reading

Acknowledgements

The study of Salafism as an idea, movement and religious doctrine in the English speaking world was done a great service by the edited collection of essays put together by Roel Meijer in Global Salafism. Over the last five years this work has inspired a cluster of academic and scholarly works exploring the idea even further. Important texts on some of modern Salafism’s intellectual forbears such as Ibn Taymiyya and ‘Abd al-Wahhab have since emerged but, as Meijer himself notes, there remains a lack of studies specifically focusing on Salafi-Jihadi thought. This is curious given the not unsubstantial body of primary source material that is in circulation from leading theorists of the movement.

For a moment it seemed as if militant Salafism might have been in decline with the United States killing both Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki. At the same time ostensibly peaceful uprisings gathered momentum across North Africa, particularly in Tunisia and Egypt. Bashar al-Assad changed all that, with his brutal repression galvanising global support for militant millenarian movements.

My research into the contours of Salafi thought began in late 2010, several months before the Syrian crisis began. Throughout this time I have been based in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, where I am a Senior Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR). My sincerest thanks must first go to the Chairman, Henry Sweetbaum, and the trustees: Sir David Sieff, Jonathan Sacher CBE, the Rt. Hon. Kim Campbell and H.E. Omar Saif Ghobash for the tremendous opportunity they have extended me. King’s College London has also supported me immensely. For this, I must thank Sir Lawrence Freedman, Theo Farrell, Joe Maiolo and Michael Rainsborough, who have consistently offered invaluable advice.

This book is essentially my PhD thesis and I am therefore extremely grateful to my supervisor, mentor and friend, Peter Neumann, who oversaw the whole thing. He waited with varying degrees of patience and frustration as I kept telling him “just one more chapter to go, then it’s done,” when, in truth, there were probably three or four left to write at the time. He has helped me refine many of my ideas, reorganised lots of the material presented here, and ultimately trusted me to conduct my own research. He has also been my boss at ICSR throughout this time, which has been a fantastic base from which to work on issues relating to militant Salafism. I am grateful to him for all of it.

I have been lucky enough to work with many friends during this time, particularly John Bew, Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens and Martyn Frampton. On my day-to-day activities I was supported by the best team of Syria analysts anywhere in the world, colleagues who enlightened the study of an otherwise dour subject matter. I am indebted to Joseph Carter, Melanie Smith (“Millie”), Audrey Alexander and Nick Kaderbhai—the dream team. I must also thank my other ICSR colleagues Aaron Zelin, Scott Kleinmann, Christina Mitsiali and Katie Rothman. Antoine Barthe provided accommodation and generous hospitality when I collected research materials in the United States.

I have benefitted from numerous exchanges over the years with distinguished and brilliant scholars whose opinions, insights and generosity have helped shape my views. I thank Gilles Kepel, William McCants, Thomas Hegghammer, Joas Wagemakers, Brynjar Lia, Lorenzo Vidino, Mark Stout, Gary Ackerman, Magnus Ranstorp and Sayed Khatab. For their detailed and considered comments on this manuscript, I am grateful to David Martin Jones and Edwin Bakker. The two anonymous peer-reviewers who checked my work prior to publication provided me a great service with their forensic feedback. They saved me from a number of embarrassing howlers, for which I thank them. Mitchell Reiss also gave me an opportunity to work on this project while I was a visiting lecturer at Washington College. I thank him and the students for a most enjoyable experience.

Special mention must be given to Thom Dyke, one of my oldest friends, who agreed to be my guinea pig. As an intelligent non-specialist I hoped he would be able to follow and enjoy the content of this book. He generously sacrificed several weekends to meticulously check the manuscript, commenting on style, language and structure. I am hugely grateful to him. Samar Batrawi slapped my wrists when I made basic errors with Arabic texts and was always ready to answer rudimentary questions on Arabic grammar and prose (and much else besides)—a walking, talking version of Hans Wehr. Dave “L-Squad” McAvoy was also extremely helpful in this regard, always insightful, always funny. Aymenn Jawad Ali al-Tamimi is a polyglot and never refuses an opportunity to discuss all things jihad. Thank you.

For their friendship and support while I wrote this book I would also like to thank Marcus and Lucy Appleton, Pete and Alex Johnson, Dan and Joey Segelman, Ben and Kate Scott, Alex Glenister, John Kenyon, Dominic Chastney, David Toube, Duncan Gardham and Laura Kramer.

My publisher, Michael Dwyer, has been a pleasure to work with throughout this process as have his team at Hurst. My agent, Rachel Conway, expertly walked me through the process of getting the first book out and only sent me harassing emails when absolutely necessary.

Much of the research in this book was funded by a generous grant from the Gerda Henkel Stiftung. I’m very grateful to them for backing my research.

My greatest debt is to my family: my parents, Ehsan and Rubina; my sister, Madiha; and Ayisha. They have sacrificed and endured much to get me where I am today, and I hope this book goes some way towards repaying that debt. Finally, this book is dedicated to my wonderful, brilliant daughter, Maryam.

Note on Transliteration

I have transliterated Arabic terms in this book using the conventions of the International Journal of Middle East Studies (IJMES) with diacritic markings. There are, however, some exceptions to this. IJMES rules state that “words found in Merriam–Webster’s should be spelled as they appear there and not treated as technical terms. They should have no diacritics, nor should they be italicised.” This applies to terms such as jihad, mujahideen and shaykh (and many others). There are some exceptions to this which preserve ‘ayn and hamza, in words such as: Qur’an, shari‘a, ‘ulama’, and Ka‘ba. All of them appear in this book and consequently conform to this rule. A full list of such terms is available online in the ‘IJMES Word List,’ which I have also used throughout my text.

As the convention dictates, there are no diacritic markings for personal names, place names, names of political parties and organisations. Where an author has published works in English, I have respected their choice of how their name is rendered (e.g. Abdul instead of ‘Abd al-). The same applies for renderings of common Arabic words that appear in book or journal titles. For example, the notes show shariah, sharia and shari‘a; or umma and ummah. Finally, I have partially derogated from the IJMES convention on transliteration regarding Arabic names. Names of Salafi scholars, Islamic clerics, and those otherwise having prominence within that milieu are transliterated according to the IJMES system (e.g. ‘Abd al-‘Aziz) although those who would be known to the general reader and have widely accepted English spellings of their names (e.g. Osama bin Laden, Gamal Abdel Nasser) are given those terms for ease of reference and familiarity. The only other derogation in this regard relates to al-Qaeda, for which I have used this common rendering. The ‘IJMES Word List’ recommends that it be presented as al-Qa‘ida, although this is too removed from what would be familiar to the general reader. Finally, the plurals of some Arabic terms, such as aḥadīth, have been simplified with English plurals to make it easier for general readers (e.g. ḥadīths).

Although I have worked with a broad range of Arabic texts in this book, none of the translations are my own. I have therefore noted the English translations I consulted (many of which were often read in parallel or in conjunction with the identical Arabic text). Solitary Arabic texts I consulted are noted accordingly and where translations appear, the relevant translator is acknowledged in the notes. Urdu texts, where they appear, are my own translations unless alternative translations were available (again, these are acknowledged and noted accordingly).

Glossary

Amīr	Denotes a leader or ruler or someone in authority. It can also can have suffixes such as Amīr al-Mu‘minīn—“leader of the faithful.”
‘Aqīda	Doctrinal creed, referring to the essential and core components of the Islamic belief system.
Bid‘a	Heretical or deviant innovation. Taken to mean a prohibited and sinful religious innovation.
Fatwa	Non-binding juristic opinion.
Fiqh	Islamic jurisprudence, of which there are numerous types. Therefore the term “fiqh” is often accompanied by a suffix such as fiqh al-muwāzanāt, the jurisprudence of balances (weighing up the relative benefits and harms of a particular action).
Ḥadīth	Collections of teachings, sayings, actions, and traditions attributed to the Prophet Muhammad. The ḥadīth are collected in volumes, of which the most famous collections are: Bukhari, Muslim, Daud, and Tirmidhi.
Ḥākimiyya	The rule of Allah; securing God’s sovereignty in the political system.
Ḥalāl	Permissible.
Ḥarām	Forbidden.
Ḥukm (plural, aḥkām)	Islamic rulings derived from jurisprudence (fiqh).
Ijmā‘ al-Ṣahāba	Consensus of the Prophet’s companions. Regarded as a source of law in several normative schools of Islamic jurisprudence.
Ijtihād	Independent juristic reasoning by a competent scholar who uses scriptural sources to deduce a legal ruling.
Īmān	Belief in Islam, typically tied to the acceptance of six core articles of faith: God, prophets, angels, divine books, the day of judgement, and predestination.
Iṣlāḥ	Reform, to improve.
Jihad	Literally and linguistically means to struggle or exert effort, although it has a legal meaning which relates to combat and fighting.
Khawf	Literally means to be fearful or scared, but in the religious context refers to fearing Allah alone. None of creation is to be feared.
Madhhab (pl. madhāhib)	Refers to a school of jurisprudential thought of which there are four in normative Sunni Islam. These are the Hanafi, Shafi‘i, Hanbali, and Maliki schools.
Mafhūm al-mukhālafa	Jurisprudential principle meaning “the understanding of the opposite.” Applied in situations where scholars believe the opposite of a positive command can be taken as law.
Manhaj	The methodology employed to achieve a particular ideal or virtue.
Mushrik (pl. mushrikūn)	Polytheist.
Muwaḥḥid	A true believer in the oneness of God; someone who accepts tawḥīd; a monotheist.
Naṣīḥa	Morally corrective advice promoting reform.
Naskh	The Islamic principle of abrogation where some earlier verses of the Qur’an are deemed to have been abrogated by later ones.
al-Qaḍā’ wa-l-qadr	Divine will and predestination, one of the six articles of īmān.
Qiṣāṣ	The principle of equal retaliation, retaliation in kind, or lex talionis. Part of Islamic criminal jurisprudence allowing the victim to seek retribution in kind against the perpetrator of a particular crime.
Rāfiḍī (pl. rawāfiḍ)	Literally means “rejecter” or “splitter” and is used as a pejorative term by some Sunni Muslims—particularly Salafis—to refer to Shi‘a who reject the first three companions of the Prophet Muhammad who succeeded him in leading the Caliphate: Abu Bakr, Umar ibn al-Khattab, and Uthman ibn Affan.
Ṣahāba	Companions of the Prophet Muhammad.
Ṣaḥwa	Literally means “awakening,” and refers to a number of different revivalist movements in the Gulf, Levant and North Africa.
al-Salaf al-ṣāliḥ	The “pious predecessors” of the Prophet Muhammad. This refers to the first three generations that surrounded the Prophet Muhammad.
Shari‘a	The Islamic legal system derived from the Qur’an, sunna and supplementary sources of jurisprudence such as ijmā‘ al-Ṣahāba.
Shirk	Denying the unitary oneness of God; engaging in polytheism or denying God altogether. Considered to be the worst of sins.
Sunna	The teachings, sayings, actions, experiences and omissions of the Prophet Muhammad. This constitutes a source of law alongside the Qur’an. The sunna are recorded in the ḥadīth.
Tābi‘īn	The generation which followed the Ṣahāba, and one of the generations which forms the al-salaf al-ṣāliḥ.
Tābi‘ tābi‘īn	The generation which followed the tābi‘īn, and the last of the generations which forms the al-salaf al-ṣāliḥ.
Ṭā’ifa al-manṣūra	The victorious group. A reference to normative Muslim belief that Islam will divide into a number of sects, of which only one will ascend to heaven.
Takfīr	Excommunication of other Muslims, banishing them from the faith.
al-Taṣfīya wa-l-tarbīya	Purification and education, a quietist Salafi method which aims to perfect personal discovery of the ‘aqīda.
Tatarrus	Military doctrine relating to the status, rights, and use of human shields.
Tawakkul	Having absolute faith and reliance on Allah alone.
Tawḥīd	The unitary oneness of God; the core component of Islam and the single most important factor in Salafism.
‘Ulama’ (s. ‘ālim)	Religious scholars or clerical authorities.
Uṣūl	Refers to the various sources of jurisprudence.
al-walā’ wa-l-barā’	To love and hate for the sake of Allah; loyalty and disavowal.

PENGUIN BOOKS

SALAFI-JIHADISM

Shiraz Maher

SALAFI-JIHADISM

The History of an Idea

PENGUIN BOOKS

Acknowledgements

Note on Transliteration

Glossary

INTRODUCTION