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To Defeat Radical Islamist Terror, the Ideology of Hatred Must Be Uprooted
(National Interest) Ahmed Charai - Fighting terrorism is not merely a battle against gunmen, militias, or armies. It is a battle against a death-worshipping ideology, a doctrine that teaches martyrdom as glory, hatred as duty, and murder as salvation. Until that poison is confronted at its root, every fallen terrorist will be replaced, and every apparent victory will prove to be only an illusion. Hamas could vanish from Gaza tomorrow - its tunnels flooded, its commanders killed, its arsenals dismantled, and still, the threat of terror would not end. The fighters would be replaced, the weapons restocked, the hatred reborn. Why? Because terror lives in a death-worshipping ideology. An ideology more resilient than armies, more viral than propaganda, more enduring than regimes. That radical Islamist doctrine, seeded by the Muslim Brotherhood nearly a century ago, remains undefeated, and no battlefield victory will last. The theory behind President Trump's 2019 "Peace to Prosperity" plan was: prosperity is the antidote to extremism. Build businesses instead of bunkers. Offer hope instead of hatred. Replace dependence with dignity. And yet, on Oct. 7, Hamas's slaughter of nearly 1,200 Israelis was not just an act of war. It was a declaration that no economic promise, no diplomatic vision, could substitute for ideology. Because ideology - not poverty, not unemployment - is what fuels the cult of terror. Terrorism is not born from deprivation but from indoctrination. Millions of impoverished people around the world do not strap bombs to their chests. What distinguishes the terrorist is not his misery - it is the poison of radical Islamism poured into his mind. It teaches that martyrdom is salvation, violence is duty, killing is sacred. It sanctifies death and sells it to teenagers as glory. The writer is the publisher of the Jerusalem Strategic Tribune.