CIAO DATE: 05/2008
Volume: 2, Issue: 1
January - March, 2007
Terrorism in Europe: The local aspects of a global threat (PDF)
Julian Richards
There is no doubt that Al Qaeda-inspired jihadist terrorism has capitalised on globalisation in many ways. Using multimedia communications, the "single narrative" linking together perceived wrongs against Muslims across the world can be downloaded and sampled immediately, anywhere in the world. By portraying his message across the internet or 24/7 newsreels on satellite television, Usama Bin Laden and his cohorts have acted as an exciting inspiration for a generation of alienated Muslims youths in backrooms across the globe. In this way, the person that Australian counter-terrorist analyst David Kilcullen claimed would otherwise be a "crank in a cave" has managed to transform himself into something of a global icon.
There is evidence that internet and multimedia-based radicalisation has been an important factor in a number of recent terrorist cases, such as that of the 2005 London bombers, or aspirant shoe-bomber Sajid Badat, who seems to have radicalised himself almost entirely in isolation from others. It is ironic that the internet is, in many ways, perfectly suited to Salafism, in that - like globalisation - it is egalitarian, and respects no national boundaries, established organisations or traditional hierarchies of elders and ulema.
At the same time, Al Qaeda has constructed an incredibly resilient and self-repairing global network of terrorism. Its dispersed cellular structure and method of franchising the corporate message to local groups, can easily straddle national boundaries, and defies traditional military responses. Al Qaeda's terrorism is a truly transnational phenomenon.
The Jama'a At-Tabligh Al-Da'wa in Spain (PDF)
Athena Intelligence
La Yama'a at-Tabligh al-Da'wa (Congregaci6n para la Propagación del Islam), o sencillamente Yama'a Tabligh, fue fundada por Maulana Ilyas en la India en 1927, y deriva del movimiento revivalista deobandi. Se trata de un movimiento de reforma de la sociedad islámica, a la que se considera contaminada por los valores no-islámicos del secularismo, materialismo, etc. A1 igual que la mayoría de los movimientos de reforma musulmanes, justifican su postura alegando un regreso a los principios originales del Islam. En el caso del Tabligh se fijarán principalmente en la figura del Profeta Muhammad (ejemplo indiscutible a seguir) y los compañeros de éste (sahaba).
Future War: The War on Terror after Iraq (PDF)
Adam Elkus
The Bush administration's attempts to portray the War in Iraq as the main front in the War on Terror have become self-fulfilling prophecy. Iraq--like 1980s Afghanistan--has drawn foreign fighters eager to bleed an overextended superpower and acquire valuable combat experience. Because of the global media's fixation on Iraq, it has become the defining symbol of America's violent encounter with Islam. Because of this, it is difficult to predict what form the War on Terror will take when America leaves Iraq.
The term "War on Terror" has come to encompass many different contradictory conflicts: the civil war raging in Iraq, Al-Qaeda's global insurgency, NATO's efforts to stabilize Afghanistan, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Hezbollah's efforts to gain power in Lebanon, Islamic insurgencies in Indonesia, Somalia, Chechnya, Thailand, and the Philippines, and the traditional state-centric threat posed by Iran and North Korea’s nuclear ambitions--all now come under the rubric of the War on Terror.
External Signs of Jihadist Radicalization and Militancy (PDF)
Javier Jordán, Fernando M. Mañas
Is it possible to know if we are before a jihadist judging solely by exterior appearances?
It is, in fact, very difficult to respond to this question in a definitive way. Certain appearances (referring as much to style of dress as observable behavior) can indicate a symptom that an individual is experimenting (or has already completed) a process of jihadist radicalization. That is, a process through which the person incorporates jihadi values and joins active militancy in an individual manner (exceptional "lone wolf' cases) or in a group.