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Gamal Abd al-Rahim Arabi
Part Two: An unavoidable War of Ideas
In the first part of this essay we presented the main roots that led to the emergence of extremism and terrorism now being attributed to the Islamic religion. We demonstrated how the terms of reference for the Salafist interpretation of religious texts underpinning the official and popular institutions such as the Council of Higher ‘Scholars’ and al-Azhar and the like are the same terms of reference underpinning the takfīrī jihadist movements. As long as terrorists draw from the same sources, the difference between the thinking maintained by those bearing weapons and others who do not believe in violence, is purely formal.