Islamism

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Islamism is a term from the social sciences under which various ideologies and movements of fundamentalist , political Islam , also known as radical Islam , have been summarized since the 1970s . Common to all forms is the striving to establish a religiously legitimized social and state order in the name of Islam. They are directed against the principles of the separation of state and religion , against the principles of individuality, pluralism and popular sovereignty , against human rights, gender equality and freedom of religion and expression and are anti-Semitic . A distinction is made between groups that want to achieve their goals by peaceful means and radical currents that propagate and practice violence and terror as a means to achieve their goals. How Islamism differs from other terms of politicized Islam such as “ Islamic fundamentalism ” or “ political Islam ” is as controversial as its own expressiveness and the question of when Islamism first appeared as a social phenomenon .

A hooded Islamist protester in London with a poster that read Freedom go to Hell , 2006

Definitions and critique of terms

In the 1970s, French scholars and journalists faced the challenge of correctly describing and classifying political-fundamentalist and extremist Islam. This endeavor was largely triggered by the presence and work of the Shiite Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Paris, as well as the burgeoning protest movements in Egypt and Algeria , which were based on a fundamentalist understanding of Islam, i. H. based on a literal interpretation of the Koran . However, the concept of fondamentalism met with rejection in France because of its American origins. The alternative intégrisme was also ruled out because it had too strong connotations with Christian-Catholic references. As a result, the term Islamism increasingly prevailed, albeit against initial resistance. The orientalist and historian Maxime Rodinson spoke out vehemently against Islamism or Islamism . In France, but also in Germany , Islamism was actually used synonymously with Islam without reference to fundamentalism and extremism until the beginning of the 20th century . Rodinson pointed out that the use of this term could make it difficult for the recipient to differentiate between extremists and simple believers from now on. The social scientist Gilles Kepel published the book Le Prophète et Pharaon in France in 1983 . Les mouvements islamistes dans l'Égypte contemporaine . With the translation of the book into English in 1984, the term began to gain acceptance after the initial translation of the French Islamist as an Islamicist . In the mid-1990s, the term was finally widespread in research outside of France.

In 2011, the German political scientist Armin Pfahl-Traughber named the following points as typical features of Islamism in a dossier for the Federal Agency for Civic Education :

  1. Absolute establishment of Islam as an order of life and state
  2. God 's sovereignty instead of the people's sovereignty as the basis of legitimation
  3. the desire for holistic penetration and control of society
  4. homogeneous and identitary social order in the name of Islam
  5. Position against the democratic constitutional state
  6. Potential for fanaticism and willingness to use violence .

The Islamic scholar Tilman Nagel (* 1942) represented Islam or Islamism? Problems of demarcating the opinion that a distinction between Islam and Islamism is “without any knowledge value”. "Islam and Islamism cannot be separated from one another as long as the Koran and Sunna are passed on as absolute and true for all time," said Nagel. He uses the word "Islamism" and in his argument ultimately equates the term with orthodox Islam. Nagel argues that Islam is inherently - with the exception of Mu'tazila - fundamentalist . Islam does not establish itself like Christianity in an existing state, but founds "its own". Historically, Nagel traces this back to the early Islamic community under Mohammed , whose work, according to Nagel, was “from the beginning a determined striving for dominance over all other human associations” because it “understood itself to be unshakably true and ultimately correct. The use of force to assert oneself and then to subjugate other communities that were not Islamic is accordingly an essential, if not the essential feature of the history of Muhammad's ministry in Medina . "

From a cultural and social anthropological perspective, it is argued that the term Islamism should be dispensed with because of its vagueness, since completely different social groups and individuals are classified under the same -ism: from terrorists to democratically elected presidents to people who simply practice their faith want.

Other critics see the demarcation of Islamism from Islam as a construct to relieve Islam from accusations of violence. This is how the journalist Henryk M. Broder writes in his book Hurray, we capitulate! that the difference between Islam and Islamism is like that between alcohol and alcoholism . "The differentiation between Islam and Islamism invented by the West is politically wanted ...". "That is why an attempt is made to downplay or hide those elements in Islam that are seen as incompatible according to Western values."

In French, the ideology is mostly referred to as "intégrisme" , which focuses on the supporters wanting to put all areas of life under the principles of Islam again. Sadiq al-Azm attributes this term to the fact that in the 20th century the Islamic scholars lost power over most areas of life. All that remain are "marriage, divorce, birth, death and inheritance law". The other areas such as economy, society, art, media became wholly or largely secular.

history

Thought leaders in the 18th century

In the history of Islam there have always been fundamentalist and radical religious movements that have called for a return to the values ​​of the forefathers; this refers to the first three generations of Muslims, up to and including Ahmad ibn Hanbal . These include the Wahhabis , who have been following the teachings of Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb since the 18th century , which is still the ideological basis of Saudi Arabia today. Another important "spiritual ancestor" is the Damascus legal scholar Ibn Taimiya (1263-1328). What is new in Islamism is the call for the reform of Islam, started above all by modernizers such as Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani and Muhammad Abduh , who at the end of the 19th century closed the gap between the medieval understanding of Islam and modernity penetrating from the West by reforming the religion wanted to.

The end of the 19th century: Arab thinkers want to correct the understanding of Islam

The end of the 19th century marked a cultural and religious decline for a large part of the Arab-Islamic world. The Ottoman Empire slowly disintegrated into its constituent parts, and Egypt was under British rule . The central government in Constantinople proved unable to take up the political, economic and social challenges of the early 20th century. The sultans were seen as corrupt and bad role models for the Muslims. The sultanate, which based its legitimacy on holding the Islamic empire together and promoting religion, proved unable to cope with this task. Massive debts forced the Ottoman Empire to grant major European powers concessions and advantages in investing, researching and extracting raw materials - such as oil . At the end of the 19th century the empire was financially dependent on Europe.

As a result of the radical transformations that the Arab world underwent in economic and socio-cultural areas, Islamic societies were confronted with new difficulties. The growing influence of the major European powers led to doubts about Islamic supremacy; The traditionally important family associations were weakened by migration and urbanization; industrialization and individualization led to a loosening of the social fabric and self-doubt. In response to these problems, Muslim thinkers such as Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani (1837–1897), Muhammad Abduh (1849–1905) or Raschid Rida (1865–1935) developed an understanding of Islam that primarily revitalized and returned to Koranic values and propagated traditions. If the Muslims truly returned to their religion, the Islamic world would regain its old strength. The achievements of modernity were not rejected per se, but should be integrated into the societies of the Muslim world on the basis of Islamic values. As advocates of technical progress and socio-political reform, the Muslim thinkers of this time are also referred to as "Islamic modernists".

Abduh and Rida rejected the prevailing ideas of the conservative-traditional legal scholars ( ulema ), which at that time were primarily perceived as instruments of government. The Islamic modernists rejected any change in Islamic teaching in the narrowest sense after 855, including the various Islamic schools of law ( madhhab ), all of which they viewed as a departure from true Islamic teaching.

Beginning of the 20th century: an ideology becomes part of the system

The modern Islamist movements in the strict sense developed in the 1920s and 30s. The two world wars in the 20th century devastated many parts of the Near and Middle East. The Ottoman Empire was dissolved in 1923, a little later Mustafa Kemal Ataturk declared the sultanate and the caliphate to be abolished. While European forces in technology, science and many other things appeared to be far superior to the new colonies and protectorates, the long-established orthodoxy in Islam, especially in the academies of al-Azhar , had nothing to oppose modernity. Against this background, the ideas of the modernists continued to gain in importance.

The remnants of the Ottoman Empire were divided into nation-states by the victorious powers of World War I, Great Britain and France, many of which were ruled under mandates from Europe. This time is seen by Islamic historians as a time of great humiliation, not only of Islam as a religious doctrine, but of the entire Arab / Islamic civilization as such. After gaining independence , secular or monarchical state structures were installed or implanted in many of the former mandate states, which often did not take into account the traditional religious convictions of the people.

During these times of upheaval, a new, politically oriented school of thought developed that championed Islam as the basis of an ideal society: The Muslim Brotherhood founded in 1928 by the former teacher Hasan al-Bannā (1906–1949) in the Kingdom of Egypt is still relevant today ( Al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun). The Muslim Brotherhood criticized the monarchy, despised as "decadent," which had been installed by Great Britain, as well as the decline in values as a consequence of the cultural decline in Egypt. She tried to restore the religious dogmas and at the same time to solve all problems of the Islamic countries by means of the Islamic order. British influence in the country, which in fact lasted until 1952, was viewed by the Islamists as neo-colonialism that must be fought.

The active in India and (from 1947) in Pakistan Abū l-Aʿlā Maudūdī (1903-1979) with his cadre party Jamaat-e-Islami , founded in 1941 , also exerted a significant influence on modern Islamism. A special form of Islamic fundamentalism, shaped by the Shiite doctrine of the Imamats , arose in Iran . Under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1906-1989), a government based on some form of Shiite fundamentalism was installed after the Islamic revolution in 1979. The now growing pan-Islamism and the accompanying revolutionary export of the Islamic Revolution from Iran also strengthened the various Islamist movements in many countries spiritually.

After the Six Day War: Islamism replaces nationalism

Another important phase for the development of Islamism was the Six Day War of 1967 and the period immediately after it. The ideology of Arab nationalism that had prevailed up to that point was exhausted in the war against Israel, which the Arab states regarded as a humiliating defeat . Islamism became an acceptable alternative for many who, disappointed in Arab nationalism and socialism, sought an ideological complement. Many Arab rulers gave the Islamists privileges in order to limit the influence of nationalists and pan-Arabists and to cushion the dissatisfaction of the population. They achieved the limitation of democratic rights and were able to counteract the demands for democratic changes. The Iranian revolution in 1979, although carried out by Shiites , became the symbol and example of a viable Islamic state throughout the Islamic world .

In the 1960s, Sayyid Qutb gained increasing influence with his radical writings. Qutb, who was regarded as a martyr in large parts of the Arab world after his execution in 1966 , interprets it in his Koran commentary Fī ẓilāl al-qurʾān (“ In the shadow of the Koran ”) and in his martial script Maālim fī ṭ-ṭarīq (“ Signs on the way “) The present as the return of the“ Jāhilīya ”(time of ignorance, i.e. the pre-Islamic period). It is a duty of the Muslims to restore the law of God in the Islamic states by means of jihad . The decline of Arab socialism , numerous monarchical regimes and pan-Arab nationalism led to the emergence of new Islamist groups in the Arab world.

Gulf Wars 1980–1988, 1990/1991 and 2003

The Gulf Wars of 1980 , 1990 and 2003 created another political vacuum in numerous Arab countries, which the mostly undemocratic governments could not compensate with any ideology of their own. States like Saudi Arabia , which rely on religious authority among other things in their legitimacy and which are still trying to compensate for the loss of credibility in their own people after the first Gulf War, also finance many Muslim associations in various parts of the world, which in turn share many Islamist sentiments. At the same time also conflicts intensified each between Muslims: Sun fought in the war between Iran and Iraq and the war in Iraq against Kuwait Muslims against Muslims. As a result, there were increasing demands to live in religious unity instead of fighting one another. Nowhere were the boundaries of religious brotherhood as clear as in these wars.

One of the sharpest critics of the Islamists at this time was the Egyptian lawyer Muhammad Saʿīd al-ʿAschmāwī, member of the Egyptian State Council and temporarily chairman of the State Security Court. In his 1987 publication, Political Islam (al-Islām as-siyāsī) , he accused the Islamists of striving to establish a fascist dictatorship in the guise of religion.

Radicalization in the 1990s

Numerous Islamist groups became radicalized in the 1990s. While Arab terrorism in the 1970s and 1980s was primarily focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict , radical Islamism in the 1990s grew into the ideology of extremist, sometimes terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda ("The grassroots"), especially in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan , Pakistan and Bosnia . The conflict between Israelis and Palestinians intensified.

At the same time, a gradual re-Islamization is taking place in many Islamic communities, which in Europe led to disputes such as the headscarf dispute and the one about the Muhammad cartoons . Modern Islamism makes use of various means to assert itself in public: in the family through a life based on Islamic principles, advertising for Islam ( Da ) wa ) , striving to enforce Islamic law, Sharia , the dissemination of literature, through the Maintaining social institutions or building mosques such as the 100 Mosque Plan for Germany.

The Dutch writer Leon de Winter called Islamism the " fascism of the 21st century", which he equates with terrorism: "After the left fascism of the Soviets , after the right-wing fascism of the Nazis , Islamism is the fascism of the 21st century." In particular, since the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the increasing development of the Iranian regime into a totalitarian dictatorship, controversial neologisms such as Islam fascism with regard to the phenomenon of Islamism have become increasingly widespread. The debate means an increasing politicization of the term in Europe too.

ideology

Within Islamism there are different and sometimes opposing currents, including fundamentalism , Islamic neo-fundamentalism and Salafiyya . Individual groups are also influenced by orthodox fundamentalist movements such as Saudi Wahhabism and the Pakistani Ahl-i Hadīth .

Key Features

The teachings of the Islamist currents in the various countries of the Islamic world differ greatly from one another. This is due in particular to the influence of country or denomination-specific traditions, as a comparison of Islamic parties in the countries of the Middle East and Southeast Asia shows. Nevertheless, certain constants of Islamist thought can be identified. This includes:

1. Islam as a reference source for all aspects of life: religion, politics, economy, law, relationships between men and women, education and upbringing.

“Islam is a comprehensive system which deals with all spheres of life. It is a country and homeland or a government and a nation. It is conduct and power or mercy and justice. It is a culture and a law or knowledge and jurisprudence. It is material and wealth or gain and prosperity. It is Jihad and a call or army and a cause. And finally, it is true belief and correct worship. "

- Hasan al-Banna : The Message of the Teachings

2. The call for a return to the “true” Islam, that of the Koran and the Sunna , and often the refusal to recognize the end of Ijtihad preached by Sunni orthodoxy . The life and actions of the surrounding Muslims are seen as un-Islamic and shaped by false religiosity.

3. As a result, rejection of the taqlid , i. H. religious and cultural traditions that Islamists view as a falsification of the true teachings of Islam. Following Salafism , religion should be cleansed of all that is foreign and returned to the true faith of the pious forefathers.

4. Call for political and religious unity between all Muslims ( pan-Islamism ), the umma . Important fields of activity of Islamist groups are therefore calls for solidarity with Muslims all over the world, especially the Palestinians and currently the Iraqis , both peoples who, according to the Islamist view, are being oppressed by an unbelieving enemy.

5. Statehood of religion. The Koran and the Prophet Mohammed knew no secular state and no nationality, nor did the caliphates and sultanates, in which a national feeling only developed at the end of the 19th century. The sense of a state in its superordinate form is therefore not the domination of a certain people, but the implementation of divine law, the Sharia for all believers as well as in the whole world. According to the conviction of Islamism, the correct exercise of the faith can only be ensured by an Islamic state based on the laws of the Koran and Sunna. The exact form of government is controversial, only a few Islamist groups want to recognize just one caliphate , while many refer to various forms of government based on the principle of the shura (consultation of the ruler with the population). It remains essential that the true sovereign in the Islamic state is God.

6. Resistance to any foreign, non-Islamic interference, domination or foreign government by non-Muslim countries. Islamic countries can only be ruled by Muslims. Many Islamist movements are based on political resistance to an occupying power, for example in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon .

It is important to distinguish between moderate Islamism and radical, violent Islamism, with numerous currents that are between the two categories. Radical groups belong to the “Islamists” category as well as moderate actors who strive to make Islam the guideline for social and political behavior. Islamist parties and interest groups therefore have different goals - moderate Islamist activists often resolutely reject violence, radical religious leaders and the restriction of some personal freedoms. Attention must also be paid to the distinction between Islamist and Islamic or Muslim groups and parties. “Muslim” groups and parties stand out from Islamists by not advocating the politicization of religion. They do not automatically fall into the “Islamist” category.

Islamism and Democracy

Since the ideologies of Islamism are strongly related to some form of Islamic state, legislature , and executive , the form of government of an Islamic state is of paramount importance in any Islamist ideology. Opinions on this, however, differ.

Arguments against democracy as a form of government are based on the opinion that democracy itself is opposed to the theological principles of Islam: namely, the rule and sovereignty of God ( hukm-ullah or hakimiyyat-ullah in Abū l-Aʿlā Maudūdī and Sayyid Qutb ), whatever Rule out a form of people's sovereignty. This school of thought is based primarily on the works of Maududi and Sayyid Qutb. Ayman Dhawahiri regards democracy as shirkun billah , the provision of other gods besides God; the jihadist group Hizb ut-Tahrir describes democracy as nizam-u-kufr, a system of "blasphemy". It is haram for Muslims to call for democracy or to participate in it. Democratic forms of government are also viewed as un-Islamic because the personal freedom they are granted has led to acts that are prohibited by Islam, such as morally reprehensible behavior such as prostitution.

In contrast, there is a school of thought that join the Tunisian Islamist Ennahda Party led by Rached al-Ghannouchi , the fundamentalist politician Hasan at-Turabi and parts of the Egyptian and Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood . This school of thought regards democracy as a form of government that is closely related to Islam for monitoring the government. Ghannuchi and others base this interpretation on Islam's own idea of ​​the shūrā , a council in which the ruler agrees with the representatives of the people or the legal scholars. Ghannouchi sees democracy, if not in its secular form, as an appropriate state constitution to prevent despotism and ensure that Sharia , Islamic law, is applied. He understands the principle of God's sovereignty as one that calls on the ruler not to rule despotic and unauthorized, since the true power of judgment lies with God.

According to an assessment by the Federal Agency for Civic Education , political Islamism cannot be reconciled with the democratic constitutional state. The universal validity of divine law made by Islamists contradicts the principle of popular sovereignty.

According to a research report by the Austrian Integration Fund , the rejection of democracy among immigrant Muslims in Austria is stronger the more these people orient themselves towards Islam.

Further ideologemes on the state and society

Religious minorities

Since Islam (as well as Islamism) does not have direct forced missioning, religious minorities, provided they belong to the book religions (such as Christians, Jews, etc.), are protected by the state ( Dhimmi status). Islamist groups differ in their ideas of such "protection"; Many want to allow minorities the full practice of their religion, others want to restrict the public practice of their faith. In most Islamist ideologies, people of different faiths would largely enjoy the same rights as Muslims, but they would be excluded from certain political offices and the carrying of weapons and would have to pay a special poll tax (" jizya ") instead of the zakat tax that is mandatory for Muslims .

anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism is a central element in the argumentation of Islamism. Islamists are directed against Jews and against Israel , the terms are mostly used synonymously. Israel is rejected as an illegitimate occupying power in Arab countries; Judaism is seen as the concretization of an allegedly godless modernity . He is assigned responsibility for the critical condition of many Islamic societies. This shows the idea of ​​a Jewish world conspiracy borrowed from Western anti-Semitism . These anti-Semitic beliefs were able to spread because there are anti-Judaist passages in both the Qur'an and the hadiths .

One of the most important programmatic texts of Islamist anti-Semitism is the essay Ma'rakatuna ma 'al-yahud (Our Struggle with the Jews) by Sayyid Qutb , published in 1950 . In it he asserts an unchanged continuity of the Jews of his presence since the time of Muhammad, who always agitated against Islam and carried out attacks and would do anything "to remove the community of Muslims from their religion and to alienate them from the Koran". They would "kill, massacre and slander prophets", which is why Allah finally sent Adolf Hitler . Qutb hoped that similar rulers might reappear “to inflict the worst kind of punishment on the Jews; with that he will fulfill his unequivocal promise. "

As evidence of an alleged Jewish world conspiracy, later Islamists cited the Protocols of the Elders of Zion , an originally Russian-language forgery or fiction from the beginning of the 20th century. With quotations from it, Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi , Sheikh of the Azhar from 1996 to 2010, justified his assertion in his dissertation from 1966 that “the Jews” had always been enemies of the Muslims. In 2011, Iran's Supreme Legal Scholar Ali Khamene'i referred to the Protocols when he said that "the weird and primitive" found in the world's leading opinion-forming media is related to the goals set out in the Protocols lie in a line. The website Radio Islam has been using the protocols as a weapon in its fight against Jews and Zionists since 1996 . The Palestinian Hamas explicitly invokes them in its 1988 charter to substantiate the claim that “the Jews” wanted supremacy over the entire Middle East , if not world domination :

“The Zionist endeavor is limitless, and after Palestine they are striving to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates . When they have completely engulfed the area they have advanced to, they seek further expansion, and so on. Your purpose is in the 'Minutes of the Elders of Zion', and what you are doing now is the best evidence of what we are saying. "

The Shiite Hezbollah (“Party of God”), active in Lebanon , flatly denies Israel's right to exist , which it only ever apostrophizes as “the Zionist entity”, and is striving to destroy it. Your general secretary Hassan Nasrallah insults Jews as "descendants of monkeys and pigs". The conspiracy theory is spread on Hezbollah-controlled television that there has been a secret Jewish world government for centuries , and the originally Christian ritual murder legend is revived. Anti-Semitism played a major role in the Hamburg terror cell from which the main perpetrators of the September 11, 2001 attacks came. The perpetrator of the attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris on January 9, 2015 justified his crimes by saying that "the Jews" were responsible for the "suppression of the Islamic State " and of Muslims "everywhere".

Image of women

Protests by women (2014) for the introduction of Sharia law in the Maldives with the poster " Islam will dominate the world " (Islam will dominate the world)

The image of women in Islamist ideologies is also very different. The basic notion of most Islamist groups is to see women in their home environment first; However, they are not prohibited from doing political or religious activity, from work or from entertainment, provided that such activities are compatible with the family. Many Islamist organizations and parties have parallel women's committees and associations in which women can become politically active. This makes it clear that the image of women in Islamism is neither uniform nor one-dimensional. Many Islamists therefore even see themselves as reformers who protect women from outdated traditions that are essentially un-Islamic. Other groups, on the other hand, reject women in public and preach a patriarchal image of women.

Relationship between Islamists

Sunni and Shiite Islamism are very different, and each other's views are often not recognized. These divergences are evident not least in relation to the issue of freedom of expression. In general, concepts such as respect, courtesy, morality and fear of God are of great importance in Islamist ideas. As a consequence, this can mean that they want to limit the freedom of expression - in their own country - in order to maintain and protect these concepts.

Influences, forms and currents

Salafism

Salafism describes a current in modern Islamic thought that calls for a return to the original Islam of the pious forefathers, the prophet Mohammed and the four rightly guided caliphs . The current is generally understood as a 19th century development that emerged in response to the growing European influence in the Ottoman Empire and the growing weakness of the Sultanate. Salafism is one of the first trends in Islam to reject the ulama tradition , as well as cultural influences, Sufism, and calls for a resumption of ijtihad , the individual interpretation of the texts of Islam. Salafism is a trend based on thinkers who do not necessarily have a clerical education. As the fathers of Salafism, i.a. Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani (1838–1897), Muhammad Abduh (1849–1905) and Raschid Rida (1865–1935). Salafism can be seen as an influential current and forerunner of later Islamism.

Fundamentalism / Neo-fundamentalism

In the vernacular, the term fundamentalism in connection with Islam is often equated with Islamism per se; however, in academic literature the two terms are separated. Traditionally, the term denotes the scholars of ʿilm al-uṣūl , the science that deals with the study of the foundations of Islamic jurisprudence (Fiqhفقه) deals.

The French Islamic scholar Olivier Roy characterizes Islamic fundamentalism primarily as a way of thinking within Islam that is opposed to the religious orthodoxy of the clergy (ulama) . In contrast to Islamism, however, fundamentalism sees itself mainly as a movement that seeks to change the people themselves and not the state first. The Islamization of society therefore takes priority over political activism. Islamic fundamentalism or neo-fundamentalism is conservative according to Roy's definition, therefore it represents few women's rights , which is in stark contrast to most Islamist groups, and sees the introduction of Sharia as an important pivot for a successful Islamization of society. The form of government, on the other hand, is seen as less important than compliance with religious law itself.

The Anglo-American historian Bernard Lewis describes the application of the term fundamentalism to Islam as unfortunate and misleading as it originally to Christianity applied was. There he describes mostly Protestant currents that defend the divine origin and the infallibility of the Bible . However, according to Lewis, this concept cannot be applied to Islam, since the belief in the divine origin of the Koran is one of the foundations of the religion and therefore every Muslim is literally a fundamentalist. Similarly, Abdelwahab Meddeb speaks of the fact that the seeds of Islamism are already contained in the Koranic text. According to him, it would be a lot easier if this Islamist reading of the Koran didn't exist.

These views are opposed by Islamic scholars such as Gilles Kepel and Olivier Roy , who accuse Bernard Lewis and others of a one-dimensional and essentialist worldview of Islam.

According to dominant public opinion, Islamic fundamentalism is political and not religious. It is an object of security policy . It is “with Islamic fundamentalism a political movement that instrumentalizes and abuses religion for non-religious purposes”.

Volker von Prittwitz , Professor of Political Science at the Free University of Berlin ( Otto Suhr Institute ), wrote an essay in 2002: Civil or Imperial Religion? - Fundamentalism, religious freedom and the responsibility of the civil state . In it, he examines, among other things, the question of whether fundamentalism is a “politically falsified religion”.

Islamists in the government

There are several officially Islamic states, and republican regimes often call themselves the " Islamic Republic ".

The Iran and Saudi Arabia to work on a fundamentally different political basis and diverge in terms of their historical development and the respective state religion (Iran: Twelver ; Saudi Arabia: Sunni Islam). The history of Iran since 1979 has been marked by the brutal introduction and implementation of a theocratic regime. Its political system is considered to be strongly influenced by Islam , as is the political system of Saudi Arabia , whose interpretation of Islam is particularly medieval. At the same time, these governments promote Shiite (Iran) and Sunni (Saudi Arabia) extremists abroad and carry out proxy conflicts in various countries. Iran is supported by Russia , for example in the civil war in Syria , where the Iran-backed regime of Assad is using armed force against opposition groups.

Islamist-oriented parties take part in elections in numerous Arab states and have seats in parliament, for example in Morocco , Jordan and Yemen . The Arab spring allowed early 2011 government formation in many North African countries that were previously more or less dictatorial rule, for example in Egypt, Algeria, Libya and Tunisia.

Islamism discussion

The discussion among Muslims about the role of state and religion is as old as the religion of Islam. The Koran is seen by traditionalist Muslims as a perfect revelation that contains all the rules for human coexistence. These rules are explained and expanded in the Sunna or the Hadith , the traditions about the life and views of the Prophet Mohammed . Since the Koran contains these rules, according to this view , the Muslim umma does not need any man-made law in all those legal questions that are already regulated in the Koran and in the hadiths. For followers of Islamist, fundamentalist and religiously conservative schools of thought, any man-made law in these areas is therefore forbidden - man should not try to do it like God or even better than him by ignoring God's laws and creating his own laws. Such laws are seen as the cause of many "imbalances" and "evils" in contemporary societies. A return to the divine laws promises Islamists an improvement in conditions.

The subject areas of Muslims in non-Muslim countries, women and the actual form of an Islamic state, in which non-Muslim minorities ( dhimmis ) also live, are particularly controversial . Islamic or Islamist parties and interest groups therefore represent very different points of view, starting with moderate changes in the law in just a few essential areas such as family law, up to the totalitarian theocratic state. There are also strong differences between Sunnis and Shiites: Sunnis regard the rule of people as legitimate before God; Orthodox Shiism, on the other hand, cannot imagine any human rule on earth before the Mahdi reappeared . Ayatollah Khomeini broke with this tradition after the revolution of 1979 when he argued that a secular rule by the highest religious jurist is considered legitimate by God as long as the Mahdi has not reappeared.

The assessment of radical Islamists and their threat potential is also problematic. While some of the Islamist groups and their supporters are not militant, there are others who are radical in their interpretations and actions and advocate violence for enforcement. In particular, the question of how Muslims should live in non-Muslim countries, such as Europe, has not been clearly clarified by the imams and legal scholars of Islam. Radical associations take advantage of this lack of clarity. In the countries where Muslim minorities live, there is therefore a lively debate about how to investigate the threat potential of the Islamists. Problems arise here from language barriers and the self-chosen isolation of the Islamist groups. Obtaining certainty about the real intentions of radical groups often proves difficult.

Islamism in Europe

Germany

In 2007 there were around 3.5 million Muslims in Germany. According to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution , approx. H. Affiliated to Islamic political organizations with radical convictions. This corresponds to around 32,100 people who were followers of Islamist groups in 2005. Of these, 27,200 are of Turkish and 3,350 of Arab origin. In the years that followed, up to 2017, the number of Islamist people fell to 25,810, but the BfV also noted an increase in the violence-oriented spectrum. Germany is primarily seen as a resting place for potential Islamic terrorists. Some politicians are calling for tough action against Islamist criminals. The police propose the creation of an Islamist file . However, proving clear intentions as well as weighing up freedom of expression and endangering the public is proving to be difficult.

2004: Minutes 42, public hearing on September 20, 2004.

In 2008, Die Welt presented data from astudy carried outat the University of Hamburg in December 2007, which, however, should be “treated with caution”. According to this, “around 14 percent of the Muslim population reject German democracy and prefer Islamic Sharia law. This group also considers politically and religiously motivated violence to be legitimate. For Muslim students, the rate rises to 29.2 percent, for students - taking into account anti-Semitic or anti-Christian prejudices - 16.4 percent. "

A Six Country Immigrant Integration Comparative Survey carried out at the Berlin Science Center for Social Research (WZB) in 2013 showed that 45.1% of Muslims in Germany consider the rules of the Koran to be more important than German laws. 61.0% said they would not tolerate homosexuals in their circle of friends. 28.0% of Muslims in Germany were of the opinion that Jews cannot be trusted.

In 2012, Islamists called for assassinations in Germany after an alleged German actor was said to have appeared in a controversial Mohammed film.

According to the constitution protection report for 2012, there are 42,500 Islamists in Germany. Of these, around 1,000 are people who are prone to violence and around 130 people "who are particularly concerned and who are observed around the clock".

A representative survey published in 2016 by the opinion research institute TNS Emnid on behalf of the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” of the University of Münster among 1200 immigrants from Turkey and their descendants aged 16 and over revealed a “considerable proportion of Islamic fundamentalist attitudes that are difficult to understand to unite the principles of modern societies ”. For example, 47% of those questioned agreed with the statement "Obeying the commandments of my religion is more important to me than the laws of the state in which I live".

A study by the Zurich University of Applied Sciences , which evaluated representative student surveys by the Criminological Institute Lower Saxony from 2015, showed that the statement “The Islamic Sharia laws, according to which, for example, adultery or homosexuality are severely punished, are much better than that German laws ”was affirmed by 27.4% of the students who described themselves as Muslim (32.2% for male students, 22.5% for female students). The statement was rated by 284 of the 500 students surveyed. The statement “Islam is the only true religion; all other religions are worth less ”found an agreement of 36.6%; the statement “The Koran is the only true book of faith; the rules laid down in it must be followed exactly ”, 69.6% agreed (290 out of 500 rated the statement). Because of the high level of approval, the latter statement is not suitable for “differentiating between non-fundamentalist and fundamentalist-minded young people”.

The most important Islamist groups in Germany in recent years

  • The “Islamic-'fundamentalist '” ( Udo Steinbach ) “Association of the New World View ” was created in 1976 under a different name; since 1995 it has been called “Islamic Community Millî Görüş ”. Its name goes back to a book by the Turkish politician Necmettin Erbakan . What is meant by this is “'a political perspective with regard to the establishment of an Islamic Republic of Turkey'”, which is not pursued by violent means. The long-term goal, however, is global Islamization in the sense of a “backward-looking and doctrinal understanding of Islam”. The association had over 30,000 members in 1996 and was at that time the fastest growing Turkish association in Germany. Their considerable financial strength is remarkable; it is assumed that this is also based on the support of radical Islamic states.
  • The radical Islamist German preacher Pierre Vogel , who has converted to Islam , is a member of the Salafist association Invitation to Paradise and tries above all to convert young people and young adults to neo-fundamentalist Islam through sermons and videos on the Internet and public appearances .
  • The around 800 supporters of Metin Kaplan's caliphate state , which was banned in December 2001 and whose supporters were recruited from radicalized IGMG supporters, fought the liberal-democratic basic order and strived for the global rule of Islam. Its leader, the "Caliph of Cologne", called for the reintroduction of the Islamic legal system in Turkey and the Islamization of Germany. In 2000, Metin Kaplan was sentenced to four years imprisonment for an (followed) murder order against an adversary in Germany and, after a long discussion, deported to Turkey on October 12, 2004 , where he has been serving a life sentence since then .
  • The Islamic Community in Germany e. V. (IGD), which emerged in 1963 from the mosque building commission of the Islamic Center in Munich founded three years earlier , is close to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood . Its first president, Said Ramadan , son-in-law of Hassan al-Banna , the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, was also a founding member of the Islamic World League, which is financed by Saudi Arabia . Since then, the paths of the Muslim Brotherhood and Saudi Arabia have been closely intertwined. Over the years, more Islamic centers sprang up all over the Federal Republic of Germany. The Islamic Center in Aachen (IZA), which was founded by the Syrian and member of the local Muslim Brotherhood Isaam al-Attar, broke away from the IGD in 1981. To this end, the IZA, together with the IGD and the other Islamic Centers, is a member of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany (ZMD), which was temporarily headed by the Saudi gynecologist and member of the board of the IZA's Bilal Mosque in Aachen, Nadeem Elyas . Christian Ganczarski, who is accused of being the man behind the attack on the Tunisian island of Djerba, talked about the IZA and the Islamic University of Medina . Muhammad Aman Herbert Hobohm, Managing Director of the Saudi Arabian King Fahd Academy in Bonn, is also a member of the ZMD. In a joint series of publications by the IZ München and the IGD, fundamentalist ideas are revealed that oscillate between the Muslim Brotherhood and Wahhabism. It reveals a militant anti-secular stance, advocates the jihad of conquest, the need to reintroduce an unreformed Sharia and the archaic Hadd punishments (chopping off the thief's hand and stoning the adulterer).
  • The 200 members of the Islamist party Hizb ut-Tahrir (“Party of Islamic Liberation”) are extremely violent . The tightly organized group strives to unite all Muslims in one state of God. Your main enemy is Israel. In 2003 the organization was banned in Germany. But she is still acting. In particular, she tries to win followers among Muslim students.

Islamist terror in Germany

Since 2009 there have been 9 Islamist attacks in Germany. In 2016 there were Islamist-motivated attacks in Ansbach and Würzburg . In the attack on the Berlin Christmas market at the Memorial Church , 12 people were killed and 55 injured, some seriously.

17 Islamist attacks have been prevented by the security authorities since 2009.

See also: List of terrorist attacks in Germany since 1945

Attitude of Islamic associations

After the terrorist attacks on November 13, 2015 in Paris , the eight largest Muslim associations in Germany appealed to the sense of responsibility of all Muslims to stand up against radicalization and Islamism in their personal circle. They also declared that they would increase their efforts to defend against Islamism and for European values ​​such as freedom and pluralism .

Switzerland

In Switzerland about 310,000 mostly Sunni Muslims (4.26% of the population), 40,000 of them are Swiss citizens. 10 to 15 percent of them are practicing Muslims. The number of violent Islamists in Switzerland is estimated by experts at "a few dozen to a few hundred".

One of the most famous Islamists in Switzerland was the convert Ahmed Huber .

In June 2007, the federal court sentenced the Moroccan-born Belgian and Islamist Malika El Aroud , who is also the widow of the murderer of Ahmad Shah Massoud , Dahmane Abd el-Sattar , and her second husband Moez Garsallaoui for terrorist propaganda on the Internet. The website operated by the Swiss community of Düdingen disseminates information about the construction of bombs and execution videos.

The converts Nicolas Blancho , Qaasim Illi and his wife Nora Illi have been present in the media since the Association of Islamic Central Council Switzerland IZRS was founded . The club and the people are under observation after various incidents.

Austria

According to a 2017 scientific study, 34.6% of Austrian Muslims have “highly fundamentalist” attitudes.

A Six Country Immigrant Integration Comparative Survey carried out at the Berlin Science Center for Social Research (WZB) in 2013 showed that 73.1% of Muslims in Austria consider the rules of the Koran to be more important than Austrian laws. 70.8% said they would not tolerate homosexuals in their circle of friends. 64.1% of Muslims in Austria were of the opinion that Jews cannot be trusted.

In 2017, a study by George Washington University warned against activities of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood in Austria. Persons and organizations closely related to the Muslim Brotherhood have taken on key positions in the life of Muslim immigrants in Austria. The Muslim Brotherhood also plays a central role in accepting asylum seekers arriving in Austria from predominantly Muslim countries. The IRPA, which belongs to the Islamic Faith Community in Austria (IGGiÖ) and is responsible for the training of Islamic religion teachers, is due to various connections to the Muslim Brotherhood "undoubtedly under their influence".

According to the extremism researcher Lorenzo G. Vidino , the values ​​of the Muslim Brotherhood contradict the constitutional values ​​of Austria. It aims at "dividing society and strengthening the influence of political Islam". In a study by the Austrian Integration Fund, eight out of sixteen mosques worked specifically against integration.

The Austrian Office for the Protection of the Constitution sees "Islamist extremism and terrorism" as the greatest threat to the country.

On November 2, 2020, in the course of a terrorist attack classified as Islamist in Vienna, 5 people (including the perpetrator) were killed and more than 20 injured, some seriously. As a reaction to the attack, two radical Islamic mosques, in which the perpetrator frequented and which are said to have contributed to his radicalization, were closed in the following days. These are the Tewhid mosque in Meidling, set up by the IGGÖ in 2016, and the Melit Ibrahim mosque in Ottakring, which is not under the control of the IGGÖ . Mohamed M. , who was convicted of membership in a terrorist organization, and Lorenz K., who was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2018 for attack plans, are said to have been involved in the latter .

Great Britain

With a total population of 60 million people, there are around 1.6 million Muslims in Great Britain. Metropolitan areas are mainly Bradford , Oldham , Burnley , Leicester , Birmingham and the capital London . These metropolitan areas, along with large numbers of other non-Muslim immigrants, are often socially disadvantaged areas . All of the July 7th assassins, among others, were from Bradford and were British citizens .

The social climate has changed significantly since these attacks. The UK authorities have traditionally been very tolerant of freedom of expression , but the tone is sharpened, for example when the government officially calls on universities to "watch carefully" Muslim students. As early as the 1990s, a few voices were raised that refer to the large number of fundamentalist Muslims in Great Britain as “ Eurabia ” or “Londonistan” and describe London not only as a European, but also a Muslim capital of culture. An important intention of young followers of this Islamist theology, outwardly adapted to their British homeland, is the feeling of fighting for the creation of a revolutionary state that will ultimately bring the justice of Islam to the whole world.

Individual British mosques have long been meeting places for exchange among like-minded Islamists. For example, recommends the London Imam Omar Bakri Muhammad , leader of the radical sect al Muhajiroun , as the only way of dealing with non-Muslim societies continue the jihad and expressed repeatedly praised terrorist attacks against the United States, Israel and other Western states. After the attacks, he left Great Britain for Lebanon , where he was arrested in November 2010 on suspicion of terrorism. For a long time, Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Masri, who preached at the North Finsbury Park Mosque, was allowed to give instructions for their missions to Islamists who were later exposed as terrorists and al-Qaida cadres before he was arrested under pressure from the United States . In October 2012, al-Masri was expelled to the United States. According to a report in the British press in August 2007, around 20 percent of British Muslims, according to Haras Rafiq , an adviser to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the time , sympathize with Islamic militants and up to 9 percent even with suicide bombers. Given the current population of 1.6 million Muslims, this would be 144,000 people who support terrorism.

In 2014, newspapers reported that Islamists tried to influence schools in Birmingham with high proportions of Islamic students.

France

Almost six million Muslims live in France, most of them from the Maghreb states of North Africa. The vast majority rejects radical Islamist ideas. The French domestic intelligence service, however, believes that radical Muslims are on the rise in socially explosive metropolitan areas such as the banlieues in the greater Paris area or other large cities ( Lyon , Marseille , Toulouse ). Particularly at risk are “young people who have lost their balance”, who could easily be radicalized by extremists.

At the end of 2005, the unrest in France made the discussion about Islamic fundamentalism even more explosive. The problem of the unequal treatment of black and Arab-born French (Beurs) , including those of non-Muslim origin, is mixed up with the discussion of religious extremism, as are social problems and crime. The conservative politician and former interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy themed in his tenure as president (2007-2012) always the struggle against Islamic extremism and the lack of integration of the Muslim minority; His political opponents therefore accused him of dividing society and stirring up existing anti-Muslim resentment.

Seven people died in a series of attacks in the Midi-Pyrénées region in March 2012. The main culprit is Mohamed Merah , a 23-year-old Muslim French of Algerian origin. The French special police unit RAID shot and killed Merah on March 22, 2012 during an operation.

Italy

According to the intelligence services, Italy and the Vatican have long been among the main targets of Islamist terrorists. At least 800,000 Muslims live in Italy . According to the Italian journalist Fahrid Adli , who comes from Libya , around five percent of them regularly visit mosques; only a fraction of this group is willing to engage in religiously motivated violence.

Former Interior Minister Enzo Bianco reported in early 2004 that Islamist groups linked to terrorists had been dug up in 1997, 2000 and 2001. Since the Madrid attacks in March 2004 and the murder of two Italian hostages in Iraq in September 2004, there has been a growing distrust of the population towards the Muslim minority. In light of these developments, President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi has expressed concern about the anti-Islamic climate in Italy. Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu called for a dialogue with Italy's Muslims.

Spain

Of the roughly three million foreigners in Spain , almost 15 percent are Moroccans , and another five percent come from Algeria , Tunisia and other Muslim countries in the Maghreb . A series of arrests were made following the March 11, 2004 terrorist attacks , including a suspected terrorist group who may have attempted an attack on Judge Baltasar Garzón . At the end of 2004 it was announced that more than 100 radical Islamists and terror suspects were in prison.

Studies have shown that violent Islamists recruit their followers from petty criminals. Europol Director Mariano Simancas criticized the fact that the prisons were hopelessly overcrowded, which he described as a “breeding ground for extremism”. There are around 6,000 North Africans in Spain's prisons, mostly from Morocco and Algeria.

literature

Political Islam, Islamism in general

  • Muriel Asseburg (Ed.): Moderate Islamists as Reform Actors - Framework Conditions and Programmatic Change. SWP, Berlin 2007 ( PDF ); New edition under the title Moderate Islamists as Reform Actors? Bpb, Bonn 2008, ISBN 978-3-89331-883-4 .
  • Department of the Protection of the Constitution of the Senate Department for the Interior and Sport Berlin (Ed.): Islamism - Discussion of a complex phenomenon. Berlin 2005
  • Floris Biskamp, ​​Stefan E. Hößl (ed.): Islam and Islamism. Perspectives for political education. NBKK, Giessen 2013, ISBN 978-3-00-041758-0 .
  • Michael Bröning, Holger Weiss (ed.): Political Islam in West Africa. An inventory. Lit, Berlin / Münster 2006, ISBN 3-8258-9349-9 .
  • Dan Diner : Sealed Time. About the standstill in the Islamic world. Propylaea, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-549-07244-9 .
  • Mohammed Djassemi: The Fundamentals of Islamic Ideology. In: Political Studies. Special issue Middle East, Munich 1980; extended reprint: Islamic Fundamentalism. Basic features of the Islamic ideology in Iran. Djassemi, Tinnum 2004, ISBN 3-938104-03-1 .
  • Friedrich Erich Dobberahn: Loss and recapture of salvation history - On the emergence of Shi'ite Islamism. In: Wilhelm Eppler (ed.): Fundamentalism as a challenge in religious education. V&R Academic / V&R unipress, Göttingen, 2015, ISBN 978-3-8471-0419-3 , pp. 105-138.
  • Gisbert Jörg Gemein, Hartmut Redmer: Islamic Fundamentalism. Aschendorff, Münster 2005, ISBN 3-402-06556-8 .
  • Julia Gerlach: Between Pop and Jihad. Muslim youth in Germany. Links, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-86153-404-5 .
  • Johannes Grundmann: Islamic Internationalists. Structures and activities of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic World League. Reichert, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-89500-447-2 .
  • Hamid Reza Yousefi, Sarah Ginsburg: Culture of War. Americanism - Zionism - Islamism. Nordhausen 2007.
    • Review by Ismail Küpeli, first published in analyze + kritik . No. 507, June 16, 2006.
  • Gilles Kepel : Le prophète et pharaon. 1984
    • The Prophet and the Pharaoh. The Example of Egypt: The Development of Muslim Extremism. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-492-03786-0 .
  • ders .: Jihad. 2000.
    • The black book of jihad. The rise and fall of Islamism. Piper, Munich / Zurich 2002, ISBN 3-492-04432-8 .
  • ders .: Fitna. 2004.
  • ders .: The Crises of Islam. Modern Library, 2003.
    • The anger of the Arab world. Why the centuries-long conflict between Islam and the West continues to escalate. Campus, Frankfurt am Main / New York, 2003, ISBN 3-593-37343-2 .
  • Albrecht Metzger: Islamism. European Publishing House, Hamburg 2005, ISBN 3-434-46238-4 .
  • Peter L. Münch-Heubner : Islamism or Fundamentalism? A contribution to an academic war of faith. In: Hans Zehetmair : Islam. In the area of ​​tension between conflict and dialogue. Wiesbaden 2005, pp. 36-48.
  • Tilman Nagel : Islam or Islamism? Problems of demarcation. In: Hans Zehetmair: Islam. In the area of ​​tension between conflict and dialogue. Wiesbaden 2005, pp. 19-35.
  • Martin Riesebrodt: The Return of Religions. Fundamentalism and the “clash of civilizations”. Beck, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-406-45928-5 .
  • Bernhard Schmid: Algeria - Frontline State in Global War? Neoliberalism, Social Movements and Islamist Ideology in a North African Country. Unrast, Münster 2005, ISBN 3-89771-019-6 .
  • Thomas Schmidinger, Dunja Larise (Ed.): Between God's State and Democracy. Handbook of Political Islam. Zsolnay, Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-552-06083-8 .
  • Tilman Seidensticker: Islamism: History, Thought Leaders, Organizations. Beck, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-406-66069-6 .
  • Bassam Tibi : The Crisis of Modern Islam. A pre-industrial culture in the scientific and technical age. Beck, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-406-06028-5 ; extended edition: Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt 2001, ISBN 3-518-28489-4 .
  • ders .: Religious fundamentalism in the transition to the 21st century. BI-Taschenbuchverlag, Mannheim et al. 1995, ISBN 3-411-10501-1 .
  • Matenia Sirseloudi: Between assimilation and demarcation. The importance of religion for the identity of the Turkish diaspora community in Germany. In: B. Oberdorfer, P. Waldmann: The ambivalence of the religious. Religions as peacemakers and producers of violence. Rombach, Freiburg 2008, pp. 289-314.
  • ders .: Radicalization processes in the diaspora, in: APuZ 44/2010, pp. 39–43 ( link ).
  • Isabelle Werenfels: From dealing with the Islamists in the Maghreb. Between inclusion and suppression. SWP, Berlin 2005 ( PDF ).
  • Khadija Katja Wöhler-Khalfallah: Islamic Fundamentalism. From the original community to the German Islam Conference. Schiler, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-89930-229-5 .
  • Ernst Nolte : The third radical resistance movement: Islamism. Landt, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-938844-16-8 .
  • Johannes Kandel : Islamism in Germany - Between scare tactics and naivety. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau / Basel 2011, ISBN 978-3-451-30399-9 .
  • Boualem Sansal : Fool of Allah. How Islamism is conquering the world . Merlin, Vastorf-Gifkendorf 2013, ISBN 978-3-87536-309-8 .
  • Imad Mustafa: Political Islam. Between the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and Hezbollah. Promedia, Vienna 2013, ISBN 978-3-85371-360-0 .
  • Martin Kramer: Coming to Terms: Fundamentalists or Islamists? Middle East Quarterly. Spring 2003.
  • Heiko Heinisch and Nina Scholz: Everything for Allah: How political Islam is changing our society. Molden Verlag, Vienna / Graz 2019, ISBN 978-3-222-15029-6 .

Militant Islamism and the threat of terrorism

  • Uwe Backes , Eckhard Jesse : Islamism - Jihadism - Totalitarianism - Extremism, in: Backes / Jesse (ed.): Yearbook Extremism and Democracy, Volume 14, Baden-Baden 2002, pp. 13-26.
  • Bertelsmann Stiftung (Ed.): Violence, Extremism and Transformation. Bertelsmann Stiftung Verlag, Gütersloh 2006, ISBN 978-3-89204-921-0 ( Introduction ; PDF, 2.1 MB).
  • Henryk M. Broder : Hurray, we're capitulating. From the policy of buckling. wjs, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-937989-20-X .
  • Babette Bonn: Martyrs and no end? The religious background of the Islamic suicide bombers. Literareon, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-8316-1100-9 .
  • Friedrich Erich Dobberahn: 'The Coming is upon us' - Documentation of an Islamist video from Iran. In: Wilhelm Eppler (Ed.): Fundamentalism as a challenge in religious education. V&R Academic / V&R unipress, Göttingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-8471-0419-3 , pp. 139-160.
  • Michel Dormal: Terror and Politics. A political analysis of Islamism from the perspective of a critical theory of anti-Semitism and total domination . Lit, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-8258-1948-4 .
  • Mark A. Gabriel : Islam and Terrorism. What the Quran really teaches about Christianity, violence and the goals of jihad. Resch, Graefelfing 2004, ISBN 3-935197-39-X .
  • Gray wolves, Islam and the Turkish state. Background, donors and goals of right-wing and Islamic groups among migrants in the FRG. Attempt a representation. GNN-Verlag, Cologne 1994, ISBN 3-926922-27-3 .
  • Peter Heine : Terror in Allah's Name. Extremist forces in Islam . Herder, Freiburg 2001, ISBN 3-451-05240-7 .
    • expanded and updated edition: Terror in Allah's Name. Background to global Islamist violence. Herder, Freiburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-451-34269-1 .
  • Matthias Küntzel : Jihad and hatred of Jews. About the new anti-Jewish war. Ca Ira, Freiburg 2002, ISBN 3-924627-07-X .
  • Bernard Lewis : The Assassins. On the tradition of religious murder in radical Islam. Eichborn, Frankfurt 1989, ISBN 3-8218-4059-5 ; Piper, Munich / Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-492-11572-1 .
  • Souad Mekhennet , Claudia Sautter, Michael Hanfeld: The children of jihad. The new generation of Islamist terror in Europe. Piper, Munich / Zurich 2006, ISBN 3-492-04933-8 .
  • Thomas J. Moser: Politics on the path of God: On the genesis and transformation of militant Sunni Islamism. innsbruck university press, Innsbruck 2012, ISBN 978-3-902811-67-7 .
  • Bahman Nirumand (Ed.): In the Name of Allah. Islamic groups and fundamentalism in the FRG. Dreisam-Verlag, Cologne 1990, ISBN 3-89452-307-7 .
  • Hans-Peter Raddatz : From Allah to Terror? The Jihad and the Deformation of the West. 2nd Edition. Herbig, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-7766-2289-X .
  • ders .: Allah and the Jews. The Islamic Renaissance of Anti-Semitism. wjs, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-937989-26-6 .
  • Reinhard Scholzen : Anti-Western hatred in the name of the prophet. Islamism and Islamist terrorism as reflected in the reports on the protection of the constitution . In: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Wehrtechnik (Ed.): Global campaign against terrorism. A challenge for the German-American partnership. Berlin 2002, pp. 18-27.
  • Alice Schwarzer (Ed.): The divine warriors and false tolerance. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-462-03105-8 .
  • Elmar Theveßen : Terror alert. Germany and the Islamist threat. Rowohlt Berlin, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-87134-548-2 .
  • Bassam Tibi : Fundamentalism in Islam. A danger to world peace? Primus-Verlag, Darmstadt 2000, ISBN 3-89678-163-4 ; 3rd supplemented edition: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2002.
  • Lawrence Wright : Death will find you . Al-Qaeda and the road to September 11th. A mirror book at DVA, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-421-04303-0 (American. Original: The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. Knopf, NYC 2006, ISBN 0-14-102935 -8 ).

Web links

Commons : Islamism  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Islamism  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
 Wikinews: Islamism  - In The News

Comments, essays, reports, reviews, interviews

Dossiers, main topics, specials

General religious and Islamic fundamentalism

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ What is Islamism? Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, accessed on March 30, 2018
  2. ↑ a b Islamism - What is it anyway? Federal Agency for Civic Education , accessed on April 2, 2013
  3. ↑ Martin Kramer: Coming to Terms: Fundamentalists or Islamists? Middle East Quarterly. Spring 2003, pp. 65-77.
  4. ^ Tilman Nagel : Islam or Islamism? Problems of demarcation. In: Hans Zehetmair : Islam. In the area of ​​tension between conflict and dialogue. VS, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-531-14797-8 , pp. 32-33.
  5. ↑ For example, Nagel quotes the text of the Islamic author Ibrahim Rüschoff , which discusses the difference between letter-based, behavior-norming Islam and attitude-motivating Christianity using the example of the Islamic ban on pork: "It cannot be denied that pork is not the best and the healthiest" - an inner-worldly argument - “I don't dare to claim that this is the reason for the ban (blocked in the original!). That this prohibition was given to us by God in the Qur'an is decisive for us Muslims ”. Quoted from Tilman Nagel: Islam or Islamism? Problems of demarcation. In: Hans Zehetmair: Islam. In the area of ​​tension between conflict and dialogue. VS, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-531-14797-8 , p. 22.
  6. ^ Tilman Nagel: Islam or Islamism? Problems of demarcation. In: Hans Zehetmair: Islam. In the area of ​​tension between conflict and dialogue. VS, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-531-14797-8 , pp. 25-26.
  7. ↑ Ingrid Thurner: What does Islam have to do with Islamism? In: Die Presse , February 6, 2013.
  8. ↑ No middle way for Islam. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, September 17, 2015.
  9. ↑ Cf. Thomas J. Moser: Politics on the path of God: On the genesis and transformation of militant Sunni Islamism. Innsbruck University Press, Innsbruck 2012, ISBN 978-3-902811-67-7 , pp. 37-40.
  10. ↑ a b c Gilles Kepel : The Black Book of Jihad. The rise and fall of Islamism. Piper, Munich / Zurich 2002, ISBN 3-492-04432-8 .
  11. ^ Richard P. Mitchell: The Society of the Muslim Brothers. Oxford University Press, 1993, ISBN 0-19-508437-3 .
  12. ↑ Cf. Thomas J. Moser: Politics on the path of God: On the genesis and transformation of militant Sunni Islamism. innsbruck university press, Innsbruck 2012, ISBN 978-3-902811-67-7 , pp. 101-104.
  13. ↑ Gilles Kepel: The Black Book of Jihad. The rise and fall of Islamism. Piper, Munich / Zurich 2002, ISBN 3-492-04432-8 , pp. 257-264.
  14. ↑ Cf. Gudrun Krämer: God's State as Republic. Reflections by contemporary Muslims on Islam, human rights and democracy . Baden-Baden 1999, p. 93.
  15. ↑ Spiegel Online : Interview with Leon de Winter: "Sometimes we only have the choice between disaster and catastrophe" . August 1, 2005 (led by Henryk M. Broder )
  16. ↑ Olivier Roy : The Failure of Political Islam. IB Tauris & Co., London 1999, ISBN 1-85043-880-3 , p. 2.
  17. ↑ “Islam is a comprehensive system that deals with all aspects of life. It is state and fatherland, or government and nation. It's leadership and power or compassion and justice. It's culture and law, or knowledge and jurisprudence. It is building material and wealth, or profit and success. It's jihad and reputation, or army and occasion. And finally, it is true faith and correct devotion. "
  18. ↑ a b c d Azzam S. Tamimi: Rachid Ghannouchi. A Democrat Within Islamism. Oxford University Press, New York 2001, ISBN 0-19-514000-1 , pp. 173-181.
  19. ↑ Joyce M. Davis: Interview with Rachid al-Ghannouchi. In: Between Jihad and Salaam: Profiles in Islam. Palgrave MacMillan, 1997, ISBN 0-312-21781-1 , p. 182.
  20. ↑ a b Joyce M. Davis: Interview with Rachid al-Ghannouchi. In: Between Jihad and Salaam: Profiles in Islam. Palgrave MacMillan, 1997, ISBN 0-312-21781-1 , p. 183.
  21. ↑ Joyce M. Davis: Interview with Rachid al-Ghannouchi. In: Between Jihad and Salaam: Profiles in Islam. Palgrave MacMillan, 1997, ISBN 0-312-21781-1 , pp. 183-199.
  22. ↑ Federal Agency for Civic Education: Islamism and Fundamentalism.
  23. ↑ Research report | Young people with a Muslim background in Vienna. Austrian Integration Fund, November 2019, accessed on December 6, 2019 .
  24. ↑ Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (ed.): Anti-Semitism in Islamism. P. 5, p. 20 and above, accessed on September 24, 2019.
  25. ↑ Michael Kiefer: Anti-Semitism in Islamic Societies. The Palestine conflict and the transfer of an enemy image. Books on demand, Düsseldorf 2002; Samuel Salzborn : Global Anti-Semitism. A search for traces in the abyss of modernity. Beltz Juventa, Weinheim 2018, p. 117 f.
  26. ↑ Also on the following Klemens Himpele: Anti-Semitism in Arab States. Cologne 2004, ISBN 978-3-8364-5833-7 , pp. 39-41; Götz Nordbruch: Qutb, Sayyid. In: Wolfgang Benz (Hrsg.): Handbuch des Antisemitismus, Vol. 2: Personen . De Gruyter Saur, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-598-44159-2 , p. 663 f., As well as Michael Kiefer: Ma'rakatuna ma'a al-yahud (Sayyid Qutb, 1950) . In: ibid., Vol. 6: Publications . De Gruyter Saur, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-11-030535-7 , pp. 444 f. (Both accessed via De Gruyter Online).
  27. ↑ Jeffrey Herf: Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World . Yale University Press, New Haven / London 2009, pp. 255 ff., Own translation.
  28. ↑ Michel Bernhardt and Julia Jaki: The 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion'. The genesis of the idea of ​​a Jewish / Zionist world conspiracy in Europe and the Arab world. In: Schirin Fathi (ed.): Plots, Heretics and Conspiracies. On the logic of conspiracy thinking. Examples from the Middle East . transcript, Bielefeld 2010, ISBN 978-3-8376-1341-4 , (accessed via De Gruyter Online) p. 222 f.
  29. ^ Hegemonistic media politics draw on Zionist protocols. www.tehran-times.com, October 18, 2011
  30. ↑ Wolfgang Benz : The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The legend of the Jewish world conspiracy. CH Beck, Munich 2007, p. 97 f.
  31. ↑ Olaf Farschid: HAMAS. In: Wolfgang Benz (Ed.): Handbook of Antisemitism , Volume 5: Organizations. De Gruyter Saur, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-11-027878-1 , p. 302 (accessed via De Gruyter Online).
  32. ↑ Olaf Farschid: Hizb Allah . In: Wolfgang Benz (Ed.): Handbook of Antisemitism, Volume 5: Organizations. De Gruyter Saur, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-11-027878-1 , p. 319 f. (Accessed via De Gruyter Online).
  33. ^ Samuel Salzborn: Global anti-Semitism. A search for traces in the abyss of modernity. Beltz Juventa, Weinheim 2018, p. 117 f.
  34. ↑ Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (ed.): Antisemitismus im Islamismus p. 24, accessed on September 24, 2019.
  35. ↑ Olivier Roy : The Failure of Political Islam. I. B. Tauris & Co., London 1999, ISBN 1-85043-880-3 , p. 32ff.
  36. ↑ Olivier Roy: The Failure of Political Islam. I. B. Tauris & Co., London 1999, ISBN 1-85043-880-3 , p. 24.
  37. ↑ Olivier Roy: The Failure of Political Islam. I. B. Tauris & Co., London 1999, ISBN 1-85043-880-3 , p. 38.
  38. ↑ See Olivier Roy: The Failure of Political Islam. I. B. Tauris & Co., London 1999, ISBN 1-85043-880-3 , p. 15.
  39. ↑ Bassam Tibi: Politicization of Religion. Security policy under the sign of Islamic fundamentalism. In: International Politics. 55 (2000) 2, p. 27. In the same sense, see Soheib Bencheikh: Ou l'islam marche avec son siècle, ou il reste a la marge de la société modern. In: Le Monde. November 20, 2001 (www.lemonde.fr); Yasar Nuri Öztürk: 400 questions about Islam - 400 answers. Düsseldorf 1999. Quoted from von Prittwitz: Civil or manorial religion
  40. ↑ Volker von Prittwitz: Civil or stately religion. May 22, 2002. Retrieved January 20, 2012 .
  41. ↑ ( page no longer available , search in web archives: facts and figures on Islamism ), Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / web.archive.org
  42. ↑ ( page no longer available , search in web archives: Islamist person potential )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.verfassungsschutz.de
  43. ↑ Public hearing of the interior committee of experts on the subject : Islamist influences on society and their effects on integration and security. German Bundestag, 15th electoral term, Protocol No. 15/42, Interior Committee .
  44. ↑ Alexander Ritzmann: Dropout Programs: How Radical Islamists Can Be Converted. In: Die Welt , September 3, 2008.
  45. ↑ a b Religious fundamentalism and out-group hostility among Muslims and Christians in Western Europe ( Memento from August 30, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Ruud Koopmans, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB), accessed on June 20, 2017.
  46. ↑ Because of the German actor in the dirty film, Islamists call for assassinations in Germany. Der Tagesspiegel , September 24, 2012.
  47. ↑ Friedrich sees great danger from Salafism. Tagesspiegel, June 11, 2013, accessed on July 21, 2013 .
  48. ↑ "Half of those of Turkish origin do not feel recognized". Retrieved January 9, 2018 .
  49. ↑ Detlef Pollack, Olaf Müller, Gergely Rosta, Anna Dieler: Integration and religion from the perspective of people of Turkish origin in Germany. Retrieved January 10, 2018 .
  50. ↑ Christian Pfeiffer, Dirk Baier, Sören Kliem: On the development of violence in Germany. Focus: Young people and refugees as perpetrators and victims. Retrieved January 11, 2018 .
  51. ↑ a b c d Udo Steinbach: Turkey in the 20th century. Difficult partner in Europe. Bergisch Gladbach 1996, ISBN 3-7857-0828-9 , pp. 428, 429.
  52. ↑ Islamist preacher has to leave Germany. Spiegel.de, April 21, 2011, accessed June 30, 2011.
  53. ↑ cf. B. Ludwig Schleßmann: From Pierre, Bashir and Luise. Some thoughts on German converts. In: Jürgen Court, Michael Klöcker (ed.): Ways and Worlds of Religions: Research and Mediation . Lembeck, Frankfurt am Main 2009, pp. 499–504, here p. 499; Converts: "I am a Muslim Jeworden". FAZ.NET, September 6, 2007, accessed June 30, 2011.
  54. ↑ Werner Schiffauer: Strangers in the city. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1997.
  55. ↑ Khadija Katja Wöhler-Khalfallah: Islamic Fundamentalism. From the original community to the German Islam Conference. Verlag Hans Schiler, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-89930-229-5 , pp. 200ff.
  56. ↑ a b c Die Welt, “I'm afraid that the act could be copied from Vienna in Germany” , November 3, 2020, accessed on November 5, 2020
  57. ↑ Ax attacker apparently had contacts in the Middle East , Zeit Online, accessed on October 29, 2016.
  58. ↑ 27-year-old kills himself in a crowd with an explosive device. , Spiegel Online, accessed October 29, 2016.
  59. ↑ Original source at tagesschau.de no longer available. Also available in the Internet "Wayback" archive under "We're moving closer together"
  60. ^ Office for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Issues at the US State Department : Report on International Religious Freedom 2007 - Switzerland ( Memento of July 24, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 36 kB).
  61. ↑ Reimann operates with non-existent numbers. February 13, 2014.
  62. ^ Coordination Intercommunautaire Contre l'Antisémitisme et la Defamation: Malika condamnée pour soutien au terrorisme. June 22, 2007.
  63. ↑ Do Saudi's Islamic Central Council sponsor ?: Secret service monitors Swiss Muslims . In: View from June 26, 2011, accessed: January 20, 2012.
  64. ↑ Ednan Aslan, Jonas Kolb, Erol Yildiz: Muslim Diversity. A compass for everyday religious practice in Austria. Springer VS, 2017.
  65. ↑ a b “The Muslim Brotherhood in Austria”. Study warns of the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Austria. diepresse.com, accessed on September 20, 2017.
  66. ↑ Study: One third of mosques work against integration. Die Presse, October 2, 2017, accessed October 5, 2017 .
  67. ↑ BVT (Ed.): Constitutional Protection Report 2018 . Vienna 2019, p. 11 ( bvt.gv.at [PDF]).
  68. ^ Austria closes two mosques. Retrieved November 10, 2020 .
  69. ^ Newspapers warn of threat to America from "Londonistan". The Guardian , July 12, 2005.
  70. ↑ Appeal to fellow believers: Put an end to terror! Neue Zürcher Zeitung , July 5, 2007.
  71. ↑ One in 11 British Muslims backs suicide bombers, says Brown aide. Daily Mail , August 2, 2007.
  72. ↑ Jochen Buchsteiner: Islamism in English schools. Clash of cultures. faz.net, June 10, 2014.
  73. ↑ Carsten Volkery: Islam in schools. “British values” for everyone. spiegel.de, June 10, 2014.
  74. ↑ Assassin of Toulouse: Doubts about loner theory. Spiegel Online, 23 August 2012.