Mujahiddin

Mujahideen (Arabic: مجاهدين‎ mujāhidīn) is the plural form of mujahid (Arabic: مجاهد‎), the term for one engaged in Jihad (literally, "striving" or "struggling," especially with a praiseworthy aim).

Its widespread use in English began with reference to the guerrilla-type military groups led by the Islamist Afghan fighters in the Soviet–Afghan War, and now extends to other jihadist groups in various countries.

In its roots, Mujahideen (an Arabic word) refers to any person performing Jihad. In its post-classical meaning, Jihad refers to an act which is spiritually comparable in reward to promoting Islam during the early 600s CE. These acts could be as simple as sharing a considerable amount of your income with the poor, provided that the poor in question are Muslim.

The modern term of mujahideen referring to spiritual Muslim warriors, originates in the 19th century when the local people of Afghanistan fought against the invading British (although initially the British derogatorally called them the Sitana Fanatics). It began in 1829 when a religious man, Sayyid Ahmed Shah Brelwi, came back to the village of Sitana from a pilgrimage to Mecca and began preaching war against the infidels in the area defining the Northwest border of British India. Although he died in battle, the sect he had created survived and the Mujahideen gained more power and prominence. During the Indian Mutiny of 1857, the Mujahideen were said to accept any fleeing Sepoys and recruit them into their ranks. As time went by the sect grew ever larger until it was raiding and controlling larger areas in Afghanistan.

The modern phenomenon of jihadism that presents jihad (offensive or defensive) as the casus belli for insurgencies, guerrilla warfare and international terrorism, dates back to the 20th century and draws on early-to-mid-20th century Islamist doctrines such as Qutbism.

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