Religious Extremism in

Middle East
RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM

Religious extremists are willing to

The use of violent tactics such as
murder because they embrace
bombing and assassinations for
theologies that sanction violence in
achieving perceived religious goals.
the service of God.

They readily sacrifice their own

They have no sympathy for their
lives because they expect huge
victims, because they view those
and immediate afterlife rewards in
victims as enemies of God.
return form “martyrdom.
 ISLAMIC EXTREMISM

The extremists argue that the only way to

Islamic extremism has been defined
as any form of Islam that opposes
"democracy, the rule of law, individual
liberty and mutual respect and tolerance
of different faiths and beliefs".
unify the "Islamic nation" is by eliminating all
Western influence in Muslim countries and
overthrowing the current regimes. It also
capitalizes on the lack of economic progress
and political freedoms in many Muslim
countries.

Related terms include "Islamist

extremism" and "Islamism”.
RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM IN SAUDI ARABIA

• The development of extremism in Saudi Arabia goes back decades. Al-

Sahwah al-Islamiyyah (Islamic Awakening), which rose in 1968, started
as a nonviolent, symbolic, apolitical movement that confined its activities
to individual acts, such as listening to tapes of the Quran.

• Later some religious figures started moving into the public realm, giving
lectures and producing tapes of their ideas. These religious figures were
influenced by extremist religious and political thinking imported from
outside religious figures and movements.

• Members of these external movements, who were persecuted in their

own countries, found refuge in Saudi Arabia in the 1980s and started to
spread their ideology throughout the Saudi population, which was
accustomed to accepting whatever was presented to it in the name of
Islam.
• They had an influence on many of the young generation
who were close to them and created a group of followers
and students who spread these views to others.

• Before its transformation into violence, extremism had been

spreading to Saudi youth through secret meetings, camps and
trips exploiting the confidence accorded to those of faith. Most
of these young men had been living in circumstances that
facilitated increased isolation from mainstream society: reading
selected books, listening to selected tapes, and hearing from
selected individuals who indoctrinated them with radical
ideology.
RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM IN IRAQ

The Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL, Daesh)

• The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as the Islamic
State of Iraq and Syria,

• The Sunnis have for several generations dominated the country,

sometimes co-opting Christian support. As a consequence, the Shiites
have felt themselves seriously repressed. This led to a Shiite uprising
in the south in 1991 following the Gulf War, which was brutally put
down. The Hussein regime murdered many Shiite clerics and leaders.
Shiite resentment and hostility have grown over the last decade.
History of formation

• The radical cell Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was born as a result of the
intervention of the multinational coalition in Iraq in 2003. It quickly became part of Osama bin
Laden's terrorist network under the name of al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia a

• Al-Zarqawi's group joined a major terrorist association called Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) through the
Mujahideen Shura Council in Iraq without sanction from al-Qaeda. ISI rallied under its banners the
Islamists fighting against occupation forces.

• April 2010, the organization has been headed by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, an experienced underground
terrorist. Al-Baghdadi changed the group's strategy, concentrating on solving the Sunni problem, which
involved a dramatic increase of support for the actions of extremists.

• On April 4, 2013, the leadership of the Iraq group announced the creation of the Islamic State of Iraq and
Levant (ISIL, or the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham –ISIS). That move triggered a conflict
between Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on the one side and the leaders of Jabhat al-Nusra and al-Qaeda on the
other.
• On June 2014, ISIL militants carried out a blitzkrieg in the mainly Sunni-populated northern provinces of
Iraq, establishing control over major population centres (Samarra, Baiji and Tikrit). The Islamist offensive
was only stopped with the help of the Kurdish armed units, who confronted the militants on the
approach to the oil-rich region of Kirkuk.
• On June 29, 2014 the creation of the caliphate was announcedat a mosque in Iraq's second biggest city,
Mosul. The caliphate was headed by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who became the Amir al-Mu'minin, i.e., "Leader
of the Faithful"
Religious Extremism In Libya
Religious Extremism in Yemen
Religious Extremism In Egypt
RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM IN PALESTINE AND ISRAEL
The history of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict began with the
establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.
This conflict came from the intercommunal violence in Mandatory
Palestine between Israelis and Arabs from 1920 and erupted into full-scale
hostilities in the 1947–48 civil war. The conflict continues to the present
day on various levels.
Several religious factors pertinent to Islam and Judaism dictate the
role of religion as the main factor in the conflict, notably including
the sanctity of holy sites and the apocalyptic narratives of both
religions, which are detrimental to any potential for lasting peace
between the two sides.
Extreme religious Zionists in Israel increasingly see
themselves as guardians and definers of the how the Jewish
state should be, and are very stringent when it comes to any
concessions to the Arabs. On the other hand, Islamist groups
in Palestine and elsewhere in the Islamic world advocate the
necessity of liberating the “holy” territories and sites for
religious reasons, and preach violence and hatred against
Israel and the Jewish people.