States
100-644: The Jubilee Plot was a supposed assassination attempt by radical Irish nationalists on Queen Victoria during the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria , on 20 June 1887. Those who presented the idea of a plot claimed that the radicals intended to blow up Westminster Abbey , Queen Victoria and half the British Cabinet. The story was closely connected to a set of forged letters by Richard Pigott , which attempted to implicate Charles Stuart Parnell with supporting physical force Irish republicanism . The organizer of
200-546: A 5th-century BC Chinese military treatise mentions tactics of Assassination and its merits. In the Old Testament , King Joash of Judah was assassinated by his own servants; Joab assassinated Absalom , King David 's son; King Sennacherib of Assyria was assassinated by his own sons; and Jael assassinated Sisera . Chanakya ( c. 350 –283 BC) wrote about assassinations in detail in his political treatise Arthashastra . His student Chandragupta Maurya ,
300-530: A Dublin journalist, Richard Pigott , purportedly showing that Parnell had approved of violent methods by extremist nationalist elements. The letters were shown to be forgeries, written by Pigott and sold to The Times . The case against Parnell collapsed. Pigott committed suicide and in a subsequent libel action The Times had to pay Parnell £5,000 damages. According to British journalist Christy Campbell, in his book Fenian Fire: The British Government Plot to Assassinate Queen Victoria , Millen had been recruited by
400-590: A Hereditary Imam (imam al-mustaqarr). This fact is clearly demonstrated in the recitation of the Nizari Ismailis’ daily prayers three times a day in which although Hassan bin Ali is revered as part of the Prophet's personal family (Ahl al-Bayt), his name is not included in the hereditary lineage from their first Imam, Imam Ali, to their 49th Imam Prince Karim al Hussaini. If Hassan bin Ali's name were to be included as one of
500-611: A dissident from Bulgaria , was assassinated by ricin poisoning. A tiny pellet containing the poison was injected into his leg through a specially designed umbrella . Widespread allegations involving the Bulgarian government and the KGB have not led to any legal results. However, after the fall of the Soviet Union, it was learned that the KGB had developed an umbrella that could inject ricin pellets into
600-450: A history of serious depression, and 39% had a history of substance abuse. With the advent of effective ranged weaponry and later firearms , the position of an assassination target was more precarious. Bodyguards were no longer enough to deter determined killers, who no longer needed to engage directly or even to subvert the guard to kill the leader in question. Moreover, the engagement of targets at greater distances dramatically increased
700-558: A larger touch. Explosives, especially the car bomb , become far more common in modern history, with grenades and remote-triggered land mines also used, especially in the Middle East and the Balkans; the initial attempt on Archduke Franz Ferdinand 's life was with a grenade. With heavy weapons, the rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) has become a useful tool given the popularity of armored cars (discussed below), and Israeli forces have pioneered
800-413: A more or less competent successor, whether the assassination provokes ire in the state in question, whether the assassination leads to souring domestic public opinion, and whether the assassination provokes condemnation from third-parties. One study found that perceptual biases held by leaders often negatively affect decision making in that area, and decisions to go forward with assassinations often reflect
900-415: A person—especially if prominent or important . It may be prompted by grievances , notoriety , financial, military, political or other motives . Assassinations are ordered by both individuals and organizations, and are carried out by their accomplices. Acts of assassination have been performed since ancient times . A person who carries out an assassination is called an assassin . Assassin comes from
1000-647: A plot to assassinate the Queen with bombs planted in Westminster Abbey had been discovered. In October 1887, a recently deceased American, Joseph Cohen, was declared by the Assistant Commissioner of the Police, James Monro , to have been the financier of the plot; he had been visited by two Irishmen, surnamed Callan and Harkins, were arrested and charged with bringing dynamite into the country; both had been followed by
1100-434: A threat. An army and even a nation might be based upon and around a particularly strong, canny, or charismatic leader , whose loss could paralyze the ability of both to make war. For similar and additional reasons, assassination has also sometimes been used in the conduct of foreign policy . The costs and benefits of such actions are difficult to compute. It may not be clear whether the assassinated leader gets replaced with
SECTION 10
#17328519302151200-538: A victim, and two former KGB agents who defected stated that the agency assisted in the murder. The CIA made several attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro ; many of the schemes involving poisoning his cigars. In the late 1950s, the KGB assassin Bohdan Stashynsky killed Ukrainian nationalist leaders Lev Rebet and Stepan Bandera with a spray gun that fired a jet of poison gas from a crushed cyanide ampule, making their deaths look like heart attacks. A 2006 case in
1300-563: Is a spiritual and mystical realization in the human soul and intellect called ma'rifah . In the Ismaili tariqah of Islam, the ma‘rifah of the tawhid of God is attained through the Imam of the Time. The perfect soul of the Imam of the Time always experiences the fullness of the ma‘rifah of God and his murids reach that recognition through the recognition of the Imam. Nizaris, like all Muslims, consider
1400-673: Is everlasting and its shade, that is the destination of those who are righteous (Qurʾān 13:35)” According to al-Sijistānī, the most important piece of knowledge to acquire is the recognition of the one who initiates the resurrection, whom he calls Ṣāḥib al-Qiyāmah (Lord of Resurrection). Al-Sijistānī writes in the Kitāb al-Yanābīʿ : فترى الناس على طبقتين : طبقة ممن آمنوا به وصدقوه وانتظروا ظهور، فهم بذلك النور مقتبسون، متنعمون ، مستبشرون . وطبقة ممن كذبوا به وغفلوا عن حده ۲ ، فهم بذلك النور ايضاً متحرقون ، معاقبون “ So you will see people divided into two classes: One class consists of those who believe in
1500-955: Is in the collection of the Aga Khan Museum ). In late 1095, Al-Afdal defeated Nizar's Alexandrian army and took Nizar prisoner to Cairo where he had Nizar executed. After Nizar's execution, the Nizari Ismailis and the Musta'li Ismailis parted ways in a bitterly irreconcilable manner. The schism finally broke the remnants of the Fatimid Empire, and the now-divided Ismailis separated into the Musta'li following (inhabiting regions of Egypt, Yemen, and western India) and those pledging allegiance to Nizar's son Al-Hadi ibn Nizar (living in regions of Iran and Syria ). The latter Ismaili following came to be known as Nizari Ismailism . The bewildered Henry asked Sinan
1600-474: Is inevitable that the human soul should return to the Universal Soul. The question only concerns the manner in which it will return...If, however, the return of the individual soul to its source is not in harmony, it will meet with suffering hardships whose painfulness is described by being placed in the midst of fire, the position which will never come to an end ” Thus, for Nāṣir-i Khusraw, all souls return to
1700-496: Is observed year-round. The Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) was set up by the Imamate and the Ismaili community as a group of private, non-denominational development agencies that seek to empower communities and individuals, regardless of ethnicity or religious affiliation, and seek to improve living conditions and opportunities within the developing world. It has active working relationships with international organizations such as
1800-496: Is one of the oldest tools of power politics . It dates back at least as far as recorded history. The Egyptian pharaoh Teti , of the Old Kingdom Sixth Dynasty (23rd century BCE), is thought to be the earliest known victim of assassination, though written records are scant and thus evidence is circumstantial. Two further ancient Egyptian monarchs are more explicitly recorded to have been assassinated; Amenemhat I of
1900-425: Is understood to be the presence of knowledge of real truths while Hellfire is understood to be ignorance. The Nizārī Ismāʿīlī philosopher-theologians, as can be seen in the passage quoted above, did not believe that Paradise and Hellfire were “places” that souls inhabit, rather – because the rewards and punishments are spiritual – they are something the soul directly experiences in itself. Al-Sijistānī explicitly says in
2000-635: The Jaʽfari school of jurisprudence . The Aga Khan , currently Aga Khan IV , is the spiritual leader and Imam of the Nizaris. The global seat of the Ismaili Imamate is in Lisbon , Portugal . Nizari Isma'ili history is often traced through the unbroken hereditary chain of guardianship, or walayah , beginning with Ali Ibn Abi Talib , whom Shias believe the prophet Muhammad declared his successor as Imam during
2100-734: The Middle Ages , regicide was rare in Western Europe, but it was a recurring theme in the Eastern Roman Empire . Strangling in the bathtub was the most commonly used method. With the Renaissance , tyrannicide —or assassination for personal or political reasons—became more common again in Western Europe. During the 16th and 17th centuries, international lawyers began to voice condemnation of assassinations of leaders. Balthazar Ayala has been described as "the first prominent jurist to condemn
SECTION 20
#17328519302152200-602: The Middle Kingdom Twelfth Dynasty (20th century BCE) is recorded to have been assassinated in his bed by his palace guards for reasons unknown (as related in the Instructions of Amenemhat ); meanwhile contemporary judicial records relate the assassination of New Kingdom Twentieth Dynasty monarch Ramesses III in 1155 BCE as part of a failed coup attempt . Between 550 BC and 330 BC, seven Persian kings of Achaemenid Dynasty were murdered. The Art of War ,
2300-657: The Quran , the central religious text of Islam, to be the word of God. Nizaris employ tafsir (the science of Quranic commentary) for zahir , or exoteric understanding, and tawil (the Quranic poetic metre), for batin , or esoteric understanding. For Nizaris, there exists a dialectic between revelation and human reasoning, based on a synergy of Islamic scripture and classical Greek philosophy, in particular Aristotelian reasoning and neoplatonic metaphysics. It seeks to extend an understanding of religion and revelation to identify
2400-858: The United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU), and private organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation . Governmental bodies the AKDN works with include the United States Agency for International Development , the Canadian International Development Agency , the United Kingdom 's Department for International Development , and Germany 's Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development . It's also known that
2500-643: The assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira during the Rwandan Civil War sparked the Rwandan genocide . In Israel, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated on November 4, 1995, by Yigal Amir , who opposed the Oslo Accords . In Lebanon , the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on February 14, 2005, prompted an investigation by the United Nations. The suggestion in
2600-513: The 48th Ismāʿīlī Imām – Sulṭān Muḥammad Shāh Āgā Khān III – who endorses a universalist position in regards to salvation and specifically states in his Memoirs that he prays “ that all may be reconciled in Heaven in a final total absolution ”. The position of Āgā Khān III can be said to be generally in line with classical Ismāʿīlī views, as well as the views of the falāsifa and Sunnī-Sufīs like Ibn ʿArabi (such as in his Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya ) and those of
2700-450: The 74 principal incidents evaluated in a major study about assassination attempts in the US in the second half of the 20th century, 51% were undertaken by a handgun, 30% with a rifle or shotgun, 15% used knives, and 8% explosives (the use of multiple weapons/methods was reported in 16% of all cases). In the case of state-sponsored assassination, poisoning can be more easily denied. Georgi Markov ,
2800-742: The Assassins were active in the Near East from the 11th to the 13th centuries. The group killed members of the Abbasid , Seljuk , Fatimid , and Christian Crusader elite for political and religious reasons. Although it is commonly believed that members of the Order of Assassins were under the influence of hashish during their killings or during their indoctrination, there is debate as to whether these claims have merit, with many Eastern writers and an increasing number of Western academics coming to believe that drug-taking
2900-689: The British government "to stir the Fenians into bombing Britain" – a scheme designed to discredit the Home Rule movement. Campbell also claimed Millen was hired with the approval of the Conservative leader, Lord Salisbury , the Prime Minister. Assassination Note: Varies by jurisdiction Note: Varies by jurisdiction Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of
3000-599: The Conservative Party Conference in a Brighton hotel. Loyalist paramilitaries retaliated by killing Catholics at random and assassinating Irish nationalist politicians. Basque separatists ETA in Spain assassinated many security and political figures since the late 1960s, notably the president of the Francoist government of Spain, Luis Carrero Blanco , 1st Duke of Carrero-Blanco Grandee of Spain, in 1973. In
3100-720: The Czechoslovak government in exile in Operation Anthropoid , and knowledge from decoded transmissions allowed the United States to carry out a targeted attack , killing Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto while he was travelling by plane. During the 1930s and 1940s, Joseph Stalin 's NKVD carried out numerous assassinations outside of the Soviet Union, such as the killings of Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists leader Yevhen Konovalets , Ignace Poretsky , Fourth International secretary Rudolf Klement, Leon Trotsky , and
Jubilee Plot - Misplaced Pages Continue
3200-681: The Fatimid Court and Fatimid Dawa in Cairo , the capital city of the Fatimids, to endorse Musta'li, which they did, realizing that the army was behind the palace coup. In early 1095, Nizar fled to Alexandria , where he received the people's support and where he was accepted as the next Fatimid Caliph-Imam after Al-Mustansir, with gold dinars being minted in Alexandria in Nizar's name (one such coin, found in 1994,
3300-577: The Henrique de Mendonça Palace, located on Rua Marquês de Fronteira in Lisbon , as the " Diwan (seat) of the Ismaili Imamat " ( Portuguese : Divã do Imamato Ismaeli ). Including: Nizari Ismaili theology is the pre-eminent negative or apophatic theology of Islam because it affirms the absolute Oneness of God ( tawhid ) through negating all names, descriptions, conceptions, and limitations from God. The Ismaili theology of tawhid goes back to
3400-823: The Ismaili Imams in their prayer recitation then the present Imam Prince Karim of the Nizari Ismailis would have to be the 50th Imam and not the 49th Imam - the way he has identified himself and is known to the world. All Nizārī Ismā'īlīs now accept Prince Shah Karim Al-Husayni, the Aga Khan IV , as their Imām-i-Zaman (Imam of the Time). He is referred to in Persian as Khudawand (Lord of the Time), in Arabic as Maulana (Master) or Hāzar Imām (Present Imam). Karim succeeded his grandfather Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan III as Imām in 1957, when he
3500-574: The Ismaili community's economic prosperity lies an ethos of mutual support and help existing within the community and devotion to the Imam This can result in commercial cooperation and marriages within the community. The present Imam regularly bestows worldly and spiritual guidance to the community. Following an agreement with the Republic of Portugal in 2015, on 11 July 2018, the Aga Khan officially designated
3600-523: The Ismaili theology of tawhid using the strongest philosophical arguments of their time. Even in the present age, Imam Shah Karim al-Husayni Aga Khan IV, the present and 49th hereditary Imam of the Shi‘a Ismaili Muslims, continues to stress the absolute and utter transcendence of God. At the 1975 All-Ismailia Paris Conference, the Ismaili Imam endorsed and approved the following resolution concerning
3700-493: The Israeli policy of targeted killing is not the same as assassination." Syracuse Law William Banks and GW Law Peter Raven-Hansen wrote, "Targeted killing of terrorists is... not unlawful and would not constitute assassination." Rory Miller writes: "Targeted killing... is not 'assassination. ' " Eric Patterson and Teresa Casale wrote, "Perhaps most important is the legal distinction between targeted killing and assassination." On
3800-542: The Italian and French Assissini, believed to derive from the word hashshashin ( Arabic : حشّاشين , romanized : ḥaššāšīyīn ), and shares its etymological roots with hashish ( / h æ ˈ ʃ iː ʃ / or / ˈ h æ ʃ iː ʃ / ; from حشيش ḥašīš ). It referred to a group of Nizari Ismailis known as the Order of Assassins who worked against various political targets. Founded by Hassan-i Sabbah ,
3900-581: The Lord of Resurrection, pronounce his Truth, and await his appearance. They are in that Light, acquiring knowledge, blessed, and rejoicing. The other class consists of those who deny him and ignore his rank. They are in the Light also, but are burned and punished ” Paradise and Hellfire in the Nizārī Ismāʿīlī tradition, thus, are not characterized by material forms, sensual pleasures, and physical burning, rather Paradise
4000-716: The Nizari Fidai themselves joined Saladin's forces to defeat the Crusaders in the last great battle between the two forces. Later on, when "the Nizaris faced renewed Frankish hostilities, they received timely assistance from the Ayyubids". The Fidais' apparent lack of fear of personal injury or even death could not be understood by the Crusaders, who propagated the black legends of the so-called Assassins . According to Daftary, these were "fictions ... meant to provide satisfactory explanations for behavior that would otherwise seem strange to
4100-718: The Nizari branch of Ismailism in the 14th and 15th centuries. Following the death of 28th Imam Shams al-Din Muhammad , the Nizari Isma'ili split was into two groups: the Mu'mini Nizari (or, Muhammad-Shahi Nizari) who considered his elder son Ala al-Din Mu'min Shah to be the next Imam followed by his son Muhammad Shah, and the Qasimi Nizari (or, Qasim-Shahi Nizari) who consider his younger son Qasim Shah to be
Jubilee Plot - Misplaced Pages Continue
4200-491: The Obama administration maintained a "kill list" containing terrorism suspects. The list is sometimes referred to as a "disposition matrix," and President Obama made a final decision on whether anyone listed would be killed, without court oversight and without trial. In September 2011, American citizens Anwar Al-Awlaki and Samir Khan were assassinated in Yemen by the United States government via drone strikes. Two weeks later, Awlaki's 16-year-old son, also an American citizen,
4300-472: The Platonic idea of a philosopher king . Over the many phases of Nizārī Ismāʿīlī history – pre-Fāṭimid, Fāṭimid, Alamūt, Post-Alamūt, Anjudan, etc., there has never been a single unified view of eschatology. While there are certainly eschatological ideas from the Pre-Fāṭimid period that have been carried unto the present day, particularly those of Abū Ya’qūb al-Sijistānī and his intellectual disciples, each phase has brought in original ideas and renewed those of
4400-642: The Shīʿī ʿIrfān tradition, like Mullā Ṣadra (such as in his Tafsīr Sūrat al-Fātiḥa ). Unlike many other groups, inter-faith marriages are recognized by the community. In addition to the other Abrahamic faiths, the prevalence of Nizari Ismailis of South Asian descent has resulted in growing numbers married to those of Dharmic faiths , such as Hinduism , Buddhism , and Jainism , as well as other Indian religions, such as Sikhism and Zoroastrianism . The Aga Khan IV has said that he has no objection to increasingly-common mixed marriages, and has met non-Ismaili spouses and children during his various deedars throughout
4500-508: The Tokugawa shogunate, during the Boshin War . Most of the assassinations in Japan were committed with bladed weaponry, a trait that was carried on into modern history. A video-record exists of the assassination of Inejiro Asanuma , using a sword. In 1895, a group of Japanese assassins killed the Korean queen (and posthumously empress) Myeongseong. In the United States, within 100 years, four presidents— Abraham Lincoln , James A. Garfield , William McKinley and John F. Kennedy —died at
4600-484: The UK concerned the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko who was given a lethal dose of radioactive polonium -210, possibly passed to him in aerosol form sprayed directly onto his food. Targeted killing is the intentional killing by a government or its agents of a civilian or " unlawful combatant " who is not in the government's custody. The target is a person asserted to be taking part in an armed conflict or terrorism, by bearing arms or otherwise, who has thereby lost
4700-468: The Workers' Party of Marxist Unification ( POUM ) leadership in Catalonia . India's "Father of the Nation", Mahatma Gandhi , was shot to death on January 30, 1948, by Nathuram Godse . The African-American civil rights activist, Martin Luther King Jr. , was assassinated on April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel (now the National Civil Rights Museum ) in Memphis, Tennessee . Three years prior, another African-American civil rights activist, Malcolm X ,
4800-399: The abstention food, drink and sensual pleasure. The latter refers to the abstention from communicating the esoteric knowledge of revelation ( tanzīl ) and interpretation ( ta’wīl ) to those who are not ready to receive it. A third kind of fasting known as ḥaqīqī ṣawm (real fasting) is the abstention from anything (in thought, word, or deed) which is contrary to the Command of God. This kind
4900-455: The actual attackers were found to be delusional , a figure that rose to 60% with "near-lethal approachers" (people apprehended before reaching their targets). That shows that while mental instability plays a role in many modern assassinations, the more delusional attackers are less likely to succeed in their attempts. The report also found that around two-thirds of attackers had previously been arrested, not necessarily for related offenses; 44% had
5000-402: The all-powerful Armenian Vizier and Commander of the Armies, wanted to assert, like his father before him, dictatorial rule over the Fatimid State. Al-Afdal engineered a palace coup , placing his brother-in-law, the much younger and dependent Al-Musta'li , on the Fatimid throne. Al-Afdal claimed that Al-Mustansir had made a deathbed decree in favour of Musta'li and thus got the Ismaili leaders of
5100-451: The assassination attempt was later said to be Francis Millen, a member of Clan na Gael . However, he had reportedly been a spy for the British authorities for several years (from 1885 under Edward Jenkinson of the Home Office with the approval of the Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury ), and was allegedly encouraged by them to proceed with the attempt, to draw in more Fenians , who could then be captured. In June various newspapers reported that
SECTION 50
#17328519302155200-447: The attempts to kill the Athenian Alcibiades during the Peloponnesian War . A number of additional examples from World War II show how assassination was used as a tool: Use of assassination has continued in more recent conflicts: Insurgent groups have often employed assassination as a tool to further their causes. Assassinations provide several functions for such groups: the removal of specific enemies and as propaganda tools to focus
5300-407: The attention of media and politics on their cause. The Irish Republican Army guerrillas in 1919 to 1921 killed many Royal Irish Constabulary Police intelligence officers during the Irish War of Independence . Michael Collins set up a special unit, the Squad , for that purpose, which had the effect of intimidating many policemen into resigning from the force. The Squad's activities peaked with
5400-584: The cause for the suicidal jump. Sinan pointed once again to the Fidai who had taken the place of the now dead Fidai. Again Sinan gave a signal to the Fidai to jump and the second Fidai also called out "allah hu akbar" and jumped to his death. Henry was visibly shaken by the experience of witnessing the two Fidais' total disregard for their own lives. He accepted Sinan's terms of peace on a non-tribute-paying basis. The Nizaris thus averted debilitating wars against them because of their Fidais' feats of self-sacrifice and assassinations of powerful enemy leaders to demonstrate
5500-419: The chances for assassins to survive since they could quickly flee the scene. The first heads of government to be assassinated with a firearm were James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray , the regent of Scotland, in 1570, and William the Silent , the Prince of Orange of the Netherlands, in 1584. Gunpowder and other explosives also allowed the use of bombs or even greater concentrations of explosives for deeds requiring
5600-406: The community, annihilationist views have existed as well, specifically being introduced by Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī. Like both al-Sijistānī and Nāṣir-i Khusraw, Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī believed that paradise and hell were spiritual and mental states that the soul experiences and not physical places or sensual pains and desires. While Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī believed that the punishment of ignorant, damned souls
5700-431: The contemporary Ismaili position on the concept of God: The absolute transcendence of God to be emphasized, and the Ismaili belief in God to be expounded in association with the general stress on the transcendence of God in the Qur’an, as exemplified particularly in the Surat al-Ikhlas. The Ismaili Concept of tawhid can be summarized as follows: The full recognition of tawhid, in a mode beyond human rational discourse,
5800-431: The early 1990s, it also began to target academics, journalists and local politicians who publicly disagreed with it. The Red Brigades in Italy carried out assassinations of political figures and, to a lesser extent, so did the Red Army Faction in Germany in the 1970s and the 1980s. In the Vietnam War , communist insurgents routinely assassinated government officials and individual civilians deemed to offend or rival
5900-748: The eschatology of the South Asian traditions of Nizārī Ismāʿīlism. The Ismāʿīlīs, like the falāsifa (Islamic Neoplatonic-Aristotelian philosophers), have understood resurrection, paradise, and hell through taʾwīl (esoteric interpretation) and, thus, have all argued that these are spiritual realities and not physical, material realities. On the rewards of Paradise, al-Sijistānī writes in the Kitāb al-Yanābīʿ : لما كان قصارى الثواب انما هي اللذة ، وكانت اللذة الحسية منقطعة زائلة ، وجب ان تكون التي ينالها المثاب ازلية غير فانية ، باقية غير منقطعة . وليست لذة بسيطة باقية على حالاتها غير لذة العلم . كان من هذا القول وجوب لذه العلم للمثاب في دار البقاء ، كما قال الله عز وجل : اكلها دائم وظلها تلك عقبى الذين اتقوا “ Because
6000-581: The federal government to fall outside the assassination prohibition. Author and former U.S. Army Captain Matthew J. Morgan argued that "there is a major difference between assassination and targeted killing... targeted killing [is] not synonymous with assassination. Assassination... constitutes an illegal killing." Similarly, Amos Guiora , a professor of law at the University of Utah , wrote, "Targeted killing is... not an assassination." Steve David , professor of international relations at Johns Hopkins University , wrote, "There are strong reasons to believe that
6100-420: The first detailed catalogue of (Nizari and Fatimid) Ismaili works, citing some 700 separate titles attesting to the hitherto unknown richness and diversity of (Nizari and Fatimid) Ismaili literature and literary traditions". The Nizari Ismailis have since split from others, initially from the Qarmatians , Druze , Musta'li Ismailis, Muhammad Shahi Nizari Ismailis, and Satpanthis , the last two splitting from
SECTION 60
#17328519302156200-540: The founder of the Maurya Empire , later made use of assassinations against some of his enemies. Some famous assassination victims are Philip II of Macedon (336 BC), the father of Alexander the Great , and Roman dictator Julius Caesar (44 BC). Emperors of Rome often met their end in this way, as did many of the Muslim Shia Imams hundreds of years later. Three successive Rashidun caliphs ( Umar , Uthman Ibn Affan , and Ali ibn Abi Talib ) were assassinated in early civil conflicts between Muslims. The practice
6300-429: The hands of assassins. There have been at least 20 known attempts on U.S. presidents' lives. In Austria, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg was carried out in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, by Gavrilo Princip , a Serbian nationalist. He is blamed for igniting World War I . Reinhard Heydrich died after an attack by British-trained Czechoslovak soldiers on behalf of
6400-521: The head of Iranian intelligence. Evidence indicates that Fallahian's personal involvement and individual responsibility for the murders were far more pervasive than his current indictment record represents. In India, Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv Gandhi (neither of whom was related to Mahatma Gandhi , who had himself been assassinated in 1948), were assassinated in 1984 and 1991 in what were linked to separatist movements in Punjab and northern Sri Lanka , respectively. In 1994,
6500-471: The immunity from being targeted that he would otherwise have under the Third Geneva Convention . It is a different term and concept from that of "targeted violence", as used by specialists who study violence. On the other hand, Gary D. Solis , a professor at Georgetown University Law Center , in his 2010 book The Law of Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law in War , wrote, "Assassinations and targeted killings are very different acts." The use of
6600-409: The killing of 14 British agents in Dublin on Bloody Sunday in 1920. The tactic was used again by the Provisional IRA during the Troubles in Northern Ireland (1969–1998). Assassination of unionist politicians and activists was one of a number of methods used in the Provisional IRA campaign 1969–1997 . The IRA also attempted to assassinate British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher by bombing
6700-501: The latter's final pilgrimage to Mecca , and continues in an unbroken chain to the current Imam, Shah Karim Al-Husayni, the Aga Khan . From early in his reign, the Fatimid Caliph-Imam Al-Mustansir Billah had publicly named his elder son Nizar as his heir to be the next Fatimid Caliph-Imam. Dai Hassan-i Sabbah , who had studied and accepted Ismailism in Fatimid Egypt, had been made aware of this fact personally by al-Mustansir. After Al-Mustansir died in 1094, Al-Afdal Shahanshah ,
6800-488: The life of his followers. The Aga Khan has encouraged Ismā'īlī Muslims settled in the industrialized world to contribute towards the progress of communities in the developing world through various development programs. The Economist noted that Isma'ili immigrant communities integrated seamlessly as immigrant communities and did better at attaining graduate and post-graduate degrees, "far surpassing their native, Hindu, Sikh, fellow Muslims, and Chinese communities". One aspect of
6900-420: The limit of reward is pleasure, and sensual pleasure is ephemeral, and it is necessary that the reward which is obtained be eternal and not ephemeral, everlasting and not discontinuous. And there is no simple, everlasting pleasure except the pleasure of knowledge. From this statement, it necessarily follows that the pleasure of knowledge is the reward in the hereafter, as God, glorified and sublime, said: “Its fruit
7000-413: The medieval Western mind". These black legends were then further popularized in the Western world by Marco Polo , the Venetian storyteller who had, in fact, never investigated Sinan, in contradiction to his claim that he had. Polo asserted that Sinan fed hashish to his drugged followers, the so-called Hashishins (Assassins), so as to fortify them with the type of courage to commit the assassinations of
7100-483: The merits of the action. Assassination is widely defined as murder, and is for that reason prohibited in the United States ... U.S. officials may not kill people merely because their policies are seen as detrimental to our interests... But killings in self-defense are no more "assassinations" in international affairs than they are murders when undertaken by our police forces against domestic killers. Targeted killings in self-defense have been authoritatively determined by
7200-660: The most intrepid kind. This tale of the "Old Man of the Mountain" was assembled by Marco Polo and accepted by Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall , a 19th-century Austrian orientalist responsible for much of the spread of this legend. Until the 1930s, Hammer-Purgstall's retelling of Marco Polo's fiction served as the standard description of the Nizari Ismailis across Europe. "The Russian orientalist Vladimir Alexeyevich Ivanov ... gained access also to Nizari literature preserved in Central Asia, Persia, Afghanistan and elsewhere ... compiled
7300-532: The new Islamic government of Iran began an international campaign of assassination that lasted into the 1990s. At least 162 killings in 19 countries have been linked to the senior leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran . The campaign came to an end after the Mykonos restaurant assassinations because a German court publicly implicated senior members of the government and issued arrest warrants for Ali Fallahian ,
7400-571: The next Imam. The final known 40th Imam of the Mu'mini Nizari, Amir Muhammad al-Baqir ibn Haydar al-Mutahhar disappeared in 1796. The Mu'mini line has diminished today to a few thousand followers in Syria, while the Qasim-Shahi line has ended up representing most modern Isma'ilis, and is led today by the Aga Khans . The Nizaris regard Hassan bin (son of) Ali as a Trustee Imam (imam al-mustawda) as opposed to
7500-580: The other hand, the American Civil Liberties Union also states on its website, "A program of targeted killing far from any battlefield, without charge or trial, violates the constitutional guarantee of due process . It also violates international law , under which lethal force may be used outside armed conflict zones only as a last resort to prevent imminent threats, when non-lethal means are not available. Targeting people who are suspected of terrorism for execution, far from any war zone, turns
7600-428: The outwardly apparent ( zahir ), and also to penetrate to the roots, to retrieve and disclose that which is the inner underlying ( batin ). This process of discovery engages both the intellect ( 'aql ) and the spirit ( ruh ), generating an integral synergy to illuminate and disclose truths ( haqi'qat ) culminating in gnosis ( ma'rifat ). Parallels have also been noted between the Nizari version of Imamah and
7700-456: The passage above that both classes of people are exposed to same Light (فهم بذلك النور ايضاً), however one class experiences this Light as blessings whilst the other experiences it as burning. These states correspond not to location, but to the level of knowledge in the soul. Additionally, the most famous intellectual disciple of al- Sijistānī – Nāṣir-i Khusraw – writes in the Shish Fasl : “ [I]t
7800-503: The past. The academic field of Ismāʿīlī eschatology is one that has been rarely studied in western secondary literature, and the little work that has been done on Ismāʿīlī eschatology primarily surrounds the event of the proclamation of a qiyāmah during the Alamūt period. Otherwise, there have been zero studies published on the eschatologies of pre-Fāṭimid Ismāʿīlī thinkers and post-Alamūt Ismaili thinkers. Furthermore, no work done has been done on
7900-689: The police ever since their arrival in Britain in June 1887. At their trial, Monro exposed Millen as the organizer of the plot, but Millen was allowed to escape to the USA where he died under mysterious circumstances. Callan and Harkins were sentenced to fifteen years each in prison. Earlier in the year The Times had begun publishing a series of features called Parnellism and Crime . The bombers were linked, by letters, to Irish Parliamentary Party leader Parnell and other nationalist Irish MPs. The letters had been supplied by
8000-486: The resulting Mehlis report that there was involvement by Syria prompted the Cedar Revolution , which drove Syrian troops out of Lebanon. On 2 September 2022, a 35 year old Brazilian national attempted to assassinate the then current vice-president of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner . However, the attempt was unsuccessful because the assassin's gun jammed. In 2012, The New York Times revealed that
8100-536: The revolutionary movement. Such attacks, along with widespread military activity by insurgent bands, almost brought the Ngo Dinh Diem regime to collapse before the US intervened. A major study about assassination attempts in the US in the second half of the 20th century came to the conclusion that most prospective assassins spend copious amounts of time planning and preparing for their attempts. Assassinations are thus rarely "impulsive" actions. However, about 25% of
8200-593: The same spiritual abode but those souls which are ignorant will experience pain, as if “ being placed in the midst of fire ”. While Nāṣir-i Khusraw suggests here the suffering is eternal, he has in another text – specifically the Wajh-i Dīn – indicated that the pains of Hell are temporary and that the Prophet will come on the Day of Resurrection to blow out the fires of Hell and rescue its inhabitants. While both infernalist and universalist positions have existed as legitimate views in
8300-457: The target at long range, and the ability to score a first-round lethal hit at long range, which is usually measured in hundreds of meters. A dedicated sniper rifle is also expensive, often costing thousands of dollars because of the high level of precision machining and handfinishing required to achieve extreme accuracy. Despite their comparative disadvantages, handguns are more easily concealable and so are much more commonly used than rifles. Of
8400-552: The teachings of the early Shi‘a Imams, especially Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib (d. 661), Imam Muhammad al-Baqir (d. 743), and Imam Ja‘far al-Sadiq (d. 765). Additionally, a number of eminent Ismaili Muslim philosophers — Abu Ya‘qub al-Sjistani (d. 971), Ja‘far ibn Mansur al-Yaman (d. 960), Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani (d. 1021), al-Mu’ayyad al-Din Shirazi (d. 1077), Nasir-i Khusraw (d. 1088), Abd al-Karim al-Shahrastani (d. 1153), Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (d. 1273) — consolidated and refined
8500-553: The term "assassination" is opposed, as it denotes murder (unlawful killing), but the terrorists are targeted in self-defense, which is thus viewed as a killing but not a crime ( justifiable homicide ). Abraham D. Sofaer , former federal judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York , wrote on the subject: When people call a targeted killing an "assassination", they are attempting to preclude debate on
8600-401: The use of aircraft-mounted missiles, as well as the innovative use of explosive devices. A sniper with a precision rifle is often used in fictional assassinations; however, certain pragmatic difficulties attend long-range shooting, including finding a hidden shooting position with a clear line of sight, detailed advance knowledge of the intended victim's travel plans, the ability to identify
8700-467: The use of assassination in foreign policy". Alberico Gentili condemned assassinations in a 1598 publication where he appealed to the self-interest of leaders: (i) assassinations had adverse short-term consequences by arousing the ire of the assassinated leader's successor, and (ii) assassinations had the adverse long-term consequences of causing disorder and chaos. Hugo Grotius 's works on the law of war strictly forbade assassinations, arguing that killing
8800-437: The vague hope that any successor might be better. In both military and foreign policy assassinations, there is the risk that the target could be replaced by an even more competent leader, or that such a killing (or a failed attempt) will prompt the masses to contemn the killers and support the leader's cause more strongly. Faced with particularly brilliant leaders, that possibility has in various instances been risked, such as in
8900-630: The whole world into a battlefield." Nizari Isma%27ilism People Centers Other Nizari Isma'ilism ( Arabic : النزارية , romanized : al-Nizāriyya ) are the largest segment of the Ismaili Muslims, who are the second-largest branch of Shia Islam after the Twelvers . Nizari teachings emphasize independent reasoning or ijtihad ; pluralism—the acceptance of racial, ethnic, cultural and inter-religious differences; and social justice . Nizaris, along with Twelvers, adhere to
9000-476: The will and commitment of the community to live free from being a vassal to any Levantine power. The Fidai were some of the most feared assassins in the then known world. Sinan ordered assassinations against politicians and generals such as the great Kurdish general and founder of the Ayyubid dynasty , Saladin . A sleeping Saladin had a note from Sinan delivered to him by a Fidai planted in his entourage. The note
9100-539: The world. In fact, many members of his family, including his daughter Princess Zahra Aga Khan , have married non-Ismailis in inter-faith ceremonies. Child marriages are strictly prohibited. The Aga Khan IV also condemned polygamy , except in certain circumstances. Unlike the other branches of Islam, Nizari Isma'ilis divide the Ramadan fast into two separate, but closely related, kinds: ẓāhirī ṣawm (exoteric fasting) and bāṭinī ṣawm (esoteric fasting). The former refers to
9200-551: Was also well known in ancient China, as in Jing Ke 's failed assassination of Qin king Ying Zheng in 227 BC. Whilst many assassinations were performed by individuals or small groups, there were also specialized units who used a collective group of people to perform more than one assassination. The earliest were the sicarii in 6 AD, who predated the Middle Eastern Assassins and Japanese shinobis by centuries. In
9300-541: Was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom on February 21, 1965. Most major powers repudiated Cold War assassination tactics, but many allege that was merely a smokescreen for political benefit and that covert and illegal training of assassins continues today, with Russia, Israel, the U.S., Argentina , Paraguay, Chile, and other nations accused of engaging in such operations. After the Iranian Revolution of 1979,
9400-406: Was eternal, he believed this eternal punishment took the form of annihilation, i.e. permanent non-existence. He writes: “ There is also only one real Hell, and that is eternal punishment, everlasting disappointment and eternal non-existence; the meaning of all this is being outcast from God in every sense of the word ” The last most public eschatological view espoused by any Ismāʿīlī was written by
9500-490: Was just 20 and still an undergraduate at Harvard University. He was referred to as "the Imam of the Atomic Age ". The period following his accession can be characterized as one of rapid political and economic change. Planning of programs and institutions became increasingly difficult due to the rapid changes in the newly emerging post-colonial nations where many of his followers resided. Upon becoming Imām, Karim's immediate concern
9600-504: Was killed in a strike targeting Ibrahim al-Banna , a senior operative in Al-Qaeda . Al-Banna was not killed in the strike. Assassination for military purposes has long been espoused: Sun Tzu , writing around 500 BC, argued in favor of using assassination in his book The Art of War . Over 2000 years later, in his book The Prince , Machiavelli also advises rulers to assassinate enemies whenever possible to prevent them from posing
9700-567: Was not the key feature behind the name. The term "assassinare" (assassin) was used in Medieval Latin from the mid 13th century. The earliest known use of the verb "to assassinate" in printed English was by Matthew Sutcliffe in A Briefe Replie to a Certaine Odious and Slanderous Libel, Lately Published by a Seditious Jesuite , a pamphlet printed in 1600, five years before it was used in Macbeth by William Shakespeare (1605). Assassination
9800-530: Was only permissible on the battlefield. In the modern world, the killing of important people began to become more than a tool in power struggles between rulers themselves and was also used for political symbolism, such as in the propaganda of the deed . In Japan, a group of assassins called the Four Hitokiri of the Bakumatsu killed a number of people, including Ii Naosuke who was the head of administration for
9900-689: Was pinned to his pillow with a dagger, and it informed Saladin that he had been spared this once and should give up his anti-Nizari militancy. A shaken Saladin quickly made a truce with Sinan. Subsequently, the Fidai aided the Muslim cause against the Christian Crusaders of the Third Crusade which included Richard the Lionheart of England. Saladin, having by now established a friendly relationship with Sinan,
10000-491: Was the preparation of his followers, wherever they lived, for the changes that lay ahead. This rapidly evolving situation called for bold initiatives and new programs to reflect developing national aspirations in the newly independent nations. In view of the importance that Islām places on maintaining a balance between the spiritual well-being of the individual and the quality of his life, the Imām's guidance deals with both aspects of
#214785