to justify violence. By doing this, I hope to illuminate some of the ways in which religion can play a role in terrorism. This does not seek to maintain that Islam is the only religion that plays any role in terrorism. It is instead meant to serve as an exploration of the particular phenomena of “Islamist terrorism.” This specific phenomenon has been, and will continue to be a source of scholarly focus in the future. In the following literature review, key terms will first be defined, and then the debate over the role of religion in terrorism will be highlighted. Following this will be the methods that will be used to conduct this study. Literature Review One of the first things that must be done is to define just what is meant by the term “terrorism.” Crenshaw notes the variety of meanings that terrorism can encapsulate, and gives a brief overview of the ways in which the term has changed over time. For the purposes of this paper, the definition that shall be used is: “terrorism is deliberate and systematic violence performed by small numbers of people.” This paper also seeks to deal mainly with Islamist (and, thusly, Islamism) terrorism, so it is necessary to define what “Islamism” is. As with any other “-ism”, there are a number of different definitions of “Islamism.” Among these definitions are the idea that Islam is a system that controls all aspects of life, and that shari’a (traditional Islamic law) covers not only life but also all other areas of human life, from government to ethics. Liebl simply defines an Islamist as a “fundamentalist.” Ayoob offers a more nuanced definition when he says Islamism is “a form of instrumentalization of Islam by individuals, groups, and organizations that pursue political objectives.” Ayoob furthers states that Islamists seek to answer societal problems with ideas
opens with the author pronouncing that the members of Hezbollah are “sons of the umma.” The second paragraph of the letter states that they are part of the worldwide Muslim community, and that they are linked together by religious connections. Later, in the “Our Fight” section of the document, the author claims that the members of Hezbollah “declare openly and loudly that we are an umma which fears Allah only.” There is only one instance of variable two (calls for shari’a) which occurs in the document, and it is found in the “To the Christians” section of the document, which is aimed largely at the Lebanese Christian community which had been at odds with Lebanese Shi’a at different times throughout Lebanese history. In this section, the author says that Allah had made it “intolerable” for Muslims to live in a country that did not live according to the tenets of Islam or the shari’a. There are several instances of variable three (literalistic interpretation of scripture) in this document as well. The primary instance is when the author states that their culture is based on “the holy Qur’an, the Sunna, and the faqih.” In this document, there is also support for the hypotheses mentioned earlier. Hypothesis 1 finds support throughout the document, as the authors state that they fight on behalf of the umma. Hypothesis 2 is supported in the “Our Objectives” segment of the document, which states that the only kind of government that can guarantee justice is an Islamic government. By changing from a secular government to a religious one, the members of Hezbollah seek to change the world according to religious views. Hypothesis 3 is supported as well. The document states that Hezbollah is based on the Qur’an and other Islamic sources, and that each member is willing to engage in “holy war” to protect it. Hypothesis 4 is supported as the group appeals to the umma throughout the document, as early as the second sentence of the document. Hezbollah, as seen above, also uses scripture to justify their actions, as well as stating that Muslims must live in a country governed by shari’a. This can be seen as support for Hypothesis 5.