Eyes on Jihadism. Monitoring Jihadist Propaganda #42

From 1 to 8 August

A weekly newsletter that collects the main propaganda of Jihadist organizations and groups, from 1 to 8 August in one publication.

Propaganda will be divided into individual organizations:

In the case of al-Qaeda (AQ) and the Islamic State (IS), central leadership and official branches and provinces will be included.

As of 1 June, Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and Ahrar al-Sham, groups operating in Syria, will no longer be included in this weekly monitoring of jihadist propaganda. The reasons are to be found in the fact that they no longer seem to apply the ideological and theoretical principles of jihadism in their propaganda, operations, and daily life.

Jihadists are defined by their desire to create a state based on a Salafist approach to Islamic law, they oppose Muslim regimes that do not govern by Islamic law and their foreign supporters, they aim at the total overthrow of the established order.

HTS and Ahrar al-Sham (recently aligned with HTS) seem to be doing none of this. They do not implement jihadist governance or oppose foreign Muslim states but want to ally themselves with them, and even reach out, collaborate, agree with Western countries, or be recognized by international organizations. They avoid, in the areas under their control, implementing Salafist norms on the population, they oppose and fight other jihadist organizations, and in the speeches of their ideologues they do not seem to evoke or cite Salafist jihadist arguments, but purely Islamist ones.

On the other hand, some groups integrated into the HTS brigades or collaborating with the “Al-Fateh al-Mubin Operations Room” and the aligned groups remain included, as in their ideology and propaganda (also because they are not indigenous groups) continue to show clear links to local or global jihadism.

So, after AQ and IS, a section will be devoted to groups that are integrated into the Liwa of HTS but publish independent propaganda.

This will be followed by groups aligned with HTS (operationally and militarily, they coordinate with the “al-Fateh al-Mubin Operations Room” of HTS or they respect the policies of HTS), but not integrated with it.

Then there will be the independent groups, i.e. those that even though they have alliances and close relations with other jihadist groups, have independent operations and propaganda. 

Finally, there will be the Jihadist tactical groups.

This issue features all the main propaganda material from:

• al-Qaeda:

(AQAP, JNIM);

• Islamic State (IS):

(1 issue al-Naba, IS official media)

• Jihadist groups integrated into Liwa HTS but with independent propaganda:

(Tavhid va Jihod Uzbek);

• Independent Jihadist groups:

(Ansar al-Islam);

• Jihadist Tactical Group:

(FSM1453 Tactical).