Tag Archives: Salafism

A Note on the Mu’tazilites and the Office of the Caliph

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 4 June 2025

Muslim belief is that the Qur’an is “uncreated” (ghayr makhluq). While the Qur’an was revealed to Muhammad over twenty-three years (610-32 AD), the “speech of God” (kalam Allah) in these revelations had existed co-eternally with God. This was once a point of serious dispute in Islamic theology, and the outcome of that debate was an important waymarker in the development of Islam.

Continue reading →

What Iran’s Leaks Really Tell Us About Syrian “Interim” President Ahmad al-Shara’s Past with the Islamic State

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 3 May 2025

Continue reading →

Islamic State Changes Course in Dealing With the Tribes, Holds Its Ground Against Democracy

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 4 April 2025

Continue reading →

Islamic State Profiles its “Hidden Figures”

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 11 January 2025

Continue reading →

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s Wife Sentenced to Death

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 6 October 2024

Continue reading →

The Progress of the Islamic State’s New Foreign Terrorism Campaign

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 27 August 2024

Continue reading →

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi: Bringing the Islamic State to Saddam’s Iraq and Joining Al-Qaeda

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 20 June 2023

Continue reading →

Al-Qaeda and Global Terrorism: What is the Current Threat?

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 23 February 2023

Continue reading →

Islamic State Profiles a Young Iraqi Jihadist Killed During the Battle of Mosul

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 5 September 2022

Abu al-Zubayr al-Askari || Al-Naba 352, p. 9

Continue reading →

Saddam Relative Arrested in Lebanon, Accused of Islamic State Crimes

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 24 August 2022

Area on the banks of the Tigris where the cadets of Camp Speicher were massacred by the Islamic State || Scott Peterson/The Christian Science Monitor

Continue reading →