Islamic terrorism

Political Islam portalIslamic terrorism, Islamist terrorism or radical Islamic terrorism are terrorist acts against civilians committed by violent Islamists who claim a religious motivation. Islamic terrorists justify their religious terrorism and extreme political violence through a utopic political vision of a pan-Islamic state under Sharia law and a revival of the Islamic Golden Age, combined with a fundamentalistic (non-traditional) interpretation of jihad, martyrdom and other religious concepts in the Quran and Hadith. Islamic terrorism also comes from the idea of Islamic supremacy which is encapsulated in the formula 'Islam is exalted and nothing is exalted above it'. ar from being religious zealots, a large number of those involved in terrorism do not practise their faith regularly. Many lack religious literacy and could actually be regarded as religious novices. Very few have been brought up in strongly religious households, and there is a higher than average proportion of converts. Some are involved in drug-taking, drinking alcohol and visiting prostitutes. MI5 says there is evidence that a well-established religious identity actually protects against violent radicalisation.But when these months, prohibited (for fighting), are over, slay the idolaters wheresoever you find them, and take them captive or besiege them, and lie in wait for them at every likely place. But if they repent and fulfill their devotional obligations and pay the zakat, then let them go their way, for God is forgiving and kind.Being a religious obligation, jihad is elaborately regulated in sharia law, which discusses in minute detail such matters as the opening, conduct, interruption and cessation of hostilities, the treatment of prisoners and noncombatants, the use of weapons, etc.... Similarly, the laws of Jihad categorically preclude wanton and indiscriminate slaughter. The warriors in the holy war are urged not to harm non-combatants, women and children, 'unless they attack you first'. ... A point on which they insist is the need for a clear declaration of war before beginning hostilities, and for proper warning before resuming hostilities after a truce. What the classical jurists of Islam never remotely considered is the kind of unprovoked, unannounced mass slaughter of uninvolved civil populations that we saw in New York two weeks ago. For this there is no precedent and no authority in Islam.Nawaz: ... What does killing the Yazidi population on Mount Sinjar have to do with US foreign policy? What does enforcing headscarves (tents in fact) on women in Waziristan and Afghanistan, and lashing them, forcing men to grow beards under threat of a whip, chopping off hands, and so forth, have to do with US foreign policy? Harris: This catalogue of irrelevancy could be extended indefinitely. What does the Sunni bombing of Shia and Ahmadi mosques in Pakistan have to with Israel or US foreign policy?We call you to be a people of manners, principles, honour, and purity; to reject the immoral acts of fornication, homosexuality, intoxicants, gambling's, and trading with interest (...) You separate religion from your policies, (...) You are the nation that permits Usury, which has been forbidden by all the religions (...) You are a nation that permits the production, trading and usage of intoxicants (...) You are a nation that permits acts of immorality (...) You are a nation that permits gambling in its all forms. (...) You use women to serve passengers, visitors, and strangers to increase your profit margins. You then rant that you support the liberation of women.With the exception of Abul Ala Maududi and Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, none of Qutbism's main theoreticians trained at Islam's recognized centers of learning. Although a devout Muslim, Hassan al-Banna was a teacher and community activist. Sayyid Qutb was a literary critic. Mohammed Abdul-Salam Farag was an electrician. Ayman al-Zawahiri is a physician. Osama bin Laden trained to be a businessman.What the recruits tended to have in common—besides their urbanity, their cosmopolitan backgrounds, their education, their facility with languages, and their computer skills—was displacement. Most who joined the jihad did so in a country other than the one in which they were reared. They were Algerians living in expatriate enclaves in France, Moroccans in Spain, or Yemenis in Saudi Arabia. Despite their accomplishments, they had little standing in the host societies where they lived. Islamic terrorism, Islamist terrorism or radical Islamic terrorism are terrorist acts against civilians committed by violent Islamists who claim a religious motivation. Islamic terrorists justify their religious terrorism and extreme political violence through a utopic political vision of a pan-Islamic state under Sharia law and a revival of the Islamic Golden Age, combined with a fundamentalistic (non-traditional) interpretation of jihad, martyrdom and other religious concepts in the Quran and Hadith. Islamic terrorism also comes from the idea of Islamic supremacy which is encapsulated in the formula 'Islam is exalted and nothing is exalted above it'. The highest numbers of incidents and fatalities caused by Islamic terrorism occur in Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria. In 2015 four Islamic extremist groups were responsible for 74% of all deaths from terrorism: ISIS, Boko Haram, the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, according to the Global Terrorism Index 2016. In recent decades, such incidents have occurred on a global scale, affecting not only Muslim-majority states in Africa and Asia, but also several other countries, including those within the European Union, Russia, Australia, Canada, Israel, India, the United Kingdom and the United States. Such attacks have targeted Muslims and non-Muslims. In a number of the worst-affected Muslim-majority regions, these terrorists have been met by armed, independent resistance groups, state actors and their proxies, and elsewhere by condemnation coming from prominent Islamic figures. Use of the phrase 'Islamic terrorism' is disputed. In Western political speech it has variously been called 'counter-productive', 'highly politicized, intellectually contestable' and 'damaging to community relations'. Others have condemned the refusal to use the term as an act of 'self-deception', 'full-blown censorship' and 'intellectual dishonesty'. Replacing the term with 'Islamist Terrorism' has been suggested as a way of distancing terrorism from Islam, while others inside and out of the Islamic world (such as Imran Khan, the prime minister of Pakistan, and academic Bruce Lawrence), oppose its use on the grounds there is no connection between Islam and terrorism. Some Muslim scholars assert that extremism within Islam goes back to the Kharijites who existed in the 7th century. From their essentially political position, they developed extreme doctrines that set them apart from both mainstream Sunni and Shi'a Muslims. The Kharijites were particularly noted for adopting a radical approach to takfir, whereby they declared that other Muslims were unbelievers and therefore worthy of death. After failed post-colonial attempts at state formation and the creation of Israel, a series of Marxist and anti-Western transformations and movements swept throughout the Arab and Islamic world. The growth of these nationalist and revolutionary movements, along with their views that terrorism could be effective in reaching their political goals, generated the first phase of modern international terrorism. In the late 1960s, Palestinian secular movements such as Al Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) began to target civilians outside the immediate arena of conflict. Following Israel's 1967 defeat of Arab forces, Palestinian leaders began to see that the Arab world was unable to militarily confront Israel. During the same time, lessons drawn from revolutionary movements in Latin America, North Africa, Southeast Asia as well as during the Jewish struggle against Britain in Palestine, saw the Palestinians turn away from guerrilla warfare towards urban terrorism. These movements were secular in nature but their international organization served to spread terrorist tactics worldwide. While secular Palestinians were the most significant movement in the 1970s, religiously motivated groups also grew after the failure of Arab nationalism in the 1967 war. In the Middle East, Islamic movements came into conflict with secular nationalism. Islamic groups were supported by Saudi Arabia, to counter nationalist ideology. According to Bruce Hoffman of RAND, in 1980 two out of 64 groups were categorized as having religious motivation, in 1995 almost half (26 out of 56) were religiously motivated with the majority having Islam as their guiding force. The Soviet–Afghan War and the subsequent anti-Soviet mujahedin war, lasting from 1979 to 1989, started the rise and expansion of terrorist groups. Since their beginning in 1994, the Pakistani-supported Taliban militia in Afghanistan has gained several characteristics traditionally associated with state-sponsors of terrorism, providing logistical support, travel documentation, and training facilities. Since 1989 the increasing willingness of religious extremists to strike targets outside immediate country or regional areas highlights the global nature of contemporary terrorism. The 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, are representative of this trend. According to research by the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, there were 31,221 Islamist terrorism attacks, which killed at least 146,811 people, between 11 September 2001 and 21 April 2019. Many of the victims were Muslims, including most of the victims who were killed in attacks involving 12 or more deaths.