View source for Jihadism

{{Short description|Islamist movements for jihad}}
{{redirect|Jihadist|the Islamic doctrine|Jihad}}
{{redirect|Revolutionary Islamism|the 2003 book by Carlos the Jackal|Revolutionary Islam|Islam and socialist revolution|Islamic socialism}}
{{For|the dominant strain of jihadism|Salafi jihadism}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}}
{{Jihadism sidebar |expanded=all}}
{{Islam |expanded=related}}
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[[File:Jihadist groups overview.png|thumb|Territorial presence of jihadist groups and overview of the situation in each region]]
'''Jihadism''' is a [[neologism]] for [[militant]] [[Political aspects of Islam|Islamic movements]] that seek to base the state on Islamic principles.<ref>{{Citation |last=Ahmad |first=Aisha |title=Jihadist Governance in Civil Wars |date=2024 |encyclopedia=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies |url=https://oxfordre.com/internationalstudies/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190846626.001.0001/acrefore-9780190846626-e-763 |language=en |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190846626.013.763 |isbn=978-0-19-084662-6}}</ref><ref name="CTC-Sentinel 2024">{{cite journal |author-last=Mendelsohn |author-first=Barak |date=21 March 2024 |url=https://ctc.westpoint.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/CTC-SENTINEL-032024.pdf |title=On the Horizon: The Future of the Jihadi Movement |url-status=live |editor1-last=Cruickshank |editor1-first=Paul |editor2-last=Hummel |editor2-first=Kristina |editor3-last=Morgan |editor3-first=Caroline |journal=[[CTC Sentinel]] |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=1–10 |publisher=[[Combating Terrorism Center]] |location=[[West Point, New York]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240325101855/https://ctc.westpoint.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/CTC-SENTINEL-032024.pdf |archive-date=25 March 2024 |access-date=3 April 2024}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sedgwick |first=Mark |date=2015 |title=Jihadism, Narrow and Wide: The Dangers of Loose Use of an Important Term |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26297358 |journal=Perspectives on Terrorism |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=34–41 |jstor=26297358 |issn=2334-3745}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ashour |first=Omar |date=July 2011 |title=Post-Jihadism: Libya and the Global Transformations of Armed Islamist Movements |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09546553.2011.560218 |journal=Terrorism and Political Violence |language=en |volume=23 |issue=3 |pages=377–397 |doi=10.1080/09546553.2011.560218 |issn=0954-6553}}</ref> It is a form of [[religious violence]] and has been applied to various [[insurgent]] [[Islamic extremism|Islamic extremist]], [[militant]] [[Islamism|Islamist]], and [[Islamic terrorism|terrorist]] individuals and organizations whose ideologies are based on the [[Islam]]ic notion of ''[[jihad|lesser jihad]]'' from the classical interpretation of Islam.{{refn|<ref name="CTC-Sentinel 2023">{{cite journal |author1-last=Atiyas-Lvovsky |author1-first=Lorena |author2-last=Azani |author2-first=Eitan |author3-last=Barak |author3-first=Michael |author4-last=Moghadam |author4-first=Assaf |date=20 September 2023 |url=https://ctc.westpoint.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/CTC-SENTINEL-092023.pdf |title=CTC-ICT Focus on Israel: In Word and Deed? Global Jihad and the Threat to Israel and the Jewish Community |url-status=live |editor1-last=Cruickshank |editor1-first=Paul |editor2-last=Hummel |editor2-first=Kristina |editor3-last=Morgan |editor3-first=Caroline |journal=[[CTC Sentinel]] |volume=16 |issue=9 |pages=1–12 |publisher=[[Combating Terrorism Center]] |location=[[West Point, New York]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230920143721/https://ctc.westpoint.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/CTC-SENTINEL-092023.pdf |archive-date=20 September 2023 |access-date=1 October 2023}}</ref><ref name="Poljarevic 2021">{{cite book |author-last=Poljarevic |author-first=Emin |year=2021 |chapter=Theology of Violence-oriented Takfirism as a Political Theory: The Case of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) |editor1-last=Cusack |editor1-first=Carole M. |editor1-link=Carole M. Cusack |editor2-last=Upal |editor2-first=M. Afzal |editor2-link=Afzal Upal |title=Handbook of Islamic Sects and Movements |location=[[Leiden]] and [[Boston]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |series=Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion |volume=21 |doi=10.1163/9789004435544_026 |doi-access=free |isbn=978-90-04-43554-4 |issn=1874-6691 |pages=485–512}}</ref><ref name="Badara 2017">{{cite journal |last1=Badara |first1=Mohamed |last2=Nagata |first2=Masaki |date=November 2017 |title=Modern Extremist Groups and the Division of the World: A Critique from an Islamic Perspective |journal=[[Arab Law Quarterly]] |location=[[Leiden]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |volume=31 |issue=4 |doi=10.1163/15730255-12314024 |doi-access=free |issn=1573-0255 |pages=305–335}}</ref><ref name="Cook 2015">{{cite book |last=Cook |first=David |author-link=David Cook (historian) |year=2015 |orig-date=2005 |chapter=Radical Islam and Contemporary Jihad Theory |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SqE2DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA93 |title=Understanding Jihad |location=[[Berkeley, California|Berkeley]] |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |edition=2nd |pages=93–127 |isbn=9780520287327 |jstor=10.1525/j.ctv1xxt55.10 |lccn=2015010201}}</ref>}} It has also been applied to various [[Islamic empires]] in history, such as the [[Rashidun Caliphate|Rashidun]] and [[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyad]] caliphates of the [[early Muslim conquests]], and the [[Ottoman Empire]].<ref name="The End of the Jihad State">{{cite book | url=https://sunypress.edu/Books/T/The-End-of-the-Jihad-State | title=The End of the Jihad State }}</ref><ref name="books.google.co.uk">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EnhyDwAAQBAJ&dq=jihadism+inspired+by+muslim+empires&pg=PA66 |title=Jihadism: Past and Present - Nirode Mohanty - Google Books |date= 15 September 2018|isbn=9781498575973 |accessdate=2022-10-01|last1=Mohanty |first1=Nirode |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield }}</ref> There were also the [[Fula jihads]] in West Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Batran |first=Aziz |url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000184295 |title=General History of Africa: Volume 6 |date=1989 |publisher=UNESCO Publishing |chapter=The nineteenth-century Islamic revolutions in West Africa}}</ref><ref>{{Cite report |url=https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/development/the-wave-of-jihadist-insurgency-in-west-africa_eb95c0a9-en |title=The Wave of Jihadist Insurgency in West Africa: Global Ideology, Local Context, Individual Motivations |last=Ibrahim |first=Ibrahim Yahaya |date=2017-07-28 |publisher=OECD |location=Paris |language=en}}</ref>
Modern jihadism mostly has its roots in the late 19th- and early 20th-century ideological developments of [[Islamic revival]]ism, which further developed into [[Qutbism]] and related Islamist ideologies during the 20th and 21st centuries.<ref name="Poljarevic 2021"/><ref name="Aydinli2018-1">{{cite book |last=Aydınlı |first=Ersel |year=2018 |orig-date=2016 |chapter=The Jihadists after 9/11 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hq1TDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA110 |title=Violent Non-State Actors: From Anarchists to Jihadists |location=[[London]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Routledge]] |edition=1st |series=Routledge Studies on Challenges, Crises, and Dissent in World Politics |pages=110–149 |isbn=978-1-315-56139-4 |lccn=2015050373}}</ref><ref name="Jalal 2009">{{cite book |last=Jalal |first=Ayesha |author-link=Ayesha Jalal |year=2009 |chapter=Islam Subverted? Jihad as Terrorism |title=Partisans of Allah: Jihad in South Asia |location=[[Cambridge, Massachusetts]] |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |pages=239–301 |doi=10.4159/9780674039070-007 |isbn=9780674039070 |s2cid=152941120}}</ref> The jihadist ideologues envisioned ''[[jihad]]'' as a "revolutionary struggle" against the [[Secularity|secular]] [[international order]] to unite the [[Muslim world]] under the "[[Sharia|rule of God]]".<ref name="auto">{{cite journal |last=A. Charters |first=David |date=6 Feb 2007 |title=Something Old, Something New…? Al Qaeda, Jihadism, and Fascism |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09546550601054832 |journal=Terrorism and Political Violence |publisher=Routledge |volume=19 |pages=65–93 |doi=10.1080/09546550601054832 |s2cid=144155484 |issn=0954-6553 |via=tandfonline}}</ref> The Islamist volunteer organisations which participated in the [[Soviet–Afghan War]] of 1979 to 1989 reinforced the rise of jihadism, which has been propagated during various [[List of ongoing armed conflicts|armed conflicts]] throughout the 1990s and 2000s.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Hekmatpour|first=Peyman|date=1 January 2018|title=What do we know about the Islamic Radicalism: A meta-analysis of academic publications|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333583324|quote="resistance of Afghan Mujahideen against the Soviet invasion.."}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Hekmatpour|first1=Peyman|last2=Burns|first2=Thomas|date=14 August 2018|title=Radicalism and Enantiodromia: A Trialectic of Modernity, Post-modernity, and Anti-modernity in the Islamic World|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341194202}}</ref>
Jihadist organizations and rebel groups have become more prominent since the 1990s; by one estimate, 5 percent of civil wars involved jihadist groups in 1990 but more than 40 percent in 2014.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Fearon |first=James D. |date=2017 |title=Civil War & the Current International System |url=https://direct.mit.edu/daed/article/146/4/18-32/27171 |journal=[[Daedalus (journal)|Daedalus]] |publisher=[[MIT Press]] for the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] |volume=146 |issue=4 |pages=20–22 |doi=10.1162/DAED_a_00456 |issn=0011-5266}}</ref> French political scientist [[Gilles Kepel]] has diagnosed a specific [[Salafi jihadism|Salafist form of jihadism]] within the [[Salafi movement]] of the 1990s.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kepel |first=Gilles |author-link=Gilles Kepel |year=2021 |orig-date=2000 |title=[[Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam]] |edition=5th |location=London |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Academic]] |series=Bloomsbury Revelations |isbn=9781350148598 |oclc=1179546717 |pages=219–222}}</ref> Jihadism with an international, [[Pan-Islamism|pan-Islamist]] scope is also known as '''global jihadism'''.{{refn|<ref name="CTC-Sentinel 2023"/><ref name="Aydinli2018-1"/><ref name="Homegrown 2021">{{cite book |last1=Meleagrou-Hitchens |first1=Alexander |last2=Hughes |first2=Seamus |last3=Clifford |first3=Bennett |year=2021 |chapter=The Ideologues |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T4vzDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA111 |title=Homegrown: ISIS in America |location=[[London]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[I.B. Tauris]] |edition=1st |pages=111–148 |isbn=978-1-7883-1485-5}}</ref><ref name="Clarke 2021">{{cite journal |author-last=Clarke |author-first=Colin |date=8 September 2021 |url=https://ctc.usma.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/CTC-SENTINEL-072021.pdf |title=Twenty Years After 9/11: What Is the Future of the Global Jihadi Movement? |url-status=live |editor1-last=Cruickshank |editor1-first=Paul |editor2-last=Hummel |editor2-first=Kristina |journal=[[CTC Sentinel]] |volume=14 |issue=7 |pages=91–105 |publisher=[[Combating Terrorism Center]] |location=[[West Point, New York]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210908175925/https://ctc.usma.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/CTC-SENTINEL-072021.pdf |archive-date=8 September 2021 |access-date=10 November 2021}}</ref>}} Studies show that with the rise of the [[Islamic State]], some Muslim volunteers that came both from [[Western world|Western countries]] and [[Muslim-majority countries]] traveled to join the [[Foreign fighters in the Syrian and Iraqi Civil Wars|global ''jihad'' in Syria and Iraq]].{{refn|<ref name="CTC-Sentinel 2023"/><ref name="Milton-Perlinger 2016">{{cite journal |author1-last=Milton |author1-first=Daniel |author2-last=Perlinger |author2-first=Arie |date=11 November 2016 |url=https://ctc.usma.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Cradle-to-Grave2.pdf |title=From Cradle to Grave: The Lifecycle of Foreign Fighters in Iraq and Syria |url-status=live |editor1-last=Cruickshank |editor1-first=Paul |editor2-last=Hummel |editor2-first=Kristina |journal=[[CTC Sentinel]] |pages=15–33 |publisher=[[Combating Terrorism Center]] |location=[[West Point, New York]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200618060219/https://www.ctc.usma.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Cradle-to-Grave2.pdf |archive-date=18 June 2020 |access-date=20 December 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Schmid |first1=Alex P. |last2=Tinnes |first2=Judith |date=December 2015 |title=Foreign (Terrorist) Fighters with IS: A European Perspective |url=http://icct.nl/app/uploads/2015/12/ICCT-Schmid-Foreign-Terrorist-Fighters-with-IS-A-European-Perspective-December2015.pdf |journal=ICCT Research Paper |volume=6 |issue=8 |location=[[The Hague]] |publisher=[[International Centre for Counter-Terrorism]] |doi=10.19165/2015.1.08 |doi-access=free |issn=2468-0656 |jstor=resrep29430 |jstor-access=free |s2cid=168669583 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201125184642/http://icct.nl/app/uploads/2015/12/ICCT-Schmid-Foreign-Terrorist-Fighters-with-IS-A-European-Perspective-December2015.pdf |archive-date=25 November 2020 |access-date=12 June 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Picker |first=Les |date=June 2016 |title=Where Are ISIS's Foreign Fighters Coming From? |url=https://www.nber.org/digest/jun16/where-are-isiss-foreign-fighters-coming |magazine=The Digest |volume=6 |location=[[Cambridge, Massachusetts]] |publisher=[[National Bureau of Economic Research]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201023230048/https://www.nber.org/digest/jun16/where-are-isiss-foreign-fighters-coming |archive-date=23 October 2020 |access-date=12 June 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hekmatpour |first1=Peyman |last2=Burns |first2=Thomas J. |date=2019 |title=Perception of Western governments' hostility to Islam among European Muslims before and after ISIS: the important roles of residential segregation and education |journal=[[The British Journal of Sociology]] |publisher=[[Wiley-Blackwell]] for the [[London School of Economics]] |volume=70 |issue=5 |pages=2133–2165 |doi=10.1111/1468-4446.12673 |pmid=31004347 |s2cid=125038730 |issn=0007-1315 |eissn=1468-4446}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Pokalova |first=Elena |chapter=Foreign Fighters in Syria and Iraq: Aberration from History or History Repeated? |year=2020 |title=Returning Islamist Foreign Fighters: Threats and Challenges to the West |location=[[Basingstoke]] |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-31478-1 |pages=11–58 |isbn=978-3-030-31477-4|s2cid=241995467 }}</ref>}}
==Terminology==
{{Main|Jihad}}
[[File:Flag of Jihad.svg|thumb|250px|right|[[Jihadist flag|Jihadist variation]] of the [[Black Standard]] as used by various [[Islamism|Islamist organizations]] since the late 1990s, which consists of the ''[[Shahada]]'' in white script centered on a black background.]]
The concept of ''[[jihad]]'' ("exerting"/"striving"/"struggling") is fundamental to Islam and has multiple uses, with ''greater jihad'' (internal jihad) meaning [[Introspection|internal struggle]] against evil in oneself, and ''lesser jihad'' (external jihad), which is further subdivided into ''[[Islamic missionary activity|jihad of the pen/tongue]]'' (debate or persuasion) and ''[[Islam and war|jihad of the sword]]'' (warfare). The latter form of ''jihad'' has meant conquest and conversion in the classical Islamic interpretation, usually excepting [[People of the Book|followers of other monotheistic religions]],<ref name="DeLong-Bas 2018">{{cite encyclopedia |author-last=DeLong-Bas |author-first=Natana J. |author-link=Natana J. DeLong-Bas |date=22 February 2018 |orig-date=10 May 2017 |title=Jihad |encyclopedia=Oxford Bibliographies – Islamic Studies |location=[[Oxford]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |doi=10.1093/obo/9780195390155-0045 |url=http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195390155/obo-9780195390155-0045.xml |url-access=limited |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160629215212/http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195390155/obo-9780195390155-0045.xml |archive-date=29 June 2016 |access-date=25 October 2021}}</ref>{{sfn|Bonner|2006|p=13}}<ref name="ER">{{cite encyclopedia |author-last=Peters |author-first=Rudolph |year=2005 |title=Jihad |editor1-last=Eliade |editor1-first=Mircea |editor1-link=Mircea Eliade |editor2-last=Jones |editor2-first=Lindsay |editor3-last=Adams |editor3-first=Charles J. |editor3-link=Charles Joseph Adams |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Religion |edition=2nd |publisher=[[Macmillan Reference USA]] |volume=7 |page=4917 |isbn=9780028657394}}</ref> while [[Islamic modernism|modernist Islamic scholars]] generally equate military ''jihad'' with defensive warfare.<ref>{{cite book |author-last=Peters |author-first=Rudolph |year=2015 |orig-date=1980 |chapter=The Doctrine of Jihad in Modern Islam |title=Islam and Colonialism: The Doctrine of Jihad in Modern History |location=[[Berlin]] and [[Boston]] |publisher=[[De Gruyter]] |series=Religion and Society |volume=20 |doi=10.1515/9783110824858.105 |isbn=9783110824858 |issn=1437-5370 |pages=105–124}}</ref><ref name="hallaq334">{{cite book |author=Wael B. Hallaq |title=Sharī'a: Theory, Practice, Transformations |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] (Kindle edition) |year=2009 |pages=334–338}}</ref> Much of the contemporary Muslim opinion considers internal ''jihad'' to have primacy over external ''jihad'' in the Islamic tradition, while many Western writers favor the opposite view.{{sfn|Bonner|2006|p=13}} Today, the word ''jihad'' is often used without religious connotations, like the English ''[[crusade]]''.
The term "jihadism" has been in use since the 1990s, more widely in the aftermath of the [[September 11 attacks|9/11 attacks]].<ref name="BBC-What-2014">{{cite web|title=What is jihadism?|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-30411519|website=BBC News|access-date=13 October 2016|date=11 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161203233910/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-30411519|archive-date=3 December 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> It was first used by the Indian and Pakistani mass media, and by French academics who used the more exact term "[[Salafi jihadism|jihadist-Salafist]]".{{#tag:ref|Gilles Kepel used the variants ''jihadist-salafist'' (p. 220), ''jihadism-salafism'' (p. 276), ''salafist-jihadism'' (p. 403) in his book ''Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam'' (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 2002)|group=Note}} Historian David A. Charters defines "jihadism" as "a revolutionary program whose ideology promises radical social change in the [[Muslim world]]... [with] a central role to ''[[jihad]]'' as an armed political struggle to overthrow "[[Murtadd|apostate]]" regimes, to expel their [[Kafir|infidel]] allies, and thus to restore [[Dar al-islam|Muslim lands]] to governance by Islamic principles."<ref name="auto"/>
David Romano, researcher of political science at the [[McGill University]] in [[Montreal, Quebec]], has defined his use of the term as referring to "an individual or political movement that primarily focuses its attention, discourse, and activities on the conduct of a violent, uncompromising campaign that they term a ''jihad''".<ref name=romano>{{cite encyclopedia|author=David Romano|title=Jihadists in Iraq |editor=John L. Esposito |editor2=Emad El-Din Shahin |encyclopedia=The Oxford Handbook of Islam and Politics|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|year=2013|doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195395891.013.003 |isbn=978-0-19-539589-1 |url=http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195395891.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780195395891-e-003|url-access=subscription|access-date=15 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170215204725/http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195395891.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780195395891-e-003|archive-date=15 February 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> Following Daniel Kimmage, he distinguishes the jihadist discourse of jihad as a global project to remake the world from the resistance discourse of groups like [[Hezbollah]], which is framed as a regional project against a specific enemy.<ref name=romano/>
"Jihadism" has been defined otherwise as a [[neologism]] for [[militant]], predominantly [[Sunni Islam|Sunnī]] [[Political aspects of Islam|Islamic movements]] that use [[Violent extremism|ideologically motivated violence]] to defend the ''[[Ummah]]'' (the collective [[Muslim world]]) from foreign [[Kafir|Non-Muslims]] and those that they perceive as [[Islam and other religions|domestic infidels]].<ref name="CTC-Sentinel 2024"/><ref>{{cite journal |last=Crenshaw |first=Martha |date=2017 |title=Transnational Jihadism & Civil Wars |url=https://direct.mit.edu/daed/article/146/4/59-70/27165 |journal=[[Daedalus (journal)|Daedalus]] |publisher=[[MIT Press]] for the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] |volume=146 |issue=4 |pages=59–70 |doi=10.1162/DAED_a_00459 |issn=0011-5266}}</ref> The term "jihadist globalism" is also often used in relation to [[Islamic terrorism]] as a [[Globalism|globalist]] ideology, and more broadly to the [[War on Terror]].<ref>{{cite book |author-last=Steger |author-first=Manfred B. |author-link=Manfred B. Steger |year=2011 |chapter=Jihadist Globalism versus Imperial Globalism: The Great Ideological Struggle of the Twenty-First Century? |title=The Rise of the Global Imaginary: Political Ideologies from the French Revolution to the Global War on Terror |location=[[Oxford]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=213–248 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199286942.003.0007 |isbn=9780191700408}}</ref> The Austrian-American academic [[Manfred B. Steger]], Professor of [[Sociology]] at the [[University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa]], proposed an extension of the term "jihadist globalism" to apply to all extremely violent strains of religiously influenced ideologies that articulate the global imaginary into concrete political agendas and terrorist strategies; these include [[al-Qaeda]], [[Jemaah Islamiyah]], [[Hamas]], and [[Hezbollah]], which he finds "today's most spectacular manifestation of religious globalism".<ref>Steger, Manfred B. ''Globalization: A Short Introduction''. 2009. [[Oxford University Press]], p. 127.</ref>
According to the Jewish-American [[Political science|political scientist]] Barak Mendelsohn, "the overwhelming majority of [[Muslims]] reject jihadi views of Islam. Furthermore, as the cases of [[Saudi Arabia|Saudi]] and [[Arab states of the Persian Gulf|other Gulf regimes]] show, states may gain domestic legitimacy through economic development and social change, rather than based on religion and piety".<ref name="CTC-Sentinel 2024"/> Many Muslims do not use the terms "jihadism" or "jihadist", disliking the association of illegitimate violence with a noble religious concept, and instead prefer the use of delegitimising terms like "deviants".<ref name="BBC-What-2014"/>{{#tag:ref|Use of "jihadism" has been criticized by at least one academic (Brachman): "'Jihadism' is a clumsy and controversial term. It refers to the peripheral current of extremist Islamic thought whose adherents demand the use of violence in order to oust non-Islamic influence from traditionally Muslim lands en route to establishing true Islamic governance in accordance with Sharia, or God's law. The expression's most significant limitation is that it contains the word Jihad, which is an important religious concept in Islam. For much of the Islamic world, Jihad simply refers to the internal spiritual campaign that one wages with oneself."{{sfn|Brachman|2008|p=4}}|group=Note}} [[Maajid Nawaz]], founder and chairman of the anti-extremism think tank [[Quilliam (think tank)|Quilliam]], defines jihadism as a violent subset of [[Islamism]]: "Islamism [is] the desire to impose any version of Islam over any society. Jihadism is the attempt to do so by force."<ref name=dailybeast>{{cite web |url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/admit-it-these-terrorists-are-muslims |title=Admit It: These Terrorists Are Muslims |work=[[The Daily Beast]] |author=Maajid Nawaz |date=14 June 2016 |access-date=25 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170625020501/http://www.thedailybeast.com/admit-it-these-terrorists-are-muslims |archive-date=25 June 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref>
"[[Jihad Cool]]" is a term for the re-branding of militant jihadism as fashionable, or "[[Cool (aesthetic)|cool]]", to younger people through [[consumer culture]], social media, magazines,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/jihad-is-cool-jihadist-magazines-recruit-young-terrorists |title=Jihad is Cool: Jihadist Magazines Recruit Young Terrorists |work=Family Security Matters |author=Steve Emerson |date=15 April 2013 |access-date=22 August 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150311032304/http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/jihad-is-cool-jihadist-magazines-recruit-young-terrorists |archive-date=11 March 2015 }}</ref> [[Jihadism and rap|rap videos]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/04/29/9_disturbingly_good_jihadi_raps |title=9 Disturbingly Good Jihadi Raps |work=[[Foreign Policy]] |author=J. Dana Stuster |date=29 April 2013 |access-date=22 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140823014812/http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/04/29/9_disturbingly_good_jihadi_raps |archive-date=23 August 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref> toys, [[Propaganda through media|propaganda videos]],<ref>{{cite journal |title=The YouTube Jihadists: A Social Network Analysis of Al-Muhajiroun's Propaganda Campaign |journal=Perspectives on Terrorism |author1=Jytte Klausen |date=2012 |volume=6 |number=1 |url=http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/klausen-et-al-youtube-jihadists/html |access-date=22 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140826133824/http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/klausen-et-al-youtube-jihadists/html |archive-date=26 August 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref> and other means.<ref name=npr/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jun/27/terrorists-go-jihad-cool-and-use-rap-entice-young-/ |title=Terrorists go 'Jihad Cool,' use rap to entice young Americans |work=[[Washington Times]] |author=Cheryl K. Chumley |date=27 June 2014 |access-date=22 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903110445/http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jun/27/terrorists-go-jihad-cool-and-use-rap-entice-young-/ |archive-date=3 September 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref> It is a [[subculture]] mainly applied to individuals in developed nations who are recruited to travel to conflict zones on jihad. For example, jihadi rap videos make participants look "more [[MTV]] than Mosque", according to [[NPR]], which was the first to report on the phenomenon in 2010.<ref name=npr>{{cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125186382 |title=Jihadi Cool: Terrorist Recruiters' Latest Weapon |work=[[National Public Radio]] |author=Dina Temple-Raston |date=6 March 2010 |access-date=22 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006135852/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125186382 |archive-date=6 October 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref> To justify their acts of [[Islam and violence|religious violence]], jihadist individuals and networks resort to the nonbinding genre of Islamic legal literature (''[[fatwa]]'') developed by jihadi-Salafist legal authorities, whose legal writings are shared and spread via the Internet.<ref>{{cite book |last=French |first=Nathan S. |year=2020 |chapter=A Jihadi-Salafi Legal Tradition? Debating Authority and Martyrdom |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dWHdDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA36 |title=And God Knows the Martyrs: Martyrdom and Violence in Jihadi-Salafism |location=[[Oxford]] and New York City |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |doi=10.1093/oso/9780190092153.003.0002 |pages=36–69 |isbn=9780190092153 |lccn=2019042378}}</ref>
According to Reuven Firestone, Jihadism as commonly used in Western sources describes "militant Islamic movements that are perceived as existentially threatening to the West."<ref name="ccnrm-263">Compare: {{cite book |author-last=Firestone |author-first=Reuven |author-link=Reuven Firestone |title=The Cambridge Companion to New Religious Movements |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-521-19650-5 |editor1-last=Hammer |editor1-first=Olav |editor1-link=Olav Hammer |location=[[Cambridge]] |pages=263–285 |chapter="Jihadism" as a new religious movement |doi=10.1017/CCOL9780521196505.018 |lccn=2012015440 |quote='Jihadism' is a term that has been applied in Western languages to describe [[militant]] [[Political aspects of Islam|Islamic movements]] that are perceived as existentially threatening to [[Western world|the West]]. Western media have tended to refer to Jihadism as a military movement which is rooted in [[political Islam]]. [...] 'Jihadism,' like the word ''[[jihad]]'' from which it is constructed, is a difficult term to precisely define. The meaning of Jihadism is a virtual moving target because it remains a recent [[neologism]] and no single, generally accepted meaning has been developed for it. |editor2-last=Rothstein |editor2-first=Mikael |editor2-link=Mikael Rothstein |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RM0AAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA263 |s2cid=156374198}}</ref>
==History==
{{See also|Islamic fundamentalism|Salafi movement|Wahhabism}}
{{Further|International propagation of Salafism and Wahhabism|International propagation of Salafism and Wahhabism by region|Petro-Islam}}
[[File:Mujahideen prayer in Shultan Valley Kunar, 1987.jpg|thumb|right|[[Afghan mujahideen]] praying in the [[Kunar Province]], Afghanistan (1987)]]
===Key influences===
{{Main|Khawarij}}
{{Further|Qutbism|Takfirism}}
The term “jihadism” has been applied to various [[Islamic empires]] in history, such as the [[Arab]] [[Umayyad Caliphate]] and the [[Ottoman empire]], who extensively campaigned against non-Muslim nations in the name of jihad.<ref name="The End of the Jihad State"/><ref name="books.google.co.uk"/>
[[Islamic extremism]] dates back to the [[early history of Islam]] with the emergence of the [[Kharijites]] in the 7th century CE.<ref name="Izutsu 2006">{{cite book |last=Izutsu |first=Toshihiko |author-link=Toshihiko Izutsu |year=2006 |orig-date=1965 |title=The Concept of Belief in Islamic Theology: A Semantic Analysis of Imān and Islām |chapter=The Infidel (''Kāfir''): The Khārijites and the origin of the problem |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PDxHG5MtLawC&pg=PA1 |location=[[Tokyo]] |publisher=Keio Institute of Cultural and Linguistic Studies at [[Keio University]] |pages=1–20 |isbn=983-9154-70-2}}</ref> The original schism between [[Kharijites]], [[Sunni Islam|Sunnīs]], and [[Shia Islam|Shīʿas]] among Muslims was disputed over the [[Succession to Muhammad|political and religious succession]] to the guidance of the Muslim community (''[[Ummah]]'') after the death of the [[Islamic prophet]] [[Muhammad]].<ref name="Izutsu 2006" /> From their essentially political position, the Kharijites developed extreme doctrines that set them apart from both mainstream Sunnī and Shīʿa Muslims.<ref name="Izutsu 2006" /> Shīʿas believe [[Ali|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);<ref name="Izutsu 2006" /> they were particularly noted for adopting a radical approach to ''[[Takfir|takfīr]]'' (excommunication), whereby they declared both Sunnī and Shīʿa Muslims to be either [[Kafir|infidels]] (''kuffār'') or [[Munafiq|false Muslims]] (''munāfiḳūn''), and therefore deemed them [[Capital punishment in Islam|worthy of death]] for their perceived [[Apostasy in Islam|apostasy]] (''ridda'').<ref name="Izutsu 2006"/><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/another-battle-with-islams-true-believers/article20802390/|title=Another battle with Islam's 'true believers'|last=Khan|first=Sheema|date=12 May 2018|website=The Globe and Mail|publisher=The Globe and Mail Opinion|access-date=19 April 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.quilliamfoundation.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/publications/free/the-balance-of-islam-in-challenging-extremism.pdf|title=The Balance of Islam in Challenging Extremism|last=Hasan|first=Usama|date=2012|website=Quiliam Foundation|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140802045255/http://www.quilliamfoundation.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/publications/free/the-balance-of-islam-in-challenging-extremism.pdf|archive-date=2 August 2014|access-date=2015-11-17}}</ref>
[[File:Hamid Mir interviewing Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri 2001.jpg|thumb|right|[[Osama bin Laden]] and [[Ayman al-Zawahiri]] of [[al-Qaeda]] promoted the overthrow of secular governments.<ref name="Gallagher 2021">{{cite book |editor1-last=Gallagher |editor1-first=Eugene V. |editor2-last=Willsky-Ciollo |editor2-first=Lydia |editor1-link=Eugene V. Gallagher |year=2021 |chapter=Al-Qaeda |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Id4aEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA13 |title=New Religions: Emerging Faiths and Religious Cultures in the Modern World |location=[[Santa Barbara, California]] |publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]] |volume=1 |pages=13–15 |isbn=978-1-4408-6235-9}}</ref><ref name="Aydinli2018-2">{{cite book |last=Aydınlı |first=Ersel |year=2018 |orig-date=2016 |title=Violent Non-State Actors: From Anarchists to Jihadists |chapter=The Jihadists pre-9/11 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hq1TDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA65 |location=[[London]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Routledge]] |edition=1st |series=Routledge Studies on Challenges, Crises, and Dissent in World Politics |pages=65–109 |isbn=978-1-315-56139-4 |lccn=2015050373}}</ref><ref name="Moussalli 2012">{{cite book |author-last=Moussalli |author-first=Ahmad S. |year=2012 |chapter=Sayyid Qutb: Founder of Radical Islamic Political Ideology |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D-LfCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA9 |editor-last=Akbarzadeh |editor-first=Shahram |title=Routledge Handbook of Political Islam |location=[[London]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Routledge]] |edition=1st |pages=9–26 |isbn=9781138577824 |lccn=2011025970}}</ref>]]
[[Sayyid Qutb]], an Egyptian Islamist ideologue and a prominent leader of the [[Muslim Brotherhood]] in Egypt, was an influential promoter of the [[Pan-Islamism|Pan-Islamist]] [[ideology]] during the 1960s.<ref name="Polk 2018">{{cite book |last=Polk |first=William R. |author-link=William R. Polk |year=2018 |chapter=The Philosopher of the Muslim Revolt, Sayyid Qutb |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ozFDDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA370 |title=Crusade and Jihad: The Thousand-Year War Between the Muslim World and the Global North |location=[[New Haven, Connecticut|New Haven]] and [[London]] |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |series=The Henry L. Stimson Lectures Series |pages=370–380 |doi=10.2307/j.ctv1bvnfdq.40 |isbn=978-0-300-22290-6 |jstor=j.ctv1bvnfdq.40 |lccn=2017942543}}</ref> When he was executed by the [[Egyptian government]] under the [[History of Egypt under Gamal Abdel Nasser|regime of Gamal Abdel Nasser]], [[Ayman al-Zawahiri]] formed [[Egyptian Islamic Jihad]], an organization which seeks to replace the government with an Islamic state that would reflect Qutb's ideas about the [[Islamic revival]] that he yearned for.<ref>{{cite book|title=[[The Looming Tower]]|author=Lawrence Wright|author-link=Lawrence Wright|publisher=Knopf|year=2006|isbn=0-375-41486-X|chapter = 2}}</ref> The [[Qutbism|Qutbist ideology]] has been influential among jihadist movements and [[Islamic terrorism|Islamic terrorists]] who seek to overthrow secular governments, most notably [[Osama bin Laden]] and Ayman al-Zawahiri of [[al-Qaeda]],<ref name="Gallagher 2021"/><ref name="Aydinli2018-2"/><ref name="Moussalli 2012"/> as well as the [[Salafi jihadism|Salafi-jihadi]] terrorist group [[Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant|ISIL/ISIS/IS/Daesh]].<ref name="Baele 2019">{{cite journal |author-last=Baele |author-first=Stephane J. |date=October 2019 |title=Conspiratorial Narratives in Violent Political Actors' Language |url=https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/bitstream/10871/37355/2/ConspiratorialNarratives_MainArticle_Resubmit_FINAL_CLEAN%20.pdf |editor-last=Giles |editor-first=Howard |journal=[[Journal of Language and Social Psychology]] |publisher=[[SAGE Publications]] |volume=38 |issue=5–6 |pages=706–734 |doi=10.1177/0261927X19868494 |doi-access=free |hdl=10871/37355 |hdl-access=free |issn=1552-6526 |s2cid=195448888 |access-date=3 January 2022}}</ref> Moreover, Qutb's books have been frequently been cited by Osama bin Laden and [[Anwar al-Awlaki]].<ref name="NYT: path to terror">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/world/09awlaki.html?pagewanted=5&hp|title=Imam's Path From Condemning Terror to Preaching Jihad|author1=Scott Shane |author2=Souad Mekhennet |author3=Robert F. Worth |name-list-style=amp |date=8 May 2010|work=The New York Times|access-date=13 May 2010}}</ref><ref name="Irwin">[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/nov/01/afghanistan.terrorism3 Robert Irwin, "Is this the man who inspired Bin Laden?"] ''[[The Guardian]]'' (1 November 2001).</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/23/magazine/the-philosopher-of-islamic-terror.html Paul Berman, "The Philosopher of Islamic Terror"], ''[[New York Times Magazine]]'' (23 March 2003).</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/weta/crossroads/incl/Out-of-the-Shadows.pdf|title=Out of the Shadows: Getting ahead of prisoner radicalization|website=[[PBS]] }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pwhce.org/evolutionofalqaeda.html|title=The Evolution of Al-Qaeda: Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi|author=Trevor Stanley|access-date=26 February 2015}}</ref><ref>[http://www.carlisle.army.mil/usawc/Parameters/07spring/eikmeier.htm Qutbism: An Ideology of Islamic-Fascism] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070609120804/http://www.carlisle.army.mil/usawc/parameters/07spring/eikmeier.htm |date=2007-06-09 }} by Dale C. Eikmeier. From ''[[Parameters (journal)|Parameters]]'', Spring 2007, pp. 85–98.</ref>
Sayyid Qutb could be said to have founded the actual movement of radical Islam.<ref name="Cook 2015"/><ref name="Moussalli 2012"/><ref name="Polk 2018"/> Unlike the other Islamic thinkers who have been mentioned above, Qutb was not an [[Apologetics|apologist]].<ref name="Cook 2015"/> He was a prominent leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and a highly influential Islamist ideologue,<ref name="Cook 2015"/><ref name="Moussalli 2012"/> 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 (book)|Milestones]]''), which lead to his execution by the Egyptian government.<ref name="Cook 2015"/><ref>Gibril Haddad, “Quietism and End-Time Reclusion in the Qurʾān and Hadith: Al-Nābulusī and His Book Takmīl Al-Nuʿūt within the ʿuzla Genre,” ''Islamic Sciences'' 15, no. 2 (2017): pp. 108-109)</ref> Other Salafi movements in the [[Middle East and North Africa]] and Salafi movements across the [[Muslim world]] adopted many of his Islamist principles.<ref name="Cook 2015"/><ref name="Moussalli 2012"/>
According to Qutb, the Muslim community (''Ummah'') has been extinct for several centuries and it has also reverted to ''[[jahiliyah]]'' (the pre-Islamic age of ignorance) because those who call themselves Muslims have failed to follow the [[Sharia|''sharia'' law]].<ref name="Cook 2015"/><ref name="Moussalli 2012"/> In order 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 which was modeled after the early Muslims, preaching, and bracing oneself for [[poverty]] or even bracing oneself for death in preparation for ''[[jihad]]'' against what he perceived was a ''jahili'' government/society, and the overthrow of them.<ref name="Cook 2015"/><ref name="Moussalli 2012"/> [[Qutbism]], the radical Islamist ideology which is derived from the ideas of Qutb,<ref name="Moussalli 2012"/> was denounced by many prominent Muslim scholars as well as by other members of the Muslim Brotherhood, like [[Yusuf al-Qaradawi]].
===Islamic revivalism and Salafism (1990s to present)===
{{Main|Islamic revival|Salafi jihadism}}
[[File:Flag of the Majlis of Muslims of Ichkeria and Dagestan.png|thumb|A [[Black Standard|black flag]] reportedly used by [[Arab Mujahideen in Chechnya|Caucasian jihadists]] in 2002 displays the phrase ''al-jihad [[fi sabilillah]]'' above the [[takbir]] and two crossed [[Scimitar|swords]].]]
[[File:Flag of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant2.svg|thumb|Flag of [[Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant|ISIL/ISIS/IS/Daesh]]]]
According to [[Rudolph F. Peters|Rudolph Peters]], scholar of [[Islamic studies]] and the [[history of Islam]], contemporary traditionalist Muslims "copy phrases of the classical works on [[fiqh]]" in their writings on jihad; [[Islamic Modernism|Islamic modernists]] "emphasize the defensive aspect of jihad, regarding it as tantamount to ''[[Just war theory|bellum justum]]'' in modern international law; and the contemporary fundamentalists ([[Abul A'la Maududi]], [[Sayyid Qutb]], [[Abdullah Azzam]], etc.) view it as a struggle for the expansion of Islam and the realization of Islamic ideals."<ref name=Petersjihad150>{{cite book |last=Peters |first=Rudolph |title=Jihad in Classical and Modern Islam: A Reader |publisher=Marcus Wiener |year=1996 |location=Princeton |page=150 |isbn=9004048545 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lm4XnNtI_1wC&q=Jihad+in+Classical+and+Modern+Islam:+A+Reader |access-date=12 August 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018191204/https://books.google.com/books?id=Lm4XnNtI_1wC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Jihad+in+Classical+and+Modern+Islam:+A+Reader&hl=en&sa=X&ei=CSbHU4jrEIGpyATy9oGQCA&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAQ |archive-date=18 October 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref>
Some of the earlier [[Ulama|Islamic scholars]] and [[Islamic theology|theologians]] who had profound influence on [[Islamic fundamentalism]] and the ideology of contemporary jihadism include the medieval Muslim thinkers [[Ibn Taymiyyah]], [[Ibn Kathir]], and [[Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab|Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab]], alongside the modern Islamist ideologues [[Rashid Rida|Muhammad Rashid Rida]], Sayyid Qutb, and Abul A'la Maududi.<ref name="Badara 2017"/><ref name="Jalal 2009"/><ref name="Homegrown 2021"/><ref>{{cite book|last=R. Habeck|first=Mary|title=Knowing the Enemy: Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2006|isbn=0-300-11306-4|location=London|pages=17–18}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Haniff Hassan|first=Muhammad|title=The Father of Jihad|publisher=Imperial College Press|year=2014|isbn=978-1-78326-287-8|location=57 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9HE|page=77}}</ref> Jihad has been propagated in modern fundamentalism beginning in the late 19th century, an ideology that arose in the context of struggles against [[European colonialism|colonial powers]] in North Africa at that time, as in the [[Mahdist War]] in Sudan, and notably in the mid-20th century by [[Islamic revival]]ist authors such as Sayyid Qutb and Abul Ala Maududi.<ref>Rudolph Peters, ''Jihad in Modern Terms: A Reader'' 2005, p. 107 and note p. 197. John Ralph Willis, "Jihad Fi Sabil Allah", in: ''In the Path of Allah: The Passion of al-Hajj ʻUmar: an essay into the nature of charisma in Islam'', Routledge, 1989, {{ISBN|978-0-7146-3252-0}}, 29–57. "Gibb [''Mohammedanism'', 2nd ed. 1953] rightly could conclude that one effect of the renewed emphasis in the nineteenth century on the Qur'an and ''[[Sunnah]]'' in Muslim fundamentalism was to restore to ''[[jihad fi sabil Allah|jihad fi sabilillah]]'' much of the prominence it held in the early days of Islam. Yet Gibb, for all his perception, did not consider jihad within the context of its alliance to ascetic and revivalist sentiments, nor from the perspectives which left it open to diverse interpretations." (p. 31)</ref>
The term ''jihadism'' (earlier ''Salafi jihadism'') has arisen in the 2000s to refer to the contemporary jihadi movements, the development of which was in retrospect traced to developments of [[Salafi movement|Salafism]] paired with the origins of [[al-Qaeda]] in the [[Soviet–Afghan War]] during the 1990s. Jihadism has been called an "offshoot" of Islamic revivalism of the 1960s and 1970s. The writings of Sayyid Qutb and [[Mohammed Abdul-Salam Farag]] provide inspiration. The Soviet–Afghan War (1979–1989) is said to have "amplified the jihadist tendency from a fringe phenomenon to a major force in the [[Muslim world]]."<ref>{{cite book|last=Commins |first=David |title=The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia |publisher=I.B.Tauris |year=2009 |page=174}}</ref> It served to produce foot soldiers, leadership and organization. [[Abdullah Yusuf Azzam]] provided propaganda for the Afghan cause. After the war, veteran jihadists returned to their home countries, and from there would disperse to other sites of conflict involving Muslim populations, such as Algeria, [[Bosnia]], and [[Chechnya]], creating a "transnational jihadist stream."<ref>{{cite book|last=Commins |first=David |title=The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia |publisher=I.B.Tauris |year=2009 |pages=156, 7}}</ref>
An explanation for jihadist willingness to kill civilians and self-professed Muslims on the grounds that they were actually [[Apostasy in Islam|apostates]] (''[[Takfir|takfīr]]'') is the vastly reduced influence of the traditional diverse class of ''[[ulama]]'', often highly educated Islamic jurists. In "the vast majority" of Muslim countries during the post-colonial world of the 1950s and 1960s, the private religious endowments (''[[Waqf|awqāf]]'') that had supported the independence of Islamic scholars and jurists for centuries were taken over by the state. The jurists were made salaried employees and the nationalist rulers naturally encouraged their employees (and their employees' interpretations of Islam) to serve the rulers' interests. Inevitably, the jurists came to be seen by the Muslim public as doing this.<ref name=ptiI-aef-6>{{cite book|last1=Abou El Fadl|first1=Khaled|title=The Place of Tolerance in Islam by Khaled Abou El Fadl The Place of Tolerance in Islam|date=2002|publisher=Beacon Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/placeoftolerance0000abou/page/6 6]|isbn=9780807002292|url=https://archive.org/details/placeoftolerance0000abou|url-access=registration|quote=The guardians of the Islamic tradition were the jurists.|access-date=21 December 2015}}</ref>
Into this vacuum of religious authority came [[International propagation of conservative Sunni Islam|aggressive proselytizing]], funded by tens of billions of dollars of [[Petro-Islam|petroleum-export money]] from [[Saudi Arabia]].<ref name=Kepel51>{{cite book|last=Kepel|first=Gilles|title=Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam|date=2006|publisher=I.B. Tauris|page=51|isbn=9781845112578|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OLvTNk75hUoC&pg=PA61|quote=Well before the full emergence of Islamism in the 1970s, a growing constituency nicknamed 'petro-Islam' included Wahhabi ulemas and Islamist intellectuals and promoted strict implementation of the sharia in the political, moral and cultural spheres; this proto-movement had few social concerns and even fewer revolutionary ones.|access-date=23 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160514121758/https://books.google.com/books?id=OLvTNk75hUoC&pg=PA61&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4|archive-date=14 May 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> The version of Islam being propagated (Saudi doctrine of [[Wahhabism]]) billed itself as a return to pristine, simple, straightforward Islam,<ref name=ptiI-aef-8>{{cite book|last1=Abou El Fadl|first1=Khaled|title=The Place of Tolerance in Islam by Khaled Abou El Fadl The Place of Tolerance in Islam|date=2002|publisher=Beacon Press|pages=[https://archive.org/details/placeoftolerance0000abou/page/8 8]–9|isbn=9780807002292|url=https://archive.org/details/placeoftolerance0000abou|url-access=registration|quote=The guardians of the Islamic tradition were the jurists.|access-date=21 December 2015}}</ref> not one [[Madhhab|school]] among many, and not interpreting [[Sharia|Islamic law]] historically or contextually, but as the one, orthodox "straight path" of Islam.<ref name=ptiI-aef-8/> Unlike the traditional teachings of the jurists, who tolerated and even celebrated divergent opinions and schools of thought and kept extremism marginalized, Wahhabism had "extreme hostility" to "any sectarian divisions within Islam".<ref name=ptiI-aef-8/>
In Iraq, resentment amongst Sunnis over their marginalization after the [[Battle of Baghdad (2003)|fall of Ba'athist regime]] led to the rise of jihadist networks in the region, which resulted in the [[Iraqi insurgency (2003–2006)|al-Qaeda led insurgency in Iraq]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Glynn Williams |first=Brian |title=Counter Jihad: America's Military Experience in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-8122-4867-8 |location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112, USA |pages=45–46, 179, 185–195}}</ref> [[De-Ba'athification]] policy initiated by the [[Coalition Provisional Authority|new government]] led to rise in support of jihadists and remnants of [[Ba'ath Party (Iraqi-dominated faction)|Iraqi Ba'athists]] started allying with al-Qaeda in their common fight against the United States.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Glynn Williams |first=Brian |title=Counter Jihad: America's Military Experience in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-8122-4867-8 |location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112, USA |pages=188–192 |chapter=4: The Invasion and Occupation of Iraq}}</ref> Iraq War journalist [[George Packer]] writes in ''[[The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq|The Assassins' Gate]]'':<blockquote>"The Iraq War proved some of the [[Presidency of George W. Bush|Bush administration]]'s assertions false, and it made others self-fulfilling. One of these was the insistence on an operational link between Iraq and al-Qaeda... after the fall of the regime, the most potent ideological force behind the insurgency was Islam and its hostility to non-Islamic intruders. Some former Baathist officials even stopped drinking and took to prayer. The insurgency was called ''[[Muqawamah|mukawama]]'', or resistance, with overtones of religious legitimacy; its fighters became ''[[mujahideen]]'', holy warriors; they proclaimed their mission to be ''[[jihad]]''."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Packer |first=George |title=[[The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq]] |publisher=[[Farrar, Straus and Giroux]] |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-374-53055-6 |location=18 West 18th Street, New York 10011, USA |pages=309}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Glynn Williams |first=Brian |title=Counter Jihad: America's Military Experience in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-8122-4867-8 |location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112, USA |pages=191 |chapter=4: The Invasion and Occupation of Iraq}}</ref></blockquote>Originating in the [[Jaish al-Ta'ifa al-Mansurah]] founded by [[Abu Omar al-Baghdadi]] in 2004, the organization (primarily under the [[Islamic State of Iraq]] name) affiliated itself with [[al-Qaeda in Iraq]] and fought alongside them during the [[2003–2006 phase of the Iraqi insurgency]]. The group later changed their name to Islamic State of Iraq and Levant for about a year,<ref>{{Cite news |date=9 April 2013 |title=Al-Qaeda in Iraq confirms Syria's Nusra Front is part of its network |url=https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2013/04/09/Al-Qaeda-in-Iraq-confirms-Syria-s-Nusra-Front-is-part-of-its-network |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221005221604/https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2013/04/09/Al-Qaeda-in-Iraq-confirms-Syria-s-Nusra-Front-is-part-of-its-network |archive-date=5 October 2022 |work=[[Al Arabiya]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Abouzeid |first=Rania |date=23 June 2014 |title=The Jihad Next Door: The Syrian roots of Iraq's newest civil war. |url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/al-qaeda-iraq-syria-108214/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119010037/https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/al-qaeda-iraq-syria-108214/ |archive-date=19 January 2023 |website=[[Politico]]}}</ref> before declaring itself to be a worldwide [[caliphate]],<ref>{{cite news |last=Roggio |first=Bill |author-link=Bill Roggio |date=29 June 2014 |title=ISIS announces formation of Caliphate, rebrands as 'Islamic State' |url=http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2014/06/isis_announces_formation_of_ca.php |work=[[Long War Journal]]}}</ref><ref name="newname">{{cite news |last=Withnall |first=Adam |date=29 June 2014 |title=Iraq crisis: Isis changes name and declares its territories a new Islamic state with 'restoration of caliphate' in Middle East |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-declares-new-islamic-state-in-middle-east-with-abu-bakr-albaghdadi-as-emir-removing-iraq-and-syria-from-its-name-9571374.html |work=The Independent |location=London}}</ref> called simply the [[Islamic State]].<ref name="BBCSep2014">{{cite news |date=26 September 2014 |title=What is Islamic State? |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29052144 |publisher=BBC News}}</ref> They are a transnational [[Salafi jihadist]] group and an [[Diplomatic recognition|unrecognised]] [[quasi-state]]. IS gained global prominence in 2014, when their militants conquered large territories in northwestern Iraq and eastern Syria, taking advantage of the ongoing [[Syrian civil war|civil war in Syria]] and the disintegrating local military forces of Iraq. By the end of 2015, their self-declared [[caliphate]] ruled an area with a population of about 12 million,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2017-12-27/isis-by-the-numbers-in-2017|title=ISIS By the Numbers in 2017|first=Paul D. |last=Shinkman|work=[[U.S. News & World Report]] |date=27 December 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Birke |first=Sarah |date=5 February 2017 |title=How ISIS Rules |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2015/02/05/how-isis-rules/ |website=The New York Review of Books}}</ref> where they enforced their extremist interpretation of [[Islamic law]], managed an annual budget exceeding {{US$|1}}{{nbsp}}billion, and commanded more than 30,000 fighters.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gerges |first=Fawaz A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tXptDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA21 |title=ISIS: A History |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-691-17000-8 |pages=21–22}}</ref> After a grinding conflict with American, Iraqi, and Kurdish forces, IS lost control of all their Middle Eastern territories by 2019, subsequently reverting to insurgency from remote hideouts while continuing their [[Social media use by the Islamic State|propaganda efforts]]. These efforts have garnered a significant following in northern and [[Sahelian]] Africa,<ref>{{cite news |date=1 January 2019 |title=ISIS far from defeated in Syria: 2019 outlook (maps) |url=https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/isis-far-from-defeated-in-syria-2019-outlook-maps/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200407154759/https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/isis-far-from-defeated-in-syria-2019-outlook-maps/ |archive-date=7 April 2020 |access-date=7 April 2019 |work=Al-Masdar News}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=1 March 2019 |title=US-Led Allies Finishing Off 'Caliphate' |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/us-led-allies-finishing-off-caliphate-/4809186.html |access-date=7 April 2019 |work=VOA News}}</ref> where IS still controls a significant territory, and the [[war against the Islamic State]] continues.<ref name="C-T-K">{{cite news |author1=Brian Carter |author2=Kathryn Tyson |author3=Liam Karr |author4=Peter Mills |date=17 May 2023 |title=Salafi Jihadi Movement Weekly Update, May 17, 2023 |url=https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/salafi-jihadi-movement-weekly-update-may-17-2023 |access-date=4 January 2024 |work=ISW, Critical Threats}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |url = https://www.crisisgroup.org/sites/default/files/2024-03/b196-jas-vs-iswap_0.pdf |title = JAS vs. ISWAP: The War of the Boko Haram Splinters |date = 28 March 2024 |journal = Africa Briefing |issue=196 |publisher = Crisis Group |location = Brussels, Dakar |pages=2, 6}}</ref>
====Shia jihad====
The term ''jihadist'' is almost exclusively used to describe [[Sunni Islam|Sunni]] [[Islamic extremism|extremists]].<ref name=econ-unsavory>{{cite news|title=The war against jihadists. Unsavoury allies|newspaper=The Economist|date=6 September 2014|url=https://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21615647-growing-power-shia-militias-iraq-and-syria-poses-tricky|access-date=11 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160826115750/http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21615647-growing-power-shia-militias-iraq-and-syria-poses-tricky|archive-date=26 August 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> One example is Syria, where there have been thousands of foreign Muslim fighters engaged in the [[Syrian civil war|civil war]], for example, non-Syrian [[Shia Islam|Shia]] are often referred to as "militia", and Sunni foreigners as "jihadists" (or "would-be jihadists").{{#tag:ref|For example: "The battle has drawn Shiite militias from Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan on the side of Assad, even as Sunni would-be jihadists from around the world have filled the ranks of the many Islamist groups fighting his rule, including the Islamic State extremist group."<ref name="Bulos-LAT-jihadists">{{cite news|last1=Bulos|first1=Nabih|title=Soldiers on both sides see the fight for Aleppo as a battle between jihadists|url=http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-syria-aleppo-jihadists-20160816-snap-story.html|access-date=11 October 2016|work=Los Angeles Times|date=17 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161011235643/http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-syria-aleppo-jihadists-20160816-snap-story.html|archive-date=11 October 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>|group=Note}}{{#tag:ref| The Iranian government has drawn from Afghan refugees living in Iran and the number of Afghans fighting in Syria on behalf of the Assad regime has been estimated at "between 10,000 and 12,000".<ref name="natint20-11-15">{{cite news|last1=Heistein|first1=Ari|last2=West|first2=James|title=Syria's Other Foreign Fighters: Iran's Afghan and Pakistani Mercenaries|url=http://nationalinterest.org/feature/syrias-other-foreign-fighters-irans-afghan-pakistani-14400|access-date=11 October 2016|work=National Interest|date=20 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161011225117/http://nationalinterest.org/feature/syrias-other-foreign-fighters-irans-afghan-pakistani-14400|archive-date=11 October 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>|group=Note}} One who does use the term "Shia jihad" is Danny Postel, who complains that "this Shia jihad is largely left out of the dominant narrative."<ref name="postel-2016">{{cite news|author1=Danny Postel|title=Theaters of Coercion: Review of 'Children of Paradise: The Struggle for the Soul of Iran' |author2= Laura Secor |author2-link= Laura Secor |url=http://democracyjournal.org/magazine/42/theaters-of-coercion/|access-date=11 October 2016|work=Democracy Journal|issue=42|date=Fall 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161014115228/http://democracyjournal.org/magazine/42/theaters-of-coercion/|archive-date=14 October 2016|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Smyth-2-10-2016">see also: {{cite news|last1=Smyth|first1=Phillip|title=Foreign Shia jihadists in Syria|url=http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/religionandethicsreport/foreign-shia-jihadis-in-syria/4994194|access-date=11 October 2016|agency=abc.net.au|date=2 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160828102129/http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/religionandethicsreport/foreign-shia-jihadis-in-syria/4994194|archive-date=28 August 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> Other authors see the ideology of "resistance" (Arabic: ''muqawama'') as more dominant, even among extremist Shia groups. For clarity, they suggest use of the term "''muqawamist"'' instead.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://magazine.zenith.me/en/politics/jihadism-vs-muqawamism|title=Are Shia Militias Jihadist?|date=20 December 2017|website=magazine.zenith.me|language=en|access-date=4 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180919030317/https://magazine.zenith.me/en/politics/jihadism-vs-muqawamism|archive-date=19 September 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> Yemen's Houthi rebels have often called for "jihad" to resist [[Saudi Arabian–led intervention in Yemen|Saudi Arabia's intervention]], even though the [[Houthi movement]] from the [[Zaidism]], is closer to Sunni in theology than other Shi'a sect.<ref>[https://www.yemenembassy.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Houthi-Ideology.pdf Understanding the Houthi Ideology and its Consequences on Yemen] Embassy of Yemen in Washington, DC. Salem Bahfi. September 2020</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |title=Inside War-Torn Yemen as Civilians Fight for Survival |url=https://time.com/yemen-saudi-arabia-war-human-toll/ |access-date=2023-05-16 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]}}</ref>
==Beliefs==
According to Shadi Hamid and Rashid Dar, jihadism is driven by the idea that jihad is an "individual obligation" (''[[fard]] ‘ayn'') incumbent upon all [[Muslims]]. This is in contrast with the belief of Muslims up until now (and by contemporary non-jihadists) that jihad is a "collective obligation" (''[[fard al-kifaya]]'') carried out according to orders of legitimate representatives of the Muslim community. Jihadist insist all Muslims should participate because (they believe) today's Muslim leaders are illegitimate and do not command the authority to ordain justified violence.<ref name="Hamid-15-7-16">{{cite web|last1=Hamid|first1=Shadi|last2=Dar|first2=Rashid|title=Islamism, Salafism, and jihadism: A primer|url=https://www.brookings.edu/blog/markaz/2016/07/15/islamism-salafism-and-jihadism-a-primer/|publisher=Brookings Institution|access-date=13 October 2016|date=15 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161012093054/https://www.brookings.edu/blog/markaz/2016/07/15/islamism-salafism-and-jihadism-a-primer/|archive-date=12 October 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>
===Evolution of jihad===
[[File:Ansarullah Flag Vector.svg|150px|thumb|right|The [[Houthi]] flag, with the top saying "''[[Takbir|God is the greatest]]''", the next line saying "''[[Death to America]]''", followed by "''Death to Israel''", followed by "''[[Antisemitism in Islam|A curse upon the Jews]]''", and the bottom saying "''Victory to Islam''".]]
Some observers<ref name="Poljarevic 2021"/><ref name="1Kadri-2012">{{cite book |last=Kadri |first=Sadakat |year=2012 |title=Heaven on Earth: A Journey Through Shari'a Law from the Deserts of Ancient Arabia |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers]] |location=London |isbn=978-0099523277 |pages=172–175 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ztCRZOhJ10wC}}</ref><ref name="Gorka-2009">{{cite web|title=Understanding History's Seven Stages of Jihad|url=https://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/understanding-history%E2%80%99s-seven-stages-of-jihad|last=Gorka|first=Sebastian|date=3 October 2009|website=Combating Terrorism Center|access-date=1 November 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304082911/https://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/understanding-history%E2%80%99s-seven-stages-of-jihad|archive-date=4 March 2016}}</ref> have noted the evolution in the rules of jihad—from the original "classical" doctrine to that of 21st-century [[Salafi jihadism]].<ref name="Ajjoub 2021">{{cite book |last=Ajjoub |first=Orwa |year=2021 |title=The Development of the Theological and Political Aspects of Jihadi-Salafism |url=https://www.cmes.lu.se/sites/cmes.lu.se/files/2021-02/orwa_ajjoub_rapport_a4_0203_interaktiv.pdf |url-status=live |location=[[Lund]] |publisher=Swedish South Asian Studies Network (SASNET) at the [[Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University]] |pages=1–28 |isbn=978-91-7895-772-9 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210210042321/https://www.cmes.lu.se/sites/cmes.lu.se/files/2021-02/orwa_ajjoub_rapport_a4_0203_interaktiv.pdf |archive-date=10 February 2021 |access-date=6 July 2021}}</ref> According to the [[legal historian]] Sadarat Kadri,<ref name="1Kadri-2012"/> during the last couple of centuries, incremental changes in Islamic legal doctrine (developed by Islamists who otherwise condemn any ''[[bid‘ah]]'' (innovation) in religion), have "normalized" what was once "unthinkable".<ref name="1Kadri-2012"/> "The very idea that Muslims might blow themselves up for God was unheard of before 1983, and it was not until the early 1990s that anyone anywhere had tried to justify killing innocent Muslims who were not on a battlefield."<ref name="1Kadri-2012"/>
The first or the "classical" doctrine of jihad which was developed towards the end of the 8th century, emphasized the "jihad of the sword" (''jihad bil-saif'') rather than the "jihad of the heart",<ref>{{cite book |last=Lewis |first=Bernard |author-link=Bernard Lewis |year=1988 |title=[[The Political Language of Islam]] |page=[https://archive.org/details/politicallanguag00lewi_680/page/n80 72] |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |location=Chicago |isbn=0-226-47693-6 |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref> but it contained many legal restrictions which were developed from interpretations of both the [[Quran]] and the [[Hadith]], such as detailed rules involving "the initiation, the conduct, the termination" of jihad, the treatment of prisoners, the distribution of booty, etc. Unless there was a sudden attack on the Muslim community, jihad was not a "personal obligation" (''fard ‘ayn''); instead it was a "collective one" (''[[fard al-kifaya]]''),<ref name="Khadduri-1955-60">{{cite book |last=Khadduri |first=Majid |author-link=Majid Khadduri |title=War and Peace in the Law of Islam |year=1955 |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |location=[[Baltimore]] |page=60 |chapter-url=https://actforamericaeducation.com/downloads/All_Files_by_Type/khadduri.pdf |access-date=26 October 2015 |chapter=5. Doctrine of Jihad |quote=[Unlike the five pillars of Islam, jihad was to be enforced by the state.] ... 'unless the Muslim community is subjected to a sudden attack and therefore all believers, including women and children are under the obligation to fight—[jihad of the sword] is regarded by all jurists, with almost no exception, as a collective obligation of the whole Muslim community,' meaning that 'if the duty is fulfilled by a part of the community it ceases to be obligatory on others'.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151128192525/http://www.actforamericaeducation.com/downloads/All_Files_by_Type/khadduri.pdf|archive-date=28 November 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref> which had to be discharged "in the way of God" (''fi sabil Allah''),<ref name="2Kadri-2012">{{cite book |last=Kadri |first=Sadakat |year=2012 |title=Heaven on Earth: A Journey Through Shari'a Law from the Deserts of Ancient Arabia |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers]] |location=London |isbn=978-0099523277 |pages=150–151 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ztCRZOhJ10wC}}</ref> and it could only be directed by the [[caliph]], "whose discretion over its conduct was all but absolute."<ref name="2Kadri-2012"/> (This was designed in part to avoid incidents like the [[Khawarij|Kharijia]]'s jihad against and killing of [[Ali as Caliph|Caliph Ali]], since they deemed that he was no longer a Muslim).<ref name="Poljarevic 2021"/> [[Shahid|Martyrdom]] resulting from an attack on the enemy with no concern for your own safety was praiseworthy, but dying by your own hand (as opposed to the enemy's) merited a special place in [[Jahannam|Hell]].<ref name="ARSI-BL-xii">{{cite book|last1=Lewis|first1=Bernard|title=The Assassins, a radical sect in Islam|orig-date=1967|year=2003|publisher=Basic Books|page=xi–xii |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sRVmL_h_PcsC&q=suicide |access-date=13 October 2015|isbn=978-0786724550}}</ref> The category of jihad which is considered to be a collective obligation is sometimes simplified as "offensive jihad" in Western texts.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Edwards |first1=Richard |last2=Zuhur|first2=Sherifa |title=The Encyclopedia of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Political, Social, and|page=553|publisher=ABC-CLIO|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YAd8efHdVzIC&pg=PA553|isbn=978-1851098422 |date=12 May 2008}}</ref>
Scholars like [[Abul Ala Maududi]], [[Abdullah Azzam]], [[Ruhollah Khomeini]], leaders of al-Qaeda and others, believe that defensive global jihad is a personal obligation, which means that no caliph or Muslim head of state needs to declare it. Killing yourself in the process of killing the enemy is an act of ''[[Shuhada]]'' (martyrdom) and it brings you a special place in [[Jannah|Heaven]], not a special place in [[Jahannam|Hell]]; and the killing of Muslim bystanders (nevermind [[Kafir|Non-Muslims]]), should not impede acts of jihad. Military and intelligent analyst [[Sebastian Gorka]] described the new interpretation of jihad as the "willful targeting of civilians by a non-state actor through unconventional means."<ref name="R. Habeck 2006 42">{{Cite book|last=R. Habeck|first=Mary|title=Knowing the Enemy: Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2006|isbn=0-300-11306-4|location=London|page=42}}</ref><ref name=Gorka-2009/> Al-Qaeda's splinter groups and competitors, [[Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad]] and the [[Islamic State of Iraq and Syria]], are thought to have been heavily influenced<ref name="Ajjoub 2021"/><ref name=McCoy-12-8-2004>{{cite news|last1=McCoy|first1=Terrence|title=The calculated madness of the Islamic State's horrifying brutality|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/08/12/the-calculated-madness-of-the-islamic-states-horrifying-brutality/|access-date=2 December 2015|agency=Washington Post|date=12 August 2014}}</ref><ref name=Crooke-30-8-2014>{{cite web|last1=Crooke|first1=Alastair|title=The ISIS' 'Management of Savagery' in Iraq|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/alastair-crooke/iraq-isis-alqaeda_b_5542575.html|website=The World Post|access-date=2 December 2015|date=30 August 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Hassan |first=Hassan |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/08/isis-islamic-state-ideology-sharia-syria-iraq-jordan-pilot |title=Isis has reached new depths of depravity. But there is a brutal logic behind it |work=The Guardian |date=8 February 2015 |access-date=10 February 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=McCoy |first=Terrence |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/08/12/the-calculated-madness-of-the-islamic-states-horrifying-brutality/ |title=The calculated madness of the Islamic State's horrifying brutality |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=12 August 2014 |access-date=1 September 2014}}<br />{{bullet}}{{cite news |first=Alastair |last=Crooke |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/alastair-crooke/iraq-isis-alqaeda_b_5542575.html |title=The ISIS' 'Management of Savagery' in Iraq |work=HuffPost |date=30 June 2014}}<br />{{bullet}}{{cite news |last=Hassan |first=Hassan |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/08/isis-islamic-state-ideology-sharia-syria-iraq-jordan-pilot |title=Isis has reached new depths of depravity. But there is a brutal logic behind it |work=The Guardian |date=8 February 2015}}</ref> by a 2004 work on jihad entitled ''[[Management of Savagery]]'' (''Idarat at-Tawahhush''),<ref name="Ajjoub 2021"/> written by Abu Bakr Naji<ref name="Ajjoub 2021"/> and intended to provide a strategy to create a new Islamic [[caliphate]] by first destroying "vital economic and strategic targets" and terrifying the enemy with cruelty to break its will.<ref name="nyJune14">{{cite magazine |last=Wright |first=Lawrence |title=ISIS's Savage Strategy in Iraq |url=http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/isiss-savage-strategy-in-iraq |magazine=The New Yorker |date=16 June 2014 |access-date=1 September 2014}}</ref>
Islamic theologian Abu Abdullah al-Muhajir has been identified as one of the key theorists and [[ideologue]]s behind modern jihadist violence.<ref name="Ajjoub 2021"/><ref name="CP265">{{cite journal |last=Bunzel |first=Cole |date=18 February 2016 |title=The Kingdom and the Caliphate: Duel of the Islamic States |url=https://carnegieendowment.org/files/CP_265_Bunzel_Islamic_States_Final.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Carnegie Papers |volume=265 |pages=1–43 |publisher=[[Carnegie Endowment for International Peace]] |location=Washington, D.C. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160328062426/https://carnegieendowment.org/files/CP_265_Bunzel_Islamic_States_Final.pdf |archive-date=28 March 2016 |access-date=5 July 2021}}</ref><ref name="Atlantic 2016">{{cite magazine |last1=al-Saud |first1=Abdullah K. |last2=Winter |first2=Charlie |title=Abu Abdullah al-Muhajir: The Obscure Theologian Who Shaped ISIS |magazine=[[The Atlantic]] |location=Washington, D.C. |date=4 December 2016 |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/12/isis-muhajir-syria/509399/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612140424/https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/12/isis-muhajir-syria/509399/ |archive-date=12 June 2018 |url-status=live  |access-date=28 September 2020}}</ref><ref name="Guardian">{{cite news |last=Townsend |first=Mark |date=13 May 2018 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/12/isis-jihadist-manual-analysed-rebutted-by-islamic-scholar |title=The core Isis manual that twisted Islam to legitimise barbarity |work=[[The Guardian]] |location=London |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180609090007/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/12/isis-jihadist-manual-analysed-rebutted-by-islamic-scholar |archive-date=9 June 2018 |url-status=live |access-date=5 July 2021 }}</ref> His theological and legal justifications influenced [[Abu Musab al-Zarqawi]], al-Qaeda member and former leader of [[al-Qaeda in Iraq]], as well as several other jihadi terrorist groups, including [[ISIL]] and [[Boko Haram]].<ref name="Ajjoub 2021"/><ref name="CP265"/><ref name="Atlantic 2016"/><ref name="Guardian"/> Zarqawi used a 579-page manuscript of al-Muhajir's ideas at AQI training camps that were later deployed by ISIL, known in Arabic as ''Fiqh al-Dima'' and referred to in English as ''The Jurisprudence of Jihad'' or ''The Jurisprudence of Blood''.<ref name="Ajjoub 2021"/><ref name="CP265"/><ref name="Atlantic 2016"/><ref name="Guardian"/><ref name="ChrisStout">{{cite book |last=Stout |first=Chris E. |author-link=Chris Stout (psychologist) |year=2018 |orig-date=2017 |title=Terrorism, Political Violence, and Extremism: New Psychology to Understand, Face, and Defuse the Threat |location=[[Santa Barbara, California]] |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]] |pages=5–6 |chapter=The Psychology of Terrorism |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QvHeDgAAQBAJ&q=jurisprudence+of+blood+ISIS&pg=PA5 |isbn=978-1440851926 |oclc=994829038}}</ref> The book has been described by counter-terrorism scholar Orwa Ajjoub as rationalizing and justifying "suicide operations, the mutilation of corpses, beheading, and the killing of children and  non-combatants".<ref name="Ajjoub 2021"/> ''[[The Guardian]]''{{'}}s journalist Mark Towsend, citing Salah al-Ansari of [[Quilliam (think tank)|Quilliam]], notes: "There is a startling lack of study and concern regarding this abhorrent and dangerous text [''The Jurisprudence of Blood''] in almost all Western and Arab scholarship".<ref name="Guardian"/> Charlie Winter of ''[[The Atlantic]]'' describes it as a "theological playbook used to justify the group's abhorrent acts".<ref name="Atlantic 2016"/> He states:
{{Blockquote|Ranging from ruminations on the merits of beheading, torturing, or burning prisoners to thoughts on assassination, siege warfare, and the use of biological weapons, Muhajir's intellectual legacy is a crucial component of the [[Ideology of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant|literary corpus of ISIS]]—and, indeed, whatever comes after it—a way to render practically anything permissible, provided, that is, it can be spun as beneficial to the jihad. [...] According to Muhajir, [[Muslim suicide bombers|committing suicide to kill people]] is not only a theologically sound act, but a commendable one, too, something to be cherished and celebrated regardless of its outcome. [...] neither Zarqawi nor his inheritors have looked back, liberally using Muhajir's work to normalize the use of suicide tactics in the time since, such that they have become the single most important military and terrorist method—defensive or offensive—used by ISIS today. The way that Muhajir theorized it was simple—he offered up a theological fix that allows any who desire it to sidestep the Koranic injunctions against suicide.<ref name="Atlantic 2016"/>}}
Clinical psychologist [[Chris Stout (psychologist)|Chris E. Stout]] also discusses the al Muhajir-inspired text in his essay, ''Terrorism, Political Violence, and Extremism'' (2017). He assesses that jihadists regard their actions as being "for the greater good"; that they are in a "weakened in the earth" situation that renders [[Islamic terrorism]] a valid means of solution.<ref name="ChrisStout"/>
== List of conflicts ==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Conflict !! Dates !! Groups involved !! Country/ies !! Sources
|-
| [[Soviet–Afghan War]] || 1979-1989 || [[Afghan mujahideen]] || [[Afghanistan]] ||
|-
| [[Afghan Civil War (1989–1992)]] || 1989-1992 || [[Afghan mujahideen]] and [[Al Qaeda]] || [[Afghanistan]] ||
|-
| [[Kashmir conflict]] || 1990-present || [[Lashkar-e-Taiba]] || [[Pakistan]] ||
|-
| [[Somali Civil War]] || 1991-present || [[Al-Shabaab (militant group)|Al Shabaab]] || [[Somalia]] ||
|-
| [[Algerian Civil War]] || 1991-2002 || [[Armed Islamic Group of Algeria|Armed Islamic Group]] || [[Algeria]] ||
|-
| [[Bosnian war]] || 1992-1995 || [[Bosnian mujahideen]] || [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]] ||
|-
| [[Afghan Civil War (1992–1996)]] || 1992-1996 || [[Taliban]] and [[Al-Qaeda]] || [[Afghanistan]] ||
|-
| [[First Chechen War]] || 1994-2017 || [[Mujahideen in Chechnya]] || [[Russia]] ||
|-
| [[Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)]] || 1996-2001 || [[Taliban]] and [[Al-Qaeda]] || [[Afghanistan]] ||
|-
| [[Al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen]] || 1998-present || [[Al Qaeda]] || [[Yemen]] ||
|-
| [[War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)]] || 2001-2021 || [[Taliban]], [[Al-Qaeda]], and [[Islamic State – Khorasan Province]] || [[Afghanistan]] ||
|-
| [[Insurgency in the Maghreb]] || 2002-present || [[Al Qaeda]] and [[Islamic State]] || [[Algeria]], [[Mali]], [[Niger]], [[Mauritania]], [[Tunisia]], [[Morocco]], and [[Libya]] ||
|-
| [[Iraqi insurgency]] || 2003-present || [[Al Qaeda]] and [[Islamic State]] || [[Iraq]] ||
|-
| [[Insurgency in the North Caucasus]] || 2009-2017 || [[Caucasus Emirate]] and [[Islamic State]] || [[Russia]] ||
|-
| [[Boko Haram insurgency]] || 2009-present || [[Boko Haram]] || [[Nigeria]], [[Cameroon]], [[Niger]], and [[Chad]] ||
|-
| [[Islamist insurgency in the Sahel]] || 2011-present || [[Al Qaeda]] and [[Islamic State – Sahel Province]] || [[Mali]], [[Burkina Faso]], [[Niger]], [[Nigeria]], [[Cameroon]], [[Chad]], [[Benin]], [[Togo]], [[Ghana]], and [[Ivory Coast]] ||
|-
| [[Syrian Civil War]] || 2011-present || [[Al Qaeda]] and [[Islamic State]] || [[Syria]] ||
|-
| [[War against the Islamic State]] || 2014-present || [[Islamic State]] || ||
|-
| [[Islamic State–Taliban conflict]] || 2015-present || [[Taliban]] and [[Islamic State]] || [[Afghanistan]] ||
|}
==See also==
* [[Arab Cold War]]
* [[Caucasus Emirate]],<ref>Darion Rhodes, [http://www.ict.org.il/Article/132/Salafist-Takfiri%20Jihadism%20the%20Ideology%20of%20the%20Caucasus%20Emirate Salafist-Takfiri Jihadism: the Ideology of the Caucasus Emirate] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903083632/http://www.ict.org.il/Article/132/Salafist-Takfiri%20Jihadism%20the%20Ideology%20of%20the%20Caucasus%20Emirate |date=3 September 2014 }}, [[International Institute for Counter-Terrorism]], March 2014</ref> a self-declared proto-state in [[Russia]]'s [[North Caucasus]]
* [[Counter-jihad]]
* [[Defensive jihad]]
* [[Dominion theology]]
* [[International propagation of Salafism and Wahhabism]] ([[International propagation of Salafism and Wahhabism by region|by region]])
* [[Islam and war]]
* [[Islam and violence]]
** [[Holy war in Islam]]
* [[Islamic extremism]]
** [[Islamic fundamentalism]]
** [[Islamic terrorism]]
** [[Jihadist extremism in the United States]]
** [[Jihadist flag]]
** [[Qutbism]]
** [[Takfiri]]sm
* [[Islamism]]
** [[Post-Islamism]]
* [[List of Islamist terrorist attacks]]
* [[Mujahideen]]
* [[Islamic fanaticism|Religious fanaticism in Islam]]
* [[Violence against Muslims in independent India]]
* [[Salafi movement]]
** [[International propagation of Salafism and Wahhabism]] ([[International propagation of Salafism and Wahhabism by region|by region]])
** [[Petro-Islam]]
** [[Salafi jihadism]]
** [[Wahhabism]]
* [[Christian terrorism]]
* [[Hindu terrorism]]
* [[Hindu nationalism]]
* [[Hindutva]]
==Notes==
{{Reflist|group=Note}}
==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}
==Literature==
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*{{cite book |last=Botobekov |first=Uran |year=2021 |chapter=How Central Asian Salafi-Jihadi Groups are Exploiting the Covid-19 Pandemic: New Opportunities and Challenges |editor-last=Käsehage |editor-first=Nina |title=Religious Fundamentalism in the Age of Pandemic |location=[[Bielefeld]] |publisher=Transcript Verlag |series=Religionswissenschaft |volume=21 |doi=10.14361/9783839454855-005 |doi-access=free |pages=107–148 |isbn=978-3-8376-5485-1}}
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}}
*{{cite journal
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*{{cite book
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*{{cite book
|last = Hegghammer
|first = Thomas
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|chapter = "Classical" and "Global" Jihadism in Saudi Arabia
|year = 2015
|editor1-last = Haykel
|editor1-first = Bernard
|editor1-link = Bernard Haykel
|editor2-last = Hegghammer
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|editor3-last = Lacroix
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|title = Saudi Arabia in Transition: Insights on Social, Political, Economic and Religious Change
|publisher = Cambridge University Press
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|isbn = 978-1-107-00629-4
}}
*{{cite book |last=Käsehage |first=Nina |year=2021 |chapter=Towards a Covid-Jihad – Millennialism in the field of Jihadism |editor-last=Käsehage |editor-first=Nina |title=Religious Fundamentalism in the Age of Pandemic |location=[[Bielefeld]] |publisher=Transcript Verlag |series=Religionswissenschaft |volume=21 |doi=10.14361/9783839454855-004 |doi-access=free |pages=81–106 |isbn=978-3-8376-5485-1}}
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}}
*{{cite book
|editor-last = Lohlker
|editor-first = Rüdiger
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*{{cite book
|editor-last = Lohlker
|editor-first = Rüdiger
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}}
*{{cite book
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|first = Alison
|year = 2008
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}}
*{{cite journal
|last=Pasha
|first=Mustapha Kamal
|date=April 2010
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|journal=[[Globalizations]]
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*{{cite book
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*{{cite book
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|first = Darion
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|title = Salafist-Takfiri Jihadism: the Ideology of the Caucasus Emirate
|publisher = [[International Institute for Counter-Terrorism]]
}}
*{{cite book
|last = Sageman
|first = Marc
|year = 2008
|title = Leaderless Jihad: Terror Networks in the Twenty-first Century
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}}
*{{cite book
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|first = James
|year = 2007
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}}
*{{cite book
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|title = Militant Islam: A Sociology of Characteristics, Causes and Consequences
|publisher = Routledge
|isbn = 978-0-415-41246-9
}}
*{{cite journal
|last = de Pommereau
|first = Isabelle
|year = 2015
|title = To fight homegrown jihadis, Germany takes lesson from battle with neo-Nazis
|journal = [[The Christian Science Monitor]]
|url = http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2015/0226/To-fight-homegrown-jihadis-Germany-takes-lesson-from-battle-with-neo-Nazis
}}
==External links==
{{commons category|Jihad}}
*{{cite web |url=https://www.mei.edu/publications/jihadism-south-asia-militant-landscape-flux |title=Jihadism in South Asia: A militant landscape in flux |last=Zahid |first=Farhan |date=8 January 2020 |website=mei.edu |publisher=[[Middle East Institute]] |location=Washington, D.C. |access-date=7 September 2020}}
{{Islamism}}
[[Category:Islam-related controversies]]
[[Category:Islamic fundamentalism]]
[[Category:Islamic terrorism]]
[[Category:Anti-communist terrorism]]
[[Category:Jihadism| ]]
[[Category:Mujahideen]]
[[Category:Political neologisms]]
[[Category:Religious terrorism]]