Chapter Six

From Palestine to Afghanistan, and from Chechnya to Bosnia, wherever violence was resorted to in the name of ‘Islamic Jihad’, it was all a product of this ideology. In the same way, the Jamaat-e-Islami developed the idea that all the systems prevailing throughout the world today are ‘false systems’, or taghuti nizams. It claimed that it was the duty of every Muslim to eliminate these ‘false systems’ and to enforce the ‘Islamic system’ in their place. It contended that this work was so very necessary that if it did not succeed through admonishment, the followers of Islam should use violence and snatch the keys of power from the upholders of falsehood and enforce a Government based on Islamic law over the entire world. The violence that is happening in the name of Islam in places like Pakistan and Kashmir is entirely a result of this self-created ideology. The horrific violence in the name of Islam, both before and after 9/11 in different parts of the world, is, directly or indirectly, a result of these two self-proclaimed ‘revolutionary’ movements. The starting-point of the intellectual deviance of the founders of these two parties is their failure to understand the difference between a party (jama‘at) and the state. Something which was only the responsibility of an established state came to be regarded by them as the responsibility of the party that they had formed. According to Islamic teachings, actions such as jihad, in the sense of qital or physical warfare, and the enforcement of Islamic laws related to collective affairs, are entirely the responsibility of a government. It is completely forbidden in Islam for non-state actors to form parties for political agitation for these purposes. What the limits of the sphere of activity of a jama‘at, or party, in Islam are is indicated in the following Quranic verse: Let there be a group among you who call others to good, and enjoin what is right, and forbid what is wrong: those who do this shall be successful. (3:104) According to this Quranic commandment, it is legitimate for non-state actors to establish a jama‘at or party only for