Transcript Lecture 14 - The Jihad File

Origins of the Global Jihad
Join The Caravan
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Abdullah Azzam, Godfather of Jihad
Afghan Arabs organiser
Maktab al-Khidamat
“Jihad and the rifle alone. No
conferences, no dialogue, no
negotiations”
Causation?
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The Rise and Fall of Political Islam
1924 End of the Caliphate
Hassan al Banna, Sayid Qutb
Failure of Arab Nationalism, the absence of a
unification narrative
• Quietening of the Islamists
• “Islamist movements have been in part
secularized by the political process, where
political logic has trumped religious logic”
Causation
• Existing explanations focus either on very specific
issues of the modern era or timeless
metanarratives
• Poverty
• Authoritarian regimes
• US (Western) foreign policy
• The Jewish state
• Globalisation and modernity
• Culture and values
• Clash of Civilisations
• Rejection of the Contemporary International
Order
• Rejection of a divided ‘spiritual’ umma
• Rejection of secular and illegitimate
governance
Objectives
• Unity and Legitimacy
• (1) A unified Islamic community ruled by
religiously sanctioned governance is the solution
to all grievances
• (2) The US and the international system are major
obstacles to that realisation.
Ijtihad and Islamic Reformation
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Closing the ‘Gates of Ijtihad’
Ibn Taymiyya 14th C
Ibn Wahhab 18th C
Jamal al din al Afghani 19th C
Stagnation of Islamic Society
Co-option of the Ulema
Ijtihad – Personal Reasoning
Who can interpret religious texts?
Preisthood of the individual
Four Pillars of Salafi Jihadist Ideology
• Jahiliyya (Ignorance of God’s will)
– The problem that should be resolved
• Salafism (Looking to the early period of Islam for
guidance)
– The solution to the problem
• Higra (Emigration to form a jihadist community)
– The preparation to bring the solution
• Jihad ( war directed against enemies)
– the action to bring the solution
Al Qaeda (The Base)
• Founded 1988
• 2001 merger with Egyptian
Islamic Jihad forming "Qaeda
al-Jihad“
• Bin Laden the organiser
• Zawahiri the thinker
1998 Fatwa
• [The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies—
civilians and military—is an individual duty for every
Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is
possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa
Mosque [in Jerusalem] and the holy mosque [in
Mecca] from their grip, and in order for their armies to
move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable
to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the
words of Almighty Allah, 'and fight the pagans all
together as they fight you all together,' and 'fight them
until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there
prevail justice and faith in Allah‘
• (1978) Saur Revolution, anti communist
insurrection
• (1979–89) Soviet–Afghan War
• (1989–92) Afghan Civil War– collapse of
Communist Najibullah government
• (1992–96) Afghan Civil War
• (1996–2001) Taliban majority control
• (2001) Coalition intervention
Mobile Jihad
• Bin Laden returns to Saudi following Soviet
Withdrawal
• Gulf War 1: UBL offers to protect Saudi Arabia
with mujahedeen forces
• 1992-96 banished to Sudan
• 1993 Oslo Peace Accords
• 1996 crackdown on EIJ and expulsion on UBL
following assassination attempt on Mubarak
• Sudanese government offers to extradite UBL
• 1996 seeks refuge with the Taliban
Meanwhile in Afghanistan
• Islamic State of Afghanistan
• 1992 Peshawar Accords agreed to by all
parties except Hekmatyar, supported by
Pakistani Inter Services intelligence
• Government led by Ahmed Shah Masood
• Civil War commences again with Hekmatyar
supported by Pakistan
Origins of the Taliban
• Began as a religious political group
• In 1994, local governor abducted two girls,
shaved their heads, and taken them to a camp
where they were raped. 30 Taliban freed the girls,
and hanged the governor from the barrel of a
tank.
• 100s of fighters trained in Pakistan join the group
as it makes a bid to gain control of the country.
• Supported by ISI as a pro-Pakistan movement.
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
• By 1996 the Taliban control most of
Afghanistan and form a government
recognised only by Pakistan, Saudi, UAE
• The Northern Alliance, composed of ethnic
Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras serves as the major
resistance.
• Bin Laden returns
Afghanistan Post 9/11
• 10 September 2001, Ahmed Shah Masood
Assassinated
• US demand Taliban give up UBL
• NATO and allied invasion October 2001