Fall 2019

Annex: Brief Introductions about: Islam, Sharia, Salafism, Islamism, Jihad, Islamic State (IS), Al Hayat Media Center, Rumiyah magazine

Islam
Dating back to the 7th century A.D., Islam is a monotheistic religion, whose “primary concerns include respect for human dignity, for the environment, for justice and equality” (Ramadan 2017, 117). Prophet Muhammad’s message revolved around: the principle of Tawhid, which means the absolute oneness of God (Ramadan 2017, 55), the Qur’an as the word of God, the imperative of prayer and good deeds, and the ultimate return to God on the Judgement Day (Ramadan 2017, 8). The Qur’an, the fundamental text of Islam containing revelations from God to the Prophet (Ramadan 2017, 4), instructs Muslims to follow the way of the Prophet and His Sunna (his teachings and acts) (Quraishi 2006, 69). Although the Qur’an is inscribed in a particular time and historical context guiding its followers to reform their conduct (Ramadan 2017, 40), its chapters and verses do not follow a chronological order; instead, they are arranged thematically (Ramadan 2017, 39, 44). Tariq Ramadan (2017), who is an Islamic reformist scholar, insists that it is crucial to take into account the historical place and sequence that give importance to the meaning of the verses pointing towards a particular objective; instead of simply absorbing the literal meanings (40). Therefore, Ramadan (2017) claims that a deep study of the overall messages of the verses is required, “so that the rules can be understood in the context of their Revelation” (Ramadan 2017, 40). This becomes problematic when the Qur’an is interpreted literally without historical contextualization leading to a reductive and deficient interpretation (Ramadan 2017, 47).

A documented record of Muhammad’s life was only compiled well after his death through the complicated endeavor of “sifting through fabricated stories and corroborating chains of narration” by way of creating a field of scholarship exclusively dedicated to the verification and preservation of Hadith, the textual records of the Prophet’s Sunna (Quraishi 2006, 69), and the second source of reference for Muslims, which have become key to understand and interpret certain passages of the Qur’an (Ramadan 2017, 45). Parallel to this, a community of Muslim scholars began to give legal advice to Muslim communities according to their own interpretation of the Hadith and the Sunna of the Prophet (Quraishi 2006, 69). Just as any religion having different branches, Islam also consists of three different branches: Sunni Islam, Shia Islam, and Kharijites (note: Henceforth, the remaining of this section will focus particularly on Sunni Islam). “Over time, the legal methods and conclusions of the most influential scholars evolved into distinct schools of thought” and became known as madhab, an Islamic law school each with different Islamic jurisprudence, or fiqh in Arabic, reflecting its each having their own interpretations of “text, tradition and reason in the search for God’s Law” (Quraishi 2006, 69-70) (Quraishi 2006, 69-70). Today, the major Sunni madhabs of fiqh are Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, and Hanbali.

From the perspective of Islam, “the prohibition of compulsion in religious matters is a fundamental Qur’anic principle: true faith is based on free will and free choice” allowing “to freely discuss matters of faith and religion to enable people as free, moral agents to make informed choices about such matters” (Hasan 2013, 7). This is declared in the Qur’anic verse, “Let there be no compulsion in religion” (2:256). Religious oppression is not authentic to Islam—“this has been noted by Islamic theologians and jurists over the centuries since the early days of Islam” (Hasan 2013, 11). In regards to other religious groups, as mentioned earlier, there are few misinterpreted scriptural texts referring to wartime situations by harsh medieval Islamic jurisprudence developed after the Prophet (Hasan 2013, 12). Although some verses claim that there is no guarantee of salvation to all other religious groups, nevertheless, these verses, such as 2:62 and 5:69, reiterate that it is for the Divine Judgement to manifest that in the afterlife, and so this suggests an “Islamic approach to peaceful coexistence amongst different religious groups” (Hasan 2013, 12-13). Moreover, many other Qur’anic verses such as 25:63 and 6:33-34 describe how the Prophet manifested teachings of the Qur’an about forbearance and forgiveness” (Hasan 2013, 18). It is highly critical to keep in mind that similar to any religion, “[f]orms of Islam can be found across the whole spectrum of religious attitudes (from liberal to fundamentalist)” (Roy 2013, 18).

Sharia
The sharia is the religious law that not only is a legislative system but also a comprehensive code of behavior that encompasses all aspects of life in a Muslim Society—both private and public activities of individuals (El Shamsy & Coulson 2019). It is based on the Qur'an and the Sunna of the Prophet Muhammad (Sfeir 2007, 322). According to Ramadan (2017) sharia has been reduced to a system of rules and practices often perverting the meaning of sharia and thus giving it a negative connotation (156), and has become one of the most misunderstood terms used today often related to “brutal and literalist application of a criminal code” with provisions that include cutting off hands and imposing corporal punishments (145-146). The understanding of sharia as a strict law has resulted in dangerous reductions appropriated by political and religious leaders, who diminished it to literalist application and transformed it into a resistance tool against colonialism to oppose to Western political regimes, their legal systems, and their values, and as a consequence (Ramadan 2017, 155). Today, for example, we can see groups such as the Islamic State claiming to apply the sharia by abusing, torturing, and executing individuals in horrible ways—totally contradicting the principles of Islam (Ramadan 2017, 155-156). In reading the Qur’an, ‘sharia’ “refers to the way of fidelity to the Source” associating it to Islam and with its philosophy: scholars specializing in law and jurisprudence defined sharia—the rules governing the creed, ritual practices, obligations, and prohibitions that were to be followed and applied to different time periods—and organized them into a coherent system of principles and laws of Islam; therefore, this version of sharia has a great human dimension to it, which became sacralized as “divine law” (Ramadan 2017, 148-150). Ramadan (2017) asserts that these human constructs “must be assessed, criticized, viewed selectively and sometimes renewed (150), and argues that reducing sharia to a body of rules and regulations denatures its spirit opening the door to literal interpretation rather than “a way of being with God and withe oneself; it is a way of acting, of respect for the rules and of promoting principles the better to attain the superior values of peace, justice, freedom and dignity” (153).

Salafism
The word Salaf literally means “ancestors,” which is most often understood to refer to the first three generations of Muslims (Wood 2017, 6), who exercised the pure form of Islam. Salafism is a branch of Sunni Islam whose followers claim to follow the way of the ‘pious predecessors” (Wagemakers 2016). The ideology of Salafism is concerned with emulating the image of the Salaf with a strong emphasis on: (1) the unity of the ummah (a fundamental concept in Islam that expresses the essential unity of Muslims from diverse cultural and geographical backgrounds to form a Muslim community), (2) Tawhid, (3) rejection of religious innovations (Baffa et al. 2019, 2), while adhering to the strict scriptural (Qur’an and Hadith) interpretation of Islam (Haykel 2014, 38-39). Salafis also consider that following legislative systems other than the sharia is a form of apostasy (Wagemakers 2016). Salafis consider the sharia as a personal handbook of precise norms that must direct an individual Muslim’s life under any circumstances, for instance, how to dress, eat, wash, and speak (Roy 2013, 15). Based on theological differences and engagement with politics and society, 3 branches of Salafis can be distinguished: quietist Salafis (away from political activism), political Salafis, and Jihadi-Salafis (Wagemakers 2016). I will not go in-depth into the characteristics of each one but it is important to note that the first 2 branches are nonviolent (Antunez Moreno 2017, 19). There are ideological inconsistencies within radical Salafi jihadism especially in parallel to the Salafi quietists, who focus on non-violence, piety, religiosity, morality and good conduct. Salafi-jihadism pursued by groups such as Islamic State is the political and religious ideology based on the belief of waging physical jihad (armed struggle) to impose Salafi ideology in society (Antunez Moreno 2017, 20; Baffa et al. 2019, 7-8). It is worthy to mention that Salafi-jihadi groups view and praise martyrdom as the ultimate way in which jihad can be waged (Antunez Moreno 2017, 20).

Islamism
After the events of 9/11, the term “islamism” gained popularity among politicians, journalists and the media (Mozaffari 2007, 18). But what does it mean? And where is it coming from?
“The Qur’an uses the terms Muslimûn [Muslims] along with Mu’minûn [Believers], never Islamiyyûn [Islamists], and theologians from the four Sunni madhabs use Muslimûn and Muslim, not Islamiyyûn” (Mozaffari 2007, 19).

Mehdi Mozaffari (2007), a professor of political science at Aarhus University, Denmark defines “Islamism” as “a religious ideology with a holistic interpretation of Islam whose final aim is the conquest of the world by all means” (21). He furthermore elaborates on the four interrelated elements that make up this definition:
(1) a religious ideology:
The concept of “Islamism” is a combination of “Islam”, the religion, and "ism” a suffix in formation of nouns, which according to Merriam-Webster denotes adherence to a particular doctrine and practices, thus, ideology (Mozaffari 2007, 21). Sternhell (2009) defines “ideology” as “sets of ideas by which humans explain and justify the ends and means of organized social action, with the aim of preserving or reconstructing a given reality” (329). Islamism is not Islam; islamism is a totalitarian ideology that islamists selectively pick elements in Islam, interpret and appropriate them however they want, and turn them into ideology as religious duties enforced on subordinates (Mozaffari 2007, 22). Although nazism, communism, and fascism did not have any religious beliefs linked to their ideologies, nevertheless, islamism is understood as an equivalent to these 3 totalitarian ideologies (Mozaffari 2007, 30); all three along with islamism could be said to be totalitarian political ideologies. (2) a holistic interpretation of Islam:
Islamists argue that their interpretation of Islam is the ‘true’ Islam, and that this ‘true’ Islam is holistic and should embrace all aspects of a Muslim’s life (Mozaffari 2007, 23).
(3) conquest of the world:
Islamists are persuaded that “the existing world is both wrong and repressive” because: (a) it does not correspond to Islamic principles, (b) non-Muslims occupy Muslim territories (e.g. Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya), and (c) Muslims live in repression under non-Islamic government (e.g. Iraq, Syria) (Mozaffari 2007, 23). To improve these conditions, the islamists put forward the idea to revive the Islamic caliphate—“the first step towards the ‘Islamisation’ of the world”—with a society as it was shaped by the Prophet Muhammad (Mozaffari 2007, 23). (4) by all means: “The Islamists’ spectrum of means to reach their objectives vary from dissemination, peaceful indoctrination, and waging physical jihad (Mozaffari 2007, 24). Maajid Nawaz (2016), founder and chairman of the anti-extremism think tank Quilliam, defines ‘jihadism as a violent subset of Islamism: "Islamism [is] the desire to impose any version of Islam over any society. Jihadism [as in: physical jihad] is the attempt to do so by force”.

Jihad
Jihad is an individual and social commitment to promote good means in daily life, and “an effort of resistance and reform” (Ramadan 2017, 157-158). Within Islamic texts, jihad takes form in two different struggles, “smaller jihad” and “greater jihad”, where the former is also called the “jihad of the sword” [or physical jihad] and it represents the violent struggle against non-Muslims, and the latter also called “spiritual jihad” represents the inner struggle to resist and to conquer immoral and evil behaviors (Al Raffie 2012, 17; Ramadan 2017, 159). The spiritual aspect of jihad is a commitment to peace and goodness (Ramadan 2017, 159). Ramadan (2017) claims there are also different kinds of jihad as an extension to spiritual jihad, such as intellectual, social, scientific, cultural, political, and economic jihad—to improve all these spheres (160-161). As to smaller jihad, according to the Sheikh Jaafar Idris, a leading Saudi cleric and lecturer on Islam, it is the effort to uphold and defend justice (as quoted in Handwerk 2003). He furthermore asserts that there are 2 kinds of violations of justice: “jihad with words against false beliefs, and jihad with the sword against acts of injustice” (as quoted in Handwerk 2003). Idris claims that this concept began when early Muslims were driven out of their land by enemies, and were ordered by God to fight those enemies; he asserts that they were not given permission to fight non-Muslims—only those who transgressed against them (as cited in Handwerk 2003). The “smaller jihad” or the “jihad of the sword” has received the most attention in the media due to extremist groups such as Islamic State, who have perverted the meaning of jihad and present it as a religious justification for violence (Al Raffie 2012, 17; Ramadan 2017, 164) by way of their own interpretation of the scriptures.
Note: Jihad is the Arabic word for “struggle”.

Islamic State (IS) (also known as ISIL, ISIS, and Daesh)
Founded in the 1990s by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Islamic State is a Salafi-jihadi militant organization that follows a fundamentalist Salafi-jihadist doctrine of Sunni Islam, and whose goal is to establish an Islamic caliphate governed by its literal interpretation of the Qur’an and sharia; and those who do not abide by its values is an enemy and is subjected to punishment. In June 2014, the group claimed itself a worldwide caliphate (BBC News 2015; Roggio 2014) . It is believed to operate in 18 countries including Mali, Egypt, Somali, Indonesia, Philippines, and Bangladesh (BBC News 2016). Jihadi groups reappropriate, reinterpret and distort elements of Islam in order to serve their own interests (El Difraoui 2013, 32).

Al Hayat Media Center
With “a teardrop-shaped” calligraphic Arabic script logo similar to that of Al-Jazeera, Al Hayat Media is the central media organization of IS that produces audios, videos, and PDF magazines in several languages including German, English and French, and specifically targets non-Arabic speakers, and specifically young audiences (Rose 2014). In general, the individuals behind Al Hayat Media Center are unknown; no named editor(s), or any contributor(s) of any sort including graphic designer(s), and photographer(s). Nevertheless, in Rumiyah issue 8 (2017), one of the articles discusses about Abu Sulayman Ash-Shami (died in 2017), who “completed his studies in Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, graduating as an engineer and programmer, before resolving to go forth in the cause of Allah with some of his friends” (41). Abu Sulayman joined the media organization with the strive to enhance it “by widening its activities and supporting its cadres of qualified scholars and technicians” (Rumiyah no. 8 2017, 42). He was working on organizing the foreign language team, which was started by Abu Muhammad al-Furqan (died in 2016), the head chief of Al Hayat Media Center (Reuters 2016), to inform Muslims in the east and west about Islamic State and to urge them to perform hijrah to it” (Rumiyah no. 8 2017, 42). Abu Sulayman along with others came up with the idea “to produce a magazine directed towards English speakers”, and this is how the idea of the Dabiq magazine came about with Abu Sulayman as its chief editor, who also wrote many articles in it and was involved in directing the team in matters of formatting and design (Rumiyah no. 8 2017, 43).

Rumiyah magazine
Rumiyah, published by al-Hayat Media Center (Winter 2015, 13), is a monthly magazine —available in 8 different languages—that informs non-Arabic speaking Muslims about Islamic State, conveys teachings of the group’s interpretation of Islam, stories, strategies, news, practical advice, and interviews with important representatives or supporters of IS (Basnett & Ghosh 2017, 3,16; Rumiyah no. 8 2017, 45; Bröckling et al. ), and finally it urges Muslims to perform hijrah (Rumiyah no. 8 2017, 42). Hijrah is a reference to the migration of Muhammad and his Companions from Mecca to Medina in order to escape prosecution in 622 C.E.. The IS claims that hijrah to the Islamic caliphate, a state governed by sharia, is an obligation on all Muslims and urges them to do so (see Dabiq no. 1 2014, 11; Rumiyah no. 1 2016, 8; Rumiyah no. 8 2017, 42). and refers to Qur’anic verses such as the fourth sura (chapter), An-Nisa 100, that states that hijrah is rewarded with forgiveness and Jannah (paradise), as long as the muhajir (an immigrant performing hijrah) truly dedicates himself to Allah and His cause (see Rumiyah no. 4 2016, 3). Moreover, Rumiyah’s goal is to expand IS’s reach by releasing one magazine in several languages, with each language’s issue being released at the same time (Rumiyah no. 8 2017, 45). It was first published in September 2016 as a successor to Dabiq, which was discontinued in July 2016 (Basnett & Ghosh 2017, 16). Rumiyah is disseminated via online social platforms such as Twitter (Grinnell et al. 2018). 



Bibliography

Antunez Moreno, J. C. (2017). Salafism: From a Religious Movement to a Political Force. Revista De Estudios En Seguridad Internacional, 3: 11–41. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.18847/1.5.2. Retrieved November 30, 2019, from here.

Baffa, R. C., Vest, N., Wing, Y. C., and Fanlo, A. (2019). Defining and Understanding the Next Generation of Salafi-Jihadis. Defining and Understanding the Next Generation of Salafi-Jihadis. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation. Retrieved November 30, 2019, from here.

Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC). (Last updated September 2019). Mapping Militant Organizations. "The Islamic State.” Stanford University. Retrieved November 30, 2019, from here.

El Shamsy, A., and Coulson, N.J. (2019, November 3). Shari’ah. Encyclopaedia Britannica. In Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. Retrieved December 8, 2019, from here.

Esposito, J. L. (Ed.). (n.d.). Ummah. In The Oxford Dictionary of Islam. Oxford Islamic Studies Online. Retrieved November 30, 2019, from here.

Handwerk, B. (2003, October 24). What Does "Jihad" Really Mean to Muslims? Retrieved December 8, 2019, from here.

Hasan, U. (2013). No Compulsion In Religion: Islam & The Freedom of Belief. Religious Reform Series 2. London: Quilliam. ISBN: 978-1-906603-98-4. Retrieved December 7, 2019, from here.

Haykel, B. (2009). On the Nature of Salafi thought and Action. In R. Meijer (Ed.), Global Salafism: Islam's New Religious Movement, 1st ed.:33–57. New York: Columbia University Press.

Ramadan, T. (2017). Islam: the Essentials. London: Pelican Books.

Quraishi, A. (2006). Interpreting the Qur'an and the Constitution: Similarities in the Use of Text, Tradition, and Reason in Islamic and American Jurisprudence. Cardozo Law Review, (28), 67-121. University of Wisconsin Legal Studies Research Paper No. 1036. Retrieved December 7, 2019, from here.

Roy, O. (2013). Secularism and Islam: The Theological Predicament. The International Spectator, 48(1), 5–19. doi: 10.1080/03932729.2013.759365. Retrieved December 6, 2019, from here.

Sfeir, A. (Ed.). (2007). The Columbia World Dictionary of Islamism. New York: Columbia University Press.

Wood, G. (2019). The way of the strangers: encounters with the Islamic State. New York: Random House.

Wagemakers, J. (2016, August 5). Salafism. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion. DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.255. Retrieved 8 Dec. 2019, from here.