After 9/11, we were inundated with the claims that by this time have become near-universal assumptions: Islam is peace. Jihadis are just a tiny minority of extremists. Jihad means a spiritual struggle and is willfully or ignorantly misinterpreted among jihadis.
Yet an Islamic scholar has just offered a succinct and telling enunciation of Islamic values that differs sharply from these claims. Is he an ignorant, racist, bigoted “Islamophobe” whose views can be easily dismissed? Hardly. He is an internationally respected Muslim Brotherhood leader whose words should be carefully pondered in Washington, but they won’t be.
The Kuwaiti Islamic scholar Tareq al-Suwaidan, who has been named among the 500 Most Influential Muslims for the last three years, recently enunciated a vision of Islamic values that differs markedly from what we have been told again and again in the West: “Preserving life is not the only objective of the shari’a – these include the preserving of religion, life, lineage, intellect, and property. These are the main objectives of the shari’a.”
That all sounds reasonable enough, but then al-Suwaidan added, “Which one of these objectives has higher priority? It is preserving religion, not preserving life. This is why there is a thing called ‘Jihad.’ If preserving life had the priority, there would be no Jihad – we would abolish it. Preserving religion takes priority over preserving life.” Thus peace, which would preserve life, is not the ultimate goal; Islamization is.
In line with this, al-Suwaidan found Hamas’ massacre of 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023, to be positively inspiring: “By Allah,” he said, “what happened during the Al-Aqsa Flood should be taught in the most prestigious colleges.” The Al-Aqsa Flood is the name that Hamas gave to its Oct. 7 massacre. “The planning,” al-Suwaidan continued, “was unbelievable. People who are experts in planning know that what happened could only succeed with divine intervention and profound and extraordinary planning.”
Warming to his topic, al-Suwaidan added: “Can you see how many young men and women in our Arab world – forget the Arab world, in the West – consider [Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades spokesman] Abu Obeida a role model?… The Al-Aqsa Flood is the best leadership training course in the world.”
Al-Suwaidan, who spent several years in Tulsa, Okla., meant to include the West among those who could learn from Oct. 7. Like everyone else, he has seen the thoroughly indoctrinated and propagandized college and university students all over the U.S. praise Hamas and celebrate the Oct. 7 attacks.
Amid his joy and excitement, however, al-Suwaidan was troubled that Allah had not yet granted the Muslims total victory: “Blood is flowing in Gaza like rivers. Where is the victory that we were promised? Why is there no divine intervention to stop the bloodshed of children, women, the elderly, and to stop the hunger in Gaza?” Who promised them victory? Allah. Al-Suwaidan is likely referring to the fact that the Qur’an promises success to the believers in this world as well as the next: “Allah gave them the reward of this world and the good reward of the hereafter. Allah loves those who do good deeds.” (3:148).
For al-Suwaidan, the fact that this victory has so far eluded the Muslims in Gaza means only that they should dedicate themselves all the more wholeheartedly to jihad for the sake of Allah, even if it would mean that they would die in the process: “Man, I do not cry for them. I am crying for myself for not being among them. This is how a believer should aspire for martyrdom.”
This is not the Islam George W. Bush told us about on June 24, 2002, when he set out a vision of a Palestinian Authority that was a beacon of freedom in the Middle East: “If liberty can blossom in the rocky soil of the West Bank and Gaza,” he asserted, “it will inspire millions of men and women around the globe who are equally weary of poverty and oppression, equally entitled to the benefits of democratic government.”
Bush went on to express his fantasies about Islam in general: “I have a hope for the people of Muslim countries. Your commitments to morality, and learning, and tolerance led to great historical achievements. And those values are alive in the Islamic world today. You have a rich culture, and you share the aspirations of men and women in every culture. Prosperity and freedom and dignity are not just American hopes, or Western hopes. They are universal, human hopes.”
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That’s the sort of thing that they still believe in the State Department, and it has deformed the U.S. response to people such as Tareq al-Suwaidan. Such people will never accept a negotiated agreement to live in peace with Israel. They will fight on unless the enemy is simply too strong for them to defeat.
Will anyone in the State Department, as it continues to press Israel for ceasefires that would let Hezbollah and Hamas survive to murder more Israelis, take note of Tareq al-Suwaidan’s statements and ponder their implications? Sure, right after Kamala withdraws from the race and endorses Trump.
