{"id":50260,"date":"2016-05-20T17:31:23","date_gmt":"2016-05-20T17:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=50260"},"modified":"2016-05-20T17:31:23","modified_gmt":"2016-05-20T17:31:23","slug":"aymen-al-zawahiri-al-sham-and-isis-as-khawarij","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=50260","title":{"rendered":"Aymen al-Zawahiri, al-Sham and ISIS as Khawarij"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[ by <strong>Charles Cameron<\/strong> &#8212; a highest-intensity insult in the jihad among jihadists ]<br \/>\n.<\/p>\n<p>A significant article is announced:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">New from me on al-Qaeda chief Aymen al-Zawarihi&#39;s last message and its intended Syrian audience. (Hint: Not Nusrah.) <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/vWy7s5okzN\">https:\/\/t.co\/vWy7s5okzN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Sam Heller (@AbuJamajem) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AbuJamajem\/status\/733633818846973954\">May 20, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Both <strong>Will McCants<\/strong> and <strong>Cole Bunzel<\/strong> have recommended this article, so you may already have seen it.<\/p>\n<p>**<\/p>\n<p>Okay, I understand that there are various viewpoints, and hence various different people will make different choices as to which is the key paragraph here. For many, it will be <strong>Zawahiri<\/strong>&#8216;s focus on <strong>al-Sham<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, Zawahiri&#8217;s new geographic focus happens to align itself with what <strong>Abu Musab al-Suri<\/strong> proposed in his <strong>Global Islamic Resistance Call<\/strong> &#8212; published, perhaps a tad presciently, more than a decade ago in 2004\/5 &#8212; that (in <strong>J-P Filiu<\/strong>&#8216;s phrase, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Apocalypse-Islam-Jean-Pierre-Filiu\/dp\/0520272641\">Apocalypse in Islam<\/a>, p. 189): <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It is self-evident to him that the &#8220;country of Sham&#8221; &#8212; Greater Syria, including Lebanon, Palestine, and Jordan &#8212; looms as the apocalyptic theater par excellence, and that al-Qaida&#8217;s strategic conception of global jihad must be reoriented to take into account this final clash.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>**<\/p>\n<p>From my own POV, as someone whose interest is in movements in religious thought, this is the key paragraph:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Zawahri did deliver at least one message aimed at the jihadist base, affirming that the IS\u2019s members are \u201cKhawarij,\u201d a historical Muslim sect of hyper-extremist deviants. Labeling the Islamic State group as such has been controversial within Salafi-jihadism &#8212; theorist Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi has resisted it &#8212; in part because it requires jihadists to act on the Prophet Muhammad\u2019s prescription for dealing with the Khawarij: \u201cqatl Ad,\u201d or total extermination. Zawahri has now come down firmly on one side of this intra-jihadist debate.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>On which topic, see also my November 2015 post here on Zenpundit: <a href=\"http:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=47722\">Is the Islamic State Islamic? The Yes and No of the matter<\/a>, and this, from <strong>JM Berger<\/strong> in 2014:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Dear ISIS, if it takes 63 pages to explain why you are not Khawarij, you just might be Khawarij. <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/xfwSNt8peJ\">pic.twitter.com\/xfwSNt8peJ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; J.M. Berger (@intelwire) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intelwire\/status\/549243146723684353\">December 28, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ by Charles Cameron &#8212; a highest-intensity insult in the jihad among jihadists ] . A significant article is announced: New from me on al-Qaeda chief Aymen al-Zawarihi&#39;s last message and its intended Syrian audience. (Hint: Not Nusrah.) https:\/\/t.co\/vWy7s5okzN &mdash; Sam Heller (@AbuJamajem) May 20, 2016 Both Will McCants and Cole Bunzel have recommended this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1009,205,526,1321,521,1078,1047,897,1306,775,127,440,1,769],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abu-musab-al-suri","category-al-qaida","category-charles-cameron","category-cole-bunzel","category-geography","category-is","category-isis","category-jm-berger-2","category-khawarij","category-prophecy","category-strategy","category-syria","category-uncategorized","category-will-mccants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50260"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50267,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50260\/revisions\/50267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}