Knowing the Enemy: Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror [Hardcover]

Mary Habeck (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 4, 2006

After September 11, Americans agonized over why nineteen men hated the United States enough to kill three thousand civilians in an unprovoked assault. Analysts have offered a wide variety of explanations for the attack, but the one voice missing is that of the terrorists themselves. This penetrating book is the first to present the inner logic of al-Qa’ida and like-minded extremist groups by which they justify September 11 and other terrorist attacks.

Mary Habeck explains that these extremist groups belong to a new movement—known as jihadism—with a specific ideology based on the thought of Muhammad ibn Abd al- Wahhab, Hasan al-Banna, and Sayyid Qutb. Jihadist ideology contains new definitions of the unity of God and of jihad, which allow members to call for the destruction of democracy and the United States and to murder innocent men, women, and children. Habeck also suggests how the United States might defeat the jihadis, using their own ideology against them.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Yale historian Habeck takes Muslim terrorists at their word. They aren't envious of liberal democracy or the consumer society. Religion drives them--specifically, an exclusivist, triumphalist vision of Islam that Habeck calls jihadism to point up its holy-war-like character rather than its orthodoxy. The latter is problematic, for while jihadism is based on universally accepted Muslim principles and traditions, what it has forged out of them is highly controversial, not least because jihadists consider Muslims who disagree with them to be unbelievers as worthy of destruction as non-Muslims. Habeck traces the current of Islamic thought that eventuated in jihadism from an early-fourteenth-century scholar and the eighteenth-century founder of the harshly restrictive Islam predominant in Saudi Arabia to four twentieth--century figures who inspired a host of radical reactionary organizations, including Hamas and al-Qaeda. Habeck repeatedly reminds us that jihadists constitute a small minority, but she doesn't expound moderate Islam, much less Christianity or Judaism, to answer or refute jihadism. Her purpose is to reveal jihadism. So doing, in considerable detail and with admirable clarity, she contributes one of the most valuable books on the ongoing Middle East--and world--crisis. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"This important book provides the first clear analysis of the radical ideology propelling the terrorism of the Middle East. Habeck''s explanation of Jihadism is set forth in a poised, authoritative voice—a model for a study of this kind."—Charles Hill, Distinguished Fellow, International Security Studies, Yale University

(Charles Hill )

"Habeck has put together so many pieces from so many sources together in such a manner that no writer on this topic can afford to ignore this book. Making the case for the primacy of these ideas, not merely as products of impersonal socio-economic structures and international systemic factors, is not a minor undertaking. Knowing the Enemy constitutes an admirable effort to coherently portray the world view of Jihadists and identify their differences as well."—Ibrahim Karawan, Director, Middle East Center, University of Utah

(Ibrahim Karawan )

"The book ... is admirably accessible also to the non-specialist …."—Richard John Neuhaus, First Things

(Richard John Neuhaus )

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; 1St Edition edition (January 4, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300113064
• ISBN-13: 978-0300113068
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #939,129 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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63 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Knowing Who Is and Who Isn't The Enemy, March 10, 2006

By 

Ralph White (New England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Knowing the Enemy: Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror (Hardcover)

As much as this book is about knowing the enemy, it is as much about knowing who isn't the enemy. If you came away from any of your previous readings with feelings of intolerance for Muslims in general, then Mary Habeck's arguments will appeal to you. As an Associate Professor at John's Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Habeck's ultimate focus is public policy and statecraft. For her the term "war on terror" fails to sufficiently describe our objectives. She prefers "war on jihadism" or "war on the khawarij." The Khawarij were a group which tried, unsuccessfully following the death of Muhammad, to hijack Islam and declare war on mainstream Muslims. The similarity between the khawarij and modern jihadis has already been commented on by Muslim scholars, to the irritation of the jihadis. This approach will also illuminate for mainstream Muslims that the U. S. and the other Western democracies are natural allies in saving their religion from its fanatics. But renaming the battle won't win it. Spreading democracy throughout the Islamic world, and defusing the Palestinian crisis are the principal prescriptions for defusing jihadism. The U. S. cannot go it alone, however, so we have to improve our diplomacy and better engage other democracies to support us in defeating jihadism.

The world of the jihadist is a very strange one, and Habeck instructs us without condescension or wonkism, and with a minimum of Arabic vocabulary. We learn, for instance, that it is intuitive to jihadists that the victory of the Afgan mujahidun "working entirely on their own" against Russian occupation caused the downfall of the Soviet Union. They believed that the United States would similarly collapse following 9/11. Moreover, they are stunned that we did not collapse, since it is a core tenet of thier belief.

This book is exceptionally well researched, and includes fifty pages of endnotes. It is readable and accessible to the open-minded and literate reader. It is a multidisciplinary study of a complex subject which has unfortunately lent itself to oversimplification. Whether this is your starting point in learning about "the enemy," or if you already have been exposed to other authors' treatments, this book is an absolute must read. If you intend to read only one book on Islam, this is your best choice. And don't just put it back on the shelf when you're done. Recommend it, and pass it along.

61 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It Was In the Cards......, February 24, 2006

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Archmaker (California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Knowing the Enemy: Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror (Hardcover)

Perhaps it wasn't inevitable that we would have to confront the radical idealogical jihadism that led to our being struck on 9/11, but funded by petrodollars and ignored by us for decades, this virulent form of fundamentalism has taken root and thrived and what might have been a lunatic sect out in the desert wastelands of Arabia is now a worldwide movement and our meeting it head on is no longer a question. It is necessary, therefore, to understand what these people believe, and Mary Habeck's thoroughly researched and annotated book will be helpful to you.

She begins her book with a simple proposition. Instead of theorizing why the jihadists are at war with us, with explanations that include social and economic deprivation, US foreign policy, the Arab/Israeli conflict and so on, she posits instead that we ought to learn what the jihadis themselves have to say on the subject. What do THEY think justifies their jihad?What support for their views do they find in the Qur'an and traditional Islam?

The answers she discovers are going to be an eye opener to many in the West employing the conventional wisdom espoused above.

First, this radical jihadism goes back 8 centuries to earlier fundamentalist thinkers who believed even back then that the followers of Islam had strayed from the righteous path and purification was in order. This thinking espoused initally by Ibn Taymiyya and then later Wahhab was picked up by the founders of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1920's and in the following decades by others to the present with Bin Laden, Zawahiri and Zarqawi. Violent jihadism pre-dates the founding of Israel and the US ever setting foot in the Middle East.

Second, believing they are the righteous and "true believers" intent on purifying Islam, establishing the Caliphate, and creating a worldwide Islamic paradise, justifies their killing anyone they consider "non-believers" which includes Muslims not adhering to Islam as the jihadis believe it. So, the murder of innocents, destruction of mosques, virtually any act of violence can be explained in their idealogy.

Third, there will be no compromise, meeting of minds, reasoning, or accomodation made with these folks. These are hard core idealogues, and their beliefs so severely narrow that any deviation from those beliefs would undermine their whole reason for being. Their way is the only way, and "infidels" are anyone not complying with that way, including Muslims.

Fourth, these are people who will never accept modernization in any form. They are anti-democratic, anti-pluralism, anti-anything but their form of "pure" Islam. They believe solely in a world ruled by Allah, through a Caliph, and under shari'a law. Anything less is rule by man and that is apostacy. Their dream is a totalitarian Islamic state. The best form of what they have in mind for the peoples of the world was Afghanistan under the Taliban. No other thought, idealogy, form of government, religious belief, or societal organization is permitted in their world view.

There is much much more and this book will provide you a very accessible grounding in the history and development of radical jihadi thought. We are in for some tough sledding in the next years, this is an unbending idealogy and it will have to be fought with every method and means at our disposal. But it is an idealogy that must fail in the end, for its severity leaves a great deal of humanity, including most of Islam as its sworn enemy. But oh, the damage and heartache that will be rendered before this chapter plays itself out.

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jihad Explained, May 30, 2006

By 

Thomas E. Snodgrass "Retired Intel Officer" (Prescott, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Knowing the Enemy: Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror (Hardcover)

As a former military intelligence officer who spent years reading a mountain of books by and about Marx, Engels, Lenin, Mao, Debray, et al, in order to understand how the enemy thought, I truly appreciate the work of Mary Habeck distilling the jihadist ideology into 243 pages. Having lived and worked daily with Muslims in Pakistan for more than a year and having read many books on Islam, I never found a single, satisfactory source on the subject of jihad that provided a concise historical prospective until I read "Knowing the Enemy." There's currently almost an unlimited number of books on the subjects of Islam and jihad, but Mary Habeck has condensed the essentials into one small volume that is brutally factual about the dark side of Islam without being inflammatory. This book should be a required high school and college history/political science text in the U.S. and Europe. I heartily recommend it to anyone who cares about the future of Western Civilization.