In this fascinating lecture, Dr. Sherman Jackson seeks to step outside of the restrictive frameworks and language posed by current western critiques of ISIS. To accomplish this, Dr. Jackson takes a look at the assessments of ISIS, Al-Qa’idah, and other groups from members of Egypt’s al-Gama’ah al-Islamiyah, a group said to be responsible for the assassination of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. After years of violent uprisings against the Egyptian government, al-Gama’ah al-Islamiyah issued a surprising renunciation of violence, repudiating its former ideology and replacing it with a shari‘ah-based understanding and assessment of the purpose and proper application of jihad.
