Islamic terrorism

Islamic terrorism, also called Islamic political violence, is a form of religious terrorism or religion-based political violence or militancy. It is carried out by fundamentalist militant Islamists and Islamic extremists who want to reach political or religious goals, such as jihad and caliphate.

Since at least the 1990s, Islamist terrorist attacks have happened in many parts of the world. They have harmed both Muslims and non-Muslims. Most attacks have happened in Muslim-majority countries, and many of the people harmed were Muslim.

The number of deaths from these attacks rose sharply in the early 2010s and then came down. From 1979 to 2024, five extremist groups were responsible for most of the victims of Islamist terrorist attacks. These groups were the Taliban, Islamic State, Boko Haram, al-Shabaab, and al-Qaeda. In some of the hardest-hit Muslim-majority regions, local armed groups have opposed these terrorists. Many important Islamic leaders and groups have also strongly condemned Islamist terrorism.

Extremist groups try to justify attacks on civilians by pointing to their own readings of the Quran, the hadith, and Sharia. Their reasons include revenge through armed jihad for wrongs they believe unbelievers have done to Muslims. They also believe that many people who call themselves Muslims have broken Islamic law and are disbelievers (takfir). Others want Islam to be restored by making Sharia the source of law, including by re-establishing the Caliphate as a pan-Islamic state, as ISIS has tried to do. Some believe that dying for the faith brings glory and rewards in heaven (istishhad, or martyrdom). Others believe in the supremacy of Islam over all other religions. Violence carried out without the proper declarations of takfir (excommunication) has been criticized.

The phrase "Islamic terrorism" is disputed. In Western political speech, some people who disagree with using the word "Islamic" have called it "counter-productive," "highly politicized, intellectually contestable," and "damaging to community relations." Some argue that "Islamic terrorism" is a misnomer and that the correct term is "Islamist terrorism." The tactics used include kidnapping, bombings, and other violent acts against people.

Terminology

George W. Bush and Tony Blair, who were leaders of the United States and the United Kingdom at the time of the September 11 attacks, often said that the fight against terrorism has nothing to do with Islam. Others who disagree with linking Islam and terrorism include Imran Khan, the prime minister of Pakistan, and academic Bruce Lawrence. In a 2016 town hall meeting, former US president Barack Obama explained why he used the word "terrorism" instead of "Islamic terrorism." He said that groups like Al-Qaeda or ISIL had twisted Islam to excuse harming people. He was careful not to blame the billion Muslims around the world for what these groups did.

Some people argue that "Islamic terrorism" is a misnomer and should be called "Islamist terrorism" instead. In January 2008, the US Department of Homeland Security Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties published a report called Terminology to Define the Terrorists: Recommendations from American Muslims. It said that words matter. Good terms should not give terrorists more religious importance or glamour than they deserve. The experts the office consulted agreed that the government should not describe terrorists as brave fighters, legitimate soldiers, or spokesmen for ordinary Muslims. They advised care with terms such as "jihadist," "Islamic terrorist," "Islamist," and "holy warrior."

History

A 2024 study by the Fondation pour l’innovation politique recorded many terrorist attacks around the world between 1979 and April 2024. Many people were harmed. Attacks rose sharply after 2013. Most of them happened in the Middle East and North Africa, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Experts do not agree on whether Islamic terrorism is a recent problem. Ibn Warraq says that violent groups have existed since the beginning of Islam, including the Kharijites of the 7th century. In the late 1960s, some Palestinian groups, such as Al Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, began to attack civilians. Many people see 1979 as a turning point. Events such as the Soviet–Afghan War and the Iranian Revolution helped spread Islamist terrorism in the following decade.

Between 1980 and 1995, according to Bruce Hoffman of the RAND Corporation, more terrorist groups were guided by religion. Between 2001 and 2019, a German newspaper, Welt am Sonntag, counted many Islamist terrorist attacks. According to the Global Terrorism Index, deaths from terrorism peaked in 2014 and then went down each year until 2019. Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Syria and Somalia were the five countries hardest hit by terrorism. All of them are Muslim countries.

Attacker profiles and motivations

Main article: Istishhad

Refutations, criticisms and explanations for decline

Many observers have pointed out mistakes in the arguments of Islamic terrorists. Princeton University Middle Eastern scholar Bernard Lewis says that although Osama bin Laden and other radical Islamists say they want to bring back shariah law, their attacks on ordinary people go against the rules of classical Islamic jurisprudence. Lewis notes that early scholars never taught that jihad meant harming ordinary people without reason. He says that for the September 11 attacks there is "no precedent and no authority in Islam." Timothy Winter says the statements of bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri "ignore 14 centuries of Muslim scholarship." Researcher Donald Holbrook says jihadists quote the start of a famous sword ayah but leave out the limits that come after it.

The learning of extremist thinkers is also questioned. Apart from Abul Ala Maududi and Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, few had trained at well-known centers of learning. Hassan al-Banna was a teacher and community activist, Sayyid Qutb was a literary critic, and Mohammed Abdul-Salam Farag was an electrician. Michael Sells and Jane I. Smith write that most Muslims today do not read Qur'anic verses as calls to war, apart from groups like al-Qaeda. Reza Aslan, an Iranian-American academic, writes in No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam that Islam is in an inner struggle between individualistic reform ideas and the traditional authority of Muslim clerics. He compares this to the reformation in Christianity in the 1500s.

Many Salafi-Jihadi groups practice takfir. This means they declare that some people who call themselves Muslims, especially government officials and security workers, are apostates who deserve death. Even so, most people harmed by Islamic terrorist attacks are Muslims. The more learned the thinkers, the less likely they were to use takfir. Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, a scholar who avoided takfir, preached unity in the ummah. By contrast, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Djamel Zitouni, leader of the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria (GIA), had much broader definitions of apostasy and less religious knowledge. Their attacks harmed many Algerian civilians.

Some efforts to help extremists leave violence behind have worked.

Main article: Deradicalization

Egypt's largest radical group, al-Jama'a al-Islamiyya, agreed to give up violence in 2003 in a deal with the Egyptian government. Another group, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, made a similar agreement in 2007.

Muslim attitudes toward terrorism

Main article: Muslim attitudes towards terrorism

Muslims have different views about attacks on civilians by Islamist groups. Fred Halliday, an Irish academic who studies the Middle East, says that most Muslims see these acts as serious violations of Islam's laws. Muslims living in the West condemn the attacks of 11 September against the United States. Hezbollah says its rocket attacks on Israeli targets are defensive jihad carried out by a legitimate resistance movement, not terrorism. Hannah Stuart notes that modern religious leaders strongly disagree about when suicide attacks might be allowed. Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a theologian based in Qatar, criticized the 9/11 attacks, but he had earlier supported some suicide bombings. Stuart found that many modern Islamic leaders have made rulings that allow suicide attacks, and she points out that these rulings go against Islamic jurisprudence as it was traditionally taught.

Many Muslim leaders have spoken out against terrorism. Charles Kurzman and other authors have gathered statements from well-known Muslims and groups that condemn it. In 2014, more than 120 well-known Muslim scholars wrote an open letter to ISIS. They criticized the group for "numerous religious transgressions and abominable crimes." Huston Smith, an author who studies world religions, argued that extremists have taken over Islam, just as has happened to Hinduism and other religions in history. Ali Gomaa, a former Grand Mufti of Egypt, said that "Terrorism cannot be born of religion." A 600-page legal opinion by Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri called suicide bombings and other terrorism kufr, meaning unbelief. In 2013, 50 scholars in Lahore issued a religious ruling against suicide bombings and the killing of innocent people. Iranian Ayatollah Ozma Seyyed Yousef Sanei has also spoken against suicide attacks. Religious leaders from Jamaat Ahl-e-Sunnah, part of the Barelvi movement in Pakistan, have called them un-Islamic.

Tactics

Main article: Tactics of terrorism

Islamic terrorist groups use several tactics. Hezbollah was the first group in the Middle East to use suicide bombings, and this tactic has become more common. It is used against civilians, soldiers, and government officials of the regimes the terrorists oppose. A recent religious ruling says that terrorism and suicide bombing are forbidden by Islam. Some groups have also taken over passenger vehicles. The most famous were the "9/11" attacks in 2001, which killed many people in one day and helped bring an end to the time of aircraft hijacking. Terrorists have also carried out many well-known kidnappings and executions, and they often shared videos of these acts to spread their message.

In the 1980s, a series of abductions of American citizens by Hezbollah during the Lebanese Civil War led to the 1986 Iran–Contra affair. During the chaos of the Iraq War, many kidnappings of foreign hostages took place. Most of the victims, though, were Iraqis. In 2007, the kidnapping of Alan Johnston by the Army of Islam led the British government to meet a Hamas member for the first time.

Islamist militants, including Boko Haram, Hamas, al-Qaeda and ISIS, have used kidnapping to raise money, to bargain for political changes, and to scare their opponents. In September 2014, in the Philippines, the militant group Abu Sayyaf kidnapped two German citizens. They threatened to hurt them unless the German government stopped supporting the fight against ISIS and paid a large ransom. A 2014 investigation by journalist Rukmini Maria Callimachi, found that between 2008 and 2014, al-Qaeda and its affiliates earned a very large amount of money from kidnapping. Hamas also used kidnapping to gain an advantage when it captured the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006. Israel released many prisoners in exchange for his release. At the start of the 21st century, a worldwide network of many websites appeared that aimed to recruit young Muslims through the Terrorism and social media route. These sites encouraged them to join jihad against the United States and other Western countries.

Examples of organizations

Main article: List of Islamist terrorist attacks

Further information: List of designated terrorist groups

Some Islamist terrorist groups have been active in Africa. In East Africa, Al-Shabaab has been involved in many conflicts, especially in Somalia and Kenya. In North and West Africa, attacks linked to Boko Haram have caused serious problems in Nigeria and nearby countries. Countries such as Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco have also been hurt by attacks linked to wider extremist groups. These attacks have caused great harm and displacement across the region. Ordinary people were often the ones who were harmed.

In Asia, Taliban and Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin forces have attacked civilians in Afghanistan. Two brothers with Kyrgyz-American roots were responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing. Uzbekistan saw several attacks, including the 1999 Tashkent bombings, which targeted President Karimov. In India, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed are linked to many attacks. Pakistan and Sri Lanka have also faced Islamist attacks. The Abu Sayyaf Group in the Philippines carried on a long conflict until 2024.

In the Middle East, Islamist militants in Turkey mainly have Kurdish roots. Groups such as Turkish Hizbullah and İBDA-C oppose Turkish secularism. Iraq has also had terrorist activity, especially during the US-led Iraq War. In Palestine and Israeli territories, groups such as Hamas and the Islamic Jihad Movement have carried out many attacks against Israel. Fatah al-Islam is active in Lebanon, aiming to set up Islamic law in Palestinian refugee camps.

Europe has faced serious Islamist terrorist attacks, including the 2004 Madrid bombings, the 2005 London bombings, and the 2015 Paris attacks. These attacks hurt many people. A report found that jihadist terrorism was behind most terrorism-related deaths in Europe from 2001 to 2014. Countries like Belgium, Netherlands, France, and Germany have faced several attacks. Belgium was an important place for planning attacks, including the 2015 Paris attacks. In Norway, two men were sentenced in 2012 under anti-terror laws for plotting against cartoonist Kurt Westergaard. Russia has faced attacks with political and religious motives, especially in Chechnya. These included the 2002 Moscow theater crisis and the 2004 Beslan school hostage crises, which were linked to groups like the Caucasus Emirate.

In the Americas, the United States was struck by the 9/11 attacks, which started the war on terror. Australia and New Zealand have also had notable attacks, such as the Lindt Café siege and the Auckland supermarket stabbing.

Main article: Al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda says its goal is to use jihad to defend Islam against Zionism, Christianity, the secular West, and Muslim governments such as Saudi Arabia. It sees these governments as not Islamic enough and too closely tied to the United States.