Alawati: A religious sect in Syria that follows a mystical brand of Shia Islam. As they have historically kept their beliefs secret from outsiders, not much is known about them; they hold a significant minority in Syria, with believers comprising 12 percent of the population.
Anti-Soviet jihad: The war fought by Afghan and other Muslim warriors (mujahedin) against the Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan from December 1979 to February 1989. Ended with the defeat and withdrawal of the Soviet Army.
Sheik Abdullah Azzam: A Sunni Muslim who spoke in support of jihad against the Soviet invaders during the late 1980s. Along with bin Laden, he established the Afghan Services Bureau, which raised funds and recruited terrorists, and al Qaeda. He was killed by a car bomb in November 1989.
Abu Bakr al Baghdadi: The leader of ISIS and self-proclaimed Caliph of the Islamic State.
Caliph: Title of the chief Muslim civil and religious ruler who protects the integrity of the state and the faith. The Caliphs are regarded as the successors of Mohammed. The term derives from the Arabic khalifa, meaning “successor.” “Caliph” was also the honorary title adopted by the Ottoman sultans in the sixteenth century, after Sultan Mehmed II conquered Syria and Palestine, made Egypt a satellite of the Ottoman Empire, and was recognized as the guardian of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
Caliphate: The dominion or rule of the Caliph.
Crusades: A series of military campaigns fought by Christian armies from Western Europe to reclaim the Holy Land from Muslim control. In 1095, Pope Urban II launched the First Crusade. Between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries there were eight Crusades, and the knights who took part in them believed that they were assured of a place in heaven. For Muslims, the Crusades were a sustained military campaign to expand the territory of Christendom and eliminate Islam.
Euskadi ta Askatasuna (ETA): Euskadi ta Askatasuna, which means “Basque Fatherland and Liberty” in the Basque language, is an armed group fighting for the independence of the Basque country from Spain. ETA originates from the EKIN, a nationalist group that changed its name to the Euskadi ta Askatasuna in 1958. The group’s initial activities involved planting explosives in Basque cities such as Bilbao. In 1968 ETA put its first military initiative into action, and in subsequent years it intensified its violence targeting security forces and politicians. The group is still active in Spain and maintains ties with armed groups all over the world. Its membership is believed to be quite small, perhaps no more than twenty hardcore activists and several hundred supporters, and its headquarters are believed to be in the Basque provinces of Spain and France.
FARC: Founded in 1964 by Manuel Marulanda Vélez and other members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Colombia (Partido Comunista de Colombia—PCC), the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, in English, “Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia”) is an armed organization with a Marxist bent whose aim is to overthrow the government. It claims to defend the rural poor against Colombia’s wealthy classes and therefore opposes American influence in Colombia, the privatization of natural resources, and the presence of multinational corporations. The group targets wealthy landowners, foreign tourists, and prominent international and domestic officials. It is structured in a military fashion and its members, estimated at around 7,000, wear uniforms and behave as a regular army. Its importance has grown thanks to an alliance with Colombian drug traffickers. Experts estimate that the FARC takes in between $200 million and $400 million annually—at least half from the illegal drug trade. The rest is generated through kidnappings, extortion schemes, and an unofficial “tax” levied in the countryside (www.contrast.org/mirrors/farc/).
Fitna: Originally considered a trial of a believer’s faith, fitna now refers to periods of unrest and internal war within the Muslim community. It is often used in Islamic history with the specific sense of civil war.
Groupe Islamique Armè (GIA): An Islamist armed group believed to have been founded in March 1992 by Arab-Afghans who, returning to Algeria after the Afghan war. It is headed by the emir Abou Abd Ahmed, also known as “Djafaar al Afghani.” The GIA’s final aim is to overthrow the country’s current military-backed government and establish an Islamist state based on Sharia. Its membership is estimated at around 20,000–25,000. Since December 1993, the GIA has carried out particularly violent attacks against foreigners in Algeria as well as against Algerian citizens.
Hamas: Created on December 14, 1987 (five days after the beginning of the Intifada) as a Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, the group’s objective is to establish an Islamic Palestinian state in place of Israel. The PLO’s main rival in the territories occupied by Israel, Hamas benefited from Yasser Arafat’s failures on the international front, especially after the Gulf War. It considers war the only means to free the Occupied Territories, and has established a direct link between Islam and the liberation of the Occupied Territories that limits, or even excludes, all compromises on the issue. It is responsible for many attacks in Israel, primarily suicide bombings, but was prepared to recognize Israel as a condition of joining a coalition government in the early summer of 2014. Its activities are concentrated in the Gaza Strip and a few areas in the West Bank. Hamas’s objectives as stated in its charter of August 18, 1988 include, in addition to the liberation of Palestine and the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state, the rejection of any Western presence in Muslim countries and opposition to the secularization and Westernization of Arab society.
Hezbollah: Arabic for “Party of God,” Hezbollah is a radical Lebanese Shia group formed in 1982 in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. It advocates the establishment of Islamic rule in Lebanon as happened in Iran, the liberation of all occupied Arab lands, and the expulsion of non-Muslims from Muslim countries. The group is sponsored by Iran and predominantly operates in the Bekaa Valley, south of Beirut. Its membership is estimated at 40,000 in Lebanon and several thousand supporters. It possesses heavy artillery such as multiple BM-21 rockets. A number of its members are known or suspected to have been involved in numerous armed attacks against the US. Hezbollah also goes by the name of Islamic Jihad, but its official armed wing is called the Islamic Resistance. The latter, created in 1983, oversees military operations in south Lebanon. It has 400 well-trained fighters and 5,000 supporters. Besides sporadic attacks (mostly bombings and murders), it leads proper military operations against the Israeli and Lebanese armies. Militarily organized, the Islamic Resistance’s activities have become increasingly illegal since 1993. The group has tried especially to establish a popular base in south Lebanon through social aid activities, such as its Jihad al Hoed (“Holy effort for the reconstruction”), which finances the reconstruction of buildings destroyed by the Israeli army. It also gives $25,000 to the families of the “martyrs” who die during its suicide operations.
Imam: In general use, it means the leader of Muslim congregational prayers, a post that requires no ordination or special spiritual powers beyond sufficient education to carry out this function. It is also used figuratively by many Sunni Muslims to refer to the leader of the Islamic community. Among Shiites the word takes on many complex meanings. In general, however, and particularly when capitalized, it indicates to Shias the descendant of the Party of Ali believed to have been the designated repository of God’s spiritual authority.
Islamism: A political ideology based on the belief that Muslim religious principles should dominate every aspect of public and private life.
ISI: Islamic State in Iraq.
ISIS: Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Also known as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the Islamic State (IS), this terrorist organization was officially created in 2013, though its history stretches back to the early 2000s and al Qaeda. Its territory covers large swaths of both Iraq and Syria, and its forces were attacking the Iraqi city of Mosul as late as early September 2014.
Jabhat al Nusra: a branch of al Qaeda that operates in Syria and Lebanon. They were created in 2012 during the Syrian Civil War. They have had several clashes with ISIS, and as of the printing of this book were losing badly in open warfare with the Islamic State.
Jihad: This term has often been mistranslated as “Holy War,” a concept coined in Europe during the Crusades. “Jihad” is Arabic for “striving,” and a better translation of its meaning as a religious doctrine would be “striving in the cause of God.” There are two aspects of jihad: great jihad, the struggle to overcome carnal desires and evil inclinations, and small jihad, the armed defense of Islam against aggressors. The term has been used by different armed groups in their violent confrontations with the West; famously, Osama bin Laden called for a jihad in his fatwa against Americans, calling for “just war” against the oppressor.
Jizyah: a tax enacted on sections of Islamic societies who are not Muslims. While the tax is not upheld by nation-states in the Islamic world, IS enforces it in some areas.
Koran: The holy scripture of Islam.
Kufr: Literally “disbelief,” the term is used to describe those who do not believe in Islam.
Modern Salafism: Radical interpretation of Salafism. A strongly anti-Western movement that calls for a return to the purity of Islam.
Mujahedin: Plural form of the Arabic word mujahed, literally meaning “one who makes jihad.” The term was applied to Muslims fighting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan (1979–89), and has been translated as “holy warriors.”
Muktab al Kidmat: Also known as the Arab-Afghan Bureau. An organization founded in 1984 by Osama bin Laden and Abdullah Azzam. Its purpose was to raise funds and recruit terrorist soldiers against the Soviets. After Azzam’s death in 1989, Muktab al Kidmat was absorbed into al Qaeda.
Muslim Brotherhood: Founded in Egypt in 1928, this association is considered the prototype for all modern Islamist movements of Sunni obedience. Present all over the world, the Muslim Brotherhood promotes a reformist Islam.
Al Nahda: A cultural renaissance occurring during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Egypt and the larger Middle East, spurred on, among other factors, by contact with Europe. It is seen as a period of intellectual modernization and reform.
Nationalism: Term used to describe the sentiment and ideology of attachment to a nation and to its interests. The word originates from the theory that a state should be founded in a nation and that a nation should be constituted as a state. Nationalism requires the consciousness of national identity, which may include territorial integrity, common language, shared customs, and other elements of culture.
Mullah Omar: The spiritual leader and commander of the Taliban. He was also Afghanistan’s leader from 1996 to 2001, and was deposed when the United States invaded the country.
Ottoman Empire: The Muslim empire established at the end of the thirteenth century by Osman I, founder of a Turkish dynasty in northwestern Anatolia, and enlarged by his successors, known as the Ottomans, who took over the Byzantine territories of western Anatolia and southeastern Europe. At its height, Ottoman power extended throughout the Middle East, parts of North Africa, and southeastern Europe, but the empire began to disintegrate in the nineteenth century and collapsed at the end of the World War I; the Anatolian heartland became the Republic of Turkey, and the outlying provinces were recognized as independent states.
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): A Palestinian nationalist movement and the central organization of all Palestinian movements, the PLO was created in 1964 by Ahmed Shukeiry under the auspices of Egypt. Its objective, as stated in its charter established in May 1964, is the creation of an independent Palestinian State on the territory today covered by Israel or, at least, in the Occupied Territories (Gaza and the West Bank). Its leader was Yasser Arafat from 1969 until his death in 2004, when he was succeeded Mahmoud Abbas, who continues to hold the post.
Peshmerga: Official name of the Kurdish Army. These fighters have existed in one form or another since the Kurdish independence movement of the 1920s, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and notably include women in their ranks.
Al Qaeda: Literally meaning “the base,” it was originally formed around 1988 by Osama bin Laden and Abu Ubaydah al Banshiri, bin Laden’s top military commander, as a network to connect the Arabs who volunteered to fight in the anti-Soviet Jihad. Al Qaeda also helped to finance, recruit, and train Sunni Islamic extremists for the Afghan resistance. Soon, it became a multiethnic Sunni Islamist insurgent organization that remained active well beyond the end of the Afghan war. Its primary aim is the establishment of a pan-Islamist Caliphate throughout the Muslim world, and therefore it seeks the collaboration of other Islamist armed organizations to overthrow existing regimes regarded as “non-Islamic” and to expel Westerners and non-Muslims from Muslim countries. In 1998, it merged with the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (“al Jihad”). Its membership is thought to be anywhere between several hundred and several thousand people.
Red Brigades: The Red Brigades (Brigate Rosse, or BR) was formed in 1969 in Italy out of the student and workers’ movements. Its ideology advocated violence in the service of class warfare and revolution. The group was based in and operated from Italy and mainly targeted symbols of the establishment such as industrialists, politicians, and businessmen.
Moqtada al Sadr: A deeply influential Iraqi Islamist leader. In February 2014 he suddenly withdrew from government.
Salafism: A sect of Islam that espouses strict, literal adherence to the tenets of Islam. Originating in the nineteenth century in response to European influence in the region, Salafism is sometimes considered puritanical, and often associated with jihad. Salafists are mostly located in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, and are considered to be the “dominant minority” in the Middle East.
SCIRI: Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, an Iraqi Shia Islamist political party.
Sharia: Literally “legislation,” a word that refers to the moral and legal code that binds religious Muslims.
Shiites: The lineage of the supporters of Ali, Mohammed’s son-in-law, who refused to submit to Caliph Muawiyah in the Great Fitna, thereby creating the greatest schism in Islam.
Shell-state: The result of the process through which an armed organization assembles the socioeconomic infrastructure (taxation, employment services, etc.) of a state without the political one (i.e., no territory, no self-determination).
Sunnism: The largest sect of Islam. After Mohammed’s death, those followers who supported a traditional method of election based on community agreement became known as Sunnis; they were opposed by the Shiites, who favored a hereditary transition in leadership.
Takfir: An accusation of apostasy.
Tawhid: The unity of God in Muslim theology.
Al Tawhid al Jihad: A militant Islamist group founded in Fallujah in 2003 and headed by Abu Musab al Zarqawi. The group arranged false documents for more than one hundred al Qaeda fighters who escaped from Afghanistan during the 2001 war. It also provided them with funds and a safe haven (near Tehran), and then organized their movement out of Iran to other areas in the Middle East and the West. In 2004, the group declared fealty to Osama bin Laden and changed its name to al Qaeda in Iraq. The name means “Monotheism and Jihad.”
War by proxy: A term denoting third parties’ fighting in place of larger world powers. A prime example of this type of warfare is the Vietnam conflict in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Ulema: Islamic scholars.
Umma: The community of believers, which transcends national, ethnic, political, and economic differences.
Zakat: The obligatory almsgiving that constitutes one of the five pillars of Islam. Literally, “purifying.”
Abu Mussab al Zarqawi: Islamic militant from Jordan who ran a terrorist training camp there in the mid-1990s. He rose to fame after going to Iraq and being responsible for a number of bombings during the Iraq War. Killed in 2006 by US forces.