Category: Jihadology

Please Fill Out The “Researcher Online Account and Content Takedowns” Survey

Posted on by Aaron Y. Zelin

Hi everyone, I usually don’t have personal posts on the website, but I’ve created a survey to better understand how researchers focusing on terrorism and extremism have been impacted by social media and storage site companies taking down accounts and content that has violated their Terms of Service. This is part of an ongoing research project where I’ve interviewed people and also collected secondary sources related to this issue. I have also spoken on this topic three times in 2022: at the International Studies Association annual conference, the biannual Terrorism and Social Media conference at Swansea University, and the newly created Trust and Safety Research conference at Stanford University.

To help strengthen this work, I was wondering if people could fill out this survey, which should only take 5-10 minutes: https://forms.gle/XXj61GSvVNYy6Cky9. Thank you!

Check out my new academic journal article: “The Case of Jihadology and the Securitization of Academia”

Posted on by Aaron Y. Zelin

Abstract:

This paper goes to the heart of this special issue by exploring the case of the web site, Jihadology, which the author founded and has managed for the past ten-plus years. It explores various issues including why such a site is necessary and/or useful, questions about dissemination and open access, lessons learned about responsibility and interaction with jihadis online, the evolution of the website that has the largest repository of jihadi content, interactions with governments and technology companies and how they viewed and dealt with the website. The paper also explores how the experience gained might help other researchers interested in creating primary source-first websites to assist in their research as well as to the benefit of others in the field. Therefore, this paper aims to shed light not only on this unique case, but also on the moral and ethical questions that have arisen through maintaining the Jihadology website for more than a decade in a time of changing online environments and more recent calls for censorship.

Click here to access the article.

The Archivist: A Tribute to Jihadology – The Islamic State Police in Wilayat Halab

Posted on by Aaron Y. Zelin

For prior parts in The Archivist series you can view an archive of it all here. And for his older series see: Musings of an Iraqi Brasenostril on Jihad.

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A Tribute to Jihadology – The Islamic State Police in Wilayat Halab

By Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi

There are few specialists in the realm of jihadism studies who can claim to have not relied on Jihadology at some point in the course of their research. Over ten years, the website has grown to be the Internet’s most important repository for primary jihadist source material. At a time when social media sites are cracking down more vigorously than ever on dissemination of jihadist videos and writings, Jihadology proves the vital resource for those of us who simply lack the time to trawl through and save all of those materials on our computers.

I first came to notice Jihadology in late 2012, partly on account of my curiosity at the time about jihadist anashid. At the time I was an undergraduate student at Oxford University and had not yet become deeply involved in primary research on jihadism, but that rapidly changed as the Syrian civil war continued to develop and the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) was announced in April 2013. Soon I began rigorously looking for all the primary materials I could find on ISIS’ evolution in Syria. I had the privilege of coming to write a column for Jihadology that primarily focused on ISIS in Iraq and Syria. After ISIS officially declared itself the Caliphate, my research angle shifted somewhat away from the group’s official propaganda and began examining internal administrative documents that emerged in the open source realm, which I started to compile in an archive on my own site. As I began to procure my own collections of Islamic State documents primarily coming out of Syria, I started a new column on Jihadology under the title of The Archivist in order to feature some of those documents with select analysis.

Throughout my years of research, I have always admired Aaron Zelin’s philosophy underpinning Jihadology: that is, making source materials available for other researchers to use. This philosophy partly drove my own approach in showcasing administrative documents with translation (my other inspiration lay in the handbooks of Latin and Greek epigraphic materials that were most useful to me in my undergraduate studies in Classics with Oriental Studies). I have also shared Aaron’s philosophy in other realms, such as making primary interviews I have conducted accessible in raw format on my site, as well as the original texts in my Arabic translations of excerpts from Old English and Gothic writings.

Though the era of completely open access to the primary source materials on Jihadology has now come to an end for security reasons, the site continue to remain accessible to those with genuine research purposes. If all Jihadologists were like Aaron in their approach to archiving primary materials and assisting fellow researchers in finding those materials, the field would be certainly be much healthier and happier!

So, in short, without wishing to prolong this panegyric, here is for many more decades of success for Jihadology! Or, as I might say in Latin to Aaron: Deus te benedicat! Et nunc et semper prospere geras!

To commemorate the tenth anniversary of the site, I have decided to feature some exclusive documents with translation on the structure of the Islamic State’s ‘General Police’ as it existed in Wilayat Halab (‘Aleppo province’). It would appear that the ‘General Police’ was the reconstituted ‘Islamic Police’. Regrettably, some of the pages of the original publication appear to be missing from the surviving copy I have. Nonetheless, I showcase some of these documents to illustrate (though in a very partial sense) how the Islamic State organized its police apparatus in the later stages of its territorial control in a region of Syria. Note that in the translation, any parenthetical insertions in square brackets are my own.

Islamic State
Wilayat Halab [Aleppo province]
General Police

[NB: this heading is on all the pages].

Means and framework of operation in the General Police


Work assigned in the General Police

Amir of the General Police: he is the official before God responsible for tracking and overseeing and supervising the divisions of the police in Wilayat Halab and conveying the orders from the wali.

Amir of the Special Police: he is the official before God responsible for tracking, overseeing and supervising the divisions of the military police in the wilaya and conveying the orders from the amir of the general police in the wilaya.

Amir of the Police in the Sector: he is the official before God responsible for tracking and overseeing all of the stations in the sector and conveying the orders from the amir of the sector and the amir of the police in the wilaya to all the stations in the sector.

Amir of the Police in the Station: he is the official before God responsible for arranging and organizing the station he is entrusted with by the amir of the police in the sector.

Amir of the Intelligence: he is the official responsible before God for gathering the information in terms of security and criminal matters and referring them to the amir of the general police.

Amir of the Security of the Routes: he is the official responsible before God for making clear the presence of the Islamic State and managing security in the areas that are behind the ribat [frontline manning] lines.

Note: in the event that there occurs a disagreement between the amir of the general police and the amir of the sector, the orders of the amir of the sector are to be implemented until referral of the matter to the wali [provincial governor].


Note: the checkpoints should be affiliated either with the sector or the amir of the police in the wilaya, and that will vary.



The checkpoints are divided into:

a) Firm checkpoints: their number is 8 brothers and they are the officials before God responsible for recording entry and exit from and to the sector or wilaya over the course of 24 hours and they are situated at the main entry to the wilaya and sector. They also track the wanted people and catch them if they try to pass through the checkpoint, prevent smuggling of people to outside the lands of the Dawla [Islamic State], and arrest the slackers from the soldiers of the Dawla and hand them over to the military police. Also the amir of the firm checkpoints is the amir and official responsible for the flying checkpoints.

b) Flying checkpoints: their number is 6 brothers from the inhabitants of the area, their work being in undefined places and times. They also arrest those who try to flee from the firm checkpoint and they are affiliated with the firm checkpoint. Their amir is one and their base is one.



Specimen of work of the patrols [for the police stations]:

Name of the brother who is the amir of the patrol:
Area:
Date: / /1438

Daytime patrol:
Nighttime patrol:
Assignment:
Inside the area:
Outside the area:

Type of issue:

Quarrel:
Theft:
People smuggling:
Smoking:
Traffic accident:
Internet without license:
Opening fire:
Besides that:

Patrol sent by:

Amir of the area:
Amir of the police:
Judge’s clerk:
Hisba:
Guest houses:
Court:
Zakat:
Agriculture:
Relations:
Amnis [security personnel]:
Services:
Other:

Detailing:

To all the stations, we ask you to comply with the specimen of the work of the patrols because they will be the basis in preparing the weekly report and monthly report and the report must be precise in this manner:

. Number of daytime and nighttime patrols
. Number of patrols outside or inside the area
. Number of types of cases.
. Number of patrols sent by whom
. Notes
. Requests and needs

Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi is an independent analyst and a doctoral candidate at Swansea University, where he focuses on the role of historical narratives in Islamic State propaganda. His public media work focuses primarily on the Islamic State, Iraq, and Syria, and he has been cited in numerous outlets for his insights, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Agence France-Presse, and the Associated Press. His website is www.aymennjawad.org.

Site Registration

Posted on by Aaron Y. Zelin

If anyone is still having issues registering on Jihadology since the site has changed, please email me at azelin[@]jihadology[.]net so I can help resolve it. If it says “we do not accept registrations from that domain” it is because the domain has yet to be whitelisted. This does not necessarily mean you cannot access the website, we just do not know every singe domain email and have yet to whitelist that particular one yet. So please reach out.

Additionally, if you are registered and have found a problem with any post, please email me at the above address so that it can be fixed. Thanks for your patience and help.

Aaron Y. Zelin

Founder of Jihadology

Tech Against Terrorism Press Release: April 10, 2019 – Launching An Updated Version of Jihadology

Posted on by Aaron Y. Zelin

Over the past 12 months, Tech Against Terrorism has worked with the academic website Jihadology.net to update it so that particularly sensitive content is only accessible by users with registered academic/research, governmental, journalistic, or humanitarian  email addresses. The purpose of this work is to ensure that individuals can still access important primary research material whilst ensuring that jihadis and individuals vulnerable to recruitment are prevented from viewing and downloading the most sensitive content. The update to the website was sponsored by the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, a tech coalition founded by Twitter, Microsoft, Facebook, and YouTube to responsibly address the spread of terrorist content online.

Background to Jihadology

Jihadology is highly regarded as the internet’s most comprehensive “clearinghouse for jihadiī primary source material and original analysis” and as such Jihadology is considered to be an essential resource for academia and terrorism researchers. Jihadology contains more than 13,000 articles. In total, this amounts to around 750 GB of video.

Background to Tech Against Terrorism

Tech Against Terrorism is an initiative launched by the United Nations Counter Terrorism Executive Directorate (UN CTED) in April 2017 and implemented by the UK-based NGO QuantSpark Foundation. We support the global technology sector in responding to terrorist use of the internet whilst respecting human rights, and we work to promote public-private partnerships to mitigate this threat. Specifically, we work across three pillars: outreach, knowledge-sharing, and technical and operational support. As a public-private partnership, the initiative is supported by the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism and the governments of Spain, Switzerland, and the Republic of Korea.

We work with a broad range of internet platforms that are susceptible to being used by terrorists. We focus on analysing what terrorists want through their use of the internet, with our analysis clearly indicating that an entire tech eco-system is being exploited by terrorists and violent extremists, often in combination. Therefore our work is tech-agnostic and works with companies across all types of technologies, with an explicit focus on supporting smaller tech companies with fewer resources to adequately address the urgent threat of terrorist exploitation. This partnership between Tech Against Terrorism and Jihadology shows the value of providing technical support to smaller internet platforms like Jihadology who do not necessarily have the technical resources to make these changes on their own.

Why are we doing this?

Jihadology is widely regarded as an essential resource for those conducting research on jihadi groups, thanks to its collation of extensive amounts of primary source material produced by such groups. However, there have been concerns that the site is used by jihadis who exploit the fact that material on the site is publicly available. As such, Jihadology wanted to find a way to password protect the most sensitive material. In order to make the site more secure whilst ensuring that the site can remain open and continue to increase understanding of jihadism, we have updated the site with the aim of denying jihadis and those vulnerable to recruitment easy access to the most sensitive content hosted on the site

What are the changes to the updated version?

The updated version of Jihadology restricts access of the primary sources for those that do not have a formal affiliation with an academic/research, governmental, journalistic, or humanitarian institution. Third-party researchers can request special permission to access the password-protected part of the site on a case-by-case basis. The analysis part of the website remains open to anyone.

How do users register?

To ensure that this registration system is used by legitimate researchers, the registration system will accept registrations from recognised email domains only (.edu, .gov, .ac.uk, .gov.au etc). Since researchers with legitimate interest in using Jihadology who do not have such email addresses should still have access to the site, an override function will allow for Jihadology to accept registrations from other email addresses at their discretion. Tech Against Terrorism has also developed warning interstitials to be displayed when accessing harmful content, and restricted visibility of original source URLs and imagery for non-registered users. Jihadology will remain the sole administrator over the website and will not be sharing any data regarding registration with Tech Against Terrorism, the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, or any governments.

What does this achieve?

This update allows for Jihadology to continue to serve its purpose as the world’s largest clearinghouse for jihadi primary source material and original analysis whilst increasing the site’s capacity to safeguard against exploitation by jihadis. In our view, protecting certain sensitive content whilst making it accessible for research purposes is the best way to do this, and demonstrates that options for responding to terrorist online content do not only consist of removal or complete access.

A New Era Begins: Changes To Jihadology

Posted on by Aaron Y. Zelin

For those that know me or have spoken to me about the origins of this website, the original purpose was to assist graduate students in accessing jihadi primary source material. I started the site in May 2010, but the idea had been germinating with me through the process of writing my M.A. thesis beginning in the fall of 2009. At the time, jihadis released their content on password-protected forums and many did not know how to access them, as well as many individuals were worried about viruses or malware. There were also not many university courses on jihadism at the time and there were no professors (or very few) teaching how to access this content for research. Therefore, through the process of writing my M.A. thesis I had issues getting primary sources and figured, if I was having troubles, I’m sure other graduate students were as well. This was why I created this site. Through the process of doing my M.A. thesis I had a better grasp of attaining this content for research and continued to improve my understanding over the first six months or so of this website being created.

Times have changed, however. Now, there are many courses on jihadism and many professors have risen up the ranks and also now teach students how to access this content. Therefore, the added-value of the site remaining open to anyone has passed its expiration date. That being said, the website is not dying. Rather, to gain access to the primary sources you will need to register. I will still remain the sole administrator of the website. The website is open to those with academic/research, governmental, journalistic, or humanitarian email addresses. Third-party researchers can request special permission to access the password-protected part of the site on a case-by-case basis. The original analysis, guest posts, and side features like my ‘Articles of the Week,’ ‘Eyes on Jihadis in Libya,’ or whatever comes up in the future will remain open to anyone.

I am sure some will be disappointed by this, but it has not been an easy decision. It is something I have mulled over for some time. I would like to thank the folks at GIFCT and Tech Against Terrorism for assisting in this process over the past year. I look forward to Jihadology continuing to be a vital resource for many interested in doing research and better understanding this phenomenon.

For those that register, if you find any issues with any of the primary sources on the site due to potential errors during the transferring of the site to a new server, please email me so it can be fixed it.

Aaron Y. Zelin

Founder of Jihadology

Eye on ISIS in Libya

Posted on by Aaron Y. Zelin

Jihadology is proud to launch a collaboration with a new web service, EyeOnISISinLibya.com — founded by Jason Pack. Eye On ISIS in Libya (EOIL) is both a repository of English language information about the origins, expansion, actions, and governance of the Islamic State in Libya and also a free subscription web service that provides weekly updates on IS’s actions and the responses of Libyan and international actors. EOIL’s comprehensive, easily searchable, information-driven, and unbiased content replete with maps, videos, and interactive content should help individuals interested come to grips with the unique nature of IS in Libya compared with its home base in Iraq/Syria.
Each week, Jihadology will repost the EOIL “ISIS in Action” post covering the Islamic State’s actions over the previous week. These posts also link back to the EOIL site where users can read that week’s other three updates: “Western Response,”  “Other Jihadi Actors,” and “The Anti-ISIS Coalition.” Conversely, Jihadology will post IS’s videos and propaganda pertaining to Libya on EOIL’s  ISIS Materials page, with links back to Jihadology where users can find more information about IS’s full range of propaganda.
Look out for the first “ISIS in Action” post on Jihadology in the coming days.
Eye-on-Isis-Logo-001

Jihadology Podcast: IS and Attacks in the West with Thomas Hegghammer

Posted on by Aaron Y. Zelin

Thomas Hegghammer talks to Aaron about his new paper, “Assessing the Islamic State’s Commitment to Attacking the West,” in Perspectives on Terrorism, co-authored with Petter Nesser. This episode also features our #SocialMedia segment, covering posts from August 3rd to August 9th.
Links:

The podcast is produced by Karl Morand. If you have feedback you can email [email protected], or find us on Twitter: @JihadPod.
You can subscribe to the show in iTunes or with our RSS feed.

Download this episode (37MB mp3).

AQ – IS Power Rankings – April 2015

Posted on by Aaron Y. Zelin

*UPDATE: Based on feedback on Twitter and some more thinking on my part, here is an updated version of the original chart kept below so people can compare. Unless there is some large-scale breaking news, I’ll likely now update this every month or two.
Untitled2223
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Original Post (4/19/15 8:00pm eastern):
My attempt to visualize where things are currently. Will periodically update, but I mainly posted this so as to get feedback since it is a fluid situation and some might have more local insight on particular groups/areas than me.
Is-Aq