Last month, a jihadi Telegram user called “And Rouse the Believers” leaked a series of documents related to the Islamic State’s internal ideological rift. As discussed in a previous post, this dispute revolves around the doctrine of excommunication (takfir), and specifically whether those hesitating or refusing to excommunicate unbelievers are themselves to be excommunicated. Heading […]
Archive for the ‘Jihadi media’ Category
A House Divided: Origins and Persistence of the Islamic State’s Ideological Divide
Posted: 5th June 2018 by Cole Bunzel in Ideological trends, Islamic State, Jihadi media4
The Video of Anis Amri, the Berlin Christmas market attacker
Posted: 23rd December 2016 by Nico Prucha in Islamic State, Jihadi mediaVia Telegram channels operated by IS, the Amaq Agency released a brief video featuring Anis Amri (his name is in Arabic Anis ‘Amari) pledging allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and vowing for more revenge operations. The video is entitled “testimony of the soldier of the Islamic State who undertook the attacks in Berlin and Milano”, […]
The role of ideologues
Posted: 27th October 2016 by Tore Hamming in AQ Central, Ideological trends, Jihadi media, propagandaThis is the fourth Q&A of the interview series with Ahmed Al Hamdan (@a7taker), a Jihadi-Salafi analyst and author of “Methodological Difference Between ISIS and Al Qaida“. Al Hamdan was a former friend of Turki bin Ali, and a student of Shaykh Abu Muhammad Al Maqdisi under whom he studied and was given Ijazah, becoming one […]
The generational divide
Posted: 9th October 2016 by Tore Hamming in AQ Central, foreign fighters, Jihadi media, Recruitment, ZawahiriThis is the third Q&A of the interview series with Ahmed Al Hamdan (@a7taker), a Jihadi-Salafi analyst and author of “Methodological Difference Between ISIS and Al Qaida“. Al Hamdan was a former friend of Turki bin Ali, and a student of Shaykh Abu Muhammad Al Maqdisi under whom he studied and was given Ijazah, becoming […]
“Come Back to Twitter”: A Jihadi Warning Against Telegram
Posted: 18th July 2016 by Cole Bunzel in Islamic State, Jihadi mediaIt is hard to avoid a feeling of déjà vu. Back in 2013, an established al-Qaida ideologue lamented the decline of the jihadi web forums, warning users against migrating to social media platforms Twitter and Facebook and calling for a revival of the forums as the “main theater” of internet jihad. The appeal of course […]
Battlefield Yemen: The Islamic State’s Challenge to AQAP
Posted: 12th December 2014 by Cole Bunzel in al-Qaida on the Arabian Peninsula, AQ Central, Islamic State, Jihadi mediaSince the caliphate declaration of late June 2014, Yemen has emerged a key battleground in the intra-jihadi struggle pitting the Islamic State against al-Qaeda. The country hosts what is arguably al-Qaeda’s most prestigious affiliate, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). But as far as the Islamic State is concerned, that organization ceased to exist when […]
A Jihadi Civil War of Words: The Ghuraba’ Media Foundation and Minbar al-Tawhid wa’l-Jihad
Posted: 21st October 2014 by Cole Bunzel in AQ Central, Islamic State, Jihadi mediaAmid the ongoing conflict between al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, jihadi ideologues and media appear more divided than ever before. Notwithstanding U.S.-led airstrikes in Iraq and Syria that some thought could unite jihadi ranks, the jihadi civil war is raging on unabated, and nowhere more so than on the ideological and media front. Among more […]
Caliphate Now: Jihadis Debate the Islamic State
Posted: 25th November 2013 by Cole Bunzel in Ideological trends, Islamic State, Jihadi media, SyriaSince the mid-November beheading in Aleppo of allied commander Muhammad Faris of Harakat Ahrar al-Sham, a barrage of negative media attention has afflicted Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS). ISIS was concerned by its public image problem even before this signal mistake. In a September statement, Islamic State official spokesman Abu […]
A Little-Known Syrian Jihadi Magazine
Posted: 8th November 2013 by Joas Wagemakers in Jihadi media, propaganda, SyriaIn various previous posts, I have paid attention to the Syrian-British Jihadi-Salafi ideologue Abu Basir al-Tartusi, for example because of his criticism of other jihadis and his support for the Free Syrian Army at the expense of Jabhat al-Nusra. His position, differing somewhat from that of other major radical scholars, was interesting because it was […]