ISLAMIC JIHAD

A movement of loosely associated extreme Islamists (known as jihadis) in the Muslim world. There are many tendencies in the movement—Sunni, Shi?a, pro-Iranian, pro-Egyptian, pro-Saudi. Islamic Jihad in Lebanon is Shi?ite; in Egypt and Palestine, Sunni. The Sunni groups are influenced by the Saudi Wahhabi movement. All jihadis advocate a return to the "genuine Islam" of the prophet Muhammad, with the Qu?ran and Shari ?a as the foundation for state and society. The modern Islamic movement arose at the beginning of the 1970s, after the Arab defeat in the June 1967 Arab-Israel war, an event that encouraged millenial interpretations among both Muslims and ultra-orthodox Jews.

The creation of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) by Saudi Arabia in September 1969 reflected this reality in the Muslim world. The OIC proposed the establishment of an "Islamic nation" according to the strictest laws of the Muslim religion, while favoring "Islamic orthodoxy." This institution also participated in the re-Islamization of society by building schools and mosques and by opening Islamic banks. Backed by Saudi Arabia, Islamist political activity revived in countries where it had been harshly repressed, such as Egypt and Syria. After the Arab-Israel War of 1973, Muslims in many countries, disappointed by the ineffective, secular, nominally socialist politics of so many Muslim countries, turned toward Saudi Arabia and Wahhabism. The proclamation of an Islamic republic in Iran, even though Shi?ite (a minority within Islam), confirmed for the Islamist faithful the value of practicing jihad as "holy war." Resorting to terrorism to achieve their ends, jihadis have been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people (among them Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat in 1981). At the beginning of the 1980s, many jihadis joined the ranks of the Afghan resistance against the Soviet army. Some of them, called "Afghans," upon returning to their native countries placed the technical expertise they acquired during this conflict (1979–1989) at the disposal of extremist movements in their own countries.

SEE ALSO Arab-Israel War (1967);Muhammad;Organization of the Islamic Conference;Sadat, Anwar al-.