Terrorism’s One Way Mirror

Trigger warnings – Terrorism, Suicide, Nazism, Fascism. 

United Islamic National Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan, the group fighting the Taliban is seen flying a flag in the Panjshir Valley, after the Taliban captured Kabul.

For as long as humans have been aware enough to create hierarchies, whether through gender, class, race, religion or sexuality, we have had mass killings and what can be categorized as terrorism. 

Terrorism, by its dictionary definition, is the unlawful use or threat of violence, especially against the state or the public, as a politically motivated means of attack or coercion. 

Many acts of terrorism have been rightfully named as such, but more often than not, lots of acts are refused this categorization but still fall under this definition. 

As a Muslim, I have seen the media’s spin on our religion, but what is not reported is the countless condemnations from our imams whenever terrorism is done. By default, Islam condemns all acts of severe violence and force, especially those that kill civilian lives. The prophet Muhammad, even in times of war had strict rules for conflict conduct (in an ideal world, we would have no war, but even our Prophet had to deal with conflict), including do not damage nature, buildings, or kill innocent civilians. The duty of a Muslim is clear and those who do the opposite turn away more people from Islam than a true Muslim. This will be one of the many crimes they will have to pay for in the afterlife. Their terrorism, in the name of Allah, is a direct attack on the true form of Islam itself. 

In 2005, Members of the Fiqh Council of North America and Muslim organizations and masjids reaffirmed (18 members of Fiqh council and 344 Muslim organizations), with another fatwa against terrorism, unequivocally stating that all life is precious and committing or associating with people that have committed or are planning to commit acts of terrorism are haram. They also consistently tell us our duty as Muslims is to protect all life on earth, Muslim and non-Muslim alike. Islam is a religion that teaches us we must stand up for injustices wherever we see them and leave the world a better place than when we came into the world. 

But this does not fit the narrative of the media. The media wishes to focus on the small minority that is doing evil in the name of Islam. Prominent inspirational speaker Mufti Menk comments on this frequently. He has spoken outwardly and firmly about ISIS, Al Qaeda, and The Taliban whenever they are in the news. He comments on a matter of agenda. If we focused on all the good Islam does, the media would be overwhelmed. Much like our brothers and sisters in the Jewish community, mosques and synagogues are the first to open their doors to refugees and those in need, collecting clothes, food, and anything needed for those who are fleeing the terror that has been incorrectly done in the name of Islam. 

There has been a key focus on Islamic extremism and it is something we fight against, denounce, and condemn in our communities. There is still work to be done as culture still seeps into the religion and people will use the religion as they see fit to suit their own biases and the rise in radicalism is something that we fight in our community consistently. We do not accept this. It is not Islamic and never will be. 

There is something interesting that happens, though. Let us dive into a few other terrorists who haven’t been categorized as such. 

THE COLUMBINE KILLERS 

The Columbine Killers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold caught on CCTV in Columbine High School’s Cafeteria. Credit: The Guardian.

“If you recall your history the Nazis came up with a "final solution" to the Jewish problem... kill them all. well incase you havent figured it out yet, I say, "K I L L M A N K I N D" no one should survive.” – Journal Entry from Eric Harris on 6/12/98

The Columbine massacre set in motion a cycle of children living in fear whilst trying to get an education, and it has not ceased. Conversations around gun control, school security, video games, and heavy metal music, but one conversation was missing. Radicalism. 

On April 20, 1999. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold entered Columbine High School, equipped with modified guns and makeshift explosives. Their primary intent was to blow up the school. They opened fire in the school and planted explosives in the cafeteria. Luckily, they did not detonate. 12 students and 1 teacher were killed, and more injured. Harris and Klebold would go to the school’s libraries and shoot themselves. 

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold’s pictures flashed over news outlets all over the world. Videos of terrified young people were on a constant cycle. The reporting around Columbine painted the two young men as loners, bullied and frame Columbine as revenge against their fellow students that had wronged them. Although Dylan suffered from depression and suicidal tendencies, this was massively misreported. Eric Harris’ journal has pages and pages of Nazi ideology and fantasies of dictatorship (he often dreamed of wiping most humans off of the planet and being the one in control to determine who would live or died). Curiously, there were plans for both Eric and Dylan to hijack a plane and crash it into New York City.

They have never been categorized as radicalized. But a look at their own words, especially Eric’s, tells a different story. 

The Oaklahoma City Bombing, 1995. Credit: Britannica.

TIMOTHY MCVEIGH 

“ATF, all you tyrannical mother fuckers will swing in the wind one day for your treasonous actions against the Constitution of the United States. Remember the Nuremberg War Trials.” – Timothy Mcveigh in a letter to the Bureau of Tobacco. 

After all these years, no one is a bigger example of American domestic terrorism than Timothy Mcveigh, the perpetrator of the Oklahoma City Bombing. A former US military veteran, he was also categorized as someone suffering from mental health issues. He was also granted the image of the lone wolf. The lone wolf archetype, in right-wing circles, is a key to pushing political agendas. It started being formally discussed around the 70s, being dubbed “leaderless resistance”. The lone wolf archetype is a deflection or cover for an extremist movement’s organizing behind the scenes. There’s a long history of this and in the present, the rise in lone wolf terror attacks speaks to extremism becoming more organized. 

On April 19th, 1995, Mcveigh drove a rented Ryder truck in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The offices had just opened for the day. Mcveigh and accomplice Terry Nichols had constructed an ANFO bomb that contained 2,300KG of ammonium nitrate and nitromethane. He lit a two-minute fuse, and at 09:02 AM, it exploded. He ended up killing 169 people, including 19 children, and injured 684 others, destroying the north part of the building. Mcveigh would say he was unaware there was a day care center on the second floor. 

“To these people in Oklahoma who have lost a loved one, I’m sorry, but it happens every day. You’re not the first mother to lose a kid, or the first grandparent to lose a grandson or a granddaughter. It happens every day, somewhere in the world. I’m not going to go into that courtroom, curl into a fetal ball, and cry just because the victims want me to do that.” – Timothy Mcveigh on the victims of his bombing. 

The Okalahoma City Bomber, Timothy Mcveigh in custody. Credit: History.com.

He was later sentenced to death, and they housed him in what is called “bomber’s row”. He requested a nationally televised execution, which was denied. Mcveigh would confess the bombings were, in part, revenge for the Waco and Ruby Bridge sieges by the government. Mcveigh had visited Waco during the stand-off. He was also known to quote and be inspired by the white supremacist novel The Turner Diaries. They found pages 61 and 62 in an envelope in his car. The pages he had stashed in his car told of a fictional attack on the US Capitol in Washington. He also wrote a 1200 word essay, dated March 1998, which explicitly made his terrorist attack the moral equivalent of America’s actions in Iraq (this was in the middle of the disarmament and a few months before Operation Desert Fox). 

Although called a domestic terrorist now, at the time they sought to humanize him in some ways, publicly including his comments on victims, and how he felt some sort of remorse for children dying. The media refused to comment on the white supremacist paraphernalia that was in his possession, much like Columbine’s reporting. 

The Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski, in custody. Credit: Britannica.

THE Unabomber 

“Leftists tend to hate anything that has an image of being strong, good, and successful. They hate America, they hate Western civilization, they hate white males, they hate rationality.” – An extract of the Unabomber manifesto

Theodore Kaczynski, now known in history as the Unabomber, was an eco-fascist. Eco-fascism is a theory where a totalitarian government would ask citizens to sacrifice their interests and needs to get back to the “organic whole of nature”. There have been debates around whether authoritarian governments would engage in eco fascism to solve environmental catastrophe that they didn’t solve sooner because they were capitalizing their last billions in a capitalistic society, so the onus would be on the citizens to endure exploitation they had no power in. Interestingly, authors Biehl and Staudenmaier surmise eco fascism started in Nazism, noting the party’s interest in ecology. Darre, a big Nazi ideologist, romanticized a mystic connection to the homeland and an aggressive demand for citizens to take care of it, all rooted in their hyper-aggressive nationalism. 

This is what Theodore Kaczynski subscribed to. He had a deep hatred for leftist politics and described socialism as “wanting society to take care of all your problems” and leftists having an “inferiority complex because internally, every leftist feels like a loser.” 

In 1971, Kaczynski moved to a cabin to live a stripped-back life as a recluse. As he witnessed the destruction of the surrounding land, he was reserved to the thought that living in wildlife was impossible, and vowed to start a political war against industrialization. His campaign began in 1978 when he started mailing or hand-delivering bombs. The structure of the bombs differed over the years, and 16 bombs were associated with Kaczynski. He inscribed the initials FC on many, which he would later admit stood for “freedom club”. He was deeply obsessed with the idea that modern technology would be the downfall of humanity, because of the need for a group effort to keep the technology going. He was an extreme rejector of collectivism and was subject to one of the longest-running and most expensive investigations by the FBI up until that point. He was allowed to get away with bombings until 1995. He killed 3 people and injured another 23. He would often leave false clues in his bombs and was careful not to leave fingerprints. 

The former maths professor was reported as a “math prodigy” in the press, and a focus on his reclusive nature. He was painted as a tragic figure and theories of him having an abusive childhood and rough teenage years were primary descriptors. Although he outlined fascism as a “kook conspiracy” and Nazism as “evil”, it was clear he had a deep disdain for any sort of leftist ideology. Despite reporting, people who knew Kaczynski said his parents were well adjusted and would “sacrifice anything for their children”. There was also no reporting of yearlong psychological experiments he was put under at Harvard University. 

Despite committing domestic terrorism, the man we know as the Unabomber is still allowed to engage with the public from prison, regardless of whether his theories and idolization of him are rife in neo-Nazi circles. 

Viyan Antar, Feminist freedom fighter who died at the age of 19 battling ISIS. Credit: Metro.

This is an experience we Muslims know too well. There are very few representations in the media of moderate, leftist, or peace-advocating Muslims. For every article on terrorism, there is no mention of groups like the United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan, a group that consistently fights against Islamic extremists groups such as the murderous Taliban. No mention of the YPJ, a Kurdish Women's Protection Unit. The closer we had was the mention of Viyan Antar, a fierce fighter who battled ISIS. Her reporting was deeply rooted in her looks and she was dubbed “the Angelina Jolie of Islamic feminism”, a direct disrespect of her work, who she was, and what she fighting for; Women’s Liberation from ISIS and all Islamist extremism. For every terrorist piece, there is no mention of women like Fatima Al-Fihri, the creator of one of the longest-running and first degree-giving universities in Morocco. There is no mention of the countless wonderful Muslim women who fight for women’s rights and understand the true role of a Muslim woman. As a fighter, as a thinker, as an advocate against injustice all over the world. As an agent of her autonomy. As the key to standing up to those who wish to use Islam to oppress women in their own sick biases and discriminations. 

 As it is reported, Islamic terrorism is a problem that Muslims don’t want to talk about. Women’s rights are issues that Muslims don’t want to talk about. This is a direct indication that the people at the helm, are at best, wilfully uneducated, ignorant, and unqualified to speak on Islam and the horrific extremism we battle every day, or at worst, agents of an agenda that justifies invasions of Muslim majority countries for their oil and other resources. For let’s remember, if “Radical Islam” isn’t the boogymen of the West, it’s communism. They bounce between the two. If one doesn’t work, the other one will. 

We as Muslims are actively fighting against extremism, pushing it back at every turn, and are constantly working for liberation and a true reflection of Islam in its peace, encouragement of learning, its love, and its persistence challenge for us to make the world better. While those who would report it otherwise, were humanizing those who stormed the capitol building and ignoring those who disrespectfully, wrongfully, and mockingly use our Jewish brother and sister’s systemic trauma and pain at the hands of the Nazis to protest against something as unaffecting as a piece of cloth on their faces., we fight for a better world for all life, every single day.