Islamic terrorism

===== "War against Islam" =====

A tenant of Qutbism and other militant Islamists is that Western policies and society are not just un-Islamic or exploitive, but actively anti-Islamic, or as it is sometimes described, waging a "[[war against Islam]]". Islamists (such as Qutb) often identify what they see as a historical struggle between [[Christianity]] and [[Islam]], dating back as far as the [[Crusades]],<ref name="Qut-Decieve-1982-159">{{cite book |last1=Qutb |first1=Sayyid |title=Milestones |date=1982 |publisher=Mother Mosque Foundation |location=Iowa |isbn=0-911119-42-6 |pages=159–160 |quote=Enemies of the Believers may wish to change this struggle into an economic or political ... struggle so that the Believers become confused concerning the true nature of the struggle and the flame of belief in their hearts becomes extinguished ... We see an example of this today in the attempts of Christendom to try to deceive us by distorting history and saying that the Crusades were a form of imperialism. The truth of the matter is that the latter-day imperialism is but a mask for the crusading spirit, since it is not possible for it to appear in its true form, as it was possible in the Middle Ages.}}</ref> among other historical conflicts between practitioners of the two respective religions.

In 2006, Britain's then head of [[MI5]] [[Eliza Manningham-Buller]] said of Al-Qaeda that it "has developed an ideology which claims that Islam is under attack, and needs to be defended". "This," she said "is a powerful narrative that weaves together conflicts from across the globe, presenting the West's response to varied and complex issues, from long-standing disputes such as Israel/Palestine and Kashmir to more recent events as evidence of an across-the-board determination to undermine and humiliate Islam worldwide."<ref name="EM-B">{{cite web|first=Eliza|last=Manningham-Buller|author-link=Eliza Manningham-Buller|url=http://www.icjs-online.org/index.php?article=1121|title=Transcript of speech: The International Terrorist Threat to the UK|publisher=ICJS Research|date=10 November 2006|access-date=4 August 2016|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304185657/http://www.icjs-online.org/index.php?article=1121|url-status=dead}}</ref> She said that the video wills of [[United Kingdom|British]] suicide bombers made it clear that they were motivated by perceived worldwide and long-standing injustices against Muslims; an extreme and minority interpretation of Islam promoted by some preachers and people of influence; their interpretation as anti-Muslim of UK foreign policy, in particular the UK's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan."<ref name="EM-B" />

In his call for jihad, [[Osama bin Laden]] almost invariably described his enemies as aggressive and his action against them as defensive.<ref name="KNAPP-90">{{cite journal|last1=KNAPP|first1=MICHAEL G.|date=Spring 2003|title=The Concept and Practice of Jihad in Islam|url=https://ssi.armywarcollege.edu/pubs/parameters/articles/03spring/knapp.pdf|url-status=dead|journal=Parameters|publisher=[[Wayback Machine]]|page=90|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170517024926/https://ssi.armywarcollege.edu/pubs/parameters/articles/03spring/knapp.pdf|archive-date=17 May 2017|access-date=14 January 2022}}</ref>