This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/8151
August 4, 2025
We must begin to recognize, as my colleague Jessica Stern has written, that "Jihad has become a global fad, rather like gangsta rap." And fads come and go. That's right: There is no one Arab or Muslim worldview. The long-term effort against radicalizing an entire generation begins with understanding that the Arab world is complex. Engaging it will mean saying different things to different constituencies with different outlooks.
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The New World of Islamic Legal Studies
Apr 01, 2002
By Lewis Rice
"We ordinarily don't try to respond to the news of the hour," said Frank Vogel, director of the HLS Islamic Legal Studies Program. But for Vogel, like for so many other people, everything changed on September 11. A program that for 10 years had toiled in a relatively quiet corner of the academic arena suddenly gained widespread attention–some of it hateful, most of it curious. The program had a responsibility, Vogel said, to address the questions. Since the attacks, he has instituted a lecture series, refined course offerings, answered media inquiries, met with Muslim students, and listened to the needs of an HLS community searching for insight.
"There was so much not only negative reaction to the Islamic tradition and civilization but also a lot of interest," he said. "So many people, including George Bush, were all calling for a greater understanding of Islam, and we do that full-time."
Vogel, who is not Muslim, helped establish Islamic legal studies at HLS after practicing law and doing research in the Middle East. The program recently faced scrutiny over an endowment received from the Binladin family, one of whom graduated from HLS. The graduate, Abdullah Binladin LL.M. '92 S.J.D. '00, and his family members long ago ostracized Osama bin Laden and condemned his actions.
"People began to realize that the Binladins are not to blame, that they are an impressive and upstanding family and they've been dealt a very severe blow by the events," said Vogel. "I think people now realize, more than they might have, why Islamic law deserves attention."
He acknowledges, however, that the study of law based on a religion can seem incongruous at a secular law school. While derived from the sacred text of the Koran, Islamic law has evolved over 1,400 years of interpretation and represents a major body of jurisprudence whose history and current influence should be studied, according to Vogel. Even the president of the United States invoked Islamic law in his address to Congress after the terrorist attacks.
"He was declaring that from an Islamic legal point of view, Osama cannot qualify as Islamic," said Vogel. "He was saying that he was basically a heretic or that he had twisted Islam to the point of breaking. He's right. Most Muslims would absolutely agree. But that was an easy decision."
The adjunct professor is teaching a course this spring that addresses whether Islam was a component of the September 11 attacks. This is not necessarily a popular perspective, he said. Muslims fear that terrorism is too often linked to their religion. Yet many people carrying out terrorist acts do so in the name of Islam, a phenomenon that cannot be ignored, he said. "There is much consciously Islamic content to both Osama's acts and the widespread–I must say widespread–Muslim affirmation of his acts," said Vogel.
If people expect an advocate for Islam in the director of the program, that's not what they'll get. Islamic legal studies, Vogel said, should be scholarly, objective, dispassionate, and accurate. He will, however, debunk misconceptions, such as the prejudice that Islam is violent, and that democracy, women's rights, and modernity are inherently incompatible with the religion.
Speaking at the onset of U.S. military action in Afghanistan, Vogel said that America is in a precarious position, torn by a desire to understand Islam and to vilify it. The choice the country makes, he said, could affect the future of relations between the West and the Muslim world.
"If too many things Islamic are condemned by the West as leading to barbarous stances or as being pathological, then this whole thing could unravel," he said. "The problem is that much about Islam does strike Westerners as inappropriate, non-modern, retrograde, or simply unintelligible. If we demand that they always speak our exact language, we are not going to be sympathetic enough, we are not going to understand, and we are going to fail."
https://hls.harvard.edu/today/the-new-world-of-islamic-legal-studies
LESSONS OF THE HUNT
Corydon Ireland
Harvard Staff Writer
Harvard experts on the death of Osama bin Laden
Harvard foreign policy experts say the death of Osama bin Laden is a blow to al-Qaeda, and a sign of the vitality and persistence of U.S. anti-terror expertise. But it will also renew the debate over U.S.-Pakistan ties and may even set the stage for a season of reprisals against American interests.
Still, the good news takes the lead.
"Terrorism is about drama and narrative designed to capture media attention and set the global agenda," said Joseph S. Nye Jr., University Distinguished Service Professor, repeating sentiments found in his book "The Future of Power" (2011). "The killing of bin Laden helps to puncture his myth of invincibility."
R. Nicholas Burns, a 27-year U.S. Foreign Service officer now teaching at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), posted his own reactions in a brief video. "Justice has been done," he said. "The person who ordered the death of Americans has himself been killed by our government."
Bin Laden's death is a "significant blow" to al-Qaeda, he said. But it does not mark the end of the global war on terrorism, since sympathizers "will now seek revenge against the United States," said Burns.
Bin Laden had slipped into a more symbolic than operational role, "but the forces he unleashed still exist," said Juliette Kayyem, assistant secretary for intergovernmental affairs in the Department of Homeland Security from 2009 to 2011. "My biggest fear is not another 9/11," she said, but low-level attacks that are not dramatic but are harder to detect.
Meanwhile, "no one is delusional that we've won the war on terror" in the wake of bin Laden's death, said Kayyem, who described security experts as "very smart and cautious about what it means.''
But finding and killing bin Laden underscored the professionalism of U.S. anti-terrorism efforts, said Burns, who praised the persistence that U.S. experts brought to bear in nearly 10 years of trying to track the al-Qaeda leader down. "Terrorists now know the United States is going to pursue them to the ends of the earth if necessary, for as long as it takes."
Still, there was an element of surprise to the news of bin Laden's death, said Kayyem, a member of the senior advisory board of HKS's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. "I had forgotten how much we wanted it. It was a shock."
But the U.S. street demonstrations that greeted news of the killing did not sit well with her. "I was not so thrilled with what was going on spontaneously," she said. "For one, it's a very private moment for the victims and their families."
Meanwhile, "we have a lot of accounting to do with Pakistan," said Kayyem, one of many commentators wondering about the implications of finding bin Laden comfortably housed in a Pakistani garrison town.
Burns called bin Laden's choice of residences a "very complicating matter" in relations with Pakistan, an Islamic state whose military is heavily subsidized by U.S. aid. "It just defies reason to think that Pakistani officials were completely unaware of his presence," he said of the high-profile terrorist. "Obviously lots of questions are going to be asked."
At the same time, it's unlikely that bin Laden's death will stir violent protest on the Arab street, where the al-Qaeda figurehead was "not unduly popular" for his murder of civilians, said Burns, director of HKS's Future of Diplomacy Project. "Many in the Arab world will see this as a victory in their struggle against terrorism."
Perhaps the greatest victory goes to the White House, said David Gergen, an adviser to four presidents and director of the Center for Public Leadership at HKS.
"There are more questions than answers about what impact the killing of bin Laden will have," he wrote in a May 2 commentary for CNN, "but we know this: For both George W. Bush and Obama, catching bin Laden was the big prize. Who ever got him would carry a bigger stick. And that's what Obama has just done."
Obama's legacy will be more than "finding and killing bin Laden," said Kayyem, who praised the president for bringing a new tone to discussions of terrorism. "He's very calm, he's very matter-of-fact, he's very adult about it," she said of the Obama's late-night announcement about the raid. "Mission is not accomplished and there are no victory laps — but it also doesn't mean we have to live our life every day in fear."
For both George W. Bush and Obama, catching bin Laden was the big prize. Who ever got him would carry a bigger stick. And that's what Obama has just done," said David Gergen, director of the Center for Public Leadership. File photo by Rose Lincoln/Harvard Staff Photographer
Amid all the commentary, it's important to keep the killing of bin Laden in perspective, wrote Stephen M. Walt in a May 2 blog posting for Foreign Policy magazine. (Walt is the Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of International Affairs at HKS.)
Yes, his death has symbolic impact, but bin Laden no longer had an operational role in al-Qaeda, he wrote. And bin Laden had become the titular head of a violent, fundamentalist movement that ultimately failed, swept aside by a wave of youthful sentiment in the Middle East inspired by "more universal ideals of democracy," said Walt.
And yes, bin Laden had great success in his day, since after all his strategies spawned wars that have cost the United States trillions of dollars and thousands of lives. But to give him too much attention now distracts from the challenges that confront the United States in the Arab world, wrote Walt. "Al-Qaeda isn't the real reason we are having a hard time in Afghanistan, and it has nothing to do with our difficulties with Iran."
The same military and intelligence prowess used to find and kill bin Laden will now be focused on other senior leaders among terrorists, said Kayyem.
And the same enriched intelligence capabilities will enliven discussion on new directions for U.S. foreign policy and the future of Islamic nations. "I'm very optimistic," said Kayyem, "about the opportunity this will provide us, and the Arab world."
Read updates from Harvard Kennedy School.
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CNN ripped after trashing FBI as 'juvenile' for branding hate-fueled Colorado firebomb attack as terrorism
By
Published June 2, 2025, 8:26 a.m. ET
CNN has been blasted after one of the lefty outlet's commentators trashed the FBI as "juvenile" for quickly branding the hate-fueled Colorado firebomb attack as terrorism.
Juliette Kayyem, one of the network's national security analysts, came under fire after challenging FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino when they declared Sunday's violence at a pro-Israel rally in Boulder a "targeted terror attack."
"It makes law enforcement look disorganized and it makes the FBI look so juvenile, like why are you getting ahead of the police chief who says 'I don't know what this is,'" Kayyem said on air late Sunday in the wake of the incident. We're going to take a step back, not be responsive to tweets by two heads of the FBI who don't have a long history in law enforcement," she continued.
"And we will wait and hope it isn't what we all worry it is — and if it is, then there'll be an investigation."
Kayyem, a former Department of Homeland Security official under President Barack Obama and current Harvard professor, added that if the probe found the violence was spurred by terrorism, she'd be the first to say it's a "hate crime."
"But until we do, we all need to, to not follow the FBI's tweets," she said.
The backlash again Kayyem was swift on social media, with many pointing to footage of the horror that showed the terror suspect, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, screaming "Free Palestine" before he blasted a crowd who were commemorating the Israeli hostages still in Gaza.
The guy shouted 'Free Palestine' while throwing fire bombs at a crowd of Jewish people," Ben Williamson, an assistant director for the FBI's public affairs unit, wrote on X.
"We correctly referred to an investigation of terrorism, will continue to do so and we have zero interest in what either these CNN guests have to say. Kick rocks."
Another raged, "There's a man on video in Boulder ranting about Zionism as he sets Jews on fire. CNN's first reaction? Andrew McCabe and Obama official Juliette Kayyem bashing Dan Bongino and Kash Patel as 'juvenile' and 'irresponsible' for saying this was an 'act of terror.'"
Juliette Kayyem's degrading remarks about the FBI, Patel, & Bongino is unacceptable. She must apologize to them publicly, then she should be fired. The people have had enough of the woke mentality.
CNN should be ashamed of itself," one person added.
Eight victims between 52 and 88 years old were hospitalized with varying injuries in the wake of Sunday's attack, authorities said.
The shirtless firebug suspect, identified as an Egyptian national who had overstayed his visa in the US, was nabbed at the scene. No criminal charges were immediately announced but officials said they would move to hold Soliman accountable.
The Post reached out to Kayyem but didn't hear back immediately.
This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/8151