Cihatçı Gruplar Arasındaki İdeolojik ve Metodolojik Benzerlikler ve Farklılıklar: Taliban, El-Kaide ve IŞİD

Abstract

The Taliban's seizure of power in Afghanistan has generally pleased jihadist groups around the world. The Islamic Emirate was re-established in Afghanistan by the Taliban after the end of the 20-year US occupation when the last US soldier left Kabul on August 30th, 2021. That was seen as a complete "victory" day for many Sunni Jihadist groups around the world. However, it is feared that the Taliban's success will usher in a new era of jihadism in the Middle East and Central Asia. It is feared that more radical organizations inspired by the Taliban will rise against the existing governments in these regions, overthrow them, and rule these countries in line with their ideology. It is also feared that jihadist groups will seek to come to the fore with large-scale global attacks, with al-Qaeda and ISIS affiliates expected to pose the biggest threat in this regard. This is because while the Taliban has a regional influence as a structure with territorial sovereignty over Afghanistan and its surroundings, Al-Qaeda and ISIS have defined their sphere of influence on a global scale, and thus have defined their area of struggle as the whole world. However, other sub-jihadist organizations affiliated with these two organizations, which operate regionally, can act on a country and regional basis. Although these groups have weakened in recent years, they are still active. In general, what all three organizations have in common is that they adopt a strict interpretation of Sunni Islam. Accordingly, these organizations, which believe that Islam has moved away from its essence and principles of faith, want Islam to be lived as it was when it first emerged and to interpret Islamic rules purely without adapting them to today's conditions. In other words, they aim to implement a political, economic, and social order based on Islamic rules and principles and want pure Islam to be practiced in all areas of life. They claim that the salvation of humanity can only be achieved by making Islam dominant in all areas of life and that man-made ideologies cause inequality and injustice among people. For this reason, all three organizations believe that social and political life cannot be separated from religious issues and therefore justify using violence for the sake of faith. This is also an essential duty for “true Muslims”. On the other hand, these organizations have a negative belief that those who do not fight for this purpose are “bad Muslims”. In other words, all three organizations see taking over political life as necessary to achieve Islamic life or to make the rules of Islam prevail. On the other hand, these three organizations differ in terms of ideology and methodology to achieve this goal. This study systematically examines the ideological and methodological similarities and differences of these three jihadist organizations and how they differ from each other.