Making Sense of Jihad

Thanks, Shiva & Infidel K9

I'd like to nominate the <ahem> gentlemen at Illustrated P.I.G for a special "Holy shit, that's kewl" award. 

They get their hands on some fantastic Islamist cultural effluvia.  I call the stuff "jihad lite," and collect it for some future (and at this point purely fantastical) report. I also keep meaning to work out a way to organize it all and make it available, but my stash is meager crap compared to their finds.

Also, notice it's the Islamic state of Iran issuing an official stamp memorializing a Sunni extremist, the man who assassinated Sadat.  Example #4900974610 why anyone who says Sunnis and Shiites would never collaborate should be ignored.

Their nod to an April 1972 incident between NYPD and a mosque in Harlem has some very intriguing information, and has inspired me to look deeper into my father's stash of personal info related to his time in the NYPD.  He was a proud member of the world's best law enforcement agency in the 60s and 70s and his personal notes cover this time frame.  Let me see if he notes anything about this incident.

Thanks, Shiva & Infidel K9.

Listening to the Enemy

DoD announced today the release of the audio of the March 10, 2007 Guantanamo tribunal of 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed. 

And along with KSM, the voices of Majid Khan, Ramzi bin Al-Shib, Hambali, etc.

Their Finest Hour

The folks at Counterterrorism Blog continue their excellent coverage of the Holy Land Foundation trial in Dallas, Texas.  It's worth noting that many of the CT Blog bloggers have participated in the long fight against such "allegedly" crooked charities. To some extent, this trial is the fruit of many years of their dedicated sacrifice.   

The Holy Land trials is one of the most significant counterterrorism trials in the U.S. so far, because of the Foundation's extensive links to so many other U.S.-based non-profits.  The amount of money they are suspected to have laundered to jihadist groups like Hamas and Al Qaeda counts in the tens of millions.  Convictions here could have a cascade effect on other groups in the U.S. and lead to the possibility (faint as it is right now) of cleaning up the Islamic charities system here so that it's used for its original intent, charity. 

Trial documents are being posted at the court website.

More on Europe

Euro-Islam.info includes demographic profiles of Muslim communities in each Western European country.  Sponsored and staffed by social scientists from Harvard and Europe, the goal of the website is to provide "comparative and empirical research" research-based analysis on the impact of Muslim immigration to Western Europe.

Books for Understanding

American Association of University Presses has a portal to books related to "September 11, 2001."  It's actually a broad range of topics, including "grief studies," Middle East affairs, and terrorism.  Most of these are academic books, not necessarily recognized in mainstream open source channels.  Because most of the works are academic, they tend to perpetuate the left-wing, anti-Western biases regularly seen in academic analysis.   

Still there may be some good books ideas among the flotsam.

Free Chapters on Islam

Princeton University Press offers a huge collection of sample chapters from their backlist, and a few of the books are on Islam, terrorism, etc.   

I haven't read any of them, and so I can't blog to the quality of the content.  Coming from an academic institution, I'm betting the insights range from the interesting to the utterly worthless. But what the heck!  They're free chapters.

The Children of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, Islam
F. E. Peters
A New Edition with a foreword by John L. Esposito
http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/chapters/i7816.html

Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians
F. E. Peters
http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/chapters/i7483.html
   
The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror
Michael Ignatieff
http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/chapters/s7578.html

Civil Islam: Muslims and Democratization in Indonesia
Robert W. Hefner
http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/chapters/s6966.html

Islam and Mammon: The Economic Predicaments of Islamism
Timur Kuran
http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/chapters/s7731.html

Jihad in Islamic History: Doctrines and Practice
Michael Bonner
http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/chapters/s8280.html

Mutual Life, Limited: Islamic Banking, Alternative Currencies, Lateral Reason
Bill Maurer
http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/chapters/s7998.html

Islam and the Challenge of Democracy: A Boston Review Book
Khaled Abou El Fadl
Edited by Joshua Cohen and Deborah Chasman
http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/chapters/s7754.html

Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject.
Saba Mahmood [PDF only]
http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/chapters/s7888.pdf

Romantics at War: Glory and Guilt in the Age of Terrorism
George P. Fletcher
http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/chapters/s7340.html

Shattering the Myth: Islam beyond Violence
Bruce B. Lawrence
http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/chapters/i6281.html

Taken Hostage: The Iran Hostage Crisis and America's First Encounter with Radical Islam
David Farber
http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/chapters/i7807.html

Why the French Don't Like Headscarves: Islam, the State, and Public Space
John R. Bowen
http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/chapters/s8260.html

Think Tank Watch

International Assessment and Strategy Center

Recent report: Salafists, China and West Africa's Growing Anarchy

The most visible armed Islamic threat emerged in the form the small Salfist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), Led by Amar Saifi, known as Al Para because he was a French-trained paratrooper in the Algerian military, the GSPC declared his loyalty to al Qaeda. The group gained a small degree of international notoriety last year after kidnapping a group of 32 "extreme tourists" in the Sahara. Most of the tourists were German, and the German government paid a reported $8 million ransom to free its citizens.

In one of the few cases where the United States has had the foresight to act aggressively, Gen. Charles Wald of the US European Command moved quickly to get the defense ministers of Chad, Mali, Niger and others together for the first time ever, to coordinate a strategy of going after the GSPC before it became a serious security military and political threat. The U.S. also provided satellite intelligence to the governments to help them track the GSPC as they moved across the desert. Using that information, African government troops took action. In combat in Niger and Chad, Al Para lost some 40 men, and ended up, along with a few dozen of his followers, as prisoners of an obscure rebel movement in Chad, the Movement for Democracy and Justice (MDJC).

Voices of Jihad Database

RAND has designed a searchable collection of jihadi fatwas, analyses, interviews, etc, called the "Voices of Jihad" database:

This online database is a compilation of speeches, interviews, statements, and publications of jihadist leaders, foot soldiers, and sympathizers. Nearly all content is in English translation, and has been collected from publicly-accessible websites. Original links are provided, along with excerpts and full-text content when available.

This is a search of the word "strategy."  The database runs on Vivisimo a far more useful search engine than Google, because it organizes results based on concepts represented in the search results. The first hit is the strategy paper thought to have inspired the 3/11 Madrid bombings, Jihadi Iraq:  Hopes and Risks.

Looks Interesting

Clandestine Radio is one of my favorite websites.  It offers the most comprehensive coverage of opposition, anti-government, and insurgent media on the net.  No website does a better job tracking the evolving forms what they call "subversive radio and TV broadcasts."

The folks that give us Clandestine Radio, produce podcasts at Global Crisis Watch.

Maps of Iraq

Here's a little bit of open source...

Boston Public Library's Norman B. Leventhal Map Center. 

Maps in the News: Iraq 2006

KSA (New) Most Wanted

Reports that four of the men killed last week in Dammam were on Saudi Arabia's new list of Most Wanted Al Qaeda suspects inspired this excellent tracking list from the bloggers at Security Watchtower.

Website: Crossroad Arabia

Crossroad Arabia  is a blog that monitors social and political news from Saudi Arabia.  There's also alot of information about the jiadhist and radical Islamic influence within the Kingdom.

Tracking Politics Around the World

Electionworld.org tracks national election activity all over the world. It's a bookmark "must" for anyone who does strategic planning, especially for security strategy. National elections have always been a magnet for insecurity. In a world where jihadist activity is based on a considerable hatred for the democratic process, elections can be a predictor for increasing jihadist activity.

UPDATE:

Another source for local and regional analysis comes from Administrative Divisions of Countries.  It's a book and a website, and is an excellent reference for the study of local politics outside the United States.