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The Laith Group: Syrian Army Auxiliary

September 22, 2018 at 5:36 pm

By now it is possible to identify many auxiliary groups fighting on the side of the Syrian government and the various specific entities with which they are affiliated. Other auxiliary groups, however, seem to have no affiliation at all. The Laith Group (Majmu'at Laith) is one such example.

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Dissent in the Islamic State: The News Postings of Mu'assasat al-Turath al-'Ilmi

September 21, 2018  •  aymennjawad.org

As mentioned in my previous post, Mu'assasat al-Turath al-'Ilmi ('Ilm Heritage Foundation) is widely disliked among supporters of official Islamic State media for its dissemination of books and studies without authorization from the Islamic State's media department and its broadcasting of claims of internal troubles in the Islamic State. It is the latter aspect of Mu'assasat al-Turath al-'Ilmi's output that I will focus on in this post.

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Nigerian Questions by Sheikh Abu Malek al-Tamimi

September 20, 2018  •  aymennjawad.org

Those who read the self-history of Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and its critique of Abu Bakr Shekau will note that the text mentions more than once a certain Abu Malek al-Tamimi. He is referred to as "our sheikh" by the authors and is cited as a particular source of inspiration in the preamble to the refutation of Shekau's ideas of 'chain takfir.' Further, Abu Malek al-Tamimi is cited in the book's footnotes in relation to a work called 'Nigerian Questions', in which he advised ISWAP that it is in fact correct to say that the Earth is spherical (despite what 'Boko Haram' founder Muhammad Yusuf believed and what Abu Bakr Shekau asserts) and that it is generally not in the interest of the jihad at this stage to target schools teaching doctrines of kufr. In this post I present the text of 'Nigerian Questions' in full with translation.

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The Bedouin Tribes of Suwayda': Interview

September 18, 2018 at 7:22 pm

Though the southern Syrian province of Suwayda' is primarily Druze, there is a notable Bedouin tribal minority in the province. I recently interviewed Sheikh Mamdouh al-Sa'id (aka Mamdouh al-Zubaidi), a Bedouin sheikh of the al-Shanabila tribe. He is supportive of the Syrian government and is a resident of Suwayda' city. This interview was conducted on 14 September 2018. Any parenthetical, explanatory insertions are in square brackets.

Q: First can you tell me a little about the Bedouin tribes in Suwayda' and their history?

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Abu Bakr Shekau in His Own Words: Translation and Analysis

September 17, 2018  •  aymennjawad.org

The previous primary texts I have examined in relation to the Nigerian jihad scene were written by critics of Abu Bakr Shekau (though both texts present some quotations from Shekau's written and spoken pronouncements). In the interest of fairness, it is worth presenting something entirely in Abu Bakr Shekau's own words.

This pamphlet on the meaning of Islam, its contrary, the concept of 'Taghut' and western/foreign schools is a good place to start. The pamphlet was published in February 2017- that is, many months after Shekau's removal from the position of wali (governor) of Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).

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