Conclusion

Over fifteen chapters, The ISIS Reader has featured milestone texts, video transcripts and speeches from the Islamic State movement, drawn from its tumultuous multi-decade history. In doing so, it has told the ‘inside story’ of the Islamic State’s struggle, from a wandering band of jihadis in Afghanistan to the Islamic State in Iraq, from near decimation in 2010 to its triumphant declaration of a caliphate in 2014, and, finally, from its global expansion across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East to its return to beleaguered insurgency in 2018–19. Presenting this trajectory in the Islamic State’s ‘own words’ offers essential insights into the complicated mixure of personalities, strategic logic, opportunism, success, and failure that shaped its fortunes. Several recurring trends emerge from this study that are pertinent for scholars wishing to understand the movement and strategic-policy architects seeking to devise strategies to confront it....

The Declaration of the Islamic State in Iraq and Al-Sham

Chapter 6 features Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s announcement on 8 April 2013 that the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) had changed its name to the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS). Emerging as leader in May 2010, Baghdadi was pivotal in continuing the group’s revival in Iraq. However, when the Arab Spring reached neighboring Syria in early 2011, within months war had broken out and, in January 2012, Baghdadi sent ISI members to join the war effort. Under the title of Jabhat al-Nusra (JN) and the leadership of Abu Muhammad al-Jawlani, they quickly built a reputation for their military prowess and outreach strategies but their link to ISI was publicly unknown. When Baghdadi declared that JN was an extension of his group in his 2013 announcement, it had seismic effects for the global jihad triggering a bitter conflict between ISIS and al-Qaida.

Advice to the Leaders of the Islamic State

This chapter features and analyses a text published on 24 January 2018 via a social media group affiliated with the Islamic State’s central media office. The text, an e-book titled Advice for the leaders and soldiers of the Islamic State, was attributed to Abd al-Munim bin Izz al-Din al-Badawi, better known as Abu Hamzah al-Muhajir, the former prime minister and minister of war for the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI). First officially published in Arabic and made available online by the organization’s printing press, the Himmah Library, in the Hijri year 1428 (which spanned the Gregorian year 2007), the volume has two sections, ‘Advice for the Leaders of the Islamic State’ and ‘Advice for the Soldiers of the Islamic State’, which offer thirty pieces of ‘advice’ to leaders and thirty-one to soldiers about how best to pursue the aims of the Islamic State’s insurgency. The first half is the subject of this chapter.

The First Speeches

In this first chapter, we present two speeches by Islamic State movement founder Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The first dates from 1994 and contains evidence of him adopting the unique framework of ideas, largely inspired by his perspective as an Islamist in Jordan, that would become very familiar to students of the current Islamic State. The second speech, from 2004, allows us a glimpse of Zarqawi’s worldview as his insurgency in Iraq is poised to transition from a small network to a nationwide movement with an expanding global reach.

Defining Success and Failure

Chapter 12 features Abu Muhammad al-Adnani’s May 2016 speech, ‘That They Live By Proof’, which was translated and published by Islamic State’s al-Hayat Media. At the time of this speech, it was becoming apparent that coalition efforts were taking its toll on the movement. As never before in its history, the Islamic State now had international provinces across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia as well as supporters throughout the West who were willing to assist the movement as online propaganda ‘fanboys’ or terrorists behind enemy lines. Adnani’s speech is significant for three reasons. First, it contrasts the definitions and timelines of success and failure of the Islamic State and its enemies. Second, it reveals how the Islamic State’s leadership tried to prepare its supporters for future losses. Third, as Adnani’s final speech before he was killed in September 2016, it represents a significant signpost in the movement’s history.

The Caliphate Rises

Chapter 7 features Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s 1 July 2014 speech titled ‘A Message to the Mujahidin and the Muslim Ummah in the Month of Ramadan’ and his iconic speech delivered in Mosul’s al-Nuri Mosque on 4 July 2014. Days earlier, on 29 June 2014, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, the group’s charismatic spokesman, had announced that ISIS was now to be known as the Islamic State and that the caliphate had been established with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as its caliph. This was a time of triumph after capturing Raqqa in Syria, Mosul in Iraq, and swathes of territory in between. From near total decimation in the aftermath of the Sahwa in Iraq and, only months earlier, the pincer movement of its rivals on either side of the Syria-Iraq border, the movement now reveled in its greatest feats achieved through a mix of shrewd strategizing, ruthless opportunism, and calculated patience.

The First Year of the Islamic State

This chapter presents four announcements from the pivotal first year of the newly formed Islamic State of Iraq, and a fifth from 2011 that looks back at these momentous events. The first source is a 2006 statement from official spokesperson Muharib al-Jubouri, announcing the formation of the Islamic State of Iraq. The second source is the introductory speech of the Islamic State’s newly elected leader Abu Umar al-Baghdadi (Hamid Dawud Mohammed Khalil al-Zawi). The third source is an excerpt of a letter critical of the new leaders written by Chief Sharia Judge to al-Qaida leaders in Pakistan. Next is an excerpt from Abu Umar’s fourth speech, commemorating the fourth anniversary of the jihad in Iraq since the US-led invasion. The fifth and final source is an excerpt from Islamic State spokesperson Abu Muhammad al-Adnani’s inaugural speech in 2011, as he reflects back on Abu Umar’s musings about the insurgency’s resiliency during a period of renewed growth for the movement.

Zarqawi’s Strategy

The focus of Chapter 2 is a letter written by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to al-Qaida leaders and intercepted by coalition forces on 23 January 2004. It reveals more than just the predatory operational and strategic rationale behind the violent campaign of Tawhid wal-Jihad in Iraq. It offers vital insights into the strategic thinkers in its ranks who clearly understood the importance of soberly assessing their own capabilities and those of their adversaries while identifying opportunities ripe for exploitation via words and violent actions. While the letter’s contents likely reflect the collective wisdom of Zarqawi’s inner circle, it offers a glimpse into his mind as field commander and aspiring commander-in-chief. Within three years of writing this letter, Zarqawi would be dead, but not before he became an iconic figure of the global jihad, turned Iraq into a sectarian killing field and established a movement that would champion his legacy.

Introduction

The Islamic State (also known as ISIS, ISIL, and Daesh) swept into the global consciousness in 2014 with its daring seizure of territory in Iraq and Syria, before seeming to fade just as quickly back into the deserts from which it allegedly came. From its outset, it has been a source of widespread confusion—General Michael Nagata, the US Special Forces commander tasked with countering the group in late 2014, admitted in a moment of candour that he and his command did not understand ‘this movement’....

A Global Insurgency

This chapter discusses extracts of a speech by Abul Hasan al-Muhajir, then-spokesman of the Islamic State, which was published on 18 March 2019, just before its defeat in Baghuz, eastern Syria. Entitled ‘He Was True to Allah and Allah Was True to Him,’ it captures how the group attempted to navigate its supporters through material collapse by playing down the significance of its last stand in Baghuz and deriding its adversaries. Among other things, Muhajir ties together events which occurred on opposite ends of the earth, weaving them into an emotionally compelling narrative, one in which the slaughters of Muslims in Baghuz, Syria, and Christchurch, New Zealand were symbolic of an enemy conspiracy against Islam and a reminders of the righteousness of Islamic State’s global insurgency.