Islamic extremism in the context of "Ansar Bait al-Maqdis"

Jihadism is a neologism for modern, armed militant Islamic movements that seek to establish states based on Islamic principles. In a narrower sense, it refers to the belief that armed confrontation is an efficient and theologically legitimate method of socio-political change towards an Islamic system of governance. The term "jihadism" has been applied to various Islamic extremist or Islamist individuals and organizations with militant ideologies based on the classical Islamic notion of lesser jihad.

Jihadism has its roots in the late 19th- and early 20th-century ideological developments of Islamic revivalism, which further developed into Qutbism and Salafi jihadism related ideologies during the 20th and 21st centuries. Jihadist ideologues envision jihad as a "revolutionary struggle" against the international order to unite the Muslim world under Islamic law.

Islamic terrorism is a form of religious terrorism carried out by fundamentalist militant Islamists and Islamic extremists with the aim of achieving various political or religious objectives, such as jihad.

Since at least the 1990s, Islamist terrorist incidents have occurred around the world and targeted both Muslims and non-Muslims. Most attacks have been concentrated in Muslim-majority countries, with studies finding 80–90% of terrorist victims to be Muslim. The annual number of fatalities from terrorist attacks grew sharply from 2011 to 2014, when it reached a peak of 33,438, before declining to 13,826 in 2019. From 1979 to April 2024, five Islamic extremist groups—the Taliban, Islamic State, Boko Haram, al-Shabaab, and al-Qaeda—were responsible for more than 80% of all victims of Islamist terrorist attacks. In some of the worst-affected Muslim-majority regions, these terrorists have been met by armed, independent resistance groups. Islamist terrorism has also been roundly condemned by prominent Islamic figures and groups.

Qutbism is an exonym that refers to the Sunni Islamist beliefs and ideology of Sayyid Qutb, a leading Islamist revolutionary of the Muslim Brotherhood who was executed by the Egyptian government of Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1966. Influenced by the doctrines of earlier Islamists like Hasan al-Banna and Maududi, Qutbism advocates Islamic extremist violence in order to establish an Islamic government, in addition to promoting offensive Jihad. Qutbism has been characterized as an Islamofascist and Islamic terrorist ideology.

Sayyid Qutb's treatises deeply influenced numerous jihadist ideologues and organizations across the Muslim world. Qutbism has gained prominence due to its influence on notable Jihadist figures of contemporary era such as Abdullah Azzam, Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Saif al-Adel. Its ideas have also been adopted by the Salafi-jihadist terrorist organization Islamic State (ISIL). It was one inspiration that influenced Ruhollah Khomeini in the development of his own ideology, Khomeinism.

Graham E. Fuller (born November 28, 1937) is an American author and political analyst, specializing in Islamist extremism. Formerly vice-chair of the National Intelligence Council, he also served as Station Chief in Kabul for the CIA. A "think piece" that Fuller wrote for the CIA was identified as instrumental in leading to the Iran–Contra affair. As of 2024, Fuller is a member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.

After a career in the United States State Department and CIA lasting 27 years, he joined Rand Corporation as senior political scientist specializing in the Middle East. As of 2006, he was affiliated with the Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, as an adjunct professor of history. He is the author of a number of books, including The Future of Political Islam.

The Azariqa (Arabic: الأزارقة, romanized: al-ʾAzāriqa) were an extremist branch of the Kharijites who followed the leadership of Nafi ibn al-Azraq. Adherents of Azraqism participated in an armed struggle against the rulers of the Umayyad Caliphate, and they declared those who avoided this duty infidels - kafirs - and allowed their murder. Nafi ibn al-Azraq even permitted the killing of women and children of his opponents. At the same time, the Azraqites did not extend the principle of killing “apostates” to Christians and Jews, since they believed that they did not betray the teachings of the prophets Jesus and Moses.

Like all Kharijites, they declared Muslims who committed great sins (al-Kabā'ir) to be unfaithful, and claimed that they would eternally suffer in hellfire. The Azraqites denied the principle of “prudent concealment of faith” (takiya). They recognized the imamate as “worthy” (أفضل ʾafḍal), that is, the applicant who would come up with arms and call people to fight “unbelievers” and would not allow the imamate to be “surpassed” (مفضول mafḍūl). Based on this, they declared the caliph Ali ibn Abu Talib, Uthman ibn Affan and their adherents unbelievers. The Azraqites considered the territories beyond their control to be the "land of war" (دار الحرب Dār al-Ḥarb).

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (Arabic: تنظيم القاعدة في جزيرة العرب, romanized: Tanẓīm al-Qā‘idah fī Jazīrat al-‘Arab, lit. 'Organization of the Base in the Arabian Peninsula'), or AQAP is a Sunni Islamist militant organization which seeks to overthrow the Yemeni government and establish the Islamic Emirate of Yemen. Part of the al-Qaeda network, the group is based and primarily active in Yemen, while also conducting operations in Saudi Arabia. It is considered the most active of al-Qaeda's affiliates that emerged after the weakening of central leadership.

Established in 2009 as a merger between al-Qaeda in Yemen and al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, the group took advantage of the 2011 Yemeni Revolution to seize and establish several emirates in southern Yemen, including in Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan governorate. After being driven out through a government offensive in 2012, the group returned to an insurgent campaign rather than holding territory. AQAP would again capitalize on political turmoil in the country when the Yemeni civil war broke out in 2014. AQAP would reach its territorial peak in 2015, with the group seizing much of southern Hadhramaut governorate, including its capital Mukalla, recapturing their emirates in the south, and establishing a presence across multiple fronts in the civil war against the Houthis, most prominently in Aden, al-Bayda governorate and Taiz. Its strength has since waned due to internal struggles and operations waged against them by multiple parties in the civil war, as well as through an ongoing drone campaign by the United States which has killed many of its senior leaders and members.

Moderate Muslim and Moderate Islam are terms that are used within religious and political discourse to describe the obverse of Islamic extremism and imply that supporting Islamic terrorism is the characteristic of extremist groups within Islam, and the moderate groups of Muslims denounce extremist violence such as Islamic terrorism, Jihadism and radical Islamism.

Moderation in Islam and moderate Islam are also terms that occur as interpretation of the Islamic concept of moderation as well as Iqtisad (Arabic: اقتصاد, lit. 'Frugality') and Wasat (Arabic: وسط, lit. 'Centre'). The Islamic concept of moderation are mentioned in the Quran, and is used to describe the Muslim community: