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446chapter sixspread of Islam. These fuqaha" propose a doctrine of jih§d that leads,on the level of the individual, to suicide missions and an idealisationof martyrdom, and, on societal level, to military campaigns againstinfidels and idolaters (even if these do not show the slightest sign ofhostility). Even more objectionable than their aggression towardsother religions is their placidity in the face of injustice and oppressionin their own countries. Their concept of qiã§l is thoroughly one-sidedsince it accepts only external aggression as a legitimate ground for‘fighting’. Cases of internal aggression, for example, the existence ofdespotic rule by tyrannical rulers, have been met with acquiescentsilence and political opportunism. These fuqah§" are responsible forthe fact that the world currently does not associate Islam with a callfor courage and resistance in the face of injustice and political oppression,and that we assume that Muslims would not stand up, if necessaryby force, for justice, freedom, and equality.The unholy alliance between religion and politics during the formativeperiod of Islamic history meant that the fuqah§", corrupted bytheir closeness to the people in power, constructed a militaristic doctrineof jih§d and qit§l that basically supported the colonialist expansionsof the dynastic empires and the insatiable appetite for ever-morebooty of the warlords under the pretext of spreading the call of Islam.In the current period, we observe an unfortunate reemergence ofthis fatal fusion between religion and politics within the groups ofso-called Islamic revivalism, such as al-Jam§#at al-Isl§miyya, al-Jih§d,al-Q§#ida, and such, which, in some way or another, are all subbranchesof the Muslim Brotherhood (Jam§#at al-Ikhw§n al-MuslimÊn).Their new doctrines of jih§d and qit§l bear an alarming resemblanceto the old doctrines of the medieval fuqah§", in particular in theirobsession with reading military connotations in every word of theBook. But they even go beyond that, and to their definition of theessential components of jih§d and qit§l they now add the seizure ofpolitical power in their home countries, for which they sanction allforms of violence, including assassination, physical assault, and thedestruction of a country’s infrastructure. This movement has oftenbeen wrongly perceived as a legitimate protest against authoritarianregimes in the Arab-Muslim world, and some people in the Westhave indeed sympathised with the Islamists and have hailed theiridealism as Islam’s form of a theology of liberation. It has often beenoverlooked that these groups simply want to replace one form ofdespotism with another, as their ideology still diffuses the old foul