Al-Qaeda is a militant Sunni Islamist multinational network of Islamic extremists and Salafist jihadists. It was founded in 1988 by Osama bin Laden, Abdullah Azzam, and several other Arab volunteers during the Soviet–Afghan War.
Islamism is a political ideology which posits that modern states and regions should be reconstituted in constitutional, economic and judicial terms, in accordance with what is conceived as a revival or a return to authentic Islamic practice in its totality.
Daniel Pipes is an American historian, writer, and commentator. He is the president of the Middle East Forum, and publisher of its Middle East Quarterly journal. His writing focuses on American foreign policy and the Middle East.
Islamic terrorism refers to terrorist acts which are committed by militant Islamists and Islamic extremists which have a religious motivation.
Safar bin Abdul-Rahman al-Hawali al-Ghamdi is a scholar who lives in Mecca. He came to prominence in 1991, as a leader of the Sahwah movement which opposed the presence of US troops on the Arabian peninsula. In 1993, al-Hawali and Salman al-Ouda were leaders in creating the Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights, a group that opposed the Saudi government, for which both were imprisoned from 1994 to 1999.
Martyrdom videos are video recordings, generally from Islamist jihadists who are about to take part in a suicide attack and expect to die during their intended actions. They typically include a statement by the person preparing to be a martyr for their cause. They can be of amateur or professional quality and often incorporate text, music, and sentimental clips. The people in these videos typically sit or stand in front of a black Islamic flag, in their explosive-rigged vehicles, or media or other symbol of their allegiance. Suicide bombers considered themselves religiously justified by sharia and consider themselves to be shahid.
Jihadism is a neologism referring to "militant Islamic movements that are perceived as existentially threatening to the West" and "rooted in political Islam". Appearing earlier in Pakistani and Indian media, Western journalists adopted the term in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks of 2001. It has since been applied to various insurgent Islamic extremist, militant Islamist, and terrorist individuals and organizations whose ideology is based on the Islamic notion of jihad.
Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun is the Grand Mufti of Syria since 2005.
Mohammed Younis al-Ahmed al-Muwali aka Khadr al-Sabahi is a former senior member of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party. Ahmed currently has a million dollar bounty placed on his head as one of Iraq's most wanted men accused of funding and leading resistance operations. He is the leader of al-Awda; an underground Ba'athist movement in Iraq.
President of the United States George W. Bush consistently referred to the Iraq War as "the central front in the War on Terror", and argued that if the U.S. pulled out of Iraq, "terrorists will follow us here." While other proponents of the war have regularly echoed this assertion, as the conflict has dragged on, members of the U.S. Congress, the American public, and even U.S. troops have begun to question the connection between Iraq and the fight against terrorism. In particular, many leading intelligence experts have begun to argue that the war in Iraq is actually increasing terrorism.
Radicalization is the process by which an individual or a group comes to adopt increasingly radical views in opposition to a political, social, or religious status quo. The ideas of society at large shape the outcomes of radicalization; for example, radical movements can originate from a broad social consensus against progressive changes in society or from a broad desire for change in society. Radicalization can result in both violent and nonviolent action - academic literature focuses on radicalization into violent extremism (RVE) or radicalisation leading to acts of terrorism.[] Multiple separate pathways can promote the process of radicalization, which can be independent but are usually mutually reinforcing.
Istishhad is the Arabic word for "martyrdom", "death of a martyr", or "heroic death". In recent years the term has been said to "emphasize... heroism in the act of sacrifice" rather than "victimization", and has "developed...into a military and political strategy", often called "martyrdom operations". One who martyrs themselves is given the honorific shahid.
Sheik Abu Abdul Rahman, also Sheik Abd-Al-Rahman, was an Iraqi Canadian alleged to have led insurgent forces in "the most disciplined, intense attacks from insurgency forces" in the November 2006 Battle of Turki.
A suicide attack is any violent attack, usually involving an explosion, in which attackers accept their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have occurred throughout history, often as part of a military campaign, and more recently as part of terrorist campaigns.
Salafi jihadism or jihadist-Salafism is a transnational, hybrid religious-political ideology based on the Sunni sect of Islamism, seeking a global caliphate, advocacy for "physical" (military) jihadist and Salafist concepts of returning to what adherents believe to be the "true Islam". The ideological foundation of the movement was laid out by a series of prison-writings of the Egyptian Sunni Islamist theoretician Sayyid Qutb during the 1960s.
Jihadist extremism in the United States refers to Islamic extremism occurring within the United States. Islamic extremism is adherence to a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam, potentially including the promotion of violence to achieve political goals. In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, Islamic extremism became a prioritized national security concern of the United States government and a focus by many subsidiary security and law enforcement entities. Initially, the focus of concern was on foreign terrorist groups, particularly al-Qaeda, but in the course of the years since 9/11 the focus has shifted more towards Islamic extremism within the United States. The number of American citizens or long-term residents involved in extremist activity is small, but nevertheless is a national security concern.
The National Alliance for the Liberation of Syria was a coalition of Syrian opposition groups, supported by the Iraqi government. The foundation of the National Alliance took place in Paris in March 1982. The charter of the National Alliance was tramsitted by Voice of Arab Syria on March 22, 1982. The National Alliance called for armed popular struggle in order to topple the al-Assad regime.
On December 15, 1981, the Iraqi Shi'a Islamist group al-Dawa carried out a suicide car bombing targeting the Iraqi embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. The explosion leveled the embassy and killed 61 people, including Iraq's ambassador to Lebanon, and injured 110 others.
Khalid Mustafa Khalifa al-Aruri, known as Abu al-Qassam, was a Palestinian-Jordanian Islamic militant and a member of al-Qaeda who was the leader of the Guardians of Religion Organization.
Dr. Robert G. Rabil is Professor of Political Science at Florida Atlantic University. He holds a masters degree in Government from Harvard University, a PhD in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University, and an honorary PhD in humanities from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. His area of studies and expertise include Political Islam, Salafism, Transnational and Revivalist Movements, Terrorism, US-Arab Relations, Arab-Israeli Conflict, U.S.-Muslim Relations, and Contemporary Middle East Politics. He is the author of dozens of articles in major academic and professional journals and magazines. His books have been peer-reviewed and highly commended. Dr. Rabil served as the Chief of Emergency for the Red Cross in Baabda district, Beirut during Lebanon’s civil war, and was project manager of the US State Department-funded Iraq Research and Documentation Project. Dr. Rabil was awarded the LLS Distinguished Professorship in Current Events, LLS Teaching in Excellence Award, and in May 2012 was conferred an honorary Doctorate in Humanities from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.
