page_title: Religious fanaticism
section_title: Islam
hierarchical_section_title: Religious fanaticism / Examples of religious fanaticism / Islam
caption_attribution_description: English: Osama bin Laden sits with his adviser Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri during an interview with Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir. Hamid Mir took this picture during his third and last interview with Osama bin Laden in November 2001 in Kabul. Dr. Ayman al-Zawahri was present in this interview and acted as the translator of Osama bin Laden.
context_page_description: Religious fanaticism is uncritical zeal or with an obsessive enthusiasm related to one's own, or one's group's, devotion to a religion – a form of human fanaticism which could otherwise be expressed in one's other involvements and participation, including employment, role, and partisan affinities.
context_section_description: Extremism within Islam goes back to the 7th century to the Kharijites. From their essentially political position, they developed extreme doctrines that set them apart from both mainstream Sunni and Shiʿa Muslims. The Kharijites were particularly noted for adopting a radical approach to Takfir, whereby they declared other Muslims to be unbelievers and therefore deemed them worthy of death.
  Sayyid Qutb, a figurehead of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, was influential in promoting a Pan-Islamist ideology in the 1960s. When Qutb was executed by the Egyptian government, Ayman al-Zawahiri formed the organization Egyptian Islamic Jihad to replace the government with an Islamic state that would reflect Qutb's ideas for Islamic revival. The Qutbist ideology has been influential in jihadist movements that seek to overthrow secular governments, and Qutb's books have been frequently been cited by Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki.
  Since Osama bin Laden's fatwa in 1998, radical jihad has increasingly become an internationally recognized term. Bin Laden's concept, though, is very different from the actual meaning of the term.  In the religious context, jihad most nearly means "working urgently for a certain godly objective, generally an imperialist one". The word jihad in Arabic means 'struggle'. The struggle can be a struggle of implementing the Islamic values in daily activities, a struggle with others to counter arguments against Islam, or self-defense when physically attacked because of belief in Islam. According to Steffen, there are portions of the Qur'an where military jihad is used.  As Steffen says, though, "Jihad in these uses is always defensive.  Not only does ‘jihad' not endorse acts of military aggression, but ‘jihad' is invoked in Qur'anic passages to indicate how uses of force are always subject to restraint and qualification". This kind of jihad differs greatly from the kind most commonly discussed today.
  Thomas Farr, in an essay titled "Islam's Way to Freedom", says that, "Even though most Muslims reject violence, the extremists' use of sacred texts lends their actions authenticity and recruiting power". (Freedom 24)  He goes on to say, "The radicals insist that their central claim – God's desire for Islam's triumph – requires no interpretation. According to them, true Muslims will pursue it by any means necessary, including dissimulation, civil coercion, and the killing of innocents". (Freedom 24)
  According to certain observers this disregard for others and rampant use of violence is markedly different from the peaceful message that jihad is meant to employ. Although fanatic jihadists have committed many terroristic acts throughout the world, perhaps the best known is the September 11 attacks.  According to Ellens, the al-Qaeda members who took part in the terrorist attacks did so out of their belief that, by doing it, they would "enact a devastating blow against the evil of secularized and non-Muslim America.  They were cleansing this world, God's temple".
caption: Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri have promoted the overthrow of secular governments.
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