Al-Nusra Front, also known as Front for the Conquest of the Levant, was a Salafi jihadist organization fighting against Syrian government forces in the Syrian Civil War. Its aim was to overthrow president Bashar al-Assad and establish an Islamic state ruled by Sharia law in Syria.
Al-Nusra Front fighters during the Syrian Civil War.
The scene at Saadallah Al-Jabiri Square after the attacks on 3 October 2012
Salafi jihadism, also known as revolutionary Salafism or jihadist Salafism, is a religious-political Sunni Islamist ideology that seeks to establish a global caliphate, characterized by the advocacy of "physical" (military) jihadist attacks on non-Muslim targets. The Salafist interpretation of sacred Islamic texts is "in their most literal, traditional sense", which adherents claim will bring about the return to "true Islam".
Osama bin Laden, founder of the Salafi jihadist organization al-Qaeda
The revolutionary ideals advocated by Islamist scholar Sayyid Qutb through his prison-writings constitute the ideological basis of the Salafi-Jihadi movement
Islamic cleric Abu Qatada al-Falastini
Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi, Emir of al-Qaeda in Iraq and prominent Islamist leader who was killed during the anti-American insurgency in Iraq, is widely regarded as an influential figure by Salafi Jihadists
