Salafi jihadism

Part of a series on: Salafi movement
Sab'u Masajid, Saudi Arabia
Theology and Influences Salaf Muhammad Sahabah Tabi'un Taba al-Tabi'in Ahl al-Hadith Ahmad ibn Hanbal Ibn Hazm Ibn Taymiyyah Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya Ibn Kathir Al-Dhahabi Ibn Abd al-Hadi Ibn Muflih Muhammad Hayaat Al-Sindhi Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab Shah Waliullah Dehlawi Al-Shawkani
Founders and key figures Syed Nazeer Husain Siddiq Hasan Khan Jamal al-Din Qasimi Sayyid Muhammad Rashid Ridha Muhammad ibn Ibrahim Al ash-Sheikh Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz Ibn al Uthaymeen Nasiruddin Albani Zubair Ali Zai Muhammad Ibn Salih al-Munajjid 'Abd al Aziz al-Ťarifi List of Salafi scholars
Notable universities Umm al-Qura University Islamic University of Madinah Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University Jamia Salafia, Faisalabad Jamia Salafia, Varanasi International Islamic University, Islamabad List of Salafi Islamic universities
Related ideologies Ahl-i Hadith movement Islamism Islamic fundamentalism Madkhalism Manhaj Qutbism Sahwa movement Sailaifengye Salafi jihadism Sufi-Salafi relations Wahhabism International propagation by country/region Hazimism
Associated organizations Al-Nour Party Authenticity Party People Party Takfir wal-Higra Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant al-Qaida
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Part of a series on
Jihadism
Practices and concepts Jihad Mujahideen Istishhad Shahid Shahidka Inghimasi Martyrdom video Beheading video Islamic terrorism Suicide attack Jihadist flag
Islamic fundamentalism Islamism Qutbism Salafism and Wahhabism International propagation Salafi jihadism
Notable jihadist organisations Taliban Pakistani Taliban Al-Qaeda Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad Al-Shabaab Ansar al-Islam in Kurdistan Ahrar al-Sham Islamic State of Iraq Islamic State Boko Haram Al-Nusra Front Hayat Tahrir al-Sham
Jihadism in Africa Boko Haram insurgency Insurgency in Cabo Delgado Insurgency in the Maghreb and Sahel
Jihadism in Asia Al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen East Turkestan Islamic Movement Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Moro insurgency in the Philippines Sinai insurgency South Thailand insurgency Taliban insurgency Arab mujahideen in Afghanistan
Jihadism in the West Islamic terrorism in Europe Islamic terrorism in the Balkans Islamism in the United Kingdom Jihadist extremism in the United States Foreign fighters in Bosnia Bosnian mujahideen Foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq Homegrown terrorism Jihadi tourism
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Salafi jihadism, also known as revolutionary Salafism^[1] or jihadist Salafism, is a religious-political Sunni Islamist ideology that seeks to establish a global caliphate, characterized by the advocacy of "physical" (military) jihadist attacks on non-Muslim targets. The Salafist interpretation of sacred Islamic texts is "in their most literal, traditional sense",^[2] which adherents claim will bring about the return to "true Islam".^{[3][4][5][6][7]}

The original use of the term "jihadist Salafists" (also "Salafi-jihadi" or "Salafist jihadis")^[3][4][5][8] came from French political scientist Gilles Kepel^{[9][10][11][12]} to refer to international volunteers of the jihad against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan who had come from around the world to fight for Islam against Marxist forces in Afghanistan and had lost the American-Saudi funding and interest after the Soviet forces had withdrawn, but wanted to continue waging jihad elsewhere.^[13] Their original jihad was against an aggressive anti-religious power (Soviet Union and its Marxist allies), attempting to take over a Muslim region (Afghanistan), and had been enthusiastically supported by large numbers of Muslims including governments. However, isolated from their national and social class origins and seeking to "rationalize" their "existence and behavior",^[9] some Arab Afghan volunteers expanded the targets of their jihad to include the United States (whom they "perceived as the greatest enemy of the faith", despite having supported and armed the Afghan Mujahideen), and various governments of Muslim-majority countries - whom they perceived as apostates from Islam.^[2]

Jihadist and Salafist elements of "hybrid" ideology developed by international volunteers ("Arab-Afghan" Mujahideen) had not been joined previously because mainstream Salafis,^[3][8][14] (dubbed by some Western commentators as "good Salafis"),^[11] had mostly adhered to political quietism - eschewing political activities and partisan allegiances, viewing them as potentially divisive for the broader Muslim community and as a distraction from the studying and practicing of Islam.^[15] Prominent Quietist Salafi scholars have denounced doctrines of Salafi jihadism as Bid'ah ("innovation") and "heretical",^[16] strongly forbidding Muslims from participating or assisting in any armed underground activity against ruling governments.^{[Note 1][a]} Jihadist salafists often dismiss the quietist scholars as "'sheikist" traitors, portraying them as palace scholars worried about the patronage of "the oil sheiks of the Arabian peninsula" rather than pure Islam,^[2] and contend that they are not dividing the Muslim community because, (in their view), the rulers of Muslim-majority countries and other self-proclaimed Muslims they attack are not actually part of the community having deviated from Islam and become apostates or false Muslims.^[3][5][19]

Early ideologues of the movement were Arab Afghan veterans of the Afghan jihad: Abu Qatada al-Filistini, the (naturalized Spanish) Syrian Abu Musab, Mustapha Kamel known as Abu Hamza al-Masri, etc.^[2] The jihadist ideology of Qutbism has been identified variously as the ideological foundation of the movement,^[3][20][21] a closely related Islamist ideology,^{[3][22][23][24]} or a variety of revolutionary Salafism.^[3][23] While Salafism had little presence in Europe during the 1980s, Salafi jihadists had by the mid-2000s acquired "a burgeoning presence in Europe, having attempted more than 30 terrorist attacks among E.U. countries since 2001."^[11] While many see the influence and activities of Salafi jihadists as in decline after 2000 (at least in the United States),^[25][26] others see the movement as growing in the wake of the Arab Spring, the breakdown of state control in Libya and Syria in 2014,^[27] and the U.S. retreat from Afghanistan in 2021.^[28]

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