The term
jihad is a divisive one, often inspiring lengthy YouTube comment sections, CNN specials, and raised voices between college students. ISIS follows a definition popularized by the historical mentor of al-Qaeda's current leadership; Sayyid Qutb. This Egyptian Islamist theorist advocated the abolition of obstacles, like social systems and states, which prevented humanity from achieving his strict interpretation of Islamic enlightenment. His notion of
jihad was not in the spirit of Stalinist "Socialism in One Country," but rather a Trotskyite vision for the global advancement of Sharia. While this is a frightening prospect when considering Qutb's following amongst ISIS leadership, it is essential to understand the actual meaning of
jihad, the one
practiced by over a billion Muslims:
a spiritual struggle for enlightenment, to better oneself and one's community without violence or imposition. To save the youth at risk from the grasp of the Taliban, ISIS, Boko Haram, or countless other hijackers of Islam, a war for enlightenment must be waged alongside tactical military operations.
Populist and leftist politicians in the West make a fool of themselves when they advocate aid over arms in the struggle against unrivaled brutality. However, while well-informed drone strikes and training programs have their place, armed force will only extricate the world from radicalism to a limited extent. We can still bomb, even invade, from time to time (much to the horror of bystanders to genocide), but surely this cycle does not end with an American flag run up in Mecca? The opening of minds and the banishment of ignorance is the only permanent solution to deter radical Islamism from fermenting in Paris or bombing in Baghdad. There must a be a
jihad for education in the West, one with center-right solutions, including school choice, private sector apprenticeships, merit pay, longer school years, the abolishment of teacher tenure, and greater specialization at the secondary level. It must also involve a chapter or two out of the left's dreamy handbooks, with more funding to cut class sizes, scholarships for outstanding students, and additional help for struggling ones. With a
jihad against ignorance, students will pioneer better technology to blog and build better drones, to reduce civilian casualties and further enable the diffusion of democratic luxuries. Young minds will also be less willing to throw up their hands and give up on their brothers and sisters across the globe, and more steadfast in opposing creeping intolerance and radicalization at home. Universities should not be safe spaces of protest and Israel Apartheid Weeks, but civic institutions that require semesters of public service, instigate cultural exchanges, and crack down on perversions of academia. Charity, like enlightenment, must always begin at home.
The vast sums that have been squandered on handouts to contractors, oligarchs, and dependency-breeding NGOs should instead be channeled toward the knowledge war. In the most forgotten patches of the earth, refugee camps should be equipped with schools, palaces filled with technology, international teachers and libraries, to stem the tide of radicalism and quench the inherent thirst for understanding. Instead of partnering with dubious Saudi and Qatari princes, alliances should be made with friendly (or malleable) governments in Nigeria, Pakistan, Jordan, and Afghanistan, with the Kurds of Iraq and Palestinian moderates, to build schools and replenish classrooms, to offer surplus Canadian teachers, to bolster secular education as a means of fortifying economies and human capital against the meager offers of rudimentary Madrassas. To arm the bodies
and minds of potential lost generations would be an invincible weapon to counter the twisted
jihad of Islamists, for worldliness can bridge alliances against it, prosperity can act as an alternative to it, and the tolerance bred in classrooms can be the silver bullet to stop it. To wage and win a
jihad for education, to achieve enlightenment, to gradually see pockets of learning appear amidst pervasive depravity, the world can be made anew; more open, better armed, and stronger in the struggle to save the minds of humanity.
The images coming out of Mosul trigger shudders worldwide, the daylong indoctrination sessions and widespread rapes stealing away the individuality of boys and the innocence of young girls. Trapped in ISIS's stronghold and wary about escaping to areas under abusive Shiite rule, Sunni parents have had little choice but to let their children be taken under the wing of perhaps the most vicious Islamist terror group of the 21st century. While there are fears that this cult might extend beyond far-flung deserts of the Middle East, its limited presence has already begun the process of indoctrinating a generation of youth, and it is doubtful that even shock-and-awe force will be able to undo the theft of minds and souls.
