Journal Article•
Jihadism, Narrow and Wide: The Dangers of Loose Use of an Important Term
TL;DR: This article looked at the derivation and use of Jihadism and related terms, at definitions provided by a number of leading scholars, and at media usage, and showed that even these scholarly definitions actually make important distinctions between jihadism and associated ideology.
Abstract: The term “jihadism” is popular, but difficult. It has narrow senses, which are generally valuable, and wide senses, which may be misleading. This article looks at the derivation and use of “jihadism” and of related terms, at definitions provided by a number of leading scholars, and at media usage. It distinguishes two main groups of scholarly definitions, some careful and narrow, and some appearing to match loose media usage. However, it shows that even these scholarly definitions actually make important distinctions between jihadism and associated ideology. The article closes with a warning against the risks of loose and wide understandings of such important, but difficult, terms.
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18 Dec 2015
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on the cyclic and changing nature of life choices and circumstances which influence Jihadist fighters and supporters and show that there is no linear and unilateral progression from "extremist" beliefs to violence.
Abstract: In the framework of the recruitment of Syrian and Lebanese fighters combating today in Syria, this paper aims to further problematise the processes in which individuals decide to disrupt their ordinary lives to engage with “Jihadist” armed groups. Such processes are frequently studied and tackled by government programmes and NGO practices aimed at the “rehabilitation” of former fighters in various countries ranging from Muslim majority states to European or North American states. Likewise, some terrorism scholars still tend to trace a linear path to identify the social and psychological causes which push individuals to join militant groups, and trace the causes which, in some cases, lead to subsequent disengagement from fighting and the ideology involved. This study rather shows the cyclic and changing nature of life choices and circumstances which influence Jihadist fighters and supporters. By doing so, it embraces the scholarly approach according to which “extremist” armed groups should be studied and understood as any conventional social group. In specific, this primary research is based on ten in-depth interviews conducted in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli with Syrian and Lebanese exfighters, and with sympathisers of the so-called "Jihadi ideology" who never took up weapons. To interpret the narratives I collected, I will intentionally draw on both critical and mainstream securityfocused bodies of literature on political violence, “radicalisation”, and extremism. While the experiences recounted by the ex fighters will be analysed through the two constructed categories of contingency and intentionality, the Jihadist supporters who never joined an armed group rather point to how there is no linear and unilateral progression from “extremist” beliefs to violence. The survival of such forms of political violence, ultimately, challenges the survival of politically biased knowledge and the programmes that the latter informs.
2 citations
TL;DR: In this paper , the authors studied the official statements of al-Qaeda and ISIS, their ideological and strategic writings and their conduct vis-à-vis indigenous Christians in the Middle East, seeking to paint a more complex picture of how jihadists perceive this minority.
Abstract: ABSTRACT In contrast to common assumptions, jihadist movements’ view of Christian minorities in the Middle East has been neither unambiguous nor static. It changes according to the overall political conflict in the region and is characterized by specific, unpredictable struggles that arise locally. By studying the official statements of al-Qaeda and ISIS, their ideological and strategic writings and their conduct vis-à-vis indigenous Christians in the Middle East, this article seeks to paint a more complex picture of how jihadists perceive this minority. One key finding is that the Christians of the Middle East and the foreign Christian ‘Crusaders’ are not a single phenomenon or foe in the conceptual worldview of jihadists. Second, rather than seeking to eradicate Christians completely, jihadist movements wish primarily to demonstrate the dominance of Muslims and their role as legitimate rulers over Christian minorities. Third, terrorist attacks on Christians and churches have been devastating and deadly, especially in Egypt and Iraq, but local Christian minorities are not a top priority target for most jihadist groups.
1 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse der in den vergangenen drei Jahren veroffentlichten medienbezogenen Facebook-Posts (N = 137) von Pierre Vogel, der als Deutschlands bekanntester Salafist gilt, is presented.
Abstract: Die Analyse islamistischer Online-Propaganda ist bedeutsam, weil die salafistische Szene seit Jahren wachst und sich fur die Kommunikationswissenschaft, aber auch fur die journalistische Berufspraxis die Frage stellt, wie Anhanger dieser Form des Extremismus die Medien wahrnehmen. Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht dies anhand einer qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse der in den vergangenen drei Jahren veroffentlichten medienbezogenen Facebook-Posts (N = 137) von Pierre Vogel, der als Deutschlands bekanntester Salafist gilt. Die Befunde zeigen, dass Vogel ganz unterschiedliche journalistische Mediengattungen wahrnimmt, seine Anhanger also zumindest mittelbar mit journalistischen Inhalten in Kontakt kommen. Die Medienberichterstattung wird als auserst feindlich wahrgenommen und ihr gleichzeitig ein relativ groser Einfluss auf Muslime sowie die Gesamtbevolkerung unterstellt. Daraus resultieren jedoch keine medienbezogenen Positionen oder Aufrufe zu Verhaltensweisen, die als extremistisch einzustufen waren.
1 citations
01 Jan 2019
TL;DR: In this article, a general debate around the question why religion in the shape of highly politicized variants of basically all major creeds has made such a comeback at the end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first centuries after already having been dismissed with the Nietzschean assertion that ‘God is dead, God remains dead, and we have killed him.
Abstract: The chapter sets the scene for the following discussions by offering a general debate around the question why religion in the shape of highly politicized variants of basically all major creeds has made such a comeback at the end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first centuries after already having been dismissed with the Nietzschean assertion that ‘God is dead, God remains dead, and we have killed him.’ Key concepts such as ‘religion,’ ‘violence,’ and ‘holy wars’ will be defined here, and Theravāda Buddhism as a socio-political force will be discussed.
DOI•
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TL;DR: In this paper , the authors argue that Sala(cid:237)-Wahhabism has major influence on Malaysia's socio-political orders and also argue that the levels of resilience to the Wahabi expansion are varied between state and society.
Abstract: : is article argues that Sala(cid:237)-Wahhabism’s political ideology has major effects on Malaysia’s socio-political orders. It also argues that the levels of resilience to the Sala(cid:237)-Wahabi expansion are varied between state and society. At the level of society, resilience is weakened by multiple layers of grievances, which produced various effects brought by stages of reformist movements and terrors of neo-Sala(cid:237) groups. e crucial indicator is its changing characteristics from being accommodative to a defensive one. e increasing tendency of Muslims embracing Sala(cid:237)-Wahabism is the result of years of indoctrination, transnational Islamist networking, an external source of religious-funded activities, and the politicization of Islam. Yet this has been outweighed by the state’s resilience. Several attributes could explain the state’s ability to resist internal and external sources of radical ideologies, among others, long experience with terror threats, the state’s de(cid:237)ned Islam, strong control on religious affairs, and the law enforcement that existed since the colonial periods.
References
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TL;DR: The United States sponsored coup d'etat in Iran of August 19, 1953, has emerged as a critical event in postwar world history as discussed by the authors and contributed greatly to the 1978-1979 Iranian revolution.
Abstract: In retrospect, the United States sponsored coup d'etat in Iran of August 19, 1953, has emerged as a critical event in postwar world history The government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq which was ousted in the coup was the last popular, democratically oriented government to hold office in Iran The regime replacing it was a dictatorship that suppressed all forms of popular political activity, producing tensions that contributed greatly to the 1978–1979 Iranian revolution If Mosaddeq had not been overthrown, the revolution might not have occurred The 1953 coup also marked the first peacetime use of covert action by the United States to overthrow a foreign government As such, it was an important precedent for events like the 1954 coup in Guatemala and the 1973 overthrow of Salvador Allende in Chile, and made the United States a key target of the Iranian revolution
158 citations
Book•
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01 Jan 1818
111 citations
"Jihadism, Narrow and Wide: The Dang..." refers background in this paper
...Some focused on local rulers and other enemies, like the Wahhabis, who focused first on rivals such as the Banu Khalid and then on the Ottomans, whom they considered not truly Muslim....
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...This definition reflected the generally accepted scholarly understanding of the group of movements across the peripheries of the Muslim world that, from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century, used the discourse of jihad as well as armed force against enemies external or internal....
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...Some of these movements focused on external non-Muslim enemies, like the Sanusis, who fought the Italian colonizers....
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...Religious Socialization among Young Muslims in Scandinavia and Western Europe’ (London & New York: Routledge, 2015)....
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...These disputes 35ISSN 2334-3745 April 2015 reflect prescriptive rather than analytic disagreements, disagreements about what Muslims should or should not do rather than disagreements about how analysts and policy makers should understand what is going on....
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TL;DR: Hess as discussed by the authors studied the role of Islam in the development of the European commercial and colonial empires in the Indian Ocean and found that Islam's actions influenced the course of European history: did the Ottoman Turks cause the oceanic explorations? Did the Portuguese discovery of the new route to India divert Asian trade from Mediterranean to Atlantic ports?
Abstract: would encompass the world. In the same period Ottoman sultans, entering upon a century of major expansion, created an Islamic seaborne empire. Corresponding in time but different in character, these two imperial maritime ventures came together along the northern coastline of the Indian Ocean to create a new frontier that firmly separated two different societies. Until recently the study of joint Ottoman and Iberian naval expansion during the years when Christian Europe rose to the position of a world power on the oceans has not attracted attention. European historians, preoccupied with the identification of their own history, first unraveled the dramatic story of the oceanic voyages, the discoveries, and the European commercial and colonial empires, only stopping to consider how Muslim actions influenced the course of European history: Did the Ottoman Turks cause the oceanic explorations? Did the Portuguese discovery of the new route to India divert Asian trade from Mediterranean to Atlantic ports?1 Once these questions were answered, the study of Islamic history became the work of small, specialized disciplines, such as Oriental studies, which occupied a position on the periphery of the Western historical profession. Finally the successful imperial expansion of Western states in Islamic territories during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries confirmed for most Europeans the idea that the history of Islam, let alone the deeds of Ottoman sultans, had little influence on the expansion of the West. In the long run, however, the forces that stimulated Western imperialism led to a greater interest in Islamic history. The voyages of discovery, as revolutionary leaps in the technology of communication, reduced the distance between the world's societies and, therefore, brought Muslims and Christians together as - An assistant pr-ofessor of history at Temple University, Mr. Hess, who specializes in Ottoman history, received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1966, having studied with Stanford Shaw. An earlier ar
85 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the impact of the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq on the ideological development of the so-called global jihadist movement and highlighted important ideological changes in radical Islamist ideology.
Abstract: How has the invasion of Iraq influenced global jihadist ideology? Based on primary sources in Arabic, this article highlights important ideological changes; Iraq is considered a crossroads in the global jihad against the "Crusaders" New strategic dilemmas have caused divisions among militants, and Iraq's attractiveness has undermined other battlefronts A new "strategic studies" genre has emerged in jihadist literature Countries in Europe and the Gulf are increasingly highlighted as enemies and potential targets There seems to be a broad consensus among terrorism experts that the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 has contributed negatively to the so-called "global war on terror" According to many analysts, the war and the subsequent occupation have increased the level of frustration in the Islamic world over American foreign policy and facilitated recruitment by militant Islamist groups1 Moreover, Iraq seems to have replaced Afghanistan as a training ground where a new generation of Islamist militants can acquire military expertise and build personal relationships through the experience of combat and training camps2 Most analyses, however, seem to stop at the ascertainment of a vague, almost quantitative increase in the level of anti-Americanism or radicalism in Muslim communities since the Iraq War in 2003 This article will try to delve deeper into the matter and explore the qualitative changes in radical Islamist ideology since 2003 The next few pages are therefore devoted to the following research question: How has the invasion and occupation of Iraq influenced the ideological development of the so-called global jihadist movement? This question demands a closer examination of the writings and sayings of leading radical ideologues on the issue of Iraq since the autumn of 2002, when the prospect of war caught the world's attention Basing my analysis on key ideological texts, I will try to answer the following four subquestions: How important is Iraq to the socalled global jihadists? How united are the global jihadists in their view on the struggle for Iraq? How have the war and the occupation influenced their analysis of the overall confrontation with the US and the West? And how has their view of the enemy changed after the multinational invasion of Iraq? It must be emphasized that our focus will be on the militant and internationally-orientated Islamists, which means that moderate Islamist actors and nationalist Iraqi groups will not be considered here The research literature contains relatively few in-depth studies of post-September 11, 2001 ideological developments in radical Islamism3 This study is therefore almost entirely based on primary sources, mainly Arabic texts from radical Islamist Internet sites These sources are often problematic and cannot provide the full answer to our research question, but they represent one of our only windows into the world of militant Islamism The key argument in this article is that the Iraq War gave the global jihadists a welcome focal point in their struggle against the USA, but that Iraq at the same time became so attractive as a battle front that it weakened terrorist campaigns elsewhere Moreover, it is argued that the Iraq conflict contributed to the development of more sophisticated strategic thought in jihadist circles, and to an increase in hostility toward Europe and the Gulf countries The main objective of this analysis is to draw a more accurate picture of the global jihadist movement and to illustrate how armed conflict can generate unexpected ideological changes within radical political movements AL-QA 'IDA AND GLOBAL JIHADISM SINCE 9/11 First of all, it is essential to define the notion of "global jihadism" and clarify its relation to other Islamist movements "Islamism" - in itself a debated and polysemic term - is understood by this author as meaning "Islamic activism" It includes non-violent and violent, progressive as well as reactionary, political movements …
77 citations
"Jihadism, Narrow and Wide: The Dang..." refers background in this paper
...The next scholarly definition was coined in 2006, when Thomas Hegghammer distinguished between three varieties of Islamist violence: that of local revolutionaries seeking the overthrow of their own governments, especially during the 1960s and 1970s; that of regional separatists in areas such as Palestine and Chechnya, especially in the 1980s and 1990s; and, since 1996, that of Osama bin Laden and his followers, who privileged the global struggle against America over both local revolutionary and regional separatist struggles [16]....
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...[16] Thomas Hegghammer, “Global Jihadism after the Iraq War” Middle East Journal, Vol....
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Book•
03 Sep 2008
TL;DR: Part 1: Theory 1. Introduction 2. Doctrine and Schools 3. Ideologues 4. Strategists 5. Propogandists 6. Al-Qa`ida in Saudi Arabia 7. Global Jihadism in the UK 8. Conclusion
Abstract: Global Jihadism exposes the core doctrine and strategy of today’s global Jihadist movement.
The first half of the book explores the ideas upon which groups such as Al Qaeda are built, including the concepts of Jihad, al-Wala wal-Bara, Takfir and Tawhid. Jarret Brachman exposes a genre of Jihadist strategic scholarship that has been virtually ignored in the West and helps to situate it within the broader Salafist religious movement. The second half explores the thinking and activities of Al Qaeda’s propaganda machine, explaining its intricacies and idiosyncrasies. It includes case studies on the rise and fall of global Jihadist terrorism in Saudi Arabia post-9/11, and highlights the explosive results of bringing theory to bear on practice in the United Kingdom over the past twenty years. The book concludes by providing innovative strategies for combating the global Jihadist ideology.
76 citations