Ayman al-Zawahiri and the rise of ISIL

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald Holbrook
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Al Qaeda ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Public Rhetoric ◽  
State Organization ◽  
Key Events ◽  
The Way

This chapter analyses statements released by Ayman al-Zawahiri in the context of MENA uprisings and the rise of the Islamic State organization. The chapter traces Zawahiri’s aggregate narrative during this period, discussing how the Al-Qaeda leader framed these key events and how these framing efforts evolved. This discussion highlights issues regarding legitimate leadership of jihadist vanguards, the role of public opinion in that equation and the way in which al-Zawahiri has sought to exploit and address those challenges in his efforts to retain momentum and relevancy within a complex jihadi universe. The chapter concludes by considering the particulars of al-Zawahiri’s most recent discursive emphases in light of his public rhetoric to date in order to highlight the evolution and, at times, contradictions of this narrative.

Contemporary logomachies

2019 ◽  
pp. 53-76
Author(s):  
Marco Pinfari
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Al Qaeda ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Ancient History ◽  
Terrorist Groups ◽  
Late Nineteenth

This chapter continues with the line of argument presented in chapter 2 about the role of monster images in framing “terrorist” actors and about the recurrence of monster metaphors that not only convey their “otherness” but also, more forcefully, their resilience and unmanageability. The first paragraph presents the pseudo-scientific framing of anarchists in the late nineteenth century as half-human, half-feral uncontrollable brutes. The following section reviews the resort to religious and “cosmic war” imagery in framing “terrorist” groups as part of ethnonationalist conflicts, including the biblical “beasts” cited by Ian Paisley, the unmanageable yakku of Sinhalese folklore, and the resilient people of Amalek who fought the Israelites throughout most of their ancient history. The final paragraph introduces the concept of global jihad and discusses the reasons why Frankenstein’s monster and the hydra proved to be the most popular metaphors for describing both al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.

scholarly journals Historical amnesia and its consequences: the need to build histories of practice

2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 781-787 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sioban Nelson
Keyword(s):  
The Holocaust ◽  
Development Of Identity ◽  
Key Events ◽  
The Way

This paper focuses on two key themes: the role of history as a witness to key events, moments, or shifts in history; and the role of history in the on-going development of identity - identity of individuals, of groups, of nations or generations. I will conclude with some comments about the way the study and the teaching of history can be approached. My argument has several strands: First history is useful in the specifics - sometimes there are stories we should not forget. We owe it to stand witness. Each culture has these je me souvien moments. Some, like Hiroshima or the Holocaust, belong to the whole world. Second, there are stories that it is wise not to forget - we should learn from the blunders of those who came before us and show some wisdom. Finally I argue that historical amnesia is dangerous. Memory is necessary - we need to know who we are if we have any hope of knowing where we are going.

From 25 January to Islamic State

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Staffell
Keyword(s):  
Al Qaeda ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Organizational Changes ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Way

The history of the jihadist movement in Egypt provides important lessons about its possible future trajectories. This chapter sets out the history of jihadism in Egypt from Al-Gama‘a al-Islamiyya (Islamic Group) and Egyptian Islamic Jihad in the 1980s and 90s, through the al-Tawhid w‘al Jihad and Al-Qaeda affiliate the Abdullah Azzam Brigades in the 2000s. The chapter then considers how jihadism has developed after the 25 January 2011 revolution. It examines the rise of IS in Egypt - the organizational changes involved and how these were accompanied by changes in ideology and narrative. By situating these changes in the context of the history of salafi-jihadism in Egypt, it argues that IS’s ability to gain a foothold, were in part due to their global narrative, but more notably were due to the way in which the Ansar Beit al-Maqdis/Wilayat Sina leadership were willing and able to adapt this narrative to the particularities of the Egyptian context. Egyptian jihadism has not historically accepted IS’s approach, and this may ultimately prove to be their downfall in the country.

Future and Prophecies in the World Vision of the Islamic State Organization

Futures ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 295-310
Author(s):  
Mohamed-Ali Adraoui
Keyword(s):  
Islamic State ◽  
The Past ◽  
World Vision ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
Extreme Violence ◽  
State Organization ◽  
The Way

This chapter examines the Islamic State’s conceptualization of history and the future in relation this movement’s understanding of eschatology and the ‘End of Times’. Drawing on a veritable stream of jihadist literature, this chapter sheds light on the organization’s theorization of history, and the ways in which the Islamic State’s consistent jihadist millenarianism echoes an incessant dialectic between the past and the future to the detriment of a depreciated and sacrificed present. Adraoui demonstrates the way in which the Islamic State’s fundamentalist (mis-)interpretation of Islamic prophetic discourse merges terrestrial and celestial time, which is used to justify and exacerbate the use of extreme violence in pursuit of the organization’s aggressive political aims.

The Azd and the Early Islamic State

2019 ◽  
pp. 68-115
Author(s):  
Brian Ulrich
Keyword(s):  
Islamic State ◽  
East And West ◽  
Administrative Units ◽  
Tribal Leadership ◽  
Key Events ◽  
Early Islamic

This chapter argues that the degree of centralization within the Islamic conquests differed between east and west, with the western conquests being more of an independent tribal movement which the early caliphs gradually came to co-opt. Similarly, early Islamic Basra was most likely an existing Arab settlement before it became a garrison town (misr). The chapter then discusses the al-Azd in Rashidun and Umayyad Syria, Basra, and Kufa, as well as garrison towns’ (amsar) division into tribal administrative units. The role of al-Azd in key events such as the Battle of the Camel and Second Fitna is discussed, as is the role of tribal leadership in Basra and Kufa. This chapter also contains a significant discussion of the events surrounding the death of Masud b. Amr in Basra.

11. Foreign Policymaking in the Middle East: Complex Realism

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond Hinnebusch ◽  
Anoushiravan Ehteshami
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Relative Weight ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Realist Approach ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
Key Events

This chapter examines the process of foreign policymaking by regional states based on a ‘complex realist’ approach, which acknowledges the weight of realist (or power based) arguments but takes into account other factors such as the role of leadership in informing states’ foreign policy choices. The chapter first provides an overview of complex realism and the framework of analysis by considering the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) environment. It then illustrates the complex realist approach with an an assessment of decision-making by four leading states — Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, and Egypt — in relation to the key events and crises of the last decade: the 2003 Iraq War, the 2006 Lebanon War, and the post-2014 war with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The chapter concludes with a discussion of the relative weight of the various policymaking determinants in the 2000s.

We Shall Fulfil our Pledge

Al-Qaeda 2.0 ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 269-274
Author(s):  
Cerwyn Moore
Keyword(s):  
Al Qaeda ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Central Command ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Pledge Of Allegiance ◽  
State Organization

This is Zawahiri’s pledge of allegiance to the new leader of the Taliban, Mawlawi Haibatullah, which is combined in this statement with a eulogy of Mullah Akhtar Mohamed Mansour, who was killed in a US drone strike in May 2016. Zawahiri uses the opportunity to emphasize the loyalty and steadfastness of jihadi stalwarts within both the Al-Qaeda central command and the leadership of the Islamic State in Iraq, including Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, thus accentuating his depiction of the Islamic State organization as a transgressor, disrupting a noble legacy of jihadi activism reaching, in modern times, back to the venerated conflict against the soviets and Afghanistan and—ultimately—back to the precedent set by the Prophet Mohammed and his companions

scholarly journals Understanding the Role of Racism in Contemporary US Public Opinion

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-169
Author(s):  
Katherine Cramer
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Political Inequality ◽  
Public Discussion ◽  
Racial Resentment ◽  
Contemporary Context ◽  
The Way

In the contemporary context, it is inescapable that racism is a factor in US public opinion. When scholars take stock of the way we typically measure and conceptualize racism, we find reason to reconceptualize the racial resentment scale as a measure of perceptions of the reasons for political inequality. We also see reason to move beyond thinking of racism as an attitude, toward conceptualizing it as a perspective. In addition, we see reason to pay closer attention to the role of elites in creating and perpetuating a role for racism in the way people think about public affairs. The study of racism is evolving in parallel with the broader public discussion: toward a recognition of the complex and fundamental ways it is woven into US culture and political life.

The effects of electoral anticipation on portfolio allocation

2020 ◽  
pp. 135406882091454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harunobu Saijo
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
Coalition Formation ◽  
Portfolio Allocation ◽  
Compelling Evidence ◽  
Issue Salience ◽  
Bargaining Models ◽  
Ideal Points ◽  
The Way

Whereas much of the existing literature on coalition formation has focused on the disparity between Gamsonian payoffs and the outcomes of bargaining models, dangers of ministerial drift, party ideal points, issue salience/emphasis, and negotiation complexity, very little has been said on the role of the way public opinion affects political behavior via expectation of future electoral returns. Following the logic of “issue yield,” this article argues that politicians allocate ministerial portfolios according to the distribution of public opinion in the hopes of obtaining better returns in subsequent elections and find compelling evidence linking public opinion with portfolio allocation.

11. Foreign Policymaking in the Middle East: Complex Realism

2019 ◽  
pp. 249-270
Author(s):  
Raymond Hinnebusch ◽  
Anoushiravan Ehteshami
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Middle East ◽  
The United States ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Relative Power ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
Key Events

This chapter studies foreign policymaking by regional states in the Middle East based on a ‘complex realist’ approach. This acknowledges the weight of realist arguments but highlights other factors such as the level of dependency on the United States, processes of democratization, and the role of leadership in informing states' foreign policy choices. To illustrate this approach, the chapter examines decision-making by four leading states — Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, and Egypt — in relation to the key events and crises of the last decade: the 2003 Iraq War; the 2006 Hezbollah War; and the post-2014 War with the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (IS). The cases indicate that, as realists expect, states' foreign policies chiefly respond to threats and opportunities, as determined by their relative power positions.

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