The Sharia Council of the Minbar al-Tawhid website has issued a new fatwa today by Abu Mundhir al-Shinqiti. The fatwa rules on the permissibility of Muslims electing representatives to parliaments and serving in those bodies. Since the Minbar’s Sharia Council has become the jihadis’ go-to resource for religious opinions, its fatwas on the Arab Spring [...]
Archive for the ‘Strategy’ Category
The Allure of Parliamentary Politics
Posted: 20th October 2011 by Will McCants in democracy, Strategy4
Al-Qaeda’s Past and Present
Posted: 23rd August 2011 by Will McCants in AQ Central, AQ Leadership, StrategyThe newest issue of Foreign Affairs on the ten-year anniversary of 9/11 includes an essay by me (free registration required) on the history of al-Qaeda and its prospects after the Arab Spring. The essay covers the reasons for al-Qaeda’s founding, its targeting of the United States, its strategic thinking under Zawahiri’s leadership, its concept of an Islamic [...]
Reasons for the Strategic Failure of al-Qaeda in Palestine
Posted: 9th August 2011 by Will McCants in AQ Central, Palestinian Territories, StrategyIn an essay provocatively titled, ”Reasons for the Utter Strategic Failure of al-Qaeda to Threaten the Security of the Zionist Entity,” Ansar forum member Qandil al-Bahr is at pains to explain why al-Qaeda is advancing the Palestinian cause by focusing its attention in the United States: There is no doubt that al-Qaeda is incapable of undertaking a single [...]
Strategic Theory of the Second Generation of Jihadis
Posted: 3rd August 2011 by Will McCants in propaganda, Recruitment, StrategyThree days ago, Abu Hafs al-Sunni al-Sunni, a member of the Atahadi forum, posted an article he titled, “The Strategic Theory of the Second Generation of Jihadis: Propagandistic Foundations and Operational Methods.” Despite the title, it is less about strategy and operations and more about the public relations problems plaguing the jihadis. Here are his main [...]
What’s AQIM’s Strategy?
Posted: 20th July 2011 by Will McCants in Algeria, AQIM, North Africa, Strategy“What is the brothers’ plan in the Islamic Magreb?” That’s the question raised today by Shmukh member Abu Safiyya. He thinks it’s perfectly legitimate to kill troops but it’s getting Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb (AQIM) nowhere. AQIM should be going after the leadership of the militaries in the region. Some readers are sympathetic but [...]
I highly recommend Mark Stout’s latest analysis of a new jihadi strategic study entitled “The Vision of the Jihaadi Movement”.
New SCT Articles
Posted: 13th January 2010 by Thomas Hegghammer in Indonesia, Strategy, Western AnalystsMany Jihadica readers probably follow the academic journal Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, but I still want to highlight a couple of new articles that I found especially interesting: The Internet in Indonesia: Development and Impact of Radical Websites – Jennifer Yang Hui Jihadi Operational Art: The Coming Wave of Jihadi Strategic Studies – Dima [...]
There is a new blog in town: On War and Words. It is produced by military historian Mark Stout, who is probably best known to our readers as the lead author of the Terrorism Perspectives Project (the most comprehensive treatment available of the genre “jihadi strategic studies”). I am very excited that he has decided [...]
Article on Ideological Hybridization
Posted: 18th November 2009 by Thomas Hegghammer in Ideological trends, Motivations, StrategyI feel bad posting so many secondary sources and even worse plugging my own stuff, but I hope you will agree that this article is quite relevant to the issues Jihadica was set up to cover.
Abu’l-Walid is Back… with the Taliban (and not al-Qaida)
Posted: 9th October 2009 by Vahid Brown in Afghanistan, Strategy, Taliban(Editor’s note: I am delighted to introduce our next guest blogger, Vahid Brown from the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. Vahid is a linguist and historian with deep knowledge of the history of al-Qaida and the jihadi movement. He is the author of Cracks in the Foundation and the co-author of several well-known CTC [...]