The Complexity of Militant Literature
Despite the vast gap between the objectives of contemporary mainstream Muslim thought and those of their militant counterparts, both camps exhibit strong similarities in their juristic methodologies and tactics.
Much like mainstream thinkers widely discredited by opponents for their selective reliance on classical jurisprudence, Islamic militant jurisprudential production portrays similar selectivity. But before examining examples of militant thought, the term “Islamist militant” needs to be defined. In some contexts, the term “Islamist militancy” might be taken to include justification of resort to violence on Islamist bases. However, this book focuses on the actual resort to violence to achieve these objectives as a key criterion of militancy. Many non-violent Muslim (and non-Muslim) thinkers ideologically agree with resort to violence in some cases, especially to protect Muslim lands, which has often been the primary pretext for militant operations, until the recent rise of the “Islamic State” (isis), and sometimes even in its case. Thus, for the purpose of distinguishing between the two camps, violent militant action is used here as the defining factor for militancy.In addition to defining militancy, other challenges face any researcher attempting to examine modern militant jurisprudence, namely scope and authenticity. Militant groups are far from homogeneous, and their ideologies vary widely, with some committed to what has come to be known as global jihad, while others focus on the notion of the “closer enemy,” thereby dedicating their attention to what they refer to as secular infidel regimes governing the Muslim world. Within such camps, even within individual militant organizations, there are varying positions on the scope of takfir, targeting strategies, enslavement, and other issues. Any sample selected to represent these groups inevitably would be unrepresentative.
Moreover, the advent of the internet as a publishing tool has led to an explosion in militant literature.؛ For example, Minbar al-tawhld wa-l-jihad, al-Maqdisr militant website, which publishes1 Gilles Kepel, “General Introduction,” in Al-Qaeda in Its Own Words, ed. Gilles Kepel and Jean- Pierre Milelli, trans. Pascale Ghazaleh (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2008), 3.
works of Islamist militants, lists around two hundred authors.2 At the same time, the inaccessibility of some material further complicates the process, with the recent crackdown on many websites, blogs, and Twitter accounts belonging to militant organizations. True, this complexity has led scholars of Islamist movements to focus more on high-profile figures like 'Abdullah 'Azzam, Usama Bin Ladin, and al-Zawahirr and much work needs to be spent on examining other influential figures, like Nasir al-Fahd, referred to later in this chapter. Although this chapter reiterates the interest in prominent militant ideologues like Sayyid Imam, al-Zawahiri, and the young, recently killed Turkr al-Bin'ali, it does so because it attempts to offer a glimpse into the two most prominent/ infamous militant organizations of recent history, namely al-Qa'ida and ISIS. Another related obstacle is the continued crackdown on militant websites.4 However, as noted by Diaa' Rashwan, it seems that governments are keen to maintain some level of access to militant thought, as evidenced by their hesitant toleration of websites like Minbar al-tawhid.5 Since militant works are aimed at mobilizing sympathizers and recruiting new individuals, they provide a valuable insight into the thought of militant groups. Finally, the internet poses a strong challenge to attempts to contextualize works published via that medium: authenticity. It is true that publication of most militant works on the internet ensures relatively easy access to otherwise difficult-to-acquire and clandestine material, but it makes authorship a contentious issue, especially with such clandestine groups.6 But these challenges, while valid, should not prevent analysis of these works.
After all, the authenticity of works has always been a challenge when it comes to Islamic jurisprudential texts,7 and as long as the texts are widely perceived to have been authored by a particular person, then there is nothing to prevent them from being treated as such.8 In the case of works examined in this chapter, 'Abdul 'Aziz's post-revision works were published in a daily Egyptian newspaper, which proves his authorship. His2 Minbar al-tawhidwa al-jihad, online:, accessed 21 June 2011.
3 See e.g. Gilles Kepel and Jean-Pierre Milelli, eds., Al-Qaeda in Its Own Words, trans. Pascale Ghazaleh (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2008); Mary Habeck, Kno-Wing IheEnenQRjihadistIeologc; andthe Wc^r ^n Terror (New Haven, CT-.Yafe University Press, 2006); Osama Bin Laden, Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama Bin Laden, ed. Bruce Lawrence (New York: Verso, 2005).
4 Richard Bonney, jihad: From Qur’an to Bin Laden (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), 367.
5 DiSa' Rashwan, interview by author, 25 February 2008.
6 Kepel, “Introduction,” 5.
7 See e.g. Chapter 1 for controversy over al-Shaybani's works and Chapter 2 for similar controversy over Ibn Taymiyya's authorship of the treatise onjihad.
8 Kepel, “Introduction,” 5.
pre-revision works, as well as al-Zaw hirrs, are cited on Minbar al-tawhld, which is considered an authoritative collection of militant works. In the case of Turkr al-Bin'alr, the works of his relied on here are widely circulated under his name by militant circles on different publishing forums.
In its analysis of a!-Qa'ida, this chapter examines two of the most sophisticated activist and revisionist militant works, where “activist” means actively involved in militant work, and “revisionist” means seeking to limit the scope of jihad, as practised previously. These are best exemplified in the exchange between alZwahirr and a key figure said to have largely influenced his thought, Sayyid Imam Abdul Azrz. In the case of ISIS, the book focuses on Turkr al- Binals work on tawhld, loosely translated as “monotheism” but more accurately described in his case as the sole belief in Allah and his laws; the relationship between tawhld and the doctrine on takflr; in addition to the group's English newsletters: Dabiq and Rumiyah.
Whereas the extensivejurisprudential book titled MasaUlfi Fiqh al-Jihad and authored by Abu 'Abdullah al-Muhajir in 2004 has indeed left an influential imprint on isis's ideology, it is not examined in this book due to its more general outlook and due to its focus on targeting and combat techniques, which are issues examined extensively in the section on al-Qa'ida.
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