House of SaudThe House of Saud (ʾĀl Suʿūd) is the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia. It is composed of the descendants of Muhammad bin Saud, founder of the Emirate of Diriyah, known as the First Saudi state (1727–1818), and his brothers, though the ruling faction of the family is primarily led by the descendants of Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman, the modern founder of Saudi Arabia. It forms a subtribe of the larger prominent ancient Banu Hanifa tribe of Arabia, of which well known 7th century Arabian theologist Maslama ibn Ḥabīb originates.
Muslim BrotherhoodThe Society of the Muslim Brothers (جماعة الإخوان المسلمين ALA), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood (الإخوان المسلمون ALA), is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings spread far beyond Egypt, influencing today various Islamist movements from charitable organizations to political parties. Initially, as a Pan-Islamic, religious, and social movement, it preached Islam in Egypt, taught the illiterate, and set up hospitals and business enterprises.
HamasHamas (UKhæˈmæs,_ˈhæmæs, UShɑːˈmɑːs,_ˈhɑːmɑːs; Ḥamās, ħaˈmaːs; an acronym of حركة المقاومة الإسلامية Ḥarakah al-Muqāwamah al-ʾIslāmiyyah, Islamic Resistance Movement) is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. It won the 2006 Palestinian legislative election and became the de facto governing authority of the Gaza Strip following the 2007 Battle of Gaza.
TakfiriTakfiri (تَكْفِيرِيّ, lit. "excommunicational") is an Arabic and Islamic term denoting a Muslim who excommunicates one of his/her coreligionists, i.e. who accuses another Muslim of being an apostate. Since according to the traditional interpretations of Islamic law (sharīʿa) the punishment for apostasy is the death penalty, and potentially a cause of strife and violence within the Muslim community (Ummah), an ill-founded accusation of takfīr is considered a major forbidden act (haram) in Islamic jurisprudence, with one ḥadīth declaring that one who wrongly declares another Muslim to be an unbeliever is himself an apostate.
JahiliyyahJahiliyyah (جَاهِلِيَّة d͡ʒæːhɪˈlɪj.jæ, "ignorance") is an Arabic term used to refer to the opposite of Islam. It usually refers to the Age of Ignorance, the period of time and state of affairs in pre-Islamic Arabia in 610 CE. The term jahiliyyah may be derived from the verbal root jahala (جهل), "to be ignorant or stupid, to act stupidly". Alternatively, it is an abstract noun derived from jāhil, referring to barbarism. In modern times various Islamic thinkers have used the term to criticize what they see as the un-Islamic nature of public and private life in the Muslim world.
TerrorismTerrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of intentional violence and fear to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war against non-combatants (mostly civilians and neutral military personnel). The terms "terrorist" and "terrorism" originated during the French Revolution of the late 18th century but became widely used internationally and gained worldwide attention in the 1970s during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the Basque conflict, and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
Pan-IslamismPan-Islamism (الوحدة الإسلامية) is a political movement advocating the unity of Muslims under one Islamic country or state – often a caliphate – or an international organization with Islamic principles. Pan-Islamism was promoted by the Ottoman empire during the last quarter of 19th century by Sultan Abdul-Hamid II for the purpose of combating the process of westernization and fostering the unification of Islam.
Islamic fundamentalismIslamic fundamentalism has been defined as a puritanical, revivalist, and reform movement of Muslims who aim to return to the founding scriptures of Islam. The term has been used interchangeably with similar terms such as Islamism, Islamic revivalism, Qutbism, Islamic extremism, Islamic activism, but also criticized as pejorative, a term used by outsiders who instead ought to be using Islamic activism, Islamic revivalism, or one of the other terms given above.
QutbismQutbism (al-Quṭbīyah) is an Islamist ideology which was developed by Sayyid Qutb, a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood who was executed by the Egyptian government in 1966. It has been described as advancing the extremist, jihadist ideology of propagating "offensive jihad" – waging jihad in conquest – "armed jihad in the advance of Islam", and simply "Islamic-based terrorism". Sayyid Qutb could be said to have founded the actual movement of radical Islam.
Car bombA car bomb, bus bomb, van bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles. Car bombs can be roughly divided into two main categories: those used primarily to kill the occupants of the vehicle (often as an assassination) and those used as a means to kill, injure or damage people and buildings outside the vehicle.
