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Introduction:
The articles on this page deal with Islamic Extremism; its roots, evolution and impact.
Preface:
I have written and published the following works on Islam and Islamic Discourse: “Jihad in Trinidad and Tobago July 27th 1990” 2002 which dealt with the Jamaat al Muslimeen and the attempted coup d'etat of 1990 in Trinidad and Tobago, “The Al Qaeda Discourse of the Greater Kufr” dealt with the discourse of Al Qaeda and that of Islam of South Asia and “Salafi Jihadi discourse of Sunni Islam in the 21st century” 2011 which dealt specifically with Salafi Jihadi discourse in the 21st century with a focus on Anwar al-Awlaki and Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi. With this initial analysis I begin publishing my series on Islamic State (IS) a most significant evolution of Salafi Jihadi discourse that demands understanding.
“Analysis of Islamic State's Discourse to Muslims of the West 1”
This analysis is based on the deconstruction of articles by IS addressed to Muslims of the West published in Dabiq the English language publication of IS. In Dabiq 12 an article titled: “O you who have believed protect yourselves and your families from fire” by Abu Thabit Al-Hijazi. In the article Abu Thabit stated that he is a Muslim of the West who made hijra/migrated to Sham/Syria and IS. Abu Thabit commences his discourse by stating that his mother brought her children to the West from an unnamed Muslin land to the West an action which she lived to deeply regret and she insisted to him to leave the West with his family for IS. Abu Thabit from the start of the article is establishing his lineage of piety that commenced with his mother. Abu Thabit states: “as my mother said every family that comes here suffers one calamity or another with respect to their children. What she was referring to, as she went on to clarify were the countless Muslim youth in the West who get themselves tangled into drugs, alcohol, gangs, promiscuity, and other vices and social illnesses over which any decent Muslim family would weep for its children.” A Muslim family in the West will pay the price of losing its children to the way of life of the West that contradicts the Muslim worldview. Abu Thabit's mother then taught him the necessity of fleeing the West for IS to save the children of his family. What then is the condition of Muslims of the West who refuse to flee the West for IS and how will IS treat with them?. Read more...
“Islamic State's rejection of Al-Qaeda as a Salafi Jihadi group”
In Dabiq 9 the online publication of IS in an article titled: “In the words of the enemy” the author is stating IS's case against Al Qaeda as a Salafi Jihadi group but the evidence against Al Qaeda is buttressed by analysis of a discourse that appeared in the US media in 2014 and thereafter. IS's case against Al Qaeda consists of Al Qaeda's strategy on the ground in Syria and its implications for iS in Syria and the strategy of the discourse articulated in the US media that involves IS and Al Qaeda and a new US strategy to deal with IS in Syria. IS presents the conclusion that Al Qaeda is now a tool of US foreign policy in Syria and Yemen and in every theater of operation of IS the US will seek out allies from the ranks of Jihadi groups to stymie the advance of IS especially in Afghanistan and Libya. Read more...
“Islamic State 2016: Back to Basics”
In Dabiq 13 IS was sending the message masked by the dominant discourse of the issue that it was now returning to its root core discourse of the end times/apocalypse and the methodology to be applied to realise the apocalypse. In Dabiq 13 the article “Kill the Imams of Kufr” pronounced takfir on the House of Saud and its scholars but the ruling on apostasy was absent from Dabiq 13. In Dabiq 14 the ruling was proclaimed and a war within Islam especially Sunni Islam was announced. For IS the present battlefield is within Sunni Islam and the West is part of this battlefield. Read more...
“The personnel files of Fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) What They Reveal”
These files consist of the in-processing forms of 4,018 fighters of ISIL. The earliest entry on these forms was in 2011 with an increase in entries recorded from July 2013 but by September 2014 the volume of entries significantly decreases with the last entry being in December 2014. The ISIL was declared in April 2013 and the Khilafah in June 2014 which means that these files are predominantly those of fighters who were recruited into ISIL and not Islamic State (IS). Read more...
“The Islamic State and Libya”
Articles (1,2,3) published on the operation of the Islamic State (IS) in Libya all seek to refute the discourse of IS on Libya and present an alternate reality of Libya. This analysis will deal with the discourse of IS on Libya, its strategic content and the range of reasons that has ensured IS’s entry into Libya. Read more...
“The 2016 Message of the Islamic State (IS) to Trinidad and Tobago (T&T)”
In the premier English language publication of Islamic State (IS) targeting Muslims of the West Dabiq 15 carries an article titled: “Interview Abu Sa’d at-Trinidadi” which is an escalating engagement with the Muslims of T&T by the IS. This article was preceded by two video clips and now an article in Dabiq: what then is the importance of the Muslims of T&T to the strategic agenda of IS? The article utilises the propaganda tool of a Muslim of T&T who undertook hijrah to IS to be a mujahid of IS to extol the worldview of IS and much more importantly to present the position of IS on the bona fides of the T&T Muslims as Muslims acceptable and embraceable by IS. This message is stated unequivocally and without apology by IS to the Muslims of T&T thereby changing dramatically the future range of possible action that can be undertaken by IS assets in T&T as in the message a range of choices of action were presented all premised on extremist violence. Read more...
“Islamic State: “why we hate you and why we fight you” The post Khilafah Discourse for Muslims of the West”
In Dabiq 15 in an article titled: “Why we hate you & why we fight you” IS has begun the process of articulating a post Khilafah discourse of engagement with the West. The discourse is rooted in a concept of hatred for the West that motivates to kill where the reality of salient importance is the act of killing by a perpetrator who proclaims adherence to Islam. The moral praxis of the perpetrator is irrelevant as the act of killing trumps the qualities of the perpetrator creating a discourse where moral relativism pervades and all those who kill in the name of Islam are elevated to a special category as they have killed the enemies of Islam as defined and named by IS. Read more...
“The Cruel Myth of Western “De-radicalising” Discourse”
One current buzz word is de-radicalisation but what it is the talking heads simply don’t have a clue as they are all nonbelievers insisting that they understand what it is to be Muslim in the West whilst addressing Muslim reality via worldviews and discourses that cannot understand Islam and in many cases don’t want to understand Islam. Even worse is the insistence by these talking heads that they have and can frame “programs” that will prevent Muslims from becoming “radicalised”. Read more...
Note on Arabic language
“Interrogating Salafi Jihadi Discourse with Quranic Discourse Part 2”
This process started with the article “The cruel myth of Western de-radicalisation discourse” and continues by placing central concepts of Islamic State’s discourse to Muslims of the west under interrogation by Quranic discourse. Read more...
Note 2 on Arabic language
“The Post Khilafah Discourse of Islamic State of Rumiyah Magazine”
In September 2016 the Islamic State (IS) released its new online English publication Rumiyah which presents a new post Khilafah discourse to Muslims of the Western English speaking countries. In a previous article: “Islamic State: ‘Why we hate you and why we fight you’ The Post Khilafah discourse for Muslims of the West” I analysed this new discourse as it began to appear in Dabiq magazine making analysis of the discourse of Rumiyah vitally necessary to understand the strategic position of Islamic State at this juncture in the assault on the Khilafah. Read more...
“Death of Muslims at the hands of the Kaffirun will ensure victory for the Islamic State the Discourse of Rumiyah 2”
In an article in Rumiyah 2 titled: “Glad tidings of Imminent Victory to the Patient” Islamic State unveils its discourse of the necessity of the death and suffering of Muslims to the conquest of the kaffirun by IS and in this discourse the kaffirun are the persecutors and the killers. The discourse of imminent apocalyptic victory triggered by the seizure of Dabiq by the vanguard is now discarded replaced by the discourse of slaughter and persecution at the hands of the kaffirun which is necessary to certain, eventual victory. Read more...
“The Discourse of Death of Islamic State fully revealed in Rumiyah 2”
The article “Stories of the Steadfastness from the lives of the Sahabiyyah” in Rumiyah 2 completes the exposition of the discourse of death of Islamic State presented in this publication (see my previous article on Rumiyah 2). The article states: “Jannah, the precious commodity of Allah, is the most blissful place and the ultimate aspiration, to which the believers race and for which competitors should compete. Minds are unable to fathom its blessed essence. The eloquent orator is unable to describe it with words. Yet it is encircled by thorns, not roses, as the blood and severed limbs of those who purchased it bear witness, and willingly sacrificing oneself is the highest form of generosity.” Jannah, the Paradise of bliss characterised by sensory overload where Muslims enjoy this condition before the end of time that is the Day of Judgement is a commodity devised by Allah (swt) for Muslims to enjoy. Why is Jannah a commodity? Read more...
“Islamic State’s New Discourse of Dabiq and the Islamic Apocalypse in Rumiyah 3
An Attempt to Spin Defeat at the Hands of the Kaffirun”
In the article: “Towards the Major Malhamah of Dabiq” in Rumiyah 3 Islamic State (IS) presents another discourse to mitigate the loss of Dabiq and the consequent damage done to its discourse of the Islamic apocalypse/end times articulated in Dabiq 1 and thereafter. This new discourse is rooted in Surah 2:210 of The Quran and a series of hadith dealing with the Islamic apocalypse to address the defeat of the Islamic vanguard that was supposed by its actions to trigger the end times at Dabiq. The question then is why the defeat of IS at Dabiq at the hands of the kaffirun and their apostate allies? How can the Islamic vanguard, the elite charged with triggering the end times through their actions be defeated by the kaffirun and their apostate allies? Read more...
Note 3 on Arabic language
“The Discourse of the West of Muslims of Trinidad and Tobago and their Hijrah to Islamic State
The Discourse of Western Media”
The accounts in Western media to-date on this reality of Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) all suppose that the Muslim population of T&T is in keeping with the western discourse deeply radicalised and they are all seeking to explain why this radicalisation in T&T. Most have concocted simply laughable propositions like the influence of the Nation of Islam, Black Power and the Jihad of 1990. They all therefore need to answer a crucial question as follows: if the Muslim population of T&T is radicalised to the point of undergoing hijrah to the Islamic State (IS) why haven’t they abided by the ruling of the IS in Dabiq 15 to launch attacks in T&T on the kaffirun and the apostates chief among them being the Jamaat al Muslimeen? Read more...
“The Discourse of Jihad of the Islamic State for the Post Khilafah Period
An Analysis of the evolving Discourse of Jihad of the Islamic State”
In response to the collapse of the Khilafah the Islamic state is investing in via its English language publication Rumiyah the creation and dissemination of a Salafi Jihadi discourse of Jihad that is rooted in mainstream Sunni discursive methodology. The strategy calls for a change in the nature of the discourse of articles where the discursive components are validated by exhaustive references to the Quran, the Hadith of the Prophet (uwbp) and the opinions of the scholars. Islamic State is then moving to the mainstream to create and disseminate a mainstream variant of its discourse of the primacy of war with the kaffirun and the apostates in the 21st century. Islamic State is raising the threshold for engagement with its discourse making it even more difficult for those armed with platitudes at best to engage with and counter this new post Khilafah strand of Islamic State’s discourse. What must be noted is the resonance of the methodology of the London 2017 attackers with this new discourse of the Islamic State. Read more...
Note 4 on Arabic language
“The Islamic State’s Discourse of Ribat”
On Pg. 26 of Rumiyah 4 the article “The Virtue of Ribat” presents the discourse of Ribat of Islamic State. For Islamic State ribat is the steadfast acceptance, commitment and actions of a Muslim to wage war on the enemies of Islam. This discourse of ribat is then complementing the discourse of jihad and enhancing the discursive construct of fighting to the death. Hijrah, jihad and fighting to the death are immutable constituent components of the ribat of the Islamic State. Read more...
Note 5 on Arabic language
“The Roots *Q T L and *J H D in the Quran the verbs and their forms derived”
The overwhelming dominant root and its derivatives used to express the concepts of: to slay/kill, to slaughter to, fight and to fight amongst themselves is * Q T L.The favourite verses of the Quran utilised by the extremists to justify the slaying/killing of, slaughter of and fighting against the enemies of lslam all utilise *Q T L and its derivatives.Read more...
“The Lessons of the Easter Sunday 2019 bombings of Sri Lanka for T&T”
On April 21, 2019, Easter Sunday, suicide bombers and bombings targeted Christian churches celebrating Easter and hotels in Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa. The targets of attack were as follows: Colombo: St Anthony’s Shrine, The Kingsbury, Shangri-La Hotel and Cinnamon Grand Hotel. Negombo: explosion at St Sebastian’s church. Batticaloa: explosion at a church. Read more...
“A Deconstruction of the Discourse of Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, Caliph of Hei’at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), Idlib, Syria”
Crisis Group published its conversation with al-Jolani titled “The Jihadist Factor in Syria’s Idlib: A Conversation with Abu Muhammad al-Jolani” and I have used the published statements made by al-Jolani in this conversation, to deconstruct and unearth his discourse. Al-Jolani places himself within the Salafi-Jihadi school of jurisprudence of Sunni Islam, but is insisting on a new approach to Jihad, that places him at odds with both Islamic State and Al Qaeda. Al-Jolani insists that realities on the ground in the Jihad, against the munafique (hypocrites of Islam) and the kaffirun (unbelievers) in a Muslim nation, must dictate the operational strategies of this Jihad. Read more...