How many Muslims worldwide support militant Islam or Jihadi Salafism?

Islamic apologists and Wahhabism

According to the apologists the “evil and fundamentalist little sect of Islam” - Wahhabism is isolated and only found in Saudi Arabia and practiced by al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The truth however is that various versions of Salafism (Jihadi Salafism being the most extreme) is an important factor in every single Muslim country.

Wahhabism is the dominant form of Islam in Saudi Arabia, and is also popular in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Wahhabism is also found in several parts of Somalia, Algeria and Mauritania.

A strict version of Salafism (Ahle Hadith) is found in several Middle Eastern countries and South Asia, in particular, Pakistan and India.

Other forms of Salafism are quite dominant in Palestine, Syria and Jordan. It is also found in most other Muslim-majority countries, including Turkey, Bosnia and Kosovo.

This is in fact a very complicated question with many facets. First of all you have to consider the fact that there is a big difference between active support, sympathising and empathising with this cause. You also have to realise that an armed Jihad (armed struggle) always have specific goals. The Jihadists in Dagestan, Chechnya, Southern Thailand, Southern Philippines, Syria (Palestine) etc. all want to create Islamic states and implement Sharia. In order to reach this objective they must wage war and defeat the infidels (non-Muslims). However, al-Qaeda and Jihadists in the West have other objectives. They acknowledge the fact that Islam is still very weak in Europe, so an armed Jihad in the streets of European capitals is not advised at this point. Islam and the number of Muslims need to grow a few more generations. Al-Qaeda therefore seek to silence the Western media and Western politicians by creating fear in our hearts in order to force them to capitulate to radical Islam. The so called Moderate Muslims are playing “good cop” in this context. They will blame poverty, modern colonialism (Israel, Iraq, and Afghanistan), discrimination, stigmatisation and other root causes as the reasons for the rise of Jihadi Salafism. They will ask for concessions from European politicians and media in order to “prevent” radical Islam.

According to Daniel Pipes[11], approximately 10-15% of Muslims around the world actively support militant Islamists (usually economic support to Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, al-Qaeda or other terrorist organisations). Since there are more than 1,2 billion Muslims worldwide that totals 120-180 million. These Muslims are spread all over the world and are either militants themselves or direct supporters of militant Islamists. The passive support is much higher. Some polls show that around 60-65% of Muslims support “Islamic Jihad” and similar Middle Eastern terrorist organisations. 36% of Pakistanis believe that the Pakistani army should not pursue al-Qaeda in Pakistan[12].

Sympathy or direct support to Jihadi Salafism is not by any means reserved to Salafi Muslims (Wahhabists or other Salafi groups). Muslims from all schools of Islam sympathise and support militant Jihadists.

Nearly all Pakistani Sunni Muslims belong to the Hanafi school of Islam. The Hanafi school is the oldest one and most liberal and tolerant of the four schools. It is also the largest movement within Islam with around 30% followers worldwide. So does that mean that the Hanafi Muslims are peaceful, moderate Muslims? Unfortunately its a lot more complex than this. All Schools of Law are quite intolerant (Hanbali being the most intolerant). As an illustration; All schools of Islam preach death to homosexuals and apostates (converts from Islam) and pledge the ultimate goal of implementing Sharia in society.

Hanafi being the dominant form of Islam in both Pakistan and Europe would indicate that they were more moderate and tolerant than other Muslims, yet, Muslims from Pakistan are well known for their conservativism and intolerance. There are tens of Genocides and hundreds of mass murders (see pogroms) recorded in history committed by hanafi Muslims. There are thousands of examples of Jihadi killings committed by hanafi Muslims throughout history and this trend continues even today. It is the largest one and it is followed by approximately 30 percent of Muslims worldwide. The Hanafi School is predominant in Turkey, northern Egypt, Levant, and amongst the Muslim communities of the Balkans, Central and South Asia, China, Russia and Ukraine. In other words the Genocide of more than 1,5 million Christian Armenians, the Greek and Assyrian Genocides were also acts of so called moderate “Hanafi” Islam.

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