TKG Jihadi Strategy - The Council for Emerging National Security Affairs

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This is the most important strategic jihadist text on war and the infidel. ... In addition to the seminal strategic text
STRATEGIC JIHADIST TEXTS In order to understand ISIS and future threat groups which are motivated by the ideology of global jihadism, it is necessary to be familiar with the most influential strategic thinkers and writers of the jihadist world. They are:

Sayyed Qutb: Milestones The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) strategist who is second in importance only to the MB founder Hassan al Banna, Qutb’s book Milestones is the Field Manual of “Global Jihadism.” Qutb saw Islam not just as a religion but as a supremacist revolutionary political movement with a global mission to establish the Caliphate and sharia-based control everywhere. The book is explicit in its condemnation of all political systems where humans make the laws, especially democracies. Read the full text of Milestones here.

Abdullah Azzam: Defense of Muslim Lands The founder of Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden’s boss and spiritual guide, Azzam had a Ph.D. in Islamic Jurisprudence from the most important Sunni institution in the world, which gave him the credentials to issue fatwas. After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan he issued the fatwa Defense of Muslim Lands which makes jihad fard ‘ayn: a universal and individual obligation for all Muslims. Until ISIS formally re-established the Caliphate in Iraq and Syria in 2014, this document was the most important theological justification for modern jihad. Read it here.

Brigadier General S.K. Malik: The Quranic Concept of War This is the most important strategic jihadist text on war and the infidel. The Pakistani general who authored the book has three messages. 1) War never serves the interest of the state. All war must serve the realization of Allah’s sovereignty on Earth by re-establishing the Caliphate through Jihad. 2) The only center-of-gravity of the enemy is the soul of the infidel: they must be converted to Islam or killed. 3) Because the soul of the enemy is the only important target, the best mode of war is terror. Read the original book, endorsed by the then President of Pakistan, here, and an excellent review essay in the USAWC journal Parameters here.

ISIS’s Way of War

In addition to the seminal strategic texts above, I also strongly recommend the internet book Management of Savagery: The Most Critical Stage Through Which the Islamic Nation Will Pass by Abu Bakr Naji available here. This text on how an Islamic insurgent force must leverage chaos within a civilian population was written after 9/11. It informs much of what ISIS and other groups like Boko Haram, al Shabab and the al Nusra Front are doing today in theater.

Al Qaeda versus ISIS/The Islamic State For a reprint of my original analysis on the four reasons why ISIS is significantly more dangerous than Al Qaeda go to the Marine Corps University’s Middle East Studies Insights here.

Misdiagnosing the Threat and How Jihadists Measure Victory For an in-depth analysis of how US counterterrorism policy is built upon flawed analysis and fallacious social science theories, read my wife’s White Paper The Flawed Science Behind America Counter-Terrorism Strategy at the Council on Global Security. Lastly, for a truly eye-opening piece on the completely un-Western metrics of victory the Global Jihadist Movement uses, see Jeff Cozzens: “Victory—From the Prism of Jihadi Culture,” in Issue 52 of Joint Forces Quarterly. For all other questions you can contact me at the address below. Dr Sebastian Gorka Major General Matthew C. Horner Chair of Military Theory MARINE CORPS UNIVERSITY [email protected] Tel. 1 703 300 5014 www.TheGorkaBriefing.com