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political islam 417the fight of the French (against the invasion). The term ghazwa wastaken from the vocabulary of J§hiliyya Arabs. They regularly carriedout raids into neighbouring tribes, seeking booty by extremely violentmeans. In flagrant contradiction with the qur"anic term jih§d, thefuqah§"s revived this aggressive concept of conquest and projected itsmeaning on the concept of a defensive battle. In order to do so, thejurists had to produce a semantic transformation of a whole list ofterms in the Book: shah§da, shahÊd, istishh§d, shuhad§", ·araba, fÊ sabÊl All§h,and such; by which the true (irenic) meaning was stripped off and afalse (belligerent) meaning put on, and hence constructing an Islamicconcept of ‘conquest’ (which in reality was the old tribal notion ofan offensive raid). As a result, the shuhad§" of the Book were turnedinto soldiers of Islam and a shahÊd was turned into a fanatical warriorwho falls heroically on the battlefield (this in spite of the fact that ashahÊd needs to be alive and ceases to be a shahÊd when he dies).The decline of political culture in the Arab-Muslim world startedimmediately after MuÈammad’s (ß) death. It was triggered by thepolitical crisis caused by the caliphate of #Uthm§n b. al-#Aff§n. Hisleadership had alienated a growing number of people who eventuallydemanded his removal from power. #Uthm§n’s reluctance to give uppower and to hold on to it as long as he could caused the breakdownof political culture which eventually led to #Uthm§n being killed byhis opponents. We see in this event the beginning of a fatal developmentof political corruption: the rulers’ fear of assassination by theiropponents; the tendency to hold on to power for as long as possible;the frustration of political opposition leading to calls for violent resistance;lack of democracy, plurality, and a will to reform. We canidentify five aspects that were decisive for the deterioration of politicalculture in the Arab-Muslim world and for the emergence of theconcept of ‘martyrdom’ in Islamic thought:1. The confusion over the term ‘consultation’ ( al-shår§):…who (conduct) their affairs by mutual consultation; who spendout of what We bestow on them for sustenance. ( Al-Shår§ 42:38)Despite the clear ruling of the Book that consultation has to bemutual and consensual, shår§ came to be understood as theruler’s prerogative to allow his subjects to voice discontentwhich he was, however, free to ignore. In contrast to a true