Making Sense of Jihad

By Request: The West in the Eyes of the Egyptian Islamic Movements

I recently received a request for a copy of The West in the Eyes of the Egyptian Islamic Movements, Ummah Press (Cairo): 1994. It's a gem of Islamist media from the time when they were honest about themselves and their goals. I discuss it here.  I was simply going to e-mail it to the requester; however, the file is too damn big for every e-mail program.  And so I am sharing it here for a while, with everyone.

Download MSJ-1.pdf

For librarians and analysts, here is the LC catalog data on it:

LC Control No.:       94960321
Type of Material:  Book (Print, Microform, Electronic, etc.)
Personal Name:     Gh¯anim, Ibr¯ah¯im al-Bayy¯um¯i.
Uniform Title:     Fikr al-siy¯as¯i lil-Im¯am Hasan al-Bann¯a. English
Main Title:        The West in the eyes of the Egyptian Islamic movement.
Published/Created: Mohandesseen [Giza] : Ummah Press Service, [1994]
Description:       44 leaves ; 30 cm.
Notes:             Includes bibliographical references (leaves 39-44).
Subjects:          Bann¯a, Hasan, 1906-1949.
                   Islam and politics--Egypt.
                   Islamic fundamentalism--Egypt.
                   Islam--20th century.
                   East and West.

LC Classification: BP80.B25 G5313 1994

American Salafist-Jihadism Emerges

Despite numerous arrests, convictions, reports of recruitment activities, and general vile behavior, the United States' small but very vocal Salafist-Jihadist (SJ) community saw its first inspired terrorist attack on US soil last week at Fort Hood.  Numerous British and US reports paint a picture of a man who was active in this small, mostly virtual community.  As Jarret (and Jihadica and Jawa Report) report, Hasan's violence has been met with elation in the US SJ community and on English language jihadi forums:

Bottom line up front: On the English-language, pro AQ websites, Nidal Malik Hasan’s attack at Ft Hood is being hailed as a victory for Islam and al-Qaida. The participants involved in the discussion see this as the opening shot in what they hope to be a long and bloody war in the United States.

These reports also highlight the key role of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American scholar of Islamic law who was once touted in the local press as a young, moderate leader of Northern Virginia's burgeoning suburban Muslim community.  This while the FBI was investigating his connections to several of the 9-11 hijackers. Interestingly, anyone who has been monitoring the US-based SJ community was well aware of the centrality of Awlaki's role in it.  After he fled the United States, he landed in Yemen and has been running an "American"-language blog (written in prefect idiomatic American English) since 2007-2008 (I'm working from memory here).  His posts, audio and video commentaries, and fatawa, were prominently displayed throughout the US-based SJ community.  That he has only now come to the awareness of many in the military and intelligence communities, is more evidence of the appalling mediocrity and endemic bureaucratic indifference that defines the policy and analysis industries here in Washington, DC.

Since it emerged in earnest back in 2005-6 with a collection of blogs and websites, America's SJ virtual community has expanded its presence to include active members of Scribd, Archive.org, and Youtube.  However, it appears to be more talk than action.  Reports following the arrest of Tarek Mehanna and 2 associates, make this small circle of terrorist wannabes appear to rather hapless.  Most of the global SJ action remains in the Middle East and South Asia.  Arabic and Urdu are still the primary languages of SJ ideology.  The US network's only real religious authority has been the commentary and fatawa of al-Awlaki.

The Fort Hood attack has changed all this, however.  It's clear that Hasan was very active in the US SJ community.  He communicated with al-Awlaki, and there are now reports that he was talking to others as well.  His 2007 power point presentation on Islam is the crystallization of the SJ ideology, expressed in American English, intended for an American audience.

There is good news here, if you can call it that.  Hasan's attack may have happened too soon in the SJ community's development.  The community still lacks authoritative heft it needs to be taken seriously inside the global movement (like a "Blind Sheikh").  By "coming of age" too soon, it may doom itself to jihadi caricature.   That may change in the next 5-10 years as recently convicted Salafist-Jihadis are released from prison, having had many years to study and delve deeper into the justifications for violence.  It's hard to predict what if any will be the impact of this cadre of radical American Muslims with prison cred, but I can practically guarantee that it will shock our policy and intelligence communities.

A Not So Galloping Steed

I was over at the Pest's website today and noticed that he recently posted a link to a new video of Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi astride a steed.  The video quality is so-so, but it's clear he doesn't ride very often (if at all); he looks uncomfortable, like this is his first time and is quite jazzed at the experience.  If this is the case, I don't blame him. Anyone who sits on a horse for the first time gets that same stupid smile on their face, <ahem>.  The other thing that struck me about this video is its existence. Why on earth was he on a horse in the first place?  And who would agree to be videotaped in such a silly situation?

It doesn't really matter, I know.  In the end, it's just more raw material for the jihobbyist toiling away with their video editing software in their parents' basements.  From this point on every video production featuring everyone's favorite scholar will include his moment astride a steed.

Guilt by Association

I have no idea who Sheikh Hafiz al-Dosary is, but if the Pest admires him (http://revolution.ansar1.net/?p=1540), he must be a Salafist-Jihadist with a penchant for the Jihadist part of the designation. 

While I am on the Pest, I found his links to a fine group of folks called the islamicemirate.com.  Their YouTube presence (represented by http://www.youtube.com/user/muslim92 and http://www.youtube.com/user/SFAvfx) is a treasure trove of English-language jihobbyist internet culture.     

It's all there: galloping steeds, unsheathing swords, endless lectures on minute details of worship, and women in various states of veiledness.  And practically all of it in English.

Archive Odds and Ends

I was killing some rare free time this morning with a little trip around Archive <dot> org.  With the recreation of al-Ekhlaas and a growing number of issues animating the jihobbist these days (Palestine, "revisions," Somalia, etc), expect Archive to remain the preeminent jihad media hosting site. 

I want this guy's chair:  http://www.archive.org/details/4-islamic-117

Some Sayyid Qutb here:  http://www.archive.org/details/mofajerqtb

Note that the uploader ID, one "caravane55@yahoo.fr" follows my first rule of archive<dot>org exploitation.  If an uploader ID uploads one jihadi file, then you can expect all other files associated with he/she/it to be jihadi-related, as well. 

I've been noticing a lot of "yahoo.fr" elements in uploader IDs at archive<dot>org. 
Type "yahoo.fr" in the Archive search box and select a general media type like "Texts" and see what comes up.  Most of the files are Islamic, but not necessarily Salafist-Jihadist, but I found many like this:
http://www.archive.org/details/OMAREABEDLHAKIM_978

I have a hunch that this may be a reflection of increased jihadi networking within French speaking groups, either in the EU or Africa.  Generally speaking, someone isn't uploading media to any public hosting site for personal use.  They are intending other viewers to access it.  That implies information sharing a network of some kind.   It could be a jihadi forum, but not necessarily. 

Who the hell is this, BTW?
http://www.archive.org/details/mofajerabumariam

Debate

Some fine individual using the name ID al_moqna3@hotmail.com or al_moqna321 today uploaded this to the world's favorite jihadi media hosting site.

http://ia301526.us.archive.org/2/items/debate121/

It's too late at night for me to date the video, but my guess is it's from the late 1990s.

Still Troublesome After All These Years

Archive -dot-org, that is.  Aaron has the scoop. 

And then there's this weird AQ-goes-nukular video just uploaded at the world's only reliable tax-payer-funded host of jihadi media:

http://www.archive.org/details/Me3aad_Aldarbah_Alnawaweyah

Doing a quick search of the uploader ID, I found this jihadi video (I don't track this stuff as much as I used to).

http://www.archive.org/details/Alfwaaje3-Al3ajaeb

The little Archive preview reminded me of a some basement produced jihadi version of 3-2-1 Contact.

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.

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/

Something Old, Something New

Dying to see more of the Blind Sheikh?  Well, someone who gave the e-mail address " abda88@hotmail.it" uploaded a collection of Omar Abdel Rahman videos.  So far, at least one is new to me. 

http://ia350636.us.archive.org/3/items/KishkRmv/

UPDATE:

I just noticed that the same uploader ID recently posted a video of one of my favorites among the crazy sheikhs, Khaled Something or Other.

http://www.archive.org/details/TsunamiKaledArrached

I can't remember his exact name, but who cares?  There is one video of a sermon he gave that culminated with his complete emotional unraveling.  It was worth every minute it took to download.  Let's see if this one has anything to offer.

Feel the Love

The Pest excitedly posted this earlier today.  It's a GIMF translation of an article/whatever by that most prolific of online jihadi "sheikhs," Atiatallah.  According to the ansarnet.info forum post, it's a translation of an Arabic post/article from November 2008.   The "sheikh" supposedly died a few years ago in Iraq, but that apparently hasn't stopped him from posting to jihadi forums.

The following text comes from the first page of the translation, and crystalizes the global Salafist-Jihadist image (caricature, actually)  of their mortal enemy, ie. the United States:

The Criminal Americans are Fumbling About, Carrying Out a War of Atrocities
by: Sheikh Atiatullah ‐ may Allah protect him ‐

This phenomenon not something strange coming from them, nor is something surprising to us; a phenomenon which is a result of its true identity is not unusual. They and their state of affairs are known to us from the start. They are the scum of humanity, having no religion nor God‐consciousness, no ethics nor standards for that matter, except what they boast about – as they must – from their hollow and deceitful slogans and expressions which only trick those who have no sense of morality and true religion.

Indeed they are the Americans, the leaders of humanity today.

… the immoral criminals, teachers of debauchery and filth, those who spread corruption across earth.

… a criminal, homosexual, shameless, dissolute people, worshippers of lusts and Satan.

… a tyrannical, conceited, impudent, and oppressive people hostile to others.

… a gluttonous, selfish, greedy, lustful, and animal‐like people.

… a people who reject Allah, the Magnificent, His laws, and His right of absolute authority.

… those who have haughtily refused the worship of Allah ()!

… those who deny of the Messengers of Allah and their Messages, those who abuse and mock the Messengers of Allah.

Are they not the ones who reviled Muhammad (), siding with and protecting those who cursed and mocked him? Do not the president of America and its masses believe that the Messenger of Allah, Muhammad (), was a liar – that he lied to humanity in his claim that he was a Prophet of Allah to all people? Do they not believe that he was not sent by Allah nor was he sent revelation, and that this Quran brought by Muhammad () is a lie and fabrication which he himself put together?!

Do the American masses not believe that this Quran is backwards, callings to digression and what they call violence and terrorism, criticizing it, saying it to be the foundation of transgression against human and women’s rights?

Woe be to humanity if the likes of these people are its leaders, and woe be to humanity if they do not rebel against these likes and return to their Lord and submit the role of leadership to its best, the followers of the Messengers of Allah, Allah’s beloved, those who follow His Guidance, His Books and His Messages!

Due to the unawareness, rather the deep sleep of the people of Truth (the Islamic Nation), these people and their predecessors assumed leadership of the world. They built a materialistic and lustful society based on the disbelief of religion and the Last Day, drowning in entertainment and opulence: seeing the world as nothing but a source of entertainment, by any means or ends, without any of the curbs or restrictions of religion or the fear of the Lord, the Great and High Creator.

Here's a screen cap of the page:

abo mohemed elmaqdesi

Someone using the username, "tawheed@islam.com" and employing the kind of tag word combo that sets off "Hi, this is jihadi media here!" flags, also posted this to Archive<dot>org.

http://www.archive.org/details/tawhedf

The metadata says it all.

tawhedf menber tawheed waljehad abo mohemed elmaqdesi movies opensource_movies abo mohemed elmaqdesi
 تحية طيبة لاخواننا الموحدين نسال الله ان يعزبكم دينه وينصربكم ضعفائه
 هذا موقع منبر التوحيد والجهاد بكل ما يحتوي من كتب ورسائل يكنك تحميله الان
 زائد اللقاء للشيخ ابومحمد المقدسي مع قنات الجزيرة 2009 2009 forqan ; ansar ; alshouraa ; faloja ; benladen ; zwahery 2009-05-01 22:46:20 2009-05-01 22:45:09 tawheed@islam.com islamali 2009-05-01 23:03:48 sound color 2009-05-01 23:18:39 islamali

UPDATE:

It's a .zip file. I noticed long ago that  jihobbyist* like to "hide" their files in Archive by employing a little bit of technical subterfuge.  They change the extension on a file from its original (in this case a .zip) to one more appropriate for the the "movies" section of Archive (in this case it is a .mpg or .avi).  If you open the file up in a raw text edit program you see the real extension coding.  You just change the extension.

The Google "translation" of the Arabic shown here reflects the obvious.  This isn't a movie, it's a collection of docs from Al-Maqdisi's website, tawhed.ws running on some kind of .exe file with a bunch of Java-enabled capabilities.  I would never run the .exe even if I did own a PC, but in this case, it doesn't matter.  The content is in the docs directory, and that was created in July 2007.

Around the Web - Achoo! Edition

A blessed chill and rain has fallen on the nation's capitol today, offering me a brief respite from what has turned into the worst allergy season for me, evah.  But I blog on...

Happy Birthday, Ubi.

Another new Dr. Fadl book? More at AKI.
This guy is becoming the Dickens of serialized jihadi literature.

Meanwhile, if you need to get your Fadl fix all in one document there's this
http://www.scribd.com/doc/6759508/syedimam

And a new report from West Point’s CTC: Dysfunction and Decline:
Lessons Learned From Inside al-Qa`ida in Iraq

Same crap.  Different Language.  In this case, I think it’s Urdu
http://www.scribd.com/doc/7758888/Saqot-e-Kabul-w-Baghdad

This too is probably Urdu, though it's about the London bombings
http://www.scribd.com/doc/6759039/New-Folder-Sidiqlondon

Hakamiyyah.  The spiritual essence of the Salafist-Jihadist  cause. On display here
http://millatibraheem.muslimpad.com/2009/04/14/hakimiyya-is-the-essence-of-tawheed-part-2/

I think this title should be the title for a new magazine.  My Benadryl-soak brain has cover images and article titles just pouring out of it.  Ah! If I only had Photoshop!

MESH is Twittering now.

Don’t we all need a little WMD now or then?

How about one that doesn’t really exist, like a placebo?

As I noted in the Around the Web Mega Edition.:

[In Stage] Three these "moderate" groups start making bizarre accusations hoping to test and intimidate said agency. In Stage Four said agency will apologize for something it's not doing and cave to all demands.

I think we’re getting close to Stage 4.

War is Boring is Corrects South Park.
An aside:  I can’t help but add a comment to the pirate coverage over the Easter weekend.  It was awful.  I don’t know what was worse CNN’s coverage of how the pirates were putting a damper on the President’s personal weekend plans or FoxNews' “jihadists on the sea” absurdities. I do know this: TV news is worthless as a source of information.

The Internet’s most depressing blog at the moment is Long War Journal, particularly its excellent maps showing the advance of the Taliban toward Islamabad

On a related note: Abu Muqawama gives his readers another reason to be depressed about Pakistan.

ABC News/Washington Post Poll on US Views of Islam: Key Trends
(via Xroads Arabia)

In Algeria: “Al-Qaeda leader 'resumes' terrorist activity” (via AKI)

In Turkey: “Turkish Terror Cell Dismantled”

Still 300-400 too many, if you ask me.

Typical.  Just Typical.

An example of how Scribd is used:
http://abuqutaybah.blogspot.com/2009/04/apostasy-in-islam.html

Would you say The Pest is abetting copyright infringement here?
http://revolution.thabaat.net/?p=1214

“Getting it,” Battlefield version.

“Islamic extremism in India” (via Intelllibriefs)

Who own Soveriegn Wealth Funds, and why is this important?
More at Small Wars Journal

“4 Jihad Videos” (and that’s what they are)
http://www.archive.org/details/s5d151we

Jarret has a book called Global Jihadism: Theory and Practice.

Tim has a new article: ‘Digital information and the persistence of global insurgency‘

The Mostafa and Hamed Show Returns! with an all new episode!
http://ia331437.us.archive.org/2/items/mostafa_and_hamed/

An interesting question on cyberwarfare, posed at Kings of War
http://kingsofwar.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/the-strategy-of-cyber-attack/

OSINT Corner

Tech Crunch Web Trends

Have some time on your hands?  Google has released the Google News Timeline tool.

And there's a new online tool for data visualization

FIZ Karlsruhe now offers its computer science portal io-port.net…"The database contains bibliographical metadata, links to electronic full texts, and, for most of the references, article summaries or abstracts written by scientists."

UNESCO, et al  has the new World Digital Library... "functions in seven languages-Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish-and includes content in more than 40 languages. Browse and search features facilitate cross-cultural and cross-temporal exploration on the site."

Our Emerging American Problem

I noticed that the UK Telegraph reported on the content of The Pest's new jihadi journal. 

There is also a warning against visiting "un-Islamic" western gyms including LA Fitness with their "music, semi-naked women, free mixing and the danger of showing off".

Here in the US, I didn't see any mainstream reporting on the journal. However, Thomas, Aaron, Jarret and Rusty all commented on it after its release.

By the way, you can find the journal here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/13978807/Jihad-Recollections-Issue-1

I find it interesting that the only content generally reported in the *mainstream media* -- and quite frankly, within the IC -- are the paramilitary articles.  Yet, I see the emerging threat not in the paramilitary content, but in the theological content.  The majority of the daily material produced by the small, but always energetic, Salafist-Jihadist community here in the United States is related to the theological concepts that characterize the movement such as hakamiyyah (sovereignty of God), and tawhid (monotheism).   

The Pest's friends such as "Abu Sabaya" at http://iskandrani.wordpress.com/ are dedicating a lot of their efforts creating a regional Salafist-Jihadist milieu, a particularly American version of the movement that stands in unique contrast to the surrounding popular culture, both Muslim and non-Muslim.  Individuals like "Abu Noah" spend most of their time on dawah and devotional matters (ibadat), not matters of violent jihad:
http://www.scribd.com/Abu_Noah

The paramilitary content is  a staple of jihadi journals.  They're the indirect progeny of the first post-9/11 jihadi periodical, Al Battar Training Camp.  Al-Battar was the brainchild of the AQAP's first generation of leaders, like Abdul Aziz al-Muqrin (see http://www.archive.org/details/abdul-aziz-almuqrin).  But even the early journals like Voice of Jihad and Al-Battar dedicated a lot of their content to the jihad of the pen -- polemics, poetry, justifications, expositions, and the rare fatwa -- not the paramilitary content.

I don't want to downplay the significance of the paramilitary material.  I use it all the time when producing certain analytical reports.  However, perhaps there should be more effort at dismantling the unique theological character of this small movement before it becomes a well-organized American movement.

A Two Fer

It's issue #53, but it may as well be #1.  This is the first time I've ever seen this jihadi newsletter.  I'm shocked at myself.  How could I ever miss a jihadi journal that has both Fajr and Jannat in its title.

http://www.archive.org/details/jannatalfajrmagazine_53

UPDATE

Note:  if you go to the main page of Arhive.org and search under "cehad" you receive some very interesting media results.

Where's the line?

Just a rhetorical question for my readers, but at what point does an online jihadi's interests become a matter for concern? 

http://www.scribd.com/abalfazal4735

Around the Web - Easter-Week Mega Edition

I know, I know.  I've been remiss in my duties to post an Around the Web, and now I've been writing one for what feels like a week. It's going to take you about a week to get through it, too, but I don't want to hear any whining. It's a slow week in most offices.  If you can catch up on your fantasy baseball picks, you can read this post.  

We start with Jihadica, and the squibs from hell: Thomas surveys recent jihadi publications. They also have a roundup of their recent Workshop in Oslo (Part I and Part II). Excellent work all around.

Staying in Europe:  Italian police carried out CT raids last week:

Three of them, who lived in Naples, are though to be Islamist radicals sympathetic to the radical 'Takfiri' ideology...The three radicals had already been involved in falsifying documents to aid jihadist groups.

Meanwhile the Financial Times throws some cold water on all this talk of Islamic finance saving the world. [This talk concerns me, because the vast majority of people who know known nothing about Islamic finance.] (via Aqoul)

And the Times of London is reporting on something that happened, what?  Two weeks ago?

Holy Spicolli!  Abu Muqawama is an actual...guy.  I thought he was just a blog.

In Stage One, the agency (in this case the FBI) embraces radical Islamist front groups.  In Stage Two reality sets in and said agency withdraws their cooperation with groups, once understood that they share the same goals as AQ.  In Stage Three these "moderate" groups start making bizarre accusations hoping to test and intimidate said agency. In Stage Four said agency will apologize for something it's not doing and cave to all demands.

So where does the money go?  This recent Reuters list of "Gulf Arab foreign investments" gives you some idea. (via The Arabist)

I welcome to the club of "blogs she reads":

Shariah Finance Watch

http://www.shariahfinancewatch.org/blog/

And a jihadi blog (via The Pest)

http://millatibraheem.wordpress.com/

Flash: there are Salafi groups in the Levant, according to MEMRI there's a new Salafist-Jihadist one in Gaza, and two S-Js reported killed in Gaza.

Meanwhile, MB's Supreme Guide plans to retire.

And apparently there's a little competition for hearts and minds inside Egypt -- and it's not between "moderates" either

Good/Bad News from Libya? (via CBSNews)

An updated CRS Backgrounder on Egypt (via The Arabist)

Morocco apparently takes sides in the struggle between Sunni Arab states and Iran.  Meanwhile, there are still plenty of jihadis in North Africa, including Salafi-Jihadis in Morocco.

The Patriarch of Venice asks an essential question at the heart of the Christianity-Islam debate in a new book "Mestizaje: coexistence, or confusion?"

Speaking of Africa: The Pest of all people pointed out the novel qualities of a current release from AQ's Somalia branch.  It's an all-English video, featuring an American muj, rapping, or something. 
More at Jawa Report, Danger Room, and others including here and here.

The Pest's post is here: http://revolution.thabaat.net/?p=1096

You can find it here: http://www.archive.org/details/kmen-bradle

The video does suggest that there is an audience for this jihadi vileness in the US, and belies the commonly acknowledged trope that "our" Muslims (ie, the US) are not as radical as "their" Muslims (ie. Europe). Perhaps, but then, how do we know?  

Over in Yemen, Waq-al-Waq notes a recent article in AQ's periodical Sada al-Malahim that provides some "good background" on KSA's 85 Most Wanted.

And MEMRIBlog reports that Yemeni officials have their own Most Wanted list

Via EagleSpeak: Somali Pirates: U.S.Navy sees a new pattern

The List: If you're interested in Israeli politics, here's the list of new government officials.

Evil.  Pure Evil.

A virtual crisis for AQ?  Tim has the link.

What about the analog version of the group? Al Qaeda Today:  a Policy Forum luncheon hosted by The Washington Institute's Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence. (PolicyWatch #1477: Special Forum Report)

Drew has a post on a recent study that challenges the work of Robert Pape: Decision Processes of a Suicide Bomber

Question to the audience: How many suicide bombings in a row before it's called an offensive?
It must be Spring.

Jihadi Website Design Rule #1

Stuff as many bouncing .gif files as you can within the visitor's field of vision.

Example: http://hezabr.blogspot.com/

Around the Web – “Extra Big A**” Edition

This edition of Around the Web is dedicated to my favorite movie.  “Now with more molecules!”

We start off with a bit of Tim, or more accurately, the excellent work of ICSR, Countering Online Radicalisation: A Strategy for Action.

Looking for nasheeds in Urdu? (Go ahead, admit it, I know you are) Well, look no further, http://bintulislam.wordpress.com/taranay/

Michael over at The Opposite End of China needs your help: Who is on his carpet?

Staying in the region, here are two posts on Islam in China: One on the Persian influence, and one on the cultural divide between Malay and Chinese Muslims

Reviewing the reviewer: Kilcullen’s review of a review of his book. (via SWJ)

What is it about HTS that makes functional academics go off their rockers?  Just asking.

Good news for Yanni’s evil twin, Ali al-Marri, and bad news for us:  Al-Marri detention case ended from (via SCOTUSBlog)

And then there’s this from MEMRI: An In-Depth Summary of Sayyid Imam's New Polemic against Al-Qaeda, 'Exposing the Exoneration'

That from BBC Monitoring (via Lexis-Nexis): Al-Arabiya programme on dispute between Al-Zarqawi's followers, Al-Maqdisi. BBC Monitoring International Reports (March 4, 2009)

Ulema matter.

So do jihadi forums.

A little polemic here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/12662613/Shaykh-Albani-explains-why-we-should-ascribe-to-the-SalafusSalih

A little dawah guidance there: http://ii-muflihah.blogspot.com/2009/02/10-tips-for-muslim-activists-to-deal.html

Much needed skepticism (via Axe)

But much more needed here.  [Poor bloke.  He wasn’t a terrorist, just really good friends with Abu Zubaydah]

Found via Aaron: Jihadi video and auto-radicalisation: evidence from an exploratory YouTube study

The DORAS subject bibliography has links to more studies in this area, including interesting results from a search of “Islamic law.”

A review of The Islamist at Abu Muqawama, that includes this passage:

The image of easy going weed-smoking free love (Islamic style) Sufis has always appealed to some in the West. After 9/11, it has gained new supporters who see it as a “form of Islam that we can live with”. Quite a few Muslims seem to have become drawn to Sufistic approaches to Islam precisely because it seems more West-friendly.
 
But politics is not the right reason to adopt or support an ascetic and esoteric religious path. It’s also misguided. Sufis can fight when they want to.

More nuance here with an article on Egypt’s evolving Islamism

Meanwhile, Ganesh Sitaraman advocates a reconsideration of the laws of war. (via SWJ) [Not a bad idea]

Two from the current issue of Studies in Conflict and Terrorism

Fighting Cosmic Warriors: Lessons from the First Seven Years of the Global War on Terror
Author: Heather S. Gregg a
Volume 32, Issue 3 March 2009 , pages 188 – 208

The 9/11 Attacks—A Study of Al Qaeda's Use of Intelligence and Counterintelligence
Author: Gaetano Joe Ilardi a
Volume 32, Issue 3 March 2009 , pages 171 - 187

In the OSINT corner

My post on the Revelation

A new book to get the OSINT juices flowing: The Fat Tail: The Power of Political Knowledge for Strategic Investing by Ian Bremmer and Preston Keat

Something called Elastic Lists, a new data-mining tool

And a new intel platform for the EU? (via IntelliBriefs)

"French military intelligence and European security agencies appear keen to acquire WebLab, a platform designed by EADS to extract and disseminate all types of information"

And now for something completely different

Honoring Jacques Barzun

Reviewing George Steiner

A Perfectly Good Hunch

Rusty at JawaReport suggests that Bin Laden could be surfing the web, because of  a reference to al-Maqdisi's website in the current audio. 

I'm in a hurry as I'm doing this from the airport, so I won't go into all the implications, but the first one should be obvious: bin Laden has online access, wherever he is.

A cave with broadband? It's possible. A generator and a satellite uplink is all you need.

But Ockham's razor suggests the simplest and most obvious explanation is the most likely: that bin Laden is somewhere with preexisting internet access, like say, a penthouse apartment in Karachi.

And if he's surfing the web, it may be that he's in a place where web surfing is commonplace, like a big city.  Rusty suggests Karachi.  However, it could be argued that Bin Laden is just working from second hand briefings or printouts from the site, and not from personal experience surfing the site (most of the site's docs include its URL).  I saw this all the time when I was a CT analyst.  Senior government managers whose extensive web experience included the whole of SEND and REPLY in Outlook and the occasional fantasy football site would "brief" an audience on this or that program's web tools.  Lord help his briefer <ahem> if the guy actually received a question from the audience. 

I still support the good doctor's hunch here, because it's mine, too.  AQ's media production has inadvertently offered tantalizing hints to Bin Laden and Zawahiri's whereabouts.  For instance, the little birdie singing in this 2006 Zawahiri video suggests a backyard bird (one whose song is so familiar that the audio guy didn't "hear" it).  A backyard bird, like a sparrow or a wagtail of some kind, suggests a city where you're more likely to see backyards and enclosed gardens.   There was also a more recent example from a Dr. Z video that included the sound of passing trucks.  Not much, I know, but something.

My hunch goes as far as to suggest that at least one of these fine fellows is watching al-Jazeera from a safe house in Rawalpindi or another Eastern stronghold of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba.  More than one AQ operative has been picked up in this region.  It makes sense from a logistical perspective, too.  One of the group's leaders is working the tribal areas, building and maintaining those much-needed relationships.  Meanwhile the other is covering the group's flank maintaining the much-needed relationships with the Pakistan government's sympathetic corps.  Regardless, I doubt either of them is in a cave.  There's just too much work to do. 

I know, I know.  It's just a hunch on a blog, and worth about as much as you may assume it's worth.  Who knows we could be tracking them right now, just collecting intel on their movements and connections.  It happens.  I still remember one of the funniest lines an FBI SA (and former NYPD detective) ever said to me regarding his vile, money-laundering, terror-supporting target:  "that guy doesn't flush the toilet without me knowing it."   However, I don't think we would sit on such a target for too long.  The political implications are just too great.

Countering Conventional Wisdom

International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence's new report challenges the conventional wisdom on internet radicalization. 

Tim has full coverage of its release.

This CNet article gives you an idea of the report's primary thesis:

That's not to say that extremists don't ever use Web sites to reinforce their messages but that "self-radicalization and self-recruitment via the Internet with little or no relation to the outside world rarely happens, and there is no reason to suppose that this situation will change in the near future."

It also found that "much of the jihadist Web presence was about 'preaching to the choir'" and that "it is largely ineffective when it comes to drawing in new recruits."

After examining a variety of ways to block, filter, or remove offensive sites, the report found that "many of the filtering technologies that are currently in use are either too crude or too expensive to operate" and that they fail to deal with the conversational part of the Internet." Even though it may be possible to "remove, filter or hide content that is available from relatively static Web sites," such efforts will be largely ineffective when it comes to "chat rooms, instant messaging, virtual worlds and networking sites." Like the rest of us, it seems as if terrorists have discovered Web 2.0.

Around the Web

What wrong with this headline? [Answer below]

Welcome to the club.  Three new blogs of interest:

Waq al-Waq
Islam in China, and its promising related website: http://islaminchina.info/)
Maghreb Politics Review

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross asks a good question:  Will Afghanistan awake?

Did AQIM recently issue a fatwa on the legitimacy of attacking army suppliers? It's not clear from the CBS News blog post.  It reads like they're describing a fatwa.

Zero Intelligence Agents has an interesting post on how the IC policy-sausage is being remade. 

Ubi has a new article: ‘Cyberspace and Security: Issues and Concerns.’ Congratulations, dude.

KOW looks at "The Coming Swarm."

Reading this Thomas Hegghammer review of a French language study of the current of Apocryphal theology in Islam, I was reminded of a particular columnist's hilarious jab at "Kyoto cultists:" that the problem with said global warming fanatics is that the "end of the world's nighness is never quite nigh enough." I think that could be said for most millenarians. 

Hegghammer has also been busy browsing the periodicals section of the jihad and recently brought us an update.

In other book reviews, there's a look at a little known attempt at an African caliphate: http://ibnayyub.wordpress.com/2009/02/19/the-african-caliphate/

And speaking of periodicals:

Al-Aqsa Journal (autumn 2007): http://www.scribd.com/doc/2742257/ALAQSA-JOURNAL-ON-PALESTINE-Autumn-2007

Al-Aqsa Magazine: http://www.scribd.com/doc/414559/AlAqsa-MAgazine

In another part of the Scribd universe, Azzam speaks to the "yutes" of the world
http://www.scribd.com/doc/12704461/A-Message-to-Every-Youth-Abdullah-Azzam

In Rome, a move to isolate radicals.

Of course they do. One of them is using it as a footrest in the safe house rec room.  It's by the new HDTV and the Wii Fit. (via the Pest, http://revolution.thabaat.net/?p=904)

An assessment of the recent policy changes in Saudi Arabia, at Crossroads Arabia.

Is this jihadi "propaganda" or is this dawah?  http://www.55a.net/firas/arabic/index.php.  You decide.

Londonstani takes a stab at the jihadi "life cycle."

What's most disturbing aspect of this image?  yeah, you guessed it:  it's the chunky clear plastic bracelets. 

When in doubt, get them on immigration.  Note, too, that the report includes the usual: "but they were such a quite family, kept to themselves, seemed normal" quote from the neighbors.

In the OSINT corner

The European Library gets an update

Twitter is tedious, I'm not a fan.  but Roderick Jones has a point about its value in information dissemination.

Don't laugh, I agree with Secrecy News about something:

In a recent meeting with the Director of CIA Information Management Services, we reiterated our view that all unclassified, non-copyrighted publications of the Open Source Center (which is managed by CIA) should be made freely available to the public.

Oh, and that BBC News piece: The "schism" that that say is "evolving" in Pakistan has actually been around for, oh, about 1500 years.  You can't have "sectarians" until you have schism.  Shouldn't the Brits know something about this?

The Known Unknown

This was just posted to -- where else? ---

http://www.archive.org/details/Jihad-in-Turkistan-Middle

It's an old video, but the online jihadi who posted it to share amongst his forum friends probably did the unintended service of reminding us of the continuing jihad in Western China.  Uighurs represent a sizable portion of the foreign jihadis picked up or killed in Pakistan and Afghanistan (there were numerous ones profiled in the jihadi hagiography, Martyrs in a Time of Alienation)

Regardless of how "well" things are going for the jihad in Western China, I think it's safe to say that we have no idea how it's going.  The Communist Chinese government is never going to honestly report on it, and there are few, if any, independent journalists working the region.  Practically all the open source analysis I've seen on jihad activity in the region relies on official Chinese government news sources.  Notice how there haven't been any reports of arrests or thwarted plots since the Olympics? Any analyst-- government or otherwise -- who relies on these "news" reports must be met with a kind nod of the head and a whole lot of skepticism.

There are a few "slice of life" blogs about Western China, and they give you a general idea about the state of life in the region, but these are not bloggers looking for or reporting on conflict.  There are none.

http://www.thenewdominion.net/

http://china.notspecial.org/

Around the Web - Catch Up Edition

I was shocked to notice that I hadn't placed Jane Novak's essential Armies of Liberation blog on my list of Reliable Sources.  It's there now, as is CT analyst Jarrett Brachman's website.

Registan.net has also been added. It focuses on news from Central Asia news.

Mountainrunner has a list of must-read books, and one of them stood out for the purposes of this blog (and this blogger):  Al-Qaida's Doctrine for Insurgency: Abd al-Aziz al-Muqrin's "A Practical Course for Guerrilla War"

So apparently Sheikh Qaradawi's IslamOnline.net has opened a DC office.  The first question that pops into my mind: who's funding this?  Second question: was the location in the National Press Building, intentional?  The Press building is about five blocks from FBI's HQ, and perhaps 5 or 6 from the OEOB.

The Mumbai Terror Attacks Dossier (via The Hindu)

And a Mumbai summary report. (via RAND)

Tell us how you really think, Thomas.  (excellent post at jihadica on the plague of bad psy-ops)

Bemoaning the problem of too many fatawa at Al Masry al Ayoum

The health of the king matters (via The Washington Institute for Near East Policy)

The inevitability of new leadership in Egypt also matters. (via the Shack)

Also via the Shack: Brotherhood is planning to participate in 2010 Parliamentary elections in Egypt.  Let's get ready to rumble!

A short history of Islamic banking (via Asharq Alawsat)

OSINT Corner

A new source for internet journalism: Global Post, http://www.globalpost.com/

Three from Zero Intelligence Agents

The IC and 'Knowlege Ecosystems'

How Will Modern Warfare Change Academic Reserach?

Political Networks Working Papers Archive

Self Identification is Important

...particularly on the internet.  It is a world of self-constructed identities.  Thus, the image and persona you choose to project tells others what you want them to know about yourself.  For example: I've always seen myself as Lucy van Pelt.  This fellow, on the other hand, see himself as, well, you decide.

Do you think he's pet lover?  Let me guess: he enjoys hiking, biking, and long walks on the beach?

eSnips is a new source for me, and I'm enjoying every minute on it.