Denouncing Terrorism in the West: English Publications of Anti-terrorism Fatwa's as Western Islamic Discourse (shortread)

With the rise of Islamism in the 20th century and the later emergence of Jihadi-Salafi groups performing attacks inside and outside Muslim lands, the majority of institutional and famous Muslim scholars have rejected their methods and claims of it being a legitimate Jihad as proscribed by the Sharia. When Western forces colonized the majority of Muslim lands in the 19th and early 20th century, many resistance movements (e.g. Mahdi movement in Sudan) were deemed legitimate in their claim of Jihad. Later conflicts, as the establishment of Israel, the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, and the American invasion of Iraq, were all seen as attacks on Muslim lands and so fighting in defense of those lands was considered by resistance fighters to be a legitimate cause for Jihad. But many Jihadist groups applied tactics and targets that scholars have deemed as unlawful according to Sharia law. The increased use of bombs and Muslim victims and noncombatant non-Muslim victims, many notable Muslim scholars declared public statements and fatwa's against the Jihadi groups' methods and claims. In our analysis we will discuss the rise of Islamism and its violent offshoots, and the counter responses given by Islamic scholars through fatwa's and letter-declarations.