Virtual Caliphate

In 1924, the last caliphate--an Islamic state as envisioned by the Koran--was dismantled in Turkey. With no state in existence that matches the radical Islamic ideal since, al Qaeda, which sees itself as a government in exile, along with its hundreds of affiliate organizations, has failed to achieve its goal of reestablishing the caliphate. It is precisely this failure to create a homeland, journalist Yaakov Lappin asserts, that has necessitated the formation of an unforeseen and unprecedented entity--that is, a virtual caliphate. An Islamist state that exists on computer servers around the world, the virtual caliphate is used by Islamists to carry out functions typically reserved for a physical state, such as creating training camps, mapping out a state's constitution, and drafting tax laws. In Virtual Caliphate, Lappin shows how Islamists, equipped with twenty-first-century technology to achieve a seventh-century vision, soon hope to upload the virtual caliphate into the physical world. Lappin dispels for the reader the mystery of the jihadi netherworld that exists everywhere and nowhere at once. Anyone interested in understanding the international jihadi movement will find this concise treatment compelling and indispensable.

Shows how Islamic extremists in the United Kingdom have established dedicated websites in order to circumvent British anti-terrorism measures introduced after July 2005. This work analyzes how British extremists use these sites to spread their ideas, co-ordinate their activities and win new recruits.

A common misconception about Islamic State propaganda is that it starts and finishes with brutality. However, whether it is a video depicting the execution of a group of men by firing squad in the desert, a mass beheading, or both, ultraviolence is merely part of the bigger picture. Brutality is just one of six broad themes that Islamic Sate uses to bolster its presence and further its strategic goals; the other five are mercy, victimhood, war, belonging and utopianism. Similar to the mechanisms by which they are conveyed, these themes are not discrete. Indeed, they are regularly employed together.

The explosion of slick and professional ISIS videos online is so great that many people are referring to it as the virtual caliphate. Within seconds, ISIS can reach a global audience using popular social media sites, disseminating hateful propaganda to recruit new fighters and promote its extreme ideology. More and more, the virtual caliphate is calling on its followers not necessarily to go to Syria or Iraq or Libya now but to take up arms and attack where they are at home. "The smallest action you do"-in their words-"the smallest action you do in their homeland is better and more enduring to us than what you would if you were with us." That is the message being pounded into would-be jihadists and it is a message that is being pounded into many Americans. We know that terrorists consume Islamist propaganda over the Internet. The attacks in Brussels, San Bernardino, Orlando, Paris are tied to ISIS' online efforts based on the web sites visited by those undertaking these terrorist attacks. Indeed, ISIS' online dominance is just as critical to that organization as the large amounts of territory that it controls in Iraq or Syria or Libya or other training bases that they have set up.

The Internet is awash with terrorist propaganda and this includes horrific videos of beheadings, of firing squads, of torture of men, women, and children. ISIS operates a vast network of online recruiters; online propagandists. The mission of these individuals is to expand their ranks across multiple continents, including our continent, including right here at home. So this is on the Internet, what would be called their "virtual caliphate." They use popular media sites, through which ISIS can reach a global audience. Once lured in, they communicate privately on platforms with sophisticated encryption, encouraging tens of thousands-including many from Western countries-to travel to Syria, Iraq, Libya and join the fight. Increasingly, the virtual caliphate is calling on its followers, not to trek to Syria, Iraq, Libya, or other terrorist camps that they have set up, but instead to attack where they are, at home. That is the new messaging. Orlando is a grim example of that. ISIS' online presence is just as critical to the organization as the large amounts of territory that it controls.

This ebook is a selective guide designed to help scholars and students of Islamic studies find reliable sources of information by directing them to the best available scholarly materials in whatever form or format they appear from books, chapters, and journal articles to online archives, electronic data sets, and blogs. Written by a leading international authority on the subject, the ebook provides bibliographic information supported by direct recommendations about which sources to consult and editorial commentary to make it clear how the cited sources are interrelated related. A reader will discover, for instance, the most reliable introductions and overviews to the topic, and the most important publications on various areas of scholarly interest within this topic. In Islamic studies, as in other disciplines, researchers at all levels are drowning in potentially useful scholarly information, and this guide has been created as a tool for cutting through that material to find the exact source you need. This ebook is a static version of an article from Oxford Bibliographies Online: Islamic Studies, a dynamic, continuously updated, online resource designed to provide authoritative guidance through scholarship and other materials relevant to the study of the Islamic religion and Muslim cultures. Oxford Bibliographies Online covers most subject disciplines within the social science and humanities, for more information visit www.aboutobo.com.

Countering the virtual Caliphate : hearing before the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, One Hundred Fourteenth Congress, second session, June 23, 2016.

Looking to the future in confronting the Islamic State The Islamic State (best known in the West as ISIS or ISIL) has been active for less than a decade, but it has already been the subject of numerous histories and academic studies—all focus primarily on the past. The Future of ISIS is the first major study to look ahead: what are the prospects for the Islamic State in the near term, and what can the global community, including the United States, do to counter it? Edited by two distinguished scholars at Indiana University, the book examines how ISIS will affect not only the Middle East but the global order. Specific chapters deal with such questions as whether and how ISIS benefitted from intelligence failures, and what can be done to correct any such failures; how to confront the alarmingly broad appeal of Islamic State ideology; the role of local and regional actors in confronting ISIS; and determining U.S. interests in preventing ISIS from gaining influence and controlling territory. Given the urgency of the topic, The Future of ISIS is of interest to policymakers, analysts, and students of international affairs and public policy.