Mujahideen

A mujahideen is, in an Islamic context, someone who exercises jihad, that is; who makes a "spiritual sacrifice of military effort." In the West he is called a "fundamentalist Islamic fighter."

Etymology

Muŷāhid (in Arabic: ﻣﺠﺎﻫﺪ‎ muŷāhid, pl. ﻣﺠﺎﻫﺪﻳﻦ (muŷāhidīn)) is the active participle of the Arabic verb ŷāhada, which means "to make jihad", and jihād, in turn, means "effort oriented towards the achievement of a goal." In practice, and since the concept of jihad often appears linked to military combat, mujahid has a meaning of "Muslim fighter" or "fighter for Islam."

In Spanish the form mujahidin is used as singular, taken from the Arabic plural, which in turn has the Spanish plural mujahideen. The use of the spellings is discouraged with j instead of y, as mujahidin or mujahidin, derived from English transcriptions of the term.

Mujahideen in Bosnia-Herzegovina

In Bosnia, international Muslim volunteers who fought alongside local Muslim troops in the wars fought between 1991 and 1998 were called mujahideen.

Mujahideen in Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, the member of each political and military faction in the country is known as a mujahidin, from the time of the Republic of Afghanistan (1973-1978) to the present.

Mujahideen in Cyprus

Even before independence, the Turkish Cypriot community maintained its own paramilitary force (the Türk Mukavemet Teşkilatı, or TMT), trained and equipped by the Turkish army. In 1967, this force was renamed Mücahit ('Mujahidin'), and in 1975, Mücahit was renamed the Turkish Cypriot Security Force. In 1974, Turkey led a land invasion of northern Cyprus, annexing northern Cyprus.

Mujahideen in Myanmar

From 1947 to 1961, local mujahideen fought against Burmese government soldiers in an attempt to have the Mayu Peninsula in northern Arakan, Burma (present-day Rakhine State, Myanmar) separated from the country, so that it could to be annexed by East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the mujahideen lost most of their momentum and support, causing most of them to surrender to government forces.

In the 1990s, the Rohingya Solidarity Organization was the main perpetrator of attacks against Burmese authorities located on the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Mujahideen in the Philippines

In 1969, political tensions and open hostilities developed between the Philippine Government and local jihadist groups. Professor Nur Misuari of the University of the Philippines created the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) which would become an aggressor against the government, while the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a splinter group of the MNLF, was created to seek an Islamic state within the Philippines, with a more orthodox and aggressive Islamic vision. Victim statistics vary depending on the conflict; However, conservative estimates from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program indicate that at least 6,015 people were killed in the armed conflict between the Philippine Government and the ASG, BIFM, MILF and MNLF factions between 1989 and 2012. Abu Sayyaf is a Islamic separatist group from the southern Philippines, formed in 1991. The group is known for its kidnappings of Western and Filipino citizens, for which it has received several large ransom payments. Some Abu Sayyaf members have studied or worked in Saudi Arabia and have developed relationships with mujahideen members while fighting and training in the war against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Other uses

• In Morocco it was used for fighters against the Spaniards during the Moroccan war (1860), or against France during the Moroccan peace war (1907-1934).
• In Algeria the word Muyahid (with French graph moudjahid) had already been used during the Algerian War (1954-1962) to designate Algerians armed against French colonial power. In addition, in the conflict between Islamists and revolutionaries in Algeria, Muyahid is synonymous with an anti-Islamic fighter.
• In Iran there is the Organization of the Mujahidin of the Iranian People, an armed opposition organization in the most important exile to the Islamic Republic, which also fought against the sah regime; and the Organization of the Muyahidines of the Islamic Revolution of Iran, a reformist party of intellectual and technocratic elites, of a civil character, integrated into the political system and close to the government during the two presidential mandates of Seyyyed Mohammad Jatamí (1997-1997).
• In India it is called mujhaidin the Northwest Frontier fighters against Sikhs and the United Kingdom.