Syria’s al-Sharaa and the most dangerous mutation of political Islamism

Syria’s interim self-appointed President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who served for two decades as a militant in the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization under the alias Abu Mohammad al-Julani, told the press recently that he does not see himself as an extension of political Islamists such as the Muslim Brotherhood or classical Salafi-jihadists like ISIS and Al-Qaeda.

To those who are blind to the many shades of jihadism, these statements might seem to signal that al-Julani is abandoning his jihadist beliefs or that Syria is entering a post-Islamist era.

In reality, these statements are a declaration of the evolution of an even more volatile and dangerous hybrid ideology—neo-jihadism.

The birth of neo-jihadism

Unlike the rigid and limited scope of traditional jihadism, neo-jihadism emphasizes strategi