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Islamic extremism, Islamist extremism or radical Islam refers to a set of extremist beliefs, behaviors and ideologies within Islam. These terms remain contentious, encompassing a spectrum of definitions, ranging from academic interpretations of Islamic supremacy to the notion that all ideologies other than Islam have failed and are inferior. [1]
Political definitions of Islamic extremism, such as that employed by the government of the United Kingdom, characterize it as any form of Islam that opposes "democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs." [2] In 2019, the United States Institute of Peace issued a report on extremism in fragile states, advocating the establishment of a shared understanding, operational framework for prevention, and international cooperation. [3]
Islamic extremism is different from Islamic fundamentalism or Islamism. Islamic fundamentalism refers to a movement among Muslims advocating a return to the fundamental principles of an Islamic state in Muslim-majority countries. Meanwhile, Islamism constitutes a form of political Islam. However, both Islamic fundamentalism and Islamism can also be classified as subsets of Islamic extremism. Acts of violence committed by Islamic terrorists and jihadists are often associated with these extremist beliefs.
The academic definition of radical Islam consists of two parts:
UK High Courts have ruled in two cases on Islamic extremism, and provided definition.
Aside from those, two major definitions have been offered for Islamic extremism, sometimes using overlapping but also distinct aspects of extreme interpretations and pursuits of Islamic ideology:
There are two UK High Court cases that explicitly address the issue of Islamic extremism. [8]
The judge refers to several grounds: section 20 of the 2006 Act; the definition of "terrorism" in section 1 of the Terrorism Act 2000 and the decision of the Supreme Court in R v Gul. [9]
Begg, a prominent Muslim public figure and Imam at Lewisham Islamic Centre since 1998 lost his 2016 court case of Libel against the BBC. This case is noteworthy because the judge lists a 10-point definition of Islamic extremism that he used to determine the case:
In Charles Haddon-Cave's findings he wrote: [10]
Extremist Islamic positions
118. In my view, the following constitute "extremist" Islamic positions (or indicia thereof).
First, a 'Manichean' view of the world. A total, eternal 'Manichean' worldview is a central tenet of violent Islamic extremism. It divides the world strictly into 'Us' versus 'Them': those who are blessed or saved (i.e. the "right kind" of Muslim) on the one hand and those who are to be damned for eternity (i.e. the "wrong kind" of Muslim and everyone else) on the other. For violent Islamic extremists, the "wrong kind" of Muslim includes moderate Sunni Muslims, all Shia Muslims, and many others who are "mete for the sword" and can be killed, and anyone who associates or collaborates with them. Additionally, this worldview often leads to the rejection of pluralism and the denial of any legitimate interpretations of Islam that differ from their own extremist beliefs.
Second, the reduction of jihad (striving in God's cause) to qital (armed combat) ('the Lesser Jihad')...
Third, the ignoring or flouting of the conditions for the declaration of armed jihad (qital), i.e. the established Islamic doctrinal conditions for the declaration of armed combat (qital) set out above...
Fourth, the ignoring or flouting of the strict regulations governing the conduct of armed jihad, i.e. the stipulations in the Qur'an and the Sunna for the ethics of conducting qital set out above. Thus, the use of excessive violence, attacks on civilians, indiscriminate 'suicide' violence and the torture or the murder of prisoners would constitute violation of these regulations of jihad...
Fifth, advocating armed fighting in defence of Islam (qital) as a universal individual religious obligation (fard al 'ayn)...
Sixth, any interpretation of Shari'a (i.e. religious law laid down by the Qur'an and the Sunna) that required breaking the 'law of the land'...
Seventh, the classification of all non-Muslims as unbelievers (kuffar)...
Eighth, the extreme Salafist Islamism doctrine that the precepts of the Muslim faith negate and supersede all other natural ties, such as those of family, kinship and nation...
Ninth, the citing with approval the fatwa (legal opinions) of Islamic scholars who espouse extremist views, including those that advocate violence or terrorism...
Tenth, any teaching which, expressly or implicitly, encourages Muslims to engage in, or support, terrorism or violence in the name of Allah. [10] [11]
According to the academic definition of radical Islam, the second condition for something to be called radical Islam, is that it is antigovernmental. Consequently, a government is a condition for radical Islam. However, even though the peace of Westphalia was established in 1648 and thus introduced the nation state, the writings of the formative centuries of Islamic history are influential to the contemporary writings that were coined radical after the concept of the nation state was established in the Muslim world as well. Key influences of radical Islam that stem from early Islam include:
Islamic extremism dates back to the early history of Islam with the emergence of the Kharijites in the 7th century CE. [12] The original schism between Kharijites, Sunnīs, and Shīʿas among Muslims was disputed over the political and religious succession to the guidance of the Muslim community (Ummah) after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. [12] From their essentially political position, the Kharijites developed extreme doctrines that set them apart from both mainstream Sunnī and Shīʿa Muslims. [12] Shīʿas believe ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib is the true successor to Muhammad, while Sunnīs consider Abu Bakr to hold that position. The Kharijites broke away from both the Shīʿas and the Sunnīs during the First Fitna (the first Islamic Civil War); [12] they were particularly noted for adopting a radical approach to takfīr (excommunication), whereby they declared both Sunnī and Shīʿa Muslims to be either infidels (kuffār) or false Muslims (munāfiḳūn), and therefore deemed them worthy of death for their perceived apostasy (ridda). [12] [13] [14]
The Islamic tradition traces the origin of the Kharijities to the battle between ʿAlī and Mu'awiya at Siffin in 657 CE. When ʿAlī was faced with a military stalemate and agreed to submit the dispute to arbitration, some of his party withdrew their support from him. "Judgement belongs to God alone" (لاَ حُكْمَ إلَا لِلّهِ) became the slogan of these secessionists. [12] They also called themselves al-Shurat ("the Vendors"), to reflect their willingness to sell their lives in martyrdom. [15]
These original Kharijites opposed both ʿAlī and Mu'awiya, and appointed their own leaders. They were decisively defeated by ʿAlī, who was in turn assassinated by a Kharijite. Kharijites engaged in guerilla warfare against the Umayyads, but only became a movement to be reckoned with during the Second Fitna (the second Islamic Civil War) when they at one point controlled more territory than any of their rivals. The Kharijites were, in fact, one of the major threats to Ibn al-Zubayr's bid for the caliphate; during this time they controlled Yamama and most of southern Arabia, and captured the oasis town of al-Ta'if. [15]
The Azariqa, considered to be the extreme faction of the Kharijites, controlled parts of western Iran under the Umayyads until they were finally put down in 699 CE. The more moderate Ibadi Kharijites were longer-lived, continuing to wield political power in North and East Africa and in eastern Arabia during the 'Abbasid period. Because of their readiness to declare any opponent as apostate, the extreme Kharijites tended to fragment into small groups. One of the few points that the various Kharijite splinter groups held in common was their view of the caliphate, which differed from other Muslim theories on two points.
By the time that Ibn al-Muqaffa' wrote his political treatise early in the 'Abbasid period, the Kharijites were no longer a significant political threat, at least in the Islamic heartlands. The memory of the menace they had posed to Muslim unity and of the moral challenge generated by their pious idealism still weighed heavily on Muslim political and religious thought, however. Even if the Kharijites could no longer threaten, their ghosts still had to be answered. [15] The Ibadis are the only Kharijite group to survive into modern times.
Part of a series on: Salafi movement |
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The Salafiyya movement is a conservative, [16] Islahi (reform) [17] movement within Sunnī Islam that emerged in the second half of the 19th century and advocate a return to the traditions of the "devout ancestors" ( Salaf al-Salih ). It has been described as the "fastest-growing Islamic movement"; with each scholar expressing diverse views across social, theological, and political spectrum. Salafis follow a doctrine that can be summed up as taking "a fundamentalist approach to Islam, emulating the Prophet Muhammad and his earliest followers—al-salaf al-salih, the 'pious forefathers'....They reject religious innovation, or bidʻah , and support the implementation of Sharia (Islamic law)." [18] The Salafi movement is often divided into three categories: the largest group are the purists (or quietists), who avoid politics; the second largest group are the militant activists, who get involved in politics; the third and last group are the jihadists, who constitute a minority. [18] Most of the violent Islamist groups come from the Salafi-Jihadist movement and their subgroups. [19] In recent years, Jihadi-Salafist doctrines have often been associated with the armed insurgencies of Islamic extremist movements and terrorist organizations targeting innocent civilians, both Muslims and Non-Muslims, such as al-Qaeda, ISIL/ISIS/IS/Daesh, Boko Haram, etc. [20] [21] [18] [19] The second largest group are the Salafi activists who have a long tradition of political activism, such as those that operate in organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood, the Arab world's major Islamist movement. In the aftermath of widescale repressions after the Arab Spring, accompanied by their political failures, the activist-Salafi movements have undergone a decline. The most numerous are the quietists, who believe in disengagement from politics and accept allegiance to Muslim governments, no matter how tyrannical, to avoid fitna (chaos). [18]
The Wahhabi movement was founded and spearheaded by the Ḥanbalī scholar and theologian Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab, [22] [23] [24] a religious preacher from the Najd region in central Arabia, [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] and was instrumental in the rise of the House of Saud to power in the Arabian peninsula. [22] Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab sought to revive and purify Islam from what he perceived as non-Islamic popular religious beliefs and practices by returning to what, he believed, were the fundamental principles of the Islamic religion. [26] [27] [28] [29] His works were generally short, full of quotations from the Quran and Hadith literature, such as his main and foremost theological treatise, Kitāb at-Tawḥīd (Arabic : كتاب التوحيد; "The Book of Oneness"). [26] [27] [28] [29] He taught that the primary doctrine of Islam was the uniqueness and oneness of God (tawḥīd), and denounced what he held to be popular religious beliefs and practices among Muslims that he considered to be akin to heretical innovation (bidʿah) and polytheism (shirk). [26] [27] [28] [29]
Wahhabism has been described as a conservative, strict, and fundamentalist branch of Sunnī Islam, [30] with puritan views, [30] believing in a literal interpretation of the Quran. [22] The terms "Wahhabism" and "Salafism" are sometimes evoked interchangeably, although the designation "Wahhabi" is specifically applied to the followers of Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab and his reformist doctrines. [22] The label "Wahhabi" was not claimed by his followers, who usually refer themselves as al-Muwaḥḥidūn ("affirmers of the singularity of God"), but is rather employed by Western scholars as well as his critics. [22] [23] [27] Starting in the mid-1970s and 1980s, the international propagation of Salafism and Wahhabism within Sunnī Islam [30] favored by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia [25] [31] [32] and other Arab states of the Persian Gulf has achieved what the French political scientist Gilles Kepel defined as a "preeminent position of strength in the global expression of Islam." [33]
22 months after the September 11 attacks, when the FBI considered al-Qaeda as "the number one terrorist threat to the United States", journalist Stephen Schwartz and U.S. Senator Jon Kyl have explicitly stated during a hearing that occurred in June 2003 before the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, and Homeland Security of the U.S. Senate that "Wahhabism is the source of the overwhelming majority of terrorist atrocities in today's world". [34] As part of the global "War on terror", Wahhabism has been accused by the European Parliament, various Western security analysts, and think tanks like the RAND Corporation, as being "a source of global terrorism". [34] [35] Furthermore, Wahhabism has been accused of causing disunity in the Muslim community (Ummah) and criticized for its followers' destruction of many Islamic, cultural, and historical sites associated with the early history of Islam and the first generation of Muslims (Muhammad's family and his companions) in Saudi Arabia. [36] [37] [38] [39]
The contemporary period begins after 1924. With the defeat and dissolution of the Ottoman Empire (1908–1922), the Ottoman Caliphate was also abolished. This event heavily influenced Islamic thinking in general, but also what would later be coined radical Islamic thought. [40] Key thinkers that wrote about Islam in the 20th century, and especially about jihad , include:
Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian Islamist ideologue and prominent figurehead of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, was influential in promoting the Pan-Islamist ideology in the 1960s. [44] When he was executed by the Egyptian government under the regime of Gamal Abdel Nasser, Ayman al-Zawahiri formed the organization Egyptian Islamic Jihad to replace the government with an Islamic state that would reflect Qutb's ideas for the Islamic revival that he yearned for. [45] The Qutbist ideology has been influential on jihadist movements and Islamic terrorists that seek to overthrow secular governments, most notably Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri of al-Qaeda, [41] [42] [43] as well as the Salafi-jihadi terrorist group ISIL/ISIS/IS/Daesh. [46] Moreover, Qutb's books have been frequently been cited by Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki. [47] [48] [49] [50] [51] [52]
Sayyid Qutb could be said to have founded the actual movement of radical Islam. [43] [44] [53] Unlike the other Islamic thinkers that have been mentioned above, Qutb was not an apologist. [53] He was a prominent leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and a highly influential Islamist ideologue, [43] [53] and the first to articulate these anathemizing principles in his magnum opus Fī ẓilāl al-Qurʾān (In the shade of the Qurʾān) and his 1966 manifesto Maʿālim fīl-ṭarīq ( Milestones ), which lead to his execution by the Egyptian government. [53] [54] Other Salafi movements in the Middle East and North Africa and across the Muslim world adopted many of his Islamist principles. [43] [53]
According to Qutb, the Muslim community (Ummah) has been extinct for several centuries and reverted to jahiliyah (the pre-Islamic age of ignorance) because those who call themselves Muslims have failed to follow the sharia law. [43] [53] To restore Islam, bring back its days of glory, and free the Muslims from the clasps of ignorance, Qutb proposed the shunning of modern society, establishing a vanguard modeled after the early Muslims, preaching, and bracing oneself for poverty or even death as preparation for jihad against what he perceived as jahili government/society, and overthrow them. [43] [53] Qutbism, the radical Islamist ideology derived from the ideas of Qutb, [43] was denounced by many prominent Muslim scholars as well as other members of the Muslim Brotherhood, like Yusuf al-Qaradawi.
Group Name | Banner | Home Base | Leaders | Strength | Casualties | Ideology | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Al-Qaeda | Afghanistan, Pakistan, and MENA region | Osama bin Laden † (1988–2011) Ayman al-Zawahiri † (2011–2022) Saif al-Adel (de facto; 2022–present) | 300–3,000 [55] [56] | 4,400 casualties [57] | Sunnī Islamist and militant terrorist organization which aims to "restore Islam" and establish "true Islamic states", implement Sharia law, and rid the Muslim world of any Non-Muslim influences by following the doctrine and teachings of the Egyptian Islamist ideologue and propagandist Sayyid Qutb. [58] The title translates to "Organization of the Base of Jihad". | ||
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb | Kabylie Mountains, Algeria | Abdelmalek Droukdel | 800–1,000+ [59] | 200+ | AQIM is a Sunnī Islamist and militant terrorist organization which aims to overthrow the Government of Algeria and replace it with an Islamic state. | ||
Al-Mourabitoun a.k.a. al-Qaeda West Africa | Mali, Niger, and Libya | Mokhtar Belmokhtar | Under 100 (French claim) | Killed 27 in the 2015 Bamako hotel attack. | Affiliated branch of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb listed above. | ||
Ansar al-Sharia in Yemen a.k.a. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula | Yemen | Nasir al-Wuhayshi † (2011–15) Qasim al-Raymi † (2015–2020) [60] | 2,000+ | Over 250 killed in the 2012 Sana'a bombing and 2013 Sana'a attack. [61] | AQAP is considered the most active [62] of al-Qaeda's branches, or "franchises", that emerged due to weakening central leadership. [63] The U.S. Government believes AQAP to be the most dangerous al-Qaeda branch due to its emphasis on attacking the "far enemy" and its reputation for plotting attacks on overseas targets. [61] [64] | ||
al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent | India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar | Asim Umar | 300 [65] [66] | Claims 6 killed in assassinations. Naval frigate hijacking attempted in 2014. | AQIS is a Sunnī Islamist and militant terrorist organization which aims to overthrow the Governments of Pakistan, India, Myanmar, and Bangladesh to establish an Islamic state. | ||
Boko Haram – West Africa Province of the Islamic State Caliphate | Northeastern Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Mali, and northern Cameroon [67] | Mohammed Yusuf † (founder 2002 – 2009) | Estimates range between 500 and 9,000 [68] [69] [70] | Since 2009, it has killed 20,000 and displaced 2.3 million. | Title means "Western education is forbidden", founded as a Sunnī Islamic fundamentalist sect and influenced by the Wahhabi doctrine, advocating a strict form of Sharia law. [67] Since 2015 Boko Haram has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), rebranding itself as Islamic State's West Africa Province (ISWAP). [67] | ||
Hamas (acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyah, "Islamic Resistance Movement") [71] | Gaza Strip | Khaled Meshaal | 16,000+ [72] | Since 1988, numerous rocket attacks and suicide bombers targeting Israel and Israelis. | Founded as an offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Its 1988 founding charter, steeped in Sunnī Islamist rhetoric, calls for jihad to take all of historical Palestine, resulting in the destruction of the State of Israel. | ||
Hezbollah a.k.a. The Party of Allah | Lebanon | Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah | 1,000+ [73] | Since 1982, numerous rocket attacks and suicide bombers targeting Israel and Israelis. | Shīʿa Islamist and militant group with Jihadist paramilitary wing. Hezbollah was largely formed with the aid of the Ayatollah Khomeini's followers in the early 1980s to spread the Islamic revolution outside of Iran. [74] [75] | ||
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (commonly known as ISIS, ISIL, IS, or Daesh) | Iraq and Syria (occupied territories) | Abu Musab al-Zarqawi † (founder 1999 – 2006) Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi † (2010–2019) Abu Ibrahimi al-Hashimi al-Qurashi † (2019–2022) [76] Abu al-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi (2022) [77] Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi (2022–2023) Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Qurashi (2023–present) | 40,000–200,000 at its height across all 'provinces' [78] [79] | 30,000+ killed, including the genocides of Shīʿa Muslims, Christians, Yazidis, other ethnic and religious minorities in the Middle East, and many others around the world by ISIL or groups associated or inspired by ISIL. Since 2015 includes Boko Haram, rebranded as "Islamic State's West Africa Province" (ISWAP). [67] [80] | Salafi-jihadist and Sunnī militant terrorist organization that follows the Islamic fundamentalist Wahhabi doctrine of Sunnī Islam. [81] Originated as the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI). Gained large swathes of territory in Iraq in 2014 and is currently at war with Iraq, Syria, and a coalition of 60 other countries including the United States, United Kingdom, and France. | ||
Jemaah Islamiyah | Southeast Asia:
| Abu Bakar Bashir | 5,000 [82] | Over 250 killed in bombings throughout Indonesia since 2002 | With a name meaning "Islamic Congregation" (frequently abbreviated JI), [83] is a Southeast Asian Sunnī Islamist and militant terrorist organization dedicated to the establishment of a Daulah Islamiyah (regional Islamic caliphate) in Southeast Asia. [84] | ||
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan a.k.a. Pakistani Taliban | Northwest Pakistan | Maulana Fazlullah | 25,000 [85] | hundreds | TTP is an umbrella organization of various Sunnī Islamist and militant groups protecting foreign Islamic terrorists hiding in the mountains of Pakistan. Not to be confused with the Afghani Taliban. | ||
Jaish-e-Mohammed | Kashmir, India | Masood Azhar | Aim is to annex Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan. Operates primarily in Jammu and Kashmir. | ||||
Lashkar-e Tayyiba a.k.a. LeT | Kashmir, India | Hafiz Saeed | Aim is to annex Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan and, ultimately, install Islamic rule throughout South Asia. Operational throughout India, especially in the northern region of Jammu and Kashmir since at least 1993. [86] | ||||
Allied Democratic Forces | Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo | ||||||
National Thowheeth Jama'ath | Sri Lanka | 269 (excluding 9 bombers) | Convert Sri Lanka into an Islamic caliphate |
According to the British historian Mark Curtis, in his book Secret Affairs: Britain's Collusion with Radical Islam , Britain has been accused of consistently supporting radical Islam to combat secular nationalism. Because the secular nationalists threatened to seize the resources of their countries and use it for internal development, which was not accepted by England. [87] The United States, like Britain before it, has been accused of historically supporting radical Islam in the face of secular nationalism, seen as a major threat to Western colonial dominance. Chomsky and coauthors accuse Israel of destroying Egypt and Syria in 1967, two bastions of secular Arab nationalism opposed to Saudi Arabia, which they view as the leader of radical Islam. [88]
Islamism refers to a broad set of religious and political ideological movements that believe Islam should influence political systems, and generally oppose secularism. The advocates of Islamism, also known as "al-Islamiyyun", are dedicated to realizing their ideological interpretation of Islam within the context of the state or society. The majority of them are affiliated with Islamic institutions or social mobilization movements, often designated as "al-harakat al-Islamiyyah." Islamists emphasize the implementation of sharia, pan-Islamic political unity, and the creation of Islamic states.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn Sulaymān al-Tamīmī (1703–1792) was a Sunni Muslim scholar, theologian, preacher, activist, religious leader, jurist, and reformer, who was from Najd in central Arabia and is considered as the eponymous founder of the Wahhabi movement. His prominent students included his sons Ḥusayn, Abdullāh, ʿAlī, and Ibrāhīm, his grandson ʿAbdur-Raḥman ibn Ḥasan, his son-in-law ʿAbdul-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad ibn Saʿūd, Ḥamād ibn Nāṣir ibn Muʿammar, and Ḥusayn āl-Ghannām.
Wahhabism is a reformist religious movement within Sunni Islam, based on the teachings of 18th-century Hanbali cleric Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab. The movement was initially established in the central Arabian region of Najd and later spread to other parts of the Arabian Peninsula, and is today followed primarily in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Islamic fundamentalism has been defined as a revivalist and reform movement of Muslims who aim to return to the founding scriptures of Islam. The term has been used interchangeably with similar terms such as Islamism, Islamic revivalism, Qutbism, Islamic activism, but also criticized as pejorative, a term used by outsiders who instead ought to be using more positive terms such as Islamic activism or Islamic revivalism.
The Salafi movement or Salafism is a revival movement within Sunni Islam, which was formed as a socio-religious movement during the late 19th century and has remained influential in the Islamic world for over a century. The name "Salafiyya" is a self-designation, to call for a return to the traditions of the "pious predecessors", the first three generations of Muslims, who are believed to exemplify the pure form of Islam. In practice, Salafis claim that they rely on the Qur'an, the Sunnah and the Ijma (consensus) of the salaf, giving these writings precedence over what they claim as "later religious interpretations". The Salafi movement aimed to achieve a renewal of Muslim life and had a major influence on many Muslim thinkers and movements across the Islamic world.
Qutbism is an exonym that refers to the Sunni Islamist beliefs and ideology of Sayyid Qutb, a leading Islamist revolutionary of the Muslim Brotherhood who was executed by the Egyptian government of Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1966. Influenced by the doctrines of earlier Islamists like Hasan al-Banna and Maududi, Qutbism advocates Islamic extremist violence in order to establish an Islamic government, in addition to promoting offensive Jihad. Qutbism has been characterized as an Islamofascist and Islamic terrorist ideology.
Islamic terrorism refers to terrorist acts carried out by fundamentalist militant Islamists and Islamic extremists.
Takfiri is an Arabic and Islamic term denoting a Muslim who excommunicates one of his/her coreligionists, i.e. who accuses another Muslim of being an apostate.
Islamic schools and branches have different understandings of Islam. There are many different sects or denominations, schools of Islamic jurisprudence, and schools of Islamic theology, or ʿaqīdah (creed). Within Islamic groups themselves there may be differences, such as different orders (tariqa) within Sufism, and within Sunnī Islam different schools of theology and jurisprudence. Groups in Islam may be numerous, or relatively small in size.
Jihadism is a neologism for militant Islamic movements that seek to base the state on Islamic principles. In a narrower sense, it refers to the belief held by some Muslims that armed confrontation with political rivals is an efficient and theologically legitimate method of socio-political change. It is a form of religious violence and has been applied to various insurgent Islamic extremist, militant Islamist, and terrorist individuals and organizations whose ideologies are based on the Islamic notion of lesser jihad from the classical interpretation of Islam. It has also been applied to various Islamic empires in history, such as the Rashidun and Umayyad caliphates of the early Muslim conquests, and the Ottoman Empire.
Rabīʿ bin Hādī ʿUmayr al Madkhalī is a Saudi professor who is a former head of the Sunnah Studies Department at the Islamic University of Madinah. He is a Salafi Muslim scholar who is considered to be one of Salafism's prominent thinkers. He was most active in the 90’s and early 2000s where he received praise from other Salafi scholars like Shaykh Salih Ibn Uthaymeen and Shaykh Abdul Aziz Bin Baz. Another prominent Salafi scholar named Imam Al-Albani labelled him the Imam of Jarh Wa Tad’il, which he himself later rejected.
Salafi jihadism, also known as jihadist Salafism and revolutionary Salafism, is a religious-political Sunni Islamist ideology that seeks to establish a global caliphate, characterized by the advocacy of physical jihadist attacks on non-Muslim targets. In a narrower sense, jihadism refers to the belief that armed confrontation with political rivals is an efficient and theologically legitimate method of socio-political change. The Salafist interpretation of sacred Islamic texts is "in their most literal, traditional sense", which adherents claim will bring about the return to "true Islam".
Madkhalism is a strain of quietism thought within the larger Salafi movement characterised by monarchism and loyalty to governments in the Arab world, based on the writings of Sheikh Rabee al-Madkhali.
Salafi–Sufi relations refer to the religious, social and political relations between Salafis and Sufis, who represent two major scholarly movements which have been influential within Sunni Muslim societies. The debates between Salafi and Sufi schools of thought dominated the Sunni world since the classical era, splitting their influence across religious communities and cultures, with each school competing for scholarly authority via official and unofficial religious institutions. The relationship between Salafism and Sufism – two movements of Islam with different interpretations of Islam – is historically diverse and reflects some of the changes and conflicts in the Muslim world today.
The ideology of the Islamic State has been described as being a blend of Salafism, Salafi jihadism, Sunni Islamist fundamentalism, Wahhabism, and Qutbism. Through its official statement of beliefs originally released by its first leader Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in 2007 and subsequently updated since June 2014, the Islamic State defined its creed as "a middle way between the extremist Kharijites and the lax Murji'ites".
Muhammad Surur bin Nayif Zayn al-'Abidin was a former member of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood. He is credited with establishing the Salafi Islamist movement known as Sururism, which combines "the organisational methods and political worldview of the Muslim Brotherhood with the theological puritanism of Wahhabism." This movement is noted for advancing a politicized version of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia. Surur called for non-violent criticism of Muslim rulers but opposed efforts to overthrow regimes in Muslim countries, viewing such actions as fitna. In 1984, he authored the widely read anti-Shia book Wa Ja'a Dawr al-Majus. This book posits the Iranian Revolution as a strategy for Shiite domination of the Middle East. His writings influenced Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Starting in the mid-1970s and 1980s, Salafism and Wahhabism — along with other Sunni interpretations of Islam favored by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies — achieved a "preeminent position of strength in the global expression of Islam."
Following the embargo by Arab oil exporters during the Israeli-Arab October 1973 War and the vast increase in petroleum export revenue that followed, the international propagation of Salafism and Wahhabism within Sunni Islam favored by the conservative oil-exporting Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies achieved a "preeminent position of strength in the global expression of Islam." The Saudi interpretation of Islam not only includes Salafiyya but also Islamist/revivalist Islam, and a "hybrid" of the two interpretations.
The 2016 conference on Sunni Islam in Grozny was convened to define the term "Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah", i.e. who are "the people of Sunnah and majority Muslim community", and oppose Takfiri groups. The conference was held in the Chechen Republic capital of Grozny from 25 to 27 August 2016, sponsored by the president of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, and attended by approximately 200 Muslim scholars from 30 countries, especially from Russia, Egypt, Syria, Libya, Kuwait, Sudan, Jordan, etc. at the invitation of Yemeni Sufi preacher, Ali al-Jifri.
The Wahhabi movement started as a revivalist and reform movement in the Arabian Peninsula during the early 18th century, whose adherents described themselves as "Muwahhidun" (Unitarians). A young Hanbali cleric named Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab, the leader of the Muwahhidun and eponym of the Wahhabi movement, called upon his disciples to denounce certain beliefs and practices associated with cult of saints as idolatrous impurities and innovations in Islam (bid'ah). His movement emphasized adherence to the Quran and hadith, and advocated the use of ijtihad. Eventually, Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab formed a pact with a local leader, Muhammad bin Saud, offering political obedience and promising that protection and propagation of the Wahhabi movement meant "power and glory" and rule of "lands and men".
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)Nearly 22 months have passed since the atrocity of 11 September. Since then, many questions have been asked about the role in that day's terrible events and in other challenges we face in the war against terror of Saudi Arabia and its official sect, a separatist, exclusionary and violent form of Islam known as Wahhabism. It is widely recognized that all of the 19 suicide pilots were Wahhabi followers. In addition, 15 of the 19 were Saudi subjects. Journalists and experts, as well as spokespeople of the world, have said that Wahhabism is the source of the overwhelming majority of terrorist atrocities in today's world, from Morocco to Indonesia, via Israel, Saudi Arabia, Chechnya. In addition, Saudi media sources have identified Wahhabi agents from Saudi Arabia as being responsible for terrorist attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq. The Washington Post has confirmed Wahhabi involvement in attacks against U.S. forces in Fallujah. To examine the role of Wahhabism and terrorism is not to label all Muslims as extremists. Indeed, I want to make this point very, very clear. It is the exact opposite. Analyzing Wahhabism means identifying the extreme element that, although enjoying immense political and financial resources, thanks to support by a sector of the Saudi state, seeks to globally hijack Islam [...] The problem we are looking at today is the State-sponsored doctrine and funding of an extremist ideology that provides the recruiting grounds, support infrastructure and monetary life blood of today's international terrorists. The extremist ideology is Wahhabism, a major force behind terrorist groups, like al Qaeda, a group that, according to the FBI, and I am quoting, is the "number one terrorist threat to the U.S. today".
Because Wahhābism prohibits the veneration of shrines, tombs, and sacred objects, many sites associated with the early history of Islam, such as the homes and graves of companions of Muhammad, were demolished under Saudi rule. Preservationists have estimated that as many as 95 percent of the historic sites around Mecca and Medina have been razed.
It is the undisputed case that the Taliban justification for this travesty [the destruction of the Buddha statues at Bamiyan] can be traced to the Wahhabi indoctrination program prevalent in the Afghan refugee camps and Saudi-funded Islamic schools (madrasas) in Pakistan that produced the Taliban. ...In Saudi Arabia itself, the destruction has focused on the architectural heritage of Islam's two holiest cities, Mecca and Medina, where Wahhabi religious foundations, with state support, have systematically demolished centuries-old mosques and mausolea, as well as hundreds of traditional Hijazi mansions and palaces.
Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam.
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