terrorists:
definition of, 10
funding of, 41, 46
goals of, 199
and public relations, 135
recruitment of, 36, 102
training of, 102
violence used by, 10
Third Reich, 10
Thompson, Andrew, 34
Thompson, Zale, 97, 196
Tikrit, ISIS capture of, 46
torture, U.S. use of, 253
total organizations, 211–12
transparency, 253
Tumblr, 90, 134
Tunisia:
Arab Spring in, 39, 151, 152
AST in, 182–83
and Day of Judgment, 219
Turab, Abu, 84–85
Turkey:
child recruits in, 212
terrorism in, 200
al Turkmani, Abu Muslim, 38
Tversky, Amos, 203–5
Twitter, 130
abuse reporting form, 162
accounts suspended by, 5, 145, 150, 158, 162, 164, 166, 167, 169–71, 173
al Shabab use of, 66–67, 143–45
antispam protocols, 149
and Arab Spring, 151–52
bin Mohammed use of, 66, 68
blocking, 162–63
connections via, 137–38
disclosure restrictions, 164
free expression on, 67, 138, 140, 248
government requests to, 163–64, 166
Hammami use of, 64
hashtags, 149, 155–56
hindrance model on, 248
ISIS use of, 69, 89, 113, 153–75, 249
lack of transparency in, 247
Quitter alternative to, 168
recruitment via, 89, 90, 159–61
Rules and Terms of Service, 162–63, 169, 170, 173
and terrorism, 134–35
threats against, 170, 172, 174
transparency page, 164
and World Cup (2014), 147, 156
see also Internet; social media
“Twitter storm,” 156
Umayyad caliphate, 161, 261
U.S. Army, military tactics, 59
USS Cole, 56
videos:
of atrocities, 115
audiences targeted by, 116
of beheadings, 1–3, 4–5, 48, 72, 96, 104, 120–23, 125, 143, 151, 159, 164, 168, 186, 197, 203, 243–44, 246
“The Chosen Few of Different Lands,” 86
Clanging of the Swords, 106–12, 113, 121, 164–65
of combat scenes, 104, 107–8
Dawn of Glad Tidings, 148–50, 157–58, 165, 166, 174
of families and children, 92, 115
filmed by drone, 110
“Flames of War,” 124, 151
foreign fighters in, 76–77, 86, 122–23
and intelligence work, 153
“Lend Me Your Ears,” 123
marketing via, 23, 75–76
“A Message to America,” 120–21, 159, 168–70
of prisoner executions, 111
propaganda in, 101–6, 124–25, 127
“Resolve of the Defiant,” 124
storytelling via, 104, 121, 125
VKontakte (VK), 168
Voice of the Caliphate, 103
Volkan, Vamik, 217–18
Wagemakers, Joas, 278
al Wahhab, Muhammad Ibn Abd, 265, 267, 270, 276
Wahhabism, 6, 210, 265, 268–69
war, 274–77
“just war,” 10
killing civilians and Muslims, 275–76
selecting a target, 274–75
War on Terror, 4, 18, 177, 199, 252–56
Watts, Clint, 241, 253
Weaver, Mary Anne, 14, 15, 16
Webb, Jim, 240
Weisburd, Aaron, 193
Westgate Mall, Kenya, 145, 163
Weyers, Jeff, 162
whack-a-mole, 136–38, 142–43, 145, 154, 162, 171, 175
white nationalist movement, 60
white supremacist movement, 192
Wikipedia, 150
wilayat, 51, 184–87
Williams, Robin, 169
women:
as compensation to fighters, 91, 216
dress codes for, 230
institutionalized slavery of, 48, 215–17
ISIS brigades, 89–93, 167
public shaming of, 230
violence against, 92
World Islamic Front, 178–79
World Trade Center bombing (1993), 55, 179
Yazidis, 47–48, 95, 194, 215–16
Yeats, W. B., 253–54
Yemen:
Islamic State in, 184, 186
social services in, 114
splintering affiliates in, 181
unrest in, 39, 200
Yilmaz (Dutch soldier), 84, 158
YouTube, 63, 130, 131–33, 134, 138, 139, 162, 165
Zafar, Shaarik, 160
Zakaria, Fareed, 255–56
al Zarqawi, Abu Musab, 13–18
alliance of bin Laden and, 17, 21, 43, 58
and al Qaeda in Iraq, 58, 62, 105
and al Suri’s prophecies, 224
birth and early years of, 13–14
death of, 26, 33, 62
evolution of, 14–16, 19, 58
fall of, 25–26
independence of, 16–17, 22, 25, 62, 277–78
influences on, 23–24, 27
and Iraqi civil war, 21–25
and ISIS, 13, 230
meeting bin Laden, 16, 17
as nom de guerre, 13
operations of, 16–18, 25
in prison, 15–16
and Salafism, 274, 276, 277
and takfirism, 62
and videos, 2, 105, 277
and Zawahiri, 22
al Zawahiri, Ayman:
and caliphate, 277
experience of, 37, 61
and global jihad, 274
influence of, 27
ISIS challenges to, 39, 42–44, 68, 180
and Islamic Jihad, 179
as leader of al Qaeda, 22, 42–43, 64, 178, 195
on media coverage, 202
oath of loyalty to, 61, 62, 179, 187–88, 190, 191
and Salafism, 274, 275
and security concerns, 124, 190
and social media, 67, 72
and suicide bombings, 277
and videos, 105, 106, 190
as world’s most wanted terrorist, 190
Zarqawi eulogized by, 26
Zehaf-Bibeau, Michael, 97
Zelin, Aaron, 21, 186
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Photo by Richard Howard
JESSICA STERN is a lecturer on terrorism at Harvard University and a fellow at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard’s School of Public Health. She is a member of the Hoover Institution Task Force on National Security and Law, and served on the Clinton administration’s National Security Council staff. She is the author of Denial: A Memoir of Terror; Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill (a New York Times Notable Book of the Year); and The Ultimate Terrorists.
Photo by Janet Walsh
J.M. BERGER is a nonresident fellow with the Brookings Institution and the author of Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam, a critically acclaimed history of the American jihadist movement. He is a regular contributor to Foreign Policy magazine, and his website, Intelwire.com, has published thousands of declassified documents on the September 11 attacks and the Oklahoma City bombing.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
ALSO BY JESSICA STERN
Denial: A Memoir of Terror
Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill
The Ultimate Terrorists
ALSO BY J. M. BERGER
Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam
COPYRIGHT
ISIS. Copyright © 2015 by Jessica Stern and J. M. Berger. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
ISBN 978-0-06-239554-2
EPub Edition MARCH 2015 ISBN 9780062395566
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*Written by Megan K. McBride, a doctoral student, focusing on religious violence and terrorism, in the department of Religious Studies at Brown University. She has an M.A. in Liberal Arts from the Great Books program at St. John’s College and an M.A. in Government from John Hopkins University.