Guerrilla warfare definition simple
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In the 20th century, the term mujahideen was used most commonly in Iran and Afghanistan. Other proto-mujahideen include Usman dan Fodio, Jahangir Khoja, and Muhammad Ahmed Al Mahdi.
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These groups called themselves mojahed, describing themselves as standing for Islam. In Central Asia from 1916 to the 1930s, Islamic guerrillas were opponents of Tsarism and Bolshevism and were called referred to by the Soviets as basmachi ('bandits'). The first known use of the word mujahideen in reference to what are today known as jihadists was supposedly in the late 19th century, in 1887, by Thomas Patrick Hughes (1838–1911). As time went by, the sect grew ever larger until it was not only conducting bandit raids, but even controlling areas in Afghanistan. During the Indian Rebellion of 1857, these holy warriors were said to accept any desertian Indian sepoys and recruit them into their ranks. The term continued to be used throughout India for Muslim resistance to British colonial rule. During this period, Pashtun tribal leaders in Afghanistan fought against the British East India Company in the First Anglo-Afghan War (with the British referring to them as the Sitana Fanatics). Although he eventually died in battle, the sect he had created continued to grow and the Islamic warriors influenced by his ideals gained more power and prominence. The root of Barelvi's ideas dated back to 1829, when he came back to the village of Sitana from a pilgrimage to the city of Mecca and began preaching war against the " infidels" in the area defining the Northwest border of British India, which was largely under the influence of the Sikhs and British empires. The modern term of mujahideen referring to spiritual Muslim warriors originates in the 19th century, when the term became increasingly identified with the militant Islamic revivalist movement of Syed Ahmad Barelvi, whose self-styled mujāhidīn fought both Sikh expansion and Company rule in India. These acts could be as simple as sharing a considerable amount of one's income with the poor. In its post-classical meaning, jihad refers to an act that is spiritually comparable in reward to promoting Islam during the early 600s CE. In its roots, the Arabic word mujahideen refers to any person performing jihad.
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Jihadist extremism in the United Statesįurther information: Islamic revival, Islamism, and Mahdist War.