Visionamme on tuottaa oikeaa tietoa terveyden uhkatekijöistä. Suurimpana ongelmana länsimaissa on jatkuva, yksipuolisesti liian hapan ruokavalio, jota elimistö ei kykene riittävästi puskuroimaan, vaan koko aineenvaihdunta -järjestelmä joutuu tekemään työtä happamuutta vastaan. Lopulta elimistö alkaa tulehtua ja saavuttaa potilaan huomaamatta, jatkuvan tulehduksellisen tilan.
keskiviikko 16. lokakuuta 2019
Isis on piilottanut satoja taistelijoita länsimaihin
Islamic terrorism
Profiles of terrorists
Religious motivation
Interpretations of the Qur'an and Hadith
Ideology
Muslim attitudes toward terrorism
View of Islamic law
Kidnappings and executions
Kidnapping women for sex
Internet recruiting
Israel and the Palestinian territories
Selected attacks
Isis on piilottanut satoja taistelijoita länsimaihin
Terrori Euroopassa kiihtyy, kun Isisiä häädetään Lähi-idässä.
Isis-terroristi tunnistettiin sormenpäistä. Ne säilyivät sen verran ehjinä, että Pariisin murhaiskujen pääsuunnittelijaksi nimetty belgialainen Abdelhamid Abaaoud, 27, voitiin todeta kuolleeksi.
Abaaoudin ruumin palaset löydettiin Rue de Corbillonin kolmannen kerroksen huoneistosta Pariisin Saint-Denisin kaupunginosasta 18. marraskuuta.
Kun häntä jäljittäneet toistasataa poliisia ja sotilasta lopulta tunkeutuivat asuntoon seitsemän tunnin piirityksen jälkeen, kahden miehen ja yhden naisen ruumiit olivat murskana betonin seassa.
Koko talo vaappui sortumaisillaan yli 5 000 käsiaseen laukauksen, kranaattien ja pommivyön räjähdysten jälkeen. Yhtä kiivasta tulitaistelua Ranskan pääkaupungissa ei ole käyty sen jälkeen, kun natsi-Saksan miehitysjoukot häädettiin sieltä elokuussa 1944.
Marraskuun 13. päivän Pariisin iskujen jälkeen varotoimet, hälytystilat ja niiden ruokkima hysteria sekä muukalaisviha ovat takertuneet Eurooppaan sitkeän liiman lailla. Terroritekojen pelossa yleisötapahtumia on kielletty, lentokenttiä suljettu ja lentoja peruttu.
Se on Isisin tarkoitus. Järjestö toivoo, että Pariisin iskut lietsovat sekasortoa ja vastakkainasettelua sekä kostoiskujen sarjan Euroopan muslimeja kohtaan.
Pariisin iskujen toteuttajat olivat osa Isisin iskujoukkoa, jota järjestö rakentaa ja ruokkii tukialueiltaan. He toteuttavat uutta strategiaa siirtää verenvuodatus Syyriasta ja Irakista ”ristiretkeläisten ja uskottomien maille”.
Isis vihaa kaikkia muita kuin äärivanhoillisia jyrkän linjan sunnimuslimeja.
Terrorijärjestön uusi tapa käydä sotaa on eurooppalaisesta näkökulmasta pelottavampi kuin kaikki paha, mitä Isis on saanut aikaan Lähi-idässä. EU-maiden poliisiviranomaisten yhteiselintä Europolia johtavan Rob Wainwrightinmukaan kyseessä on pahin terroristiuhka Euroopassa vuosikymmeneen.
Isis on kuukauden sisällä surmannut joukoittain siviilejä kaukana tukialueiltaan: Ankarassa, Beirutissa ja Siinailla, jossa se räjäytti venäläisen matkustajakoneen. Pariisin uhrit mukaan lukien iskuissa on kuollut yli 500 ja loukkaantunut yli 1 000 ihmistä.
Kansainväliset ponnistelut Isisiä vastaan ovat Pariisin iskujen jälkeen kiihtyneet. Niillä on pyritty rajaamaan järjestön sotilaallista kykyä Syyriassa ja Irakissa ja häätämään sitä valtaamiltaan alueilta.
Viimeistään nyt yhtä tärkeiksi kohteiksi nousevat Isisin Eurooppaan ja muuallekin rakentamat niin sanotut viides kolonna -ryhmät, jotka toimivat salaa valtion sisällä vihollisen hyväksi.
Isis-johtaja Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi määritti pari vuotta sitten tavoitteen, että länsimaat, joita ei kyetä valtamaan sotilaallisesti, on vallattava sisältä päin.
Viime aikoina Isis on neuvonut uusia länsimaisia uskonsotureita, jihadisteja, taistelemaan kotimaissaan ja vanhoja taistelijoitaan soluttautumaan niihin takaisin.
Irakin tiedustelupalvelu on vahvistanut ranskalaisviranomaisille, että Pariisin iskut suunniteltiin ja tekijöitä koulutettiin Isisin ”pääkaupungissa” Raqqassa Syyriassa. Pariisissa heitä auttoi maanalainen solu; irakilaislähteiden mukaan iskuun osallistui yhteensä 19 hyökkäjää ja viisi avustajaa.
Lännessä ei yleensä luoteta Irakin tiedustelupalveluun, jonne Isis on soluttautunut. Irakilaiset jakavat tietojaan myös Venäjän, Iranin ja Syyrian hallituksille. Soluttautumisesta on kuitenkin saatu lisätietoa läntisiltä tiedusteluelimiltä.
Lisäksi Abu Khaled -salanimellä esiintyvä Isis-loikkari väittää kouluttaneensa Syyriassa terroristeja toimimaan ”vihollisten linjojen takana”.
Khaledin mukaan Isis luo paraikaa aktiivisesti piileviä soluja joka puolelle maailmaa. Niitä saattaa olla jo satoja.
Pariisin iskujen pääsuunnittelijasta oli jälkiä rikosrekisterissä jo ennen hänen radikalisoitumistaan. Abaaoud oli pikkukonna kotikulmillaan Brysselin Molenbeekissa.
Isis pyrkii nyt luomaan ”puhtaita” soluttautujia. Heitä ujutetaan Troijan hevosiksi tulevaa käyttöä varten.
Samaan tapaan toimivat esimerkiksi vakoiluorganisaatiot, joiden vakoojat ovat tärkeissä kohdemaissa naamioitu tavallisiksi kansalaisiksi. Vuosien hiljaiselon jälkeen solut voidaan tarvittaessa aktivoida.
Isisin väitetään ruokkineen aktiivisesti Euroopan nykyistä pakolaisaaltoa ja soluttavan aktiivejaan pakolaisleireille ja -laivoihin. Miksi tilanne muuten olisi ryöpsähtänyt juuri nyt, kun Syyrian sotaa on käyty 4,5 vuotta, Irakissa sekasorto jatkunut 12 vuotta ja Afganistanissa 14 vuotta?
”En usko salaliittoteorioihin”, sanoo pakolaistilanteen hyvin tunteva syyrialainen Omar Abdulaziz Hallaj. ”Sen sijaan uskon täysin siihen, että Isis hyödyntää tilannetta, kun sellainen aukeaa.”
Hallaj on arkkitehti, joka johtaa Syria Initiative -kansalaisjärjestöä. Se tukee rauhanaktivisteja ja -välittäjiä.
Marraskuussa 2014 julkaistu mielipidetutkimus syyrialaispakolaisten leireillä Turkissa, Libanonissa ja Jordaniassa kertoi, että 13 prosenttia heistä suhtautui myönteisesti Isisiin ja sen tavoitteisiin.
Isis pääsee helposti naapurimaiden pakolaisleireille.
Viime keväänä Irakin kurdialueilla tapaamani salakuljettajat kuvailivat laveasti, miten Isis-soturit ja -värvärit liikkuvat lähes vapaasti rajan yli Turkkiin. Kävin Syyrian kurdialueilla pakolaisleirissä, ja siellä huoli Isisin vierailuista oli jatkuva.
Troijan hevosten rakentaminen on kallista. Pariisin kaltaisen iskun kustannukset ovat satoja tuhansia euroja. Valmisteluun tarvitaan kuukausien ajan useita asuntoja, autoja, puhelimia, tietokoneita, lentolippuja, lahjuksia ja kymmenien henkilöiden ylläpitoa.
Kaikki elektroniikka on kertakäyttötavaraa: kiinnijäämisen välttämiseksi ja jälkien peittämiseksi puhelimet ja tietokoneet on tuhottava uusien alta. Toisaalta tarvittava summa on vähemmän kuin Isisin yhden päivän arvioidut öljytulot, jotka ovat lähes 1,5 miljoonaa euroa.
Isis on alusta asti halunnut vallata alueita, joilta se saa haltuunsa öljyä, aseita ja omaisuutta. Sen tärkein öljyalue Deir Ez-Zor Syyrian itäosissa tuottaa 34 000–40 000 tynnyriä päivässä. Irakissa se pumppaa Qayyaran kentältä lähellä Mosulia noin 8 000 tynnyriä.
Pariisin iskuihin asti niiden tuhoamiseksi tehtiin kuitenkin hyvin vähän. Yhdysvaltain johtaman liittouman elokuussa 2014 asti tekemistä noin 11 000 ilmaiskusta alle 200 kohdistui öljylähteisiin, jalostamoihin, jakelupisteisiin ja säiliöautosaattueisiin.
Liittouma on kaihtanut iskuja, koska niiden on laskettu tuottavan suurta haittaa Syyrian ja Irakin kriisien osapuolille, joiden asemaa liittouma pyrkii kohentamaan.
Energiajakelun tuhoutumisen takia suurin osa Irakin ja Syyrian sähkönkäytöstä on dieselgeneraattorien varassa. Jos paikalliset eivät saa Isisin öljyä ja dieseliä, eivät ambulanssit tai bussit liiku, leipomot leivo tai sairaalat ja kodit lämpiä.
Myös Isisin vastainen taistelu pysähtyy, sillä myös sitä vastaan sotivat muut kapinallisjärjestöt ostavat öljyä Isisin tuotantoalueilta.
Pommit tappaisivat paljon muita kuin Isisin jäseniä, sillä järjestö on ulkoistanut öljykauppansa. Se myy valtaosan raakaöljystään suoraan itsenäisille kauppiaille. He kuljettavat lastin säiliöautoissaan edelleen vähittäiskauppiaille tai jalostamoihin, joita pyörittävät niin ikään paikalliset yrittäjät.
Lähes kaikki öljy jää Irakiin ja Syyriaan. Turkki on tiukentanut rajavalvontaansa ja salakuljetuskeinot sinne olivat aiemminkin alkeellisia: kanistereita kannettiin aasin selässä ja jalkaisin yli vuorten tai uitettiin köyttä myöten rajajokien yli.
Liittouman tavoitteena on myös saada öljyalueet aikanaan haltuunsa siinä kunnossa, että tuotanto voi käynnistyä nopeasti.
Venäjällä ei ole samanlaisia estoja, Se on moukaroinut Deir ez-Zorin öljyalueita rajusti siitä lähtien, kun Isis ilmoitti tuhonneensa lomalennolla olleen venäläiskoneen matkustajineen Siinain yllä 31. lokakuuta.
Jo ennen Venäjän iskuja Isisin nettoansiot öljynmyynnistä olivat laskeneet selvästi. Tuotanto on pienentynyt huollon puutteessa, tekniikka on vanhentunutta ja ammattitaitoinen työvoima vähentynyt.
Myös Isisin toinen keskeinen tulonlähde, muinaismuistojen kauppa, on vaikeuksissa. Syyrian kurdien vallattua takaisin Kobanen ja muut alueensa Isis menetti salakaupalleen ratkaisevan tärkeän pitkän yhtenäisen kaistaleen Turkin rajalla.
Panttivangit ovat Isisille enemmän propaganda-aseita kuin tulonlähteitä: neuvottelut vievät aikaa ja yhteydenotot sisältävät suuria paikantamisriskejä.
Isis saa myös verotuloja yrityksiltä ja yksityisiltä, koska se pyrkii hallitsemaan alueitaan kuin valtiota. Ne eivät kuitenkaan oleellisesti rikastuta järjestöä.
Veroilla Isis maksaa palkat ja luontaisedut sotilaille ja avaintyöntekijöille sekä yhteiskunnan peruspalvelut, kuten kaikille ilmaisen terveydenhoidon.
Palkat terroristijärjestö maksaa yleensä dollareissa.
Isis siirtää taistelua Eurooppaan, koska se tietää ajautuvansa ahtaalle tukialueillaan.
Isisin vuodesta 2013 lähtien valtaama alue kattaa yli kolmasosan Irakista ja Syyriasta. Niistä se muodosti kesäkuussa 2014 ”islamilaisen valtion”, jossa asuu noin kuusi miljoonaa ihmistä.
Kalifaatin sydän on Isisin ensimmäisessä tukikohdassa, pienehkössä syyrialaiskaupungissa Raqqassa.
Irakissa sen tärkein keskus on miljoonakaupunki Mosul, jonka järjestö valtasi Irakin päätä pahkaa paenneelta armeijalta kesäkuussa 2014.
Alueiden puolustaminen tai laajentaminen on Isisille jatkuvasti vaikeampaa ja kalliimpaa.
Seurasin sotatilannetta Isisin-vastaisella eturintamalla viime toukokuussa Syyrian kurdijoukkojen asemista. Isis käytti jo silloin silmiinpistävän säästeliäästi aseistustaan. Sen on pakko.
Valtaosa Isisin kirjavasta asekalustosta on sotasaalista Irakin ja Syyrian armeijoilta sekä muilta kapinallisjoukoilta.
Osa varsinkin moderneimmasta amerikkalaisaseistuksesta on hyödytöntä, koska Isisillä ei ole taitoa käyttää sitä – niin kuin ei myöskään venäläisiä MiG-hävittäjiä, vaikka se on viime aikoina yrittänyt pakottaa vangitsemansa syyrialaislentäjät kouluttajikseen.
Ehdottomasti suurin saalis kertyi Mosulin valtauksesta. Sen jälkeen uutta aseistusta ei ole tullut oleellisesti lisää.
Vanhaa sen sijaa on kulunut ja tuhoutunut runsaasti taisteluissa ja liittouman pommituksissa, joissa järjestö on menettänyt myös joukon avaintaistelijoitaan ja -johtajiaan.
Isis ei näytä saavan merkittävästi ainakaan raskaampaa asekalustoa ulkomailta. Sen väitetään saaneen kalustoa yksityisten välikäsien kautta Saudi-Arabiasta ja Qatarista.
Mutta esimerkiksi saudialkuperää olevat kranaatinheittimet on alun perin toimitettu Vapaan Syyrian Armeija -kapinallisjoukolle, jolta Isis ne anasti.
Perinteisiä käsiaseita ja -ammuksia Isisille on salakuljetettu Turkin kautta – mutta ei niin paljon kuin järjestö tarvitsisi.
Merkki taistelukyvyn laskusta on, että Isis on joutunut turvautumaan sotilaallisten yhteenottojen sijaan entistä enemmän itsemurhaiskuihin.
Syyrian kurdit ovat vallanneet lähes kaikki Isisille menettämänsä alueet takaisin.
Irakin kurdien peshmerga-joukot valtasivat Pariisin iskujen alla takaisin strategisesti tärkeän Sinjarin kaupungin.
Saartorengas Isisille tärkeiden Ramadin ja Mosulin ympärillä kiristyy Irakissa. Niiden ja Raqqan valtausyritykset tuskin käynnistyvät toden teolla vaikeissa talvioloissa, mutta siihen asti liittouma ja Venäjä pehmittävät Isisin asemia ilmaiskuilla.
Maahyökkäystä viivyttää epätietoisuus kuka sen tekee ja kuka sitä johtaa.
Yhdysvallat ja EU-maat eivät tahdo käyttää siihen joukkojaan. Ne eivät myöskään poliittisista syistä halua tukea sotilaallisia ryhmiä, joilla on eniten kykyä Isisin nujertamiseen.
Irakissa šiiojen puolustusjoukot, nimeltään al-Hashd al-Shaabi, ovat vahvasti sidoksissa Iraniin, jonka asemaa ja läsnäoloa šiiajohtoinen voitto Isisistä vahvistaisi entisestään.
Syyrian kurdien YPG-joukot puolestaan toimivat tiiviissä yhteistyössä Turkin kurdien asejärjestön PKK:n kanssa. Yhdysvallat ja EU ovat Turkin toivomuksesta määritelleet PKK:n terroristijärjestöksi.
Irakin ja Syyrian omien armeijoiden rintamakelpoisten ja taistelutahtoisten sotilaiden määrä puolestaan on laskenut rajusti. Sitä paitsi sekä presidentti Bashar al-Assad Syyriassa että Irakin hallitus eivät halua päästää valiojoukkojaan pääkaupunkiensa puolustuksesta.
Isisin kalifaatin valtaukseen liittyy vain suuria uhkakuvia. Yksi niistä on se, että maajoukot ja valtaus saattaavat vain vahvistaa jihadistien viidensiä kolonnia länsimaissa.
Isis on pohjimmiltaan tulos kostonhalusta ja vihasta, joka herää kun ihmisiä kohdellaan väkivaltaisesti, ylimielisesti ja väärin. Kymmenet miljoonat irakilaiset, syyrialaiset ja arabimaahanmuuttajat Euroopassa ovat tunteneet sitä koko aikuiselämänsä.
Tunne ei häviä, vaikka Isis nujerrettaisiin. Yhdysvallat aloitti viisitoista vuotta sitten terrorisiminvastaisen sodan islamilaisia ääriliikkeitä vastaan. Ne ovat pikemmin vain vahvistuneet.
Isisin ytimen muodostivat aikanaan al-Qaida-soturit, joiden oli mentävä maan alle Irakissa. Jos Isis joutuu tekemään samoin, palasista syntyy taas uuden niminen ja muotoinen järjestö.
Sillä vain ei ole enää maaperää, jota hävittäjät voisivat tulittaa – ei Lähi-idässä eikä Euroopan lähiöissä.
Isis lyhyesti
Mikä on Isis?
Äärivanhoillisten sunnimuslimien terroristijärjestö syntyi Irakin sodan jälkimainingeissa al-Qaidan tukijärjestöksi.
Mitä Isis haluaa?
Kitkeä kaiken, mikä estää ”puhtaan”, Koraanin jyrkimpiin tulkintoihin perustuvan islamilaisen valtion perustamisen.
Mistä se saa rahaa?
Valtaamalla kohteita, joissa vastus on heikko mutta omaisuutta runsaasti. Se ansaitsee öljyn ja muinaisaarteiden kaupalla sekä verotuksella arviolta lähes miljardi euroa vuodessa. Jonkin verran rahoitusta tulee samanmielisiltä tukijoilta Persianlahden arabimaista.
Mistä se saa aseita?
Sotasaaliina Irakin ja Syyrian armeijoilta sekä muilta kapinallisjoukoilta.
Kuka ostaa sen öljyn?
Isisin hyväksymät kauppiaat kuljettavat ja myyvät sen eri puolille Syyriaa ja Irakia. Pieni osa salakuljetaan Turkkiin.
Riittääkö maahyökkäys tuhoamaan Isisin?
Ei. Kalifaatin alue voidaan toki vallata. Mutta Isis ei kuihdu, ellei Syyriaan ja Irakiin saada rauhaa ja hallitusta, jonka valtaosa yhteiskunnasta hyväksyy.
Jos Isis tuhotaan, mitä sen kannattajat tekevät?
Suuri osa taistelijoista menee maan alle ja jatkaa terroritekoja, myös länsimaissa. Jihadistijärjestöt eri puolilla maailmaa saattavat jatkaa yhteistyötä, mutta jos Isis heikkenee oleellisesti, järjestöt etsivät uuden johtotähden ja siirtyvät esimerkiksi takaisin al-Qaidan tukijoiksi.
Juttu julkaistu 27.11. klo 7.30, juttua muokattu klo 11.10 ja 11.51: linkkejä lisätty.
Islamic terrorism is, by definition, terrorist acts committed by Muslim groups or individuals who profess Islamic or Islamist motivations or goals. Islamic terrorists have relied on particular interpretations of the tenets of the Quran and the Hadith, citing these scriptures to justify violent tactics including mass murder, genocide, child molestation and slavery.
In recent decades, incidents of Islamic terrorism have occurred on a global scale, occurring not only in Muslim-majority states in Africa and Asia, but also abroad in Europe, Russia, and the United States, and such attacks have targeted Muslims and non-Muslims. In a number of the worst-affected Muslim-majority regions, these terrorists have been met by armed, independent resistance groups, state actors and their proxies, and politically liberal Muslim protesters.
Although the literal existence of Islamic terrorism is not disputed, some have criticized what they perceive to be the blanket usage of the term. Such use in Western political speech has variously been called "counter-productive," "unhelpful," "highly politicized, intellectually contestable" and "damaging to community relations." This view, in turn, has been criticized by those who perceive it to be an act of evasion.
Extremism within Islam goes back to the 7th century to the Kharijites. From their essentially political position, they developed extreme doctrines that set them apart from both mainstream Sunni and Shi'a Muslims. The Kharijites were particularly noted for adopting a radical approach to Takfir, whereby they declared other Muslims to be unbelievers and therefore deemed them worthy of death.
Motivations and Islamic terrorism
Profiles of terrorists
According to Scott Atran, a NATO researcher studying suicide terrorism, the available evidence contradicts a number of simplistic explanations for the motivations of terrorists, including mental instability, poverty, and feelings of humiliation.
Forensic psychiatrist and former foreign service officer Marc Sageman made an "intensive study of biographical data on 172 participants in the jihad," in his book Understanding Terror Networks. He concluded social networks, the "tight bonds of family and friendship", rather than emotional and behavioral disorders of "poverty, trauma, madness, [or] ignorance", inspired alienated young Muslims to join the jihad and kill.
Author Lawrence Wright described the characteristic of "displacement" of members of the most famous Islamic terrorist group, al-Qaeda:
What the recruits tended to have in common– besides their urbanity, their cosmopolitan backgrounds, their education, their facility with languages, and their computer skills– was displacement. Most who joined the jihad did so in a country other than the one in which they were reared. They were Algerians living in expatriate enclaves in France, Moroccans in Spain, or Yemenis in Saudi Arabia. Despite their accomplishments, they had little standing in the host societies where they lived."
Scholar Olivier Roy describes the background of the hundreds of global (as opposed to local) terrorists who were incarcerated or killed and for whom authorities have records, as being surprising for their Westernized background; for the lack of Palestinians, Iraqis, Afghans "coming to avenge what is going on in their country"; their lack of religiosity before being "born again" in a foreign country; the high percentage of converts to Islam among them; their "de-territorialized backgrounds"– "For instance, they may be born in a country, then educated in another country, then go to fight in a third country and take refuge in a fourth country"; their nontraditional belief that jihad is permanent, global, and "not linked with a specific territory."
This profile differs from that found among recent local (as opposed to global) Islamist suicide bombers in Afghanistan, according to a 2007 study of 110 suicide bombers by Afghan pathologist Dr. Yusef Yadgari. Yadgari found that 80% of the attackers studied had some kind of physical or mental disability. The bombers were also "not celebrated like their counterparts in other Muslim nations. Afghan bombers are not featured on posters or in videos as martyrs." Daniel Byman, a Middle East expert at the Brookings Institution, and Christine Fair, an assistant professor in peace and security studies at Georgetown University, say that many of the Islamic terrorists are foolish and untrained, perhaps even untrainable.
Western foreign policy
People killed by terrorists worldwide
According to a graph by U.S State Department, terrorist attacks have escalated worldwide since the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.Dame Eliza Manningham Buller, the former head of MI5, told the Iraq inquiry, the security services warned Tony Blair launching the War on Terror would increase the threat of terrorism.Robert Pape has argued that at least terrorists utilizing suicide attacks– a particularly effective form of terrorist attack– are driven not by Islamism but by "a clear strategic objective: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from the territory that the terrorists view as their homeland."
However, Martin Kramer, who debated Pape on origins of suicide bombing, stated that the motivation for suicide attacks is not just strategic logic but also an interpretation of Islam to provide a moral logic. For example, Hezbollah initiated suicide bombings after a complex reworking of the concept of martyrdom. Kramer explains that the Israeli occupation of Lebanon raised the temperature necessary for this reinterpretation of Islam, but occupation alone would not have been sufficient for suicide terrorism. "The only way to apply a brake to suicide terrorism," Kramer argues, "is to undermine its moral logic, by encouraging Muslims to see its incompatibility with their own values."
Former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer argues that terrorist attacks (specifically al-Qaeda attacks on America) are not motivated by a religiously inspired hatred of American culture or religion, but by the belief that U.S. foreign policy has oppressed, killed, or otherwise harmed Muslims in the Middle East, condensed in the phrase "They hate us for what we do, not who we are."
"a tiny minority, from within the non-Iraqi British Muslim communities, reacted with violence on 7 July 2005. To interpret this simply as a “nationalist struggle" to remove occupation ignores the blatantly obvious fact that, first, the terrorists were not Iraqis, they were British-Pakistanis (though British Iraqis have lived here for a long time); second, the vast majority of the Stop the War protesters were non-Muslims, yet only a handful from among a minority of Muslims reacted to the war with terrorism. Even though occupation may have caused agitation among the 7 July bombers, these northern-born lads with thick Yorkshire accents confessed in their suicide tapes to considering themselves soldiers with a mission to kill our people (Britons) on behalf of their people (Iraqis). The prerequisite to such a disavowal of one’s country of birth is a recalibration of identity; this is the undeniable role of ideological narratives."
Religious motivation
According to one study in one country (Britain), there is little connection between religious piety and terrorism among Muslims. A "restricted" report of hundreds of case studies by the domestic counter-intelligence agency MI5 found that •
[f]ar from being religious zealots, a large number of those involved in terrorism do not practise their faith regularly. Many lack religious literacy and could actually be regarded as religious novices. Very few have been brought up in strongly religious households, and there is a higher than average proportion of converts. Some are involved in drug-taking, drinking alcohol and visiting prostitutes. MI5 says there is evidence that a well-established religious identity actually protects against violent radicalisation.•
At no time did the (Muslim) jurist approve of terrorism. Nor indeed is there any evidence of the use of terrorism (in Islamic tradition). Muslims are commanded not to kill women, children, or the aged, not to torture or otherwise ill-treat prisoners, The rules and regulations concerning prisoners of war in Islam to give fair warning of the opening of hostilities, and to honor agreements. Similarly, the laws of Jihad categorically preclude wanton and indiscriminate slaughter. The warriors in the holy war are urged not to harm non-combatants, women and children, "unless they attack you first." A point on which they insist is the need for a clear declaration of war before beginning hostilities, and for proper warning before resuming hostilities after a truce. What the classical jurists of Islam never remotely considered is the kind of unprovoked, unannounced mass slaughter of uninvolved civil populations that we saw in New York two weeks ago. For this there is no precedent and no authority in Islam.
But Bernard Lewis says Jihad is an unlimited offensive to bring the whole world under Islamic law; Christian crusades a defensive, limited response to, and imitation of, jihad.
Even the Christian crusade, often compared with the Muslim jihad, was itself a delayed and limited response to the jihad and in part also an imitation. But unlike the jihad it was concerned primarily with the defense or reconquest of threatened or lost Christian territory...The Muslim jihad, in contrast, was perceived [by Muslims] as unlimited, as a religious obligation that would continue until all the world had either adopted the Muslim faith or submitted to Muslim rule.… The object of jihad is to bring the whole world under Islamic law.
Bernard Lewis says Islam imposes, without limit of time or space, the duty to subjugate non-Muslims.
"...it is the duty of those who have accepted them [Allah's word and message] to strive unceasingly to convert or at least to subjugate those who have not. This obligation is without limit of time or space. It must continue until the whole world has either accepted the Islamic faith or submitted to the power of the Islamic state."
Michael Sells and Jane I. Smith (a Professor of Islamic Studies) write that barring some extremists like al-Qaeda, most Muslims do not interpret Qura’nic verses as promoting warfare; and that the phenomenon of radical interpretation of scripture by extremist groups is not unique to Islam. According to Sells, "[Most Muslims] no more expect to apply [the verses at issue] to their contemporary non-Muslim friends and neighbors than most Christians and Jews consider themselves commanded by God, like the Biblical Joshua, to exterminate the infidels."
"Allah's Apostle said, "I have been sent with the shortest expressions bearing the widest meanings, and I have been made victorious with terror (cast in the hearts of the enemy), and while I was sleeping, the keys of the treasures of the world were brought to me and put in my hand." Abu Huraira added: Allah's Apostle has left the world and now you, people, are bringing out those treasures (i.e. the Prophet did not benefit by them). Narrated in Abu Huraira. Sahih al-Bukhari, 4:52:220, see also Sahih Muslim, 4:1062, Sahih Muslim, 4:1063, Sahih Muslim, 4:1066, Sahih Muslim, 4:1067 and Sahih al-Bukhari, 5:59:512.
The Prophet said, "Who is ready to kill Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf who has really hurt Allah and His Apostle?" Muhammad bin Maslama said, "O Allah's Apostle! Do you like me to kill him?" He replied in the affirmative. So, Muhammad bin Maslama went to him (i.e. Ka'b) and said, "This person (i.e. the Prophet) has put us to task and asked us for charity." Ka'b replied, "By Allah, you will get tired of him." Muhammad said to him, "We have followed him, so we dislike to leave him till we see the end of his affair." Muhammad bin Maslama went on talking to him in this way till he got the chance to kill him. Narrated Jabir bin 'Abdullah Sahih al-Bukhari, 4:52:270, see also Sahih al-Bukhari, 5:59:369, Sahih Muslim, 19:4436.
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And another Hadith:
“
The Prophet passed by me at a place called Al-Abwa or Waddan, and was asked whether it was permissible to attack the pagan warriors at night with the probability of exposing their women and children to danger. The Prophet replied, "They (i.e. women and children) are from them (i.e. pagans)." I also heard the Prophet saying, "The institution of Hima is invalid except for Allah and His Apostle. Narrated As-Sab bin Jaththama Sahih al-Bukhari, 4:52:256, see also Sahih Muslim, 19:4321Sunan Abu Dawood, 38:4390.
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However, there are other Hadith that say:
“
During some of the Ghazawat of the Prophet a woman was found killed. Allah's Apostle disapproved the killing of women and children. Narrated 'Abdullah Sahih al-Bukhari, 4:52:257, see also Sahih Muslim, 19:4319.
”
And another Hadith:
“
During some of the Ghazawat of Allah's Apostle a woman was found killed, so Allah's Apostle forbade the killing of women and children. Narrated Ibn 'Umar Sahih al-Bukhari, 4:52:258, see also Sahih Muslim, 19:4320.
”
Militant Islamic fundamentalist organisations portray their struggle in simply uncompromising terms. According to Antar Zouabri, a leader of a 1990s movement to establish an Islamic republic in Algeria, there can never be either dialogue or truce in his organisation’s struggle against the illegitimate, secular government. The word of God, he argued, is immutable: God does not negotiate or engage in discussion.
According to others, Islamic terrorism is linked to the practice of divinely sanctioned warfare against apostates. Many Muslim groups including the Council on American-Islamic Relations argue that references to violence in Muslim sources have been taken out of context. They argue that these Koranic ayahs are only for self-defense when non-believers endanger Muslim life.
"the notion that historical context should play no role in the interpretation of the Koran – that what applied to Muhammad's community applies to all Muslim communities for all time – is simply an untenable position in every sense."
According to conservative columnist Reihan Salam, the book has received a favorable response within the Muslim world.
Societal motivations
Scott Atran has found the greatest predictors of suicide bombings to be not religion but group dynamics: While personal humiliation does not turn out to be a motivation for those attempting to kill civilians, the perception that others with whom one feels a common bond are being humiliated can be a powerful driver for action. "Small-group dynamics involving friends and family that form the diaspora cell of brotherhood and camaraderie on which the rising tide of martyrdom actions is based". Terrorists, according to Atran, are social beings influenced by social connections and values. Rather than dying "for a cause," they might be said to have died "for each other."
Economic motivations
The Muslim world has been afflicted with economic stagnation for many centuries. In 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama stated that apart from crude oil, the exports of the entire Greater Middle East with its 400 million population roughly equals that of Switzerland. It has also been estimated that the exports of Finland, a European country of only five million, exceeded those of the entire 370 million-strong Arab world, excluding oil and natural gas. This economic stagnation is argued by historian David Fromkin in his work A Peace to End All Peace to have commenced with the demise of the Ottoman Empire in 1924, with trade networks being disrupted and societies torn apart with the creation of new nation states. Although the Ottoman Empire was referred to as the Sick man of Europe, the parts of the Middle East under Ottoman rule still had a diverse and steady growing economy with more general prosperity.
Citizenship issues
Another cause of embarrassment and resentment is that since the 1950s, Muslim immigrants have been forced to emigrate to western countries in large numbers because fellow Muslim countries that are well-off economically and socially do not accept them. Out of the 57 Muslim majority countries, only two nations (Turkey and Malaysia) offer a formal path for immigrants to become naturalized citizens, regardless of birthplace, religious beliefs, marital status or ethnic origin. Even the oil-rich Gulf states do not grant citizenship to immigrants, regardless of how long they have resided in those countries. To make matters more difficult, Gulf states have stringent laws which explicitly state that an immigrant or expat can become a citizen only if his/her father was a citizen or, in some cases, if an expat woman marries an Arab national. These laws make it almost impossible for expats (both Muslim and non-Muslim) to gain citizenship.
In 2014, the self-appointed CaliphAbu Bakr al-Baghdadi; the leader of the unrecognised Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant took advantage of this resentment among some Muslims living in other Arab states and urged those Muslims to emigrate to the new Islamic state. ISIS, also known as "The Islamic State," promised all Muslim immigrants "citizenship" immediately upon arrival. They even went as far as issuing "Caliphate Passports" to the newly arrived immigrants.
Ideology
One ideology that plays a role in terrorism by using the name of Islam, is Wahabism.Wahabism and its allies including Salafism (Salafi jihadism) supports war against any one and every one who is not like them. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, al-Qaeda, Al-Shabaab (militant group), Boko Haram, Indonesian Mujahedeen Council, Taliban, Sipah Sahaba, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Hizbul Mujahideen follow intolerant Wahabi or Salafi ideology which is opposed by other Muslims. Non-Muslims, Sufis, and Shias are attacked by hard-core Wahhabis, Deobandis, and jamaatis in the same way that socialists and other leftist proletarians were assaulted by Mussolini's bandits, Jews and others by the Nazis, and "bourgeois," "kulak," intellectual, Jewish, "Menshevik," and "Trotskyist" dissenters, often only alleged to be so, by Stalinism. In India, Wahabism was spread in the name of Deobandi movement, which was opposed by more tolerant Sufi oriented Indian Muslims.
Transnational Islamist ideology, specifically of the militant Islamists, assert that Western policies and society are actively anti-Islamic, or as it is sometimes described, waging a "war against Islam". Islamists often identify what they see as a historical struggle between Christianity and Islam, dating back as far as the Crusades, among other historical conflicts between practitioners of the two respective religions. Osama bin Laden, for example, almost invariably described his enemy as aggressive and his call for action against them as defensive. Defensive jihad differs from offensive jihad in being "fard al-ayn," or a personal obligation of all Muslims, rather than "fard al-kifaya", a communal obligation, that is, some Muslims may perform it but it is not required from others. Hence, framing a fight as defensive has the advantage of both appearing to be a victim rather than an aggressor, and of giving the struggle the very highest religious priority for all good Muslims.
Many of the violent terrorist groups use the name of jihad to fight against certain Western nations and Israel. An example is bin Laden's al-Qaeda, which is also known as "International Islamic Front for Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders". Most militant Islamists oppose Israel's policies, and often its existence.
According to U.S. Army Colonel Dale C. Eikmeier, “ideology", rather than any individual or group, is the "center of gravity" of al-Qaeda and related groups, and that ideology is a "collection of violent Islamic thought called Qutbism."
He summarizes the tenets of Qutbism as being:
A belief that Muslims have deviated from true Islam and must return to "pure Islam" as originally practiced during the time of Muhammad.
The path to "pure Islam" is only through a literal and strict interpretation of the Quran and Hadith, along with implementation of Muhammad’s commands.
Muslims should interpret the original sources individually without being bound to follow the interpretations of Islamic scholars.
That any interpretation of the Quran from a historical, contextual perspective is a corruption, and that the majority of Islamic history and the classical jurisprudential tradition is mere sophistry.
The historic rivalry between Hindus and Muslims in the Indian subcontinent has also often been the primary motive behind some of the most deadly terrorist attacks in India. According to a U.S. State Department report, India topped the list of countries most affected by Islamic terrorism.
In addition, Islamist militants, scholars, and leaders opposed Western society for what they see as immoralsecularism. Islamists have claimed that such unrestricted free speech has led to the proliferation of pornography, immorality, secularism, homosexuality, feminism, and many other ideas that Islamists often oppose. Although bin Laden almost always emphasized the alleged oppression of Muslims by America and Jews when talking about them in his messages, in his "Letter to America," he answered the question, "What are we calling you to, and what do we want from you," with
We call you to be a people of manners, principles, honour, and purity; to reject the immoral acts of fornication, homosexuality, intoxicants, gambling's, and trading with interest (...) You separate religion from your policies, (...) You are the nation that permits Usury, which has been forbidden by all the religions (...) You are a nation that permits the production, trading and usage of intoxicants (...) You are a nation that permits acts of immorality (...) You are a nation that permits gambling in its all forms. (...) You use women to serve passengers, visitors, and strangers to increase your profit margins. You then rant that you support the liberation of women.
Given their perceived piety, The Times noted the irony when an investigation discovered that Jihadists were seeking anonymity through some of the same networks used to distribute child pornography. The paper praised the raid's ability to "improve understanding of the mindsets of both types of criminals". Similarly, Reuters reported that pornography was found among the materials seized from Osama bin Laden's Abbottabad compound that was raided by U.S. Navy SEALs.
In 2006, Britain's then head of MI5Eliza Manningham-Buller said of Al-Qaeda that it "has developed an ideology which claims that Islam is under attack, and needs to be defended". "This" she said "is a powerful narrative that weaves together conflicts from across the globe, presenting the West’s response to varied and complex issues, from long-standing disputes such as Israel/Palestine and Kashmir to more recent events as evidence of an across-the-board determination to undermine and humiliate Islam worldwide." She said that the video wills of British suicide bombers made it clear that they were motivated by perceived worldwide and long-standing injustices against Muslims; an extreme and minority interpretation of Islam promoted by some preachers and people of influence; their interpretation as anti-Muslim of UK foreign policy, in particular the UK’s involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan." She also cautioned how difficult it was to gain a proper perspective, saying that although there are more important dangers we face daily without feeling so threatened by them, such as climate change and road deaths, and though terrorist deaths were few, the intelligence services had prevented some potentially large threats and that vigilance was needed.
Criticism of Islamic terrorist ideology
Although Islamic terrorism is commonly associated with the Salafis (or "Wahhabis"), the scholars of the group have constantly attributed this association to ignorance, misunderstanding and sometimes insincere research and deliberate misleading by rival groups. Following the September 11 attacks, Abdul-Azeez ibn Abdullaah Aal ash-Shaikh, the Grand Mufti of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, made an official statement that "the Islamic Sharee'ah (legislation) does not sanction" such actions. A Salafi "Committee of Major Scholars" in Saudi Arabia has declared that "Islamic" terrorism, such as the May 2003 bombing in Riyadh, are in violation of Sharia law and aiding the enemies of Islam.
Criticism of Islamic terrorism on Islamic grounds has also been made by Abdal-Hakim Murad (Timothy Winter):
Certainly, neither bin Laden nor his principal associate, Ayman al-Zawahiri, are graduates of Islamic universities. And so their proclamations ignore 14 centuries of Muslim scholarship, and instead take the form of lists of anti-American grievances and of Koranic quotations referring to early Muslim wars against Arab idolaters. These are followed by the conclusion that all Americans, civilian and military, are to be wiped off the face of the Earth. All this amounts to an odd and extreme violation of the normal methods of Islamic scholarship. Had the authors of such fatwas followed the norms of their religion, they would have had to acknowledge that no school of mainstream Islam allows the targeting of civilians. An insurrectionist who kills non-combatants is guilty of baghy, “armed aggression," a capital offense in Islamic law.
Colonel Eikmeier points out the "questionable religious credentials" of many Islamist theorists, or "Qutbists," which can be a "means to discredit them and their message":
With the exception of Abul Ala Maududi and Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, none of Qutbism’s main theoreticians trained at Islam’s recognized centers of learning. Although a devout Muslim, Hassan al-Banna was a teacher and community activist. Sayyid Qutb was a literary critic. Muhammad Abd al-Salam Faraj was an electrician. Ayman al-Zawahiri is a physician. Osama bin Laden trained to be a businessman.
Fethullah Gülen, a prominent Turkish Islamic scholar, has claimed that "a real Muslim," who understood Islam in every aspect, could not be a terrorist. There are many other people with similar points of view such as Karen Armstrong, Prof. Ahmet Akgunduz,Harun Yahya and Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri.Huston Smith, an author on comparative religion, noted that extremists have hijacked Islam, just as has occurred periodically in Christianity, Hinduism and other religions throughout history. He added that the real problem is that extremists do not know their own faith.
Ali Gomaa, former Grand Mufti of Egypt, stated not only for the Islam but in general: "Terrorism cannot be born of religion. Terrorism is the product of corrupt minds, hardened hearts, and arrogant egos, and corruption, destruction, and arrogance are unknown to the heart attached to the divine."
Identity-based frameworks for analyzing Islamist-based terrorism
Islamist-based fundamentalist terrorism against Western nations and the U.S. in particular, has numerous social identity, social categorization theory, and psychodynamics are used to explain the reasons terrorism occurs.
Islamist-based fundamentalist terrorism against Western nations and the U.S. in particular, has numerous motivations and takes place the larger context of a complex and tense relationship between the 'West' and the Arab and Muslim 'world,' which is highlighted in the previous section on motivations and Islamic terrorism. Identity-based theoretical frameworks, including theories of
Social identity is explained by Karina Korostelina as a "feeling of belonging to a social group, as a strong connection with social category, and as an important part of our mind that affects our social perceptions and behavior" This definition can be applied to the case of Osama bin Laden, who, according to this theory, had a highly salient perception of his social identity as a Muslim, a strong connection to the social category of the Muslim Ummah or 'community,' which affect his social perceptions and behaviors. Bin Laden's ideology and interpretation of Islam led to the creation of al-Qaeda in response to perceived threats against the Muslim community by the Soviet Union, the U.S. in particular due to its troop presence in Saudi Arabia, and American support for Israel.
The Islamist terrorist group al-Qaeda has a group identity, which includes “shared experiences, attitudes, beliefs, and interests of in-group members," and is “described through the achievement of a collective aim for which this group has been created," which in this case is to achieve "a complete break from the foreign influences in Muslim countries, and the creation of a new Islamic caliphate."
Social categorization theory has been discussed as a three-stage process of identification, where “individuals define themselves as members of a social group, learn the stereotypes and norms of the group, and group categories influence the perception and understanding of all situations in a particular context"
This definition can be applied to the U.S.-led war on terror, in which conflict features such as the phenomenon of Anti-Americanism and the phenomenon of non-Arab countries like Iran and Afghanistan lending support to Islamist-based terrorism by funding or harboring terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and al-Qaeda against Western nations, particularly Israel and the United States are, according to social categorization theory, influenced by a three-stage process of identification. In this three-stage process of identification, the Arab and Muslim world(s) are the social group(s), in which their members learn stereotypes and norms which categorize their social group vis-à-vis the West.
This social categorization process creates feelings of high-level in-group support and allegiance among Arabs and Muslims and the particular context within which members of the Arab and Muslim world(s) social group(s) understand all situations that involve the West. Social categorization theory as a framework for analysis indicates causal relationships between group identification processes and features of conflict situations.
Muslim popular opinion on the subject of attacks on civilians by Islamist groups varies. Fred Halliday, a British academic specialist on the Middle East, argues that most Muslims consider these acts to be egregious violations of Islam's laws. Muslims living in the West denounce the September 11th attacks against United States, while Hezbollah contends that their rocket attacks against Israeli civilian targets are defensive Jihad by a legitimate resistance movement rather than terrorism. Subsequently, however, on Osama bin Laden's death, some Muslims in the UK came out on streets in support of Osama, announcing him as an Islamic hero and condemned the role of US and west in killing him. The protest against Bin Laden’s death was organised by controversial preacher Anjem Choudary – who praised both 7/7 and the September 11 attacks. Statistics compiled by the United States government's Counterterrorism Center present a complicated picture: of known and specified terrorist incidents from the beginning of 2004 through the first quarter of 2005, slightly more than half of the fatalities were attributed to Islamic extremists but a majority of over-all incidents were considered of either "unknown/unspecified" or a secular political nature. The vast majority of the "unknown/unspecified" terrorism fatalities did however happen in Islamic regions such as Iraq and Afghanistan, or in regions where Islam is otherwise involved in conflicts such as the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, southern Thailand and Kashmir.
View of Islamic law
Although the murder of Muslims is always forbidden in Islam, the murder of non-Muslims is also prohibited in certain circumstances. Many Muslim scholars have presented subjective evidence against the religious justification of terrorism against certain non-Muslims, a notable example being that of Muhammad ibn al Uthaymeen who states regarding killing a non-Muslim who is living in an Islamic state or with whom Muslims have a peace treaty: "As for a non-Muslim living under Muslim rule and a Mu’āhid (a Non-Muslim ally with whom Muslims have a treaty, trust, peace, or agreement), the prophet said: “Whoever kills a Mu’āhid will not even smell the fragrance of paradise and its fragrance can be smelled from the distance of forty years away." and he also said: “Certainly, one of the most difficult situations for which there is no turning back for whomever casts himself into it - shedding sacred blood without right." However, this does not address the killing of non-Muslims living outside the Islamic world who do not have a specific treaty with Muslims.
Another example is that of late scholar Abd al-Aziz Ibn Baz who stated: "It is well-known to anyone with the slightest amount of common sense that hijacking planes and kidnapping embassy officials and similar acts are some of the greatest universal crimes that result in nothing but widespread corruption and destruction. They place such extreme hardships and injuries upon innocent people, the extent of which only Allāh knows."
Numerous fatwas (rulings) condemning terrorism and suicide bombing as haram have been published by Islamic scholars worldwide, one of the most extensive being the 600-page ruling by Sheikh Tahir-ul-Qadri, whose fatwa condemned them as kufir. On 2 March 2010, Qadri's fatwa was an "absolute" condemnation of terrorism without "any excuses or pretexts." He said that "Terrorism is terrorism, violence is violence and it has no place in Islamic teaching and no justification can be provided for it, or any kind of excuses or ifs or buts." Qadri said his fatwa, which declares terrorists and suicide bombers to be unbelievers, goes further than any previous denunciation. Iranian Ayatollah Ozma Seyyed Yousef Sanei issued a fatwa (ruling) that suicide attacks against civilians are legitimate only in the context of war. The ruling did not say whether other types of attacks against civilians are justified outside of the context of war, nor whether jihad is included in Sanei's definition of war.
An influential group of Pakistani scholars and religious leaders denounced suicide attacks and beheadings as un-Islamic. 'Ulema' (clerics) and 'mushaikh' (spiritual leaders) of the Jamaat Ahl-e-Sunnah, who gathered for a convention, declared suicide attacks and beheadings as un-Islamic in a unanimous resolution. Chairman of the Pakistani Ruet-e-Hilal Committee, Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman, said in his address that those who were fighting in the name of implementing Shariah or Islamic law must first abide by these same laws and killing minors is contrary to the teachings of Islam.
Some contemporary scholars who have followed a textual based approach to the study of the Quran with an emphasis over the coherence in the Book and the context of situation offered a radical interpretation on the verses and prophetic narratives that are usually quoted by the militants to promote militancy. According to Javed Ahmad Ghamidi (hisbooklet on Jihadis considered one of his most important contribution towards understanding the religion according to the principles of interpreting the Quran introduced by Farahi and Islahi) the Quran does not allow waging war except for against oppression under a sovereign state. He holds that jihad without a state is nothing but creating nuisance in the land when hijacked by the individuals and groups independent of the state authority defeats the purpose. The principle behind this study of the issue in the basic sources is the principle that there are divine injunctions in the Qur'an which are specific to the age of the Messenger. He says that nobody can be punished for apostasy or being non-Muslim after the Prophet who acted as the divine agent when he punished the disbelievers by sword who had rejected the message of God and his messenger even after the truth was made manifest to them. Ghamidi and his associates have written extensively on the topics related to these issues.
In his book Meezan Ghamidi has concluded that:
Jihad can only be waged against persecution Islamic jihad has only two purposes: putting an end to persecution even that of the non-Muslims and making the religion of Islam reign supreme in the Arabian peninsula. The latter type was specific for the messenger of God and is no more operative.
Under a sovereign state.
There are strict ethical limits for jihad which do not again allow fighting for example non-combatants.
Seen in this perspective acts of terrorism including suicide bombing becomes prohibited.
Opinion surveys
Gallup conducted tens of thousands of hour-long, face-to-face interviews with residents of more than 35 predominantly Muslim countries between 2001 and 2007. It found that more than 90% of respondents condemned the killing of non-combatants on religious and humanitarian grounds.
A subsequent gallup poll released in 2011 suggested "that one's religious identity and level of devotion have little to do with one's views about targeting civilians... it is human development and governance - not piety or culture - that are the strongest factors in explaining differences in how the public perceives this type of violence." The same poll concluded that populations of countries in the Organisation of the Islamic Conference were slightly more likely to reject attacks on civilians in all cases, both military and individual, than those in non-member countries.
In 2004, a year after the invasion of Iraq, Pew Research Center survey found that suicide bombings against Americans and other Westerners in Iraq were seen as "justifiable" by many Jordanians (70%), Pakistanis (46%), and Turks (31%). At the same time, the survey found that support for the U.S.-led War on Terror had increased.
A 2005 Pew Research study, that involved 17,000 people in 17 countries showed support for terrorism was declining in the Muslim world along with a growing belief that Islamic extremism represents a threat to those countries. A Daily Telegraph survey showed that 88% of Muslims said the July 2005 bombings in the London Underground were unjustified, while 6% disagreed. However it also found that 24% of British Muslims showed some sympathy with the people who carried out the attacks.
Polls taken by Saudi owned Al Arabiya and Gallup suggest moderate support for the September 11 terrorist attacks within the Islamic world, with 36% of Arabs polled by Al Arabiya saying the 9/11 attacks were morally justified, 38% disagreeing and 26% of those polled being unsure. A 2008 study, produced by Gallup, found similar results with 38.6% of Muslims questioned believing the 9/11 attacks were justified. Another poll conducted, in 2005 by the Fafo Foundation in the Palestinian Authority, found that 65% of respondents supported the September 11 attacks.
In Pakistan, despite the recent rise in the Taliban's influence, a poll conducted by Terror Free Tomorrow in Pakistan in January 2008 tested support for al-Qaeda, the Taliban, other militant Islamist groups and Osama bin Laden himself, and found a recent drop by half. In August 2007, 33% of Pakistanis expressed support for al-Qaeda; 38% supported the Taliban. By January 2008, al-Qaeda's support had dropped to 18%, the Taliban's to 19%. When asked if they would vote for al-Qaeda, just 1% of Pakistanis polled answered in the affirmative. The Taliban had the support of 3% of those polled.
Pew Research surveys in 2008, show that in a range of countries – Jordan, Pakistan, Indonesia, Lebanon, and Bangladesh – there have been substantial declines in the percentages saying suicide-bombings and other forms of violence against civilian targets can be justified to defend Islam against its enemies. Wide majorities say such attacks are, at most, rarely acceptable. The shift of attitudes against terror has been especially dramatic in Jordan, where 29% of Jordanians were recorded as viewing suicide-attacks as often or sometimes justified (down from 57% in May 2005). In the largest majority-Muslim nation, Indonesia, 74% of respondents agree that terrorist attacks are "never justified" (a substantial increase from the 41% level to which support had risen in March 2004); in Pakistan, that figure is 86%; in Bangladesh, 81%; and in Iran, 80%.
A poll conducted in Osama bin Laden's home country of Saudi Arabia in December 2008 shows that his compatriots have dramatically turned against him, his organisation, Saudi volunteers in Iraq, and terrorism in general. Indeed, confidence in bin Laden has fallen in most Muslim countries in recent years.
Countries in which Islamist terrorist attacks have occurred between September 11, 2001, and May 2013
The "black flag of Jihad" as used by various Islamist organisations (since the late 1990s) consists of a white-on-black shahada
Some prominent Islamic terror groups and incidents include the following:
South America
Argentina
The 1992 attack on Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, was a suicide bombing attack on the building of the Israeli embassy of Argentina, located in Buenos Aires, which was carried out on 17 March 1992. Twenty-nine civilians were killed in the attack and 242 additional civilians were injured. A group called Islamic Jihad Organization, which has been linked to Iran and possibly Hezbollah, claimed responsibility.
An incident from 1994, known as the AMIA bombing, was an attack on the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (Argentine Israelite Mutual Association) building in Buenos Aires. It occurred on July 18 and killed 85 people and injured hundreds more. A suicide bomber drove a Renault Trafic van bomb loaded with about 275 kilograms (606lb) of ammonium nitrate fertilizer and fuel oil explosive mixture, into the Jewish Community Center building located in a densely constructed commercial area of Buenos Aires. Prosecutors Alberto Nisman and Marcelo Martínez Burgos formally accused the government of Iran of directing the bombing, and the Hezbollah militia of carrying it out. The prosecution claimed that Argentina had been targeted by Iran after Buenos Aires' decision to suspend a nuclear technology transfer contract to Tehran.
Central Asia
Afghanistan
According to Human Rights Watch, Taliban and Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin forces have "sharply escalated bombing and other attacks" against civilians since 2006. In 2006, "at least 669 Afghan civilians were killed in at least 350 armed attacks, most of which appear to have been intentionally launched at civilians or civilian objects."
Tajikistan
The government blamed the IMU (Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan) for training those responsible for carrying out a suicide car bombing of a police station in Khujand on September 3, 2010. Two policemen were killed and 25 injured.
On February 16, 1999, six car bombs exploded in Tashkent, killing 16 and injuring more than 100, in what may have been an attempt to assassinate President Islam Karimov. The IMU was blamed.
The IMU launched a series of attacks in Tashkent and Bukhara in March and April 2004. Gunmen and female suicide bombers took part in the attacks, which mainly targeted police. The violence killed 33 militants, 10 policemen, and four civilians. The government blamed Hizb ut-Tahrir, though the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU) claimed responsibility.
Furkat Kasimovich Yusupov was arrested in the first half of 2004, and charged as the leader of a group that had carried out the March 28 bombing on behalf of Hizb ut-Tahrir.
On July 30, 2004, suicide bombers struck the entrances of the US and Israeli embassies in Tashkent. Two Uzbek security guards were killed in both bombings. The IJU again claimed responsibility.
Foreign commentators on Uzbek affairs speculated that the 2004 violence could have been the work of the IMU, Al-Qaeda, Hizb ut-Tahrir, or some other radical Islamic organization.
In 2009, a Europol report showed that more than 99% of terrorist attacks in Europe over the last three years were, in fact, carried out by non-Muslims. Out of 1,009 arrests for terrorism in 2008, 187 were in relation to Islamist terrorism. The report showed that the majority of Islamist terror suspects were second or third generation immigrants.
Politically and religiously motivated attacks on civilians in Russia have been traced to separatist sentiment among the largely Muslim population of its North Caucasus region, particularly in Chechnya, where the central government of the Russian Federation has waged two bloody wars against the local secular separatist government since 1994. In the Moscow theater hostage crisis in October 2002, three Chechen separatist groups took an estimated 850 people hostage in the Russian capital; at least 129 hostages died during the storming by Russian special forces, all but one killed by the chemicals used to subdue the attackers (whether this attack would more properly be called a nationalist rather than an Islamist attack is in question). In the September 2004 Beslan school hostage crisis more than 1,000 people were taken hostage after a school in the Russian republic of North Ossetia–Alania was seized by a pro-Chechen multi-ethnic group aligned to Riyad-us Saliheen Brigade of Martyrs; hundreds of people died during the storming by Russian forces.
Since 2000, Russia has also experienced a string of suicide bombings that killed hundreds of people in the Caucasian republics of Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia, as well as in Russia proper including Moscow. Responsibility for most of these attacks were claimed by either Shamil Basayev's Islamic-nationalist rebel faction or, later, by Dokka Umarov's pan-Islamist movement Caucasus Emirate which is aiming to unite most of Russia's North Caucasus as an emirate since its creation in 2007. Since the creation of the Caucasus Emirate, the group has abandoned its secular nationalist goals and fully adopted the ideology of Salafist-takfiri Jihadism which seeks to advance the cause of Allah on the earth by waging war against the Russian government and non-Muslims in the North Caucasus, such as the local Sufi Muslim population, whom they view as mushrikeen (polytheists) who do not adhere to true Islamic teachings. In 2011, the U.S. Department of State included the Caucasus Emirate on its list of terrorist organisations.
Hezbollah in Turkey (unrelated to the Shia Hezbollah in Lebanon) is a Sunni terrorist group accused of a series of attacks, including the November 2003 bombings of two synagogues, the British consulate in Istanbul and HSBC bank headquarters that killed 58. Hizbullah's leader, Hüseyin Velioğlu, was killed in action by Turkish police in Beykoz on 17 January 2000. Besides Hizbullah, other Islamic groups listed as a terrorist organization by Turkish police counter-terrorism include Great Eastern Islamic Raiders' Front, al-Qaeda in Turkey, Tevhid-Selam (also known as al-Quds Army) and Caliphate State. Islamic Party of Kurdistan and Hereketa İslamiya Kurdistan are also Islamist groups active against Turkey, however unlike Hizbullah they're yet to be listed as active terrorist organizations in Turkey by Turkish police counter-terrorism.
Middle East / Southwest Asia
Iraq
The area that has seen some of the worst terror attacks in modern history has been Iraq as part of the Iraq War. In 2005, there were 400 incidents of one type of attack (suicide bombing), killing more than 2,000 people – many if not most of them civilians. n 2006, almost half of all reported terrorist attacks in the world (6,600), and more than half of all terrorist fatalities (13,000), occurred in Iraq, according to the National Counterterrorism Center of the United States. Along with nationalist groups and criminal, non-political attacks, the Iraqi insurgency includes Islamist insurgent groups, such as Al-Qaeda in Iraq, who favor suicide attacks far more than non-Islamist groups. At least some of the terrorism has a transnational character in that some foreign Islamic jihadists have joined the insurgency.
Hamas ("zeal" in Arabic and an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya) began support for attacks on military and civilian targets in Israel at the beginning of the First Intifada in 1987. The 1988 charter of Hamas calls for the destruction of Israel. Its "military wing" has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks in Israel, principally suicide bombings and rocket attacks. Hamas has also been accused of sabotaging the Israeli-Palestine peace process by launching attacks on civilians during Israeli elections to anger Israeli voters and facilitate the election of harder-line Israeli candidates. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist group by the Canada, the United States, Israel, Australia, Japan, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and Human Rights Watch. It is banned in Jordan. Russia does not consider Hamas a terrorist group as it was "democratically elected". During the second intifada (September 2000 through August 2005) 39.9 percent of the suicide attacks were carried out by Hamas. The first Hamas suicide attack was the Mehola Junction bombing in 1993. Hamas justifies these attacks as necessary in fighting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory, and the attacks continue despite the 2005 Israeli withdrawal from Hamas controlled territory as Israel continues to occupy other Palestinian territory, namely the West Bank, as well as keeping Gaza under siege. Hamas still states its goal to be the elimination of Israel. The wider Hamas movement also serves as a charity organization and provides services to Palestinians.
Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine is a Palestinian Islamist group based in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and dedicated to waging jihad to eliminate the state of Israel. It was formed by Palestinian Fathi Shaqaqi in the Gaza Strip following the Iranian Revolution which inspired its members. From 1983 onward, it engaged in "a succession of violent, high-profile attacks" on Israeli targets. The Intifada which "it eventually sparked" was quickly taken over by the much larger Palestine Liberation Organization and Hamas. Beginning in September 2000, it started a campaign of suicide bombing attacks against Israeli civilians. The PIJ's armed wing, the Al-Quds brigades, has claimed responsibility for numerous terrorist attacks in Israel, including suicide bombings. The group has been designated as a terrorist organization by several Western countries.
Lebanon
Hezbollah first emerged in 1982, as a militia during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, also known as Operation Peace for Galilee. Its leaders were inspired by the Ayatollah Khomeini, and its forces were trained and organized by a contingent of Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Hezbollah's 1985 manifesto listed its three main goals as "putting an end to any colonialist entity" in Lebanon, bringing the Phalangists to justice for "the crimes they [had] perpetrated," and the establishment of an Islamic regime in Lebanon. Hezbollah leaders have also made numerous statements calling for the destruction of Israel, which they refer to as a "Zionist entity... built on lands wrested from their owners."
Hezbollah, which started with only a small militia, has grown to an organization with seats in the Lebanese government, a radio and a satellite television-station, and programs for social development. They maintain strong support among Lebanon's Shi'a population, and gained a surge of support from Lebanon's broader population (Sunni, Christian, Druze) immediately following the 2006 Lebanon War, and are able to mobilize demonstrations of hundreds of thousands. Hezbollah along with some other groups began the 2006–2008 Lebanese political protests in opposition to the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. A later dispute over Hezbollah preservation of its telecoms network led to clashes and Hezbollah-led opposition fighters seized control of several West Beirut neighborhoods from Future Movement militiamen loyal to Fouad Siniora. These areas were then handed over to the Lebanese Army.
A national unity government was formed in 2008, in Lebanon, giving Hezbollah and its opposition allies control of 11 of 30 cabinets seats; effectively veto power. Hezbollah receives its financial support from the governments of Iran and Syria, as well as donations from Lebanese people and foreign Shi'as. It has also gained significantly in military strength in the 2000s. Despite a June 2008 certification by the United Nations that Israel had withdrawn from all Lebanese territory, in August, Lebanon's new Cabinet unanimously approved a draft policy statement which secures Hezbollah's existence as an armed organization and guarantees its right to "liberate or recover occupied lands." Since 1992, the organization has been headed by Hassan Nasrallah, its Secretary-General. The United States, Canada, Israel, Bahrain, France,Gulf Cooperation Council, and the Netherlands regard Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, while the United Kingdom, the European Union and Australia consider only Hezbollah's military wing or its external security organization to be a terrorist organization. Many consider it, or a part of it, to be a terrorist group responsible for blowing up the American embassy and later its annex, as well as the barracks of American and French peacekeeping troops and a dozens of kidnappings of foreigners in Beirut. It is also accused of being the recipient of massive aid from Iran, and of serving "Iranian foreign policy calculations and interests," or serving as a "subcontractor of Iranian initiatives" Hezbollah denies any involvement or dependence on Iran. In the Arab and Muslim worlds, on the other hand, Hezbollah is regarded as a legitimate and successful resistance movement that drove both Western powers and Israel out of Lebanon. In 2005, the Lebanese Prime Minister said of Hezbollah, it "is not a militia. It's a resistance."
Fatah al-Islam is an Islamist group operating out of the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon. It was formed in November 2006, by fighters who broke off from the pro-SyrianFatah al-Intifada, itself a splinter group of the Palestinian Fatah movement, and is led by a Palestinian fugitive militant named Shaker al-Abssi. The group's members have been described as militant jihadists, and the group itself has been described as a terrorist movement that draws inspiration from al-Qaeda. Its stated goal is to reform the Palestinian refugee camps under Islamic sharia law, and its primary targets are the Lebanese authorities, Israel and the United States.
The Armed Islamic Group, active in Algeria between 1992 and 1998, was one of the most violent Islamic terrorist groups, and is thought to have takfired the Muslim population of Algeria. Its campaign to overthrow the Algerian government included civilian massacres, sometimes wiping out entire villages in its area of operation. It also targeted foreigners living in Algeria, killing more than 100 expatriates in the country. In recent years it has been eclipsed by a splinter group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), now called Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb.
Nigeria
Boko Haram is an Islamic extremist group based in northeastern Nigeria, also active in Chad, Niger and northern Cameroon.
Somalia and the Horn of Africa
Al-Shabaab is a militant jihadist terrorist group based in East Africa. In 2012, it pledged allegiance to the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda. It is a participant in the Somali Civil War, and is reportedly being used by Egypt to destabilize Ethiopia, and attracting converts from predominantly Christian Kenya.
According to recent government statements Islamic terrorism is the biggest threat to Canada. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) reported that terrorist radicalization at home is now the chief preoccupation of Canada's spy agency. The most notorious arrest in Canada's fight on terrorism, was the 2006 Ontario terrorism plot in which 18 Al-Qaeda-inspired cell members were arrested for planning a mass bombing, shooting, and hostage taking terror plot throughout Southern Ontario. There have also been other arrests mostly in Ontario involving terror plots.
Between 1993 and 2001, the major attacks or attempts against U.S. interests stemmed from militant Islamic jihad extremism except for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. On September 11, 2001, nearly 3,000 people were killed in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Stonycreek Township near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, during the September 11 attacks organized by 19 al-Qaeda members and largely perpetrated by Saudi nationals, sparking the War on Terror. Former CIA Director Michael Hayden considers homegrown terrorism to be the most dangerous threat and concern faced by American citizens today. As of July 2011, there have been 52 homegrown jihadist extremist plots or attacks in the United States since the September 11 attacks.
South Asia
Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, the group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh was formed sometime in 1998, and gained prominence in 2001. The organization was officially banned in February 2005 after attacks on NGOs, but struck back in August when 300 bombs were detonated almost simultaneously throughout Bangladesh, targeting Shahjalal International Airport, government buildings and major hotels.
Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (Arabic:حركة الجهاد الإسلامي, Ḥarkat al-Jihād al-Islāmiyah, meaning "Islamic Jihad Movement", HuJI) is an Islamic fundamentalist organisation most active in South Asian countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and India since the early 1990s. It was banned in Bangladesh in 2005.
Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed are militant groups seeking accession of Kashmir to Pakistan from India. The Lashkar leadership describes Indian and Israel regimes as the main enemies of Islam and Pakistan that is an extremist thought but is not real. Lashkar-e-Toiba, along with Jaish-e-Mohammed, another militant group active in Kashmir are on the United States’ foreign terrorist organizations list, and are also designated as terrorist groups by the United Kingdom, India, Australia and Pakistan. Jaish-e-Mohammed was formed in 1994 and has carried out a series of attacks all over India. The group was formed after the supporters of Maulana Masood Azhar split from another Islamic militant organization, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. Jaish-e-Mohammed is viewed by some as the "deadliest" and "the principal terrorist organization in Jammu and Kashmir". The group was also implicated in the kidnapping and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl.
Al-Qaeda's stated aim is the use of jihad to defend and protect Islam against Zionism, Christianity, Hinduism, the secular West, and Muslim governments such as Saudi Arabia, which it sees as insufficiently Islamic and too closely tied to the United States. Formed by Osama bin Laden and Muhammad Atef in the aftermath of the Soviet war in Afghanistan in the late 1980s, al-Qaeda called for the use of violence against civilians and military of the United States and any countries that are allied with it.
An increasingly popular tactic used by terrorists is suicide bombing. This tactic is used against civilians, soldiers, and government officials of the regimes the terrorists oppose. A recent clerical ruling declares terrorism and suicide bombing as forbidden by Islam. However, groups who support its use often refer to such attacks as "martyrdom operations" and the suicide-bombers who commit them as "martyrs" (Arabic: shuhada, plural of "shahid"). The bombers, and their sympathizers often believe that suicide bombers, as martyrs (shaheed) to the cause of jihad against the enemy, will receive the rewards of paradise for their actions.
Hijackings
Islamic terrorism sometimes employs the hijacking of passenger vehicles. The most famous were the "9/11" attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people on a single day in 2001, effectively ending the era of aircraft hijacking.
Along with bombings and hijackings, Islamic terrorists have made extensive use of highly publicised kidnappings and executions, often circulating videos of the acts for use as propaganda. A frequent form of execution by these groups is decapitation, another is shooting. In the 1980s, a series of abductions of American citizens by Hezbollah during the Lebanese Civil War resulted in the 1986 Iran–Contra affair. During the chaos of the Iraq War, more than 200 kidnappings foreign hostages (for various reasons and by various groups, including purely criminal) gained great international notoriety, even as the great majority (thousands) of victims were Iraqis. In 2007, the kidnapping of Alan Johnston by Army of Islam resulted in the British government meeting a Hamas member for the first time.
Islamist militants, including Boko Haram, Hamas, al-Qaeda and the ISIS, have used kidnapping as a method of fundraising, as a means of bargaining for political concessions, and as a way of intimidating potential opponents.
Michael Rubin argued in 2005 that hostage-taking became popular among terrorist groups as a tactic that can hold the attention of a public that had become inured to mass death techniques such as suicide bombing, and that it can garner significant "political and diplomat" payoff. Rubin writes that Islamist kidnappers have the additional, "ideological goals" of using hostages both to "shock the outside world" and to "appeal to their own constituency", and that the public humiliation of hostages is a specific Islamist goal. He also deems hostage taking as an effective technique for cowing a population by making governments appear weak and by inspiring fear of opposing the Islamists. He does not regard kidnapping as an effective recruitment technique.
In his 2007 book, Islamic Terror Abductions in the Middle East, military historian Shaul Shay argued in 2014 that Islamists consider hostage taking as a strategic tool that can effectively gain concessions from targeted governments.
Kidnapping as political tactic
In September 2014, the German Foreign Ministry reported that the Islamist militant group Abu Sayyaf had kidnapped two German nationals and was threatening to kill them unless the German government withdraw its support for the war against ISIS and also pay a large ransom. In September 2014 an Islamist militant group kidnapped a French national in Algeria and threatened to kill the hostage unless the government of France withdrew its support for the war against ISIS.
A 2014 investigation, by journalist Rukmini Maria Callimachi published in The New York Times demonstrated that between 2008 and 2014, Al Qaeda and groups directly affiliated with al-Qaeda took in over US$125 million in from kidnapping, with $66 million of that total paid in 2013 alone. he article showed that from a somewhat haphazard beginning in 2003, kidnapping grew into the group's main fundraising strategy, with targeted, professional kidnapping of civilians from wealthy European countries - principally France, Spain and Switzerland - willing to pay huge ransoms. US and UK nationals are less commonly targeted since these governments have shown an unwillingness to pay ransom.
Boko Haram kidnapped Europeans for the Ransom their governments would pay in the early 2010s. For example, in the spring of 2013, Boko haram kidnapped and within 2 months released a French family of 7 and 9 other hostages in exchange for a payment by the French government of $3.15 million.
According to Yochi Dreazen writing in Foreign Policy, although ISIS received funding fm Qatar, Kuwait and other Gulf oil states, "traditional criminal techniques like kidnapping", are a key funding source for ISIS. Armin Rosen writing in Business Insider, kidnapping was a "crucial early source" of funds as ISIS expanded rapidly in 2013. n March, upon receiving payment from the government of Spain, ISIS released 2 Spanish hostages working for the newspaper El Mundo, correspondent Javier Espinosa and photographer Ricardo Garcia Vilanova, who had been held since September, 2013. Philip Balboni, CEO of GlobalPost told the press that he had spent "millions" in efforts to ransom journalist James Foley, and an American official told the Associated Press that demand form ISIS was for 100 million ($132.5). In September 2014, following the release of ISIS Beheading videos of journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, British Prime Minister David Cameron appealed to members of the G7 to abide by their pledges not to pay ransom "in the case of terrorist kidnap."
Holding foreign journalists as hostages is so valuable to ISIS that Rami Jarrah, a Syrian who has acted as go-between in efforts to ransom foreign hostages, told the Wall Street Journal that ISIS had "made it known" to other militant groups that they "would pay" for kidnapped journalists. ISIS has also kidnapped foreign-aid workers and Syrians who work for foreign-funded groups and reconstruction projects in Syria. By mid-2014, ISIS was holding assets valued at US$2 billion, which made it the world's wealthiest Islamist group.
According to Islamism expert Jonathan N.C. Hill, in 2014, under the influence of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Boko Haram had begun kidnapping large numbers of girls and young women for sexual use. The attacks echoed kidnappings of girls and young women for sexual use by Algerian Islamists in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Haleh Esfandiari from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars has highlighted the abuse of local women by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militants after they have captured an area. "They usually take the older women to a makeshift slave market and try to sell them. The younger girls ... are raped or married off to fighters", she said, adding, "It's based on temporary marriages, and once these fighters have had sex with these young girls, they just pass them on to other fighters." Speaking of Yazidi women captured by ISIS, Nazand Begikhani said "[t]hese women have been treated like cattle... They have been subjected to physical and sexual violence, including systematic rape and sex slavery. They've been exposed in markets in Mosul and in Raqqa, Syria, carrying price tags." The UN confirmed in 2014 that 5,000–7,000 Yazidi women and children had been abducted by ISIL and sold into slavery.
Islamist self-justification
According to CNN, the self-styled Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant "justifies its kidnapping of women as sex slaves citing Islamic theology" in an article entitled, 'The revival (of) slavery before the Hour,' (of Judgement Day), published in the ISIL online magazine, "Dabiq", claimed that Yazidi women can be taken captive and forced to become sex slaves or concubines under Islamic law, "One should remember that enslaving the families of the kuffar -- the infidels -- and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of the Shariah, or Islamic law."
Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, a Nigerian extremist group, said in an interview "I shall capture people and make them slaves." when claiming responsibility for the 2014 Chibok kidnapping.
Kidnapping as psychological warfare
Boko Haram has been described as using kidnapping as a means of intimidating the civilian population into non-resistance.
According to psychologist Irwin Mansdorf, Hamas demonstrated effectiveness of kidnapping as a form of psychological warfare in the 2006 capture of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit when public pressure forced the government of Israel to release 1027 prisoners, including 280 convicted of terrorism by Israel, in exchange for his release. According to the New York Times, "Hamas has recognized the pull such incidents have over the Israeli psyche and clearly has moved to grab hostages in incidents such as the Death and ransoming of Oron Shaul.
Internet recruiting
In the beginning of the 21st century, emerged a worldwide network of hundreds of web sites that inspire, train, educate and recruit young Muslims to engage in jihad against America and the West, taking less prominent roles in mosques and community centers that are under scrutiny. According to The Washington Post, "Online recruiting has exponentially increased, with Facebook, YouTube and the increasing sophistication of people online".
13 December 2001 – Suicide attack on Indian parliament in New Delhi by Pakistan-based Islamist terrorist organizations, Jaish-E-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Toiba. Aimed at eliminating the top leadership of India and causing anarchy in the country. 7 dead, 12 injured.
29 October 2005 – 29 October 2005 Delhi bombings, India. Over 60 killed and over 180 injured in a series of three attacks in crowded markets and a bus, just 2 days before the Diwali festival.
9 November 2005 – 2005 Amman bombings. a series of coordinated suicide attacks on hotels in Amman, Jordan. Over 60 killed and 115 injured. Four attackers including a husband and wife team were involved.
7 March 2006 – 2006 Varanasi bombings, India. A series of attacks in the Sankatmochan Hanuman temple and Cantonment Railway Station in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi. 28 killed and over 100 injured.
11 July 2006 – 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings, Mumbai, India; a series of seven bomb blasts that took place over a period of 11minutes on the Suburban Railway in Mumbai. 209 killed and over 700 injured.
14 August 2007 – Qahtaniya bombings: Four suicide vehicle bombers massacred nearly 800 members of northern Iraq's Yazidi sect in the deadliest Iraq war's attack to date.
26 July 2008 – 2008 Ahmedabad bombings, India. slamic terrorists detonate at least 21 explosive devices in the heart of this industrial capital, leaving at least 56 dead and 200 injured. A Muslim group calling itself the Indian Mujahideen claims responsibility. Indian authorities believe that extremists with ties to Pakistan and/or Bangladesh are likely responsible and are intent on inciting communal violence. Investigation by Indian police led to the eventual arrest of a number of terrorists suspected of carrying out the blasts, most of whom belong to a well-known terrorist group, the Students Islamic Movement of India.
13 September 2008 – Bombing series in Delhi, India. Pakistani extremist groups plant bombs at several places including India Gate, out of which the ones at Karol Bagh, Connaught Place and Greater Kailash explode leaving around 30 people dead and 130 injured, followed by another attack two weeks later at the congested Mehrauli area, leaving 3 people dead.
26 November 2008 – Muslim extremists kill at least 174 people and wound numerous others in a series of coordinated attacks on India's largest city and financial capital, Mumbai. he government of India blamed Pakistan based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba and stated that the terrorists killed/caught were citizens of Pakistan, a claim which the Pakistani government has refused. Ajmal Kasab, one of the terrorists, was caught alive.
25 October 2009 – Baghdad, Iraq. During a terrorist attack, two bomber vehicles detonated in the Green Zone, killing at least 155 people and injuring 520.
28 October 2009 – Peshawar, Pakistan. A car bomb is detonated in a woman exclusive shopping district, and over 110 killed and over 200 injured.
3 December 2009 – Mogadishu, Somalia. A male suicide bomber disguised as a woman detonates in a hotel meeting hall. The hotel was hosting a graduation ceremony for local medical students when the blast went off, killing four government ministers as well as other civilians.
1 January 2010 – Lakki Marwat, Pakistan. A suicide car bomber drove his explosive-laden vehicle into a volleyball pitch as people gathered to watch a match killing more than 100 people.
11 September 2012 – The 2012 Benghazi Attack took place on the evening of September 11, 2012; Islamic militants attacked the American diplomatic mission at Benghazi, in Libya, killing U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and Sean Smith, U.S. Foreign Service Information Management Officer.
1 March 2014 Kunming attack – Kunming, China. A group of knife-wielding Uyghur attackers stormed Kunming Railway Station, killing 29 civilians and wounding 143 people. 4 of the attackers were shot dead.
7 January 2015 – Charlie Hebdo shooting - Two masked gunmen armed with Kalashnikov rifles and shotguns stormed the headquarters of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris. They shot and killed 12 people, and wounded 11 others.
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Islamist-based fundamentalist terrorism against Western nations and the U.S. in particular, has numerous motivations and takes place the larger context of a complex and tense relationship between the 'West' and the Arab and Muslim 'world,' which is highlighted in the previous section on motivations and Islamic terrorism. Identity-based theoretical frameworks, including theories of
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