Intended Meaning
In Qur’anic usage, terrorism is understood as deterrence and the instilling of awe, not the killing of civilians That is, it means producing a fear that prevents aggression, not practicing absolute violence
The Atom’s Structure in the Atlas
- Type of argument: interpretive
- Argument movement: terrorism in Qur’anic usage is understood as deterrence and awe, not the killing of civilians.
- Key terms: terrorism, deterrence, awe, civilians.
- Degree of centrality: pivotal.
This atom redefines terrorism within a Qur’anic signification that regulates it by deterrence rather than annihilation. It strips away the violent understanding commonly circulated in ordinary usage.
Links Helpful for Reading
- Muhammad Shahrur, Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism
- Jihad, Fighting, and Critique of Violence
- Terrorism
- The Verses of Fighting and the Muhammadan Narratives Do Not Legitimize Absolute Violence
Basis
- Supporting text: “Terrorism: in its Qur’anic usage it is associated with deterrence and the instilling of awe, not with killing civilians”.
Place of Support in the Book
- Book: Drying Up the Sources of Terrorism.
- Location: in the final section of the book, within the presentation of the contemporary reading of the Qur’an.
- Type of support: close evidence.
- Verification marker: our contemporary reading
- Reading note: this location is suitable as evidence because the text explicitly states that the contemporary reading is based on specific foundations, and this is consistent with understanding terrorism as part of a specific Qur’anic reading rather than mere killing.
Degree of Documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom rests on an explicit witness close to the formulation of the claim.
- Limits of the reading: the formulation above is an analytical summary, and is not treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is quoted textually.
Its Function in the Book
Its function here is definitional; it fixes a meaning or conceptual distinction on which Shahrur relies in building the idea.
Related to
Editorial Note
It is preferable to link it directly to the atom of legitimate fighting to clarify the difference between deterrence and absolute violence.