Syria’s interim self-appointed President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who served for two decades as a militant in the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization under the alias Abu Mohammad al-Julani, told the press recently that he does not see himself as an extension of political Islamists such as the Muslim Brotherhood or classical Salafi-jihadists like ISIS and Al-Qaeda.
To those who are blind to the many shades of jihadism, these statements might seem to signal that al-Julani is abandoning his jihadist beliefs or that Syria is entering a post-Islamist era. In reality, these statements are a declaration of the evolution of an even more volatile and dangerous hybrid ideology—neo-jihadism.
The birth of neo-jihadism
Unlike the rigid and limited scope of traditional jihadism, neo-jihadism emphasizes strategic adaptation and long-term objectives that are global rather than local, making it more insidious and more dangerous than all other forms of political Islamism and Salafi-jihadism the world has known so far. We are already seeing some Arab and Western leaders falling for al-Sharaa’s rhetoric, mistakenly believing that he offers a better alternative to the existing jihadist and political Islamist movements. (Read More)
Unlike the rigid and limited scope of traditional jihadism, neo-jihadism emphasizes strategic adaptation and long-term objectives that are global rather than local, making it more insidious and more dangerous than all other forms of political Islamism and Salafi-jihadism the world has known so far. We are already seeing some Arab and Western leaders falling for al-Sharaa’s rhetoric, mistakenly believing that he offers a better alternative to the existing jihadist and political Islamist movements. (Read More)