How to convince people of this? Tell them that what’s happening in Gaza, and Syria, and Afghanistan and elsewhere is not precisely jihad, or that it’s not as bad as it seems. Ignore the entire history of jihad before the dawning of the modern age, and pretend that it is a newly-minted phenomenon.
In reality, the history of jihad is full of periods of advance and periods of stasis, with a very small number of retreats or losses (Spain, Israel, India). The jihad didn’t arise in modern times and won’t go away in modern times. Even if Trofimov were correct that it is in decline in our day, which requires ignoring a great deal of jihad activity, it would recur eventually, because contrary to Trofimov’s assumptions, and those of everyone he quotes in this article, jihad doesn’t arise from various geopolitical conditions, but from the teachings of Islam which always remain there to be taken up by Muslims who may have hitherto paid them scant attention.
“Why Jihadism Is in Retreat,” by Yaroslav Trofimov, Wall Street Journal, January 2, 2026:
One week before Islamic State-inspired terrorists attacked a Jewish religious celebration in Sydney on Dec. 14, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa addressed a diplomatic conference in Doha, Qatar. Fresh from hobnobbing with President Trump in the White House and dressed in a suit and red tie, the man who had created the Islamist extremist movement’s Syrian franchise told the assembled dignitaries that his homeland would not be a source of problems for anyone—including neighboring Israel.
“We have gone from being a country that exported crises to one that has a hope of delivering stability,” Sharaa said.
The occasional terrorist acts flaring up around the world, often by self-radicalized Islamic State sympathizers such as the father and son who gunned down 15 people at the Hanukkah party in Sydney, overshadow the broader trajectory of political Islam in the Middle East and beyond. In a historic shift away from the lure of global upheaval and toward a more pragmatic coexistence with the rest of the world, including the West, it now largely follows Sharaa’s path.
“Jihadism and radicalism are in demise. And that’s because they have never had a successful model to present to society, not once in the past 100 years,” said Hemin Hawrami, former deputy parliament speaker of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region and a senior leader in its dominant party.
The ideology of modern political Islam, which emerged with the Muslim Brotherhood’s founding in 1928, was influenced by two other 20th-century ideologies, communism and fascism. Like them, it sought a utopian new world—aspiring to overthrow the global order, or at a minimum the contemporary Muslim nation-states, by erasing unnatural borders drawn by Western colonizers….
“In the 1960s and 1970s in Europe, everyone was a revolutionary, it was a natural state of affairs among the young people. And then, after a while, the great revolutionary illusions were gone,” said Olivier Roy, professor at the European University Institute in Florence and a leading scholar of political Islam. “There was then a passage to terrorism, and that comet tail lasted a long time—but the narrative of the far left no longer mobilized an entire generation.”
The same thing is happening with political Islam, he said: “Jihadism was also an almost romantic narrative. It mobilized people, it allowed them to see themselves as heroes, as people who will transform the world, as the saviors and the saints. But it, too, didn’t survive the test of politics, the test of reality.”
somehistory says
the same ole’ same ole’ Lies. muzzies lie as a matter of routine. And idiots use the media to spread the lies like a chef spreads hot butter. Only with butter, its taste is good with no bad aftertaste. It enhances.
Readers are not to trust their eyes and ears. We are not supposed to recognize that the terrorism is increasing around the earth, with each day bringing yet more evil.
muzzies are winning…or cheating their way into… political office in order to force the public to accept, support and swallow all of the evil muzzies have to *offer.*
It is not dying or ‘in retreat.’ It’s roaring, prowling, threatening and fighting dirty.
Wellington says
Conforming why I gave up on the WSJ long ago.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
It’s not just them: all of News Corp lacks credibility. Even on Fox, I only occasionally watch The Five, but nothing else is interesting. I think all these news organizations will disintegrate over the next few years, and everybody will get their news from some form of social media or the other
memi says
Yes, absolutely! We are all starting to turn away from the “News Corp”.and relying on social media.to escape the fake news drowning us on CNN/CBS/NBC/BBC and even on FOX lately!
James Lincoln says
Yaroslav Trofimov’s Wall Street Journal article talks about jihadism and “the test of reality.”
Well, for starters, his article does not survive the “test of reality”.
somehistory says
James, That’s a large part of his problem. He’s making up stuff. It’s kind of like those people who say, “My truth” instead of “the Truth.” He has his own form of ‘reality.”
James Lincoln says
Spot-on, somehistory.
OLD GUY says
While there ‘may’ be truth in jihad decreasing thats only because Islam is wanting the migration of islam into Europe and the Americas to continue. Any time islam’s numbers get big enough the attacks will continue. Those who defend islam and make up these stories are fools or on the payroll.
Westman says
‘Jihadism and radicalism are in demise. And that’s because they have never had a successful model to present to society, not once in the past 100 years,” said Hemin Hawrami’
If we agreed with Hawrami, we might ask, “And the other barbaric, murderous 1300 years?” followed by, ” how many people, in and out of Islam, have died as a result of Islam in the past 100 years?”
“The same thing is happening with political Islam, ….. it allowed them to see themselves as heroes, as people who will transform the world, as the saviors and the saints. But it, too, didn’t survive the test of politics, the test of reality.” — Olivier Roy
Helluva of a big comet tail!
memi says
Yes, agree….the Barbarians are already inside the Gate! They conquered Constantinople 1453 and since then they’ve been trying to destroy democracies and civilization. Political Islam is the eney. I’ve had friends from muslim countries like Egypt and under Moris (the Islamist who took over 2011–12, the country was bankrupt and Islamists flourished, while the middle class of Egypt left. Now they have al-Sisi, dictatorial, but at least he governs a Secular country–not beholden to the Islamist Jihad.
Unfortunately, Jihad is growing in the West now.
D Stalling says
Most of the articles today have lead-in paragraphs that do not provide locational context. For those of us who don’t have every world leader memorized and in the forefront of our minds, it might be nice to have country being spoken of in the first two sentences.
jerry glenn says
Rampant Islamopandering.
Winston 101 says
This is what you call “Cherry Picking A Timeline”.
Pick a small section of a timeline and have it represent the whole.
There are 1400 years on the timeline of Islamic Jihad with its Islamic Motivation
Trofimov picks a small, current, segment of that timeline and attaches some current geopolitical motive.
He neither “sees” or “listens to” Islam. He’s blind and deaf to Islam.
Not someone to be relied on for information about Islam since he can neither see it nor hear it.
memi says
Sorry, but Jhadism is alive and well and living among us! Spence is right! “The jihad didn’t arise in modern times and won’t go away in modern times”.
And the reason is, as he states: “jihad doesn’t arise from various geopolitical conditions, but from the teachings of Islam which always remain there to be taken up by Muslims who may have hitherto paid them scant attention”
So this would mean that we have to be on constant guard from now to Enternity, unfortunately. Unlike thetocratic regimes like Iran, their Quran will remain and “teach” them how to be SEMITOPHOBIC, CHRISTIANOPHOBIC, HINDUPHOBIC…..but only ISLAMOPHOBIA is “true” to these fanatics who make the Inquisition seem like Mother Teresa on holiday!
The funny thing is that Islamophobia is RATIONAL! For reasons that all you have to do is read the articles in JIHAD WATCH–and “news” in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Athens, Copenhagen, Minnesotta, Madrid,Rome, Berlin, Stockholm etc.
Attila may be at a McDonald’s near you planning his next attack on civilication! And already illegal migrants/”refugees” are taking over cities in London and Belfast and….