a small gang of terrorist thugs claiming to seek a separate Islamic state for the Muslim minority in the Philippines; uses bombing and assassination and extortion and kidnapping; "In 2001 Abu Sayyaf kidnapped twenty people and beheaded one of the American captives"

The Abu Sayyaf Group (Arabic: جماعة أبو سياف; Abū Sayyāf; ASG), also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya is one of several militant Islamist separatist groups based in and around the southern islands of the Philippines, in Bangsamoro (Jolo, Basilan, and Mindanao) where for almost 30 years various groups have been engaged in an insurgency for an Islamic state, independent of the predominantly Christian Philippines. The name of the group is derived from the Arabic ابو, abu ("father of") and sayyaf ("Swordsmith").