Tag Archives: Islamism

The ‘Strategic Plan’ of the Islamic State

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 16 August 2022

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The Challenge for Western Intelligence in Talibanized Afghanistan

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 18 June 2022

A U.S. helicopter above the American Embassy in Kabul, 15 August 2021 | AP

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Islamic State Attacks Israel for the First Time in Five Years

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 31 March 2022

Israeli security forces reacting to the terrorist attack in Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv, 29 March 2022 || Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has said his country is “facing a new wave of terrorism” after five attacks in the last ten days have killed eleven people. The Islamic State (IS) has effectively admitted to carrying out two of the atrocities, the first time in five years the terrorist group has carried out attacks in the Jewish state. This hiatus, partly a reflection of the fact that, unlike some other Islamist extremists, IS does not make the anti-Israel cause a central plank of its propaganda, also reflects the relatively small inroads IS’s ideology has made to this point among Palestinian and Israeli Arabs. Whether this is now changing is unclear. Continue reading

Islamic State Appoints a New Leader and Spokesman

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 15 March 2022

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Islamic State Won’t Take Sides With Russia or Ukraine, Hopes For More ‘Crusader-Crusader Wars’

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 22 February 2022

Al-Naba 328, p. 3

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The Fall of Afghanistan and Western Foreign Fighters

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 22 February 2022

Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, fell to jihadists on 15 August 2021, and this has emboldened the jihadist movement across the world, providing it with a morale boost and a model, as well as renewing the terrorist safe haven that incubated 9/11. Continue reading

The 2007 Islamic State Book “Informing Mankind” of its Justifications for the Caliphate

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 22 November 2021

The Islamic State movement published an 87-page book, “Informing Mankind of the Birth of the Islamic State” or “Informing the People of the Birth of the Islamic State” (I’lam al-Anam bi-Milad Dawlat al-Islam), on 7 January 2007. The document was released by Al-Furqan Media Foundation, the central Islamic State propaganda institution, and first appeared on the World News Network website. A rough translation of the book appears below.

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Hysteria and the Iranian Revolution

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 12 October 2021

Iranian protesters burn an effigy of the Shah outside the American Embassy, 1979 [source]

There were immense political forces at work in the Iranian Revolution of 1978-79, and they have been covered in some depth on this blog before. In this brief piece, I want to look at the social aspect, specifically the social contagion aspect. People who were in Iran during the Islamic Revolution or who have studied it deeply in retrospect describe the country going “temporarily insane”,[1] and tend to use terms like “febrile” and “hysterical” when describing the atmosphere, especially by the summer of 1978, since, as everyone seems to acknowledge, the revolutionary fervour fed on itself the longer it was allowed to continue. Continue reading

Getting Real About Pakistan After the Jihadist Takeover of Afghanistan

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 20 August 2021

Khalil Haqqani, a senior Taliban leader and simultaneously a leader of Al-Qaeda’s Haqqani Network, leads Friday prayers at the Pul-i-Khishti, the largest mosque in Kabul, 20 August 2021

When the Taliban swept into the capital of Afghanistan on Sunday, little of the coverage focused on Pakistan and yet that was where this victory was made. This is a pattern that has persisted throughout the war. Continue reading