Islam and Colonialism: The Doctrine of Jihad in Modern
History (The Hague: Mouton, 1979); Rudolph Peters,
Jihad in Classical and Modern Islam (Princeton, N.J.:
Markus Weiner Publishers, 1996).
jihad movements
Jihad is one of the most contested terms in Islam.
The term’s basic Arabic meaning yields words
generally meaning striving or struggle, whether
in the more general sense of striving for correct
practice or, more particularly, striving for inter-
pretive clarity in reading the qUran and hadith.
Jihad, however, has been widely understood, by
both Muslims and non-Muslims, as religiously
sanctioned warfare. The Islamic legal schools
formalized jihad doctrines of warfare in the wake
of the early conquests, based on statements in
the Quran and hadith. Radical Islamist move-
ments active in modern times have given the
term renewed significance, often significantly
changing traditional understandings formulated
in the premodern Islamic legal traditions. Claim-
ing to act in the name of Islam, these movements
have strived to fight what they see as imperialist
anti-Muslim agents and apostates, both at home
and abroad.
Jihad movements appeared in a number of
different Muslim societies in the 18th and 19th
centuries, coinciding with the onset of the second
millennium of the Islamic calendar. Some were
Mahdist in nature, following the lead of self-
proclaimed mahdis (Islamic messianic leaders)
and the onset of a new age. Promoting Islamic
revival and reform, these movements established
Islamic states in West Africa. The movement
of the Sudanese Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad (d.
1885) opposed European imperialism, a trend
that a number of jihad movements followed in
North Africa, the Caucasus region, india, Suma-
tra, and Java. The Wahhabi movement in Arabia
attacked what its leaders considered un-Islamic
practices and created the Saudi state using a
jihadist ideology and tribal warriors. After World
War II, as Muslim lands became decolonized,
jihad movements and militias arose in opposi-
tion to Israeli occupation of the West Bank and
Gaza territories. They also appeared in lebanon
in response to israel’s occupation of the country
in 1982. Egyptian president anWar al-sadat (d.
1981) was assassinated by the Jihad Group, which
considered him to be an un-Islamic leader because
of his pro-Western policies, despotism, and peace
agreement with Israel. The Soviet occupation of
aFghanistan between 1979 and 1989 gave birth to
an array of anti-Soviet militias that included jihad
groups composed of Afghan and foreign guer-
rilla fighters supported by the United states and
saUdi arabia. These included a loosely organized
group of Arab fighters led by Usama bin ladin and
Ayman al-Zawahiri that came to be known as al-
qaida (The Base). The success of the jihadist mili-
tias against the Soviet army inspired bin Ladin’s
group to engage in other militant activities. It also
gave new motivation to jihad movements in other
Muslim lands.
Following the events of September 11, 2001,
many Muslims have actively sought to distance
themselves—and Islam in general—from jihad-
ist interpretations of Islam. Nonetheless, move-
ments such as the Jamaa al-Islamiyya (Islamic
Group) in egypt and al-Qaida have made their
mark, creating an association of Islam with
violence that has proved difficult to break. It is
important to note, however, that there are Mus-
lim movements that carry out “jihadist” work in
the name of Islam that is explicitly nonpolitical
and nonviolent. The tablighi Jamaat, which
began in India in the early 20th century and has
spread throughout the world, is one such move-
ment. Jihad in this context has come to mean the
struggle to keep Muslims within the Islamic fold
in the face of Western-style modernity and secU-
larism, a task accomplished through personal
piety and proselytizing.
See also abd al-rahman, Umar; aFghan
mUJahidin; Faraizi movement; barelWi, sayyid
ahmad; hamas; hizbUllah; reneWal and reFormjihad movements 399 J