law. At this stage of moral development, however, the
nation-state suffers from a terrible form of duplicity. It makes vio-
lence illegal in domestic affairs but resorts to violence in interna-
tional affairs. The US, for example, does not allow violence as a
lawful means to resolve disputes under its domestic legal system.
Nonetheless it proactively uses violence on the international scene.
Free State embraces no such duality. Its concept of law is one and
the same for both domestic and international purposes.
Free State Repudiates Aggression
Free State is the evolutionary product of human civilization anchored

in high moral intelligence. Free State repudiates terrorism in all
forms. It rejects private terrorism, state-sponsored terrorism, and
state terrorism. Concepts of violence such as aggression, self-defense,
preemptive-self-defense, humanitarian intervention, just war, insti-
tutional employment of force authorized under Chapter VII of the
UN Charter are structural imperatives of the nation-state. Once
the nation-state evolves toward Free State, these concepts of vio-
lence will begin to lose their morality and utility. Violence will grad-
ually disappear not because the human civilization would enter
into some utopian stage, but because it would transcend the formative
338 Chapter 9
structure of the nation-state that legitimizes such concepts and

cannot imagine a real world without them.
But history has witnessed the transformation of some aggressive
forms of violence. Not long ago, the aggressive violence of conquest
was morally and legally authorized. But it is no more. Just as con-
quest was the structural imperative of the empire, aggressive and
defensive forms of violence are traits of the nation-state. And just
as conquest has lost its moral and legal basis in the era of nation-
states, aggression perpetrated for the sake of national interests
will be morally and legally intolerable in the emerging era of Free
States.
In setting up the International Criminal Court (ICC), nation-
states have expressed a desire to criminalize aggression along with
genocide, war crimes, and crime against humanity. The crime of
aggression, however, has not yet been dened. Presently, the ICC
has no jurisdiction to prosecute aggression. The international com-
munitys failure to dene the crime of aggression provides insights
into the defective concept of the nation-state, since powerful states,
such as the US, refuse to cooperate in dening the crime of aggres-
sion and yielding jurisdiction to the ICC.
If the international community succeeds in dening the crime of
aggression and subjecting the US, China and other holdout nation-
states countries to the ICC jurisdiction, international law will take
a step towards the evolution of Free State that condemns the the-
ory and practice of all forms of aggression. A lack of denition of
the crime of aggression does not confer legitimacy on aggression.
The omission nonetheless provides a basis for imperial nation-states
to use aggression as an instrument to increase or maintain their
global or regional inuence. In dening aggression, attention must
be paid to at least three distinct types of aggression that the nation-
state embraces but Free State completely repudiates.
Predatory Aggression
Predatory aggression is the rst type that is incompatible with
Free State. Empires and nation-states are both predatory. However,
empires are inherently predatory since they expand the reach of
their control and inuence through conquests, colonization, slav-
ery, and use of force. They need aggression to exert and maintain
control. No empire has been built without aggression against other
peoples, their territory and resources. Empires also employ value
imperialism as an additional tool of control, since values intellec-

tualize the gains of predatory force and confer legitimacy on aggres-
sion. In slavery, for example, predatory force physically enslaves a
people but the imperial values of racial superiority/inferiority cre-
ate and maintain the institution of slavery. Predatory aggression,
whether it is intellectualized or not, is the empires inherent attribute.
As compared to empires, nation-states are conceived differently.
In theory, the very concept of the nation-state is founded on repu-
diation of the imperial design. Empires are dismembered to create
nation-states. The dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire initi-
ated the process of Arab nation-states, a process completed after
the European empires were too weak to hold on to Arab lands.
Although the nation-state is an evolutionary stage away from impe-
rialism, it nonetheless retains features of imperial aggression. Large
and powerful nation-states such as the US and China behave as
empires. They use aggression or the threat of aggression to expand
their global control and inuence. Even powerful nation-states sit-
uated in weak regions, such as Israel in the Middle East, behave
as predatory empires.
The nation-state is prone to predation in permissive geopolitical
contexts. Whereas the empire is inherently predatory, the nation-
state is more opportunistic in its predatory ventures. The US has
aggressed against weaker states such as Panama and Grenada but
has refrained from using force against powerful enemies such as
the Soviet Union. The US invaded Iraq not because Iraq had the
weapons of mass destruction but because it did not. It is also unlikely
that Israel would destroy Irans nuclear plant, as it did that of Iraq,
because Iran possess long range missiles that can hit Tel Aviv. The
concept of mutual destruction serves as deterrence to opportunis-
tic aggression. International peace and order are secured only when
nation-states fear each other. The fear of opportunistic aggression
also promotes survival. Nation-states are in a constant struggle to
build their respective defenses to deter opportunistic aggression by
each other. Thus, true peace that originates from a higher form of
moral intelligence is unknown to nation-states.
Instrumental Aggression
Even though nation-states have vowed to resolve their disputes
through peaceful means and the UN Charter ofcially forbids war
as a means of conducting foreign policy, instrumental aggression
340 Chapter 9
remains a fact of international life. Since the adoption of the Charter,

powerful nation-states have asserted an expanded right of self-
defense to use aggression as an instrument to resolve international
disputes. The emerging concept of preemptive self-defense and the
war on terrorism have further stretched the scope of violence in
the conduct of international relations. This expansion of the right
to use force has beneted powerful nation-states since they can use
force against minor states and private groups to promote and defend
their national and regional goals. Weaker states can rarely exer-
cise the expanded right of self-defense because they lack the means
to prosecute a successful war, particularly against a powerful offend-
ing nation-state.
Instrumental aggression shares some attributes with predatory
aggression but the two are not the same. Instrumental aggression
is a means of resolving an international dispute whereas preda-
tory aggression is the proactive use of force to acquire new terri-
tory and resources that belong to another nation-state or non-state
entity. The US invasion of Iraq, for example, is a mixture of preda-
tory and instrumental aggression. It is predatory to the extent that
the war is waged to control the Iraqi oil. It is instrumental to the
extent that force was used to topple a non-cooperative Iraqi gov-
ernment that allegedly developed weapons of mass destruction.
Likewise, Israeli aggression against the Palestinians in occupied
territories is a mixture of predatory and instrumental aggression.
It is predatory to the extent that it usurps Palestinian lands and
resources. It is instrumental to the extent that force is used to
crush the Palestinian resistance.
Territorial Aggression
A form of aggression rooted in the very structure of the nation-
state may be called territorial aggression, a term coined to explain
the aggressive behavior of caged animals.5 Scientic literature shows
that animals living in restricted environment seek stimulation and
develop aggression. Mice housed in isolation exhibit aggression. By
contrast, rats exposed to an enriched environment containing play-
things, tunnels, ramps, and platforms, were prone to less aggressive
5
K. E. Moyer, Kinds of Aggression and their Psychological Basis, Communication
in Behavioral Biology, 2:6587 (1968).
behavior. Likewise, dogs kept in sensory-restricted environment

developed hyper-excitability. Animals reared in indoor pens with
minimal contact with people were more excitable and difcult to
load into trailers than those reared outside with frequent human
contacts.6 Cage rage is caused when the animals are denied the
option of ight and are forced to accumulate their energies in the
form of potential aggression. Connement of animals in a barren
environment, with nothing to do, or having minimal contact with
other animals or humans, is conducive to hyperactivity. Violence
caused due to territorial connement within rigid borders may be
called territorial aggression.
The concept of territorial aggression applied to nation-states
appears to be a great leap from the behavior of caged animals to
that of human communities living within sovereign borders. No
hard evidence is available to connect aggression with sovereign bor-
ders. Yet few should be surprised if a study of sovereign borders
concludes that the nation-state is conducive to territorial violence.
In fact, rigid sovereign borders may produce two distinct forms of
territorial aggression. One form of aggression may be committed
to challenge the sovereign borders of a territorial state, the other
to protect them. The sovereign borders between Mexico and the
US, for example, produce both types of territorial aggression. The
US border forces use force to protect America from the entry of ille-
gal immigrants from Mexico. But illegal immigrants constantly
challenge the sovereignty of US borders. Thus both sides employ
aggression directly related to territorial borders, though for oppo-
site purposes.
The three main theaters recognized in this book, Palestine,
Chechnya, and Kashmir, breed territorial aggression. Russia engages
in territorial aggression because it wishes to keep Chechens within
the cage of Russian territorial integrity. Israel is building a mon-
umental physical wall to separate itself from the occupied territo-
ries and also to isolate Palestinians within disconnected patches of
Palestinian territory. India is also contemplating building a fence
on the Kashmir border with Pakistan. In response, the populations
trapped in Gaza, the West Bank, Chechnya, and Kashmir engage
in territorial violence of their own, and they see the suppressive
states as captors. In each theatre of violence, both sides to the
conicts, the aggrieved population and the suppressive entity, engage
6
Temple Grandin, Literature Review (University of Illinois, 1989).
342 Chapter 9
in complex forms of territorial aggression. In truth, terrorism is a

product of territorial aggression. Terrorism is perpetrated to defend
the territorial integrity of existing nation-states as well as to cre-
ate new nation-states with sovereign borders. Territorialization
breeds violence and divides peoples into mutually hostile national
groups that sometimes belong to the same religion.
9.2 BEYOND TERRITORIALIZATION OF ISLAM
An Argument against Territorial Secessions

Consistent with the principles of the Quran and the Sunna, this
section argues that Muslims should abandon their armed strug-
gles to carve out separate nation-states. The argument below applies
to both internal and external secessionist movements dened from
an Islamic perspective. Internal secessionist movements, such as
that of Kurds, aim at the dismemberment of Muslim states. External
secessionist movements, including that of Chechens and Kashmiris,
strive to carve out a Muslim state from a non-Muslim state. The
argument requires that Kurds discard their ambition to dismantle
several Muslim states to weld together one nation-state for them-
selves. Likewise, Muslims in Kashmir should cease their armed
struggle to separate from Hindu India. The argument below does
not prescribe that Muslims submit to alien domination or occupa-
tion or apartheid or hegemony. Nor does the argument promote a
turning the other cheek doctrine to appease oppressors and preda-
tors, for any such doctrine is incompatible with Islamic teachings
that clearly and vigorously articulate that resort to slaughter is
better than submission to oppression.7 The argument is derived
from a simple concept that Islam ourishes the most when Muslims
freely interact with each other and with non-Muslims. Free and
peaceful interaction is contrary to the notion of sovereign borders
that place temporal and spatial restrictions on the uidity of human
experience. Muslim communities are weakened, not strengthened,
when they are divided into nation-states. Islam promotes Free State
that shuns violence and sovereignty but allows vigorous inter-
cultural contacts.
7
Quran 2:191.
The nation-state is not critical for the protection or promotion of

Islamic identity. For centuries, Muslim communities ourished with-
out sovereign borders. Albert Hourani points out that ethnic nation-
alism or the concept of territorial nation did not exist within the
world of Islam. Islamic countries and cities were dened and under-
stood in terms of their natural gifts, Islamic history, heroes, mar-
tyrs, and saints. This uid sense of cities and countries reached
back beyond Islam to appreciate the wonders and traditions left
from the ancient world, such as the Pyramids and Sphinx in Egypt.8
The nation-state, a seventeenth-century European creation, was
imposed through colonialism against the Muslim world. It has pro-
foundly distorted Islams universality. Driven by territorial patri-
otism and national interests, Muslims are becoming increasingly
tied to their nations, embracing and advocating new causes of strife.
They have embraced territorial aggression stemming from struc-
tural imperatives of the nation-state. Ethnicity and nationality are
replacing the bonds of Islamic faith. And faith-based identities are
creating hatred between Muslims and non-Muslims. The Kurds liv-
ing with Arab, Turkish, and Iranian Muslims want to establish
their own nation-state, repudiating the bonds of faith. The Kashmiris
are invoking their Islamic heritage to secede from Hindu India,
even though millions of other Muslims live with Hindus through-
out India. Due to unreective acceptance of the nation-state, Muslims
throughout the world have come to dene themselves by means of
territorial separatism. Muslim communities denied a nation-state
of their own are resorting to violence to establish one. This terri-
torialization of Muslims, and consequently of Islam, has been a
major cause of triangular terrorism.
Of course, all blame cannot be placed on the imperatives of the
nation-state. The phenomenology of terrorism involves numerous
causes and actors. Violence is also produced when Muslim mili-
tancy across the world pursues the goals of genuine democratic
elections. The movement demanding free elections in Algeria is a
struggle for democracy rather than for the dismantling of the nation-
state. The insurgency in Iraq is aimed at freeing the country from
American occupation. A diffused international coalition of Muslim
militants against the US, a coalition that might gain momentum
8
Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples, New York: Warner Books, 58
(1991).
344 Chapter 9
in the years to come, is fueled by sentiments to challenge the poli-

cies of control and domination. Muslims are ghting for an inter-
national environment in which they can freely determine their
social, political, and religious destiny. In this epic struggle for gen-
uine independence, however, Muslims must invent new social and
political structures. Past Islamic institutions cannot be thought-
lessly resurrected.
Caliphate Cannot be Resurrected

For centuries, Muslims were united under One Caliph, the chief
ruler of the Muslim community. The Caliphate as an institution
provided an outward sense of Islamic solidarity, even though eth-
nic and provincial rivalries simmered beneath the surface. Within
a few decades after the Prophets death, the institution of the
Caliphate turned imperial in its glory, orientation, and form of gov-
ernment. The so-called golden period of the institution lasted only
the rst thirty years, that is, during the reign of the rst four
caliphs, when the emerging Islamic world was still small and man-
ageable, and when the rst four caliphs, who had been the Prophets
close companions, commanded respect. Even this period was lled
with violence as Muslims themselves murdered three of the rst
four caliphs. Events of this period also sowed the seeds of the Shia-
Sunni divide. Muslims at the time who demanded that the caliphate
must remain within the Prophets family would be later known as
the Shias. By contrast, the doctrine that any Muslim, regardless
of his genetic ties to the Prophet, could be the caliph was associ-
ated with the Sunnis. For all practical purposes, the Shia-Sunni
divide is no more than a historical political dispute over succes-
sion, even though the split later gathered theological dimensions.
Any fantasies of recreating the Caliphate to unify Muslims would
indeed further deepen the historical wedge between Shias and
Sunnis.
Islamic Jurisprudential Identities

With the expansion of the Muslim empire, the Caliphate was becom-
ing increasingly remote from the people it governed. It was also
rapidly losing the religious authority that the rst four caliphs
exercised to directly inuence the development of Islamic law and
jurisprudence. Caliphs soon became secular rulers. Some had min-
imal knowledge of Islam. Others resorted to spiritual corruption.

Some engaged in acts and practices contrary to the teachings of
Islam. As caliphs pursued worldly glory, conquest and expansion,
Islamic law and jurisprudence retreated into the chambers of Islamic
scholars. The people were more intimately connected with the
scholar, whether he was the great Imam or the local jurist, because
imams and jurists were answering their questions about appro-
priate Islamic behavior. Accordingly, despite living under One Caliph,
Muslim communities inhabiting far reaches of the empire were
developing jurisprudential identities. They identied themselves
according to the ve major schools of jurisprudence. Muslim com-
munities were primarily Hana, Maliki, Sha, Hanbali, and Jafari.
Their ethnic identities as Egyptians, Syrians, and Iranians were
subdued and weak. Each school of jurisprudence furnished detailed
rules of religious and secular behavior. These schools respected
each other, and no violence was permitted or employed to win
jurisprudential points or to convert new Muslims to a particular
school. This remarkable phenomenon of Islamic jurisprudential
identities suffered irreparable damage with the advent of the nation-
states that Western colonialism imposed on the Muslim world.
Proliferation of Muslim Nation-States

Western colonial empires, primarily the British, the French, and
the Dutch, ruled huge parts of the Muslim world in the nineteenth
and the early twentieth centuries. Colonization brought value impe-
rialism, dynamism, and the spirit of Renaissance that had trans-
formed Europe. European value imperialism sowed normative
confusion, a sense of inferiority, and spiritual disorientation in the
colonized Muslim lands, all carrying the same message: Islam means
stagnation and backwardness. Under colonial pressures, Muslim
ruling elites changed and imported Western social, economic, and
legal models. They were disposed, by experience of colonial rule,
education, and acquaintance with Europe to dene the concept of
liberation in national and ethnic terms.9
This importation of Western consciousness created a great gulf
between the people and the ruling class. The ordinary Muslims in
villages, towns, and cities across North Africa, the Middle East,
9
Ira M. Lapidus, A History of Islamic States, at 886 (1988).
346 Chapter 9
South Asia, and Pacic Asia were still Islamic in the traditional
sense, dening themselves through Islamic jurisprudential identi-
ties. The Muslim ruling elites, more and more educated in the uni-
versities of the colonial powers, embraced the new materialistic
and secular ideologies of which the Muslim populace had little
knowledge. The most remarkable consequence of this intellectual
chasm between the people and the rulers was the quiet emergence
of the Muslim nation-state, modeled after the European experi-
ence. The Muslim nation-state, however, had no indigenous roots
in Islamic history, tradition, experience, politics, philosophy, or
jurisprudence. The Muslim nation-state was Muslim not because
it was derived from any Islamic heritage, but because it was a
nation-state inhabited by Muslims.
In 1924, Mustafa Kemal (Attaturk), the Westernized secular
founder of modern Turkey, dismantled the Caliphate and the atten-
dant teetering Ottoman Empire, and ofcially introduced the con-
cept of the nation-state to the Muslim world. The dismantling of
the Caliphate effected a profound psychological shift in the social
and political organization of Muslim communities. The loss of the
Caliphate was perhaps a welcome change, since this archaic insti-
tution had played a nominal role in the development of Muslim
communities. The transformation of the Ottoman Empire into the
nation-state of Turkey was the triumph of ethnicity over diversity.
The Europeans colonized the Arab lands, which were once parts of
the Ottoman Empire. Colonization sharpened the ethnic and lin-
guistic divisions between Turks and Arabs, thus striking at the
foundation of Muslim unity. Furthermore, the Europeans, espe-
cially the British, encouraged micro-nationalism to dismember the
Arab world into numerous nation-states, such as Iraq, Kuwait,
Jordan, Syria, Yemen, and the Sheikhdoms in the Gulf. The Muslims
knew the European design of implanting micro-nationalism in the
Muslim world, but the forces of history were uncontrollable. No
one could arrest the proliferation of nation-states in the Muslim
world, a development that would eventually cause militancy, sep-
aratism, and terrorism.
Muslim Separatist Movements

Two distinct types of separatist movements have surfaced in the
Muslim world. One, which may be called internal movements, insists
upon the dismantling of some existing Muslim states to create more
ethnically or linguistically cohesive nation-states. The break-up of

Pakistan, separated from India in 1947, into Pakistan and Bangla-
desh shows how Muslims of the subcontinent refused to live together
under the same national ag. The bond of Islamic faith proved
insufcient to weld together ethnic and linguistic divisions and the
geographical distance that separated the people of Bangladesh from
the people of Pakistan. The independence of Bangladesh in 1971
was no velvet revolution. It was a bloody armed conict, most
assuredly inamed by India whose leadership resented the parti-
tion of the subcontinent. The armed conict between Pakistans
army and Bengali guerilla movement led to criminal atrocities on
both sides. However, the violence on both sides stemmed from the
concept of the nation-state, and not Islam. Pakistan justied its
violence in the name of territorial integrity. The separatist gueril-
las justied violence in the name of self-determination. The cre-
ation of Bangladesh was the triumph of nationalism over faith, as
it defeated the theory that a common faith could be the stable foun-
dation of a Muslim nation-state. Linguistic and ethnic divisions in
the remainder of Pakistan continue to put pressure on its unity,
further challenging the concept of the faith-based nation-state.
Pakistan is not alone in its precarious predicament as a nation-
state. Many other Muslim countries face similar threats to their
territorial integrity and national unity. The Kurdish separatist
movement threatens numerous Muslim states. The Kurds are
Muslims and all the states from which they want to separate are
Muslims states. If this separatist movement were to succeed in
establishing a Kurdish nation-state, it would end up dismember-
ing at least four major Muslim nation-states, Iraq, Iran, Turkey,
and Syria. The Kurds want a separate nation-state not to estab-
lish a particular sect of Islam but to bring the Kurdish people
under one national ag. The bond of the common faith, and even
promised autonomy within the existing nation-state, seem inade-
quate to quench the Kurdish desire to have a separate nation-state
of their own.
The second type, which may be called external separatist move-
ments, challenges the territorial integrity of non-Muslim states.
Major external movements exist in Russia, India, China, and Israel.
These movements are determined to carve out Muslim nation-states
out of existing non-Muslim states. The separatist movements in
Chechnya and Kashmir are identical in that they wish to separate
Muslim territories from Russia and India. The Muslim separatist
movement in Northwestern China, in the province of Xinjiang,
348 Chapter 9
receives little international attention but it will are up in the

years to come if the Turkic-speaking Uighars receive outside assis-
tance from Muslim militant or neighboring Muslim states. In ght-
ing for the separate nation-state for Chechnya, Kashmir, or Xinjiang,
Muslim populations claim that their land had been occupied by
unlawful force. The armed struggle for a separate Palestine raises
complex issues of independence and lawless occupation. The sepa-
ratist movement for Palestine is not simply nationalist, it is also
militant resistance to occupation and territorial acquisition that an
immigrant population has perpetrated through its superior mili-
tary strength and effective international connections with power-
ful states.
External separatist movements against non-Muslim states are
violent. But the nature of violence is confusing in its origin and
justication. Are Chechens, Kashmiris, Uighars, and Palestinians
ghting for national states or for Islam? Because they are ghting
non-Muslims, it is easier to label their armed struggle as Islamic
jihad. Undoubtedly, Muslim militants ghting in these territories
justify their violence in the name of Islam. But their struggle is
not religious. Islam does not favor the creation of separate nation-
states. It simply furnishes a frame of mind to ght oppression. But
living in a non-Muslim state per se cannot be regarded as oppression.
Erroneous Conclusions
When internal and external separatist movements are studied inde-
pendently of each other, serious analytical errors occur. A study of
only external movements may force the conclusion that Muslims
are inherently exclusivist in that they cannot live with non-Muslims
and, therefore, their militancy is evidence of their religious intol-
erance rather than love of liberty. Or, one may wrongfully conclude
that Muslims are opposed to living in a secular state, a charge that
India levies against Kashmiri militants in that they seek separa-
tion to establish a theocratic regime. Or, one may charge that lib-
erties and freedoms available in liberal nation-states a charge
made in Western Europe against immigrant Muslim communities
threaten the warped ideology of Islamic fundamentalism and,
therefore, Muslims are striving to carve out separate existence.
Such explanations identify Islam as the cause of separatism, ignor-
ing ethnic and linguistic aspirations and identities that constitute
nationalism.
A study of only internal separatist movements yields different

conclusions. It identies ethnicity, composed of culture and lan-
guage, as the primary motivating factor for separatism. Within the
same Muslim state, one ethnic group resents the domination of the
other ethnic group and therefore seeks a separate nation-state. In
Pakistan, for example, the people of Sindh and Balouchistan ( just
like the people of Bangladesh before their independence) begrudge
the domination of the people of the Punjab who dominate the fed-
eral bureaucracy, armed forces, and media. In Algeria, the Berbers
rail against the domination of the Arabs. In Iraq, Iran, and Turkey,
the Kurds feel they have been subordinated to Arabs, Iranians, and
Turks. After the US invasion of Iraq, the powerful Shia-Sunni divide
has not threatened the unitary state. There is no movement to
break up the country on sectarian lines. These examples show that
Islam is rarely a factor in internal separatist movements. But Islam
surfaces as a dominant factor in explaining external separatist
movements. Despite variation in these explanations, however, inter-
nal and external movements are seeking to establish sovereign
nation-states.
Separatist movements belong to the fading, but not yet fully
extinct, era of colonialism. They embody the unnished business
that colonists left behind. The British partition of One Palestine
between Jews and Muslims, and the British decision to leave Muslim
Kashmir in the hands of a Hindu prince, and the British decision
to carve up the remains of the Ottoman Empire into discordant
Arab nation-states are imperial decisions. The Russian determi-
nation not to let Chechnya go, and the Chinese desire to dominate
the world geography as a gigantic one nation-state, have left their
Muslim populations, like many other populations, stranded and
trapped in nation-states that they do not wish to be part of. These
populations, whether they live in Muslim states or non-Muslim
states, feel that the international law of de-colonization has ignored
their legitimate right to be independent and sovereign.
Violent Imitation
In nurturing national aspirations, Muslims are engaged in violent
imitation of the European experience. They have unreectively
embraced the European concept of the nation-state that originated
from concrete European experience. The irony is that while the
European creators of the nation-state are moving away from the
350 Chapter 9
nation-state, Muslims are engaged in intense violence to carve out

new nation-states. The construction of the European Union is the
repudiation of the concept of the sovereign nation-state. As dis-
cussed in The Extinction of the Nation-State, a nation-state evolves
into Free State when its sovereign borders evolve into adminis-
trative borders. Within the European Union, citizens of the mem-
ber states are free to move across borders, work, live, marry, raise
children, invest, do business, own property, buy, sell, and travel
while the train crosses what were once sovereign borders. Muslim
separatist movements wish to do the opposite. They want to draw
sovereign borders around Kashmir, Chechnya, Kurdistan, etc.
Muslims kill Muslims because they do not wish to live in the same
nation-state. Muslims kill and are killed because they are deter-
mined to break away from non-Muslim states. Instead of building
regional communities, Muslims are splitting nations apart. Pursuit
of diversity does not have to mean the creation of new nation-states.
Diversity Without Sovereignty

Islam recognizes ethnic and linguistic diversity but discourages
nationality-based strife and bloodshed. Islams conception of human
diversity is fully compatible with Free State. The Quran reminds
all the peoples of the world, including Muslims, O people, We have
created you from a male and a female and made you into races and
tribes so that you may know each other.10 Furthermore, the Quran
states it is one among many Gods signs that He has created vari-
ations in your languages and your colors.11 These references to
races, tribes, languages, and colors acknowledge the natural diver-
sity that has been introduced into human condition. These char-
acteristics may also be the bases of community formation. The
Quran recognizes that races and tribes constitute social bonds so
that individuals may know each other. But race, tribe, language,
or color cannot be a lawful basis for persecution, discrimination,
hatred, or inhuman treatment. Thus, the Quran rejects the utopian
notion that race, language, or cultural ought not to be the source
of communal identity. The imposition of one culture or one language
is oppressive as is the domination of one race over all others. In
recognizing diverse identities, Islam teaches against social con-
10
Quran 49:13.
11
Quran 30:22.
structions of superiority or inferiority derived from any racial, cul-

tural, or linguistic characteristics. Neither homogenization nor sov-
ereign separatism is a lawful Islamic means of achieving diversity.
Diversity without sovereignty also lies at the heart of Free State.
Muslims may organize themselves into Free States that protect
their cultural and racial afnities. However, any violent pursuit of
the nation-state with its obsession with sovereign borders and
its predatory inclinations to exploit foreign peoples and foreign
resources for the betterment of its own people is incompatible
with Islamic ethos and faith that teaches ceaseless sharing with
others. Violence will be dramatically reduced if Muslim militants
across the world reject separatism and embrace the Qurans prin-
ciple of diversity without sovereignty, a principle that denes the
core of Free State.
9.3 FROM SEPARATISM TO FREE STATES
Finally, A Theory of International Terrorism proposes that Israel,

Palestine, Chechnya, and Kashmir must discard nationalist ten-
dencies and begin their journey toward Free State. The proposal
is idealistic but not utopian. The goal is difcult but not impossi-
ble. The shift from the nation-state enclaves to Free State liberty
is a shift in mindset. It is a sociology waiting to happen. Fixation
with sovereign borders, ethnic purity, territorial aggrandizement,
exclusive exploitation of resources, aggression as a vehicle of value
imperialism, all these macro-behaviors are mutable. These behav-
iors might reinforce the concept and reality of the nation-state, but
they act as barriers toward the evolution of Free State that promises
interdependence and a vision of law founded on high moral intel-
ligence that is neither predatory, not self-conning. Israel and
Palestine must move toward establishing Free States with open
borders. Likewise, Muslim populations of Kashmir and Chechnya
abandon their will to secede and create separate nation-states.
Instead, they should serve as bridges between the Muslim and non-
Muslim worlds. Kashmir may serve as a bridge between Hindus
and Muslims. Chechnya is strategically located to serve as a bridge
between Muslims and Russians. Xinxiang is a Muslim bridge to
China. Once the orientation shifts from militant secessions to liv-
ing as exemplary Muslim communities within the non-Muslim
world, Kashmir or Chechnya or Xinxiang will no longer be places
352 Chapter 9
of terrorism. They will be the provinces of Islam in its truest mean-

ing: peace.
The following discussion focuses on Israel and Palestine as Free
States. It examines the repeated expulsion of Jews from Europe to
Muslim countries to show that, for the most part, immigrant Jews
had lived well with host Muslims. However, the creation of Israel
as a nation-state dissolved the historic Judeo-Islamic bond, because
now the Jews came to Muslim lands as settlers claiming territor-
ial sovereignty, and not as refugees seeking asylum. The creation
of Israel as a nation-state unleashed violence since Palestinians,
Arabs, and Muslims refused to recognize Israel, which was seen as
a colonial graft by and for European Jews. The conict was fur-
ther compounded when Palestinians began to demand their own
nation-state. This section nally argues that Muslims and Jews
must work towards repairing the broken Judeo-Islamic bond. A
construction of regional community in which Israel and Palestine
are reoriented as Free States will reafrm the principle of diver-
sity without sovereignty. It might also set an example for other
parts of the world to follow.
Israel and Palestine
For millions of Jews, the nation-state of Israel is a relief territory

from the excesses of European civilization that for centuries refused
to accept Jews as part of the communities in which they lived.
Before the secularization of Europe, Jews were considered anti-
Christian, and Judaism an antithesis to Christianity. There existed,
in real life or in books, no such concept as the Judeo-Christian civ-
ilization, a phrase popular in the US that leaves the impression as
if, throughout the centuries, the Western civilization has been a
happy family of Jews and Christians. Nothing is farther from truth.
Only bigots would deny the contribution of Jews to the world civ-
ilization, including Western civilization. But history does not sup-
port the assertion, and in fact refutes it, that the Western civilization
has been built on a Judeo-Christian foundation. Periodic but per-
sistent physical purges of Jews in Europe demonstrate that Western
cultures were built and rebuilt on anti-Judaic sentiments.12
12
During the crusades, Jews were expelled from England, France, and Germany.
By contrast, the Judeo-Islamic bond has been stronger through-

out history. And when Jews were expelled from Europe, they most
often sought refuge in Muslim countries. Even the establishment
of Israel in the heart of the Middle East, after the extermination
and expulsion of European Jews, is a continuation of the same phe-
nomenon. The following historical narrative is presented to argue
that Muslims should accept European Jews in the Middle East, as
they had done before. This acceptance however will be more fruit-
ful if Israel is transformed into Free State with open borders within
the region.
From Muslim Spain to Muslim Turkey

The Muslim conquests of the Iberian Peninsula in 711 opened the
European continent to the Jews of the Middle East. This European-
ization of Jews is most evident in the fact that more than half of
the present-day Jewish population is Sephardi in origin, that is,
Spanish. The bond between Jews and Muslims in Spain was mutu-
ally benecial. Jews enjoyed freedom of religion, trade, intellectual
pursuit, and physical security. Jewish intellectuals wrote in Arabic
and greatly contributed to Muslim economy, culture, and arts. Some
of the skills and professions associated with Jews, such as jeweler,
diamond trader, and goldsmith, were developed in Muslim Spain.
Maimonides (11351204), the greatest Jewish philosopher, was born
in Muslim Spain, lived in Muslim Egypt, and wrote in Arabic, the
language of the Quran. For nearly 800 years, the Judeo-Islamic
bond remained healthy and powerful, even though some Muslim
rulers were more tolerant of Jews than others.
The year 1492 witnessed three events of momentous importance.
In January 1492, European Christians defeated Muslims at Granada,
their last stronghold on the Iberian Peninsula, bringing an end to
the Muslim kingdom in Spain, and restoring the whole of Spain to
Christian rule. Two months later, in March 1492, a royal decree
was issued to expel over 200,000 Jews from Spain. Jews were given
four months to leave. In the meantime, active Christian prosely-
tizing provided a stark choice between expulsion and conversion.
This migration brought Jews into Eastern Europe, including Poland and Russia.
Expulsion from Spain in 1492 and the holocaust in 1940s are the momentous
anti-Judaic events of the European-Jewish history.
354 Chapter 9
Jews who chose conversion lost their faith. Jews who chose expul-
sion were placed in ships with no guarantee that Spanish captains
would take them ashore, and not dump them in the middle of the
ocean. Many Jews were killed before boarding ships as they were
rumored to have swallowed diamonds. Christian Spain thus cleansed
itself off a Judeo-Islamic civilization and its people. But this forced
separation of Jews and Muslims was not the end of Judeo-Islamic
civilization. Jews who successfully escaped the Christian Spain
ended up in Muslim Turkey, then the Ottoman Empire, the place
of the Islamic caliphate.
In welcoming Jews to Dar-ul-Islam (Muslim world), the reigning
Muslim ruler of the Ottoman Empire, Bayazid II, acknowledged
the contribution of Jews to world civilization and remarked that
Ferdinand of Spain was not a wise king because by expelling Jews
he had impoverished his own land and enriched the Ottoman
Empire. Finally, in March 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella
recruited Christopher Columbus to discover the Indies, thus tak-
ing the rst step towards creating a superpower of the 21st cen-
tury, the US, that would become the arch supporter of Israel against
Muslim resistance to the Jewish nation-state.
From Secular Europe to Muslim Middle East

In 1940s, Jews faced another purge, this time in a highly secular-
ized Europe, which had for the most part abandoned Christianity,
let alone the Judeo-Christian civilization, in the name of enlight-
enment, rationality, and later dialectical materialism. This time
the purge came in the form of a massive genocide, killing millions
of Jews forcibly herded into various small places, called concen-
tration camps. But even in secular Europe, extermination of the
Jews was an act of faith. Adolf Hitler, in his book, Mein Kampf,
claims that he is acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty
Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am ghting for the
work of the Lord. Building on a pervasive and powerful stereo-
type of the Jew as a precursor to genocide, Hitler proposes to save
a racially pure people from the Jew who ridicules religion, ethics,
and morality.13 Europe was not only racially distinct from the Jews,
13
Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (My Struggle), Houghton Mifin, New York, 1969.
it was also ethically and religiously distinct from Judaism. Hitler

saw the Jew as the invader not only in Germany but more broadly
in Europe, including Russia. Hitlers murderous ideology, though
extreme in its execution, captured a more pervasive European prej-
udice against Jews, which specically denies the existence of any
Judeo-Christian tradition.
After the holocaust, the expulsion of Jews from secular Europe
to the Muslim Middle East took on a new form. It was not expul-
sion in the technical sense. It was exodus through emigration to a
distant land, away from Europe, a land which would be called
Israel, a historical name waiting to be afxed over a piece of land,
any land. It seems historically natural that the nation-state of Israel
would be afxed over a land where biblical prophets had lived, even
though the land of the prophets had remained under the Muslim
rule for more than thirteen centuries. It is also historically ironic
that the Jewish nation-state would be superimposed over a land
that was not too long ago part of the Muslim Ottoman Empire, the
same empire that had welcomed Jews from a genocidal Christian
Spain in the fteenth century. This time, however, the expelled
European Jews, after experiencing unprecedented degradation and
extermination of families in Europe, were coming to the Muslim
land not to seek protection but to claim a nation-state for their own
exclusive control, a nation-state to which all Jews of the world
would be legally entitled to immigrate as a matter of right.
Once again, the European Jews came to Muslim lands to live
and prosper as a people. This time, however, the dynamics were
different. This time the European Jews were unwelcome. Muslims
did not open their arms to welcome the people of the Book. Now,
Jews and Muslims were pitted against each other as enemies, ght-
ing for the same land and the same resources. The Judeo-Islamic
bond existed no more, primarily because a new conceptual entity,
the nation-state, was injected into the relations between Jews and
Muslims. The nation-state overturned the logic of uid co-existence
without barriers. It dismantled the historic Palestine, a porous and
uid entity with no sovereign borders, where Jews, Christians, and
Muslims have peacefully lived together for centuries.
The nation-state of Israel was the co-creation of Europeans and
European Jews, though they were motivated for different reasons.
Europeans were motivated by an unarticulated but a historically
well-nurtured sense of ethnic cleansing to be perpetrated by pro-
viding an attractive alternative, a separate nation-state for Jews,
away from Europe, a nation-state to which European Jews would
356 Chapter 9
ock, leaving Europe behind for the Europeans. European Jews,

under the leadership of Zionist Federation, were motivated by a
sense of territorial ownership, and a legitimate concern that Europe
would never be Judeo-Christian in its orientation.
Colonial Origins of Israel

The creation of Israel as a nation-state was rst conceived in the
era of European colonialism, a paradigm of racial and cultural supe-
riority. In 1897, when the rst Zionist Congress launched the con-
cept of Israel, the European colonial rule in the world was at its
peak, as vast stretches of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East were
under Dutch, French, and British domination. In 1917, in a letter
written to the Zionist Federation, the letter known as the Balfour
Declaration, the British colonial empire recognized European Jews
aspirations for the establishment in Palestine of a national home
for the Jewish people. In 1922, the League of Nations, an inter-
national institution created by European Empires, legitimized the
Balfour Declaration in a Mandate for Palestine. The 1922 Mandate
empowered the British Empire to enact a nationality law that would
facilitate the acquisition of Palestinian citizenship by Jews who
take up their permanent residence in Palestine. Thus, the law was
put in place to await fulllment.
The fulllment emerged from the shock of the holocaust. The
ignoble slaughter of European Jews by Europeans conferred fur-
ther legitimacy on, and added imminence to, the Balfour Declaration
and the League of Nations Mandate. The creation of Israel as a
nation-state was timely in yet another way. The Second World War
unleashed a new era of nation-states as colonized communities all
over the world were striving to exercise the newly articulated right
of self-determination and have their own separate nation-states.
Yet Israel would be unique among newly independent states. While
other nation-states would be established on local lands for local
populations, Israel was created primarily for European immigrants
over someone elses territory. The creation of Israel as a nation-
state was thus a simultaneous act of dismantling and construct-
ing colonial rule. Europeans dismantled their own colonial rule in
Palestine. But they transferred colonial rule to the European Jews.
Europeans went to Asia, Africa, and the Middle East to colonize.
So did the European Jews, though broken, degraded and dis-
heartened, to the Arab territory.14 The indigenous Jews, Muslims,

and Christians of Palestine, who had lived together in previous
centuries under Muslim empires, witnessed an epic inow of
European Jews to their land, some with bewilderment, some with
shock and confusion, and some with helplessness.
Israel as a nation-state territorialized a nation of Jews.15 For cen-
turies, Jews, Christians and Muslims alike inhabited diverse parts
of the world. Although Jews were united through the medium of
their common faith, their internal diversity was (and is) as rich as
that of Muslims and Christians. Ethnically, culturally, and lin-
guistically, Jewish populations living in Russia, Germany, Palestine,
Ethiopia, and other diverse parts of the world were radically dif-
ferent from each, just as Muslims living in Chechnya, Egypt, Turkey,
Indonesia, Chad, and Kazakhstan are different from each other.
Collapsing ethnic identities, Israel was created as an all-encom-
passing nation-state in which all Jews, after abandoning their native
countries, could come and live together.
The creation of Israel added a new denition to the concept of
the nation-state, whereby diverse national and ethnic groups shar-
ing the same religion could be brought together to live under one
ag in a newly created religious state.16 Jews of the world might
constitute one nation. But must they all have live in one and the
same nation-state? The territorialization of multi-ethnic Jews in
one Israel, however, was limited in scope. Jews, just like other reli-
gious groups, have retained the freedom to live anywhere in the
world as loyal citizens of other states. Millions of Jews still live in
diverse parts of the world with no intention of immigrating to Israel,
thus adding further complexity to the idea of Israel as the exclu-
sive nation-state for all Jews. The idea of Israel as a nation-state
just for Jews is unreal since Muslims and Christians are citizens
of Israel as well. Furthermore, the complex ethnic and religious
14
John Strawson, Reections on Edward Said and the Legal Narratives of
Palestine, Israeli Settlements and Palestinian Self-Determinaiton, 20 Penn State
International Law Review 363 (2002) (Israeli-Palestinian conict is a composite
narrative of two communities wronged by Europeans).
15
Note the distinction between nation-state and nation, discussed before in this
chapter.
16
Chaim Gans, The Palestinian Right of Return and the Justice of Zionism, 5
Theoretical Inqueries in Law 269 (2004) (distinguishing Jews statist nationalism
from civic nationalism).
358 Chapter 9
composition of Israel has imported serious discrimination into the

legal system. Despite the promise of plurality and democracy, the
reality of Israel has been much less egalitarian. European Jewish
immigrants have assumed dominance and control over Israel to
the detriment of non-European Jews. Muslims and Christians liv-
ing in Israel are still seeking real and effective equality. Much of
this mischief has nothing to do with ethnic or religious divisions
in Israel. It simply stems from the nation-states inherent contra-
dictions between exclusivity and plurality.17
Future of the Region

The concept of Free State proposes that Israel be gradually trans-
formed into a Free State, which means that its sovereign borders
be replaced with administrative borders a la a state in the United
States. Initially, Israel as Free State will have open borders with
Free States of Gaza and West Bank.18 The wall that Israel is con-
structing to isolate itself from the rest of the region will be dis-
mantled, an act consistent with the ruling of the International
Court of Justice, which has declared the security wall to be an ille-
gal barrier and an encroachment on Palestinian lands. The secu-
rity wall around a territory is the ultimate embodiment of the
concept of the nation-state that takes a population and connes it
in a dened territory. As Israel becomes a more respected and inte-
grated part of the larger region, it will become a Free State within
the Middle East a la the Netherlands in the European Union. Israel
as Free State will be able to preserve its Jewish character if it so
desires, for Free State has the option, but not the obligation, to
embrace the separation of church and state at national or sub-
national levels, a point that I have adequately discussed in A Theory
of Universal Democracy.
Israel as Free State in the Middle East is a distant dream that
may or may not be realized as the peoples of the region would con-
17
Aeyal M. Gross, The Constitution, Reconciliation, and Transitional Justice:
Lesons from South Africa and Israel, 40 Stanford Journal of International Law
47 (2004) (arguing that Palestinians and Jews are intertwined communities in
both Israel and occupied territories and yet the discourse of separation overlooks
the reality of living side by side).
18
Justus R. Weiner, Coexistence without Conict, 26 Brooklyn Jounral of
International Law 591 (2000) (offering confederacy as a structural solution to
Israel and Palestine conict.
tinue to see Israel as a colonial state of European immigrants; and,

European Jews and their posterity settled in Israel would continue
to experience a sense of cultural unease in dealing with Arabs inside
and outside their new country. This mutual suspicion and the atten-
dant violence may subside if Israel and Palestine abandon the
notion of sovereign borders and open up their communities in the
larger region for the establishment of an authentic Judeo-Islamic
civilization, as they did before in Spain.
In constructing a new future, Arabs and Muslims must in good
faith accept European Jews now inhabiting Israel, and treat them
with generosity, forgiveness, and goodwill that Islam teaches.
Muslims control vast areas of the Middle East, North Africa, and
other parts of the world. Accommodating European Jews and their
posterity in the Middle East will by no means diminish the Arab/
Muslim culture or language. Nor will any such acceptance harm
Islam. Israel with its highly talented and skilled population brings
enormous intellectual property to the Middle East that Arabs and
Muslims can use to enhance development. In response, European
Jews in Israel must also accept the reality of living among Muslims,
as did the indigenous Jews in Palestine. Israeli Jews must not seg-
regate themselves, nor should they plan to live in the Middle East
as a permanent alien-enemy population. They must live there as
an ally. Just as Muslim Spain Europeanized the Jews of the Middle
East, Israel must Middle Easternize European Jews. European
Jews must make every effort, as immigrants do, to belong to the
region, without assimilation. As an ally in the region, Israeli Jews
do not have to repudiate Judeo-Christian connections but they must
also repair and re-invigorate Judeo-Islamic bonds. If Jews and
Muslims in the Middle East abandon the divisive concept of the
nation-state fortied with soldiers and walls, and if they strive
toward building Free States in a prosperous, multi-ethnic, and
multi-religious region, they would set an example to be followed in
other parts of the world, including Russia-Chechnya, and India-
Pakistan-Kashmir.
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Herbert Bob. Shopping for War. New York Times, 27 Dec. 2004: A17.
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Petre, Jonathan. Lengthy Queue to Join Religion that Offers Sense of Direct.
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STATUTES
18 U.S.C. 1203(a) (2000).

22 U.S.C. 2656(f ).
CASES
United States v. Stewart, No. 02 CR. 396 JGK, 2002 WL 1300059 (S.D.N.Y. June
11, 2002).
Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestine Territory,

ICJ (200304).
Ariel Incident of 10 August 1999 (Pakistan v. India), ICJ (19992000).
ISLAMIC BASIC CODE SOURCES
Quran (Translation by Abdullah Yusuf Ali).

Sahih Al-Bukhari (Translation by Muhammad Muhsin Khan).
Sahih Muslim (Translation by Abdul Hamid Siddiqi).
Index
1949 Geneva Conventions 271 C
Canada
A Supreme Court 287, 321, 321 nn.
A Theory of Universal Democracy 9, 1011
323, 331, 358, 361 Chechnya-Russia 359
Afghanistan 45, 26, 71 n. 15, 82, Cold War 34, 105, 143, 219, 330,
98, 106108, 110, 137, 139, 158, 334
166, 183, 187, 196197, 200, 205, Convention against Torture or Other
208, 215, 227, 230231, 236, 236 Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
nn. 42, 44, 243, 252, 254, 269, 276, Treatment or Punishment 36, 238,
278, 295, 311312, 334 251, 275
Taliban 71 n. 15, 110, 197, 236 n. 42 Convention on the Rights of the Child
Aggrieved Populations 13, 8, 10, 168
13, 15, 1718, 27, 29, 31, 33, 35, Coughenour, John 248, 274
3940, 45, 51, 5455, 6061, 6870, Counterfactual Analysis 110,
77, 81, 8385, 93, 9697, 101, 106, 110 n. 8, 111
114, 118, 130, 135, 154, 159, 215, Cuba 108
220, 223, 280, 287, 291, 295, 299,
304305, 307, 310, 324 D
Chechens 1516, 2129 Darwish, Mahmoud 43, 44, 44 n. 27,
Kashmiris 15, 27 45
Literary Resistance 40 Declaration of Paris 1856 258
Palestinians 4142, 44 Denition Battles 96
Al Qaeda 46, 52, 71 n. 15, 82, Dehumanization 118121, 297
107108, 110, 137, 158160, 162, American Indians 122
236, 236 n. 42, 237, 239240, Hollywood 122
242243, 249 n. 1, 254255, 269, Mark Twain 122, 122 n. 21
270, 272, 278, 299 Deir Yassin 34, 34 n. 20, 104
Annan, Ko 242 Dysfunctional Peace Process 87,
114
B
Bush, George W. 129, 208, 208 n. 3, E
223, 228, 232 Essentialism 211212, 244, 245, 245
Business of War 249 n. 48, 246
Private military companies Other-dening 245246
258261 Self-dening 245, 245 n. 48, 246
368 Index
European Union 9, 53, 323, 325, Holy imperialism 129, 131132,

350, 358 158, 164
Exaggeration of Terror Threats 109 Ideological imperialism 133
Secular imperialism 129131, 137,
F 139, 143144, 148, 158
Forced Democratization 144 Value imperialism 67, 17,
Free State 172, 323, 325326, 129130, 132137, 138, 138 n. 5,
330338, 342, 350353, 358359 139, 140141, 143, 150152,
159162, 166168, 299, 332333,
G 335, 345
Goldsmith, Jack 209, 234, 240, 240 International Covenant on Civil and
n. 47, 353 Political Rights 8, 36, 58,
Goldstein, Baruch 101102 161, 251, 266, 271, 275, 281,
Grievances 89, 15, 1719, 25, 27, 37, 327 n. 3
45, 5455, 64, 72, 8081, 93, 162, 227, Iran 26, 59, 70, 97, 104, 106, 108,
229, 239, 243244, 246, 318 130, 137, 147, 155, 158, 167, 203,
concrete grievances 2, 57, 10, 215, 221, 224 n. 30, 234, 236, 236
130, 132, 154, 159, 213, 217, 244, n. 42, 242, 255, 269, 274, 294295,
246, 253254, 282283 339, 347, 349
Denial of 225 Iraq 5, 1718, 26, 29, 3031, 57, 59,
primary grievances 19, 27, 76, 94, 59 n. 7, 61, 66, 70, 78, 84, 85, 85 n.
295, 301 20, 98, 101, 106, 110, 130131, 137,
secondary grievances 19, 27, 39, 147, 155, 158, 166, 192, 197198,
53, 7374, 76, 79, 81, 94, 159, 200, 204205, 208, 215, 218, 222,
295, 301 223 n. 27, 226227, 229 n. 36,
Guantanamo 32, 107, 310 230231, 233235, 236, 236 n. 42,
n. 44, 239, 242244, 246 n. 49,
H 251252, 255, 259, 260261,
Hague Regulations 1907 281 269270, 295, 308309, 311312,
Halsell, Grace 1314 334335, 339340, 343, 346347,
Hamas 85, 198, 221, 237, 302, 305, 349
307, 313 Islamic Jurisprudence
Hanson, Victor Davis 152, 153, 153 Fatwas 162, 202205
n. 17, 154155, 156, 156 n. 19, 235 Great Imams 199, 242, 345
Highly Inuential Terrorist Literature Islamic Martyrdom 7, 23, 235, 244,
6, 206247 254, 303
Hijrah-Migration 171176 Islamic Terrorism 23, 59, 47, 74,
Human Rights 2, 46, 89, 17, 19, 125, 152, 190, 211, 217, 219221,
26, 27, 28 n. 16, 3637, 5354, 62, 232, 241, 245, 288, 295
64, 70, 7273, 7576, 79, 80, 80 n. Addiction to violence 219, 223,
18, 81, 90, 9394, 104, 109, 130, 244, 253, 294
139, 139 n. 6, 140, 140 n. 7, 141 n. Islamic defeatism 213214
10, 145, 150, 156, 158, 168, Muslim militancy 2, 68, 82, 143,
176177, 192, 227, 243, 246, 251, 232, 234, 253254, 283, 294, 303,
253, 261 n. 13, 266, 271273, 283, 343
295, 299, 302, 311, 320, 324, Israel 23, 10, 18, 20, 3334, 3738,
327328, 333 4243, 58, 58 n. 4, 59 n. 7, 60, 74,
Humanitarian Law 89, 60, 6667, 80, 90, 107108, 113, 115, 117,
156, 193 n. 56, 281, 335 123124, 125, 131, 143, 146147,
152, 154, 159, 191, 197, 206, 212 n.
I 11, 214, 215, 217, 218219, 221,
Ibn Taymiyya 217, 217 n. 18 244, 268, 270, 278, 280, 282, 287,
Idris, Wafa 49 302, 305, 307, 314, 324326, 339,
Imperialism 21, 27, 96, 130, 341, 347, 351359
132137, 138 n. 5, 141144, 150, Israelis 37, 41, 50 n. 33, 105,
158160, 163, 290, 299, 333335, 113115, 118, 147, 175, 187, 221,
339, 351 244, 302
Index 369
J Evil 5
Jihad 67, 63 n. 13, 106, 123124, Ontology of Terrorism 45
131, 146 n. 13, 152, 165, 167, Operation Desert Scorpion 29
170171, 174175, 177 n. 14, Organization of Islamic Conference
178183, 183 n. 26, 184185, 186, 187, 196, 202, 267
186 nn. 4142, 187189, 193198, Osama bin Laden 52, 105, 123, 129,
200204, 212 n. 12, 217, 22224, 158, 194, 204, 230, 231, 243, 270
236, 241, 244, 254, 295, 303, 348
Military 182183, 187, 193, P
197198, 200201, 203204, 217, Pakistan-India 293, 328, 347, 359
295 Palestine-Israel 357 n. 14, 359
Spiritual 179180 Palestinians 14, 6, 10, 13, 15, 18,
Jus ad bellum 191192, 27, 33, 34, 34 n. 21, 3539, 4142,
Jus in bello 67, 191192, 301, 335 44, 45, 45 n. 28, 4649, 49 n. 31,
50, 5354, 55, 55 n. 1, 57, 60, 70,
K 7375, 7778, 80, 85, 9091, 93, 95,
Kashmir-India 187, 302, 348 98, 103104, 112118, 123, 125126,
Kipling, Rudyard 138 131132, 154, 157, 175, 198, 212
Ku Klux Klan 102 n. 11, 215, 221222, 226227, 233,
Annan, Ko 242 237, 239, 242, 255, 280, 302, 305,
307308, 314, 318319, 324,
L 340341, 348, 352, 356, 358, 358
Literary Resistance 40 n. 17
Patriot Act 5, 109, 211, 270
M Peace Treaty of Hudaibiya 298
Mecca 7, 172, 175, 195 Pentagon 4, 52, 123, 154, 207, 231
Medina 172, 174, 176, 185 n. 35, n. 37, 246 n. 49, 262, 270
195, 203 Phenomenology of Terrorism 288,
Mona Lisa 51 343
Muslim Militants 2, 57, 910, 16, Politikovskaya, Anna 28
29, 57, 59, 63, 63 n. 13, 71, 7475, Private Military Corporations 255,
7879, 81, 8385, 99, 104, 106107, 258
124, 129132, 135136, 143144, Propagandists
148150, 154, 156157, 160, 163, Boykin, General William 230, 282
167169, 193195, 208209, Dershowitz, Alan 103, 209, 212 n.
211215, 217219, 222227, 228, 11, 233 n. 41, 238239
228 n. 34, 229231, 234241, 243, Frum, David 218
245246, 249250, 253255, Hanson, Victor 153 n. 17, 235
268270, 272277, 282283, 288, Hoffman, Bruce 85, 207, 219, 219
294295, 299303 nn. 1920
Muslims Ledeen, Michael 224, 224 n. 30,
Violent people 123124 225, 234
Lewis, Bernard 144 n. 12, 207,
N 213214, 217, 224225
Nazism-Communism-Islamism 211, Mattis, General James 231
219 Others 3, 24, 3235, 45, 49, 5253,
Negotiated Solutions 65, 74, 90, 94, 9697, 99, 101,
Doves 44, 312315 114115, 120121, 124, 126, 133,
Durable deal 10, 302, 312314 136137, 140141, 157, 160, 190,
Hawks 114, 262, 312315 200, 225, 245, 260, 268, 273, 299,
Nothing Justies Terrorism 8, 59, 306, 309, 314, 321322, 345,
79, 99, 106, 267 350351, 353
Perle, Richard 207, 218
O Simon, Steven 207, 216, 216 n. 16,
One God 2224, 132, 134, 136, 160, 237, 241
162163, 165 Stern, Jessica 207, 222, 222 n. 24,
Ontology 225226, 242
370 Index
Q T
Quebec 288, 315, 316320, 321, 321 Taguba, General Antonio 31, 276277
nn. 10, 11, 322 Terror Triangle 13, 910, 19, 53,
Quebec-Canada 319, 321 55, 59, 159, 287288, 291, 292, 303,
Qutb, Sayyid 186 n. 43, 217, 217 n. 310, 312, 324
18 Terrorist Financing Law 86 n. 21,
87, 256, 263265, 267268
R Terrorist Wrongdoing 125126
Refugees 31, 34, 34 n. 21, 35, 4546, The Extinction of Nation-States 9,
49, 54, 75, 103104, 123, 166, 172, 323, 350
175177, 260, 316, 324, 352 Truce and Terror 114115
S U
Sabra and Shatila 45, 46, 46 n. 30, 47 UN Charter 9, 58, 6162, 6667,
Saudi Arabia 82, 101, 150, 163, 166, 116, 158, 233234, 252, 265266,
197, 201202, 204, 235, 241242 269, 288, 290291, 294, 327328,
Security Council 337, 339
Unusual authority 266, 269 UN Charter Principles 62, 66
Self-determination 2, 8, 10, 17, 17 UN Counter-Terrorism Committee
n. 4, 2526, 18, 19, 21, 2527, 256
5254, 58, 60, 6267, 7071, 73, 76, UN General Assembly 8, 73, 78,
7980, 9495, 103, 115, 130131, 9495, 99, 327, 329
135, 139, 141, 188, 209, 213, 244, Resolutions 9, 61 n. 10, 291, 328,
261 n. 13, 283, 287288, 299, 319, 330
322, 324, 326329, 330, 330 n. 4, UN Security Council 287, 292293,
331333, 347, 356 311, 329
September 11 15 n. 2, 52, 85, 106, United Nations Relief and Works
108109, 111, 152, 210, 232, 246, Agency 34
248, 256, 262, 265, 276 United States 3, 18, 57, 59 n. 7, 61
September 11 Attacks 47, 53, 58, n. 12, 71 n. 14, 102 n. 4, 104, 110,
105107, 109, 110, 113, 156, 135, 152, 160, 162, 165166, 168,
196197, 207, 214, 227, 230, 233, 173, 187189, 192, 196198, 200,
255, 263, 265, 268, 273, 282 204205, 207208, 210 n. 6, 211,
Sexual Torture 3132 214215, 217218, 223 n. 27,
Sierra Leone 260 227228, 231, 232, 232 n. 39,
State Terrorism 23, 8, 1516, 25, 233235, 237238, 240244, 247,
27, 45 n. 29, 7778, 9395, 99100, 290, 358
103, 112, 116, 121, 292, 324, 337 Executive Orders 256, 270
House demolitions 3738, 91 Universal Declaration of Human
Security roadblocks 12, 35, 49 Rights 36, 54, 139, 177
Su Islam and Violence 2224 USS Cole 238, 274
Supportive Entities 13, 19, 5053,
5547, 59, 61, 6371, 73, 75, 77, V
79, 8991, 93, 9798, 116, 195, Value Imperialism
263266, 270, 287, 302, 306308, Imperial degradation 136, 161
312
Suppressive Entities 12, 45, 17, W
22, 27, 39, 45, 50, 5960, 63, 69, War on Terror
7981, 9397, 99, 103, 109, Cluster bombs 277278
110112, 114, 116, 121, 130, 132, Extra-judicial killings 2, 7, 18,
135, 193, 198, 202, 226, 249, 254, 49, 94, 156, 226, 233, 237, 249,
256, 263, 280282, 287, 291292, 313
300, 302, 306, 308 Extra-judicial murders 313
Principal suppressive state 69, 72, Opportunity to kill 271272
7576, 7981, 83, 89, 97, 103, Perdy 185 n. 36, 192, 279,
166, 288, 293, 302, 312 281
Index 371
Rape 18, 3133, 40, 80, 118, Wedgwood, Ruth 209, 233235
183184, 277 White House 4, 13, 97, 154, 230
Torture 5, 78, 1819, 31, 32, 32
n. 19, 36, 45 n. 29, 4849, 67, 78, Y
8182, 94, 108, 120, 156 n. 18, Yoo, John 209, 210 n. 9, 234, 252,
184, 192, 209, 232233, 238, 238 252 n. 4
n. 46, 249, 251252, 259, 271,
275277, 282, 335 Z
Unusual weapons 277, 279 Zachistki 2729
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10. A. Cassese (ed.): The Current Legal Regulation of the Use of Force. 1986
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11. N. Singh and E. McWhinney: Nuclear Weapons and Contemporary International Law.
2nd revised edition. 1989 ISBN 90-247-3637-4
12. J. Makarczyk: Principles of a New International Economic Order. A Study of Interna-
tional Law in the Making. 1988 ISBN 90-247-3746-X
13. O. Schachter: International Law in Theory and Practice. 1991 ISBN 0-7923-1024-1
14. K. Wolfke: Custom in Present International Law. 2nd revised edition. 1993
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15. G.M. Danilenko: Law-making in the International Community. 1993
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16. C. Tomuschat (ed.): Modern Law of Self-Determination. 1993 ISBN 0-7923-2351-3
17. A. Mouri: The International Law of Expropriation as Reflected in the Work of the Iran-
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18. L. Henkin: International Law: Politics and Values. 1995 ISBN 0-7923-2908-2
19. M.M.T.A. Brus: Third Party Dispute Settlement in an Interdependent World. Develop-
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20. L.A.N.M. Barnhoorn and K.C. Wellens (eds.): Diversity in Secondary Rules and the
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22. J. Klabbers: The Concept of Treaty in International Law. 1996 ISBN 90-411-0244-2
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2006 ISBN 90-04-15207-5
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A THEORY OF INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM

Developments in International Law

MARTINUS NIJHOFF PUBLISHERS

Printed on acid-free paper.

Printed and bound in The Netherlands.

Chapter 1 AGGRIEVED POPULATIONS

1.1 Primary Grievances ........................................................ 19

Chapter 2 SUPPORTIVE ENTITIES

2.1 Supporting the Right to Armed Struggle ...................... 59

Chapter 3 SUPPRESSIVE ENTITIES

3.1 Suppressive Terrorism .................................................... 94

Chapter 4 VALUE IMPERIALISM

4.1 Attributes of Value Imperialism .................................... 133

Chapter 5 PHENOMENOLOGY OF JIHAD

5.1 Islamic Law of Hijra ........................................................ 172

Chapter 6 THE ESSENTIALIST TERRORIST

6.1 Proling Islamic Terrorism ............................................ 211

Chapter 7 WAR ON TERROR

7.1 Characteristics of War .................................................... 249

Chapter 8 NEGOTIATED SOLUTIONS

8.1 Law of Negotiated Solutions .......................................... 289

Chapter 9 FREE STATE SOLUTIONS

9.1 The Foundation of Free State ........................................ 325

Bibliography .............................................................................. 360

Following the Qurans revelatory methodology, I have conceived

members, in admitting affection for Dr. Lori Khan, Yahya, and

Ali Khan, May 2006

One might hypothesize that international terrorism is too arbitrary,

constitute the aggrieved population, Israel is the principal sup-

rorism and state terrorism are the co-dependent forms of violence.

seen as terrorists in the Soviet ofcial press. These conicting char-

though conspiracy theorists assert that the US government had

to minimize the geopolitical causes of Muslim militancy and to

France have substantial Muslim populations refusing to melt into

Consistent with General Assembly resolutions, A Legal Theory

institutions recognize the critical signicance of concrete grievances

Stories constitute and sustain aggrieved populations.1 Grace Halsell,

Halsell befriends a sixteen-year-old Palestinian girl in the camp

Eye of the Storm

Aggrieved Populations Dened

Construction of Aggrieved Populations

The originative ordeal involves the denial of self-determination.

erates militancy that assaults persons and properties of the sup-

1.1 PRIMARY GRIEVANCES

An aggrieved population constructed through originative and puni-

each involves a Muslim population ghting for the right of self-

Palestine and Kashmir

from that of the aggrieved population. Chechnya provides a good

Chechens as an Aggrieved Population

In contrast to Palestine and Kashmir, Chechnya presents a more

Unlike some colonized peoples around the world, Chechens per-

Language Promotes Political Liberty

animists, though carrying mild traces of Christianity. Su Islam

Mysticism and Militancy

is aggression against aggression, but not aggression per se. Ordinarily,

Communist Suppression of Susm

In the ofcial press, deportations were presented as resettlements,

Grievances Giving Birth to Aspirations for Liberty

Geopolitical Barriers to Chechnyas Freedom

pathy of Western human rights non-governmental organizations