Classical Islamic Paradigms of Deterrence and their Expression in ...

cultural epochs, from Roman Antiquity to German Classicism. If one enters into a conflict with an adversarysuch as the Greeks, one might be defeated by stratagem. Vergil uses the concrete term for fear, "timeo"and implies the Trojan Horse as object of fright, yet he expresses actually a general feeling of fear from theGreeks. Such a dona-phobia (fear of presents) could again be explained with different perceptions of fear inantiquity. Despite their cultural and geographic closeness, antique Mediterranean cultures had verydifferent relationships to their emotions. Stoics and Epicureans, for example, despised fear as an artificiallycreated feeling. The remedy was composure (atoraxia), which is comparable to the 19 th century Prussianvalue system that was influenced by neo-classicist ideas. Toughness against oneself and one’s fears wascompensated by sense of duty (Pflichtbewusstsein). However, other trends of antique culture treatedirrational states of fear with great awareness. In Greek mythology, Phobos means similar to the Latin timor"fright" and is fixed to a concrete threat, yet it emanates from an inner state of fear. 46 The mythology,which Muslims foster in times of conflict, has its own classical and modern idols of terror. For example, theself-sacrificial attacker (munghamis) at the siege of Constantinople in 674 is an important figure in jihadifright and deterrence perceptions; as well as Bin Laden, or Abd al-Aziz al-Muqrin, the former leader of al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia (killed 2003); but also CIA-attacker Abu Dujana al-Khorasani (2009). They areperceived as almost saint-like figures who threw dreadful wrath upon their enemy, the enemies of allMuslims, were guided by God, now reside in paradise and are full of love for their own kin.The veneration of some Sunni idols of fear by followers strongly borrows from Sufi, even reminds of Shiitemartyrdom spirituality. But it is reversed into a martial and terrorist cult, which culminates in expressions oftotal devotion to inspirational figures (fan-pictures, posters, wall-banners, movies, discourses, etc.). Sometrends of Islamic fundamentalism (similar to Christian and Jewish counterparts) very consciously cultivatestates of fear. Divine command and human piety are strongly based on different threat scenarios that causefear and explicate prohibitions against infringements.But cultural perceptions change over time. While a statue was a worshipped cult-object for antique Greeks,medieval Christian clerics saw it as a frightening idol (Abgott). Yet, both perceived its singularity, in otherwords, its aura. 47 Since the 1980s scholars have started integrating new concepts into deterrence includingthe "interpretative version of the concept of strategic culture." 48 The mystic "aura" of suicide attackers andslain jihadi leaders is highly flexible on the level of interpretative culture and depends on socio-politicalcontext. The acceptance of suicide-deterrence has been "learned" through a bitter history of asymmetricconflicts, and has become ever stronger over the last 15 years. 30 years ago, Muslim publics wouldprobably have reacted extremely "deterred" by the idea that sectarian co-religionists commit dozens ofsuicide bombings each year.States of consciousness dread and scare, according to the French intellectual Georges Bataille (1897-1962),are the impetus for prohibitions. A prohibition or negative rule only works, if a scare or dread scenario hasbeen established, which is effectively causing the abandonment of actions out of fear from the results. TheGreeks in the Aeneis see Friedrich Schiller, Schiller’s sämmtliche Werke (Paris: Felix Loquin,1837), 29. "Die Griechen fürchte ich, unddoppelt, wenn sie schenken."46 Phobos and Deimos were the gods of dread and terror in Greek mythology and their counterpart in Roman mythology was Metus. InGreek mythology, Phobos means similar to the Latin timor "fright." Phobos is fixed to a concrete threat, yet it emanates from an inner stateof fear. Phobos and Deimos are the twin sons of the God of War, Ares, and the Goddess of Love, Aphrodite.47 Walter Benjamin, "Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter Seiner Technischen Reproduzierbarkeit", Berlin, Suhrkamp, 2010, p. 21. The influence ofGreek culture in the Roman Empire greatly contributed to the acceptance of Christianity, which resulted in the establishment of the"Heiliges Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation" (Sacrum Romanum Imperium). All of these epochs are nowadays understood as centralelements of "Abendländischer Kultur." Yet, each cultural epoch in one way or other exploited and at the same time annihilated theprevious.48 Amir Lupovici, "The Emerging Fourth Wave of Deterrence Theory—Toward a New Research Agenda," International Studies Quarterly 54,2010, p. 711.15