Apocalypse
then and now
Introduction
The Beginning of the End
The Secularisation of the Apocalypse
The Ideology of Jihad
The Day of Wrath
The Apocalyptic Checklist
Literature
Illustrations
News and commentary
Links
Have the terror attacks of September 11 anything to do with Islam or, for that matter, religion? A strange question, perhaps, given the theological language found in the letters of the actual terrorists and also saturating the words of Osama bin Laden. But some commentators have been reluctant to acknowledge those connections. "This has nothing to do with Islam," British Prime Minister Tony Blair recently told a delegation of Muslims at a meeting at 10 Downing Street, for example. David F. Forte argues ("Religion is Not the Enemy") that bin Laden's brand of terrorism is "outside of even militant Islamic fundamentalism", that his sect has "gone beyond being a religious sect" and that it should rather be seen as a political ideology. Reading his article it seems as his position is that if something terrible is done in the name of a religion it actually has secular motives, because religion is "the repository of what is forever good".
On the other hand, some commentators have seen the September 11 attacks as an example of the danger of fundamentalistic Islam, fundamentalistic religion or even monotheistic religiosity in general. In his article "Religion's misguided missiles", Richard Dawkins comes to the conclusion that to "fill a world with religion, or religions of the Abrahamic kind, is like littering the streets with loaded guns. Do not be surprised if they are used." And Andrew Sullivan ("This Is a Religious War") argues that the "religious dimension of this conflict is central to its meaning" and that bin Laden has his roots in militant Islamic fundamentalism.
Sullivan's conclusion is that religions have been the source of the greatest evils of our times, but Forte points out that more people have been killed under secularist, atheistic regimes - Hitler, Stalin and Mao, for example - than under any religious banner. So the question remains - is the problem in this case fundamentalistic religion or a secularist political ideology?
First of all, as stated above, it seems strange to deny the connection between bin Laden's terrorist network and militant fundamentalistic Islam. Terror attacks against American and allied civilians are explicitly rationalized in religious terms in bin Laden's fatwas and speeches. Islamism is by definition a political ideology which "wants to set up an Islamic state with a constitutional framework and political organisation solely based on Islam with the Sharia or Islamic law as its sole legal reference.", but it's political agenda is of course woven into a religious worldview.
Also, if bin Laden is completely outside "even militant Islamic fundamentalism", it seems it would be difficult to explain his popularity among Islamic fundamentalists. According to a Gallup poll bin Laden is seen as a "mujahid" (freedom fighter) by 82 percent of the Pakistanis. There have been many reports on his popularity in Palestine and among Islamic Africans as well. And even if September 11 and bin Laden is seen as a "breed apart" there remains a plethora of terror attacks and violence made in the name of Islam by militant Islamists who see themselves as devotedly religious. To deny the connection is not only "some kind of denial", but dangerous as well, as it blinds us for the threat of totalitarian Islamism.
One could invert Forte's argument that religious terror is "secular" by maintaining that the totalitarian ideologies of Nazism and Communism are in fact "religious" rather than secular. They can be defined as "ersatz religions" or secular apocalyptic movements. The structural similarities between Islamism, Communism, Nazism and the apocalyptic movements of Judaism, Christianity and Islam are many and important, as it is exactly that apocalyptic core which makes them dangerous.
Let's start with Zoroastrianism, as the dualism of this Iranian religion came to influence both Jewish and Christian apocalypticism. A.V William Jackson argues that the war of the two spirits - between good and evil - is a fundamental idea in Zarathustra's teachings.
"The universe is divided by a might gulf; on the opposite sides of this gulf stand the contending kingdoms of light and of darkness, the domains of good and evil, the realms of truth and falsehood." (28)
Also, in it's eschatology Zoroastrianism invents the apocalyptic belief in the imminence of the End and the promise of a new world order: "A mighty crises is impending; every man ought to choose the right and seek to attain the ideal state; mankind shall then become perfect and the world renovated". (143f)
The ethical dualism of Zoroastrianism influenced the Jewish apocalypticism that emerged from Maccabee times. Arthur P. Mendel identifies some features of apocalypticism: "total rejection of the present world", "the radical division between the sinners and the saved", "absolute faith in the imminence of an ideal, divine kingdom of the saved" and "emphasis on the terrible violence that will accomplish the miraculous transmutation". (23, 31) A prototype for many other apocalyptic texts was "The Book of Daniel", which Paul Johnson characterizes as follows; "It uses historical examples, from Assyrian, Babylonian and Persian times, to whip up hatred against pagan imperialism in general and Greek rule in particular, and I predicts the end of empire and the emergence of God's kingdom, possibly under a heroic liberator, a Son of Man. The book vibrates with xenophobia and invitation to martyrdom." (121)
Some sects took the apocalyptic promise of a kingdom of righteousness literal. They believed it was "physical, real, imminent and that they were bound to hasten it's appearance." (122) One example is the Zealots, who preached and practiced violence. Another was the militant Qumran monks who wrote "The War of the Children of Light Against the Children of Darkness", which "was not just vaguely apocalyptic but constitutes a detailed training guide to the battle they believed imminent". (123) A third was of course the Christ sect; "Christianity was born apocalyptic and has remained so, not in the sense that apocalyptic hopes exhaust the meaning of Christian belief, but because they have never been absent from it." (McGinn (11)) Islam is the fourth and last example; "The first layer is the apocalyptic world view, which derives from the oldest Enochic and Zoroastrian ideas, the second is the Messianism of the Qumran sect, overlappingly transmitted through Christianity." This does not mean that Christianity or Islam should be seen as apocalyptic religions, but the concepts and ideas of apocalypticism are woven into their sacred texts and an essential part of their beginnings.
BABYLON
FALLEN
For her sins have reached unto heaven,
and God hath remembered her iniquities...
(Revelation 18:5)
The Secularisation of the
Apocalypse
In his book "Vision and Violence", Arthur P. Mendel pauses when he has chronicled the early history of apocalypticism until "The Revelation of John":
"The Apocalypse was now complete and ready to begin its long and violent career in our history. …all apocalyptic movements thereafter mirrored the original model. For all of them, the existing society is beyond repair, too corrupt for reforms and doomed to complete annihilation; for all of them, the coming Kingdom, the "new heaven and new earth," is beyond compare or criticism, purged of the sins of the old aeon; and for all of them, the transition between the two realms is beyond compassion, cataclysmically violent and unforgiving toward those condemned to "mourn and weep", "weep and gnash their teeth," … Finally, the outcome has always been the exact opposite of that promised - not millennial liberation but authoritarian domination." (43f)
Norman Cohn has chronicled the revival of revolutionary eschatology during the Middle Ages in his brilliant "The Pursuit of the Millennium", in which he also points out "a startling resemblance to the great totalitarian movements of our own day. … The old symbols and the old slogans have indeed disappeared, to be replaced by new ones; but the structure of the basic phantasies seems to have changed scarcely at all." (xiv)
The French Revolution is the first example of secular revolutionary apocalypticism and the Terror the first example of how it's utopian ideals in practice translated into a violent nightmare. In the Vendee, for example, a half-million had been killed by the time the terror came to an end. A result of St. Just's belief that "everything around us must change and come to an end, because everything around us is unjust". (120)
Which brings us to the totalitarian ideologies of the 20:th century. Both communism and nazism saw the current world order as evil and nearing its end; it was seen as dualistically polarized between "sinners" and "saved"; it was necessary to purge it of "evil" before the promised "paradise" could be reached. The resulting bloodbaths in both cases reached staggering proportions beyond compare.
One can draw a couple of conclusions from this identification of the apocalyptic core in different revolutionary movements. First of all that the apocalyptic worldview is dangerous - it's adherents has a tendency to become fanatical believers in the necessity of murder and violence to achieve their holy goals. But it also shows that the difference between "religion" and "ideology" is not as huge as some might think. In fact, the murderous versions of them have a lot in common.
The Egyptian writer Sayyid Qutb became the leading guru of militant Islamism in the second half of the 20th century. His most important contribution is perhaps his argument that most if not all existing Muslim regimes were "corrupt and sinful (the term used is yahiliya which can be translated as pagan, or, perhaps more correctly barbaric - the state of affairs prevailing before Mohammed appeared) and had to be combated and overthrown." (Walter Laqueur) As a result of this teaching he was kept in prison for years under Nasser and was eventually hanged in 1966. Osama bin Laden's spiritual leaders, Abdullah Azzam and Ayman Al-Zawahiri, are both influenced by Qutb's "ideology of Jihad".
"Mankind today is on the brink of a precipice" are the opening words of Qutb's influential book, "Milestones". The reason for this catastrophic situation is that the "vast ocean of Jahiliyyah…has encompassed the entire world." Qutb divides the world into the sacred (a perfect Islamic state) and the profane (the non-Islamic world), which in fact meant that the whole world was seen as profane.
The solution, according to Qutb, is to overthrow Muslim rulers and fight the Satanic West: "In the world there is only one party of God, all others are parties of Satan and rebellion. Those who believe fight in the cause of God, and those who disbelieve fight in the cause of rebellion." ("Milestones") Also: "Islam cannot accept any mixing with Jahiliyyah. Either Islam will remain, or Jahiliyyah; no half-half situation is possible." ("The Right to Judge")
Robert Marquand points out the utopian goal of Qutb's teachings: "Like many of the students in today's Pakistani madrassahs, and many in the Taliban ranks, Qutb had a faith that Islam is peaceful and moderate - but that this needed Utopia, a world like the one the prophet administered for 30 years in Mecca and Medina, must be achieved by force."
"The absolute coherence between man's life and that of the Universe, when achieved, results in endless years of good for man." ("Universal Law")
To reach this utopian state an ideology of Jihad is needed and Qutb argues that the "orientalist" interpretation of Jihad as a defensive method is wrong.
"It is in the very nature of Islam to take initiative for freeing the human beings throughout the earth from servitude to anyone other than God; and so it cannot be restricted within any geographic or racial limits, leaving all mankind on the whole earth in evil, in chaos and in servitude to lords other than God. Other societies do not give it any opportunity to organize its followers according to its own method, and hence it is the duty of Islam to annihilate all such systems, as they are obstacles in the way of universal freedom." ("Milestones")
The apocalyptic core of this ideology is evident. A total rejection of the present world, a radical division between sinners and the saved, an absolute faith in the imminence of an ideal, divine kingdom of the saved and emphasis on the violence that will accomplish the miraculous transmutation, to paraphrase Mendel.
Even more evidently apocalyptic is Safar al-Hawali's "The Day of Wrath", in which he analyses "The Book of Daniel" and "The Revelation of John" to find out about the timetable for the "End Times". Daniel Thompson notes that supporters of Osama bin Laden quote this Saudi answer to Hal Lindsay. Its popularity on the Internet is an indicator of contemporary sentiments among fundamentalistic muslims.
According to "The Day of Wrath" The New Jerusalem is actually Mecca, The New Babylon is "modern Western culture in general and American culture in particular", the new Roman Empire is, of course, the U.S.A. and the Beast, "or two beasts are Zionism with it's two faces, one Jewish, the Other Christian."
"The beginning of the new era will be with the announcement of jihad, and it is our hope that this intifadha will be the beginning. But if it is not, it is doubtlessly a preparation for it. Therefore, jihad must be announced and all other slogans cease."
The date set for the extermination of the last Zionist is 2012.
From
Time's photoessay
"Shattered"
-
a collection of photographs by James Nachtwey.
As we have seen, apocalyptic movements can be either religious or political, or rather both at the same time. But my main point has been to identify the essential structural similarities that are found both in religious and secular apocalyptic movements. In fact, the structure of the apocalyptic worldview is so easily identified that one can make a checklist to see if a particular religious or political movement can be identified as apocalyptic. Let's try it with militant Islamism or more precisely with Sayyid Qutb's version of it, as it is a major influence for contemporary Islamist movements.
1. Does the movement identify itself as "chosen", either by God, history or as a race?
Check. "The people who are really chosen by God are the Muslim community..." ("Milestones")2. Does the movement demonise its "adversaries"?
Check. "...all others are parties of Satan and rebellion." ("Milestones")3. Does the movement see a radical division between "sinners" and "saved"?
Check. "Islam cannot accept any mixing with Jahiliyyah. Either Islam will remain, or Jahiliyyah; no half-half situation is possible." ("The Right to Judge")4. Does the movement totally reject the present world?
Check. "...the vast ocean of Jahiliyyah…has encompassed the entire world." ("Milestones")5. Does the movement believe in a coming utopian state, "purged of the sins of the old aeon"?
Check. "The absolute coherence between man's life and that of the Universe, when achieved, results in endless years of good for man." ("Universal Law")6. Does the movement advocate the use of violence against its adversaries to reach its goals?
Check. "...it is the duty of Islam to annihilate all such systems, as they are obstacles in the way of universal freedom." ("Milestones")The last point is of course the crucial one, as it is the use of violence that differentiates harmless apocalyptic movements from dangerous ones. The danger lies in the man-made realization of the apocalypse and today the most imminent threat comes from the Islamist version of this age-old vision.
Mårten Barck
[Posted 2001/10/28 [rev. 2001/10/30]]
Literature:
Cohn, Norman "The Pursuit of the Millenium" (London 1957)
Jackson, A V William "Zoroastrian Studies - The Iranian Religion and Various Monographs" (New York 1965)
Johnson, Paul "A History of the Jews" (New York 1987)
McGinn, Bernard "Visions of the End" (New York 1979)
Mendel, Arthur P "Vision and Violence" (Ann Arbor 1992)Illustrations:
#1: "The Fall of Babylon" by Gustave Doré. See: "The Doré Bible Gallery".
#2: From Time's photoessay "Shattered" by James Nachtwey.News and commentary:
"Religion is Not the Enemy" (David F. Forte, National Review, 2001/10/19)
"This Is a Religious War" (Andrew Sullivan, The New York Times, 2001/10/07)
"Religion's misguided missiles" (Richard Dawkins, Guardian Unlimited, 2001/09/15)"Origins and Development of Apocalypticism and Messianism in Early Islam: 610-750 CE" (Said Amir Arjomand, August 2000)
"Milestones" (Sayyid Qutb, Young Muslims Canada)
"The Right to Judge" (Sayyid Qutb, islamworld)
"Universal Law" (Sayyid Qutb, Salaam)"The Day of Wrath" (Safar Ibn 'Abd Al-Rahman Al-Hawali, islaam.com)
Links:
Islamism
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