TY - JOUR
T1 - Do excellent surgeons make miserable Exegetes? Negotiating the Sunni tradition in the gihadi Camps
AU - Fuchs, Simon Wolfgang
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - This article is an attempt to explore how gihadi authors make use of the Sunni tradition to bolster their case. Islamicists have rarely embarked on such a discussion, given the tendency to a priori chastise extremist authors for their untenable misrepresentation of Islam. Similarly, gihadi arguments are frequently tossed aside as an already familiar rehashing of an insignificant, isolated stream of thought that stretches directly from In revisiting this claim, I employ a close reading of the crucial gihadi manual (The Essential Guide of Preparation for gihad on the Path of God), written in the mid-1980s in the context of Afghanistan by an influential ideologue who is widely known as Dr. Fa.l. After presenting and evaluating a selection of the religious sources and authorities on which the author draws, the article enters into a discussion of his political thought. I argue that Dr. Fa.l makes a convincing case for a political project in the camps that is deeply embedded within the Sunni tradition. Reading Ibn Taimiya faithfully, Dr. Fadl does not turn him in into a proponent of violence against the ruler. Rather, the author sticks to the profound quietism the Damascene scholar is known for, thereby questioning supposedly established, clearcut paths of reception.
AB - This article is an attempt to explore how gihadi authors make use of the Sunni tradition to bolster their case. Islamicists have rarely embarked on such a discussion, given the tendency to a priori chastise extremist authors for their untenable misrepresentation of Islam. Similarly, gihadi arguments are frequently tossed aside as an already familiar rehashing of an insignificant, isolated stream of thought that stretches directly from In revisiting this claim, I employ a close reading of the crucial gihadi manual (The Essential Guide of Preparation for gihad on the Path of God), written in the mid-1980s in the context of Afghanistan by an influential ideologue who is widely known as Dr. Fa.l. After presenting and evaluating a selection of the religious sources and authorities on which the author draws, the article enters into a discussion of his political thought. I argue that Dr. Fa.l makes a convincing case for a political project in the camps that is deeply embedded within the Sunni tradition. Reading Ibn Taimiya faithfully, Dr. Fadl does not turn him in into a proponent of violence against the ruler. Rather, the author sticks to the profound quietism the Damascene scholar is known for, thereby questioning supposedly established, clearcut paths of reception.
KW - Afghanistan
KW - Aiman az-Zawahiri
KW - Dr. Fadl
KW - gihad
KW - intellectual roots of radical Islam
KW - Islamic political thought
KW - reception of Ibn Taimiya
KW - Sunni scholarly tradition
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84893273910&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1163/15700607-0532P0002
DO - 10.1163/15700607-0532P0002
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AN - SCOPUS:84893273910
SN - 0043-2539
VL - 53
SP - 192
EP - 237
JO - Die Welt des Islams
JF - Die Welt des Islams
IS - 2
ER -