Origins The
Egyptian Islamist movements of 1950s are generally considered to be the precursors of contemporary Salafi-Jihadist movements. Rashid Rida fervently opposed Western ideas and foreign influences, and his activities were focused on overturning the encroachment of
secular laws across the Muslim World following the
First World War. Rida believed that deference to
man-made laws was tantamount to the
polytheism of "
Jahiliyya" and campaigned for the re-establishment of a
Sunni Caliphate that would unite the Muslims. Only this, Rida asserted, alongside the "return to true and pure Islam" exemplified by the tenets of the
Salafiyya movement; could liberate Muslim World from
colonialism and restore past
Islamic glory. Rida's treatises laid the theological framework of future militants who would eventually establish the Salafi-Jihadi movement. scholar
Sayyid Qutb through his prison-writings constitute the ideological basis of the Salafi-Jihadi movement Fore-runners of Salafi jihadism principally includes Egyptian militant Islamist scholar and theoretician
Sayyid Qutb, who developed "the intellectual underpinnings", in the 1950s, for what would later become the doctrine of most Jihadist organizations around the world, including
Al-Qaeda and
ISIS. Going radically further than his predecessors, Qutb called upon Muslims to form an ideologically committed vanguard that would wage armed
Jihad against the secular and Western-allied governments in the
Arab World, until the restoration of
Islamic rule. In his writings, both before and after joining the
Muslim Brotherhood Qutb argued that the Muslim world had reached a crisis point and that the Islamic world has been replaced by
pagan ignorance of
Jahiliyyah, (which directly translates to "ignorance", a term used by Muslims to describe the "dark" ages of
pre-Islamic Arabia). When Qutb went abroad for a two-year scholarship to the
United States, it is said he came back with extremist radical beliefs. He used what's been often described by scholars as his "genuine literary excellence" to spread these views of western criticism to form the main intellectual doctrine for the
Muslim Brotherhood, which later be adopted by most terrorist organizations worldwide.
Qutbism doctrine of
Islam interpretation emphasizes how the secular, infidel Muslim leaders and populations have fallen to imitating the western way of life, and that before any prosperity would occur, the Muslim world must revert to the
Caliphate-age ''
Shari'ah'' Law instead of "Man-made laws". He issued ideological & religious debates stating that the violent means are justifiable under Islamic Law for an end as great as returning the
Islamic State "days of glory", and these means are often leading a victorious violent
holy war (
Jihad) against the
West. A part of his writings which have influenced Islamists and terrorist organizations on the nature of The West, can be found in his book "
The America that I Have Seen", which he wrote immediately after returning to
Egypt from the
United States. In it he complained of Western
materialism,
individual freedoms, economic system,
racism, brutal
boxing matches, "poor"
haircuts, superficiality in conversations and friendships, restrictions on
divorce, enthusiasm for
sports, lack of
artistic feeling, and strong support for the new
Israeli state. He was appalled by what he perceived as loose sexual openness of American men and women. Qutb noted with disapproval the openly displayed sexuality of American women stating in the same influential book
The America that I Have Seen: the American girl is well acquainted with her body's seductive capacity. She knows it lies in the face, and in expressive eyes, and thirsty lips. She knows seductiveness lies in the round breasts, the full buttocks, and in the shapely thighs, sleek legs – and she shows all this and does not hide it. This would later paint him as an Islamic martyr or
shahid (he is often called "Shahid Sayyid Qutb" or Sayyid Qutb al-Shahid by admirers) among supporters & Islamist circles, particularly as the trial was alleged to be a
show trial. Qutb wrote his major Islamist works (a commentary of the Qur'an, ''Fi Zilal al-Qur'an'' (In the Shade of the Qur'an), and a manifesto of political Islam called ''Ma'alim fi-l-Tariq'' (
Milestones), while incarcerated and allegedly tortured. This, alongside his allegedly extrajudicial execution, elevated the value of these two major writings, giving his radical, violent Islamist doctrine in his writings a stronger influence over future terrorist organizations.
Evolution of Salafi jihadism During the
Cold War, the United States and the United Kingdom, launched covert and overt campaigns to encourage and strengthen fundamentalist groups in the Middle East and southern Asia. These groups were seen as a hedge against potential expansion by the Soviet Union, and as a counterweight against nationalist and socialist movements that were seen as a threat to the interests of the Western nations. In a 2018 interview with The Washington Post,
Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, said that Saudi Arabia's
International propagation of the Salafi movement and Wahhabism campaign was "rooted in the Cold War, when allies asked Saudi Arabia to use its resources to prevent inroads in Muslim countries by the Soviet Union." According to some estimates, between the 1960s and 2016, the Saudis funnelled over USD 100 billion to spread Wahhabi Salafi Islam. According to
political scientist Alex Alexiev, the impetus for the international propagation of Salafism and Wahhabism was "the largest worldwide
propaganda campaign ever mounted",
David A. Kaplan described it as "dwarfing the
Soviets' propaganda efforts at the height of the Cold War". In 2013, the
European Parliament identified
Wahhabism as the main source of global terrorism. The crushing defeat of various Arab states in the 1967
Six-Day War led to the de-legitimization of socialist and nationalist ideologies across the Arab world. Their demise provided a fertile ground for the
Salafiyya movement, which spread across the Arab world as well as the wider Islamic world. The rise of oil industry in Gulf states also brought in a large-workforce. The workforce embraced Salafi doctrines and founded Salafi organisations as they returned to their home-countries. In the 1990s, militant Islamists of the
al-Jama'a al-Islamiyya were active in the
terrorist attacks on police, government officials, and foreign tourists in Egypt, and the
Armed Islamic Group of Algeria was a principal extremist group in the
Algerian Civil War. In his research, Seth Jones of the
Rand Corporation finds that Salafi-jihadist numbers and activity have increased from 2007 to 2013. According to his research: • the number of Salafi jihadist groups increased by over 50% from 2010 to 2013, using Libya and parts of Syria as sanctuary. • the number of Salafi jihadist fighters "more than doubled from 2010 to 2013" using both low and high estimates. The war in Syria was the single most important attraction for Salafi-jihadist fighters. • attacks by al-Qaeda–affiliated groups (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, al Shabaab, Jabhat al-Nusrah, and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) • despite al-Qaeda's traditional focus on the "far enemy" (US and Europe), approximately 99% of the attacks by al-Qaeda and its affiliates in 2013 were against "near enemy" targets (in North Africa, the Middle East, and other regions outside of the West). ==Leaders, groups and activities ==