Category: al-Qā’idah

New video message from al-Qā’idah in the Islamic Maghrib’s Abū Khalīl Idrīs: “We Would Have Invented Against God A Lie If We Returned To Your Religion”

Posted on by Aaron Y. Zelin

The title of this release is in reference to Qur’anic verse 7:89. Here it is in full: “We would have invented against God a lie if we returned to your religion after God had saved us from it. And it is not for us to return to it except that God, our Lord, should will. Our Lord has encompassed all things in knowledge. Upon God we have relied. Our Lord, decide between us and our people in truth, and You are the best of those who give decision.”

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To inquire about a translation for this video message for a fee email: [email protected]

My new 92-page booklet has been published: “The Age of Political Jihadism: A Study of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham”

Posted on by Aaron Y. Zelin

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Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a group previously linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and to al-Qaeda, has evolved in ways that challenge accepted views of “jihadism.” Now ruling over territory in Syria’s northern Idlib and western Aleppo governorates, it functions more like a government than a nonstate actor, and HTS leader Abu Muhammad al-Jawlani is seeking the group’s removal from the U.S. State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. But HTS is hardly anodyne. The group still espouses extremist beliefs that glamorize terrorism abroad, and its fighters fire rockets into civilian areas controlled by the Assad regime. Moreover, HTS hosts other designated groups in its territory, including Jamaat Ansar al-Islam, Katibat Imam al-Bukhari, and Katibat al-Tawhid wal Jihad.

In this thought-provoking Policy Focus, illustrated with photographs of HTS personalities and personnel, jihadism expert Aaron Y. Zelin digs deep into the group’s past before reckoning with the implications of Jawlani’s request. Whatever the U.S. decision, he suggests, political jihadism is here to stay.

Click here to read the 92-page booklet.

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