Critical Thinking of Muslim Societies: A Terror-Based Perspective

Abstract

After the declaration of war on terror, especially the events of September 2001 in the UnitedStates, we see that the terrorist organizations that made the Islamic religion a cover for themin their work have begun to reconfigure themselves intellectually based on the Islamicheritage, especially about the Qur’anic verses and the hadiths related to fighting. Theorganizations went to consolidate their fighting ideology by confronting the whole world,using a set of fatwas and rulings that were issued by Muslim religious scholars severalcenturies ago, especially during the era of the Mongolian invasion of the Islamic state and theaccompanying calls for resistance by Muslim scholars, especially Ibn Taymiyyah. To facilitatetheir task of legislating the declaration of war on the whole world, they rejected any ideologyopposing them. As the organizations resorted to strictness in adopting these fatwas andreligious rulings, and in their explanation of texts, excluding any interpretation other thantheir objectives. Therefore, these organizations rejected critical thinking about religious texts,considering it a departure from Islam. The lack of maturity of this thinking approach amongthe general population of Muslims in the various countries made the task of the organizationsin rejecting this approach easier. As we see that a critical approach to thinking in variousscientific fields, including religion, does not exist in education in Islamic countries. That is whyreligious texts, including their interpretations, rulings, and fatwas, remained unchanged forcenturies. Thus, it provided an appropriate environment for these organizations to expandwithin Islamic societies through thought related to the past that is not related to the presentin anything except that it carried the same rulings, fatwas, and interpretations of religioustexts.