Briefs
Pakistan’s Militant Conspiracy Theorist: Zaid Hamid
Farhan Zahid According to a 2014 Pew Poll, a mere 14 percent of Pakistanis have favorable views of the United States (Pew Poll, July 2014). There may be other reasons for growing anti-Americanism in Pakistan but Islamist militant conspiracy theorists play a pivotal role. According... MORE
Muhammad Shafi Armar: From Indian Mujahideen to Islamic State Recruiter
Animesh Roul In late January 2016, India’s elite anti-terrorism agency, the National Investigating Agency (NIA), stumbled on an unknown extremist network, the Junood al-Khilafa-e-Hind (JKH), known to be sympathetic to the Islamic State. With the arrest of nearly 14 suspects in a countrywide search and... MORE
Beyond the Brotherhood: Egypt’s Yasir Hussein Borhami and the Salafist Revolution
Andrew McGregor With debate growing over the role of Saudi-inspired Salafism in the development of Islamist extremism, it is worth examining the career and continuing influence of Yasir Hussein al-Borhami, one of Egypt’s most prominent Salafists. Despite the rigid ideology associated with Salafism, Borhami has... MORE
The Scholar Behind the Islamic State’s Ideology: A Profile of Bahraini Cleric Turki al-Bin’ali
Ludovico Carlino The June 2014 proclamation of a Caliphate covering a large area spanning from eastern Syria to western Iraq has provided the Islamic State with a powerful tool to claim religious legitimacy among supporters and detractors alike. The Islamic State’s claim that it is... MORE
The Most Dangerous Women in Jihad – Part I: Nada al-Qahtani
Halla Diyab Introduction The rising number of foreign female militants and recruiters among the ranks of the Islamic State is a direct result of the ongoing manipulation of gender norms within the State’s jihadist framework. With female jihadist recruiters deviating from prescribed norms and bypassing... MORE
Abu Wardah Santoso: Indonesia’s Most Wanted
Zainul Abid Before the dust settled in the wake of a series of deadly bombings in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta on January 14, fingers were pointing at Santoso Abu Wardah AsySyarqi Hafidzahullah, whom the authorities have termed the country’s “most wanted terrorist.” Soon after... MORE
Italy’s Lady Jihad: Maria Gulia Sergio of the Islamic State
The Islamic State has drawn an overwhelming number of female followers, who play a key role in recruiting other female volunteers, promoting the organization’s propaganda online and even engaging in combat operations. This contradicts perceptions that women are less prone to partake in violent Islamist... MORE
Aman Abdurrahman: Indonesia’s Most Influential Extremist
Aman Abdurrahman has become arguably the most influential extremist ideologue in Indonesia today. A former Salafist preacher, Abdurrahman has become the foremost promoter of the Islamic State in Indonesia from his cell in the country’s so-called “super-maximum security” prison. His reputation among local Islamic State... MORE
Burhan Muzafar Wani: The Viral Poster Boy of Kashmir Jihad
Hizbul Mujahideen’s (HM) newly recruited commander, Burhan-ud-Din Muzaffar Wani, has taken Kashmir’s militant landscape by storm by using his social media skills and guns. One of his recent photographs featured the 21-year-old commander surrounded by at least ten other militants of roughly the same age... MORE
A Post-Mortem Analysis of Wisam al-Zubaidi: The Leader of the Islamic State in Libya
In November 2015, sources in the Pentagon suggested that the United States killed the leader of the Islamic State in Libya, Wisam al-Zubaidi (a.k.a. Abu Nabil al-Anbari). According to American sources cited by Jeune Afrique, al-Anbari was killed in an airstrike carried out by F-15... MORE