Al-Nakba: “The Catastrophe.” The term Palestinians use to refer to the birth of the state of Israel and the refugee crisis that ensued as a result.
Al-wala’ wal-bara’: The doctrine of loyalty and enmity at the heart of the Jihadist movement.
Caliph: The political head of the Islamic community. The office of caliph was dismantled by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1924.
Christianism/Dominionism: Christian religious nationalism; Christianity as a political ideology.
Christian Zionism: A movement of evangelical Protestant supporters of the state of Israel.
Dar al-Islam: “The land of Islam.” Territory under the control of Islamic authorities.
Dar al-kufr: “The land of unbelief.” Territory not under the control of Islamic authorities.
Eretz Yisrael: Greater Israel. The biblical Land of Israel.
Evangelicalism: A Protestant Christian social movement that began in eighteenth-century Britain.
Fundamentalism: Twentieth-century American evangelical movement.
Global Jihadism: A militant Sunni Muslim social movement with its roots in the Arab reform movements (Salafism) of the twentieth century.
Gush Emunim: “The Believers’ Bloc.” A movement of radical Jewish settlers in Israel.
Hovevei Zion: “Lovers of Zion.” A Jewish settler movement founded by Leon Pinsker.
Islamism: Islamic religious nationalism; Islam as a political ideology.
Islamofascism: This word has no meaning.
Jahaliyyah: The Time of Ignorance. The period in the Arabian Peninsula prior to the rise of Islam.
Kafir: An apostate.
Pan-Arabism: A political ideology seeking the unification of the Arab world.
Qutbist: An adherent of the Egyptian intellectual and radical Muslim Brotherhood member Sayyid Qutb.
Religious Zionism: A movement of Israeli Jews who seek to reestablish biblical Israel.
Salafism: A twentieth-century Sunni Islamic movement that seeks a spiritual return to the early days of the Muslim community.
Shahadah: The Muslim profession of faith: “There is no god but God and Muhammad is God’s Messenger.”
Shariah: Islamic law.
Takfir: The practice of unilaterally declaring a Muslim to be an apostate.
Temple Mount/Haram as-Sharif: The platform atop Mount Moriah in Jerusalem where the Temple of Jerusalem once stood and where now stands the Dome of the Rock.
’Ulama: Islam’s clerical class; the body of Islamic religious scholars.
Ummah: The worldwide community of Muslims.
Wahhabism: Ultraconservative sect of Islam founded in the nineteenth century by the Arabian reformer Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. Also called Muwahiddun.
Waqf: A religious endowment in Islam. Also refers to Jerusalem’s Islamic religious authorities.
Zealots: A heterogeneous movement of Jewish radicals who led a rebellion against Rome in first-century Palestine.
Zionism: A secular nationalist movement in support of a Jewish state.