New Political Religions, or an Analysis of Modern Terrorism [Hardcover]

Barry Cooper has a new book this year entitled NEW

POLITICAL RELIGIONS, OR AN ANALYSIS OF MODERN TERRORISM,

(University of Missouri Press, Columbia, 2004). The title puts

the reader in mind of Eric Voegelin's POLITICAL RELIGIONS, which

originally appeared in 1938 and dealt with the murderous mass

political movements of that era. In this work, Dr. Cooper has

brought his understanding of political theory to bear on what he

calls "Islamism," that fraction of Muslim society which

believes it has a God-given task to bring the world under Islamic

control, using murder and suicide as routine instruments for

conquest.

One of the epigrams for the volume is from Graham Greene, "They

won't believe the world they haven't noticed is like that"- and

it was certainly true for this reader! I thought in the years

following 9/11 that I had acquired a good grasp of the problems

faced by the West and particularly the US, but it soon became

evident to me on reading this book that I knew too little.

The book is divided into five chapters. The first, "Context,"

brings in Hannah Arendt and Voegelin on totalitarianism, terror

and spiritual disease in light of 9/11. The second, "Concepts,"

explains "pneumopathology" and "second reality" and discusses

them in relation to the Japanese revolutionary movement Aum

Shinrikyo. This lends needed emotional distance for the analysis

because it is not about 9/11 directly. The third chapter,

"Genealogy of Salafism," explores the history of Islam and the

related topics of Ibn Taymiyya, Wahhabism, the Muslim

Brotherhood, etc. The fourth chapter, "Genesis of a New

Ideology," explores the source of the modern problem in the

writings of Qutb in Egypt, the enshrining of scriptural

ignorance, and the heating of the pot by Khomeini and other

Shiites. Bin Laden and Al Qaeda and the theological problem of

suicide complete the chapter.

The last chapter, entitled "Counternetwar," explores the need to

modify traditional military methods in order to deal with the

elusive networking of the enemy, made possible in large part by

modern cyber technology. There is an astonishing appendix on

history and the Koran in which the historiogenesis of Islam is

explored as is the problem arising for fundamentalists that there

are now several varying manuscripts of the Koran which have not

been acknowledged, because while the bible has various texts

which cause problems, this is seen to be impossible for the Koran

since it was handed down directly by God. Both Voegelin and Leo

Strauss are used to set the argument.

Here are a few choice quotations from the book:

". . . societies that are not organized as states do not have

armies; rather, they are armies. In principle, therefore, where

armed force is directed by organizations that are not states,

against organizations that are not armies, by people who are not

soldiers, modern Clausewitzian categories are, if not eclipsed,

then cast into doubt as the only way that conflict can be

understood." p. 28.

"There is, therefore, an inherent friction between commonsense

reality, the common reality of worldly existence, within which

the terrorist like everybody else must live, and the occult

reality within which the terrorist lives imaginatively, an

imaginary reality where killing the innocent to impress others is

understood to be heroic, altruistic self-sacrifice." P.40

Quoting Heimito von Doderer in THE DEMONS: "A revolutionary,

said Doderer, is 'someone who wants to change the general

situation because of the impossibility or untenability of his own

position,' or rather, 'of the fundamentals of life in general.'

In fact, however, 'a person who has been unable to endure himself

becomes a revolutionary; then it is others who have to endure

him'." Here Dr. Cooper expands on Voegelin's Famous essay, "The

Eclipse of Reality."p.44

"The chief practical consequence of taking part in a cosmic

struggle with a satanic enemy is that the enemy must be

extinguished. The sentiments expressed by Hussein Mussawi, the

found of Hezbollah, are typical: 'We are not fighting so that

the enemy recognizes us and offers us something. We are fighting

to wipe out the enemy.'" P.57

Following a lengthy exposition of Voegelin's ISRAEL AND

REVELATION, Dr. Cooper brings the same type of analysis to Muslim

history. He carries the political and spiritual developments

forward to modern times, and along the way, tells us that after

the Mongol destruction of Baghdad in 1258 and killing of the

last Abbasid Caliph, that "the appropriate response to God's

scourge, both then and now according to the Muslim vulgate, has

been to recover the purity of the early companions [Salafs] of

the Prophet [return to origins being a common theme in Judaism

and Christianity as well]. . .Central as well was the importance

of jihad....It was an important constituent element in the

spiritual complex of the terrorist attack of [9/11]." pp 95-96.

Dr. Cooper terms this belief "Salafism" after the term for the

"venerable forefathers," the "early companions."

There is a related discussion of Wahhabism, a kind of militant

Islamic purity unifying politics and religion-Augustine's two

cities becoming one. On its growth and dominance in Saudi

Arabia: "[The British were] powerless to prevent the spread of

sentiments of great approbation for Wahhabi achievements. Chief

among them was the undeniable fact that Saudi Arabia was formally

independent of foreign, and thus infidel rule. Because Saudi

Arabia had experienced neither Western colonization nor rule by a

Westernized elite, the Saudi rulers could easily and genuinely

believe that [Wahhabi] Islam was socially, morally, and

religiously superior." p. 101

After Kemal created a secular state in Turkey and Nasser created

one in Egypt, the Salafists emerged with a doctrinal complex

which included the notion that the Koran is a complete guide to

individual and communal action, abandonment of the pure ways of

the ancestors brought about Western dominance, science can be

used so long as Westernization is not imported and lastly "jihad

is central to the revival of Islam and the conquest of the world

for God and against Satan." P.109.

"For Islamists, the issue is simple: in Muslim terms, the five

pillars of Islam (profession of faith, prayer, the fast of

Ramadan, pilgrimage, and charity) amount to a spiritual

preparation for war against the enemies of God. . . . the

limitations on what can be achieved by worldly action or on what

that worldly action may mean, which is established by the world-

transcendent dimension of Muslim spirituality, tends to be

eclipsed."p 119

The transformation of the prohibitions against suicide in the

hadiths to the granting of the six privileges of martyrdom to

suicides is characterized as a perversion. P138 and, "As with the

question of the black-eyed houris, the simplifiers and

vulgarizers clearly dominated the current popular debate. It is

now dogmatically established and lies beyond question self-

martyrdom, istishad, is not suicide, intihar, but indeed the

highest form of martyrdom." P 141

This book represents a synthesis of enormous historical,

religious, and philosophical scholarship by Dr. Cooper who is a

professor of political science; it is the kind of work Voegelin

did so well. I know of no other political scientist who brings

such a level of philosophical penetration to Islamism as does the

author. Of course Dr. Cooper read voraciously to prepare himself

to write this work and he generously gives tribute in the text

and footnotes to his sources. He particularly thanks Peter von Sivers,

a well known Voegelinian scholar who specializes in Islamic problems,

for guidance through the intricacies of Islamic culture.

A book-length argument can scarcely be reduced to a review and I

didn't attempt it. And an appreciation written by a non-

specialist must be taken with a grain of salt. Nevertheless one

can hope that enough has been shown here to lead the reader to

the original. It must be said too that it is a lively read. My

attention never wandered. Dr. Cooper is also the author of ERIC

VOEGELIN AND THE FOUNDATIONS OF MODERN

POLITICAL SCIENCE, (U. of Missouri Press, Columbis, 1999)

and ACTION INTO NATURE, An Essay on the Meaning of

Technology, (U. of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame 1991).

Cooper's book draws on Voegelin's analysis of the ideologically driven movements of the 20th century (Marxism, Nat'l Socialism). He applies this to Islamic terrorism and does a good job of tracing the roots of the movement. He ultimately points to the pneumopathology of the terrorists as the main "cause" of their tactics. This disease of the spirit allows for a second reality to be created, which suppresses common sense reality. This is what allows the terrorists to justify the slaughter of innocents and to ultimately try to "perfect the world." Cooper gets beyond the superficial motivations often attributed to terrorism and shows us why it is impossible to reason with them. I found the book to be very enlightening and easily the best on modern terrorism that I have come across.

This book is a psychological look into modern religious based terrorism.

While it attempts to explain and understand todays Islamic terrorists, it does so with a long history of struggles that have been religious based. Of course the Palestinian/Israeli struggles are discussed, but so is the more general concepts of what happens to any religious based 'government.' The trouble with the 'Rule of God' is that it is administered by mere humans. God's word as handed down in documents from a thousand or two years ago don't reflect everything that can go wrong in today's world. Acid rain, for instance, caused by a power plant a thousand miles away in another country is not to be found in the Bible or the Koran. When men speak, then, with God on their side and no questioning allowed, the result isn't freedom but tyranny. Galileo and the catholics for instance show just one example.

His conclusions are not happy. The situations that created the terrorists in the past continue. The regions of the world from which they come are not improving, and do not seem to have an improving future. He says that heis not directly interested in the 'clash of civilizations' made famous by Sam Huntington, but to me the situations he describe seem to fit Huntington's work very well.

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