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ISIS And The Three Waves Of Jihadism

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The 1980s and beyond has had an immense amount of history for Islam. Globalization was spreading in the Middle East and there have been individuals and groups who have taken up arms. Fawaz Gerges wrote about ISIS and the Three Waves of Jihadism and each wave had a different political aspect behind it. The First wave dealt with the “near enemy”. Then, the second wave dealt with the “far enemy” and finally the third wave reasoned with a completely new aspect of jihadism. Jihad was taking place in the Middle East and regimes like Egypt and Tunisia were struggling. Different countries in the Middle East were thriving off globalization in their economy because of importing and exporting. By having thriving and struggling countries in the …show more content…

Sadat was an enemy in the eyes of jihadists and he was assassinated in 1981. Zawahiri’s generation “wrote manifestos in an effort to obtain theological legitimation for their attacks on “renegade” and “apostate” rulers, such as Sadat, and their security services.” This wave was more restrained, and they tried to use a platform on why attacks were deemed right. During this wave, Bin Laden led soldiers to fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan and by the end of the 1990s, this wave was ending.
The second wave was led by Bin Laden as he focused on the far enemy. Saudi Arabia let U.S. troops into the country to defend against Saddam Hussein and this angered Bin Laden as he hated the United States. Bin Laden “portrayed al-Qaeda’s September 11, 2001, attack on the United States as an act of “defensive jihad,” or a just retaliation for American domination of Muslim countries.” He was issuing jihad to kick the West out of the Middle East and this was the purpose of the second …show more content…

Different types of jihad were used starting with the assassination of Sadat. Then, the second and third wave used extreme amounts of jihad with Al Qaeda attacking the U.S. and ISIS killing everything in sight. There are more differences than similarities in the three waves. The first wave is the most different because jihadists claimed to be fighting for a cause. That cause was holding off the Soviets from invading, so that was an incentive to fight. The second wave was different because it was focused on bringing the fight to the West for taking over the Middle East. Bin Laden led the charge and delivered the worst attack in U.S. history. Then, the third wave came, and it had no manifestos and the only reason for fighting was to gain territory and restore the caliphate. Overall, the waves changed the future for post

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