About “Jihadists”

Dr. Evangelos Venetis

Head of the Middle East Research Project

Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy – ELIAMEP, Athens, Greece

The deteriorating security in Iraq because of the Sunni Wahabbis of the Islamic State is an unexpected phenomenon in terms of its rapid spread. The atrocities against Christians, the Yezidis and Shiite Muslims in Iraq are similar to those occurring in neighboring Syria. The power vacuum in the region does not allow the governments of these countries to protect minorities and the indifferent ... West is interested only in words. Meanwhile the "jihadists" act freely. Given that the term does not exist in the history of Islam, the question arises: Is it right to call them "jihadists"?

First they are not "jihadists" but Sunni-Mujahideen-fighters for the faith-Wahhabi Islamists. These are the correct terms that characterize Sunni fighters in Iraq. The term "jihadist" is wrong. And we elaborate: Linguistically it is a transatlantic and European imperial neologism of the media and some researchers; it does not adequately reflect the content and way of thinking of the Sunni Islamists. Etymologically it derives from the term "Jihad" [= effort (in the path of God), holy war "]. However, the term "jihadist" is not found in the vocabulary of any western language, or even Arabic.

The ambiguity and misunderstanding of the term "jihadist" has a conceptual dimension. If we accept that it is used as a term synonymous with the aforementioned, then the question arises: if those representing the Islamic State in Mesopotamia are Jihadists, then who are the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan and the Islamists in Yemen and Africa? Of course these are the same branch of radical Sunni Islam without any doctrinal difference. So it is wrong to differentiate the name of Sunni Islamists in Iraq, Syria and the rest of the world.

Furthermore, given that in political Islam Jihad is a common concept in political and moral practice of Sunni and the Shiite Muslims; for example, is not Hezbollah in Lebanon "jihadist"? So why should we use the term improperly only about radical Sunni Islam?

Hence the wrong use of the term "Jihadists" by the international and domestic media and part of the research community contributes to further confusion in the mind of the average man in the West about Islam and about the developments in the Islamic world. With this in mind, it is right to avoid the use of the term "jihadists" for the Islamists and the terms "Mujahid(in)" or "fighter for the faith 'and to clear up the case for Sunni Islamist or Shiite. Hence this linguistic preciseness helps us to have a clearer perception of what is happening in Islam.