Making Sense of Jihad

Around the Web: Final Edition

You've probably noticed that I haven’t been posting “around the web” posts recently.  A new job and a busy personal life have drawn me away from dedicated posting here at MSJ.  I’ll continue to post here, but not as regularly as in the past.  I know that – somehow, some way – you will survive, readers, especially since Tim is doing such a good job with his InfoBore posts.   Meanwhile, I’m contributing to CTLab’s Current Intelligence blog.

Now, on to the post.

Report: "Understanding the Survival Mechanisms of Global Salafi Jihad" (via Drew)

Great blog post title winner

Ahmed Rashid, via mp3

Dreaming of the Caliphate, here and here

Easier analyzed than achieved

Finally.

Data Challenges for the IC (also via Drew)

Another Renunciation

Registan’s Threat Assessment for Central Asia

Well, is it?

Noting the obvious: the US doesn’t have enough Pashto speakers

Hudson Institute recently looked at the future of the MB

Islamists working the system here .. and in Egypt

Thomas Rid has joined Kings of War

Reviewing Juan Cole

New (to me) Blogs & Sites of Interest

Science of Global Security & Armed Conflict (via Current Intelligence)

DOD Energy Blog (via CNAS Natural Security)

Center on Global Counterterrorism Cooperation

Underreported

National Security Drone

Report Linker

Remarkz

Reporting on Western China

Xinjiang's ongoing "troubles" and the presence of Salafist-Jihadists in the mix is an analytical "hobby" for me, primarily because it represents such a collection challenge.  The rise of Chinese Islam -- and China's subsequent response to the inevitable radicalization of some of those Muslims --  has been an under-reported, poorly analyzed area, primarily because the Chinese have been excellent at repressing any independent information on the country's Muslim regions.

And so I was shocked to see the images of yesterday's rioting in Urumqi hosted at The New Dominion blog.  This is the most information I have ever seen on any Xinjiang activity.  The most interesting information to come out so far, came from a Guardian report earlier today that mentions the number of ethnic Chinese Muslims involved in the rioting.  It makes me wonder whether we have any idea of the extent of cultural connections and dependencies between "Western" Uighurs and the Muslims central and Eastern China.

I have a simple question for my readers: Do we have any expertise on China's Muslims and Muslim regions -- Uighurs, Hui, Malay? Do we even known what we don't know?

I'm Spreading

I don't know whether Mike Innes knows what he's gotten himself into, but in a moment of weakness  he invited me to the Complex Terrain Lab's blog, Current Intelligence.

In all honesty, I'm flattered.

Thanks, Mike. 

Niazi Meets Njal

This is not jihad-related, per se, but I thought it was interesting nonetheless.  The other day a colleague told me that Pashtunwali requires that if one of the parties in a dispute doesn't accept the ruling of the jirga, they can burn down that tribesman's house. 

Oh, really? Wait,  really?  You mean to tell me that echoes of proto- Indo-European civilization survives in more than just Icelandic sagas?  Perhaps Dumezil was right after all.

Next a reader is going to tell me there are Pashtun traditions of fostering other people's children, passing on a family "seat" from father to son, and warrior poetry. 

Al-Dewey

(Note: that I will probably be editing this post over the next day or two.  All edits will be in green.)

Aaron linked to my original jarchive.info post, here.  (Thanks, man).  I agree with his conclusion.  It’s important to recognize that if it isn’t the product of an intel agency somewhere then it is what you see.  Jarchive.com is not the product of a lone fanatic or even a group of bearded Neanderthals, but as Aaron notes:

…small groups of individuals work very hard to maintain both online and offline archives of such materials, and to make sure that their community knows where to go to get it. 

That small group is the most basic component of the global Salafist-jihadist movement.  It’s also the component where Western law enforcement and intel services pass into gray areas that they are still struggling to understand, let alone counter and neutralize.

However, the site also piqued the interest of the professional librarian in me.  Some of you may notice that it is organized by jihadi group with additional material dedicated to historical videos (they’re the source of the Muhammad Qutb video I linked to here) and various khutbas. 

Salafist-jihadist forums generally aren’t organized like this. Could they be?  Sure.  Have they been?  Sure.  But in general my experience has been that most Salafist-jihadist blogs, forums, and websites are dedicated to dawah, and take on the character of a site dedicated to persuasion and conversion, not just the distribution of jihadi media. 

Operating in the background of many Salafist-Jihadist sites is the assumption that it reflects a real-world community, albeit small and geographically dispersed one (the dedicated small groups Aaron mentions), and that the site becomes a means of facilitating a conversation:  the essential component of the kind of conversion Salafist-Jihadists are looking for, particularly in fellow Muslims.  For this reason, an average site will be organized around some if not all of these components:

• A section containing the full-text of the Qur’an, ahadith, Sunnah
• Another section dedicated to Shari’ah and fiqh (including fatawa)
• There are also sections on “deen,” including guidance on how to practice Islam
• Current news discussion, used to contextualize current events
• One or two sections dedicated to things violent-jihad related, like video announcements, pictures of dead soldiers, personal accounts, etc.
• A “sisters-only” section

This is where the Salafist-Jihadist rubber hits the road.  If adherents aren’t good at dawah, they will never gain legitimacy or survive in a new generation.  Since most of these sites aren’t created for Westerners or non-Muslims, they become a mode of communication within the community of fellow Muslims.   As a result, there’s a great deal of effort identifying and responding to “enemies” like Islamists (distinguished for their willingness to accept non-Shari’ah based political paradigms) and Salafi (willing to argue against offensive jihad), other Muslims (Sufis and Shiites), and only then other “enemies,” like the West.  It’s this milieu that informs most of the Salafist-Jihadist sites I’ve frequented in the past, and probably the reason why they’re often organized the way they are. It's also in this milieu that the greater Salafist-Jihadist movement becomes easier to understand, but that is the topic of a future post.

Jarchive.info is organized in a manner closer to how a Western librarian would organize a collection of jihadi materials, by locality or group attribution.  This is a utilitarian taxonomy designed for information access, rather than the kind of community-creating forums and sites that organize for persuasion, instruction and communication.

And so it makes me wonder who put jarchive.info together, and why.

A Study of "Martyrs in a Time of Alienation" (XI)

A Study of "Martyrs in a Time of Alienation"
Part XI

In January 2008, Al-Fajr Media Center, an al-Qaida affiliated media group, released an extensive issue in its series, "Biographies of the Martyrs in the Land of Khorasan."  The book -- in the summary translation used here -- consists of 120 brief biographies of men who died in the insurgency against Coalition forces and regional governments.  The following is a brief analysis (in green) of the book's content based on a summary translation available through WNC (Dialog), see the "Introduction" post for record information.

Previous posts can be found here.  This is Part XI.

Abu−Dhakir al−Jaza'iri: His name is Al−Sayyid Muhammad from Algeria. He traveled to Afghanistan from Spain where he had worked. He joined the Libyan group led by Abu−al−Layth al−Libi and died later in an operation in Shankay, Afghanistan.

Here again is the Western European connection.  Where and to whom are these men going to receive the logistical support they need to make it to Afghanistan?  And how much of this network is still intact in Spain and other countries?  Is it possible for this network to reemerge if there are other operations in other parts of the world, like Somalia or Sudan?

Abu−Rawahah al−Suri: His name is Anas Ihsan Banghali from Syria. He went to Afghanistan soon before the US invasion. He joined the training camps in the tribal areas of Afghanistan and went on to fight within a group in Jalalabad where he was later killed.

Not much to comment on here.

Abu−Rahil al−Harbi: His name is Muhammad Ghazay al−Harbi from Saudi Arabia. He traveled to Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks in the US. He moved to Khost Province after the defeat of the Taliban and was later killed in Jalalabad.

Here is another example of someone who sought jihad against the US invasion of Afghanistan.  I wonder what would have happened if we hadn’t gone into Iraq. The West’s accepted Iraq narrative: that it “enflamed” the radicals and created more seems less likely once it’s understood that Afghanistan (considered by some as a “good” war) was doing the same exact thing.  The fact of the matter is even humanitarian actions in predominately Muslim countries will be interpreted as an “invasion” of Muslim land and warrant the same exact response we have received in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Al−Zubayr al−Turkistani: He fled the Communist regime in Turkmenistan to Kyrgyzstan then later to Afghanistan where he received his military training in Hirat and Jalalabad training camps. He fled to Khost Province after the fall of the Taliban and was later arrested in Turkmenistan. After his release he went back to Afghanistan where he died in a suicide operation against US forces in Kabul.

Here is an interesting bio of a career jihadi.  It highlights the role Central Asia’s porous borders and borderless ethnicities play in fill the jihadi ranks.  I suspect that even if no Arabs sought jihad in Afghanistan, AQ and the Taliban would not lack for recruits from regional countries.

Abu−al−Zubayr al−Maghribi: His name is Khalid al−Mahuli from Morocco. He fought alongside Abu−al−Layth al−Libi and was killed in an air raid by Pakistani forces.

An example here of a North African cadre, led by abu Layth, and obviously developed with the intention of strengthening the North African groups.  In this I wonder if one of AQ’s strategies is to create the next generation jihadis and rather have them all fight and die in Afghanistan, instead send some back to their home regions.  In this way they are developing a new generation of global jihadis for the next five to ten years. 

Funny Thing Happened On My Way to the Spa

A pro-democracy protest.

The only kind of protest that matters.

Where Jihad Meets Archive-dot-org

MINOR UPDATE:  A few minor edits were done on this post Sat morning. 

Where the global jihad meets Archive-dot-org you will find "jarchive.info."

http://www.jarchive.info/

When I first saw this site, I immediately assumed it was the product of some intel agency somewhere -- the production quality just seems too good for an average jihobbyist.  But, I'm changing my mind.  There is a residue of hope with this online analyst that  at some point a jihobbyist will have the requisite web design and coding skills to construct a site as clean (and well organized) as this one.  Each media link is hosted at Archive, YouTube, or a few other media hosting sites.  It probably required a lot of coordination to manage sources across platforms.  

And so I've decided to describe it as a labor of love for a bored, but rather talented Salafist-Jihadist, probably in Egypt, where we're told they don't have Salafist-Jihadists anymore.

Domain ID:D27015730-LRMS
Domain Name:JARCHIVE.INFO
Created On:27-Nov-2008 14:11:38 UTC
Last Updated On:26-Jan-2009 20:36:56 UTC
Expiration Date:27-Nov-2009 14:11:38 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Tucows Inc. (R139-LRMS)
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT UPDATE PROHIBITED
Registrant ID:tukn5yw3yuIGNfSb
Registrant Name:Hamad Fadel
Registrant Organization:Hamad Fadel
Registrant Street1:Alhadeed ST, 23
Registrant Street2:
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Cairo
Registrant State/Province:EG
Registrant Postal Code:3234
Registrant Country:IT
Registrant Phone:+39.2043673478
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:jarchive7@gmail.com
Admin ID:tuk6ojTjBcxbS6vY
Admin Name:Hamad Fadel
Admin Organization:Hamad Fadel
Admin Street1:Alhadeed ST, 23
Admin Street2:
Admin Street3:
Admin City:Cairo
Admin State/Province:EG
Admin Postal Code:3234
Admin Country:IT
Admin Phone:+39.2043673478
Admin Phone Ext.:
Admin FAX:
Admin FAX Ext.:
Admin Email:jarchive7@gmail.com
Billing ID:tu7YMHLQhYBgHrMB
Billing Name:Billing Department Hosting Aruba.it
Billing Organization:Aruba S.p.A.
Billing Street1:Piazza Garibaldi 8
Billing Street2:
Billing Street3:
Billing City:Soci
Billing State/Province:AR
Billing Postal Code:52010
Billing Country:IT
Billing Phone:+39.057551571
Billing Phone Ext.:
Billing FAX:+39.0575515790
Billing FAX Ext.:
Billing Email:billing@staff.aruba.it
Tech ID:tuisx1L6bp7BBjdq
Tech Name:Hamad Fadel
Tech Organization:Hamad Fadel
Tech Street1:Alhadeed ST, 23
Tech Street2:
Tech Street3:
Tech City:Cairo
Tech State/Province:EG
Tech Postal Code:3234
Tech Country:IT
Tech Phone:+39.2043673478
Tech Phone Ext.:
Tech FAX:
Tech FAX Ext.:
Tech Email:jarchive7@gmail.com
Name Server:DNS.TECHNORAIL.COM
Name Server:DNS2.TECHNORAIL.COM
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:

If I Ruled the World...

...there'd be more Kermit and less Carter in our current policy toward the current theocratic regime in Iran.  But I'm just a blogger, and the only thing I can do is wish safety and a whole lot of good luck for the young people of Iran.

AQIM -- The Complete Edition?

I've been so busy with personal stuff that blogging has taken a back seat to errands, favors, appointments, and follow-ups.  However, I thought you may find this Archive post useful just in case your collecting AQIM videos.

http://www.archive.org/details/Full-Archive-Alqaeda-In-Morocco-M3ark

A Study of "Martyrs in a Time of Alienation" (X)

A Study of "Martyrs in a Time of Alienation"
Part X

In January 2008, Al-Fajr Media Center, an al-Qaida affiliated media group, released an extensive issue in its series, "Biographies of the Martyrs in the Land of Khorasan."  The book -- in the summary translation used here -- consists of 120 brief biographies of men who died in the insurgency against Coalition forces and regional governments.  The following is a brief analysis (in green) of the book's content based on a summary translation available through WNC (Dialog), see the "Introduction" post for record information.

Previous posts can be found here.  This is Part X.

Abu−Khalid al−Maghribi: His name is Muhammad Zarli from Morocco. He traveled to Afghanistan from Italy after the US invasion. He fought in the tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan where he died.

It’s not clear whether Zarli had been an immigrant to Italy before his fateful trip, or whether he was simply using Italy as a transit point, but it’s clear from this and several other bios and numerous CT arrests that Western European countries are a key transit node for men seeking jihad in the East regardless of whether they provide support for the effort.

His bio also belies the idea that Afghanistan was considered a “good” war that people supported.  We now have hundreds of examples of individuals who sought jihad in Afghanistan after the US invasion. Clearly at least some Muslims rejected the argument.

Abu−Khalid al−Kuwaiti: His name is Ali Bin−Sanafi al−Shammari from Kuwait. He fought in the tribal areas in eastern Afghanistan where he died along with Abu−Khalid al−Maghribi in an attack on their position.

Not much to comment on here.

Khattab al−Azadi: His name is Talal Bin−Hasan al−Zahrani from Saudi Arabia. He traveled to Afghanistan where he died in a battle with US forces.

Another Saudi.  His kunya is probably a paean to Ibn Khattab.

Abu−Dujanah al−Imarati: His name is Miftah Bin−Sa'id al−Tanaji from the United Arab Emirates. He traveled to Kashmir where he trained then later joined Abu−al−Layth al−Libi in eastern Afghanistan.

Perhaps another Arab working or training with LeT?  How did he get to Kashmir one wonders?  Through what connections in the Emirates?  And just how did he move from a Lashkar operation/camp to working directly with senior Al Qaeda leadership?  How closely are they operating with LeT?

Darwish al−Waziri: Darwish is from Waziristan where he was recruited to lead the men of his village in jihad. He was later killed in an air raid that targeted their position.

Here is an example of what kind of recruits the Taliban uses, entire villages of men, most likely fighting under the banner of the Taliban, and more likely fighting in the name of their tribal leader.

Recent Article Roundup

The ToCs have been piling up in my in box, and they’re finally spilling over into a blog post…

• First, a little research p#&n:  Scopus
• Second, the new issue of DOMES (Digest of Middle East Studies)

From the current issue of Strategic Analysis (Volume 33, Issue 3):

Title: A Cold Start: India's Response to Pakistan-Aided Low-Intensity Conflict
Author: A. Vinod Kumar

Title: Jihad Beyond Jammu & Kashmir
Author: Shanthie Mariet D'Souza

Title: Militant Training Camps in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir: An Existential Threat
Author: Priyanka Singh

From the current issue of Studies in Conflict & Terrorism (Volume 32 Issues 5-6):

Title: After the Madrid Bombings: Internal Security Reforms and Prevention of Global Terrorism in Spain
Author: Fernando Reinares

Title:  Al-Takfir wa'l Hijra: Unpacking an Enigma
Author: Jeffrey B. Cozzens

From the current issue of Journal of Islamic Law and Culture (Volume 11 Issue 1):

Title: Secularism and modernity: alienation and the renewal of values in political Islam
Author: Smita A. Rahman

Title: Beyond Jihad: the New Thought of the Gamāʿa Islāmiyya
Author: Sherman A. Jackson

From the current issue of Critical Studies on Terrorism (Volume 2 Issue 1):

Title: Terrorism's cause and cure: the rhetorical regime of democracy in the US and UK
Authors: Fahed Al-Sumait;  Colin Lingle; David Domke

Title: Frontiers of blame: India's ‘War on Terror’
Author: Ted Svensson

Title: Propaganda and the subversion of objectivity: media coverage of the war on terrorism in Iraq
Authors: Michael Ryan; Les Switzer

Title: Pre-mediating guilt: radicalisation and mediality in British news
Authors: Andrew Hoskins; Ben O'Loughlin

From the current issue of The Journal of North African Studies (Volume 14 Issue 2):

Title: The Algerian Civil War: Washington's new counterinsurgency model
Author: Fouzi Slisli

Title: Migrants, weapons and oil: Europe and Libya after the sanctions
Author: Derek Lutterbeck

Title: The Islamists in Tunisia between confrontation and participation: 1980-2008
Author: Alaya Allani

Title: The shifting sands of revolutionary legitimacy: the role of former mūjāhidīn in the shaping of Algeria's collective memory
Author: Thomas DeGeorges

From the April issue of Comparative European Politics (Volume 7 Number 1):

Title: Headscarf Regimes in Europe: Diversity Policies at the Intersection of Gender, Culture and Religion
Author: Birgit Sauer

From the current issue of Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs (Volume 29 Issue 1):

Title: Between Enlightened Exclusion and Conscientious Inclusion: Tolerating the Muslims in Germany
Authors: Bican Sahin; Nezahat Altuntas

Title: Collective Memory and Violence: The Use of Myths in the Chechen Separatist Ideology, 1991–1994
Author: Aurélie Campana

From the current issue of Israel Affairs (Volume 15 Issue 2):

Title: Saudi Arabia and the Arab-Israeli Conflict in the Last Years of the Bush Presidency
Author: Gawdat Bahgat

From the current issue British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies (Volume 36 Issue 1):

Title: ‘With the Islamists?—Sometimes. With the State?—Never!’ Cooperation between the Left and Islamists in Egypt
Author: Maha Abdelrahman

From the current issue of European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research (Volume 15, Numbers 1-2 / June, 2009):

Title: Criminal Punishment in Islamic Societies: Empirical Study of Attitudes to Criminal Sentencing in Iran
Author: Ghassem Ghassemi

From the current issue of The Information Society: An International Journal (Volume 25 Issue 3):

Title: Networked Individuals and Institutions: A Cross-Sector Comparative Perspective on Patterns and Strategies in Government and Research
Authors: William H. Dutton; Rebecca Eynon

From the current issue of Journal of Beliefs & Values Studies in Religion & Education (Volume 30 Issue 1):

Title: Maximising the overlapping area: multiculturalism and a Muslim identity for madrasahs in Singapore
Author:  Charlene Tan

Muhammed Qutb

My eagle-eyes missed this archival video of Muhammed Qutb, Sayyid Qutb's brother, in what appears to be a late-70s or 80s-era lecture in Saudi Arabia.  It was uploaded in March with someone using an uploader ID with a "yahoo.fr" e-mail address.

http://ia331434.us.archive.org/2/items/mofajermohad/

House Cleaning

Summer is here.  Nothing tells me it's summer more than the usual drop in traffic.  Family trips, graduations, projects, etc will keep traffic low until September. 

Since traffic has calmed a bit, I'll be doing a little "house cleaning" around the blog.  Perhaps a new picture of my favorite mosque.  Perhaps a font change.  Don't know yet, really. 

I do know that I'll be writing a booklet on OSINT.  I'll also be catching up on some professional reading -- not intel analysis, librarianship.  To be more specific, I'll be reading up on the latest research on information-seeking behavior and integrating any relevant lessons learned into OSINT information collection.  This and jihad, of course. 

Three for the Books

I've been descending deep into the MSJ archive, and have pulled out a few book reviews from over the years.

In no particular order:

Best Laid Plans: The Inside Story of America's War Against Terrorism (1989)
Architect of Global Jihad: The Life of Al Qaida Strategist Abu Mu'sab al-Suri (2008)
The Road to Al Qaeda: The Story of Bin Laden's Right Hand Man (2006)