Jihad: contemporary transformations of a polysemous concept
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5380/cam.v10i2.17045Keywords:
jihad, islamismo, terrorismo.Abstract
What are the roles and meanings of the concept of jihad for contemporary Islamic movements? Jihad, as every concept or ideology, cannot be set apart from the specific world view wherein it thrives. The goal of this paper is to outline the transformations of the concept of jihad throughout history, so that we can shed light on the new forms it has taken in modern times. From an ideology of conquest in the first centuries of Islam, the concept follows through a more universalist moment of consolidation, expansion and defense of the faith and the community of believers, aggregating, at last, political concepts borrowed and adapted from the contact with the West – jihad as anticolonial and/or nationalist struggle, and finally, as guerilla war, terrorism, moral war, way of life and asceticism. The specific feature of contemporary readings of jihad is that it is now individualized, becoming a “way of life” in itself, a choice that is up for the individual to make, though at the same time it becomes a mission, an ideology, and a religious doctrine, on the collective plan. We will analyze the works of two influent Islamic thinkers, Sayyid Imam and Yusuf al-‘Uyayri, in which the concept of jihad as moral struggle becomes evident.
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