Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

JIHAD • 341becomes religiously obligatory, a greater allowance may be extendedto the individual, in effect exempting him or her from the usual limitsplaced on lawful warfare. Islamic fundamentalist groups like Hezbollahin Lebanon, Hamas in the occupied territories of the WestBank and Gaza Strip, and the Islamic Group in Egypt tend to viewtheir nations as being occupied by an invading un-Islamic power,even in the case of a nominally Muslim government such as that ofHosni Mubarak’s Egypt. This in turn would allow a group to claimthe right to wage jihad without the authorization of competent religiousauthorities and by means that may be described as terroristic.Despite the religious technicalities that limit the correct applicationof the term jihad to only a few situations, the tendency of secularPan-Arab nationalism to exploit Islamic religious symbols andsentiments whenever expedient has led Arab nationalists to misusethe term jihad to designate what actually have been wars on behalfof Arab nationalism rather than Islam proper. During the 1990–1991Persian Gulf conflict, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein tried to rallyArab support for himself by describing his war as a “jihad” againstthe West and Israel, though he lacked the moral and religious credentialsof an authority competent to declare jihad, nor could he invoke itcredibly to defend Iraq’s usurpation of another Muslim land, namely,Kuwait. Interestingly, during the entire course of the Iran-Iraq war,the Islamic Republic of Iran never described its war with Iraq interms of jihad but only as a jang-i difa’i-ye muqaddis, that is, a warof holy defense against aggression. Shi’ite fundamentalist Muslimshave been less inclined to use the term jihad than their Sunni counterpartsdue to their belief that jihad proper can be declared only byone of their apostolic imams.Following the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks ofSeptember 11, 2001, moderate Muslims and even some Salafistshave criticized Osama bin Laden and al Qa’eda for abusing theconcept of jihad. On 10 July 2002 the Al Jazeera television networkbroadcast a discussion involving Shaykh Muhsin al ‘Awaji, a wellknownSaudi dissident, and two other theologians, who criticized binLaden in particular for spreading discord among Muslims, for labelingother Muslims as infidels without proof, and in particular for theunlawful targeting of innocent Muslims and non-Muslims, whichthey held violated norms of “honorable combat” required by the doctrineof jihad. See also KHOMEINI, RUHALLAH MUSAWI AL.