Identity Crisis; Contemporary intellectual context of extremism (jihadi Salafis)

In this study, we have examined the intellectual background of contemporary extremism in the Arab world, which has emerged in the form of the jihadist Salafist movement and has become the basis for the violent actions of organizations such as ISIS and al-Qaeda. The method of this research is descriptive-analytical. The findings show that the abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1924 served as the most important ground for identity disintegration among contemporary Arab Islamists; in the meantime, projects to revive the caliphate, despite its attractiveness, have not been successful in identifying. In such a context, the Salafi jihadist movement tries to create an intellectual system by depicting the current situation based on the concepts of "ignorance and sovereignty without God", depicting the desired situation based on the concept of "reviving the caliphate" and the means to achieve the desired situation based on the concept of "jihad", attempt to provide an untangling intellectual system to fill the post-conflict identity gap. These efforts have led to the production of extremist ideas and acts of violence