Shmukh forum user Amal wa-Alam complains that the brothers are disparaging Sayf al-`Adl, the operational leader of al-Qaeda. ”They are beginning to talk about him as if he is a nobody.” Amal strongly disagrees and adduces as evidence West Point’s study of his handiwork in Africa that Clint Watts, Jake Shapiro, and Vahid Brown had [...]
Archive for the ‘Western Analysts’ Category
A couple of weeks ago the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) in Berlin hosted a very interesting workshop on “Jihadism in the Internet and the New Media – the State of Play.” The event, funded by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung and organized by Asiem El Difraoui (SWP), presented the latest research on jihadism online by some of the world’s [...]
Article on Foreign Fighters
Posted: 7th January 2011 by Thomas Hegghammer in foreign fighters, Western AnalystsThe latest issue of the journal International Security features an article by your truly on the Muslim foreign fighter phenomenon. It basically tries to explain why Muslims became so keen on fighting in each others’ wars after 1980 and not before. It’s also an attempt at establishing foreign fighters as an actor category distinct from international terrorists; the conflation of the two has been [...]
Un-Inspired
Posted: 6th July 2010 by Thomas Hegghammer in al-Qaida on the Arabian Peninsula, propaganda, Western Analysts, YemenInternational media have been in a frenzy recently over the publication of an English-language jihadi magazine entitled Inspire. The magazine – available here (beware of possible virus) – appears to be the work of the Yemen-based group al-Qaida on the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The magazine features the logo of the “al-Malahim foundation”, AQAP’s media arm, [...]
What’s the point of editing a blog if you can’t use it for shameless self promotion? My book Jihad in Saudi Arabia is finally out in the US. I am marking the occasion with a book launch at George Washington University today at 4pm, so if you are in the DC area, please come along.
Since the topic of homegrown militancy is very much in focus these days, I wanted to flag a very interesting series of reports on radicalization in various European countries produced by the Centre for Studies of Islamism and Radicalisation at Aarhus University in Denmark. The Centre’s mission is to bridge the gap between the fields [...]
New Reports
Posted: 4th March 2010 by Thomas Hegghammer in Palestinian Territories, Saudi Arabia, Western AnalystsMy 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 [...]
Is RAND in Bed with Extreme Takfiris?
Posted: 22nd February 2010 by Joas Wagemakers in Conspiracy Theories, Ideological trends, Jordan, propaganda, Western AnalystsAs regular readers of jihadi literature know, the RAND Corporation is no friend of al-Qa‘ida. Supporters of the latter have a tendency to blame RAND for trying to destroy them and the rest of the world’s Muslims into the bargain. Although RAND is not alone in being perceived by jihadis as an almost conspiratorial observer [...]
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 [...]