Salasm and comtemporary Islamic terrorism

ICSF Discussion Series: 3

Haseeb Mahmud
September 24, 2016
Heilbronn University

Outline

Dening terrorism
Salasm

Radicalization theories
Social movement theory

What is Salasm

Borums pathway theory

Key intellectuals
Ibn Taymiyyah (1263-1328)

Moghaddams staircase to
terrorism

Ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703-1792)

The NYPD model

Hasan al-Banna (1906-1949)

Sagemans prongs

Abul ala Maududi (1903-1979)

Radicalization theories: Key

points

Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966)

Key intellectuals at a glance

Key ideas summarized

Discussion: Case study

Bangladesh
1

Dening terrorism

Dening terrorism
There exist considerable debates in dening terrorism.
Terrorism can be dened under various framework, e.g. crime,
politics, war, violence, resurgence etc. To start discussing about
terrorism we need set under which framework we are going to
discuss the issue. Depending on which framework one chooses,
certain aspects of terrorism get exposed while others are placed
outside the picture if our denition of terrorism is limited.
[Schmid, 2004]
If researchers, local and international law enforcement
agencies, media dene terrorism in a limited way then the
outcome expected from the said groups will also be limited.
[Schmid et al., 1988] and [Weinberg et al., 2004] conducted two
surveys on the denition used by academics. Their results have
many similarities.
2

Challenges
of Conceptualizing Terrorism
Dening
terrorism

781

Table 1. Frequencies of definitional Elements of Terrorism

Element

Schmid & Jongman Survey Our survey

(1988)
(2002)
frequency (%)
frequency (%)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Violence, Force
83.5
71
Political
65
60
Fear, Terror emphasized
51
22
Threat
47
41
Psychological effects and
41.5
5.5
(anticipated) reactions
6. Victim-Target differentiation
37.5
25
7. Purposive, Planned, Systematic,
32
11
Organized action
8. Method of combat, strategy, tactic
30.5
31.5
9. Extranormality, in breach of
30
0
accepted rules, without
humanitarian constrains
10. Coercion, extortion, induction of
28
5.5
compliance
11. Publicity aspect
21.5
18
12. Arbitrariness, impersonal, random
21
0
character, indiscrimination
13. Civilians,
noncombatants,
neutrals,
17.5 [Weinberg et al.,
22 2004]
Figure
1: Keywords
frequency
counts. Source:
outsiders as victims
14. Intimidation
17
11

Dening terrorism
We can start with a working denition by European Unions
Framework Decision on Combating Terrorism of 2002, an
intentional act which may seriously damage a country or an
international organization, committed with the aim of seriously
intimidating population, unduly compelling a Government or an
international organization to perform or abstain from
performing any act, seriously destabilizing or destroying
fundamental political, constitutional, economic or social
structures by means of attacks upon a persons life, attacks
upon the physical integrity of a person, kidnapping,
hostage-taking, seizure of aircraft or ships, or the manufacture,
possession or transport of weapons or explosives.
We are going to conne our discussion on Salast terrorist
groups, i.e. ABT (AQ), JMB(ISIS), JIB(MB) etc.
4

Salasm

What is Salasm
The term sala is used to denote those who follow the example
of the companions (salaf ) of the Prophet Mohammed. Salas
believe that because the companions learned about Islam
directly from the Prophet, they commanded a pure
understanding of the faith. As a result, Muslims must purify the
religion by strictly following the Quran, the Sunna, and the
consensus of the companions. Every behavior must be
sanctioned by these religious sources.
The rst three generations are called salaf. The concept itself is
very broad and evolved into different groups throughout the
centuries. The modern version of Salasm is also referred as
Wahabism [Wiktorowicz, 2006] or Qutbism [McCants et al., 2006].
Not all salas are violent. However, they share similar
worldviews. [Wiktorowicz, 2006]
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Ibn Taymiyyah (1263-1328)

He is the most widely cited Sala intellectual

[Wiktorowicz, 2006].
He rejected ijma (consensus), which is one of the four building
blocks of Sharia law. He accepted literal wording of Quran,
Hadith, Qias (analogous reasoning).
He declared if a nation is not ruled by Sharia law then it is not a
Muslim nation.
He lived in Syria during the Mongol invasion. He declared jihad
against Mongols was not only allowed, it is mandatory.
[Ryan, 2013]
Those who use human laws are worshiping something other
than Allah and thus are apostates.

Ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703-1792)

Revives the teaching of Ibn Taymiyya.

Rejected medieval interpretation of Quran and Sunnah.
Critical of popular Islam.
According to Wahhab, it is only allowed to do basic religious
practices like salah, fasting.
Wahhab and Muhammad bin Saud formed an alliance to
establish the rst Saudi Emirate of Diriyah. This is the rst
Salast state.
There should be one God, one mosque and one leader i.e.
Caliphate. [Commins, 2009]
Clearly dened things that makes someone apostate.

Ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703-1792)

Wahhab made a list of voiders that makes somebody automatically
apostate. [Wiktorowicz, 2006]
Polytheism (associating others with God in worship)
Using mediators for God (for example, praying to Pirs)
Doubting that non-Muslims are disbelievers
Judging by non-Islamic laws and believing these are superior to
divine law
Hating anything the Prophet Mohammed practiced
Mocking Islam or the Prophet Mohammed
Using or supporting magic
Supporting or helping non-believers against Muslims
Believing that someone has the right to stop practicing Islam
Turning away from Islam by not studying or practicing it
8

Hasan al-Banna (1906-1949)

In 1929, Hasan al-Banna ofcially created the Muslim
Brotherhood as the rst anti-imperialist and anti-nationalist
group to take up arms in the Arab world. The MB advocated that
Egypt should become an Islamic state and rejected Western
imperialist countries and their values.
Religious purity, i.e. returning to the fundamental puritan path
of the salaf ; that Islam is both a religion and a system of
governance; and that all Muslims are part of one pan-Islamic
ummah. [Bar, 1998]
HaB dened the 4 degrees of party membership, namely,
Musaid (Assistant), Muntasib (Related), Amel (active) and
Mujahid (Struggler). MB also operated a militant wing called
Al-Nizam al-Khas mainly to assassinate government ofcials
and opposition of MB.
9

Abul ala Maududi (1903-1979)

Maududi introduced the concept of the modern jahiliyya in
1939.
In 1941 he founded Jamaat-e-Islami (JI)
He and his party helped inspire General Zia-ul-Haq to introduce
Sharization to Pakistan. [Bennett Jones, 2009]
He strongly the concept of nationalism, believing it to be shirk.
He conceptualized the modern Islami state. [Nasr, 1996]
He declared the contemporary society as jaheliyyah. Jaheliyyah
refers to the period of ignorance preceding the advent of Islam.
He argued that deviations of self-proclaimed Muslims, the
inuence of imperialist powers, and the use of non-Islamic laws
were akin to the pre-Islamic period and it is a duty to every true
Muslims to ght against it.
He preferred working under political system rather than
declaring offensive jihad.
10

Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966)

SQ wrote two inuential books: Fi Dhihal al Quran (In the Shade
of Quran) and Ma-alim Fi al-Tariq (Milestones). In the Shades of
Quran, he interpreted every chapter of Quran with a militant
twist. His second book Milestone is the central text of militant
Muslims among the current day jihadists.
SQ reiterated the idea of modern jahiliyya.
Secular laws and systems of governance are apostate laws and
the government should rule solely by Sharia law.
There is no room for ijtihad (learned interpretation of Quran).
Instead, he argued for taqlid (fundamentalist literal
interpretation) of Quran.
Jihad is not defensive, it is always offensive and it should be the
sixth pillar of Islam.
SQ advocated takr of secular Muslims and non-Muslims.
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Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966)

SQ called for violent jihad against Egyptian government. He

justied it by arguing that while the leader of Egypt were
overwhelmingly Muslim, they chose not to rule by Sharia and
rather by heretical secular laws rendered them apostates.
Other Muslims who refused to participate in the jihad is also
apostates and subject to takr. Originally, it was the idea of Ibn
Taymiyyah.
SQ borrowed most of his ideas and concepts from Moududis
writings [Ryan, 2013]. He borrowed the idea of modern jahiliyya
from Maududi. He also borrowed the concept of hakimiyyah,
which is the concerstone of declaring secular government as
takrs.

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Key intellectuals in Salasm

Figure 1.1

Figure 2: Key gures in Salasm. Source: [Ryan, 2013]

Timeline: Before Al-Qaeda

13

Key ideas summarized

Rejection of pluralism. Unity of thought.
The world is in a state of jahiliyyah and in a state of war
therefore the war conditions of Quran applies
The are regimes in the Muslim world that are apostates, corrupt
and pawns of American and Western cultural and economic
hegemony.
Islam should be deculturized and stripped of it accumulated
practices (innovation) and only the words of the Quran and
those of the salaf, as recorded in hadith, should dictate the
practice of Islam
Violence is justied in religious terms to achieve the above and
jihad, perceived as external mobilization and a permanent
obligation rather than internal spiritual struggle, is sometimes
seen as the sixth pillar of Islam.
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Radicalization theories

Radicalization theories

The conceptual framework of radicalization has changed during

the last couple of years. Previously, a terrorist or radicalized
person was conceived as individuals who were foreign born,
foreign trained and covertly entered in a Western country.
The current conception is that of second and third generation
immigrants, born in Western countries, who become radicalized
and plan terrorist act against their homeland or went abroad to
fulll their target.
After the London bombing, this concept of homegrown terrorists
have got ground in the academia. There exist several
radicalization theories. We are going to cover some of them
shortly in this presentation.

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Social movement theory

[Wiktorowicz, 2005] conducted an in-depth study of how people
came to join a militant Islamist group (Al-Muhajiroun) based in a
Western democracy (outside London, England).
Cognitive opening: It starts with a crisis. The crisis can be
instigated by events in any domain of a persons life, such as job
loss, experiences with discrimination or victimization.
Religious seeking: In this stage, the persons receptive is
directed towards religion. This religious seeking and
receptiveness renders the person likely to support extremists
cause.
Frame alignment: The person starts considering the extremists
world view as coinciding his/her own world view.
Socialization and joining: At his stage, the individual ofcially
joins the group embracing the ideology and adopts the group
identity.
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Borums pathway theory

Context its not right the individual judges his/her condition to
be undesirable.
Comparison its not fair, the individual compares his/her
condition to the more desirable conditions of others, and judges
this inequality as illegitimate and unjust. Some will blame a
specic other group for the illegitimate conditions of their own
group; this subset of people will have reached the third stage.
Attribution its your fault Once a group has been targeted as
responsible for the illegitimate situation, this group is vilied
and dehumanized.
Reaction: people generate negative stereotypes about the other
group, and apply these stereotypes to all group members.
Violence becomes legitimized as it is directed towards a
dehumanized enemy that is wholly responsible for all perceived
injustices. [Borum, 2003]
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Moghaddams staircase to terrorism

[Moghaddam, 2005] proposed six-stage (staircase in his words)

path to terrorism.
Ground oor: Psychological interpretation of material
conditions
First oor: Perceived options to ght unfair treatment.
Second oor: Displacement of anger
Third oor: Moral engagement
Fourth oor: Solidication of categorical thinking and the
perceived legitimacy of the terrorist organization.
Fifth oor: The terrorist act and sidestepping inhibitory
mechanisms.

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The NYPD model

The intelligence division of the New York Police Department (NYPD)
proposes a four-stage model of radicalization
[Silber and Bhatt, 2007].
pre-radicalization: Its the stage prior to the entry of
radicalization process. [Silber and Bhatt, 2007] mentioned
several common characteristics of people who have potentials
to be radicalized, e.g. young, male Muslims from middle class
backgrounds, living in male-dominated societies etc.
self-identication: The key driver at this stage is that the
individual turns to religion in response to their personal crisis.
indoctrinated into jihadi salast wordview: They become ok
with the violence against anything un-Islamic. Their religiosity
is politicized and they see West as the main evil force that
wages war against Islam.
jihadization: it happens when individuals declare themselves
to be holy warriors or mujahedeen.

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Sagemans prongs
[Sageman, 2008] suggests that radicalization emerges from the
interplay of four factors. Three of those are cognitive and another
one is situational factor.
sense of moral outrage: Its the result of perceiving events (e.g.
Iraq war) as moral violations.
framing of the surrounding world: The framing Islamist
terrorists are using is that the West is waging war against Islam.
resonance with personal experience: These are personal moral
violations, e.g. discrimination or unemployment. These three
cognitive factors can easily reinforce each other.
The interactions of like-minded people is crucial for
radicalization to occur. The situational factor, mobilization
through networks: involves validating and conrming
individuals idea and interpretations of events with other
radicalized individuals.
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Radicalization theories: Key points

There exists always a triggering event. It could be job loss,

mental crisis, war, someones war perceived as everyones war
etc.
Not everyone radicalized go for terrorist activities. But they
support what terrorists do.
Inspiration for radicalization may come from imagined reality.

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Discussion: Case study

Bangladesh

Discussion: Case study Bangladesh

Who are the Salasts in Bangladesh?

Can we t radicalization theories in Bangladesh context?
JIB

Hizbut Tahrir

ABT

Hefajot-e-Islam

JMB

Figure 3: Radical religious parties operating in Bangladesh.

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References I
Bar, S. (1998).
The Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan.
The Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies.
Bennett Jones, O. (2009).
Pakistan : eye of the storm.
Yale University Press.
Borum, R. (2003).
Understanding the terrorist mindset.
Technical report.
Commins, D. D. (2009).
The Wahhabi mission and Saudi Arabia.
I.B. Tauris, London, UK.
McCants, W., Brachman, J., and Felter, J. (2006).
Militant Ideology Atlas: Executive Report.
Technical report, Combating Terrorism Center, US Military Academy.

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References II
Moghaddam, F. M. (2005).
The staircase to terrorism: a psychological exploration.
The American psychologist, 60(2):1619.
Nasr, S. V. R. (1996).
Mawdudi and the making of Islamic revivalism.
Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford.
Ryan, M. W. S. (2013).
Decoding Al-Qaedas Strategy: The Deep Battle Against America.
Columbia University Press, New York.
Sageman, M. (2008).
A Strategy for Fighting International Islamist Terrorists.
The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,
618(1):223231.
Schmid, A. P. (2004).
Frameworks for conceptualizing terrorism.
Terrorism and Political Violence, 16(2):197221.

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References III
Schmid, A. P., Jongman, A. J., Stohl, M., Horowitz, I. L., and Harvard University.
Center for International Affairs. (1988).
Political terrorism : a new guide to actors and authors, data bases, and
literature.
Transaction Publishers.
Silber, M. D. and Bhatt, A. (2007).
Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat: The NYPD Jihadist Report.
Technical report, NYPD Intelligence Division, New York.
Weinberg, L., Pedahzur, A., and Hirsch-Hfer, S. (2004).
The Challenges of Conceptualizing Terrorism.
Terrorism and Political Violence, 16(4):777794.
Wiktorowicz, Q. (2005).
Radical Islam Rising: Muslim Extremism in the West.
Rowman and Littleeld, Oxford, UK.
Wiktorowicz, Q. (2006).
Anatomy of the Sala Movement.
Studies of Conict and Terrorism, 29:207239.

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