Jihad and Genocide (review)

Richard L. Rubenstein, President Emeritus of the University of Bridgeport, CT, and Distinguished Professor of Religion has long been at the forefront of the nexus between religion and history, especially the Holocaust/Shoah, and over time has authored such important and provocative works as After Auschwitz: Radical Theology and Contemporary Judaism (1966), Morality and Eros (1970), Power Struggle: An Autobiographical Confession (1974), The Cunning of History: Mass Death and the American Future (1975), The Age of Triage: Fear and Hope in an Overcrowded World (1983), and (with John K. Roth), Approaches to Auschwitz: The Holocaust and Its Legacy (1987). Jihad and Genocide is no exception.

Mincing no words, Rubenstein informs us that he has written this relatively slender volume as "an inquiry into the genocidal possibilities of jihad" (vii) by examining the domain of Islam, dar al-Islam, and the domain of war, dar al-Harb (chapter 1), the case of the Armenian Genocide at the hands of the Turks (chapter 2), the Nazi-Muslim connection of which "there is more than a little affinity" (p. 2, chapter 3), the relationship between oil and anti-Semitism (chapter 4), the case of Iran and the possibilities of nuclear genocide (chapter 5), and the fruits of what he contends is Muslim/Islamic long-standing rage toward the West (chapter 6).

Rubenstein argues that today's radical Islamist reading of the concept of jihad is that of a "defensive jihad against the infidels who raid the abode of Islam" (5). Thus, his reading of their reading of the Qur'an and other texts, most importantly the works of Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966) among others, leads him to three conclusions when examining the religious traditions of Islam: (1) Muslims are under an unconditional obligation to undertake jihad against the inhabitants resident in their lands (particularly Turkey historically and Israel today), (2) "no matter how terrible the acts perpetrated by Islamic extremists, they have been without exception associated with appeals to Islam" (39), and (3) those engaged in such practices are continuing such acts begun more than 1,400 years ago with the birth of Islam itself. In so doing, as a scholar of religion, Rubenstein forcefully argues for a seat at the table of conversation partners about genocide with historians, political scientists, lawyers, sociologists, and psychologists, and he concludes that "a fundamental flaw in all such efforts [to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict, and applicable to the wider arena] is the failing of both Western and Israeli policy makers to take into account the religious dimension of the conflict" (165; emphasis in original).

Turning to the first major genocide of the twentieth century, that of the Armenian Christians at the hands of both secular and Muslim Turks, he posits that the ongoing denial of this genocide "has been due, at least in part, to the Turkish belief that they did no wrong in exterminating the Armenians, a belief that rests ultimately on the tradition of jihad and the dhimma" (54). By implication, therefore, "today's radical Islamists regard genocide as a legitimate weapon against those whom they regard as enemies of Islam. Holding that Islam is now under attack, they see unremitting jihad as both defensive in character and the single most important Muslim religious obligation" (57).

Turning his attention next to the ongoing Israeli—Palestinian conflict, he first examines the career of Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem (1921-1948), a virulent anti-Semite who attempted to partner with the Nazi regime, broadcasting his calls for jihad against the Zionists and the Jews of Palestine from a Berlin radio during the Second World War, and who provided the foundational underpinnings for today's radical Islamists who "consider all of Palestine to be an inalienable part of dar al-Islam and are therefore 'obliged,' at least in theory, to wage defensive jihad against the Zionists whom they regard as having forcibly 'invaded' the land. According to a strict interpretation of Islamic jurisprudence, the obligation to expel the Jews was and remains a non-negotiable...