Le Middle East Quarterly propose, sous la plume de David Bukay, un excellent résumé des motivations religieuses des terroristes musulmans qui se font exploser un peu partout. L’auteur explique le concept de djihad:
Islamic jurisprudence has distinguished four different ways in which a believer may fulfill jihad obligations: 1) with faith in his heart; 2) by preaching and proselytizing with his tongue; 3) by good deeds with his hands; and 4) by confronting unbelievers or enemies with the sword.[5] In practice, the first three are part of the da’wa (missionary activity), actions that support jihad by the sword.[6]
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As a doctrine, the aim of jihad is clear: to establish God’s rule on earth by compelling non-Muslims to embrace Islam, or to force them to accept second class status if not eradicate them altogether. Such an understanding constituted one of the main ideological bases of the dynasties that ruled the Islamic world from the late seventh century until Mongol hordes put an effective end to their control in the thirteenth century.
Il montre ensuite que nous autres sommes, par définition, du fait de la religion que nous pratiquons ou du fait que nous n’en pratiquons, des condamnés à mort ou à l’assujettissement en sursis pour tous les Musulmans, et ceux qui nous tueront auront les plus belles récompenses que la religion musulmane promette à ses fidèles:
All four schools of Sunni Islam as well as mainstream Shi‘ism consider idolatry (shirk), apostasy (irtidad), and hypocrisy (nifiq, munafaqah, or riya’) to be capital offenses.[10] In each case, jihad is a means to counter such threats and assert the predominance of Islam.
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Muslim jurisprudence considers shirk to be the worst form of disbelief.[12] The Qur’an commands Muslims to kill those who commit shirk[13] and is replete with examples calling for jihad against idolaters. For example, sura (chapter) 9:5 reads, "When the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters whenever you find them, and take them captive or besiege them."[14] Sura 8:39 reads, "So fight them so that sedition might end and obedience is wholly Allah’s"; and sura 9:123 states, "Fight the unbelievers who are near to you, and let them find ruthlessness in you."[15] Muslims living under the rule of idolaters are obliged to fight their rulers.[16] The Qur’an likewise commands believers to conduct jihad against hypocrites,[17] seize them, and do away with them.[18] All infidels, unbelievers, and hypocrites—those who commit blasphemy or treason—are relegated to hell.[19]Prominent Muslim scholars consider the general jihad declaration against the unbelievers to be crucial to Islamic success.[20] Those who sacrifice their material comfort and bodies for jihad win salvation.[21] By their sacrifice, they obtain all the pleasures of paradise, be they spiritual—the close presence of God—or material.[22] As an additional incentive, Muhammad promised those mujahideen who fight in a jihad war a reward of virgins in paradise.[23] Importantly, those conducting suicide bombings do not consider themselves dead but rather living with God. As sura 2:154 explains, "Do not think that those who are killed in the way of Allah are dead, for indeed they are alive, even though you are not aware."[24] Therefore the prohibition on suicide need not apply to bus bombers or other kamikaze jihadists. Martin Lings, a British scholar of Sufism, argues that this linkage between martyrdom and paradise was probably the most potent factor that Muhammad brought to the annals of warfare,[25] for it transformed the odds of war by offering a promise of immortality.[26]
Les traditions du prophète regorgent de rappels à cet égard:
The Hadith collections, the second important source of Shari‘a after the Qur’an, devote considerable attention to jihad, most often in terms of military action against non-believers. Indeed, most Islamic theologians in the classical period (750-1258 C.E.) understood this obligation to jihad as military.[27] There is a whole genre of hadith known as fada’il al-jihad (the merits of the holy war),[28] based on the nine-volume Hadith collection of Muhammad ibn Isma‘il al-Bukhari (810-70) and considered to be the most respected and authoritative collection. He dedicates almost one-third of his fourth volume on jihad as physical holy war against infidels. For example, he relates a hadith of Muhammad commenting that there are one hundred stages in paradise for those who fight for the way of God. [29] Only those who participate in jihad deserve paradise without any checks and reservations. To exemplify this notion, Bukhari relates a story of a woman asking Muhammad if her son, who was killed in the battle of Badr, is in paradise, and he replied that her son is in a higher paradise.[30]
Consistent with the Qur’an, these hadith generally demonstrate the necessity for Muslims to spare no means to spread Islam by force and strike terror into the hearts of the enemies of God. The main motif of jihad in the Hadith reinforces the concept that death on the battleground in the cause of God leads to paradise and receipt of a "sacred wedding" to black-eyed virgins.[31] From among 262 traditions that are mentioned by Abdallah Ibn al-Mubarak (736-97), a renowned Khorasani scholar who concentrated on jihad warfare as the most important method to Islamic success, thirteen reinforce the concept of virgins in paradise as a reward for martyrdom.[32]
The Hadith also emphasize the necessity for all believers, whenever called upon, to commit to a jihad war.[33] In one example, Bukhari cites Ibn ‘Umar, one of the transmitters of accounts about the Prophet traditionally accepted by Muslims, who relates, "Muhammad said: ‘I have been ordered to fight against all the people until they testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is Allah’s messenger, and offer the prayers perfectly, and give the obligatory charity. So if they perform all that, then they save their lives and property from me and their reckoning will be done by Allah.’"[34] And, in another, a transmitter narrated, "O Allah, you know that there is nothing more beloved to me than to fight in your cause against those who disbelieved your messenger."[35]
Just as in the Qur’an, the Hadith give ample justification for those who would fight heterodox interpretations of Islam within their own society. Muslim jurists in four schools of law have agreed that the apostate should be given three days to repent and, if he did not, he was to be killed by believer’s jihad.[36] Bukhari cites Abu Musa, another accepted transmitter, who related how "a man embraced Islam and then reverted back to Judaism. Ibn al-Mu’azz, one of the Hadith story tellers, said: ‘I will not sit down unless you kill him, as the verdict of Allah and his messenger.’"[37] In another hadith, Ali bin Abu Talib, Muhammad’s nephew and son-in-law, narrated, "I heard the Prophet saying … whenever you find the apostates, kill them, for there will be a reward on the Day of Resurrection."[38] The Hadith are graphic about punishment for such apostates. According to Anas bin Malik, an Arab thinker and theologian from Medina (d. 795) and founder of the Maliki School of Islamic jurisprudence, "The Prophet ordered the apostates to have their hands and feet cut off. Then he ordered nails, which were heated and passed over their eyes, and they were left in the Harra [a rocky land in Medina], till they died."[39]
Ainsi, les apôtres du djihad moderne, que présente brièvement l’auteur, n’inventent rien, ils ne font que raviver l’essence même d’une religion dont l’élan hégémonique et sciemment terroriste n’a jamais été stoppé que par des armées plus puissantes que les siennes.
L’auteur rappelle aussi que les apologistes prétendant que l’Islam est pacifique se fondent sur des parties du Coran rédigées à des moments où l’Islam était extrêmement faible et n’avait pas les moyens de ses ambitions. Dès que le vent a tourné, les têtes sont tombées, juste comme elles tombent aujourd’hui. Ces apologistes, de toute évidence, soit sont dans l’ignorance, soit cherchent à nous tromper. Il est impossible à quiconque ayant réellement étudié les textes islamiques de croire à leur message pacifique.
Enfin, l’auteur explique comment ce que nous considérons comme des attentats-suicide sont présentés aux Musulmans par des Musulmans comme des actes de bravoure au service de Dieu, grâce à des interprétations qui font directement appel à ce que la religion musulmane prône comme les meilleurs des comportements, ceci dans ses traditions tant sunnite que chiite:
Suicide bombing in the Muslim world cannot be separated from religion. Its perpetrators believe jihad to be synonymous with war and mandate Muslims to strike not only at non-Muslims but also at co-religionists deemed insufficiently loyal to their radical cause. The ideological basis of such an interpretation has deep roots in Islamic theology, but it came to prominence with the twentieth-century rise of Muslim Brotherhood theorists such as Banna and Qutb and was further developed by their successors. While much of the exegesis developed out of Sunni jurisprudence, the Islamic Republic in Iran encouraged the phenomenon. Many of Tehran’s proxy groups embraced the tactic.
En conclusion:
It is fashionable among Western analysts and academics to explain away suicide bombing with discussion of "root causes" that omit religion. Many cite a history of exploitation by Western powers, Israel’s existence, government oppression, poverty, lack of education, and alienation as reasons why desperate individuals decide to blow themselves up to murder others. But attention to suicide bombers’ own justifications suggest that, for them, Islam and its call for jihad is the primary motivation.
À lire en entier sur le site du Middle East Quarterly.
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