is threatened. ‘The Jihad’ usually refers to the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan
Jihadi: preferring the violence of jihad as a tactic to the non-violence of da’wa, social or political activism
Ka’aba: cube-shaped shrine in the centre of the grand mosque, Mecca
Kafir, kufr: unbeliever, unbelief; one who rejects the truth despite being shown it
Khutba: sermon
Kunya: a respectful form of naming, also nom de guerre adopted by militants
Markaz: a centre or base. Often the name of a group or an office used by Islamists which is neither attached to a mosque or a medressa, nor a government or domestic building
Medressa: religious school, college
Mufti: a specialist on Islamic law
Mullah: a local religious leader or functionary, usually in southwest Asia
Munafiq (plural munafiqeen): hypocrites. Those who peform the outward signs of Islam but do not have faith. Originally those in Medina who recognized the Prophet Mohammed’s authority but worked against him. Used by militants to describe Muslim rulers such as Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, the house of al-Saud, etc.
Muhajiroun: literally ‘the migrants’. Those who followed the Prophet on his migration from Mecca to Medina
Mujahideen: those who struggle or fight
Muslim: one who submits to God, from Arabic ‘alama’, ‘to surrender, to seek peace’
Qadi: Islamic judge
Salafi: ‘the righteous ancestors’, the first generations of the Muslim community
Salat: ritual compulsory prayer
Shahadah: the testament of faith. ‘There is no god but Allah and Mohammed is His prophet’
Shahid (plural shahuda): martyr, witness
Shariat: the right path, the behavioural guidelines that all Muslims should live by, the holy law of Islam, as compiled and codified by the great Muslim jurists of the eighth and ninth centuries
Sheikh: head of a tribe or religious order, especially Sufi
Shia: party or faction, those Muslims who believe Mohammed designated his son-in-law Ali and his rightful descendants to be the true leaders of the umma. Between 10 and 15 per cent of world Muslims
Shirk: literally ‘association’, polytheism
Shura: a consultative council
Sufi: a mystic tradition within Islam. Name thought to derive from rough wool clothing ( suf ) worn by early ascetics. Individuals commit to their own path to enlightenment under the tutelage of a master but have historically been grouped into ‘associations’. Sufism is often described as an ‘inward’ journey complementing the shariat or ‘outward’ law
Sunni: majority of Muslims, often called ‘orthodox’
Tafseer: commentary on the Qur’an
Takfir: excommunication, a practice in Shia Islam but until recently almost unknown among Sunnis
Talib (plural taliban): student, literally ‘seeker (of knowledge)’
Tauhid: the doctrine of the one-ness of God
Ulema: the body of Islamic scholars, effectively a transnational clergy
Umma: the Islamic nation or community of believers
Wahhabism: rigorous and conservative doctrine of the followers of ibn Abdul al-Wahhab, a puritanical eighteenth-century Arabian preacher
Zakat: gift of a percentage of all wealth donated by Muslims for distribution to the poor. One of the five ‘pillars of Islam’
Militants and Radical Ideologues
ABU GAITH, SULEIMAN Kuwaiti-born militant, aide to bin Laden, an al-Qaeda spokesman.
ABU HAJER, ABU RAHMAN Egyptian, a trainer in Afghanistan 1989–93. Key figure in 1998 east Africa bombings.
ABU HOSHAR, KHADAR BORN 1963, Palestinian veteran of Afghanistan in eighties, led Jordanian component of Millennium plot.
ABU QUTADA, OMAR ABU OMAR Jordanian Palestinian Salafi scholar, based in London since 1993 and detained in 2002. Implicated in a variety of plots. Key clerical authority for Jihadi activists including the Algerian GIA, bin Laden and many others. Detained in Belmarsh High Security Prison, London.
ABU ZUBAYDAH OR HASSAN ZEIN AL-ABIDEEN MOHAMMED Palestinian-born activist. Senior aide of bin Laden responsible for flow of volunteers through camps in Afghanistan.
Jihadi: preferring the violence of jihad as a tactic to the non-violence of da’wa, social or political activism
Ka’aba: cube-shaped shrine in the centre of the grand mosque, Mecca
Kafir, kufr: unbeliever, unbelief; one who rejects the truth despite being shown it
Khutba: sermon
Kunya: a respectful form of naming, also nom de guerre adopted by militants
Markaz: a centre or base. Often the name of a group or an office used by Islamists which is neither attached to a mosque or a medressa, nor a government or domestic building
Medressa: religious school, college
Mufti: a specialist on Islamic law
Mullah: a local religious leader or functionary, usually in southwest Asia
Munafiq (plural munafiqeen): hypocrites. Those who peform the outward signs of Islam but do not have faith. Originally those in Medina who recognized the Prophet Mohammed’s authority but worked against him. Used by militants to describe Muslim rulers such as Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, the house of al-Saud, etc.
Muhajiroun: literally ‘the migrants’. Those who followed the Prophet on his migration from Mecca to Medina
Mujahideen: those who struggle or fight
Muslim: one who submits to God, from Arabic ‘alama’, ‘to surrender, to seek peace’
Qadi: Islamic judge
Salafi: ‘the righteous ancestors’, the first generations of the Muslim community
Salat: ritual compulsory prayer
Shahadah: the testament of faith. ‘There is no god but Allah and Mohammed is His prophet’
Shahid (plural shahuda): martyr, witness
Shariat: the right path, the behavioural guidelines that all Muslims should live by, the holy law of Islam, as compiled and codified by the great Muslim jurists of the eighth and ninth centuries
Sheikh: head of a tribe or religious order, especially Sufi
Shia: party or faction, those Muslims who believe Mohammed designated his son-in-law Ali and his rightful descendants to be the true leaders of the umma. Between 10 and 15 per cent of world Muslims
Shirk: literally ‘association’, polytheism
Shura: a consultative council
Sufi: a mystic tradition within Islam. Name thought to derive from rough wool clothing ( suf ) worn by early ascetics. Individuals commit to their own path to enlightenment under the tutelage of a master but have historically been grouped into ‘associations’. Sufism is often described as an ‘inward’ journey complementing the shariat or ‘outward’ law
Sunni: majority of Muslims, often called ‘orthodox’
Tafseer: commentary on the Qur’an
Takfir: excommunication, a practice in Shia Islam but until recently almost unknown among Sunnis
Talib (plural taliban): student, literally ‘seeker (of knowledge)’
Tauhid: the doctrine of the one-ness of God
Ulema: the body of Islamic scholars, effectively a transnational clergy
Umma: the Islamic nation or community of believers
Wahhabism: rigorous and conservative doctrine of the followers of ibn Abdul al-Wahhab, a puritanical eighteenth-century Arabian preacher
Zakat: gift of a percentage of all wealth donated by Muslims for distribution to the poor. One of the five ‘pillars of Islam’
Militants and Radical Ideologues
ABU GAITH, SULEIMAN Kuwaiti-born militant, aide to bin Laden, an al-Qaeda spokesman.
ABU HAJER, ABU RAHMAN Egyptian, a trainer in Afghanistan 1989–93. Key figure in 1998 east Africa bombings.
ABU HOSHAR, KHADAR BORN 1963, Palestinian veteran of Afghanistan in eighties, led Jordanian component of Millennium plot.
ABU QUTADA, OMAR ABU OMAR Jordanian Palestinian Salafi scholar, based in London since 1993 and detained in 2002. Implicated in a variety of plots. Key clerical authority for Jihadi activists including the Algerian GIA, bin Laden and many others. Detained in Belmarsh High Security Prison, London.
ABU ZUBAYDAH OR HASSAN ZEIN AL-ABIDEEN MOHAMMED Palestinian-born activist. Senior aide of bin Laden responsible for flow of volunteers through camps in Afghanistan.
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