Islamism and Salafism served to express commonalities and build alliances against shared enemies who happened to be world powers such as the USA or the USSR. The leadership of Al-Shabab describes the ideology in parallel to that of Al-Qaida as Manhaj, “It is the same manhaj repeatedly heard from the mouth of the Mujahid Shaykh Usama Bin Laden … the doctor Ayman ath-Thawaahiri [bin Laden's right-hand man] … and the hero, Abu Mus'ab az-Zarqaawi” [leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq] – Abu Mansoor al-Amriki reportedly announced.
This ideology of Al-Shabab is inspired by the teachings of scholars like Mohamed ibn Abd al-Wahhab, the founder of Wahhabism, a stricter version of Salafism and his mission was to restore a more pure and original form of the faith of Islam, as anyone who didn’t adhere to this interpretation were considered …show more content…
Al-Banna insisted on the importance of Jihad with sword more than Jihad with Soul thus promoting a movement against colonial and imperial western powers. The other prominent scholars that influenced the ideology of Al-Shabaab are Sayyid Qutb, Abdullah Azzam of The Brotherhood and Abu A'la Maududi of Jamaat-I-Islami. These scholars emphasized on the refusal to go under the rule of Kaafir government. Salafism as dominant ideology of Al-Shabaab has helped get Somalia into global politics and served as a uniting force to gain political objectives of getting into power which their ancestors failed to do so due to the complicated fabric of Somali society based on Clan