Salafi Jihadism

Download or read book Salafi-jihadism written by Shiraz Maher and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Concise introduction to salafi-jihadism from its origins in the Hindu Kush to insurgencies in the 1990s and beyond

Download or read book The Globalization of Martyrdom written by Assaf Moghadam and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2011-04-01 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 2009 Outstanding Academic Title, Choice This groundbreaking volume examines the rise and spread of suicide attacks over the past decade. Sorting through 1,270 terror strikes between 1981 and 2007, Assaf Moghadam attributes their recent proliferation to the mutually related ascendance of al Qaeda and its guiding ideology, Salafi Jihad, an extreme interpretation of Islam that rejects national boundaries and seeks to create a global Muslim community. In exploring the roots of the extreme radicalization represented by Salafism, Moghadam finds many causes, including Western dominance in the Arab world, the physical diffusion of Salafi institutions and actors, and the element of opportunity created by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. He uses individual examples from the Middle East, Southwest Asia, and Europe to show how the elite leaders of al Qaeda and affiliated groups and their foot soldiers interact with one another and how they garner support—and a growing number of converts and attackers—from the Muslim community. Based on over a decade of empirical research and a critical examination of existing thought on suicide attacks, Moghadam distinguishes the key characteristics separating globalized suicide strikes from the traditional, localized pattern that previously prevailed. This unflinching analysis provides new information about the relationship between ideology and suicide attacks and recommends policies focused on containing Salafi Jihadism.

Download or read book Jihadism Transformed written by Simon Staffell and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-12-01 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jihadist narratives have evolved dramatically over the past five years, driven by momentous events in the Middle East and beyond; the death of bin Laden; the rise and ultimate failure of the Arab Spring; and most notably, the rise of the so-called Islamic State. For many years, al-Qaeda pointed to an aspirational future Caliphate as their utopian end goal - one which allowed them to justify their violent excesses in the here and now. Islamic State turned that aspiration into a dystopic reality, and in the process hijacked the jihadist narrative, breathing new life into the global Salafi-Jihadi movement. Despite air-strikes from above, and local disillusionment from below, the new caliphate has stubbornly persisted and has been at the heart of ISIS's growing global appeal. This timely collection of essays examines how jihadist narratives have changed globally, adapting to these turbulent circumstances. Area and thematic specialists consider transitions inside the Middle East and North Africa as well as in South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Europe. As these analyses demonstrate, the success of the ISIS narrative has been as much about resonance with local contexts, as it has been about the appeal of the global idea of a tangible and realised caliphate.

Download or read book Incitement written by Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2020-05-05 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive account of the career and legacy of the most influential Western exponent of violent jihad. Anwar al-Awlaki was, according to one of his followers, “the main man who translated jihad into English.” By the time he was killed by an American drone strike in 2011, he had become a spiritual leader for thousands of extremists, especially in the United States and Britain, where he aimed to make violent Islamism “as American as apple pie and as British as afternoon tea.” Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens draws on extensive research among al-Awlaki’s former colleagues, friends, and followers, including interviews with convicted terrorists, to explain how he established his network and why his message resonated with disaffected Muslims in the West. A native of New Mexico, al-Awlaki rose to prominence in 2001 as the imam of a Virginia mosque attended by three of the 9/11 hijackers. After leaving for Britain in 2002, he began delivering popular lectures and sermons that were increasingly radical and anti-Western. In 2004 he moved to Yemen, where he eventually joined al-Qaeda and oversaw numerous major international terrorist plots. Through live video broadcasts to Western mosques and universities, YouTube, magazines, and other media, he soon became the world’s foremost English-speaking recruiter for violent Islamism. One measure of his success is that he has been linked to about a quarter of Islamists convicted of terrorism-related offenses in the United States since 2007. Despite the extreme nature of these activities, Meleagrou-Hitchens argues that al-Awlaki’s strategy and tactics are best understood through traditional social-movement theory. With clarity and verve, he shows how violent fundamentalists are born.

Download or read book Rethinking Salafism written by Raihan Ismail and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-10-01 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Salafism has received scrutiny as the one of the main ideological sources for extremist violence perpetrated by jihadi groups. There is a significant corpus of literature discussing transnational jihadi networks, especially after the 9/11 attacks in the United States. These discussions include the radicalization of Salafi thought by jihadi theoreticians and 'ulama. However, Salafism is not monolithic. It contains numerous streams, and an examination of these streams is crucial to understanding its influence on Muslim societies. Besides Salafi jihadisthose who sanction violencethere are two other broad trends in Salafism: quietist and activist. Quietist Salafis endorse an apolitical tradition and find political activism in any form unacceptable. Activist Salafis advocate peaceful political change. Each stream is led by 'ulama, seen as the preservers of Salafi traditions. The quietist and activist 'ulama are active participants in their communities. Studies of such clerics have tended to be country-specific, focusing on the influence and nature of Salafism and its dynamics in those countries. In Rethinking Salafism Raihan Ismail assesses the origins, interactions, and dynamics of the transnational networks of Salafi 'ulama in the region comprising Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Kuwait, showing how quietist and activist 'ulama work across borders to preserve and promote what they see as "authentic" Salafism while taking domestic circumstances of the 'ulama into consideration. The book offers a reassessment of the quietist/activist dichotomy, arguing that this dichotomy does not apply to such aspects of Salafi thought as attitudes towards the Shi'a and social matters in Muslim societies.

Download or read book Gnostic Jihadism written by Giacomo Maria Arrigo and published by Philosophy. This book was released on 2021 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Revolutionary Gnosticism is a movement common to several revolutionary phenomena, such as Nazism and Bolshevism. Arrigo is the first scholar to study Salafi- Jihadism in gnostic terms to reveal the movement's will of redeeming humankind from Evil and building the perfect society, leaving God without a possibility of intervening in human affairs.

Download or read book Salafi-Jihadism written by Shiraz Maher and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-11-01 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No topic has captured the public imagination of late quite so dramatically as the specter of global jihadism. While much has been said about the way jihadists behave, their ideology remains poorly understood. As the Levant has imploded and millenarian radicals claim to have revived a Caliphate based on the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed, the need for a nuanced and accurate understanding of jihadist beliefs has never been greater. Shiraz Maher charts the intellectual underpinnings of salafi-jihadism from its origins in the mountains of the Hindu Kush to the jihadist insurgencies of the 1990s and the 9/11 wars. What emerges is the story of a pragmatic but resilient warrior doctrine that often struggles - as so many utopian ideologies do - to consolidate the idealism of theory with the reality of practice. His ground-breaking introduction to salafi-jihadism recalibrates our understanding of the ideas underpinning one of the most destructive political philosophies of our time by assessing classical works from Islamic antiquity alongside those of contemporary ideologues. Packed with refreshing and provocative insights, Maher explains how war and insecurity engendered one of the most significant socio-religious movements of the modern era.