Caliphate is the New Jihad
-- Omer M. Mozaffar

The reader is surely familiar with the
phrase "Islam means peace", a response
to the linkages of Islam with violence.
Similarly, perhaps the most common
statement from Muslims since September
11, 2001 is "jihad does not mean holy war,
but struggle."

Now Muslim apologists in the United States
have found a new term to correct. Speaking
of al-Qa'ida and "violent Sunni extremists" in
September of 2006,  President Bush stated,
"They hope to establish a violent political
utopia across the Middle East, which they
call a "Caliphate" – where all would be ruled
according to their hateful ideology." Some
months later, in a May 2007 press conference,
the President said of al-Qa'ida, "Their strategy
is to drive us out of the Middle East. They
have made it abundantly clear what they want.
They want to establish a caliphate. They want
to spread their ideology. They want safe haven
from which to launch attacks."

While the accuracy or inaccuracy, methods,
and ambitions of the President's claims are
the subject of a separate discussion for a
different forum, his use of the term "caliphate",
which obliged immediate response from many
a Muslim speaker and activist, deserves comment.

The Qur'an states that God created Adam
in particular and the human race in general
to be His khalfa (caliph) on the earth.
The term "caliph" has been used throughout
Muslim history to refer to various persons of
authority, be they monarchical political leaders
or the heads of revivalist and/or Sufi movements.

Scholars have sometimes used the term
in referencing the Sunni outlook on the
golden age of Muslim history, that of the
Rightly Guided Caliphs who succeeded
the Prophet Muhammad.

While popular definition of the term indicates
a sort of vice-gerency of the Divine or
successorship to the Prophets, the moral,
social, political, and economic dimensions
of this role have been thoroughly explored.
A common topic of Muslim Student Association
lectures, for example, is the construction and
constitution of a theoretical, ideal Islamic way
of life – whether as society or as polity – and
the term used in such lectures is caliphate.

Political Islamists use the term to reference
the establishment of an Islamic polity,
commonly regarded as the "Islamic State."
They sometimes refer mournfully to March 3,
1924 as the moment of the final demise of the
Caliphate: the abolition of the Ottomans. The
majority of these Islamists are non-violent;
more importantly, few have any connection
to al-Qa'ida.

As an anti-occupation resistance movement,
the Indian subcontinent saw the rise of a
"Khelafat Movement" to fight off the British
colonizers. A non-Muslim member of this
movement went on to attain his own global
notoriety: M. K. Gandhi. Recently, scholars
such as Professor Amina Wadud have placed
focus not on the political or liberatory meanings
of the term, but on the aspect of moral agency.
Others still have embraced the zeitgeist and
directed attention to the role of the human
race in caring for the environment: These
Muslims call on congregants to fulfill their
roles as caliphs of the earth.

The term, then, is a robust and multidimensional
one. But the President's remarks – emblematic of
the widespread characterization of Islam as
uniquely connected to violence and
authoritarianism (a characterization that is
sometimes opportunist, sometimes bigoted,
but consistently myopic) – have compelled
what is now becoming the most common use
of the term by Muslims in the United States:
the apologetic use. It is the same tune that
we have heard for over a century of Islam in
America. In the same way that jihad does not
mean "holy war" but "struggle", caliphate does
not mean "authoritarian state" but "God's
vice-regency."  Thus, the President has
perpetuated a theme by adding a new word
to a growing lexicon of hate. Likewise, the
apologists are responding in a familiar way,
necessarily diminishing the complexity of a
term to counter its flagrant misappropriation:
Yesterday it was jihad; today it is caliphate;
no doubt tomorrow will see a different term.

As the Muslim populations of America actively
work to develop their indigenous Islam, the
challenge will involve determining – in the
face of this rhetorical contest – exactly what
types of caliphs they seek to be.

This writer intends to continue using the
term caliphate.

That is his jihad.

Omer M. Mozaffar is a PhD student in
Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
at the University of Chicago, and teaches
in the Asian Classics Curriculum at the
University of Chicago's Graham School of
General Studies.

References: President Bush's remarks
can be found at
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/09/20060905-4.html
and
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/05/20070524.html
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