Al-jihad fi sabil allah

Jihadism

Jihadism (also jihadist movement or jihadi movement) is a term to describe the renewed focus on armed jihad in radical Islamic fundamentalism. Jihadism emerges in the 1960s, with roots in the late 19th and early 20th century ideological developments of Islamic revivalism, developed into Qutbism and related ideologies during the mid 20th century. The rise of jihadism was re-enforced by the Iranian Revolution and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, and has been propagated in various armed conflicts throughout the 1990s and 2000s. A specifically Salafist jihadism has been diagnosed within the modern Salafi movement by Gilles Kepel in the mid 1990s.

"Jihadism" in this sense covers both Mujahideen guerilla warfare and Islamic terrorism with an international scope as it arose from the 1980s, since the 1990s substantially represented by the al-Qaeda network. Jihadism with an international, Pan-Islamist scope in this sense is also known as Global Jihadism.

Terminology

Although the adjective jihadist can be traced to the 1960s, and the abstract jihadism to ca. 1980, these terms did not see frequent use in popular media until after the 9/11 attacks of 2001. The equivalent terms of "jihadist movement" and "jihadi movement" date to the same period, entering use during the 1970s. The term "jihadism" translates or parallels Arabic jihādiyya جهادية‎. The alternative form jihadi for jihadist in English usage is a transliteration of the corresponding Arabic adjective jihādī جهادي‎.

According to Martin Kramer the term jihadism first became common in "the Indian and Pakistani media". "At present, jihadism is used to refer to the most violent persons and movements in contemporary Islam, including al-Qaeda." The term jihadism may also have been influenced by the term "jihadist-Salafism", put into "academic circulation" by "French academics".

Jihad fi sabil Allah

In Islam, the phrase al-jihad fi sabil Allah is the equivalent of the western notion of bellum justum or just war. Such a "just war" or "war in the cause of God" has been propagated in modern Islamic fundamentalism beginning beginning in the late 19th century, an ideology that arose in context of struggles against colonial powers in North Africa in the late 19th century, 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.

Based on this, the phrase is used in modern jihadism. Thus, "Fi Sabil Allah" armbands were worn by Islamic Rebels in Xinjiang when battling Soviet forces, and the phrase has been spotted on flags used by jihadists in Caucasia in the 2000s.

History

When jihadism is specifically motivated by Pan-Islamism, i.e. the ultimate aim of spreading Islam worldwide under a restored Caliphate, it is often called "Global Jihadism". But jihadism can also be motivated regionally, in an attempt to establish an Islamic state in a specific homeland. Global Jihadism is usually involved with international Islamic terrorism, while regional jihadism takes the form of guerilla warfare, possibly also paired with terrorist attacks. Historical and ongoing jihadist armed conflicts include:

Early jihadist uprisings (before World War I):

Classical Islamism (1928-1989)

Modern jihadism (1990-present)

References

Literature

See also

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