Global Jihad: temi, piste di diffusione e il fenomeno del reducismo ...

Abdallah Aal al-Shaikh’s fatwa (Islamic ruling) against it 39 . Since it was issued by the
chief Saudi religious authority, this stance was likely intended to forestall possible
suicide operations in the Kingdom, but it had some larger, unintended effects as
well. The principal criticism of his fatwa came in the form of massive Arab and
Islamic support for suicide operations by Palestinians against Israel, and for many
people, this support quickly expanded to include any suicide operation in the name
of Islam.
This same phenomenon was apparent in the contradictory Islamic rulings that were
issued following the September 11 attacks in the United States 40 . The subsequent
American attack on Afghanistan and Iraq, and the U.S. efforts to create a wide
coalition of support in the Arab and Muslim worlds generated similar debates, much
like the Gulf War had in 1991. These debates in turn fostered a measure of support
and legitimacy within the Islamic establishments for Islamist terrorist groups and
their means of struggle. Secular regimes often demand that their religious
establishment oppose Islamist terrorism, but many clerics tend to legitimize violence
against Israel and the Western world. In some cases, these disputes reflect internal
conflicts between the religious and political establishments, such as in Saudi Arabia,
Egypt, and Pakistan. In such cases the Islamic establishments appeals to the notion of
public and popular hatred of the West or Western culture, calling for revenge against
Westerners as those who are responsible for social problems in the Muslim world.
Another important element in this trend of doctrinal consolidation was the recent
adoption of the Palestinian cause by many Islamist groups that had failed to embrace
it in the past. Furthermore, many Palestinian Islamist scholars have been intensely
involved in the development of the new ideology, including: Dr. Abdallah Azzam in
Afghanistan, the spiritual father of the idea of al-Qa’ida; Sheikh Issam al-Burqawi
39 On the Saudi Fatwa and the reaction toward it, see Reuven Paz, The Saudi Fatwa against Suicide Terrorism,
PEACEWATCH No. 323, May 2 nd 2001, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
40 For example, see the religious arguments of Anti-Western rhetoric of one Saudi Sheikh in Fatwa on Recent
Events by Shaykh Humud al-'Uqla al-Shuaibi. Both the fatwa and accompanying commentary are also available online:
http://www.sunnahonline.com/ilm/contemporary/0017.htm
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