My brilliant friend and countryman Jacob Høigilt has just written an absolutely fascinating report on Islamism and Education in the Palestinian Territories. It’s fieldwork-based, rich and nuanced, and it undermines widespread assumptions about the link between Islamic education and militancy. While I am at it, I might as well mention my own completely unrelated CTC [...]
Archive for the ‘Saudi Arabia’ Category
New Reports
Posted: 4th March 2010 by Thomas Hegghammer in Palestinian Territories, Saudi Arabia, Western Analysts5
On the Bin Nayif Assassination Attempt
Posted: 28th August 2009 by Thomas Hegghammer in Saudi Arabia, UncategorizedYesterday there was an assassination attempt on the Saudi Deputy Interior Minister Muhammad Bin Nayif. An unidentified wanted militant, pretending to surrender to authorities, blew himself up as he was being searched. The blast occurred in Bin Nayif’s private office in Jidda, close enough to the Prince himself for the latter to be lightly wounded [...]
I promised you more on Abd al-Aziz al-Julayyil, the Saudi author of the article on Obama being more dangerous than Bush. The reason I find al-Julayyil interesting is that he is among the last remaining Saudi sheikhs to play an active ideological role for the jihadi movement. Back in the good old days of the [...]
Obama is more Dangerous than Bush
Posted: 29th June 2009 by Thomas Hegghammer in Afghanistan, Obama, Saudi Arabia, Strategy, USAThis is the title of the main story in the July issue of al-Sumud, the Arabic-language magazine of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The 56-page magazine has several articles devoted to Obama and the Cairo speech, and the front page features a particularly unflattering picture of the US president. But it is the lead article [...]
Jihadi reactions to Obama
Posted: 4th June 2009 by Thomas Hegghammer in Arab media, Dreams, Egypt, Jihadi media, propaganda, Saudi Arabia, tactics, UncategorizedWe have heard Bin Ladin and Zawahiri’s comments, and Marc Lynch and others will tell us how the Arab mainstream reacted. But what are the grassroot jihadis saying about Obama’s Mideast tour in general and his Cairo speech in particular? Let me begin by lowering your expectations. For a start, we should not expect to [...]
Prêt à porter terrorism
Posted: 2nd March 2009 by Thomas Hegghammer in Better Know a Forum, Egypt, Operational Material, Saudi Arabia, tactics, YemenAs most Jihadica readers probably know, the jihadi internet is used for many things, but not for operational planning. I have yet to come across online discussions or instructions for concrete operations by professional militants. However, once in a while you see amateurs proposing specific operations – “prêt a porter plots” – for others to [...]
Al-Awfi Captured, New Yemen Blog
Posted: 17th February 2009 by Thomas Hegghammer in Saudi Arabia, YemenMuhammad al-Awfi, one of the two former Saudi Gitmo detainees who appeared in the video by al-Qaida in Yemen on 19 January, has now been captured. Press reports and forum rumours this morning were confirmed this afternoon by the Yemeni embassy in Washington. I owe the latter piece of information to a fantastic new blog [...]
Pathetic Psy-ops
Posted: 5th February 2009 by Thomas Hegghammer in Algeria, AQ in Iraq, Conspiracy Theories, propaganda, Saudi Arabia, Western mediaThe British tabloid The Sun reported yesterday that al-Qaeda leaders rape male recruits to shame them into becoming suicide bombers. Let me start by congratulating the journalist on being able to fit the four words “al-Qaida”, “gay”, “rape” and “horror” in one and the same headline in the world’s largest English-language newspaper. I would not [...]
Gaza Galore in New Issue of Sada al-Jihad
Posted: 28th January 2009 by Thomas Hegghammer in Hamas, Israel, Jihadi journals, Palestinian Territories, Saudi ArabiaThe thirty-second issue of the ever so slick magazine Sada al-Jihad is out. Like the rest of jihadi media these days, it focuses on Gaza. Practically the entire 41-page journal is devoted to Palestine, and the front page features a close-up picture of the blood-stained face of a Palestinian child. However, the articles do not [...]
Saudi and Yemeni Branches of al-Qaida Unite
Posted: 24th January 2009 by Thomas Hegghammer in Saudi Arabia, YemenEarlier this week we learned that the Saudi and Yemeni branches of al-Qaida had formally merged. The release of Sada al-Malahim on Monday was accompanied by an extract from an interview with AQY leader Nasir al-Wuhayshi, who said the Saudi mujahidin had pledged allegiance to him and agreed to form a united organization under the [...]