This book introduces and critically examines the first in a series of four corrective manifestos issued by the Gamā‘ah Islāmīyah, who formed part of the coalition of radical Islamists groups that assassinated president Anwar Sadat in 1981. In 1997, the leaders of the Gamā‘ah announced from prison their renunciation of political violence as a means of pursuing their goal of Islamicizing the Egyptian state and society. This came of a reexamination of their erstwhile position in light of what they came to understand of sharī‘ah, which they assiduously studied while incarcerated. This new understa ... More

This book introduces and critically examines the first in a series of four corrective manifestos issued by the Gamā‘ah Islāmīyah, who formed part of the coalition of radical Islamists groups that assassinated president Anwar Sadat in 1981. In 1997, the leaders of the Gamā‘ah announced from prison their renunciation of political violence as a means of pursuing their goal of Islamicizing the Egyptian state and society. This came of a reexamination of their erstwhile position in light of what they came to understand of sharī‘ah, which they assiduously studied while incarcerated. This new understanding of jihad and the place of violence in Islam was formalized and published in Arabic 2002. The present book includes a full translation of the Arabic original. In this work, the Gamā‘ah abandons the understanding of jihad as an end in itself and comes to see it as a means to a loftier goal, namely, facilitating and safeguarding the ability to call people to Islam. Any application of jihad that does not serve this purpose is deemed impermissible, as it undermines the aim for which jihad was instituted. The Gamā‘ah assesses the impact of its violent actions on the Egyptian state and society and concludes that they were wrong in pursuing this path. While not abandoning the value of jihad in itself, the Gamā‘ah casts a critical light on the approach of radical jihadist movements overall, including the position of Usāmah b. Lādin and al-Qā‘idah.