Progressive JIHAD

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[Masti]

The Millenarian-Eschatological strain very present in Islam was powerfully revived in the second half of the 19th century by the so-called Muslim "reformer," "progressive" and "modernizer," Jamal al-Din al Afghani, father of pan-Islamism and pan-Arabism, but most of all, reviver of the old Mahdist creed. He turned it into a workable, modern political ideology of a radical sort. As the British Islamologist H.A.R. Gibb wrote: “The heresy of Mahdism is its belief not only that the minds and wills of men can be dominated by force but that truth can be demonstrated by the edge of the sword.”

Further: "Mahdism has linked up with extreme nationalism to produce the swelling tides of popular discontent and revolutionary ardor which are familiar to all observers of the Muslim world today." Anti-imperialist al-Afghani loudly proclaimed that England hoped in vain “to stifle the voice of the Mahdi, the most awesome of all voices, since its power is even greater than the voice of the Holy War, which issues from all Muslim mouths. Does England… think herself able to stifle this voice making itself heard in all the East… proudly proclaiming the coming of the Savior whom every son of Islam awaits with such impatience? El Mahdi, el Mahdi, el Mahdi."