Jihadism#Offensive Jihad

{{Main|Jihad}}

File:Flag of Jihad.svg of the Black Standard as used by various 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 internal struggle against evil in oneself, and lesser jihad (external jihad), which is further subdivided into jihad of the pen/tongue (debate or persuasion) and jihad of the sword (warfare). The latter form of jihad has meant conquest and conversion in the classical Islamic interpretation, usually excepting followers of other monotheistic religions,{{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}}{{sfn|Bonner|2006|p=13}}{{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}} while modernist Islamic scholars generally equate military jihad with defensive warfare.{{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}}{{cite book |author=Wael B. Hallaq |title=Sharī'a: Theory, Practice, Transformations |publisher=Cambridge University Press (Kindle edition) |year=2009 |pages=334–338}} 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 term crusade.

The term "jihadism" has been in use since the 1990s, more widely in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.{{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}} It was first used by the Indian and Pakistani mass media, and by French academics who used the more exact term "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 "apostate" regimes, to expel their infidel allies, and thus to restore Muslim lands to governance by Islamic principles." According to Reuven Firestone, the term "jihadism" as commonly used in the Western world describes "militant Islamic movements that are perceived as existentially threatening to the West."Compare: {{cite book |author-last=Firestone |author-first=Reuven |author-link=Reuven Firestone |year=2012 |chapter="Jihadism" as a new religious movement |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RM0AAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA263 |editor1-last=Hammer |editor1-first=Olav |editor1-link=Olav Hammer |editor2-last=Rothstein |editor2-first=Mikael |editor2-link=Mikael Rothstein |title=The Cambridge Companion to New Religious Movements |location=Cambridge and New York |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=263–285 |doi=10.1017/CCOL9780521196505.018 |isbn=978-0-521-19650-5 |lccn=2012015440 |s2cid=156374198 |quote=Jihadism is a term that has been applied in Western languages to describe militant Islamic movements that are perceived as existentially threatening to 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.}}

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".{{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}} 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.

"Jihadism" has been defined otherwise as a neologism for militant, predominantly Sunnī Islamic movements that use ideologically motivated violence to defend the Ummah (the collective Muslim world) from foreign Non-Muslims and those that they perceive as domestic infidels.{{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 |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|url-access=subscription }} The term "jihadist globalism" is also often used in relation to Islamic terrorism as a globalist ideology, and more broadly to the War on Terror.{{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 |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=213–248 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199286942.003.0007 |isbn=9780191700408}} 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".Steger, Manfred B. Globalization: A Short Introduction. 2009. Oxford University Press, p. 127.

According to the Jewish-American political scientist Barak Mendelsohn, "the overwhelming majority of Muslims reject jihadi views of Islam. Furthermore, as the cases of Saudi and other Gulf regimes show, states may gain domestic legitimacy through economic development and social change, rather than based on religion and piety". 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".{{#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, 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."{{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 }}

"Jihad Cool" is a term for the re-branding of militant jihadism as fashionable, or "cool", to younger people through consumer culture, social media, magazines,{{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 }} rap videos,{{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 }} toys, propaganda videos,{{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 }} and other means.{{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}} 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.{{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 }} To justify their acts of religious violence, jihadist individuals and networks resort to the nonbinding genre of Islamic legal literature (fatwa) developed by Salafi-jihadist legal authorities, whose legal writings are shared and spread via the Internet.{{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}}

{{Main|Islamic extremism|Islamic fundamentalism|Salafi movement|Wahhabism}}

{{Further|International propagation of Salafism and Wahhabism|International propagation of Salafism and Wahhabism by region|Petro-Islam}}

{{Main|Islamic extremism|Islamism|Khawarij}}

{{Further|Islamic terrorism|Qutbism|Takfirism}}

File:Jihadist groups overview.png

File:Mujahideen prayer in Shultan Valley Kunar, 1987.jpg praying in the Kunar Province, Afghanistan (1987)]]

Islamic extremism dates back to the early history of Islam with the emergence of the Kharijites in the 7th century CE.{{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}} The original schism between Kharijites and Shīʿas among Muslims was disputed over the political and religious succession to the guidance of the Muslim community (Ummah) after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. From their essentially political position, the Kharijites developed extreme doctrines that set them apart from both mainstream Sunnī and Shīʿa Muslims. Shīʿas believe ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib is the true successor to Muhammad, while Sunnīs consider Abu Bakr to hold that position. The Kharijites broke away from both the Shīʿas and the Sunnīs during the First Fitna (the first Islamic Civil War); they were particularly noted for adopting a radical approach to takfīr (excommunication), whereby they declared both Sunnī and Shīʿa Muslims to be either infidels (kuffār) or false Muslims (munāfiḳūn), and therefore deemed them worthy of death for their perceived apostasy (ridda).{{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}}{{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}}

File:Hamid Mir interviewing Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri 2001.jpg and Ayman al-Zawahiri of al-Qaeda promoted the overthrow of secular governments{{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}}{{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 |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}}{{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 |publisher=Routledge |edition=1st |pages=9–26 |isbn=9781138577824 |lccn=2011025970}}]]

Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian Islamist ideologue and a prominent leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, was an influential promoter of the Pan-Islamist ideology during the 1960s.{{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 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}} When he was executed by the Egyptian government under the 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.{{cite book|title=The Looming Tower|author=Lawrence Wright|author-link=Lawrence Wright|publisher=Knopf|year=2006|isbn=0-375-41486-X|chapter = 2}} The Qutbist ideology has been influential among jihadist movements and Islamic terrorists who seek to overthrow secular governments, most notably Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri of al-Qaeda, as well as the Salafi-jihadist terrorist group ISIL/ISIS/IS/Daesh.{{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}} Moreover, Qutb's books have been frequently been cited by Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki.{{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}}[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).[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).{{Cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/weta/crossroads/incl/Out-of-the-Shadows.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628211751/http://www.pbs.org/weta/crossroads/incl/Out-of-the-Shadows.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=28 June 2011|title=Out of the Shadows: Getting ahead of prisoner radicalization|website=PBS }}{{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}}[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, Spring 2007, pp. 85–98.

Sayyid Qutb could be said to have founded the actual movement of radical Islam. Unlike the other Islamic thinkers who have been mentioned above, Qutb was not an apologist. He was a prominent leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and a highly influential Islamist ideologue, and the first to articulate these anathemizing principles in his magnum opus Fī ẓilāl al-Qurʾān (In the shade of the Qurʾān) and his 1966 manifesto Maʿālim fīl-ṭarīq (Milestones), which lead to his execution by the Egyptian government of Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1966.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) Other Salafi movements in the MENA region and across the Muslim world adopted many of his Islamist principles.

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 Islamic law (sharīʿa). In order to restore Islam, bring back its days of glory, and free the Muslims from the clasps of ignorance, Qutb proposed the rejection and shunning of modern society, establishing a vanguard which was modeled after the early Muslim generations (Salaf), preaching Islam, 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. Qutbism, the radical Islamist ideology which is derived from the ideas of Qutb, was denounced by many prominent Muslim scholars as well as by other members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, like Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

{{Main|Islamic revival|Salafi jihadism}}

File:Flag of the Majlis of Muslims of Ichkeria and Dagestan.png of the Black Standard as used by Caucasian jihadists in 2002 displays the phrase al-jihād fī sabīlillāh above the takbīr and two crossed swords]]

According to Rudolph F. Peters, contemporary traditionalist Muslims "copy phrases of the classical works on fiqh" in their writings on jihad; Islamic modernists "emphasize the defensive aspect of jihad, regarding it as tantamount to 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."{{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 }}

Some of the earlier Muslim scholars and 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 ʿAbd al-Wahhab, alongside the modern Islamist ideologues Muhammad Rashid Rida, Sayyid Qutb, and Abul A'la Maududi.{{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}}{{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}} Jihad has been propagated in modern fundamentalism beginning in the late 19th century, an ideology that arose in the context of struggles against colonial powers in North Africa at that time, as in the Mahdist War in Sudan, and notably in the mid-20th century by Islamic revivalist authors such as Sayyid Qutb and Abul Ala Maududi.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 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)

File:Sayed_Qotb_trial_(cropped).jpg through his prison-writings constituted the ideological basis of the Salafi-jihadist movement{{refn|}}]]

The term "jihadism" has arisen in the 2000s to refer to the contemporary jihadist movements, the development of which was in retrospect traced to developments of Salafism paired with the origins of al-Qaeda in the Soviet–Afghan War during the 1980s. Forerunners of Salafi jihadism principally include Egyptian militant scholar and theoretician Sayyid Qutb, who developed "the intellectual underpinnings" in the 1950s, for what would later become the doctrine of most Salafi-jihadist terrorist organizations around the world, including al-Qaeda and Islamic State.[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/nov/01/afghanistan.terrorism3 Robert Irwin, "Is this the man who inspired Bin Laden?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221209042236/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/nov/01/afghanistan.terrorism3|date=2022-12-09}} The Guardian (1 November 2001).[https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/23/magazine/the-philosopher-of-islamic-terror.html Paul Berman, "The Philosopher of Islamic Terror"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221209042239/https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/23/magazine/the-philosopher-of-islamic-terror.html|date=2022-12-09}}, New York Times Magazine (23 March 2003).{{Cite web |title=Out of the Shadows: Getting ahead of prisoner radicalization |url=https://www.pbs.org/weta/crossroads/incl/Out-of-the-Shadows.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130423144416/http://www.pbs.org/weta/crossroads/incl/Out-of-the-Shadows.pdf |archive-date=2013-04-23 |access-date=2020-09-29 |website=PBS}}{{cite web |author=Trevor Stanley |title=The Evolution of Al-Qaeda: Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi |url=http://www.pwhce.org/evolutionofalqaeda.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220103022401/http://www.pwhce.org/evolutionofalqaeda.html |archive-date=3 January 2022 |access-date=26 February 2015}} Going radically further than his predecessors, Qutb called upon Muslims to form an ideologically committed vanguard that would wage armed jihad against the secular, democratic states and Western-allied governments in the Arab world, until the restoration of Islamic rule. Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian-born pan-Islamist militant and physician who was second in command and co-founder of al-Qaeda, called Qutb "the most prominent theoretician of the fundamentalist movements".{{Cite journal |last1=Thorpe |first1=Lucas |year=2019 |title=Sayyid Qutb and Aquinas: Liberalism, Natural Law and the Philosophy of Jihad |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/heyj.12256 |journal=The Heythrop Journal |volume=60 |issue=3 |pages=413–435 |doi=10.1111/heyj.12256}}

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."{{cite book|last=Commins |first=David |title=The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia |publisher=I.B.Tauris |year=2009 |page=174}} 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."{{cite book|last=Commins |first=David |title=The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia |publisher=I.B. Tauris |year=2009 |pages=156–157}}

An explanation for jihadist willingness to kill civilians and self-professed Muslims on the grounds that they were actually apostates (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 (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.{{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}}

Into this vacuum of religious authority came aggressive proselytizing, funded by tens of billions of dollars of petroleum-export money from Saudi Arabia.{{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}} The version of Islam being propagated (Saudi doctrine of Wahhabism) billed itself as a return to pristine, simple, straightforward Islam,{{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}} not one school among many, and not interpreting Islamic law historically or contextually, but as the one, orthodox "straight path" of Islam. 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".

{{Further|Afghanistan conflict (1978–present)|Arab Cold War|Arab–Iranian conflict|Arab–Israeli conflict|Arab Spring|Arab Winter|International propagation of Salafism and Wahhabism|War on Terror}}

The Egyptian Islamist movements of the 1950s are generally considered to be the precursors of contemporary Salafi-jihadist groups.{{Cite web |last=Farid Shapoo |first=Sajid |date=19 July 2017 |title=Salafi Jihadism – An Ideological Misnomer |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318573548 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210819104157/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318573548_Salafi_Jihadism_-_An_Ideological_Misnomer |archive-date=19 Aug 2021 |website=ResearchGate}} The theological doctrines of the Syrian-Egyptian Islamic scholar Rashid Rida (1865–1935) greatly influenced these movements. Amongst his notable ideas included reviving the traditions of the early Muslim generations (Salaf), as well ridding the Muslim world of Western influences and jahiliyyah (pre-Islamic ignorance) by specifically looking up to the model of Khulafa Rashidun. Rida's ideas would set the foundations of future Salafi-Jihadist movements and greatly influence Islamists like Hassan al-Banna, Sayyid Qutb, and other Muslim fundamentalist figures.{{Cite web |date=23 April 2019 |title=Muhammad Rashid Rida |url=http://www.mideastweb.org/Middle-East-Encyclopedia/muhammad_rashid_rida.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211214084633/http://www.mideastweb.org/Middle-East-Encyclopedia/muhammad_rashid_rida.htm |archive-date=14 December 2021 |access-date=22 September 2021 |website=Encyclopedia of the Middle East}}{{Cite book |last=C. Martin |first=Richard |title=Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World, Second Edition |publisher=Gale Publishers |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-02-866269-5 |location=27500 Drake Rd. Farmington Hills, MI |page=1088 |chapter=State and Government}}{{Cite book |last=A. Turner |first=John |title=Religious Ideology and the Roots of the Global Jihad: Salafi Jihadism and International Order |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-349-48873-5 |location=New York |page=114 |chapter=Chapter 7: The Rise of Salafi Jihadism and the Al-Qaeda Ideology |doi=10.1057/9781137409577}}{{Cite journal |last=M. Bennett |first=Andrew |year=2013 |title=Islamic History & Al-Qaeda: A Primer to Understanding the Rise of Islamist Movements in the Modern World |url=https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1035&context=pilronline |url-status=live |journal=Pace International Law Review Online |publisher=PACE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW |volume=3 |issue=10 |pages=344–345 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210921141221/https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1035&context=pilronline |archive-date=2021-09-21 |access-date=2021-09-22 |via=DigitalCommons}} Rida's treatises laid the theological framework of future militants who would eventually establish the Salafi-jihadist movement.{{Cite book |last=R. Farmer |first=Brian |title=Understanding Radical Islam: Medieval Ideology in the Twenty-first Century |publisher=Peter Land Publishing Inc. |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-8204-8843-1 |location=New York, 29 Broadway, NY 10006, USA |pages=80 |chapter=4: Islamism and Terrorism}}{{Cite web |last=Tran |first=Edwin |date=2 March 2021 |title=Family tree of Islamist extremism |url=https://encyclopediageopolitica.com/2021/03/02/the-family-tree-of-islamist-extremism/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220807194623/https://encyclopediageopolitica.com/2021/03/02/the-family-tree-of-islamist-extremism/ |archive-date=7 August 2022 |website=Encyclopedia Geopolitica}}

In 2003, CIA officer Marc Sageman described Salafi jihadism as a "Muslim revivalist social movement" with "roots in Egypt". According to Sageman, Salafi jihadists are influenced by the strategy of prominent Egyptian Islamist ideologues such as Sayyid Qutb and Muhammad 'Abd al-Salam Faraj, who advocated the revolutionary overthrow of secular regimes and the establishment of Islamic states through armed jihad.{{cite web |date=July 9, 2003 |title=The Global Salafi Jihad |url=http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/911/hearings/hearing3/witness_sageman.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150302055630/http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/911/hearings/hearing3/witness_sageman.htm |archive-date=2 March 2015 |access-date=1 June 2015 |publisher=the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States}} According to French political scientist and professor Gilles Kepel, the Salafist version of jihadism combined "respect for the sacred texts in their most literal form, ... with an absolute commitment to jihad, whose number-one target had to be America, perceived as the greatest enemy of the faith."{{cite book |last1=Kepel |first1=Gilles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OLvTNk75hUoC&q=islamism |title=Jihad By Gilles Kepel, Anthony F. Roberts |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing PLC |year=2006 |isbn=9781845112578 |access-date=24 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140614211828/http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=OLvTNk75hUoC&dq=islamism&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=vzDyZ5LPO-&sig=dQqq7sPqaZId6nLWXV6BBjdUf5A&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result#PPA220,M1 |archive-date=14 June 2014 |url-status=live}} Kepel wrote that the Salafis whom he encountered in Europe in the 1980s, were "totally apolitical"."Jihadist-Salafism" is introduced by Gilles Kepel, Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 2002) pp.219-222{{cite web |date=2005 |title=The Salafist movement by Bruce Livesey |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/front/special/sala.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628202818/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/front/special/sala.html |archive-date=28 June 2011 |access-date=24 October 2014 |publisher=PBS Frontline}} However, by the mid-1990s, he met some who felt jihad in the form of "violence and terrorism" was "justified to realize their political objectives". The mingling of many Salafists who were alienated from mainstream European society with violent jihadists created "a volatile mixture".

In the 1990s, militant Islamists of the al-Jama'a al-Islamiyya were active in the terrorist attacks on police, government officials, and foreign tourists in Egypt, while the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria was one of the prominent Islamic extremist groups active during the Algerian Civil War. In Afghanistan, the Taliban are adherents of the Deobandi movement, not the Salafi school of Islam, but they closely co-operated with bin Laden and various Salafi-jihadist leaders.

In Iraq, resentment amongst Sunnis over their marginalization after the fall of the Ba'athist regime in 2003 led to the rise of jihadist networks in the region, which resulted in the al-Qaeda led insurgency in Iraq.{{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}} De-Ba'athification policy initiated by the new government led to rise in support of jihadists and remnants of Iraqi Ba'athists started allying with al-Qaeda in their common fight against the United States.{{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}} Iraq War journalist George Packer writes in The Assassins' Gate:

"The Iraq War proved some of the 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 mukawama, or resistance, with overtones of religious legitimacy; its fighters became mujahideen (holy warriors) and proclaimed their mission to be jihad."{{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}}{{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}}

The 2021 re-establishment of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and the 2024 establishment of the post-Assad Syrian Arab Republic grew out of the Salafi-jihadist groups Taliban and Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, respectively.{{Cite web |last= |date=2024-12-18 |title=The fall of the Assad regime is just the beginning of Syria’s quest for stability |url=https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/menasource/syria-quest-for-stability-hts-sharaa/ |access-date=2025-01-04 |website=Atlantic Council |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Return of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan: The Jihadist State of Play |url=https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/return-islamic-emirate-afghanistan-jihadist-state-play |access-date=2025-01-04 |website=The Washington Institute |language=en}}

"Theoreticians" of Salafi jihadism include Afghan jihadist veterans such as the Palestinian Abu Qatada, the Syrian Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, the Egyptian Mustapha Kamel, known as Abu Hamza al-Masri."Jihadist-Salafism" is introduced by Gilles Kepel, Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 2002), p. 220 Al-Qaeda's second leader and co-founder Ayman al-Zawahiri would praise Sayyid Qutb and his writings, stating that Qutb's call formed the ideological inspiration for the contemporary Salafi-jihadist movement.{{Cite web |last=al-Saleh |first=Huda |date=21 March 2018 |title=After Saudi Crown Prince's pledge to eliminate Brotherhood, Zawahri defends them |url=https://english.alarabiya.net/amp/features/2018/03/21/Al-Qaeda-s-Zawahiri-defends-the-Muslim-Brotherhood-in-new-video-message |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210331120934/https://english.alarabiya.net/amp/features/2018/03/21/Al-Qaeda-s-Zawahiri-defends-the-Muslim-Brotherhood-in-new-video-message |archive-date=31 March 2021 |website=AlArabiya News}} Other leading figures in the movement include Anwar al-Awlaki, former leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP);{{Cite news |last=Richey |first=Warren |title=To turn tables on ISIS at home, start asking unsettling questions, expert says |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2015/1002/To-turn-tables-on-ISIS-at-home-start-asking-unsettling-questions-expert-says |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160302032439/http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2015/1002/To-turn-tables-on-ISIS-at-home-start-asking-unsettling-questions-expert-says |archive-date=2 March 2016 |access-date=2 March 2016 |newspaper=Christian Science Monitor |issn=0882-7729}} Abu Bakar Bashir, leader of the banned Indonesian militant Islamist group Jema'ah Islamiyah; Nasir al-Fahd, Saudi Arabian Salafi-jihadist scholar who opposes the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and reportedly pledged allegiance to Islamic State;{{Cite book |last=Scheuer |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EqRoAgAAQBAJ |title=Osama Bin Laden |date=20 January 2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199753277 |page=247 |language=en |access-date=26 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111173507/https://books.google.com/books?id=EqRoAgAAQBAJ |archive-date=11 January 2023 |url-status=live}} Mohammed Yusuf, founder of the Islamic terrorist organization Boko Haram;{{Cite book |last=Dowd |first=Robert A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v7C6BwAAQBAJ |title=Christianity, Islam, and Liberal Democracy: Lessons from Sub-Saharan Africa |date=1 July 2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780190225216 |page=102}} Omar Bakri Muhammad,{{cite book |last=Moghadam |first=Assaf |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RMeqBfA9-RUC&q=Omar+Bakri+Muhammad+salafi&pg=PA45 |title=The Globalization of Martyrdom: Al Qaeda, Salafi Jihad, and the Diffusion of Suicide Attacks |date=1 May 2011 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |isbn=9781421401447 |page=45 |quote=Salafi Jihadist preachers such as Abu Hamza al-Masri and Omar Bakri Muhammad help inspire thousands of Muslim youth to develop a cultlike relationship to martyrdom in mosques |access-date=26 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210424091428/https://books.google.com/books?id=RMeqBfA9-RUC&q=Omar+Bakri+Muhammad+salafi&pg=PA45 |archive-date=24 April 2021 |url-status=live}} Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, first leader of the Islamic terrorist organization Islamic State;{{citation |title=Who was Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi? |date=28 October 2019 |work=BBC |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-50200392 |access-date=24 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191120182152/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-50200392 |archive-date=20 November 2019 |url-status=live}}{{citation |last1=Helfont |first1=Samuel |title=What radicalized ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi?, Iraq's post-2003 chaos is actually to blame, not Saddam Hussein |date=12 November 2019 |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/11/12/what-radicalized-abu-bakr-al-baghdadi/ |access-date=26 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210924231718/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/11/12/what-radicalized-abu-bakr-al-baghdadi/ |archive-date=24 September 2021 |url-status=live}} etc.

Salafist jihadist groups include al-Qaeda,{{cite book |last=Aydınlı |first=Ersel |year=2018 |orig-date=2016 |chapter=The Jihadists pre-9/11 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hq1TDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA65 |title=Violent Non-State Actors: From Anarchists to Jihadists |location=London and 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}}{{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}} Salafia Jihadia,{{Cite web |date=6 August 2012 |title=Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group |url=https://web.stanford.edu/group/mappingmilitants/cgi-bin/groups/view/129 |accessdate=9 August 2016 |publisher=Stanford University}} the now defunct Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA), and the Egyptian group Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya which still exists.

File:Salafist Sheikh Mohamed Fizazi (Morocco).jpg]]

Salafia Jihadia is a Salafi-jhadist terrorist organization based in Morocco and Spain. The group was allied with al-Qaeda and Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM).

The group was known for its participation in the 2003 Casablanca bombings, in which 12 suicide bombers killed 33 people and injured over 100. Salafia Jihadia has variously been described as a movement or loose network of Salafi-jhadist groups and cells, or as a generic term applied by Moroccan authorities for militant Salafi activists.{{Cite journal |last=Pargeter |first=Alison |title=The Islamist Movement in Morocco |url=http://www.jamestown.org/single/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=483#.V6zetK2a7oc |journal=Terrorism Monitor |publisher=Jamestown Foundation |volume=3 |issue=10}}{{Cite book |last=Kaye |first=Dalia Dassa |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I4PEi_6mbl4C&pg=PA151 |title=More Freedom, Less Terror?: Liberalization and Political Violence in the Arab World |publisher=Rand Corporation |year=2008 |isbn=9780833045089 |page=151}}

Salafia Jihadia is said to function as a network of several loosely affiliated Salafi-jhadist groups and cells, including groups such as al Hijra Wattakfir, Attakfir Bidum Hijra, Assirat al Mustaqim, Ansar al Islam and Moroccan Afghans.{{Cite web |last=Botha |first=Anneli |date=June 2008 |title=Terrorism in the Maghreb: The Transnationalisation of Domestic Terrorism: Chapter 3: Terrorism in Morocco |url=https://www.issafrica.org/chapter-3-terrorism-in-morocco |publisher=Institute for Security Studies}}{{Cite web |title=Salafia Jihadia |url=http://www.trackingterrorism.org/group/salafia-jihadia |accessdate=9 August 2016 |publisher=Terrorism Research & Analysis Consortium}} The spiritual leader and founder of the group is {{interlanguage link|Mohammed Fizazi|fr|Mohamed Fizazi|de|Mohammed Fazazi}}, former imam of the al-Quds Mosque (which was shut down by German authorities in 2010). Fizazi was arrested in 2003 and sentenced to 30 years imprisonment for his radical statements and connection to the Casablanca bombings.{{Cite book |last=Guidère |first=Mathieu |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tCvhzGiDMYsC&pg=PA99 |title=Historical Dictionary of Islamic Fundamentalism |publisher=Scarecrow Press |year=2012 |isbn=9780810879652 |page=99}} Salafia Jihadia has since spawned a wider ideological movement out of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states.

Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, another Salafi-jihadist movement,{{cite journal |date=September 27, 2012 |title=Former militants of Egypt's Al-Gama'a al-Islamiya struggle for political success |url=http://www.jamestown.org/uploads/media/TM_010_Issue18.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Terrorism Monitor (Jamestown Foundation) |volume=X |issue=18 |page=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150527233141/http://www.jamestown.org/uploads/media/TM_010_Issue18.pdf |archive-date=27 May 2015 |access-date=27 May 2015}} fought an insurgency against the Egyptian government from 1992 to 1998 during which at least 800 Egyptian policemen and soldiers, jihadists, and civilians were killed. Outside of Egypt it is best known for a November 1997 attack at the Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor where fifty-eight foreign tourists trapped inside the temple were hunted down and hacked and shot to death. The group declared a ceasefire in March 1999,{{cite web |title=al-Gama'at al-Islamiyya Jama'a Islamia (Islamic Group, IG) |url=https://fas.org/irp/world/para/ig.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150420104241/http://fas.org/irp/world/para/ig.htm |archive-date=20 April 2015 |access-date=27 May 2015 |publisher=FAS Intelligence Resource Program}} although as of 2012 it is still active in jihad against the Ba'athist Syrian regime.

File:Flag of Al Qaeda.svg of the Black Standard as used by al-Qaeda and its factions since the late 1980s, which consists of the Shahada in white script centered on a black background]]

Perhaps the most famous and effective Salafi-jihadist group is al-Qaeda.{{cite book |last1=Jones |first1=Seth G. |url=https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR600/RR637/RAND_RR637.pdf |title=A Persistent Threat: The Evolution of al Qa'ida and Other Salafi Jihadists |date=2014 |publisher=Rand Corporation |access-date=28 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150421192906/http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR600/RR637/RAND_RR637.pdf |archive-date=21 April 2015 |url-status=live}} Al-Qaeda evolved from the Maktab al-Khidamat (MAK), or the "Services Office", a Muslim organization founded in 1984 to raise and channel funds and recruit foreign mujahideen for the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. It was established in Peshawar, Pakistan, by Osama bin Laden and Abdullah Yusuf Azzam.

Al-Salafiya al-Jihadiya in the Sinai was established in 2012 by Muhammad al-Zawahiri,{{Cite news |last1=Hassan |first1=Ahmad |last2=Bushra |first2=Shadi |last3=Boulton |first3=Ralph |date=2015-08-05 |title=Prominent radical Islamist cleric dies in Egypt jail: security sources |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-egypt-militant-idUSKCN0QA2AH20150805 |access-date=2023-06-25 |work=Reuters |language=en}} it was created in order to fight Egyptian Security Forces and Israel Defense Forces in the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip.{{Cite web |last=Barnett |first=David |date=2012-11-19 |title=Sinai jihadists reportedly travel to Gaza to join Hamas in fight against Israel |url=https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/11/sinai_salafists_reportedly_tra.php |access-date=2023-07-01 |website=Long War Journal |language=en-US}}

The group, and many other groups in the Sinai Peninsula, has ties with al-Qaeda,{{Cite journal |last1=Chenesseau |first1=Thomas |last2=Azzam |first2=Chantal |date=2015 |title=Egypt |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26351327 |journal=Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=91–95 |issn=2382-6444 |jstor=26351327}} and was one of the many groups who committed terrorist attacks on civilians and Egyptian Armed Forces during many periods of terrorist attacks in the Sinai in 2012 through 2013.{{Cite web |last=Salama |first=Vivian |date=2013-11-22 |title=What's Behind the Wave of Terror in the Sinai |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/11/whats-behind-the-wave-of-terror-in-the-sinai/281751/ |access-date=2023-07-01 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}}

In Syria and Iraq, both Jabhat al-Nusra and Islamic State have been described as Salafi-jihadist terrorist organizations.{{cite news |last1=Hassan |first1=Hassan |date=16 August 2014 |title=Isis: a portrait of the menace that is sweeping my homeland |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/16/isis-salafi-menace-jihadist-homeland-syria |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150509092444/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/16/isis-salafi-menace-jihadist-homeland-syria |archive-date=9 May 2015 |access-date=25 May 2015 |agency=The Guardian}} 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,{{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}}{{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}} before declaring itself to be a worldwide caliphate,{{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}}{{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}} called simply the "Islamic State".{{cite news |date=26 September 2014 |title=What is Islamic State? |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29052144 |publisher=BBC News}} They are a transnational Salafi jihadist group and an 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 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,{{cite web |last=Shinkman |first=Paul D. |date=27 December 2017 |title=ISIS By the Numbers in 2017 |url=https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2017-12-27/isis-by-the-numbers-in-2017 |work=U.S. News & World Report}}{{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}} 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.{{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}} 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 propaganda efforts. These efforts have garnered a significant following in northern and Sahelian Africa,{{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}}{{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}} where IS still controls a significant territory, and the war against the Islamic State continues.{{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}}{{Cite journal |date=28 March 2024 |title=JAS vs. ISWAP: The War of the Boko Haram Splinters |url=https://www.crisisgroup.org/sites/default/files/2024-03/b196-jas-vs-iswap_0.pdf |journal=Africa Briefing |location=Brussels, Dakar |publisher=Crisis Group |issue=196 |pages=2, 6}}

Jabhat al-Nusra has been described as possessing "a hard-line Salafi-Jihadist ideology" and being one of "the most effective" groups fighting the regime.{{cite web |last=Benotman |first=Noman |title=Jabhat al-Nusra, A Strategic Briefing |url=http://www.quilliamfoundation.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/publications/free/jabhat-al-nusra-a-strategic-briefing.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140722191931/http://www.quilliamfoundation.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/publications/free/jabhat-al-nusra-a-strategic-briefing.pdf |archive-date=22 July 2014 |access-date=10 March 2013 |work=circa 2012 |publisher=Quilliam Foundation}} Writing after ISIS victories in Iraq, Hassan Hassan believes ISIS is a reflection of "ideological shakeup of Sunni Islam's traditional Salafism" since the Arab Spring, where salafism, "traditionally inward-looking and loyal to the political establishment", has "steadily, if slowly", been eroded by Salafism-jihadism.

Boko Haram in Nigeria is a Salafi-jihadist terrorist organization{{cite book |last1=Thurston |first1=Alexander |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KcmXDwAAQBAJ&dq=Wilayat+Gharb+Ifriqiyya&pg=PA17 |title=Search Results Boko Haram: The History of an African Jihadist Movement |date=2019 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=9780691197081 |page=18 |access-date=8 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111173514/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Boko_Haram/KcmXDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Wilayat+Gharb+Ifriqiyya&pg=PA17&printsec=frontcover |archive-date=11 January 2023 |url-status=live}} that has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 2.3 million from their homes.{{cite web |title=Nigeria's Boko Haram Kills 49 in Suicide Bombings |url=https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/11/17/world/africa/ap-af-boko-haram.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151121020206/http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/11/17/world/africa/ap-af-boko-haram.html?_r=0 |archive-date=2015-11-21 |website=www.nytimes.com}}

Jund Ansar Allah is, or was, an armed Salafi-jihadist organization based in the Gaza Strip. On August 14, 2009, the group's spiritual leader, Sheikh Abdel Latif Moussa, announced during Friday sermon the establishment of an Islamic emirate in the Palestinian territories attacking the ruling authority, the Islamist group Hamas, for failing to enforce Sharia law. Hamas forces responded to his sermon by surrounding his Ibn Taymiyyah mosque complex and attacking it. In the fighting that ensued, 24 people (including Sheikh Abdel Latif Moussa himself) were killed and over 130 were wounded.Al-Quds Al-Arabi (London), August 19, 2009.

According to Mohammed M. Hafez, "as of 2006 the two major groups within the jihadi Salafi camp" in Iraq were the Mujahidin Shura Council and the Ansar al Sunna.{{cite book |last1=Hafez |first1=Mohammed M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0I8m2CnuVooC&q=jihadi+salafi&pg=PA64 |title=Suicide Bombers in Iraq By Mohammed M. Hafez |publisher=US Institute of Peace Press |year=2007 |isbn=9781601270047 |access-date=24 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131231175334/http://books.google.com/books?id=0I8m2CnuVooC&pg=PA64&lpg=PA64&dq=jihadi+salafi&source=web&ots=-uRRlodXq6&sig=h0t6mf-YhrR9nbpCshqaZXHgY3o&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result |archive-date=31 December 2013 |url-status=live}} There are also a number of small jihadist Salafist groups in Azerbaijan.[http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=4587 The Two Faces of Salafism in Azerbaijan] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101226115728/http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=4587|date=2010-12-26}}. Terrorism Focus Volume: 4 Issue: 40, December 7, 2007, by: Anar Valiyev

The group leading the Islamist insurgency in Southern Thailand in 2006 by carrying out most of the attacks and cross-border operations,{{cite journal |date=September 8, 2006 |title=A Breakdown of Southern Thailand's Insurgent Groups. |url=http://www.jamestown.org/programs/tm/single/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=893&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=181&no_cache=1#.VDvmdGfOJqk |url-status=live |journal=Terrorism Monitor |publisher=The Jamestown Foundation |volume=4 |issue=17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141026235027/http://www.jamestown.org/programs/tm/single/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=893&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=181&no_cache=1#.VDvmdGfOJqk |archive-date=26 October 2014 |access-date=24 October 2014}} BRN-Koordinasi, favours Salafi ideology. It works in a loosely organized strictly clandestine cell system dependent on hard-line religious leaders for direction.Rohan Gunaratna & Arabinda Acharya, The Terrorist Threat from Thailand: Jihad Or Quest for Justice?Zachary Abuza, The Ongoing Insurgency in Southern Thailand, INSS, p. 20

In 2011, Salafist jihadists were actively involved with protests against King Abdullah II of Jordan,{{cite news |date=22 April 2011 |title=Jordan protests: Rise of the Salafi-Jihadist movement |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13163870 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140711040601/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13163870 |archive-date=11 July 2014 |access-date=24 October 2014 |agency=BBC News}} and the kidnapping and killing of Italian peace activist Vittorio Arrigoni in Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.{{cite news |date=15 April 2011 |title=Body of Italian found in Gaza Strip house-Hamas |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/palestinians-italy-kidnap-idUSLDE73D2FJ20110415 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140928124425/http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/15/palestinians-italy-kidnap-idUSLDE73D2FJ20110415 |archive-date=28 September 2014 |access-date=24 October 2014 |work=Reuters}}{{cite web |title=Italian peace activist killed in Gaza |url=http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/04/2011414194735306181.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110902143516/http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/04/2011414194735306181.html |archive-date=2 September 2011 |access-date=24 October 2014 |work=Al Jazeera English}}

In 2017, Swedish Security Police reported that the number of jihadists in Sweden had risen to thousands from about 200 in 2010.{{Cite news |title=Säpochefen: "Det finns tusentals radikala islamister i Sverige" |url=http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/OVQRq/sapochefen-tusentals-radikala-islamister-i-sverige |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170616111027/http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/OVQRq/sapochefen-tusentals-radikala-islamister-i-sverige |archive-date=16 June 2017 |access-date=17 June 2017 |work=Aftonbladet}} Based on social media analysis, an increase was noted in 2013.{{Cite news |last=Radio |first=Sveriges |date=16 June 2017 |title=Säpo: Huge increase in violent Islamist extremists in Sweden – Radio Sweden |url=http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=2054&artikel=6718824 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170616130024/http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=2054&artikel=6718824 |archive-date=16 June 2017 |access-date=17 June 2017 |newspaper=Sveriges Radio}} According to police in Sweden, Salafist-Jihadists affect the communities where they are active.{{Cite news |title=Ekstremistisk islamisme vokser i Sverige |url=https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/udland/ekstremistisk-islamisme-vokser-i-sverige |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190613055808/https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/udland/ekstremistisk-islamisme-vokser-i-sverige |archive-date=13 June 2019 |access-date=8 July 2018 |work=DR |language=da}}

According to Swedish researcher Magnus Ranstorp, Salafi-Jihadism is antidemocratic, homophobic and aims to subjugate women and is therefore opposed to a societal order founded on democracy.

The report found that Middle Eastern nations are providing financial support to mosques and Islamic educational institutions, which have been linked to the spread of Salafi-Jihadist materials which expoused "an illiberal, bigoted" ideology.{{cite news |date=5 July 2017 |title=Saudi Arabia has 'clear link' to UK extremism, report says |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-40496778 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170705075344/http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-40496778 |archive-date=5 July 2017 |access-date=5 July 2017 |agency=BBC News}}{{cite news |author=Elgot, Jessica |date=4 July 2017 |title=Theresa May sitting on report on foreign funding of UK extremists |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jul/03/theresa-may-report-foreign-funding-extremists-saudi-arabia |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170704234815/https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jul/03/theresa-may-report-foreign-funding-extremists-saudi-arabia |archive-date=4 July 2017 |access-date=5 July 2017 |work=The Guardian}}

According to Deutsche Welle, Salafism is a growing movement in Germany whose aim of a Caliphate is incompatible with a Western democracy.{{Cite web |date=10 December 2017 |title=Zahl der Salafisten steigt in Deutschland auf Rekordhoch {{!}} Aktuell Deutschland |url=http://www.dw.com/de/zahl-der-salafisten-steigt-in-deutschland-auf-rekordhoch/a-41731986 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171210232832/http://www.dw.com/de/zahl-der-salafisten-steigt-in-deutschland-auf-rekordhoch/a-41731986 |archive-date=10 December 2017 |access-date=10 December 2017 |publisher=Deutsche Welle |language=de |quote=Salafisten sind Anhänger einer fundamentalistischen Strömung des Islam, die einen mit der westlichen Demokratie unvereinbaren Gottesstaat anstreben.}} According to the German Federal Agency for Civic Education, nearly all jihadist terrorists are Salafists, but not all Salafists are terrorists. The dualistic view on "true believers" and "false believers" in practice means people being treated unequally on religious grounds. The call for a religious state in the form of a caliphate means that Salafists reject the rule of law and the sovereignty of the people's rule. The Salafist view on gender and society leads to discrimination and the subjugation of women.{{Cite web |last=Pfahl-Traughber |first=Prof Dr Armin |date=9 September 2015 |title=Salafismus – was ist das überhaupt? {{!}} bpb |url=http://www.bpb.de/politik/extremismus/radikalisierungspraevention/211830/salafismus-was-ist-das-ueberhaupt |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190525092413/http://www.bpb.de/politik/extremismus/radikalisierungspraevention/211830/salafismus-was-ist-das-ueberhaupt |archive-date=25 May 2019 |access-date=26 May 2019 |website=bpb.de |language=de}}

Estimates by German interior intelligence service show that it grew from 3,800 members in 2011 to 7,500 members in 2015.{{cite web |title=(de) Salafistische Bestrebungen – Inhalte und Ziele salafistischer Ideologie |url=http://www.verfassungsschutz.de/de/arbeitsfelder/af-islamismus-und-islamistischer-terrorismus/was-ist-islamismus/salafistische-bestrebungen |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180115163049/http://www.verfassungsschutz.de/de/arbeitsfelder/af-islamismus-und-islamistischer-terrorismus/was-ist-islamismus/salafistische-bestrebungen |archive-date=15 January 2018 |access-date=18 September 2015 |website=Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz |publisher=Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution}} In Germany, most of the recruitment to the movement is done on the Internet and also on the streets, a propaganda drive which mostly attracts youth. There are two ideological camps, one advocates Salafi-Activism and danects its recruitment efforts towards non-Muslims and non-Salafist Muslims to gain influence in society. The other and minority movement, the jihadist Salafism, advocates gaining influence by the use of violence and nearly all identified terrorist cells in Germany came from Salafist circles.

In December 2017, a Salafi-Jihadist mosque in Marseille was closed by authorities for preaching about violent jihad.{{Cite web |date=12 December 2017 |title=Une mosquée salafiste fermée à Marseille sur ordre de la préfecture |url=https://www.20minutes.fr/societe/2186387-20171212-marseille-mosquee-salafiste-fermee-ordre-prefecture-police |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190601101240/https://www.20minutes.fr/societe/2186387-20171212-marseille-mosquee-salafiste-fermee-ordre-prefecture-police |archive-date=1 June 2019 |access-date=1 June 2019 |website=www.20minutes.fr |language=fr}} In August 2018, after the European Court of Human Rights approved the decision, French authorities deported the Salafi-Jihadist preacher Elhadi Doudi to his home country Algeria because of his radical messages he spread in Marseille.{{Cite web |date=20 April 2018 |title=La France expulse un imam salafiste vers l'Algérie pour ses prêches radicaux |url=https://www.france24.com/fr/20180420-imam-salafiste-marseille-france-algerie-justice-salafisme-doudi-expulsion-cedh-islam |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190527203016/https://www.france24.com/fr/20180420-imam-salafiste-marseille-france-algerie-justice-salafisme-doudi-expulsion-cedh-islam |archive-date=27 May 2019 |access-date=27 May 2019 |website=France 24 |language=fr}}

{{Main|Deobandi movement|Deobandi jihadism}}

File:Sami-ul-Haq.jpg scholar and ideologist of the Taliban]]

Deobandi jihadism is a militant interpretation of Islam that draws upon the teachings of the Sunni Deobandi movement, which originated in the Indian subcontinent in the 19th century. The Deobandism underwent 3 waves of armed jihad. The first wave involved the establishment of an Islamic territory centered on Thana Bhawan by the movement's elders during the Indian Rebellion of 1857, before the founding of Darul Uloom Deoband. Imdadullah Muhajir Makki was the Amir al-Mu'minin of this Islamic territory; however, after the British defeated the Deobandi forces in the Battle of Shamli, the territory fell. Following the establishment of Darul Uloom Deoband, Mahmud Hasan Deobandi led the initiation of the second wave. He mobilized an armed resistance against the British through various initiatives, including the formation of the Samratut Tarbiat. When the British uncovered his Silk Letter Movement, they arrested Hasan Deobandi and held him captive in Malta. After his release, he and his disciples entered into mainstream politics and actively participated in the democratic process. In the late 1979, the Pakistan–Afghan border became the center of the Deobandi jihadist movement's third wave, which was fueled by the Soviet–Afghan War. Under the patronage of President Zia-ul-Haq, its expansion took place through various madrasas such as Darul Uloom Haqqania and Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia. Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (S) provided political support for it. Trained militants from the Pakistan–Afghan border participated in the Afghan jihad, and later went on to form various organizations, including the Taliban. The most successful example of Deobandi jihadism is the Taliban, who established Islamic rule in Afghanistan. The head of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (S), Sami-ul-Haq, is referred to as the "father of the Taliban".

The Deobandi jihadist group Taliban was formed in Afghanistan in the mid-1990s, the founder of the Taliban was Mullah Omar, a former mujahideen fighter who had lost an eye during the war against the Soviet Union. In 1994, he gathered a group of students and religious scholars, many of whom had received their education in Deobandi madrasahs located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, and established the Taliban as a political and military movement.{{Cite thesis |last=Khan |first=Irfanullah |title=The Deoband Movement and the Rise of Religious Militancy in Pakistan |access-date=16 February 2023 |type=PhD |publisher=Quaid-i-Azam University |url=http://prr.hec.gov.pk/jspui/handle/123456789/13652 |page=226 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220104130928/http://prr.hec.gov.pk/jspui/handle/123456789/13652 |archive-date=4 January 2022 |year=2018 |location=Pakistan |url-status=live}}

{{Main|Hezbollah military activities|Iranian Revolution|Shia Islamism}}

{{Further|Iran–Iraq War|Iran–Israel proxy conflict|Iran–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict|Sectarian violence among Muslims}}

According to the Iranian-American academic Vali Nasr, which serves as Majid Khaddouri Professor of International Affairs and Middle East Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), political tendencies of Shīʿa and Sunnī Islamic ideologies differ, with Sunnī fundamentalism "in Pakistan and much of the Arab world" being "far from politically revolutionary", primarily focused on attempting to Islamicize the political establishment rather than trying to change it through revolutionary struggle, whereas the Shīʿīte conception of political Islam is strongly influenced by Ruhollah Khomeini and his talk of the oppression of the poor and class war, which characterized the success of the Islamic Revolution in Iran (1978–1979):

{{Blockquote

|text=With the Shia awakening of Iran, the years of sectarian tolerance were over. What followed was a Sunni-versus-Shia contest for dominance, and it grew intense. [...] The revolution even moved leftists in Muslim-majority countries such as Indonesia, Turkey, and Lebanon to look at Islam with renewed interest. After all, in Iran, Islam had succeeded where leftist ideologies had failed. [...] But admiration for what had happened in Iran did not equal acceptance of Iranian leadership. Indeed, Islamic activists outside of Iran quickly found Iranian revolutionaries to be arrogant, offputting, and drunk on their own success. Moreover, Sunni fundamentalism in Pakistan and much of the Arab world was far from politically revolutionary. It was rooted in conservative religious impulses and the bazaars, mixing mercantile interests with religious values. As the French scholar of contemporary Islam Gilles Kepel puts it, it was less to tear down the existing system than to give it a fresh, thick coat of "Islamic green" paint. Khomeini's fundamentalism, by contrast, was "red"—that is, genuinely revolutionary.{{cite book |last=Nasr |first=Vali |author-link=Vali Nasr |year=2007 |chapter=Chapter 5: The Battle of Islamic Fundamentalisms |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BIXoGto8gTEC&pg=PA148 |title=The Shia Revival: How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future |location=New York and London |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |edition=1st |pages=148–149 |isbn=978-0-393-06211-3 |lccn=2006012361}}

}}

The term "jihadism" is almost exclusively used to describe Sunnī extremist groups.{{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}} One example is Syria, where there have been thousands of Muslim foreign fighters engaged in the Syrian civil war, for example, non-Syrian Shīʿa Islamist groups are often referred to as "militia", while Sunnī foreign fighters are referred to 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."{{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}}|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".{{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}}|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."{{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}}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}} Other authors see the ideology of "resistance" (muqawama) as more dominant, even among Shīʿa Islamist groups. For clarity, they suggest use of the term muqawamist instead.{{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}} Houthi rebels have often called for jihad to resist Saudi Arabia's intervention in Yemen, even though the Houthi movement stems from Zaydī Shīʿism, a subsect of Shīʿa Islam which is closer to Sunnī theology in comparison to other Shīʿa denominations.[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{{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}}

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" (farḍ al-kifāya) carried out according to orders of legitimate representatives of the Muslim community (Ummah). Jihadists insist that all Muslims should participate because (they believe) today's Muslim leaders in the world are illegitimate and do not command the authority to ordain justified violence.{{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}}

File:Ansarullah Flag Vector.svg, slogan of the Houthi, with the top saying "God is the greatest", the next line saying "Death to America", followed by "Death to Israel", followed by "A curse upon the Jews", and the bottom saying "Victory to Islam".]]

Some observers{{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}}{{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}} have noted the evolution in the rules of jihad—from the original "classical" doctrine to that of 21st-century Salafi jihadism.{{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}} According to the legal historian Sadarat Kadri, 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". "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."

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",{{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}} 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),{{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}} which had to be discharged "in the way of God" (fi sabil Allah),{{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}} and it could only be directed by the caliph, "whose discretion over its conduct was all but absolute." (This was designed in part to avoid incidents like the Kharijia's jihad against and killing of Caliph Ali, since they deemed that he was no longer a Muslim). 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 Hell.{{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}} The category of jihad which is considered to be a collective obligation is sometimes simplified as "offensive jihad" in Western texts.{{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}}

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 Heaven, not a special place in Hell; and the killing of Muslim bystanders (nevermind 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."{{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}} 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{{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}}{{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}}{{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}}{{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}}
{{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}}
{{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}} by a 2004 work on jihad entitled Management of Savagery (Idarat at-Tawahhush), written by Abu Bakr Naji 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.{{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}}

Islamic theologian Abu Abdullah al-Muhajir has been identified as one of the key theorists and ideologues behind modern jihadist violence.{{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}}{{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}}{{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 }} 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. 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.{{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}} 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". The Guardian{{'}}s journalist Mark Towsend, citing Salah al-Ansari of 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". Charlie Winter of The Atlantic describes it as a "theological playbook used to justify the group's abhorrent acts". 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 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, 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.}}

Clinical 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.

{{div col|colwidth=20em}}

• Arab Cold War (1952–1991)
• Arab–Israeli conflict (1948–ongoing)
• Counter-jihad
• Islam and violence
• Islam and war
• Holy war in Islam
• Sectarian violence among Muslims
• Violence in the Quran
• Islamic extremism
• Islamic fundamentalism
• Islamic terrorism
• Jihadist extremism in the United States
• Jihadist flag
• Mujahideen
• Qutbism
• Takfirism
• Islamism
• Caucasus Emirate (2007–2016),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 former self-declared proto-state in North Caucasus
• Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (1991–2000), former unrecognized Islamic state in Soviet Chechnya
• Haqqani network, militant Islamist organization based in South Asia
• Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (1996–2001), former Taliban-ruled Islamic state in Afghanistan
• Islamic Emirate of Kurdistan (1994–2003), former unrecognized Islamic state in Iraq
• List of Islamist terrorist attacks
• Post-Islamism
• Religious fanaticism in Islam
• Salafi movement
• International propagation of Salafism and Wahhabism (by region)
• Petro-Islam
• Salafi jihadism
• Wahhabism
• Types of jihad

{{div col end}}

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}}

• {{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}}
• {{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}}
• {{cite book

|last = Khosrokhavar

|first = Farhad

|year = 2009

|title = Inside Jihadism: Understanding Jihadi Movements Worldwide

|publisher = Paradigm

|isbn = 978-1-59451-616-0

|url-access = registration

|url = https://archive.org/details/insidejihadismun0000khos

}}

• {{cite book

|last = Lahoud

|first = Nelly

|year = 2010

|title = The Jihadis' Path to Self-destruction

|publisher = C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd

|isbn = 978-1-84904-062-4

}}

• {{cite book

|editor-last = Lohlker

|editor-first = Rüdiger

|year = 2013

|title = Jihadism: Online Discourses and Representations

|publisher = Vienna University Press

|isbn = 978-3-8471-0068-3

}}

• {{cite book

|editor-last = Lohlker

|editor-first = Rüdiger

|year = 2012

|title = New Approaches to the Analysis of Jihadism

|publisher = Vienna University Press

|isbn = 978-3-89971-900-0

}}

• {{cite book

|last = Pargeter

|first = Alison

|year = 2008

|title = The New Frontiers of Jihad: Radical Islam in Europe

|publisher = I B Tauris & Co Ltd

|isbn = 978-1-84511-391-9

}}

• {{cite journal

|last=Pasha

|first=Mustapha Kamal

|date=April 2010

|title=In the Shadows of Globalization: Civilizational Crisis, the 'Global Modern', and 'Islamic Nihilism'

|journal=Globalizations

|publisher=Taylor & Francis

|volume=7

|issue=1–2

|pages=173–185

|doi=10.1080/14747731003593463

|bibcode=2010Glob....7..173P

|s2cid=144581998}}

• {{cite book

|last = Ranstorp

|first = Magnus

|year = 2009

|title = Understanding Violent Radicalisation

|publisher = Routledge

|isbn = 978-0-415-55630-9

}}

• {{cite book

|last = Rhodes

|first = Darion

|year = 2014

|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

|publisher = University of Pennsylvania Press

|isbn = 978-0-8122-4065-8

}}

• {{cite book

|last = Sanchez

|first = James

|year = 2007

|title = Who's Who in Al-Qaeda & Jihadi Movements in South and Southeast Asia 19,906 Key Individuals, Organizations, Incidents, and Linkages

|publisher = Lulu

|isbn = 978-1-4303-1473-8

}}

• {{cite book

|last = Vertigans

|first = Stephen

|year = 2007

|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

}}

{{commons category|Jihad}}

• {{cite web |editor-last=Carrera |editor-first=Rosa C. |date=10 January 2025 |title=Jihadism Trends in 2024: Cases and Patterns in Review |url=https://extremism.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs5746/files/2025-01/Jihadism%20Trends%20in%202024%20%281%29.pdf |format=PDF |website=extremism.gwu.edu |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=George Washington University |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250324170004/https://extremism.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs5746/files/2025-01/Jihadism%20Trends%20in%202024%20(1).pdf |archive-date=24 March 2025 |access-date=8 June 2025}}
• {{cite web |editor1-last=Faleg |editor1-first=Giovanni |editor2-last=Mustasilta |editor2-first=Katariina |date=2 June 2021 |title=Salafi-Jihadism in Africa |url=https://www.iss.europa.eu/sites/default/files/EUISSFiles/Brief_12_2021.pdf |format=PDF |website=www.iss.europa.eu |location=Paris |publisher=European Union Institute for Security Studies |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210621183914/https://www.iss.europa.eu/sites/default/files/EUISSFiles/Brief_12_2021.pdf |archive-date=21 June 2021 |access-date=8 June 2025}}
• {{cite web |author1-last=Fink |author1-first=Naureen C. |author2-last=Sugg |author2-first=Benjamin |date=9 February 2015 |title=A Tale of Two Jihads: Comparing the al-Qaeda and ISIS Narratives |url=https://theglobalobservatory.org/2015/02/jihad-al-qaeda-isis-counternarrative/ |website=www.theglobalobservatory.org |location=New York |publisher=IPI Global Observatory |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150225081126/http://theglobalobservatory.org/2015/02/jihad-al-qaeda-isis-counternarrative/ |archive-date=25 February 2015 |access-date=8 June 2025}}
• {{cite web |author-last=Zahid |author-first=Farhan |date=8 January 2020 |title=Jihadism in South Asia: A militant landscape in flux |url=https://www.mei.edu/publications/jihadism-south-asia-militant-landscape-flux |url-status=live |website=www.mei.edu |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=Middle East Institute |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200507011908/https://www.mei.edu/publications/jihadism-south-asia-militant-landscape-flux |archive-date=7 May 2020 |access-date=8 June 2025}}
• {{cite web |author= |date=31 May 2016 |title=Transnational Jihadism, between East and West |url=https://www.institutmontaigne.org/en/meetings/transnational-jihadism-between-east-and-west |website=www.institutmontaigne.org |location=Paris |publisher=Institut Montaigne |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241009095845/https://www.institutmontaigne.org/en/meetings/transnational-jihadism-between-east-and-west |archive-date=9 October 2024 |access-date=8 June 2025}}

{{Islamism}}

Category:Criticism of Islamism

Category:Far-right politics and Islam

Category:Islam-related controversies

Category:Islamic fundamentalism

Category:Islamic studies

Category:Mujahideen

Category:Political neologisms

Category:Shia Islam and politics