Currently under military pressure in Iraq and Syria, and still terrorising civilians far beyond those lands, ISIL has horrified and bewildered Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
Its carefully studied barbarism and cinematic savagery seem to owe as much to Hollywood action movies and computer combat games as to interpretations of classical Islamic jurisprudence; the furiously destructive passions of its adherents appearing insane.
ISIL is certainly immoral, but its actions are rooted in specific political contexts and based on a greatly contested analysis of ancient and contemporary Islamic texts.
Shiraz Maher's magisterial Salafi-Jihadism: The History of an Idea provides an "explanatory backstory" to this and other manifestations of what could be called in shorthand the Al Qaeda tradition.
British-Pakistani scholar Maher, a fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, Kings College London, researches the topic from an academic perspective. In his student years, as a member of the now-banned extremist organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir, he experienced it from within.
Salafists preach “progression through regression”, specifically a return to the practice of the first three generations of Muslims known as the Salaf Al Salih, or the “righteous predecessors”.
Although its antecedents go back at least to the medieval theologian Ibn Taymiyya, Salafism is a modern phenomenon – a response to modernity – developed in the past 150 years. There are “quietist” and “activist” strains, but Maher’s book focuses on the “violent-rejectionists” who have risen to prominence even more recently. Their ascent since the early 1990s coincided with a decline in those varieties of political Islam that hoped to achieve power through reformist or democratic means.
Maher quotes Trotsky’s dictum that “war is the locomotive of history”. The war sparked by the suspension of Algerian democracy, the anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan, the wars in Iraq, and today’s conflict in Syria, constitute stations in the development of Salafi-Jihadism, a movement which is at once revolutionary and deeply reactionary.
Maher defines Salafi-Jihadism in terms of its particular interpretations of five key concepts: jihad, takfir, al-wala’ wa-l-bara’, tawhid and hakimiyya.
To take the last first, modern interest in hakimiyya, or “the securing of political sovereignty for God”, was provoked by negative experiences of colonial conquest and forced industrialisation. Several important Muslim thinkers in British India, including Abul A’la Maududi and the poet Muhammad Iqbal, urged Islamic cultural renaissance alongside social justice.
After political independence, “activist” Salafists in the Arab world prioritised “advising” governments instead of rebellion against them. While insisting on the supremacy of Islamic law, they called for consultative councils to guide the rulers in interpreting the law.
Violent-rejectionists, on the other hand, consider democracy in any form to be a “man-made deity” usurping God’s powers. They hold that all Muslim states have failed to secure divine rule, and must therefore be fought.
Of course, tawhid, or the oneness of God, is central to any Muslim’s world view. Once again, however, Salafi-Jihadists have given their own take on the concept. Tawhid implies unity of worship, “something that requires manifestation through practical agency”.
It is therefore easily associated with jihad, specifically through the mujahid’s absolute conviction that he cannot die until the moment predestined by God. Next comes al-wala’ wa-l-bara’, an ambiguous term translated as “loyalty and disavowal”, which reinforces the boundaries between “us” and the non-Muslim “them”. For political Islamists as well as the Salafi-Jihadist fringe, this concept means that the worldwide Islamic community, the umma, is “the sole basis of citizenship, identification, loyalty and allegiance”.
It was used as a tool for popular mobilisation against external challenges during the first Saudi kingdoms, then framed the debates over the permissibility of hosting American military bases, specifically of seeking western aid to expel Saddam Hussein from Kuwait. Finally Salafi-Jihadists employed it to mobilise against all established power structures on the basis of their supposed unbelief.
Which brings us to takfir, “the process of declaring another Muslim, or a group of Muslims, to be outside the fold of Islam”.
The first takfiris were the khawarij, a group who pronounced takfir on Ali, the fourth Caliph and the Prophet’s nephew, when he agreed to arbitrate a dispute in the early Islamic community rather than allow God to choose the victor through battle. Khawarij means “those who left” the Muslim consensus and turned to extremism, and Muslims today often apply the title to ISIL.
In his seminal text Milestones Along the Way, written during his imprisonment in the 1950s, Egyptian Islamist Sayyid Qutb argued that Muslim societies had regressed to a state of jahiliyya, or pre-Islamic ignorance. Following this lead, Khalid Islambouli declared, "I have killed Pharaoh" after assassinating president Anwar Sadat in 1981.
During the insurgency against the American occupation of Iraq, Salafist-Jihadists expanded the range of those they declared unbelievers to include not only heads of state but enormous sections of civilian society. Nationalists, communists and democrats were all fair game. Soon the Shia were added to the list.
The practice of takfir aims to homogenize the faith by shutting down debate and dissent. It also tends to de-contextualise and de-historicise political conflict. Many Iraqi Shia leaders chose to work with the American occupation. Rather than understanding this “treachery” as a reaction to Saddam Hussein’s oppression of the Shia community and a pragmatic approach to establishing communal power, Salafi-Jihadist propaganda referred to Shia Muslims as Zoroastrians, Mongol agents, and Safavids – in other words as eternal, unchanging opponents of Sunni Muslims. This sectarian enmity, of course, did not serve Sunni interests. It was one reason why the insurgency degenerated from a national liberation struggle into civil war, and its continuation today boosts the narrative of those convincing gullible Shia to fight on Bashar Al Assad’s front lines in Syria.
The best-known concept of the five discussed by Maher is jihad. The Sufi tradition considers the believer’s struggle with the self as the “greater” jihad, but the warlike meaning has larger, and ancient, resonance. The Prophet himself participated in 27 battles, and Ibn Taymiyya held that “the first obligation after iman [faith] is the repulsion of the enemy aggressor”.
Traditional Islamic warfare, in theory at least, was prosecuted within an ethical framework. The first caliph, Abu Bakr Al Siddiq, set out rules including the following: “You must not mutilate dead bodies. Neither kill a child, nor a woman, nor an aged man. Bring no harm to the trees, nor burn them with fire ... Slay not any of the enemy’s flock.”
A distinction was also made between defensive and offensive jihad. The latter could only be sanctioned by an Islamic ruler.
How do we arrive from this origin to today’s indiscriminate “lone wolf” attacks against western civilians?
Maher explains the interpretive gymnastics which transferred the eye-for-an-eye law of qisas, or equal retaliation, to the field of international relations. The West is blamed for keeping tyrannous or insufficiently Islamic regimes in power in Muslim countries. Citizens of western democracies, because they are governed by consent, are then considered liable for their governments’ actions. This is what scholar Nibras Kazimi called “the triumph of battlefield logic over theology”.
At some points, Salafi-Jihadist justifications for terror abandon theology altogether. Al Qaeda leader Ayman Al Zawahiri and others argue that the Islamic rules concerning tartarus, or human shields, are outdated because modern weaponry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Jihadists, moreover, as non-state actors, are compelled to prosecute asymmetrical warfare through terrorism. By this faulty logic the large-scale slaughter even of Sunni Muslim civilians is justified.
Surely such free and easy treatment of classical jurisprudence is an example of the bida’, or innovation, which is supposedly anathema to Salafis? Salafi-Jihadists such as Abu Bashir Al Tartusi have contested Zawahiri’s nihilism. Maher points out that these faultlines in the movement are most apparent between theorists and “those who are operationally active in the field”.
The self-interested legalistic sophistry of these organisations eliminates the role of the conscience, surely God’s first gift to mankind. Like the dictators they claim to oppose but often end up serving, Salafi-Jihadists seek to enforce obedience through terror. The fear they promote has debilitating effects on society, crushing thought and blocking new directions.
The size of the problem adds to the importance of Maher's book. Essential reading for policymakers, Salafi-Jihadism is an academic work of intellectual history well enough written to interest the general reader too.
Robin Yassin-Kassab is a critic, novelist and the co-author of Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Tesalam Aleik
Abdullah Al Ruwaished
(Rotana)
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Fourth Arab Economic and Social Development Summit
As he spoke, Mr Aboul Gheit repeatedly referred to the need to tackle issues affecting the welfare of people across the region both in terms of preventing conflict and in pushing development.
Lebanon is scheduled to host the fourth Arab Economic and Social Development Summit in January that will see regional leaders gather to tackle the challenges facing the Middle East. The last such summit was held in 2013. Assistant Secretary-General Hossam Zaki told The National that the Beirut Summit “will be an opportunity for Arab leaders to discuss solely economic and social issues, the conference will not focus on political concerns such as Palestine, Syria or Libya". He added that its slogan will be “the individual is at the heart of development”, adding that it will focus on all elements of human capital.
Dunki
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Breast cancer in men: the facts
1) Breast cancer is men is rare but can develop rapidly. It usually occurs in those over the ages of 60, but can occasionally affect younger men.
2) Symptoms can include a lump, discharge, swollen glands or a rash.
3) People with a history of cancer in the family can be more susceptible.
4) Treatments include surgery and chemotherapy but early diagnosis is the key.
5) Anyone concerned is urged to contact their doctor
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Company%20Profile
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ESSENTIALS
The flights
Etihad (etihad.com) flies from Abu Dhabi to Mykonos, with a flight change to its partner airline Olympic Air in Athens. Return flights cost from Dh4,105 per person, including taxes.
Where to stay
The modern-art-filled Ambassador hotel (myconianambassador.gr) is 15 minutes outside Mykonos Town on a hillside 500 metres from the Platis Gialos Beach, with a bus into town every 30 minutes (a taxi costs €15 [Dh66]). The Nammos and Scorpios beach clubs are a 10- to 20-minute walk (or water-taxi ride) away. All 70 rooms have a large balcony, many with a Jacuzzi, and of the 15 suites, five have a plunge pool. There’s also a private eight-bedroom villa. Double rooms cost from €240 (Dh1,063) including breakfast, out of season, and from €595 (Dh2,636) in July/August.
Avatar%20(2009)
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EJames%20Cameron%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESam%20Worthington%2C%20Zoe%20Saldana%2C%20Sigourney%20Weaver%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E3%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
COMPANY PROFILE
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Core42
Current number of staff: 47
Citizenship-by-investment programmes
United Kingdom
The UK offers three programmes for residency. The UK Overseas Business Representative Visa lets you open an overseas branch office of your existing company in the country at no extra investment. For the UK Tier 1 Innovator Visa, you are required to invest £50,000 (Dh238,000) into a business. You can also get a UK Tier 1 Investor Visa if you invest £2 million, £5m or £10m (the higher the investment, the sooner you obtain your permanent residency).
All UK residency visas get approved in 90 to 120 days and are valid for 3 years. After 3 years, the applicant can apply for extension of another 2 years. Once they have lived in the UK for a minimum of 6 months every year, they are eligible to apply for permanent residency (called Indefinite Leave to Remain). After one year of ILR, the applicant can apply for UK passport.
The Caribbean
Depending on the country, the investment amount starts from $100,000 (Dh367,250) and can go up to $400,000 in real estate. From the date of purchase, it will take between four to five months to receive a passport.
Portugal
The investment amount ranges from €350,000 to €500,000 (Dh1.5m to Dh2.16m) in real estate. From the date of purchase, it will take a maximum of six months to receive a Golden Visa. Applicants can apply for permanent residency after five years and Portuguese citizenship after six years.
“Among European countries with residency programmes, Portugal has been the most popular because it offers the most cost-effective programme to eventually acquire citizenship of the European Union without ever residing in Portugal,” states Veronica Cotdemiey of Citizenship Invest.
Greece
The real estate investment threshold to acquire residency for Greece is €250,000, making it the cheapest real estate residency visa scheme in Europe. You can apply for residency in four months and citizenship after seven years.
Spain
The real estate investment threshold to acquire residency for Spain is €500,000. You can apply for permanent residency after five years and citizenship after 10 years. It is not necessary to live in Spain to retain and renew the residency visa permit.
Cyprus
Cyprus offers the quickest route to citizenship of a European country in only six months. An investment of €2m in real estate is required, making it the highest priced programme in Europe.
Malta
The Malta citizenship by investment programme is lengthy and investors are required to contribute sums as donations to the Maltese government. The applicant must either contribute at least €650,000 to the National Development & Social Fund. Spouses and children are required to contribute €25,000; unmarried children between 18 and 25 and dependent parents must contribute €50,000 each.
The second step is to make an investment in property of at least €350,000 or enter a property rental contract for at least €16,000 per annum for five years. The third step is to invest at least €150,000 in bonds or shares approved by the Maltese government to be kept for at least five years.
Candidates must commit to a minimum physical presence in Malta before citizenship is granted. While you get residency in two months, you can apply for citizenship after a year.
Egypt
A one-year residency permit can be bought if you purchase property in Egypt worth $100,000. A three-year residency is available for those who invest $200,000 in property, and five years for those who purchase property worth $400,000.
Source: Citizenship Invest and Aqua Properties
Most sought after workplace benefits in the UAE
- Flexible work arrangements
- Pension support
- Mental well-being assistance
- Insurance coverage for optical, dental, alternative medicine, cancer screening
- Financial well-being incentives
WOMAN AND CHILD
Director: Saeed Roustaee
Starring: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi
Rating: 4/5
CHINESE GRAND PRIX STARTING GRID
1st row
Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari)
Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)
2nd row
Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes-GP)
Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes-GP)
3rd row
Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing)
Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull Racing)
4th row
Nico Hulkenberg (Renault)
Sergio Perez (Force India)
5th row
Carlos Sainz Jr (Renault)
Romain Grosjean (Haas)
6th row
Kevin Magnussen (Haas)
Esteban Ocon (Force India)
7th row
Fernando Alonso (McLaren)
Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren)
8th row
Brendon Hartley (Toro Rosso)
Sergey Sirotkin (Williams)
9th row
Pierre Gasly (Toro Rosso)
Lance Stroll (Williams)
10th row
Charles Leclerc (Sauber)
arcus Ericsson (Sauber)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Asia Cup Qualifier
Final
UAE v Hong Kong
Live on OSN Cricket HD. Coverage starts at 5.30am
Read more from Aya Iskandarani
More on Quran memorisation:
Tank warfare
Lt Gen Erik Petersen, deputy chief of programs, US Army, has argued it took a “three decade holiday” on modernising tanks.
“There clearly remains a significant armoured heavy ground manoeuvre threat in this world and maintaining a world class armoured force is absolutely vital,” the general said in London last week.
“We are developing next generation capabilities to compete with and deter adversaries to prevent opportunism or miscalculation, and, if necessary, defeat any foe decisively.”
If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.
When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.
How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.
Best Academy: Ajax and Benfica
Best Agent: Jorge Mendes
Best Club : Liverpool
Best Coach: Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool)
Best Goalkeeper: Alisson Becker
Best Men’s Player: Cristiano Ronaldo
Best Partnership of the Year Award by SportBusiness: Manchester City and SAP
Best Referee: Stephanie Frappart
Best Revelation Player: Joao Felix (Atletico Madrid and Portugal)
Best Sporting Director: Andrea Berta (Atletico Madrid)
Best Women's Player: Lucy Bronze
Best Young Arab Player: Achraf Hakimi
Kooora – Best Arab Club: Al Hilal (Saudi Arabia)
Kooora – Best Arab Player: Abderrazak Hamdallah (Al-Nassr FC, Saudi Arabia)
Player Career Award: Miralem Pjanic and Ryan Giggs
CHATGPT%20ENTERPRISE%20FEATURES
%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Enterprise-grade%20security%20and%20privacy%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Unlimited%20higher-speed%20GPT-4%20access%20with%20no%20caps%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Longer%20context%20windows%20for%20processing%20longer%20inputs%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Advanced%20data%20analysis%20capabilities%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Customisation%20options%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Shareable%20chat%20templates%20that%20companies%20can%20use%20to%20collaborate%20and%20build%20common%20workflows%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Analytics%20dashboard%20for%20usage%20insights%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Free%20credits%20to%20use%20OpenAI%20APIs%20to%20extend%20OpenAI%20into%20a%20fully-custom%20solution%20for%20enterprises%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
UFC%20FIGHT%20NIGHT%3A%20SAUDI%20ARABIA%20RESULTS
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
MATCH INFO
Liverpool 2 (Van Dijk 18', 24')
Brighton 1 (Dunk 79')
Red card: Alisson (Liverpool)
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The Rub of Time: Bellow, Nabokov, Hitchens, Travolta, Trump and Other Pieces 1986-2016
Martin Amis,
Jonathan Cape
PROFILE BOX
Company name: Overwrite.ai
Founder: Ayman Alashkar
Started: Established in 2020
Based: Dubai International Financial Centre, Dubai
Sector: PropTech
Initial investment: Self-funded by founder
Funding stage: Seed funding, in talks with angel investors
MATCH INFO
Karnataka Tuskers 110-5 (10 ovs)
Tharanga 48, Shafiq 34, Rampaul 2-16
Delhi Bulls 91-8 (10 ovs)
Mathews 31, Rimmington 3-28
Karnataka Tuskers win by 19 runs
Results
5pm: UAE Martyrs Cup (TB) Conditions Dh90,000 2,200m
Winner: Mudaarab, Jim Crowley (jockey), Erwan Charpy (trainer).
5.30pm: Wathba Stallions Cup (PA) Handicap Dh70,000 1,400m
Winner: Jawal Al Reef, Richard Mullen, Hassan Al Hammadi.
6pm: UAE Matyrs Trophy (PA) Maiden Dh80,000 1,600m
Winner: Salima Al Reef, Jesus Rosales, Abdallah Al Hammadi.
6.30pm: Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak (IFAHR) Apprentice Championship (PA) Prestige Dh100,000 1,600m
Winner: Bainoona, Ricardo Iacopini, Eric Lemartinel.
7pm: Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak (IFAHR) Ladies World Championship (PA) Prestige Dh125,000 1,600m
Winner: Assyad, Victoria Larsen, Eric Lemartinel.
8pm: Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Jewel Crown (PA) Group 1 Dh5,000,000 1,600m
Winner: Mashhur Al Khalediah, Jean-Bernard Eyquem, Phillip Collington.
On racial profiling at airports