6. Terrorism and Islam

The term “Terrorism” was first coined in the 1790s to refer to the terror used during the French Revolution by the revolutionaries against their opponents. The Jacobin party of Maximilien Robespierre carried out a Reign of Terror involving mass executions by the guillotine. Although terrorism in this usage implies an act of violence by a state against its domestic enemies, since the 20th century the term has been applied most frequently to violence aimed, either directly or indirectly, at governments in an effort to influence policy or topple an existing regime.
Terrorism involves the use or threat of violence and seeks to create fear. The degree to which it relies on fear distinguishes terrorism from both conventional and guerrilla warfare. Although conventional military forces invariably engage in psychological warfare against the enemy, their principal means of victory is strength of arms. Similarly, guerrilla forces, which often rely on acts of terror and other forms of propaganda, aim at military victory. Instead Terrorism is the systematic use of violence to generate fear, and thereby to achieve political goals, when direct military victory is not possible. In order to generate widespread fear, terrorists must engage in increasingly dramatic, violent, and high-profile attacks. These include hijackings, hostage takings, kidnappings, car bombings, and frequently, suicide bombings, and mass rapes against women and female children.
Schools, shopping centres, airports, train stations, and hotels are often targeted because they attract large crowds. Major targets include buildings or other locations that are important economic, political or religious symbols, such as embassies, military installations, and places of worship. The goal of terrorism generally is to destroy the public’s sense of security in the places most familiar to them and at the same time to induce the population to pressure political leaders toward a specific political end.
Terrorism, based on religion, exploits the religious message according to radical fundamentalist view -literal interpretation of sacred scriptures - and uses violence against people for socio-political ends. Perpetrators can be agents of states, individuals or groups acting independently or in cells.
Nowadays Salafist and Islamist groups can approve and justify violent actions against people opposing religious radical fundamentalist view. The use of violence as a means to achieve their goals. In the case of Islamic terrorism, Islamic law (Sharia) condemns the use of violence except to combat injustice, particularly where acts of aggression have occurred, and to defend the integrity of umma (it means Islamic community and can be in a specific country or in the world). This kind of violent action is called jihad  (known asholy war),while the violence not sanctioned by Islamic law is called hirabah.  
Terrorist and Fundamentalist Muslims (Islamists) are a very small percentage of the whole umma in the world. Most of Muslims reject Fundamentalist thought and violence, does not read the Qur'an in literalist manner and do not consider the world divided in Dar al-Harb (land of non-Muslims, enemies of Islam) and in Dar al-Islam (land of Muslims and peace). These concepts are linked to the term Jihad.

Jihad

The main meaning of Jihad is “struggle” and “duty for God”, but it is often translated to mean “holy war.” Islam distinguishes four ways by which the duty of jihad can be fulfilled: by the heart, the tongue, the hand, and the sword. The first consists in a spiritual purification of one’s own heart by doing battle with the devil and overcoming his inducements to evil. The propagation of Islam through the tongue and hand is accomplished in large measure by supporting what is right and correcting what is wrong. The fourth way to fulfill one’s duty is to wage war physically against unbelievers and enemies of the Islamic faith. Christians and Jews are given special consideration, paying the “dhimma” (religious tax) can be protected and living with Muslims in a Islamic State.
Modern Islam places special emphasis on waging war with one’s inner self. It sanctions war with other nations only as a defensive measure when the faith is in danger. From Sayyd Qutb's thought (see p. 4 of this module) the jihad became also “offensive war” against both non-Muslims (Western people) and Muslims (opponents of Radical Fundamentalism view). The latters are exploited with the accuse of apostasy by extremists.
In Muslim countries there have been many cases of terroristic actions against institutional-political symbols, people and religious communities. The same Muslims are a target of Terrorism: Muslims of a same group (Sunni) or of a different group (Shiite). In the last twenty years terroristic acts have increased against other religious communities as catholic and orthodoxy communities but even Jewish Israeli people.

Analysis and comment of the source 2

The IS is a military and political group. Al-Baghdadi and the IS militants’ methods are terrorist actions, especially addressed to religious and ethnic minority groups (i.e. Christians, Yezidi and Turkmens) and to Western people in Iraq and Syria. After menacing Christians, al-Baghdadi demanded them to pay the dhimma or converting to Islam. Furthermore Christians’ houses were marked with “N” of Nazarene and once the ultimatum was expired Christians were forced to expatriate. A worse fate touched to Yezidi and Turkmens: the men were killed and the women were sold to sexual abuses. Al-Baghdadi (the Caliph) will to establish the old Caliphate abolished by Kemal Mustapha Ataturk, the first president of the Turkish Republic, in 1922. He has already set up the IS, also called the Caliphate, underlining the union of political and religion powers in his role and in his territory. The flag of the IS is black with the shahada (Islamic profession of faith), the black is the same color of the Abbasid Caliphate.
Minority groups are persecuted and killed because of their faiths, the last group because  it is Muslim Shiite. Al-Baghdadi might found his social and political actions on Ibn Taymiyyah and Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhāb' theological thoughts. As a consequence, people who do not accept al-Baghdadi’s rules and the Sunni Islam becoming enemies. That because their deviance (difference) can threaten the integrity and the right faith of the umma. al-Baghdadi still considers the world divided in Dar al-Harb and Dar al-Islam.

Spørgsmål til en interkulturel, tværfaglig diskussion
See this article from CNN Website:
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/07/world/isis-western-draw/