- 28 Sep 2016
From al-Qaeda to Islamic State: Understanding Salafi-Jihadism
Abstract:
No topic has captured the public imagination of late quite so dramatically as the spectre of global jihadism. While much has been said about the way jihadists behave, their ideology remains poorly understood. As the Levant has imploded and millenarian radicals claim to have revived a Caliphate based on the teachings of the Prophet Mohamed, the need for a nuanced and accurate understanding of jihadist beliefs has never been greater. The intellectual underpinnings of Salafi-Jihadism rises from its origins in the mountains of the Hindu Kush and has progressed to jihadist insurgencies of the 1990s and the 9/11 wars. What is beginning to emerge is the story of a pragmatic but resilient warrior doctrine that often struggles — as so many utopian ideologies do — to consolidate the idealism of theory with the reality of practice.
About the Speakers
Shiraz Maher is Deputy Director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) and a member of the War Studies Department at King’s College London. He currently leads the Centre’s research on the Syrian and Iraqi conflicts and also researches Salafi-Jihadi soteriology. Maher is also an adjunct lecturer at Johns Hopkins University teaching radicalisation and political Islam, and was a visiting lecturer at Washington College during the Spring Semester of 2012 (where he taught Middle East politics). His latest book, Salafi-Jihadism: The History of an Idea (Oxford University Press; and Hurst & Co.) has been widely acknowledged as a ground-breaking exploration of the political philosophy behind contemporary jihadist movements. In 2016 he was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize in journalism for his pieces on radicalisation, foreign fighter mobilisation, and the terrorist threat to Europe. He also received the prize for ‘Excellence in Research Innovation and Impact,’ at the King’s Awards in 2015.
