A Blog about Middle Eastern & North African Politics, Society and Culture
Somewhere along the line Abdelhamid Abaaoud, not an educated man, conflated the myth of the Afghan Jihad with reality. This conflation had disastrous consequences. Abaaoud and his friends joined a jihadist battalion in Syria with delusions of grandeur. Sporting the Afghan Pakhool, he sought to emulate the Afghan Arabs who,… Read more“From Afghanistan to Abaaoud”
On the face of it, Loss Sings claims to be fifteen translations of al-Khansā, a much celebrated Arabian poet of the seventh century whose threnodic poems commemorate the loss of her two brothers in battle. Prof. James E Montgomery has translated the fifteen poems elegantly in this brief thirty-seven-page booklet. I… Read more“‘Loss Sings’: Translating Grief”
Abstract Dr. Abdullah Azzam is widely seen both by security analysts and Jihadists as the father of Global Jihad. Dr. Thomas Hegghammer for example, who is soon to publish an important biography on Abdullah Azzam argues that his ‘Palestinianess’ certainly shaped his world view and pulled him towards transnational jihadism…. Read more“Jihad according to Abdullah Azzam”
Abstract Dr. Abdullah Azzam has been seen as the father of global jihad both by analysts and indeed al-Qaeda itself. Al-Qaeda and Jihadis of all varieties claim him to be their founding father. What is interesting is that Azzam did not view those who al-Qaeda viewed as its enemies in… Read more“When Abdullah Azzam met Ahmed Shah Massoud”
Abstract Here is an interview of Abu Abdel Aziz Barbaros or Barbarossa (named after his red beard and Khayreddine, the naval commander and greek privateer of the Ottoman empire). He is also known as Abdul Rahman al-Dosari, he fought in Afghanistan in the 80s after Abdullah Azzam called for recruits… Read more“The Bosnian Jihad: An interview with Abu Abdel Aziz Barbaros”
Obama’s election to the presidency in 2008 has been seen as the pinnacle of the civil rights movement in the US. It is easy to remember of iconic figures like Martin Luther King and forget the likes of Stokely Carmichael, Malcolm X, Huey Long, Assata Shakur and other figures who… Read more“Lost Tribe Of Shabbaz”
Writing about and covering Muslim jihadi militancy for more than half a decade now, I realise that Westerners, analysts, journalists or otherwise find Arab names extremely difficult to grasp. One of the questions I have been asked countless times by the uninitiated is: why is every single Jihadi militant named… Read more“The Problem with Abu Bakr, Osama Bin Laden and Zarqawi: An explanation of Arabic names”
For the forthcoming book, To the Mountains: My Life in Jihad, from Algeria to Afghanistan by Abdullah Anas and Tam Hussein, (Hurst), 2019, I thought I would add materials that are useful for those who are interested in this seminal period in the history of global jihadism. Below is an article I… Read more“An Interview with Umm Mohammed: The Wife of Bin laden’s Spiritual Mentor Abdullah Azzam”
Description The Algerian Islamist Abdullah Anas, ‘perhaps the greatest warrior of the Afghan Arabs’, fought the Soviet Union for a decade. As one of the earliest Arabs to join the Afghan jihad, he counted as brothers-in-arms the future icons of Al-Qaeda’s global war, from Abdullah Azzam to Osama bin… Read more“To the Mountains: My Life in Jihad, from Algeria to Afghanistan”
Abstract: The recent arrest of Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, the two British Jihadists part of the notorious Beatles, has again raised the debate as to what should be done with Jihadists returning to Europe. Should they be sent to Guantanamo? Should they be kept where they were caught… Read more“Dealing with Syria’s Foreign Fighters: A Liberal Conundrum – an Update”
Inspector Hyder lit a cigarette, he knew it was illegal to smoke in private property other than one’s own, but he smoked anyway. It was one of those idiosyncratic rules that the President had applied to the Nation. He put his gun back and opened the shutters letting the miserable… Read more“Short Story: Exodus of Smoke”
The trial of Rahmat Akilov, the lone wolf terrorist who killed five pedestrians in Stockholm’s equivalent of Oxford Street, last April have just begun. Whilst the trial is expected to continue for several months, it will no doubt raise important questions pertaining to Islamic extremism, terrorism and fundamentalism in Swedish… Read more“Rahmat Akilov’s Trial Raises Important Dilemmas for Swedish Policy Makers”
Abstract: For Muslims in the West especially those who become militant, the question of authority or the lack of it, is an important question. I will use the story of Aine Davis to illustrate some of these issues that young Muslims are grappling with. Case Study: Aine Davis It always… Read more“Problems in the Caliphate: The Issue of Authority “
Youssef Rakha is the author of The Book of the Sultan’s Seal: Strange Incidents from History in the City of Mars. Cairo where Rakha lives and works, is at the heart of much of his work. His vision is particularly interesting in the light of the Egyptian revolution. It echoes the general dissatisfaction… Read more“An Interview with Youssef Rakha: Author of The Book of the Sultan’s Seal”
Cultural historians have often focused attention on Islam’s achievements in architecture, craftsmanship and calligraphy. However, except for poetry scant attention has been given to Islamic culture’s contribution to performance art: theatre, music and dance. This is partly because of the perception that Islam has an aversion to these art forms…. Read more“A Glimpse into Performance Art in the Muslim World: A Clash of the Profane and the Sacred”
There are things All the Battles by Maan Abu Taleb is not. It is not a cliched story based on a Rocky film. It is not an Arab version of Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club in which the protagonist discovers fighting in order to feel “alive”. Whilst Abu Taleb’s first novel… Read more“Review: All the Battles my Maan Abu Taleb”
Raqqah has fallen. There are many jihadists who will look at this loss with a sense of bitterness. Some foreign fighters are pragmatic. Is the Jihad over? “It goes on” they say, “till the Day of Judgment.” For some though the fall of Raqqah isn’t good news. From the earth… Read more“Into the Heart of Darkness: Working Notes on Three ISIS Jihadists.”
One of the most interesting books this summer may be a rather innocuous book by Anne Wolf, a leading Tunisia and North Africa specialist. In Political Islam in Tunisia: A History of Ennahda, Wolf, a University of Oxford researcher, presents the hidden history of Ennahda, Tunisia’s main Islamist movement, from… Read more“Political Islam in Tunisia: a History of Ennahda and the Tunisian Exception”
Sitting across Mahdi al-Harati in the hotel lobby it is difficult to see why anyone would want this quiet Libyan dead. His insulin rests on the low table alongside his sugarless coffee and with him is his over-protective doctor and friend. But you need to look closer, there is his… Read more“Mahdi al-Harati: A Libyan Garibaldi?”
The 9/11 attacks gave birth to a Manichean world which is, as I write this, being played out in Syria and Iraq amongst other places. With this world in mind and the upcoming 9/11 anniversary, Professor Theo Farrel’s Unwinnable is a timely reminder of the consequences of the War on… Read more“Review: Unwinnable: Britain’s War in Afghanistan 2001-2014 by Theo Farrel”
I entered Najiyeh, a small town of no consequence, without their permission. The town claimed to be an ISIS principality. The claim seemed ridiculous but as we drove in to the town it seemed less so. They had fixed the prices, the markets were bustling, even the gold shops were… Read more“Paradise Lost: The Rise and Fall of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi”
What follows is Part II of an interview about the Sharia with Al-Maqalaat by Tam Hussein @tamhussein. Part I can be found here The Dawn of Islamic Theocracy: Monumental Sacrifice for Consistent Stability. Background Context of this discourse began when the interviewer tweeted an interesting article, Stoning and Hand Cutting-… Read more“Fading contrasts in the future of global Jihadism: Military strength driven by perceptive tolerance”
The Afghan Jihad: An Annotated Interview with Musa al-Qarni about Abdullah Azzam and Ahmed Shah Massoud and the tension with the ‘Afghan Arabs’ In my research into the Arab Afghans I came across this interview which I thought I would share here. This article is important because it shows how… Read more“Musa al-Qarni on the Afghan Jihad”
After the death of the Prophet Muhammed the early Muslim community became acutely aware of the need to preserve their Prophet’s legacy. This idea of preserving revelation became even more pressing as the nascent Islamicate expanded. Memorisation was not enough since new converts to the faith did not have the… Read more“When Arabic and Hebrew Irregulars Worked Together”
In an important new book Durham University fellow Christopher M. Davidson, author of many books on the Gulf, sets out to explain why despite all the modernising forces that has transformed the Gulf kingdoms, the royal dynasties have still survived. He argues that their continued existence can be explained… Read more“A Crisis Waiting to Happen: Book Review of Christopher M. Davidson’s ‘After the Sheikhs’”
By @tamhussein Recently, Anjem Choudhary, 49, and Mizanur Rahman, 33, were imprisoned for their active support of the Islamic State. Choudhary’s imprisonment ends, for a small period at least, his decade plus history of agitation in the UK. Whilst the British press lapped up his colourful and extreme pronouncements, his… Read more“Prison Radicalisation: Dealing with Muslim Inmates with Terror Convictions”
An interview about the Sharia with Al-Maqalaat @AMaqal by Tam Hussein @tamhussein Background Context of this discourse began when the interviewer tweeted an interesting article, Stoning and Hand Cutting- Understanding the Hudud and the Shariah in Islam, by Jonathan Brown @jonathanACBrown, Associate Professor and Chair of Islamic Civilization at Georgetown University. Al-Maqālāt… Read more“The Dawn of Islamic Theocracy: Monumental Sacrifices for Consistent Stability”
By Tam Hussein @tamhussein The Arabs at War in Afghanistan questions the foundational myths of the Afghan Jihad which touched a generation of Muslim men growing up in the 90s. It is told by one of the earliest Afghan Arabs, Mustafa Hamid who joined the warlord Jalaluddin Haqqani against the… Read more“The Arabs at War in Afghanistan: From the Cradle of the Jalalabad School of Jihad to Syria and Iraq”
Mr. Fathi Warfali is one of Libya’s earliest and youngest political activists and hails from a pedigreed religious and scholarly family from Bani Walid. At sixteen he joined the nascent Islamic movement in Libya. Despite being a committed democrat he decided like many of his generation to join the Mujahideen… Read more“Fathi Warfali: A Democrat who Sought Martyrdom in the Fields of Afghanistan.”
Here begins a series of interviews and dialogues with al-Maqālāt who describes himself as “an independent media outlet”. He tweets under @Al_Maqal_Ps. The reader will find that the interviewees attitudes and views are useful because he encapsulates a certain outlook which serves as a useful barometer for how some Salafi-Jihadists… Read more“The Human Nature of Jihadism- an interview with al-Maqālāt”