By Kehinde Andrews
As the events in Paris continue to unfold, and with the attack in Yola, Nigeria, it is a reminder of the pull that Jihadism has to people across the globe, including those born and raised in European nations. Around1500 people from France have left to join the murderous Isis, a problem faced by many countries. Jihadism is a global phenomenon, not just in the Middle East, but with the doctrine infecting the African continent, sprouting the emergence of groups such as Boko Haram and Al Shabab who have committed unspeakable horror.
The popular way to understand Jihadism, is that people are being ‘radicalised’, however this is precisely the opposite of what is happening. Jihadism is not radical, it is extreme, twisting the messages of Islam, corrupting them into a hard line fundamental position. Jihadism is based on the same kind of extremism at the heart of Nazism, the KKK and all other fascist ideas. Amping up the basic ideas of a society into a murderous politics of hate. Radicalism is based on rejecting the roots of a society, of wanting to overthrow and overturn the system. An extreme version of Islam is incompatible with radicalism, which is always based on a politics of revolution, not revisionism and fear. Malcolm X, the Black revolutionary’s, message on religion was to keep it out of the politics, to ‘leave it between you and your God’. As a devout Muslim he saw no role for his religion in politics and would be horrified with the way that Islam is being distorted by the extremists.
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