Check out my new ‘Policy Watch’ for the Washington Institute: “From Global Jihad to Local Regime: HTS Builds Different Forms of Legitimacy”

This week, the Syrian jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) passed a notable milestone: it has now been active for longer than its predecessor, the al-Qaeda branch Jabhat al-Nusra (JN). Although HTS remains an extremist organization, it attempts to derive legitimacy from different constituencies these days. As JN, the group based its legitimacy on where it stood within the global jihadist movement, but as HTS, it seeks to build its reputation within the local milieu of Syria’s Idlib province. The latter form of legitimacy is more difficult to burnish, however, since it depends on how the group attempts to govern millions of residents with differing aspirations and worldviews. Ironically, HTS now acts much like the Arab regimes it claims to oppose throughout the Middle East—from the way it mobilizes local support, to the abuses it commits against activists opposed to its rule.

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New release from Hay’at Taḥrīr al-Shām’s Abū Mārīyah al-Qaḥṭānī: “There Are Several Factors That Made the Ṭālibān Persevere”

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Click the following link for a safe PDF copy: Abū Mārīyah al-Qaḥṭānī — There Are Several Factors That Made the Ṭālibān Persevere

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Source: Telegram

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