Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISM • 297the principal behind the coup plot. Among the several arms cachesseized, police also found complete duplicate sets of Bahraini securitypolice uniforms, which proved to be of Iranian manufacture. Certainof those arrested revealed that they had undergone military training inIran. While Iran vehemently denied these charges, the Gulf CooperationCouncil condemned Iran for its promotion of subversive activitiesamong the Shi’ite Muslims of the Persian Gulf emirates.On 17 January 1996 the Front bombed the Meridian Hotel in Manama,site of the Middle East Petroleum and Gas Conference, butwithout causing any deaths or injuries. On 11 February 1996 the Frontbombed the Diplomat Hotel in Manama, causing three injuries but nodeaths. Following political reforms by King Hamad ibn Isa al-Khalifain 2001, the ban on the group was lifted and its members were pardoned.They reorganized themselves as a political party, the Jama’atal ‘Amal al Islami (Islamic Action Society). Although the Society wastemporarily banned in 2005 for holding a commemoration honoringthe attempted 1981 coup, it was allowed to resume activities. Theparty is currently led by Shaykh Muhammad Ali Mahfuz, a close associateof Mudarissi and longtime opposition figure in Bahrain.ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISM. Islamic fundamentalism has beenidentified as the main ideology motivating the assassins of AnwarSadat, the Hezbollah militia of Lebanon, al Qa’eda, and the IslamicRepublic of Iran, which has engaged in state sponsorship of terrorism.Other terms that have been used interchangeably with Islamicfundamentalism are Islamism, Jihadism, and Salafism, which will bediscussed below.What non-Muslim Westerners have called Islamic fundamentalism,Muslims prefer to call al nihdhat al Islami, meaning “the Islamicmovement,” or better, “the Islamic resurgence.” The term Islamicfundamentalism misleadingly suggests an analogy with Christianfundamentalism, which accepts a radical distinction between thekingdom of God and the kingdom(s) of this world. So-called fundamentalistIslam radically rejects such a separation of life into secularand religious domains, or any separation of politics and religion. Theclosest analogy in Western Christianity would be the prorevolutionaryliberation theology of Latin America rather than the privatepietism of mainstream American Protestant fundamentalism. Althoughusing the term Islamic resurgence would be less misleading,