Beyond the frontline: watching ISIS

[davidbfpo]

One of the authors of 'Inside ISIS' Hassan Hassan (See Post 89; who originates from Eastern Syria) is interviewed on:

• ISIS growth in North Africa
• Where ISIS is winning, and where it is losing
• Tactical vs. strategic effects of airstrikes on ISIS
• Influence of Management of Savegery on ISIS actions and propaganda
• Importance of local forces and tribes in fighting ISIS
• Challenges to building those local forces
• ISIS is setting the agenda, but the world needs to change that

Link to a 41 minute podcast:http://middleeastweek.org/home/2015/...nst-them-grows

[davidbfpo]

Unusually Chatham House's quarterly 'International Affairs' has placed this 15 pg article on open access:http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1...2346.12183/pdf

Near the end is this neat summary:

Since the Islamic Revolution, Tehran has often been described as an irrational, ideologically driven actor, impelled by the notion of martyrdom and an apocalyptical world-view. Yet Iran’s foreign policy proves that it is often driven by national and regime interests. The developments in Iraq and Syria and the Iranian leadership’s response to them illustrate this fact. Indeed, Tehran’s overall strategy, as well as its willingness to engage with Saudi Arabia and the United States, demonstrate that Iran’s foreign policy does not always follow its revolutionary rhetoric.

[OUTLAW 09]

Blast from the past as some of us know this individual up front and personal.

Another Bucca Graduate first class---US intel seems to have never figured out the old AQI command structure especially since he was evidently tied to the Zarqawi network. Our Army Iraq military prison system has produced some of the finest trained jihadi's in Iraq.

Daesh top dog in Libya is an Iraqi: Wisam Abd al-Zubaidi AKA Abu Nabil al-Anbari, Bucca graduate, Zarqawi associate http://almasalah.com/ar/NewsDetails.aspx?NewsID=47815 …

[OUTLAW 09]

AtlanticCouncil ✔ @AtlanticCouncil
#ISIS continues to build support from tribal groups & defecting insurgents, says @faysalitani. Read more: http://buff.ly/1CSK7f7 @AP

[omarali50]

A short comment about the broader issue of what role Islam plays or doesnt play, big picture, etc.

http://brownpundits.blogspot.com/201...n-of-book.html

(the links add context and value)

[davidbfpo]

Not seen one of these before. Yours to explore:http://religionresearch.org/closer/2...list-part-one/

[omarali50]

I have a post up about ISIS, Islam and suchlike (with due credit given to smallwars for some links at the end)

http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksd...the-dream.html

excerpt:

So in principle, we should be able to make new Islams as needed (and some of us have indeed done so over the centuries, the Ismailis being one extreme example; some Sufis being another) and I am sure others will do just that in the days to come. The Reza Aslan types are right about this much (though i seriously doubt that he can invent anything new or lasting; that does not even seem to be his primary aim). In fact, in terms of practice, millions of Muslims have already "invented new Islams". Just as a random example, most contemporary Muslims do not have sex with multiple concubines that they captured in the most recent Jihad expedition to the Balkans (or bought from African slave-traders for that matter). Not only do they not buy and sell slaves, they find the thought of doing so somewhat shocking. Also see how countless Muslims lived very obediently under British laws in the British empire and in fact provided a good part of the armies of that empire. Or see the countless Muslims who take oaths of loyalty to all sorts of "un-Islamic" states and, for the most part, turn out to be as loyal and law-abiding as any of their Hindu or Sikh or Christian fellow citizens in the various hedonistic modern states. Their "Islam" has already adapted itself to new realities.

What sets Muslms apart is really their inability (until now) to publicly and comfortably articulate a philosophical rejection of medieval (aka no longer fashionable) elements of classical Sunni Islam. And for all practical purposes, this is a serious problem only in Muslim majority countries. In other countries that have a strong sense of their own identity and of the necessity of their own laws, Muslims mostly get on with life while following those laws. In the Muslim majority countires, it is the apostasy and blasphemy laws (and the broader memes that uphold those laws) that play a central role in preventing public rejection of unfashionable or unworkable aspects of classical Islam. A King Hussein or a Benazir Bhutto or even a Rouhani may have private thoughts rejecting X or Y inconvenient parts of medieval Islamicate laws and theology, but to speak up would be to invite accusations of blasphemy and apostasy. So they fudge, they hem and haw, and they do one thing while paying lip service to another. Unfortunately, this means the upholders of classical Islam have the edge in debates in the public sphere. And ISIS and the Wahabis are not far enough from mainstream classical Sunni Islam for us to think they are just some demonic eruption from outer space; for example, classical Islamic theology recommends cutting the hands of thieves, stoning adulterers, going on jihad (not just some inner jihad of the Karen Armstrong type, but the real deal), capturing slaves, buying and selling concubines, killing apostates and so on; ISIS of course goes much further in their willingness to kill other Muslims, to rebel against existing rulers and to bypass common humanity and commonly cited restrictions and regulations about prisoners, hostages, punishments and so on, but when they say classical Islam permits the first set of things noted above, they are not lying, the apologists are lying.

- See more at: http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksd....4L0W3lGm.dpuf