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Terrifying Terrorists of the Ancient World and Medieval Era

Khalid Elhassan February 20, 2025 15 min

Terrorists - A Sicarius springing into action — A Sicarius springing into action. Deadliest Fiction

11. The First Muslim Terrorists

Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda, and like minded terrorists are philosophical descendants of the medieval Kharijites, or Khawarij. O Globo

Long before the horrific depredations of Al Qaeda and ISIS, there were the even more horrific Kharijites, or Khawarij, whose name means “Outsiders” in Arabic. Centuries before Osama bin Laden, the Kharijites were a radical fundamentalist faction of early Islamic dissenters who appeared on the scene the Prophet Muhammad’s death. They came up with the concept of Takfir, whereby Muslims who disagreed with them were deemed to no longer be fellow Muslims, but apostates and kafirs (infidels). That gave them license to get around the Islamic prohibition against killing other Muslims. As such, the Kharijites established the philosophical foundations for modern terrorists such as the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and ISIS. They emerged amidst a succession dispute between those who believed that leadership after Muhammad’s demise should be confined to the Prophet’s family and bloodline, and those who thought it should be open to whomever the Muslim community chose.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.