Summary
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.
Contents
Introduction. -- The Prayer Hall Putsch. -- Salafi-Jihadism: typologies and definitions. -- Intellectual history. -- JIHAD. -- The Obligation of Fighting. -- The virtues of jihad. -- Authorising defensive declarations of jihad. -- Applying Jihad in Salafi Thought. -- Attacking the far enemy as a defensive measure. -- The rules of qital. -- Qisas: the law of equal retaliation. -- Vicarious liability. -- Human shields (tatarrus). --TAKFIR. -- Establishing Disbelief. -- The foundations of takfir. -- The emergence of takfir as a tool for intra-Muslim violence. -- The postponers emerge. -- Praxis in Action. -- The roots of modern takfir. -- The tyrants (tawaghit). -- Criminals transgressors and oppressors (mujrimun and zalimun). -- Heretics (mushrikun and rawafid). -- AL-WALA' WA-L-BARA'. -- The Making of Love and Hate. -- Al-wala' wa-l-bara'. -- Understanding al-wala' wa-l-bara' and its linguistic dimensions. -- The emergence and development of al-wala' wa-l-bara' as a political concept in the first and second Saudi states. -- The development of al-wala' wa-l-bara' as a theoretical doctrine of dissent. -- Al-Wala' wa-l-Bara' as Social Empowerment Manifestations of al-wala' wa-l-bara' as a means of rebellion, separation and confrontation Akhaff al-dararayn as a means of derogation from the prohibition of isti'ana bi-l-kuffar. -- Resistance to akhaff al-dararayn and the rise of popular dissent. -- Contemporary Salafi-Jihadi interpretations of al-wala' wa-l-bara'. -- TAWHIID. -- Realising Monotheism Tawhid in Salafi thought. -- Tawhid al-uluhiyya: Islam as a living ideal. -- Political applications of tawhid. -- Holy War and the Essence of Monotheism. -- Jihad as the means of realising tawhid. -- HAKIMIYYA. -- The Dawn of Modern Political Islam. -- The birth of an idea: from reform to governance. -- The fear of secularism. -- Transposing Maududi's thought to the Arab world. -- Arab discourse on hakimiyya shifts from inclusive to aggressive: the fight against domestic tyranny. -- Hakimiyya as temporal empowerment. -- Securing God's Rights. -- The revival of hakimiyya discourse in Saudi Arabia. -- Intra-Salafi debates on obedience, jihad and islah. -- Tawhid al-hakimiyya as a Salafi-Jihadi neologism. -- Conclusion.