Jihadism

by

Christopher Anzalone

• LAST MODIFIED: 23 September 2024
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199743292-0323

Introduction

Militant Islamism, which is often referred to as “jihadism” (though there is arguably not a single “jihadism” but rather multiple types), continues to be a key international security issue across multiple regions and continents. The term “jihadi” (or “jihadist”) refers to individuals and organizations adhering to a set of religio-political ideologies that share much in common, including a hyper-focus on theological and creedal (ʿaqida) “purity,” an insular and exclusivist worldview hostile to both other/non-jihadi Muslims and non-Muslims, opposition to democracy because it supposedly enables human beings to overrule God’s commands and law, and an emphasis on armed struggle (al-jihad al-askari) as the primary means through which to bring about social, political, and economic change. The scholarly and policy literatures on jihadism dramatically expanded in the aftermath of al-Qaeda Central’s hijackings and suicide plane attacks in the United States on 11 September 2001 (9/11). Research published since 9/11 has also expanded our knowledge about the earliest jihadi, or mujahideen, groups, such as Egyptian militant Islamist organizations in the 1960s to the 1980s, as well as Afghan and “Afghan Arab” (Arab foreign fighter) mujahidin in Afghanistan during the 1970s and 1980s. Today, the study of jihadism and jihadi organizations continues to grow and cover a wider geographical area of study, branching out from the Middle East and South Asia, the two areas that have dominated the literature for much of the past two decades since 9/11. More recently, research on African, Caucasus and Central Asian, and Southeast Asian jihadi organizations, as well as on Western jihadi foreign fighters from Europe, the Americas, and Australia, continues to grow. The study of jihadism has also expanded to include organizational cultures, the contours and formation of jihadi theologies and ideologies, the role played by women in jihadi groups and jihadi views on gender roles, and how social movement, political economy, and critical terrorism studies can help explain the continuing appeal, to some people, of jihadisms and jihadi groups. This article seeks to provide an overview of some of the best literature available on the historical development and evolution of Sunni and Shiʿite jihadi thought and organizations as well as on specific jihadi organizations, including al-Qaeda Central and its regional affiliates, Islamic State and its regional branches and affiliates, the Taliban movement in South Asia, Palestinian jihadi groups, jihadi ideology and theology, women and jihadism, jihadi culture, Western jihadism, and African, Caucasus, and Central and Southeast Asian jihadi groups.

General Overviews and Historical Surveys

The emergence of jihadism and jihadi (militant Islamist) organizations began in the 1950s and 1960s with the radical political and theological turn of Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian teacher and litterateur who, by the 1950s, began to develop a revolutionary ideology. Drawing upon an extensive analysis of Qutb’s own writings, Calvert 2009 provides an in-depth analytical biography of one of the most important and influential Islamist intellectuals who is considered by many to be the “godfather” of contemporary jihadi ideology. Following Qutb’s execution by the Egyptian state in 1966, his “martyrdom” and thought influenced a new generation of militant Islamists, including future leaders of al-Qaeda, which is the subject of Kepel 2003b, a study of Egyptian militant Islamism from the 1950s to the 1980s. One of the first book-length studies of jihadism, Sivan 1985 argues that modern militant Islamist groups seek to combine what Sivan sees as “medieval” theology with modern understandings of politics and the state. Khatab 2011 traces the historical evolution of what Khatab terms “fundamentalist” thought in Islam from the classical period of the Kharijite sect up to the modern day with al-Qaeda, noting that jihadism represents a small minority in contemporary and historical Islamic thought. Kepel 2003a argues that the rise of political Islam and jihadism are closely linked. Burgat 2008 argues that Western political backing of authoritarian regimes in the Middle East and media discourse has played into the hands of jihadi organizations like al-Qaeda. The rise of “global jihadism,” which culminated in al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks inside the United States, consisted of four distinct phases, argues Robinson 2020, which have been marked by shifts in targeting, the focus on external versus domestic and regional operations, and the primacy of organizational or individual “jihads”/activism. After Qutb, the most influential Sunni figure in the development of jihadi activism and thought is the late al-Azhar University–educated religious scholar Abdullah Azzam, the subject of the biography Hegghammer 2020. Brachman 2009 looks at the evolution of jihadism from the 1980s up to the early 2000s and includes analysis of internal doctrinal debates, the development of strategic thinking, and media operations. Gerges 2009 is the most detailed analytical study of the emergence and evolution of Sunni jihadi thought from the 1970s up to the early 2000s, paying particular attention to the changing ideology of key jihad ideologues such as Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri.

• Brachman, Jarret M. Global Jihadism: Theory and Practice. New York: Routledge, 2009.

  Brachman provides a thematic survey of Sunni jihadism and jihadi organizations, with a focus on the period from the 1980s through the early 2000s. The book includes chapters on the different schools of thought and jihadi doctrinal debates as well as on the use of multimedia by jihadis, both individuals and organizations.

• Burgat, François. Islamism in the Shadow of al-Qaeda. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2008.

  The book argues that Western political and media discourse on Islam and the support by many Western nations of authoritarian regimes in the Middle East has enabled the rise and expansion of al-Qaeda and other jihadi organizations. Rather than hinder jihadism, Western actions and rhetoric has instead benefited jihadi recruitment and the salience of jihadi messaging.

• Calvert, John. Sayyid Qutb and the Origins of Radical Islamism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.

  Calvert’s book is a holistic biography and analysis of the life, evolution, and thought of Sayyid Qutb. The book examines Qutb’s entire life and not only the last two decades of his life when he was at his most revolutionary. Calvert notes how contemporary Sunni jihadi thought, with its emphasis on the “Far Enemy” over the “Near Enemy,” has inverted Qutb’s argument that change is first needed in Muslim-majority countries.

• Gerges, Fawaz. The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global. 2d ed. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

  DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511817793

  Gerges provides the most detailed analytical survey of the historical development of Sunni jihadi thought, examining how internal jihadi doctrinal debates shifted from prioritizing the targeting of domestic “apostates” (the “Near Enemy”) to their foreign backers, chiefly the United States (the “Far Enemy”) from the 1960s and 1970s to the mid-1990s into the 2000s.

• Hegghammer, Thomas. The Caravan: Abdallah Azzam and the Rise of Global Jihad. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2020.

  DOI: 10.1017/9781139049375

  The book is an expansive, in-depth biography of one of the founding figures in the global jihadi movement, the late Sunni religious scholar and Islamist activist Abdullah Azzam, one-time mentor to a young Osama bin Laden. Hegghammer traces Azzam’s life and career from his days as a student in Syria and Egypt to his worldwide fundraising and recruitment tour during the 1980s for the “Afghan Jihad” up to his assassination in 1989.

• Kepel, Gilles. Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2003a.

  The book is a global study of the rise of political Islam/Islamism, with a focus on militant Islamist movements and organizations. Kepel begins in the early 1970s when Islamist activists began rising up against authoritarian regimes in the Muslim-majority world and continues to the early 2000s with the roles armed Islamists played in conflicts in the Balkans, Algeria, and Afghanistan, as well as the formation of al-Qaeda.

• Kepel, Gilles. Muslim Extremism in Egypt: The Prophet and Pharaoh, with a New Preface for 2003. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003b.

  A new edition of one of the first book-length studies of the formative period of Sunni jihadi thought, the book focuses on the development of revolutionary militant Islamism in 1950s-1980s Egypt, which culminated in the 1981 assassination of the country’s president, Anwar al-Sadat. Kepel pays particular attention to Sayyid Qutb and the role of splinter groups from the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, including Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the Takfir wa-l-Hijra group.

• Khatab, Sayed. Understanding Islamic Fundamentalism: The Theological and Ideological Basis of al-Qaʿida’s Political Tactics. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2011.

  DOI: 10.5743/cairo/9789774164996.001.0001

  Khatab traces the history of “fundamentalist” movements in Islamic history from the classical period (the Kharijites) to the early modern (the Arabian Wahhabi movement) and contemporary periods (al-Qaeda). The book examines in great detail the intellectual contours of al-Qaeda’s theology and political ideology and how these influence its strategic and operational decision-making. It also looks at internal jihadi debates and schisms.

• Robinson, Glenn E. Global Jihad: A Brief History. Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press, 2020.

  DOI: 10.1515/9781503614109

  Robinson argues that global jihadism has gone through four distinct periods: (1) a formative period from 1979 to 1990; (2) a period when the United States was prioritized as a target, from 1996 to 2011; (3) a period when the formation of a new “caliphate”/transnational Muslim super-state was prioritized, between 2003 and 2017; and (4) a new period where individual militants were called upon to focus on “personal jihad,” from 2001 to 2020.

• Sivan, Emmanuel. Radical Islam: Medieval Theology and Modern Politics. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985.

  One of the earliest book-length studies of militant Islamism, both Sunni and Shiʿite, this book argues that modern-day radical Islamists combine medieval Islamic theology with contemporary revolutionary politics. The author’s argument that modern jihadi thought is essentially medieval has subsequently been contested in more recent scholarly literature, which has shown how premodern ideas have been reshaped by jihadis’ modernist understandings of politics and the state.