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There are two types of armed religious warfare in Islam, namely the defensive jihad and the offensive jihad. This article discusses defensive jihad as a concept in Islamic law. (For discussion of aspects of jihad not related to warfare, see the main article, jihad.)
Islamic tradition holds that when Muslims are attacked, then it becomes obligatory for all Muslims of that land to defend against the attack; to participate in jihad but if the conditions of "Offensive Jihad" are fulfilled.
Muslims consider armed struggle against foreign occupation to be worthy of defensive jihad. Indeed, the Qur'an requires military defense of the besieged Islamic community.
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There are some Ayats in Qur'an which relates to Defensive Jihad. The Qur'an states:
"Fight in the cause of Allah those against those who fight you, but do not transgress, for Allah loves not the transgressor. Fight in the way of Allah against those who fight against you, but begin not hostilities. Lo! Allah loveth not aggressors. And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution is worse than slaughter. And fight not with them at the Inviolable Place of Worship until they first attack you there, but if they attack you (there) then slay them. Such is the reward of disbelievers. But if they desist, then lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. And fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is for Allah. But if they desist, then let there be no hostility except against wrongdoers." (Al-Baqarah 190-193)[1]
In his fatwa, Dr. Azzam explained:
This opinion of Dr. Azzam is not necessarily agreed upon by the Scholars of Islam. Many Scholars have given the proof that even Defensive Jihad has conditions based on verses of Qur'an to not throw oneself into destruction and based on the hadeeth of Jesus when he will return but take shelter in the mountains when the Gog and Magog will attack the Muslims.
Despite such contemporary edicts, in practical reality it is impossible to gain anything resembling global unanimity on questions of relating to defensive jihad (though some militant Islamist groups would suggest otherwise). The question of whether, when, and how to implement a military defense of a Muslim community under foreign invasion or oppression remains an emotional and divisive one among Muslims.
In the colonial period, Muslim populations often rose up against the colonial authorities under the banner of jihad (examples include Dagestan, and Chechnya, and the Algerian War of Independence against France).
When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the prominent militant Islamist, Dr. Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, issued a fatwa, Defense of the Muslim Lands, the First Obligation after Faith [2], declaring that both the Afghan and Palestinian struggles were jihads in which military action against kuffar (unbelievers) was fard ayn (a personal obligation) for all Muslims.
In certain Muslim countries, secular governments oppose or ban Islam as a political movement, and militant Muslims often see it as their duty to oppose these governments. Though such anti-statist activity may be considered as acts of aggression, it is considered in the ideology of jihad to be a defensive act since it is warfare in a Muslim land. This a phenomenon that occurred after the independence of a large number of Muslim countries during the 20th century, and is discussed in more detail in the article on Islamism.
Jihad can sustain the breakdown of leadership. If a group of Muslims come under attack by non-Muslims, then no formal declaration of war is required and the Muslims are to defend themselves against such attack. Thus defensive jihad can occur in the absence of a Caliph. Indeed, fundamentalist Muslims believe that the absence of a Caliph is grave violation of Islamic law and that the fall of the Caliphate (brought to an end on March 3, 1924, by Kemal Atatürk) is an indication that Muslim lands and Islam are under attack by non-Muslims and in need of defensive jihad.