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Islamic extremism

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Islamic extremism is characterised by extremist beliefs, behaviors and ideologies adhered to by some Muslims within Islam. The term 'Islamic extremism' is contentious, encompassing a spectrum of definitions, ranging from academic interpretations of Islamic supremacy to the notion that all ideologies other than Islam have failed and are inferior.

David Cook (2025). 9780520287327, University of California Press. ISBN 9780520287327

Islamic extremism is different from Islamic fundamentalism or Islamism. Islamic fundamentalism refers to a movement among Muslims advocating a return to the fundamental principles of an Islamic state in Muslim-majority countries. Meanwhile, Islamism constitutes a form of political Islam. However, both Islamic fundamentalism and Islamism can also be classified as subsets of Islamic extremism. Acts of violence committed by Islamic terrorists and Jihadism are often associated with these extremist beliefs.

Definitions

Academic definition

The academic definition of radical Islam consists of two parts:

The first being: Islamic thought that states that all ideologies other than Islam, whether associated with the West (capitalism or democracy) or the East (communism or socialism) have failed and have demonstrated their bankruptcy.
The second being: Islamic thought that states that (semi)secular regimes are wrong because of their negligence of Islam.
David Cook (2025). 9780520287327, University of California Press. ISBN 9780520287327

United Kingdom High Courts' definition

UK High Courts have ruled in two cases on Islamic extremism, and provided definition.

Aside from those, two major definitions have been offered for Islamic extremism, sometimes using overlapping but also distinct aspects of extreme interpretations and pursuits of ideology:

The use of violent tactics such as bombing and assassinations for achieving perceived Islamic goals (see Jihadism; or Zeyno Baran, Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Eurasian Policy at the Hudson Institute, prefers the term Islamism extremism)
An extremely conservative view of Islam,
Brian R. Farmer (2025). 9780820488431, Peter Lang. . ISBN 9780820488431
which does not necessarily entail violence
(2025). 9780765807694, Transaction Publishers. . ISBN 9780765807694
(see also Islamic fundamentalism Baran).

In 2019, the United States Institute of Peace issued a report on extremism in , advocating the establishment of a shared understanding, operational framework for prevention, and international cooperation.

Key influences of radical Islam

Early Islam

According to the academic definition of radical Islam, the second condition for something to be called radical Islam, is that it is antigovernmental. Consequently, a government is a condition for radical Islam. However, even though the peace of Westphalia was established in 1648 and thus introduced the nation state, the writings of the formative centuries of Islamic history are influential to the contemporary writings that were coined radical after the concept of the nation state was established in the Muslim world as well. Key influences of radical Islam that stem from early Islam include:

Kharijites

Islamic extremism dates back to the early history of Islam with the emergence of the Kharijites in the 7th century CE.

Toshihiko Izutsu (2025). 9789839154702, Keio Institute of Cultural and Linguistic Studies at Keio University. ISBN 9789839154702

The original schism between Kharijites, Sunni Islam, and Shia Islam among Muslims was disputed over the political and religious succession to the guidance of the Ummah ( Ummah) after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. From their essentially political position, the Kharijites developed extreme doctrines that set them apart from both mainstream Sunnī and Shīʿa Muslims. Shīʿas believe Ali is the true successor to Muhammad, while Sunnīs consider Abu Bakr to hold that position. The Kharijites broke away from both the Shīʿas and the Sunnīs during the First Fitna (the first Islamic Civil War); they were particularly noted for adopting a radical approach to Takfir (excommunication), whereby they declared both Sunnī and Shīʿa Muslims to be either Kafir ( kuffār) or Munafiq ( munāfiḳūn), and therefore deemed them worthy of death for their perceived apostasy ( ridda).

The Islamic tradition traces the origin of the Kharijities to the battle between ʿAlī and Mu'awiya at Siffin in 657 CE. When ʿAlī was faced with a military stalemate and agreed to submit the dispute to arbitration, some of his party withdrew their support from him. "Judgement belongs to God alone" (لاَ حُكْمَ إلَا لِلّهِ) became the slogan of these secessionists. They also called themselves al-Shurat ("the Vendors"), to reflect their willingness to sell their lives in martyrdom.

Daniel Brown (2025). 9781118953464, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. ISBN 9781118953464

These original Kharijites opposed both ʿAlī and Mu'awiya, and appointed their own leaders. They were decisively defeated by ʿAlī, who was in turn assassinated by a Kharijite. Kharijites engaged in guerilla warfare against the Umayyads, but only became a movement to be reckoned with during the Second Fitna (the second Islamic Civil War) when they at one point controlled more territory than any of their rivals. The Kharijites were, in fact, one of the major threats to Ibn al-Zubayr's bid for the caliphate; during this time they controlled Yamama and most of southern Arabia, and captured the oasis town of al-Ta'if.

The Azariqa, considered to be the extreme faction of the Kharijites, controlled parts of western Iran under the Umayyads until they were finally put down in 699 CE. The more moderate Ibadi Islam Kharijites were longer-lived, continuing to wield political power in North and East Africa and in eastern Arabia during the 'Abbasid period. Because of their readiness to declare any opponent as apostate, the extreme Kharijites tended to fragment into small groups. One of the few points that the various Kharijite splinter groups held in common was their view of the caliphate, which differed from other Muslim theories on two points.

First, they were principled egalitarians, holding that any pious Muslim ("even an Ethiopian slave") can become Caliph and that family or tribal affiliation is inconsequential. The only requirements for leadership are piety and acceptance by the community.
Second, they agreed that it is the duty of the believers to depose any leader who falls into error. This second principle had profound implications for Kharijite theology. Applying these ideas to the early history of the caliphate, Kharijites only accept Abu Bakr and 'Umar as legitimate caliphs. Of 'Uthman's caliphate they recognize only the first six years as legitimate, and they reject 'Ali altogether.

By the time that Ibn al-Muqaffa' wrote his political treatise early in the 'Abbasid period, the Kharijites were no longer a significant political threat, at least in the Islamic heartlands. The memory of the menace they had posed to Muslim unity and of the moral challenge generated by their pious idealism still weighed heavily on Muslim political and religious thought, however. Even if the Kharijites could no longer threaten, their ghosts still had to be answered. The Ibadis are the only Kharijite group to survive into modern times.

Ibn Taymiyyah

Ottoman Empire

Kadızadelis (also Qādīzādali) was a seventeenth-century puritanical reformist religious movement in the Ottoman Empire that followed Kadızade Mehmed (1582-1635), a revivalist Islamic preacher. Kadızade and his followers were determined rivals of Sufism and popular religion. They condemned many of the Ottoman practices that Kadızade felt were bidʻah "non-Islamic innovations", and passionately supported "reviving the beliefs and practices of the first Muslim generation in the first/seventh century" ("enjoining good and forbidding wrong").

(2025). 9789004307834, Brill. . ISBN 9789004307834

Driven by zealous and fiery rhetoric, Kadızade Mehmed was able to inspire many followers to join in his cause and rid themselves of any and all corruption found inside the Ottoman Empire. Leaders of the movement held official positions as preachers in the major mosques of Baghdad, and "combined popular followings with support from within the Ottoman state apparatus". Between 1630 and 1680 there were many violent quarrels that occurred between the Kadızadelis and those that they disapproved of. As the movement progressed, activists became "increasingly violent" and Kadızadelis were known to enter "mosques, Khanqah and Ottoman coffeehouses in order to mete out punishments to those contravening their version of orthodoxy."

Modern Islam

Salafism and Wahhabism

The Salafi movement is a conservative,

(2015). 9780292761926, University of Texas Press. . ISBN 9780292761926

(reform)

(2025). 9780195125597, Oxford University Press. . ISBN 9780195125597

movement within Sunni Islam that emerged in the second half of the 19th century and advocate a return to the traditions of the "devout ancestors" ( Salaf). It has been described as the "fastest-growing Islamic movement"; with each scholar expressing diverse views across social, theological, and political spectrum. Salafis follow a doctrine that can be summed up as taking "a fundamentalist approach to Islam, emulating the Prophet Muhammad and his earliest followers— al-salaf al-salih, the 'pious forefathers'....They reject religious innovation, or bidʻah, and support the implementation of Sharia (Islamic law)." The Salafi movement is often divided into three categories: the largest group are the purists (or quietists), who avoid politics; the second largest group are the Islamism, who get involved in politics; the third and last group are the Salafi jihadism, who constitute a minority. Most of the violent Islamist groups come from the Salafi jihadism and their subgroups.

(2025). 9781788314855, I.B. Tauris. ISBN 9781788314855

In recent years, Jihadi-Salafist doctrines have often been associated with the armed insurgencies of Islamic extremist movements and terrorist organizations targeting innocent civilians, both Muslims and Non-Muslims, such as al-Qaeda, Islamic State, Boko Haram, etc.

Marc Sageman (2011). 9780812206791, University of Pennsylvania Press. . ISBN 9780812206791

Vincenzo Oliveti (2002). 9780954372903, Amadeus Books. . ISBN 9780954372903

The second largest group are the Salafi activists who have a long tradition of political activism, such as those that operate in organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood, the Arab world's major Islamism. In the aftermath of widescale repressions after the Arab Spring, accompanied by their political failures, the activist-Salafi movements have undergone a decline. The most numerous are the quietists, who believe in disengagement from politics and accept allegiance to Muslim governments, no matter how tyrannical, to avoid fitna (chaos).

The Wahhabism was founded and spearheaded by the Hanbali scholar and theologian Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab,

(2025). 9781137313492, Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781137313492

a religious preacher from the Najd region in central Arabia,

(2025). 9789004435544, Brill Publishers. ISBN 9789004435544

Bernard Haykel (2025). 9780691134840, Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691134840

(2025). 9780195125597, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195125597

and was instrumental in the rise of the House of Saud to power in the Arabian peninsula. Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab sought to Islamic revival and purify Islam from what he perceived as non-Islamic popular religious beliefs and practices by returning to what, he believed, were the fundamental principles of the Islamic religion. His works were generally short, full of quotations from the Quran and Hadith, such as his main and foremost theological treatise, Kitāb at-Tawḥīd (; "The Book of Oneness"). He taught that the primary doctrine of Islam was the Tawhid ( tawḥīd), and denounced what he held to be popular religious beliefs and practices among Muslims that he considered to be akin to heretical innovation ( bidʿah) and polytheism ( shirk).

Wahhabism has been described as a conservative, strict, and fundamentalist branch of Sunnī Islam,

(2025). 9789814818001, ISEAS Publishing. ISBN 9789814818001

with Puritanical views, believing in a literal interpretation of the Quran. The terms "Wahhabism" and "Salafism" are sometimes evoked interchangeably, although the designation "Wahhabi" is specifically applied to the followers of Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab and his Islah doctrines. The label "Wahhabi" was not claimed by his followers, who usually refer themselves as al-Muwaḥḥidūn ("affirmers of the singularity of God"), but is rather employed by Western scholars as well as his critics. Starting in the mid-1970s and 1980s, the international propagation of Salafism and Wahhabism within Sunnī Islam favored by the Saudi Arabia and other Arab states of the Persian Gulf has achieved what the French political scientist Gilles Kepel defined as a "preeminent position of strength in the global expression of Islam."

Gilles Kepel (2025). 9781845112578, I.B. Tauris. . ISBN 9781845112578

22 months after the September 11 attacks, when the FBI considered al-Qaeda as "the number one terrorist threat to the United States", journalist Stephen Schwartz and U.S. Senator Jon Kyl have explicitly stated during a hearing that occurred in June 2003 before the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, and Homeland Security of the U.S. Senate that "Wahhabism is the source of the overwhelming majority of terrorist atrocities in today's world". As part of the global "War on terror", Wahhabism has been accused by the European Parliament, various Western security analysts, and think tanks like the RAND Corporation, as being "a source of global terrorism". Furthermore, Wahhabism has been accused of causing disunity in the Ummah ( Ummah) and criticized for its followers' destruction of many Islamic, cultural, and historical sites associated with the early history of Islam and the first generation of Muslims (Ahl al-Bayt and his companions) in Saudi Arabia.

Angel Rabasa (2025). 9780833037121, Rand Corporation. ISBN 9780833037121

Contemporary Islam

The contemporary period begins after 1924. With the defeat and dissolution of the Ottoman Empire (1908–1922), the Ottoman Caliphate was also abolished. This event heavily influenced Islamic thinking in general, but also what would later be coined radical Islamic thought.

David Cook (2025). 9780520287327, University of California Press. ISBN 9780520287327

Key thinkers that wrote about Islam in the 20th century, and especially about jihad, include:

Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian Islamist ideologue and prominent figurehead of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, was influential in promoting the Pan-Islamism ideology in the 1960s.

William R. Polk (2025). 9780300222906, Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300222906

When he was executed by the Egyptian government under the regime of Gamal Abdel Nasser, Ayman al-Zawahiri formed the organization Egyptian Islamic Jihad to replace the government with an Islamic state that would reflect Qutb's ideas for the Islamic revival that he yearned for.

Lawrence Wright (2025). 037541486X, Knopf. 037541486X

The Qutbism has been influential on jihadist movements and Islamic terrorists that seek to overthrow secular governments, most notably Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri of al-Qaeda, as well as the Salafi jihadism terrorist group ISIL/ISIS/IS/Daesh. Moreover, Qutb's books have frequently been cited by Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki. Robert Irwin, "Is this the man who inspired Bin Laden?" The Guardian (1 November 2001). Paul Berman, "The Philosopher of Islamic Terror" , New York Times Magazine (23 March 2003). Qutbism: An Ideology of Islamic-Fascism by Dale C. Eikmeier. From Parameters, Spring 2007, pp. 85–98.

Sayyid Qutb could be said to have founded the actual movement of radical Islam.

David Cook (2025). 9780520287327, University of California Press. ISBN 9780520287327

Unlike the other Islamic thinkers that have been mentioned above, Qutb was not an Apologetics. He was a prominent leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and a highly influential Islamist ideologue, and the first to articulate these anathemizing principles in his magnum opus Fī ẓilāl al-Qurʾān ( In the shade of the Qurʾān) and his 1966 manifesto Maʿālim fīl-ṭarīq ( Milestones), which lead to his execution by the Egyptian government.Gibril Haddad, "Quietism and End-Time Reclusion in the Qurʾān and Hadith: Al-Nābulusī and His Book Takmīl Al-Nuʿūt within the ʿuzla Genre", Islamic Sciences 15, no. 2 (2017): pp. 108–109) Other Salafi movements in the Middle East and North Africa and across the Muslim world adopted many of his Islamist principles.

According to Qutb, the Ummah ( Ummah) has been extinct for several centuries and reverted to jahiliyah (the pre-Islamic age of ignorance) because those who call themselves Muslims have failed to follow the Sharia. To Islamic revival, bring back its days of glory, and free the Muslims from the clasps of ignorance, Qutb proposed the shunning of modern society, establishing a vanguard modeled after the early Muslims, preaching, and bracing oneself for poverty or even death as preparation for jihad against what he perceived as jahili government/society, and overthrow them. Qutbism, the radical Islamist ideology derived from the ideas of Qutb, was denounced by many prominent Muslim scholars as well as other members of the Muslim Brotherhood, like Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

Groups

Al-Qaeda	Afghanistan, Pakistan, and MENA region	Osama bin Laden (1988–2011) Ayman al-Zawahiri (2011–2022) Saif al-Adel ( de facto; 2022–present)	300–3,000	4,400 casualties	Sunni Islam Islamism and militant terrorist organization which aims to "restore Islam" and establish "true ", implement Sharia law, and rid the Muslim world of any Kafir influences by following the Qutbism of the Egyptian Islamist ideologue and propagandist Sayyid Qutb. (2025). 9780674008779, Harvard University Press.. . ISBN 9780674008779 The title translates to "Organization of the Base of Jihad".
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb	Kabylie	Abdelmalek Droukdel (2007-2020)	800–1,000+	200+	AQIM is a Sunni Islam Islamism and militant terrorist organization which aims to overthrow the Government of Algeria and replace it with an Islamic state.
Al-Mourabitoun a.k.a. al-Qaeda West Africa	Mali, Niger, and Libya	Mokhtar Belmokhtar	Under 100 (French claim)	Killed 27 in the 2015 Bamako hotel attack.	Affiliated branch of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb listed above.
Ansar al-Sharia in Yemen a.k.a. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula	Yemen	Nasir al-Wuhayshi (2011–15) Qasim al-Raymi (2015–2020)	2,000+	Over 250 killed in the 2012 Sana'a bombing and 2013 Sana'a attack.	AQAP is considered the most active of al-Qaeda's branches, or "Franchising", that emerged due to weakening central leadership. The U.S. Government believes AQAP to be the most dangerous al-Qaeda branch due to its emphasis on attacking the "far enemy" and its reputation for plotting attacks on overseas targets.
al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent	India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar	Asim Umar	300	Claims 6 killed in assassinations. Naval frigate hijacking attempted in 2014.	AQIS is a Sunni Islam Islamism and militant terrorist organization which aims to overthrow the Governments of Pakistan, India, Myanmar, and Bangladesh to establish an Islamic state.
Boko Haram – West Africa Province of the Islamic State Caliphate	Northeastern Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Mali, and northern Cameroon	Mohammed Yusuf (founder 2002 – 2009) Abubakar Shekau (2009–2021)	Estimates range between 500 and 9,000	Since 2009, it has killed 20,000 and displaced 2.3 million.	Title means "Western education is forbidden", founded as a Sunni Islam Islamic fundamentalist sect and influenced by the Wahhabism, advocating a strict form of Sharia law. Since 2015 Boko Haram has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), rebranding itself as Islamic State's West Africa Province (ISWAP).
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (commonly known as ISIS, ISIL, IS, or Daesh)	Iraq and Syria (occupied territories)	Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (founder 1999 – 2006) Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (2010–2019) Abu Ibrahimi al-Hashimi al-Qurashi (2019–2022) Abu al-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi (2022)Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi (2022–2023) Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Qurashi (2023–present)	40,000–200,000 at its height across all 'provinces'	30,000+ killed, including the of Shīʿa Muslims, Christians, Yazidis, other ethnic and religious minorities in the Middle East, and many others around the world by ISIL or groups associated or inspired by ISIL. Since 2015 includes Boko Haram, rebranded as "Islamic State's West Africa Province" (ISWAP).	Salafi jihadism and Sunni Islam militant terrorist organization that follows the Islamic fundamentalist Wahhabism of Sunnī Islam. Originated as the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI). Gained large swathes of territory in Iraq in 2014 and is currently at war with Iraq, Syria, and CJTF-OIR including the United States, United Kingdom, and France.
Jemaah Islamiyah	Southeast Asia: Indonesia Malaysia Philippines Singapore Thailand	Abu Bakar Bashir	5,000	Over 250 killed in bombings throughout Indonesia since 2002	With a name meaning "Islamic Congregation" (frequently abbreviated JI), is a Southeast Asian Sunni Islam Islamism and militant terrorist organization dedicated to the establishment of a Daulah Islamiyah (regional Islamic caliphate) in Southeast Asia. Counter-Society to Counter-State: Jemaah Islamiah According to Pupji, p. 11., Elena Pavlova, The Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, [4]
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan a.k.a. Pakistani Taliban	Northwest Pakistan	Maulana Fazlullah	25,000	hundreds	TTP is an umbrella organization of various Sunni Islam Islamism and militant groups protecting foreign Islamic terrorists hiding in the mountains of Pakistan. Not to be confused with the Taliban.
Jaish-e-Mohammed	Kashmir Valley	Masood Azhar			Aim is to annex Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan. Operates primarily in Jammu and Kashmir.
Lashkar-e-Taiba a.k.a. LeT	Kashmir Valley	Hafiz Saeed			Aim is to annex Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan and, ultimately, install Islamic rule throughout South Asia. Operational throughout India, especially in the northern region of Jammu and Kashmir since at least 1993.
National Thowheeth Jama'ath	Sri Lanka			269 (excluding 9 bombers)	Convert Sri Lanka into an Islamic caliphate

Foreign political support

According to the British historian Mark Curtis, in his book , Britain has been accused of consistently supporting radical Islam to combat secular nationalism. Because the secular nationalists threatened to seize the resources of their countries and use it for internal development, which was not accepted by England.

(2025). 9781849649377, Pluto Press. ISBN 9781849649377

The United States, like Britain before it, has been accused of historically supporting radical Islam in the face of secular nationalism, seen as a major threat to Western colonial dominance. Chomsky and coauthors accuse Israel of destroying Egypt and Syria in 1967, two bastions of secular Arab nationalism opposed to Saudi Arabia, which they view as the leader of radical Islam.

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