Category: Iraq

NOTE: An archive of the Musings of an Iraqi Brasenostril on Jihad column can now be found here.
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The Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham’s Messages and Self-Presentation in Syria and Iraq

By Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi
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As the civil war in Syria continues to rage on, it is apparent that the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham (ISIS) in Syria has enjoyed a degree of success that the group’s counterparts in Iraq have never been able to achieve. For example, ISIS controls a number of towns and villages in Syria, most notably on the border areas with Turkey, such as Jarabulus in Aleppo province and ad-Dana in Idlib. Further, even where ISIS is not the main faction in charge, the group has engaged in outreach to locals through providing social services that resemble what my colleague Phillip Smyth terms the mechanisms of a “proto-state.”
This phenomenon most notably encompasses the provision of food aid, with ISIS even having introduced a formal rationing system of basic necessities in some Aleppo suburbs. In the rural Aleppo town of Manbij, ISIS is currently attempting to gain a monopoly on the means of bread-production in the town, sparking a dispute with the local council.
Elsewhere, particularly in towns where ISIS is the dominant faction (dubbed “emirates”- such as the “Emirate of Jarabulus”), the group goes beyond provision of food to running schools for children. From Raqqa, ISIS recently released a video of Qur’an recitation classes for children in the mosques.
The consequence of this level of control is that in images and videos put out by ISIS, its supporters and sympathizers within Syria, the wider ideological agenda of the group is made much more apparent than within Iraq. Thus, below one can see a number of images from Syria circulated among pro-ISIS circles that openly affirm the goal of establishing a Caliphate, which should eventually encompass the entire world.

Figure 1: A photo of a pro-ISIS rally in the Aleppo area released by an unofficial pro-ISIS media network called “State of the Caliphate.” The placard reads: “Islam: Political Justice. Islam: Economic Justice. Islam: Societal Justice. State of the Caliphate: God’s Shari’a on Earth.”

Figure 2: An image that can be found circulating on pro-ISIS social media pages from Syria, depicting the entire Earth under the banner of ISIS.

Figure 3: An image circulated among some pro-ISIS activists (e.g. in Idlib). The provinces of the more immediate “State of the Caliphate” are as follows: the Iberian Peninsula is Andalusia, northwest and west Africa the Maghreb, central and east Africa the Land of Abyssinia, Egypt the “Arḍ al-Kenana,” the Levant ash-Sham, and the Arabian Peninsula excluding Yemen (which retains its name) is the Hejaz. Iraq likewise retains its name, but the existence of a Kurdistan province to the north alongside Anatolia is included. Iran (with the exception of Ahwaz in the southwest) and Central Asia become Khorasan, while southeastern Europe as far as Vienna is the province of Europe. Southern Russia forms the Caucasus.

Figure 4: A mural from the ISIS-controlled town of Jarabulus (Emirate of Jarabulus) on the northern border with Turkey in Aleppo Governorate. The logo on the left, with the ISIS banner in the middle of it, reads: “The Caliphate: Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham.”

Figure 5: A photo from an ISIS video in May of a youth training camp the group was running in the Abu Kamal area along the border with Iraq. The children are wearing T-shirts with the logo: “The Cadets of the Caliphate.”
Video evidence paints a similar picture. Indeed, even when there was only Jabhat al-Nusra, in localities where the group has had a long-established presence, one could find rallies for a Caliphate, such as this video from the Idlib town of Binnish. In a similar vein, from the Aleppo area of Tariq al-Bab, which has a strong ISIS presence, one can find regular rallies for an Islamic state and/or Caliphate. For example, here is a rally from mid-July set to the nasheed ‘Labbayka Islam’– a well-known nasheed for the Caliphate also used in Hizb-ut-Tahrir circles.
Likewise, in one of ISIS’ da’wah meetings that have now become a familiar sight in the Aleppo suburbs, one of the ISIS muhajireen explains that they have come in order to establish an Islamic state in Arḍ ash-Sham as an extension to an Islamic state in Iraq that is currently fighting the Safavid government and army. In the Aleppo town of Manbij, which ISIS shares with some other battalions, a preacher for ISIS gave a lengthy sermon in the town’s grand mosque on the need for the establishment of a Caliphate, explaining it as an all-embracing system of economics, governance and justice, while denouncing rival concepts like democracy, a secular state and nationalism.
Arguably most significant are the official ISIS videos released by al-Furqān media, as part of two series entitled “Those who believe, emigrate and wage jihad” and “Messages from Arḍ al-Melāḥam [Syria].” From the first, we have the video of ISIS’ martyred French convert Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Faransi, who speaks in an interview of the need to fight jihad in Syria and restore the Caliphate. The second series is widely advertised on jihadi forums, as shown by the photo distributed below:

Figure 6: “Messages from Arḍ al-Melāḥam.”
The fighter shown in Figure 6 is an interviewee in one of these videos. His accent most likely indicates origin in the Iraq-Syria border areas. Going by the nom de guerre of Abu Omar al-Anṣārī, he is said to have taken part in the ISIS-led assault on Mannagh airbase in rural Aleppo. He is also described in the video caption as the eldest fighter for ISIS, noting in the video that he is 75 years old.
Among his children, four ended up becoming mujahideen, and one of them was imprisoned in Iraq by the Americans. He says: “I came to jihad because jihad is farḍ al-ayn [a duty incumbent on all Muslims]…I hope for martyrdom with my children.” Expanding on ISIS’ wider vision, he explains:
“God, give victory to Islam, give victory to the mujahideen…over all the enemies of the mujahideen…God give the mujahideen victory in every place….in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Somalia, Mali, Iraq, Pakistan and in every place…My age and elderliness are not a problem…Fighting [jihad] will always be until the Day of Judgment…God willing, when we are victorious in this land [Bilad ash-Sham], we will complete the errand to establish an Islamic state over the whole world. It is necessary for the Islamic state to be established by the permission of God- Almighty and Exalted is He- over the whole world, and it [jihad etc.] is not only in Bilad ash-Sham. For if we are victorious here, it will be guaranteed in the rest of the land, God willing” (emphasis in bold).
The vision outlined is entirely consistent with what the al-Qa’ida leadership, fighters and supporters have stated on past occasions:
Richard Dawkins: Do you want Islam to take over the rest of the world?
Yousef al-Khattab: Of course I want it to, and it will.
(From an interview conducted by Richard Dawkins for the documentary “The Root of All Evil?” with Yousef al-Khattab, who would go on to found the pro-al-Qa’ida site RevolutionMuslim.com).
You’ll see that the Muslim war has just started…until Islam is spread throughout the whole world.
(Videotape of failed Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad, released by Umar Media and obtained by al-Arabiya).
Alright, i [sic] wont [sic] go into too much details about me [sic] fantasy, but basically they are jihad fantisies [sic]. I imagine how the great jihad will take place, how the muslims will win insha Allah and rule the whole world, and establish the greatest empire once again!!!
(From a 2005 forum posting by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to bomb a flight en route to Detroit on Christmas Day 2009)
Or, as one Egyptian supporter of ISIS put it to me in response to the UK’s designation of the mujahideen as the greatest security threat from Syria: “I love it when the Fish & Chips Folks exaggerate. Their [the mujahideen’s] focus is on Bashar for now. Their [the British people’s] time will eventually