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To establish God's rule means that His laws be enforced and that the final decision in all affairs be according to these laws…. The peace which Islam desires is that the religion…be purified for God, that the obedience of all people be for God alone.
—Sayed Qutb, “Jihad in the Cause of God,”Milestones
Peace be upon our Prophet, Muhammad Bin-Abdallah, who said “I have been sent with the sword between my hands to ensure that no one but Allah is worshipped, Allah, who put my livelihood under the spear and who inflicts humiliation and scorn on those who disobey my orders.”
—Osama bin Laden, Ayman al Zawahiri, Abu Yasir Rifa'i
Ahmad Taha, Mir Hamzah, & Fazlur Rahman,
Jihad against Jews and Crusaders
Deconstructing terrorist theology is the purpose of this paper. A psychoanalytic reading of religious fantasy educes motives that moral debate cannot when it focuses on the stated purposes and rationale of ideological disputes. There are far deeper ambitions and objects than those stated by any ideological rationale, and thus debating the validity of such ideas mistakes the projections, transferences, displacements, and even delusions for rational perceptions, ideas, or intentions. It grants the manifest content ontological status, as though it were the actual motivation, while disregarding the deeper, more intricate, latent fantasies that drive such ideologies and actions. Despite the astounding damage our government might have inflicted over the years, it is not the sole cause of terrorist jeremiad. Beneath the fac¸ade of righteous grievance, piety, and submission to the will of Allah are profound archaic conflicts, injuries, and grievances against