islamic extremism

File:2012 Sydney protest.jpg against the anti-Islamic film Innocence of Muslims in Sydney, 15 September 2012. The protesters carry signs reading "Behead all those who insult the Prophet" and "Our dead are in Paradise. Your dead are in HELL!"]]

Islamic extremism refers to extremist beliefs, behaviors and ideologies adhered to by some Muslims within Islam. The term 'Islamic extremism' is contentious, encompassing a spectrum of definitions, ranging from academic interpretations of Islamic supremacy to the notion that all ideologies other than Islam have failed and are inferior.{{Cite book|last=Cook|first=David|title=Understanding Jihad|publisher=University of California Press|year=2015|isbn=9780520287327|pages=103}}

Islamic extremism is different from Islamic fundamentalism or Islamism. Islamic fundamentalism refers to a movement among Muslims advocating a return to the fundamental principles of an Islamic state in Muslim-majority countries. Meanwhile, Islamism constitutes a form of political Islam. However, both Islamic fundamentalism and Islamism can also be classified as subsets of Islamic extremism. Acts of violence committed by Islamic terrorists and jihadists are often associated with these extremist beliefs.

Definitions

= Academic definition =

The academic definition of radical Islam consists of two parts:

The first being: Islamic thought that states that all ideologies other than Islam, whether associated with the West (capitalism or democracy) or the East (communism or socialism) have failed and have demonstrated their bankruptcy.
The second being: Islamic thought that states that (semi)secular regimes are wrong because of their negligence of Islam.{{Cite book|last=Cook|first=David|title=Understanding Jihad|publisher=University of California Press|year=2015|isbn=9780520287327|pages=107}}

= United Kingdom High Courts' definition =

UK High Courts have ruled in two cases on Islamic extremism, and provided definition.

Aside from those, two major definitions have been offered for Islamic extremism, sometimes using overlapping but also distinct aspects of extreme interpretations and pursuits of Islamic ideology:

The use of violent tactics such as bombing and assassinations for achieving perceived Islamic goals (see Jihadism; or Zeyno Baran, Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Eurasian Policy at the Hudson Institute, prefers the term Islamist extremism)
An extremely conservative view of Islam,{{cite book|author=Brian R. Farmer|title=Understanding radical Islam: medieval ideology in the twenty-first century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bIQ0hhu8l7IC&pg=PA36|year=2007|publisher=Peter Lang|isbn=978-0-8204-8843-1|page=36}} which does not necessarily entail violence{{cite book|author1=Jason F. Isaacson|author2=Colin Lewis Rubenstein|title=Islam in Asia: changing political realities|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=krMEfM_YO3UC&pg=PA191|year=2002|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=978-0-7658-0769-4|page=191}} (see also Islamic fundamentalism [Baran again prefers the term Islamism]).{{cite web |url = https://fas.org/irp/congress/2008_hr/roots.pdf |title = The Roots of Violent Islamist Extremism and Efforts to Counter It |access-date = 11 November 2011 |last = Baran |first = Zeyno |date = 10 July 2008 |work = Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs |archive-date = 1 March 2021 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210301183116/https://fas.org/irp/congress/2008_hr/roots.pdf |url-status = live }}

In 2019, the United States Institute of Peace issued a report on extremism in fragile states, advocating the establishment of a shared understanding, operational framework for prevention, and international cooperation.{{Cite web |date=February 2019 |title=Preventing Extremism in Fragile States: A New Approach, Final Report of the Task Force on Extremism in Fragile States |publisher=United States Institute of Peace|url=https://www.usip.org/publications/2019/02/preventing-extremism-fragile-states-new-approach |access-date=5 August 2022 |archive-date=5 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220805013434/https://www.usip.org/publications/2019/02/preventing-extremism-fragile-states-new-approach |url-status=dead }}

Key influences of radical Islam

= Early Islam =

According to the academic definition of radical Islam, the second condition for something to be called radical Islam, is that it is antigovernmental. Consequently, a government is a condition for radical Islam. However, even though the peace of Westphalia was established in 1648 and thus introduced the nation state, the writings of the formative centuries of Islamic history are influential to the contemporary writings that were coined radical after the concept of the nation state was established in the Muslim world as well. Key influences of radical Islam that stem from early Islam include:

== Kharijites ==

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 |access-date=26 October 2021 |archive-date=24 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230124220134/https://books.google.com/books?id=PDxHG5MtLawC&pg=PA1 |url-status=live }} The original schism between Kharijites, Sunnīs, and Shīʿas among Muslims was disputed over the political and religious succession to the guidance of the Muslim community (Ummah) after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. 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|archive-date=19 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160119055307/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/another-battle-with-islams-true-believers/article20802390/|url-status=live}}{{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}}

The Islamic tradition traces the origin of the Kharijities to the battle between ʿAlī and Mu'awiya at Siffin in 657 CE. When ʿAlī was faced with a military stalemate and agreed to submit the dispute to arbitration, some of his party withdrew their support from him. "Judgement belongs to God alone" (لاَ حُكْمَ إلَا لِلّهِ) became the slogan of these secessionists. They also called themselves al-Shurat ("the Vendors"), to reflect their willingness to sell their lives in martyrdom.{{Cite book|last=Brown|first=Daniel|title=A New Introduction to Islam|publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Ltd|year=2017|isbn=9781118953464|edition=3rd|location=Oxford|pages=163–169}}

These original Kharijites opposed both ʿAlī and Mu'awiya, and appointed their own leaders. They were decisively defeated by ʿAlī, who was in turn assassinated by a Kharijite. Kharijites engaged in guerilla warfare against the Umayyads, but only became a movement to be reckoned with during the Second Fitna (the second Islamic Civil War) when they at one point controlled more territory than any of their rivals. The Kharijites were, in fact, one of the major threats to Ibn al-Zubayr's bid for the caliphate; during this time they controlled Yamama and most of southern Arabia, and captured the oasis town of al-Ta'if.

The Azariqa, considered to be the extreme faction of the Kharijites, controlled parts of western Iran under the Umayyads until they were finally put down in 699 CE. The more moderate Ibadi Kharijites were longer-lived, continuing to wield political power in North and East Africa and in eastern Arabia during the 'Abbasid period. Because of their readiness to declare any opponent as apostate, the extreme Kharijites tended to fragment into small groups. One of the few points that the various Kharijite splinter groups held in common was their view of the caliphate, which differed from other Muslim theories on two points.

First, they were principled egalitarians, holding that any pious Muslim ("even an Ethiopian slave") can become Caliph and that family or tribal affiliation is inconsequential. The only requirements for leadership are piety and acceptance by the community.
Second, they agreed that it is the duty of the believers to depose any leader who falls into error. This second principle had profound implications for Kharijite theology. Applying these ideas to the early history of the caliphate, Kharijites only accept Abu Bakr and 'Umar as legitimate caliphs. Of 'Uthman's caliphate they recognize only the first six years as legitimate, and they reject 'Ali altogether.

By the time that Ibn al-Muqaffa' wrote his political treatise early in the 'Abbasid period, the Kharijites were no longer a significant political threat, at least in the Islamic heartlands. The memory of the menace they had posed to Muslim unity and of the moral challenge generated by their pious idealism still weighed heavily on Muslim political and religious thought, however. Even if the Kharijites could no longer threaten, their ghosts still had to be answered. The Ibadis are the only Kharijite group to survive into modern times.

== Ibn Taymiyyah ==

== Ottoman Empire ==

Kadızadelis (also Qādīzādali) was a seventeenth-century puritanical reformist religious movement in the Ottoman Empire that followed Kadızade Mehmed (1582-1635), a revivalist Islamic preacher. Kadızade and his followers were determined rivals of Sufism and popular religion. They condemned many of the Ottoman practices that Kadızade felt were bidʻah "non-Islamic innovations", and passionately supported "reviving the beliefs and practices of the first Muslim generation in the first/seventh century" ("enjoining good and forbidding wrong").{{cite book |last1=Evstatiev |first1=Simeon |title=Accusations of Unbelief in Islam |date=2016 |publisher=Brill |pages=213–14 |url=https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004307834/B9789004307834_010.xml |access-date=29 August 2021 |chapter=8: The Qāḍīzādeli Movement and the Revival of takfīr in the Ottoman Age|doi=10.1163/9789004307834_010 |isbn=978-9004307834 }}

Driven by zealous and fiery rhetoric, Kadızade Mehmed was able to inspire many followers to join in his cause and rid themselves of any and all corruption found inside the Ottoman Empire. Leaders of the movement held official positions as preachers in the major mosques of Baghdad, and "combined popular followings with support from within the Ottoman state apparatus".{{cite book |last1=Cook |first1=Michael |title=Forbidding Wrong in Islam: An Introduction |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2003 |page=91}} Between 1630 and 1680 there were many violent quarrels that occurred between the Kadızadelis and those that they disapproved of. As the movement progressed, activists became "increasingly violent" and Kadızadelis were known to enter "mosques, tekkes and Ottoman coffeehouses in order to mete out punishments to those contravening their version of orthodoxy."

= Modern Islam =

File:"Freedom go to hell".jpg on 6 February 2006 carries a sign reading "Freedom go to hell"]]

== Salafism and Wahhabism ==

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

The Salafiyya movement is a conservative,{{cite book|last1=Naylor|first1=Phillip|title=North Africa Revised|date=15 January 2015|publisher=University of Texas Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SSUKBgAAQBAJ&pg=PT302|access-date=5 December 2015|isbn=9780292761926|archive-date=24 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230124220230/https://books.google.com/books?id=SSUKBgAAQBAJ&pg=PT302|url-status=live}} Islahi (reform){{cite book|last1=Esposito|first1=John|title=The Oxford Dictionary of Islam|date=2004|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=275|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6VeCWQfVNjkC&pg=PA275|access-date=5 December 2015|isbn=9780195125597}} movement within Sunnī Islam that emerged in the second half of the 19th century and advocate a return to the traditions of the "devout ancestors" (Salaf al-Salih). It has been described as the "fastest-growing Islamic movement"; with each scholar expressing diverse views across social, theological, and political spectrum. Salafis follow a doctrine that can be summed up as taking "a fundamentalist approach to Islam, emulating the Prophet Muhammad and his earliest followers—al-salaf al-salih, the 'pious forefathers'....They reject religious innovation, or bidʻah, and support the implementation of Sharia (Islamic law)." The Salafi movement is often divided into three categories: the largest group are the purists (or quietists), who avoid politics; the second largest group are the militant activists, who get involved in politics; the third and last group are the jihadists, who constitute a minority.{{cite news|title=Salafism: Politics and the puritanical|url=https://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21656189-islams-most-conservative-adherents-are-finding-politics-hard-it-beats|access-date=29 June 2015|newspaper=The Economist|date=27 June 2015|archive-date=28 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150628193924/http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21656189-islams-most-conservative-adherents-are-finding-politics-hard-it-beats|url-status=live}} Most of the violent Islamist groups come from the Salafi-Jihadist movement and their subgroups.{{cite book |last1=Meleagrou-Hitchens |first1=Alexander |last2=Hughes |first2=Seamus |last3=Clifford |first3=Bennett |year=2021 |chapter=The Ideologues |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T4vzDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA111 |title=Homegrown: ISIS in America |location=London and New York City |publisher=I.B. Tauris |edition=1st |pages=111–148 |isbn=978-1-7883-1485-5 |access-date=5 February 2022 |archive-date=11 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111173505/https://books.google.com/books?id=T4vzDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA111 |url-status=live }} In recent years, Jihadi-Salafist doctrines have often been associated with the armed insurgencies of Islamic extremist movements and terrorist organizations targeting innocent civilians, both Muslims and Non-Muslims, such as al-Qaeda, ISIL/ISIS/IS/Daesh, Boko Haram, etc.{{cite book|author=Marc Sageman|title=Understanding Terror Networks|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iCoYDUv63L8C&pg=PA61|date=21 September 2011|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=978-0-8122-0679-1|pages=61–}}{{cite book|author=Vincenzo Oliveti|title=Terror's Source: The Ideology of Wahhabi-Salafism and Its Consequences|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rYFtQgAACAAJ|date=January 2002|publisher=Amadeus Books|isbn=978-0-9543729-0-3}} The second largest group are the Salafi activists who have a long tradition of political activism, such as those that operate in organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood, the Arab world's major Islamist movement. In the aftermath of widescale repressions after the Arab Spring, accompanied by their political failures, the activist-Salafi movements have undergone a decline. The most numerous are the quietists, who believe in disengagement from politics and accept allegiance to Muslim governments, no matter how tyrannical, to avoid fitna (chaos).

The Wahhabi movement was founded and spearheaded by the Ḥanbalī scholar and theologian Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab,{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Peskes |first=Esther |title=Wahhabis |year=2012 |orig-date=1993 |editor1-last=Bearman |editor1-first=P. J. |editor1-link=Peri Bearman |editor2-last=Bianquis |editor2-first=Th.|editor2-link=Thierry Bianquis |editor3-last=Bosworth |editor3-first=C. E. |editor3-link=Clifford Edmund Bosworth |editor4-last=van Donzel |editor4-first=E. J. |editor4-link=Emeri Johannes van Donzel |editor5-last=Heinrichs |editor5-first=W. P. |editor5-link=Wolfhart Heinrichs |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition |location=Leiden |publisher=Brill Publishers |doi=10.1163/1877-5888_rpp_SIM_224015 |isbn=978-9004161214}}{{cite book |editor1-last=Bokhari |editor1-first=Kamran |editor2-last=Senzai |editor2-first=Farid |year=2013 |chapter=Conditionalist Islamists: The Case of the Salafis |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ThiuAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA81 |title=Political Islam in the Age of Democratization |location=New York City |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |pages=81–100 |doi=10.1057/9781137313492_5 |isbn=978-1-137-31349-2}}{{cite encyclopedia |editor1-last=Ágoston |editor1-first=Gábor |editor2-first=Bruce |editor2-last=Masters |year=2009 |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire |chapter=Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, Muhammad |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QjzYdCxumFcC&pg=PA260 |location=New York City |publisher=Facts On File |pages=260–261 |isbn=978-0816062591 |lccn=2008020716 |title=Archived copy |access-date=5 February 2022 |archive-date=24 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230124220250/https://books.google.com/books?id=QjzYdCxumFcC&pg=PA260 |url-status=live }} a religious preacher from the Najd region in central Arabia,{{cite book |author-last=Wagemakers |author-first=Joas |year=2021 |chapter=Part 3: Fundamentalisms and Extremists – The Citadel of Salafism |editor1-last=Cusack |editor1-first=Carole M. |editor1-link=Carole M. Cusack |editor2-last=Upal |editor2-first=M. Afzal |editor2-link=Afzal Upal |title=Handbook of Islamic Sects and Movements |location=Leiden and Boston |publisher=Brill Publishers |series=Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion |volume=21 |doi=10.1163/9789004435544_019 |doi-access=free |pages=333–347 |isbn=978-90-04-43554-4 |issn=1874-6691}}{{cite encyclopedia |last=Laoust |first=H. |title=Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb |orig-date=1993 |year=2012 |editor1-last=Bearman |editor1-first=P. J. |editor1-link=Peri Bearman |editor2-last=Bianquis |editor2-first=Th. |editor2-link=Thierry Bianquis |editor3-last=Bosworth |editor3-first=C. E. |editor3-link=Clifford Edmund Bosworth |editor4-last=van Donzel |editor4-first=E. J. |editor4-link=Emeri Johannes van Donzel |editor5-last=Heinrichs |editor5-first=W. P. |editor5-link=Wolfhart Heinrichs |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam |edition=2nd |location=Leiden |publisher=Brill Publishers |doi=10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_3033 |isbn=978-90-04-16121-4}}{{cite book |last=Haykel |first=Bernard |author-link=Bernard Haykel |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q1I0pcrFFSUC&pg=PA231 |chapter=Ibn ‛Abd al-Wahhab, Muhammad (1703–92) |year=2013 |editor1-last=Böwering |editor1-first=Gerhard |editor1-link=Gerhard Böwering |editor2-last=Crone |editor2-first=Patricia |editor2-link=Patricia Crone |editor3-last=Kadi |editor3-first=Wadad |editor4-last=Mirza |editor4-first=Mahan |editor5-last=Stewart |editor5-first=Devin J. |editor5-link=Devin J. Stewart |editor6-last=Zaman |editor6-first=Muhammad Qasim |title=The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought |location=Princeton, NJ |publisher=Princeton University Press |pages=231–232 |isbn=978-0-691-13484-0 |access-date=15 July 2020 |archive-date=24 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230124220300/https://books.google.com/books?id=q1I0pcrFFSUC&pg=PA231 |url-status=live }}{{cite book |editor-last=Esposito |editor-first=John L. |editor-link=John Esposito |year=2004 |title=The Oxford Dictionary of Islam |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6VeCWQfVNjkC&pg=PA123 |chapter=Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, Muhammad (d. 1791) |location=New York City |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=123 |isbn=0-19-512559-2 |access-date=1 October 2020 |archive-date=24 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230124220242/https://books.google.com/books?id=6VeCWQfVNjkC&pg=PA123 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e916 |title=Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, Muhammad – Oxford Islamic Studies Online |date=2020 |website=oxfordislamicstudies.com |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=15 July 2020 |archive-date=12 July 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160712051853/http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e916 |url-status=dead }} and was instrumental in the rise of the House of Saud to power in the Arabian peninsula. Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab sought to revive and purify Islam from what he perceived as non-Islamic popular religious beliefs and practices by returning to what, he believed, were the fundamental principles of the Islamic religion. His works were generally short, full of quotations from the Quran and Hadith literature, such as his main and foremost theological treatise, Kitāb at-Tawḥīd ({{langx|ar|كتاب التوحيد}}; "The Book of Oneness"). He taught that the primary doctrine of Islam was the uniqueness and oneness of God (tawḥīd), and denounced what he held to be popular religious beliefs and practices among Muslims that he considered to be akin to heretical innovation (bidʿah) and polytheism (shirk).

Wahhabism has been described as a conservative, strict, and fundamentalist branch of Sunnī Islam,{{cite book |author-last=Musa |author-first=Mohd Faizal |year=2018 |chapter=The Riyal and Ringgit of Petro-Islam: Investing Salafism in Education |editor-last=Saat |editor-first=Norshahril |title=Islam in Southeast Asia: Negotiating Modernity |location=Singapore |publisher=ISEAS Publishing |doi=10.1355/9789814818001-006 |pages=63–88 |isbn=9789814818001|s2cid=159438333 }} with puritan views, believing in a literal interpretation of the Quran. The terms "Wahhabism" and "Salafism" are sometimes evoked interchangeably, although the designation "Wahhabi" is specifically applied to the followers of Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab and his reformist doctrines. The label "Wahhabi" was not claimed by his followers, who usually refer themselves as al-Muwaḥḥidūn ("affirmers of the singularity of God"), but is rather employed by Western scholars as well as his critics. Starting in the mid-1970s and 1980s, the international propagation of Salafism and Wahhabism within Sunnī Islam favored by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia{{cite journal |last=Hasan |first=Noorhaidi |date=2010 |title=The Failure of the Wahhabi Campaign: Transnational Islam and the Salafi madrasa in post-9/11 Indonesia |journal=South East Asia Research |publisher=Taylor & Francis on behalf of the SOAS University of London |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=675–705 |doi=10.5367/sear.2010.0015 |issn=2043-6874 |jstor=23750964|s2cid=147114018 }}{{Cite web|date=5 October 2016|last1=Inge|first1=Anabel|title=6 common misconceptions about Salafi Muslims in the West|url=https://blog.oup.com/2016/10/6-misconceptions-salafi-muslims/|access-date=2021-08-20|website=OUPblog|language=en|archive-date=4 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211104184236/https://blog.oup.com/2016/10/6-misconceptions-salafi-muslims/|url-status=live}} and other Arab states of the Persian Gulf has achieved what the French political scientist Gilles Kepel defined as a "preeminent position of strength in the global expression of Islam."{{cite book |last=Kepel |first=Gilles |author-link=Gilles Kepel |year=2003 |title=Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam |location=New York City |publisher=I.B. Tauris |pages=61–62 |isbn=9781845112578 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OLvTNk75hUoC&q=%22petro-islam%22&pg=PA61 |access-date=5 February 2022 |archive-date=24 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230124220249/https://books.google.com/books?id=OLvTNk75hUoC&q=%22petro-islam%22&pg=PA61 |url-status=live }}

22 months after the September 11 attacks, when the FBI considered al-Qaeda as "the number one terrorist threat to the United States", journalist Stephen Schwartz and U.S. Senator Jon Kyl have explicitly stated during a hearing that occurred in June 2003 before the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, and Homeland Security of the U.S. Senate that "Wahhabism is the source of the overwhelming majority of terrorist atrocities in today's world".{{cite web |title=Terrorism: Growing Wahhabi Influence in the United States |url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-108shrg91326/html/CHRG-108shrg91326.htm |date=26 June 2003 |website=www.govinfo.gov |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=United States Government Publishing Office |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181215092631/https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-108shrg91326/html/CHRG-108shrg91326.htm |archive-date=15 December 2018 |url-status=live |access-date=26 June 2021 |quote=Nearly 22 months have passed since the atrocity of 11 September. Since then, many questions have been asked about the role in that day's terrible events and in other challenges we face in the war against terror of Saudi Arabia and its official sect, a separatist, exclusionary and violent form of Islam known as Wahhabism. It is widely recognized that all of the 19 suicide pilots were Wahhabi followers. In addition, 15 of the 19 were Saudi subjects. Journalists and experts, as well as spokespeople of the world, have said that Wahhabism is the source of the overwhelming majority of terrorist atrocities in today's world, from Morocco to Indonesia, via Israel, Saudi Arabia, Chechnya. In addition, Saudi media sources have identified Wahhabi agents from Saudi Arabia as being responsible for terrorist attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq. The Washington Post has confirmed Wahhabi involvement in attacks against U.S. forces in Fallujah. To examine the role of Wahhabism and terrorism is not to label all Muslims as extremists. Indeed, I want to make this point very, very clear. It is the exact opposite. Analyzing Wahhabism means identifying the extreme element that, although enjoying immense political and financial resources, thanks to support by a sector of the Saudi state, seeks to globally hijack Islam [...] The problem we are looking at today is the State-sponsored doctrine and funding of an extremist ideology that provides the recruiting grounds, support infrastructure and monetary life blood of today's international terrorists. The extremist ideology is Wahhabism, a major force behind terrorist groups, like al Qaeda, a group that, according to the FBI, and I am quoting, is the "number one terrorist threat to the U.S. today".}} As part of the global "War on terror", Wahhabism has been accused by the European Parliament, various Western security analysts, and think tanks like the RAND Corporation, as being "a source of global terrorism".{{cite news|last1=Haider|first1=Murtaza|title=European Parliament identifies Wahabi and Salafi roots of global terrorism|url=http://www.dawn.com/news/1029713|access-date=3 August 2014|work=Dawn|location=Pakistan|date=22 July 2013|archive-date=26 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181226130328/https://www.dawn.com/news/1029713|url-status=live}} Furthermore, Wahhabism has been accused of causing disunity in the Muslim community (Ummah) and criticized for its followers' destruction of many Islamic, cultural, and historical sites associated with the early history of Islam and the first generation of Muslims (Muhammad's family and his companions) in Saudi Arabia.{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|title=Wahhābī (Islamic movement)|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Wahhabi|date=9 June 2020|access-date=1 July 2020 |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.|location=Edinburgh|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200626201633/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Wahhabi|archive-date=26 June 2020|url-status=live |quote=Because Wahhābism prohibits the veneration of shrines, tombs, and sacred objects, many sites associated with the early history of Islam, such as the homes and graves of companions of Muhammad, were demolished under Saudi rule. Preservationists have estimated that as many as 95 percent of the historic sites around Mecca and Medina have been razed.}}{{cite book

| last = Rabasa

| first = Angel

|author2=Benard, Cheryl

| title = The Muslim World After 9/11

| year = 2004

| publisher = Rand Corporation

| isbn = 0-8330-3712-9

| page = 103, note 60

| chapter = The Middle East: Cradle of the Muslim World

}}{{cite news

| url = https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the-destruction-of-mecca-saudi-hardliners-are-wiping-out-their-own-heritage-501647.html

| title = The destruction of Mecca: Saudi hardliners are wiping out their own heritage

| access-date = 21 December 2009

| last = Howden

| first = Daniel

| date = 6 August 2005

| work = The Independent

| archive-date = 2011-10-20

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111020143746/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the-destruction-of-mecca-saudi-hardliners-are-wiping-out-their-own-heritage-501647.html

| url-status = dead

}}{{cite web|last1=Finn|first1=Helena Kane|title=Cultural Terrorism and Wahhabi Islam|website=Council on Foreign Relations|date=8 October 2002|url=http://www.cfr.org/world/cultural-terrorism-wahhabi-islam/p5234|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140904022946/http://www.cfr.org/world/cultural-terrorism-wahhabi-islam/p5234|url-status=dead|archive-date=4 September 2014|access-date=5 August 2014|quote=It is the undisputed case that the Taliban justification for this travesty [the destruction of the Buddha statues at Bamiyan] can be traced to the Wahhabi indoctrination program prevalent in the Afghan refugee camps and Saudi-funded Islamic schools (madrasas) in Pakistan that produced the Taliban. ...In Saudi Arabia itself, the destruction has focused on the architectural heritage of Islam's two holiest cities, Mecca and Medina, where Wahhabi religious foundations, with state support, have systematically demolished centuries-old mosques and mausolea, as well as hundreds of traditional Hijazi mansions and palaces.}}

= Contemporary Islam =

The contemporary period begins after 1924. With the defeat and dissolution of the Ottoman Empire (1908–1922), the Ottoman Caliphate was also abolished. This event heavily influenced Islamic thinking in general, but also what would later be coined radical Islamic thought.{{Cite book|last=Cook|first=David|title=Understanding Jihad|publisher=University of California Press|year=2015|isbn=9780520287327|pages=93}} Key thinkers that wrote about Islam in the 20th century, and especially about jihad, include:

== Muhammad Abduh ==

== Rashid Rida ==

== Hassan al-Banna ==

== Abul A'la al-Maududi ==

==Sayyid Qutb==

File:Hamid Mir interviewing Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri 2001.jpg and Ayman al-Zawahiri of al-Qaeda have 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 |access-date=31 October 2021 |archive-date=24 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230124220232/https://books.google.com/books?id=Id4aEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA13 |url-status=live }}{{cite book |last=Aydınlı |first=Ersel |year=2018 |orig-date=2016 |title=Violent Non-State Actors: From Anarchists to Jihadists |chapter=The Jihadists pre-9/11 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hq1TDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA65 |location=London and New York City |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 |access-date=31 October 2021 |archive-date=24 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230124220232/https://books.google.com/books?id=hq1TDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA65 |url-status=live }}{{cite book |author-last=Moussalli |author-first=Ahmad S. |year=2012 |chapter=Sayyid Qutb: Founder of Radical Islamic Political Ideology |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D-LfCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA9 |editor-last=Akbarzadeh |editor-first=Shahram |title=Routledge Handbook of Political Islam |location=London and New York City |publisher=Routledge |edition=1st |pages=9–26 |isbn=9781138577824 |lccn=2011025970 |access-date=26 October 2021 |archive-date=24 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230124220249/https://books.google.com/books?id=D-LfCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA9 |url-status=live }}]]

Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian Islamist ideologue and prominent figurehead of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, was influential in promoting the Pan-Islamist ideology in the 1960s.{{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 |access-date=31 October 2021 |archive-date=24 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230124220252/https://books.google.com/books?id=ozFDDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA370 |url-status=live }} When he was executed by the Egyptian government under the regime of Gamal Abdel Nasser, Ayman al-Zawahiri formed the organization Egyptian Islamic Jihad to replace the government with an Islamic state that would reflect Qutb's ideas for the Islamic revival that he yearned for.{{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 on jihadist movements and Islamic terrorists that seek to overthrow secular governments, most notably Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri of al-Qaeda, as well as the Salafi-jihadi 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|archive-date=11 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100511083519/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/world/09awlaki.html?pagewanted=5&hp|url-status=live}}[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=9 December 2022 }} 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=9 December 2022 }}, New York Times Magazine (23 March 2003).{{Cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/weta/crossroads/incl/Out-of-the-Shadows.pdf |title=Out of the Shadows: Getting ahead of prisoner radicalization |website=PBS |access-date=3 January 2022 |archive-date=23 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130423144416/http://www.pbs.org/weta/crossroads/incl/Out-of-the-Shadows.pdf |url-status=live }}{{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|archive-date=3 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220103022401/http://www.pwhce.org/evolutionofalqaeda.html|url-status=live}}[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=9 June 2007 }} 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.{{cite book |last=Cook |first=David |author-link=David Cook (historian) |year=2015 |orig-date=2005 |chapter=Radical Islam and Contemporary Jihad Theory |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SqE2DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA102 |title=Understanding Jihad |location=Berkeley |publisher=University of California Press |edition=2nd |pages=102–110 |isbn=9780520287327 |jstor=10.1525/j.ctv1xxt55.10 |lccn=2015010201 |access-date=26 October 2021 |archive-date=24 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230124220253/https://books.google.com/books?id=SqE2DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA102 |url-status=live }} Unlike the other Islamic thinkers that 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.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 Middle East and North Africa 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 reverted to jahiliyah (the pre-Islamic age of ignorance) because those who call themselves Muslims have failed to follow the sharia law. To restore Islam, bring back its days of glory, and free the Muslims from the clasps of ignorance, Qutb proposed the shunning of modern society, establishing a vanguard modeled after the early Muslims, preaching, and bracing oneself for poverty or even death as preparation for jihad against what he perceived as jahili government/society, and overthrow them. Qutbism, the radical Islamist ideology derived from the ideas of Qutb, was denounced by many prominent Muslim scholars as well as other members of the Muslim Brotherhood, like Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

{{visible anchor|Active Islamic extremist groups|Active_Islamic_Extremist_Groups}}

= Groups =

class="wikitable sortable" style="width:100%"

! style="width:16%;" |Group Name

! style="width:5%;" |Banner

! style="width:8%;" |Home Base

! style="width:12%;" |Leaders

! style="width:8%;" |Strength

! style="width:8%;" |Casualties

! style="width:35%;" |Ideology

Al-Qaeda

| style="text-align:center;" |90px

| Afghanistan, Pakistan, and MENA region

| |Osama bin Laden{{KIA}} (1988–2011)
Ayman al-Zawahiri{{KIA}} (2011–2022)

Saif al-Adel

(de facto; 2022–present)

| 300–3,000{{cite web |author=Bill Roggio |url=http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2011/04/how_many_al_qaeda_operatives_a.php |title=How many al Qaeda operatives are now left in Afghanistan? – Threat Matrix |publisher=Longwarjournal.org |date=26 April 2011 |access-date=10 April 2014 |archive-date=6 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140706151045/http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2011/04/how_many_al_qaeda_operatives_a.php |url-status=live }}{{cite news|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/21/al-qaeda-afghanistan-comeback_n_1997994.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023084738/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/21/al-qaeda-afghanistan-comeback_n_1997994.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=23 October 2012 |title=Al Qaeda in Afghanistan Is Attempting A Comeback |work=HuffPost|date=21 October 2012 |access-date=10 April 2014 }}

| 4,400 casualties{{Cite web|url=http://npsglobal.org/eng/news/29-non-state-actors/1034-al-qaeda-attackss-death-toll-more-than-4400-lives.html|title=Death toll of Al Qaeda attacks: more than 4,400 lives|website=npsglobal.org|access-date=15 December 2015|archive-date=12 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210112175503/http://npsglobal.org/eng/news/29-non-state-actors/1034-al-qaeda-attackss-death-toll-more-than-4400-lives.html|url-status=live}}

| Sunnī Islamist and militant terrorist organization which aims to "restore Islam" and establish "true Islamic states", implement Sharia law, and rid the Muslim world of any Non-Muslim influences by following the doctrine and teachings of the Egyptian Islamist ideologue and propagandist Sayyid Qutb.{{cite book|last1=Kepel|first1=Gilles|title=Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam|url=https://archive.org/details/jihad00gill_0 |url-access=registration|quote=Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam.|date=2002|publisher=Harvard University Press.|isbn=9780674008779|ref=GKJTPI2002}} The title translates to "Organization of the Base of Jihad".

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb

| style="text-align:center;" |90px

| Kabylie Mountains, Algeria

| Abdelmalek Droukdel

| 800–1,000+{{cite web| title =Profile: Al-Qaeda in North Africa| url =https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-17308138| publisher =BBC| date =17 January 2013| access-date =2 July 2015| archive-date =12 July 2015| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20150712043959/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-17308138| url-status =live}}

| 200+

| AQIM is a Sunnī Islamist and militant terrorist organization which aims to overthrow the Government of Algeria and replace it with an Islamic state.

Al-Mourabitoun
a.k.a. al-Qaeda West Africa

| style="text-align:center;" |90px

| Mali, Niger, and Libya

| Mokhtar Belmokhtar

| Under 100 (French claim)

| Killed 27 in the 2015 Bamako hotel attack.

| Affiliated branch of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb listed above.

Ansar al-Sharia in Yemen
a.k.a. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula

| style="text-align:center;" |90px

| Yemen

| Nasir al-Wuhayshi{{KIA}} (2011–15)
Qasim al-Raymi{{KIA}} (2015–2020){{cite news |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/16/us-yemen-security-qaeda-us-idUSKBN0OW0FJ20150616?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews |archive-url=https://archive.today/20150616084740/http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/16/us-yemen-security-qaeda-us-idUSKBN0OW0FJ20150616?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews |url-status=live|archive-date=16 June 2015 |first1=Noah|last1=Browning|first2=Mohammed|last2=Ghobari|title=Al Qaeda in Yemen says leader killed in U.S. bombing |date=16 June 2015 |work=Reuters|access-date=16 June 2015}}

| 2,000+

| Over 250 killed in the 2012 Sana'a bombing and 2013 Sana'a attack.{{cite journal |author-last=Kendall |author-first=Elisabeth |date=8 September 2021 |url=https://ctc.usma.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/CTC-SENTINEL-072021.pdf |title=Twenty Years After 9/11: The Jihadi Threat in the Arabian Peninsula |url-status=live |editor1-last=Cruickshank |editor1-first=Paul |editor2-last=Hummel |editor2-first=Kristina |journal=CTC Sentinel |volume=14 |issue=7 |pages=63–75 |publisher=Combating Terrorism Center |location=West Point, New York |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210908175925/https://ctc.usma.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/CTC-SENTINEL-072021.pdf |archive-date=8 September 2021 |access-date=10 November 2021}}

| AQAP is considered the most active{{cite web |url=http://www.cfr.org/yemen/al-qaeda-arabian-peninsula-aqap/p9369 |title=Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) – Council on Foreign Relations |publisher=Cfr.org |access-date=2012-06-04 |archive-date=15 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170515083237/http://www.cfr.org/yemen/al-qaeda-arabian-peninsula-aqap/p9369 |url-status=dead }} of al-Qaeda's branches, or "franchises", that emerged due to weakening central leadership.{{Cite news |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2011/10/06/the-al-qaeda-brand-died-last-week/ |title=The al-Qaeda Brand Died Last Week |work=Forbes |date=6 September 2011 |access-date=7 September 2011 |archive-date=16 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150216101626/http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2011/10/06/the-al-qaeda-brand-died-last-week/ |url-status=live }} The U.S. Government believes AQAP to be the most dangerous al-Qaeda branch due to its emphasis on attacking the "far enemy" and its reputation for plotting attacks on overseas targets.{{cite web |first1=Laura|last1=Smith-Spark|title=What is al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula? |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/14/middleeast/yemen-al-qaeda-arabian-peninsula/ |website=CNN|date=14 January 2015 |access-date=23 April 2015 |archive-date=25 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210325202704/https://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/14/middleeast/yemen-al-qaeda-arabian-peninsula/ |url-status=live }}

al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent

| style="text-align:center;" |90px

| India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar

| Asim Umar

| 300{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/01/world/asia/01qaeda.html|work=The New York Times|first1=David E.|last1=Sanger|first2=Mark|last2=Mazzetti|title=New Estimate of Strength of Al Qaeda Is Offered|date=30 June 2010|access-date=24 February 2017|archive-date=8 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308163907/https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/01/world/asia/01qaeda.html|url-status=live}}{{cite news|url=http://www.sunday-guardian.com/news/al-qaeda-finds-base-in-india-modi-is-on-its-radar|title=Al Qaeda finds base in India, Modi is on its radar|work=The Sunday Guardian|date=29 March 2014|access-date=5 June 2014|archive-date=30 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160330194245/http://www.sunday-guardian.com/news/al-qaeda-finds-base-in-india-modi-is-on-its-radar|url-status=dead}}

| Claims 6 killed in assassinations. Naval frigate hijacking attempted in 2014.

| AQIS is a Sunnī Islamist and militant terrorist organization which aims to overthrow the Governments of Pakistan, India, Myanmar, and Bangladesh to establish an Islamic state.

Boko Haram – West Africa Province of the Islamic State Caliphate

| style="text-align:center;" |90px

| Northeastern Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Mali, and northern Cameroon{{cite journal |author1-last=Bacon |author1-first=Tricia |author2-last=Warner |author2-first=Jason |date=8 September 2021 |url=https://ctc.usma.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/CTC-SENTINEL-072021.pdf |title=Twenty Years After 9/11: The Threat in Africa—The New Epicenter of Global Jihadi Terror |url-status=live |editor1-last=Cruickshank |editor1-first=Paul |editor2-last=Hummel |editor2-first=Kristina |journal=CTC Sentinel |volume=14 |issue=7 |pages=76–92 |publisher=Combating Terrorism Center |location=West Point, New York |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210908175925/https://ctc.usma.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/CTC-SENTINEL-072021.pdf |archive-date=8 September 2021 |access-date=10 November 2021}}

| Mohammed Yusuf{{KIA}} (founder

2002 – 2009)
Abubakar Shekau{{KIA}} (2009–2021)

| Estimates range between 500 and 9,000{{cite news|url=http://www.conflict-news.com/boko-haram-worse-isis/ |title=Are Boko Haram Worse Than ISIS? |publisher=Conflict News |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150317153121/http://www.conflict-news.com/boko-haram-worse-isis/ |archive-date=17 March 2015 }}{{cite web|title=Global Terrorism Index 2014 |publisher=Institute for Economics and Peace |url=http://www.visionofhumanity.org/sites/default/files/Global%20Terrorism%20Index%20Report%202014.pdf |page=53 |access-date=23 February 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150216091255/http://www.visionofhumanity.org/sites/default/files/Global%20Terrorism%20Index%20Report%202014.pdf |archive-date=16 February 2015 }}{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/al-qaeda/10893889/Al-Qaeda-map-Isis-Boko-Haram-and-other-affiliates-strongholds-across-Africa-and-Asia.html |title=Al-Qaeda map: Isis, Boko Haram and other affiliates' strongholds across Africa and Asia |date=12 June 2014 |access-date=1 September 2014 |archive-date=11 January 2022 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/al-qaeda/10893889/Al-Qaeda-map-Isis-Boko-Haram-and-other-affiliates-strongholds-across-Africa-and-Asia.html |url-status=live }}

| Since 2009, it has killed 20,000 and displaced 2.3 million.

| Title means "Western education is forbidden", founded as a Sunnī Islamic fundamentalist sect and influenced by the Wahhabi doctrine, advocating a strict form of Sharia law. Since 2015 Boko Haram has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), rebranding itself as Islamic State's West Africa Province (ISWAP).

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (commonly known as ISIS, ISIL, IS, or Daesh)

| style="text-align:center;" |90px

| Iraq and Syria (occupied territories)

| Abu Musab al-Zarqawi{{KIA}} (founder 1999 – 2006)
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi{{KIA}} (2010–2019)
Abu Ibrahimi al-Hashimi al-Qurashi{{KIA}} (2019–2022){{cite magazine |last=Prothero |first=Mitchell |date=4 February 2022 |title=ISIS Leader Killed in US Raid Was a SNITCH Who Orchestrated the Yazidi Genocide |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/dyp43v/who-was-isis-leader-abu-ibrahim-al-hashimi-al-qurayshi |url-status=live |magazine=VICE News |location=New York City |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220205184919/http://www.vice.com/en/article/dyp43v/who-was-isis-leader-abu-ibrahim-al-hashimi-al-qurayshi |archive-date=5 February 2022 |access-date=6 February 2022}}
Abu al-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi (2022){{cite news |date=10 March 2022 |title=Islamic state confirms death of its leader, names new chief |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/islamic-state-confirms-death-its-leader-names-new-chief-2022-03-10/ |work=Reuters |access-date=21 May 2022 |archive-date=10 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220310163748/https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/islamic-state-confirms-death-its-leader-names-new-chief-2022-03-10/ |url-status=live }}Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi (2022–2023) Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Qurashi (2023–present)

| 40,000–200,000 at its height across all 'provinces'{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/11/isis-ranks-dwindle-to-15000-amid-retreat-on-all-fronts-claims-pentagon|title=Isis ranks dwindle to 15,000 amid 'retreat on all fronts', claims Pentagon|work=The Guardian|date=11 August 2016|access-date=13 August 2016|archive-date=29 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201129022133/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/11/isis-ranks-dwindle-to-15000-amid-retreat-on-all-fronts-claims-pentagon|url-status=live}}{{cite news|url=http://www.news.com.au/world/middle-east/45000-islamic-state-fighters-taken-off-battlefields/news-story/4ae3268e7c800a58575244d0f94a9e3a|title=45,000 Islamic State fighters taken off battlefields|publisher=News.com.au|date=11 August 2016|access-date=13 August 2016|archive-date=15 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210315124822/https://www.news.com.au/world/middle-east/45000-islamic-state-fighters-taken-off-battlefields/news-story/4ae3268e7c800a58575244d0f94a9e3a|url-status=live}}

| 30,000+ killed, including the genocides of Shīʿa Muslims, Christians, Yazidis, other ethnic and religious minorities in the Middle East, and many others around the world by ISIL or groups associated or inspired by ISIL. Since 2015 includes Boko Haram, rebranded as "Islamic State's West Africa Province" (ISWAP).{{cite web|last1=Glum|first1=Julia|title=How Many People Has ISIS Killed? Terrorist Attacks Linked To Islamic State Have Caused 33,000 Deaths: Report|url=http://www.ibtimes.com/how-many-people-has-isis-killed-terrorist-attacks-linked-islamic-state-have-caused-2399779|website=International Business Times|access-date=27 October 2016|date=10 August 2016|archive-date=25 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125021713/https://www.ibtimes.com/how-many-people-has-isis-killed-terrorist-attacks-linked-islamic-state-have-caused-2399779|url-status=live}}

| Salafi-jihadist and Sunnī militant terrorist organization that follows the Islamic fundamentalist Wahhabi doctrine of Sunnī Islam.{{cite news |author=Fouad al-Ibrahim |title=Why ISIS is a threat to Saudi Arabia: Wahhabism's deferred promise |work=Al Akhbar English |url=http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/21234 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140824121659/http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/21234 |date=22 August 2014 |archive-date=24 August 2014}} Originated as the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI). Gained large swathes of territory in Iraq in 2014 and is currently at war with Iraq, Syria, and a coalition of 60 other countries including the United States, United Kingdom, and France.

Jemaah Islamiyah

| style="text-align:center;" |

| Southeast Asia:

| Abu Bakar Bashir

| 5,000{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/al-qaeda/10893889/Al-Qaeda-map-Isis-Boko-Haram-and-other-affiliates-strongholds-across-Africa-and-Asia.html |title=Al-Qaeda map: Isis, Boko Haram and other affiliates' strongholds across Africa and Asia |date=12 June 2014 |access-date=29 August 2014 |last1=Freeman |first1=Colin |archive-date=11 January 2022 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/al-qaeda/10893889/Al-Qaeda-map-Isis-Boko-Haram-and-other-affiliates-strongholds-across-Africa-and-Asia.html |url-status=live }}

| Over 250 killed in bombings throughout Indonesia since 2002

| With a name meaning "Islamic Congregation" (frequently abbreviated JI),{{cite web|url=http://terrorism.about.com/od/groupsleader1/p/Jemaah_Islamiya.htm|title=Jemaah Islamiyah (JI)|last=Zalman|first=Amy|publisher=About.com|access-date=2008-08-01|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120216030807/http://terrorism.about.com/od/groupsleader1/p/Jemaah_Islamiya.htm|archive-date=16 February 2012}} is a Southeast Asian Sunnī Islamist and militant terrorist organization dedicated to the establishment of a Daulah Islamiyah (regional Islamic caliphate) in Southeast Asia.Counter-Society to Counter-State: Jemaah Islamiah According to Pupji, p. 11., Elena Pavlova, The Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, [http://www.ntu.edu.sg/rsis/publications/WorkingPapers/WP117.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090327002410/http://www3.ntu.edu.sg/rsis/publications/WorkingPapers/WP117.pdf|date=27 March 2009}}

Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan
a.k.a. Pakistani Taliban

| style="text-align:center;" |90px

| Northwest Pakistan

| Maulana Fazlullah

| 25,000{{cite news|last1=Bennett-Jones|first1=Owen|title=Pakistan army eyes Taliban talks with unease|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27133865|access-date=4 July 2014|publisher=BBC News|date=25 April 2014|archive-date=4 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140704104228/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27133865|url-status=live}}

| hundreds

| TTP is an umbrella organization of various Sunnī Islamist and militant groups protecting foreign Islamic terrorists hiding in the mountains of Pakistan. Not to be confused with the Afghani Taliban.

Jaish-e-Mohammed

| style="text-align:center;" |90px

|Kashmir, India

|Masood Azhar

|Aim is to annex Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan. Operates primarily in Jammu and Kashmir.

Lashkar-e Tayyiba

a.k.a. LeT

| style="text-align:center;" |90px

|Kashmir, India

|Hafiz Saeed

|Aim is to annex Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan and, ultimately, install Islamic rule throughout South Asia. Operational throughout India, especially in the northern region of Jammu and Kashmir since at least 1993.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/396.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190111032110/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/396.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=11 January 2019|title=Field Listing :: Terrorist groups – foreign based – The World Factbook – Central Intelligence Agency|publisher=Central Intelligence Agency|access-date=2019-09-16}}

National Thowheeth Jama'ath

| style="text-align:center;" |90px

|Sri Lanka

| 269 (excluding 9 bombers)

|Convert Sri Lanka into an Islamic caliphate

Foreign political support

According to the British historian Mark Curtis, in his book Secret Affairs: Britain's Collusion with Radical Islam, Britain has been accused of consistently supporting radical Islam to combat secular nationalism. Because the secular nationalists threatened to seize the resources of their countries and use it for internal development, which was not accepted by England.{{cite book |last1=Chomsky |first1=Noam|last2=Vltchek |first2=Andre|title=On Western Terrorism: From Hiroshima to Drone Warfare |date=2013 |publisher=Pluto Press|page=115 |isbn=978-1-84964-937-7}} The United States, like Britain before it, has been accused of historically supporting radical Islam in the face of secular nationalism, seen as a major threat to Western colonial dominance. Chomsky and coauthors accuse Israel of destroying Egypt and Syria in 1967, two bastions of secular Arab nationalism opposed to Saudi Arabia, which they view as the leader of radical Islam.{{cite journal |last1=Chomsky |first1=Noam|last2=Wainwright|first2=Joel |last3=Nir |first3=Oded |title="There Are Always Grounds for Seeking a World That Is More Free and More Just": An Interview with Noam Chomsky on Israel, Palestine, and Zionism |journal=Rethinking Marxism |date=2018 |volume=30 |issue=3 |doi=10.1080/08935696.2018.1525966 |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/08935696.2018.1525966|page=357|s2cid=149553671 }}