What is an Islamist and an Islamic Extremist? Take this Test!
The hegemonic discourse of Europe speaks of Islamist and Islamic extremist as if they are homogenous categories part of a typology that is Islam. But all three European concepts Islam, Islamist and Islamic extremist do not resonate with the diversity of discourse and worldview that occupies the spaces delineated by Islamic discourse. A European caricature of Islamic discourse constitutes categories and a typology of Islam that seriously blinds the European it constitutes ability to gaze upon Islamic discourse and grasp its complexities and the motivational structures of the array of discourses and worldviews that insist they are Islamic discourse much less Quranic discourse. Orientalism the discourse which attempts to explain this European caricature of Islamic discourse is in itself a product of the said European discourse it attempts to deconstruct hence it’s a caricature of a caricature a most grotesque phenomenon which has failed signally to grasp the evolution of Islamic discourse in the post-world war 2 era of world history especially the impact of US hegemony on this process.
I have then derived a test that follows which is framed to illustrate the diversity of Islamic discourse and the grave peril the failure to gaze upon the landscape of Islam today and discern the heterogeneity that exists, the diverse nature of the threats that emanate from this terrain and the range of strategies that must flow from this knowledge. First, click the link and read the article
Click and read the translation of Anis Amri’s pledge of allegiance to Islamic State
Now answer: are there differences of worldview and discourse between the Muslims of the article and the Berlin attacker? This answer is the key to the entire lesson as it’s painfully clear the first article labours under the limitations of the discourse of caricatures that blinds the user to strategic realities they need to gaze upon but cannot see as they are discursively blind. Whilst the second click shows a fully motivated attacker in his own words are both discourses the same? A most strategically important question that must be answered accurately. To rant and rave about Islam and Muslims informed by a discourse that cannot provide the insights necessary to inform strategies that engage with the threats posed informs racist extremism that draws upon the failed racist discourse of the European crusades and the Salafi Jihadi threat will thrive upon this racist extremist European response and the security of the ordinary citizens of Europe will worsen as the blood of the most vulnerable is shed in public places. Ask your politicians to answer the question posed.