Book review: 'Militant Islam’ vs. ‘Islamic Militancy’? Religion, Violence, Category Formation and Applied Research. Contested Fields in the Discourses

pdf: https://www.academia.edu/43480593/Book_review_Militant_Islam_vs._Islamic_Militancy_Religion_Violence_Category_Formation_and_Applied_Research._Contested_Fields_in_the_Discourses_of_Scholarship

Klaus Hock & Nina K?sehage (Eds.).’ Militant Islam’ vs. ‘Islamic Militancy’? Religion, Violence, Category Formation and Applied Research. Contested Fields in the Discourses of Scholarship.

(Zürich: LIT Verlag, 2020), 272 pp., US $ 52.95 [Paperback], ISBN: 978-3-6439-1275-6. Reviewed by Ahmet S. Yayla

‘Militant Islam’ vs. ‘Islamic Militancy’ focuses on overlooked and understudied questions of radical Islamic movements and the distinctive factors of such groups by considering theoretical and practical frameworks. Throughout this edited volume, the authors focus their analyses on discourses on radical Islam, political Islam, Islamic extremism, and religious violence. They do so by asking questions about what people are discussing when they refer to Salafism, Jihadism, and Islamic terrorism in order to try to overcome discrepancies in these terminologies.

This book consists of eight contributions, based on an international workshop organized by the Department of Religious Studies and Intercultural Theology, in cooperation with a Research Group on ‘Power of Interpretation: Religion and Belief Systems in Conflicts of Interpretational Power,’ held at the University of Rostock on November 16-17, 2017. 

Hans G. Kippenberg, in his chapter “The end of Jihadi Movements in the Light of Comparative Studies in the Decline of Terrorism,” analyzed the endings of terrorist groups on religious and nonreligious levels. He also provided a synopsis of terrorism and jihadism by examining the motives for renouncing violence.

Alex P. Schmid, under the title of “Religion and Violent Extremism – with a Focus on Islamist Jihadism,” studied the definitions and relationships between religion and violence through the lens of the three Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Schmid analyzed how Salafi Jihadist ideologies interpret the Islamic sacred texts to justify their violence and killing, believing they are being done in the name of God. He also reviews the relationship between jihad and terrorism. Consequently, this chapter concludes that jihadism will continue to be a challenge in the 21st century, similar to how the ideologies of Fascism and Communism were during the 20th century.

In his “Beyond Religion – Beyond Islam: The Challenge of Ultra-Islamist Violence” contribution, Reinhard Schulze highlighted the political stereotyping of “Islamic terrorism” by considering de-radicalization programs. The author criticizes reducing the meaning of Islam to militant jihad, which led to the equation of Islam and vicious terrorist attacks in some quarters. In the end, the author suggests reconsidering the notions of Islam, religion, and violence to overcome the possibility of social stigmas being attached. 

“The Problem of Salafism, the Problem with ‘Salafism’: An Essay on the Usability of an Academic Category to Understand a Political Challenge” by Florian Zemmin discusses the politicization and misuse of the term Salafism. In this chapter, the author explains how the meaning of Salafism changed over the years by almost demonizing the religion of Islam through the violent activities of terrorists. In his conclusion, the author suggests that the use of the term “Islamic extremism” is more appropriate than “Militant Islam” because the use of Islamic extremism identifies extremism as the main problem, instead of the religion.

Andrew Hammond, in the chapter “Contesting Legitimacy: Zahid Kevseri’s Semantic War with Emerging Salafism,” argues that Kevseri, the last Ottoman Shaykh al-Islam Mustafa Sabri’s deputy in Istanbul, became a “lightning rod for the Salafi movement” after his death. Kevseri was a prominent scholar in the tradition of Hanafi-Maturidism, and he held a critical position towards Ibn Taymiyya, by countering Salafi and Wahhabi practices, such as the frequent use of takfīr (declaring Muslims non-believers).

Nina K?sehage argues in her chapter, “Empowerment through Violence – European Women in Jihadi Movements,” that the role of women in Jihadi movements has been underrated based on her own interviews and observations. In her research on “Female Salafistic Jihadi,” she examined the various motives of European female Jihadi members for joining terrorist groups. Dr. K?sehage concluded that one of the main reasons why

Salafi Jihadist groups were able to recruit female members was because of “empowerment through a specific form of violence.” Finally, the author, in her conclusion, suggests the development of alternative forms of empowerment for (Muslim) females participation in Europe to counter radicalization and recruitment. In “Islamism and Women in the Sahel: Roots and Evolutions,” Olga Torres discusses the development of Islam in the Sahel, as well as how it impacted Muslim women through the progress which occurred between the eighth and sixteenth centuries. Diaz concludes that it is only possible to counter the threat of female extremism and radicalization in the Sahel by addressing the deep historical roots, including social, educational, and economic factors that have affected the female population adversely compared to their male counterparts. 

Claudia Carvalho and Johannes Saal, in their analysis “The Hidden Women of the Caliphate – a Glimpse into the Spanish-Moroccan Jihadist Network on Facebook,” reviews the role of Muslim women and their online activities, particularly on Facebook. According to the authors, female jihadists’ activities within SpanishMoroccan online networks contribute to “bridging social capital and the brokerage function,” and the most effective female jihadists are the ones who perform online.In sum, this volume provides productive and multidimensional approaches and discussions to a variety of issues, including the definitional and perceptional challenges in describing or labeling Islamic extremism or militancy, the perception of the religion of Islam and Salafism through the eyes of the extremists, other Muslims, and outsiders, the relationship of faith and violence, and the role of females in a variety of jihadist settings and groups.

Klaus Hock is Head of the Department of Religious Studies and Intercultural Theology at the University of Rostock. His research focus is on Christian-Muslim relations and transculturation. Nina K?sehage is a Research Fellow at the University of Rostock with a focus on Islamic radicalization. Currently, she is working on the religious socialization of children in the former Islamic State (IS).

About the Reviewer: Ahmet S. Yayla is an Assistant Professor and the Director of the Center for Homeland Security at DeSales University.