A Blog about Middle Eastern & North African Politics, Society and Culture
When Kabul fell in 1992, Abdullah Anas recalls in his memoirs, To The Mountain: My Life in Jihad from Algeria to Afghanistan, that he encouraged Osama bin Laden to join… Continue reading "Night Letters: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and the Afghan Islamists who Changed the World- Book Review"
“What do you reckon that is?” Abu Imad said, tapping the scope. He looked at me, rubbing his bushy beard thoughtfully. He wanted me to make the two-meter journey to… Continue reading "The American"
“We need to do something!” the young Belhaj had said, brandishing the handgun. “What?” his university friend said puzzled. “I don’t know,” he replied. “What about when the bullets run… Continue reading "Abdul Hakim Belhaj: Why I rejected bin Laden’s invitation to join al-Qaeda"
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… Continue reading "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… Continue reading "‘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… Continue reading "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… Continue reading "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… Continue reading "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… Continue reading "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… Continue reading "The Problem with Abu Bakr, Osama Bin Laden and Zarqawi: An explanation of Arabic names"