Do excellent surgeons make miserable Exegetes? Negotiating the Sunni tradition in the gihadi Camps

Simon Wolfgang Fuchs*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)192-237
Number of pages46
JournalDie Welt des Islams
Volume53
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 2013

Keywords

  • Afghanistan
  • Aiman az-Zawahiri
  • Dr. Fadl
  • gihad
  • intellectual roots of radical Islam
  • Islamic political thought
  • reception of Ibn Taimiya
  • Sunni scholarly tradition

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