The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant Megathread

[Admiral Yi]

Just read an article in The Economist about Lebanese "power generator mafiosa" shooting up transformers.

[mongers]

A little overwrought don't you think?

In the context of the Lebanese civil war, I don't think ISIL could top that as the opinion peace points out, nearly all the communities there would oppose them.  Though the matter of Syrian sunni refugees in Lebanon would be a different matter.

That's true. I've read lots of pieces on new-found national unity about this - including one on hash farmers cooperating with the local Hezbollah and Lebanese army base to keep ISIS (and al-Nusra) out. Though from what I've read Lebanon's weird politics mean that's not entirely the case yet - from what I've read I think at this point committed anti-ISIS/Nusra views are mainly associated with Hezbollah.

But lots of the border was recently held by 'moderate' groups who've now largely collapsed with some fighters joining ISIS (and al-Nusra) and there's not been a day in the last week when there's not been some sort of border fight.

If they move in they'll probably face stronger resistance than anywhere so far, but only because if they succeed it'll be an absolute bloodbath. And there's been some stories of ISIS infiltration into the Palestinian refugee camps as well. Which would be worrying.

Interesting info, Shelf.

Oh I don't doubt the potential for a huge bloodbath, but I think the scale of it would harden the resolve of the various Lebanese communities so much that they'd have no choice but to co-operate to stop ISIS. That assumes a rampant ISIS on the Lebanese borders couldn't play divide and rule amongst the Lebanese, but nothing they've done so far shows they've the skills of a Hafez al-Assad.

If the threat becomes real and as you say some Palestinians have adopted IS-ideology, then I could see the camps being liquidated once and for all.

[Sheilbh]

I think you're right. But there may be an element of divide and rule already. Jumblatt's doesn't see ISIS as a threat, he doesn't think they'll invade and talks that down. But then he also insists that the al-Nusra front aren't terrorists. Maybe he's not willing to trust Hezbollah, maybe there's Druze in Syria in Nusra or ISIS territory but it's weird and striking whatever the reason.

[mongers]

I think you're right. But there may be an element of divide and rule already. Jumblatt's doesn't see ISIS as a threat, he doesn't think they'll invade and talks that down. But then he also insists that the al-Nusra front aren't terrorists. Maybe he's not willing to trust Hezbollah, maybe there's Druze in Syria in Nusra or ISIS territory but it's weird and striking whatever the reason.

Interesting, I haven't been follow Lebanese politics in a while, last I read Jumblatt was a rather isolated figure, but as you say maybe there are other reasons, perhaps he sees it as a chance to deal with the devil and strengthen his community's position in Lebanon?

[Sheilbh]

I don't follow it either so he may well be far less relevant now. I once tried to read a history of the Lebanese civil war and it just made my head hurt in the miasma of shifting loyalties and acronyms. I find that still happens whenever I try and read about Lebanon now.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Just read an article in The Economist about Lebanese "power generator mafiosa" shooting up transformers.

autobots can't catch a break anywhere...

[Valmy]

Just read an article in The Economist about Lebanese "power generator mafiosa" shooting up transformers.

Is it because they use 138 kV appliances?

[Admiral Yi]

Is it because they use 138 kV appliances?

It's because they want people to buy electricity from them, and not from a utility.

[Valmy]

It's because they want people to buy electricity from them, and not from a utility.

Don't they kind of need infrastructure to do that?  What kind of generation do they control?

[Admiral Yi]

Don't they kind of need infrastructure to do that?  What kind of generation do they control?

Diesel.

[Valmy]

Diesel.

Ah should have known.

Well that's crazy.

[Ed Anger]

It's because they want people to buy electricity from them, and not from a utility.

Don't they kind of need infrastructure to do that?  What kind of generation do they control?

Energon cubes.

[Syt]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/03/opinion/the-education-of-jihadi-john.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&bicmp=AD&bicmlukp=WT.mc_id&bicmst=1409232722000&bicmet=1419773522000

The Education of 'Jihadi John'

LONDON — LAST week, the man called "Jihadi John" by the world's media was unmasked as Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwaiti-born Muslim and naturalized British citizen from London. Not only that, but the Islamic State's most notorious Western recruit was identified as a graduate in computer science from the University of Westminster.

Many were shocked that the apparent executioner in videos made by the Islamic State, or ISIS, was an educated, middle-class metropolitan. In fact, academic institutions in Britain have been infiltrated for years by dangerous theocratic fantasists. I should know: I was one of them.

The University of Westminster is well known for being a hotbed of extremist activity. The university's Islamic Society is heavily influenced, sometimes controlled, by the radical Islamist group Hizb-ut-Tahrir and regularly gives a platform to preachers of hate. On the very day of the Emwazi revelation, the university was to host a lecture by Haitham al-Haddad — a man accused of espousing homophobia, advocating female genital mutilation and professing that Jewish people are descended from apes and pigs. The event was suspended not by the university authorities, but by the Islamic Society, which pulled it only because of security concerns.

Islamist "entryism" — the term originally described tactics adopted by Leon Trotsky to take over a rival Communist organization in France in the early 1930s — continues to be a problem within British universities and schools. Twenty years ago, I played my part as an Islamist entryist at college.

I was born and raised in Essex, just outside London, to a financially comfortable, well-educated Pakistani family. But I came of age as the genocide against Bosnian Muslims unfolded on the other side of Europe. That horror, coupled with the violence of white racists I experienced at home, led to my becoming disconnected from mainstream society.

I had a mind inquiring enough to question world events, as well as the passion fostered by my background to care, but I lacked the emotional maturity to process these things. That made me ripe for Islamist recruitment. Into this ferment came my recruiter, himself straight out of a London medical college.

He belonged to Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which is Arabic for the party of liberation. An international revolutionary Islamist group founded in 1953, it was the first movement to popularize resurrecting a caliphate with a version of Shariah law. Unlike Al Qaeda, Hizb-ut-Tahrir argues for military coups, not terrorism, to achieve power.

The recruiters are adept at manipulating world events to present what I call the "Islamist narrative" — that the world is at war with Islam, and only a caliphate will protect Muslims from the crusaders. I was seduced by the ideology and drawn to its alternative subculture.

By age 16, I had adopted Hizb-ut-Tahrir's ideas wholeheartedly. I was asked to enroll at Newham College, a state-supported continuing education institution in east London, with the aim of gaining prominence on campus and recruiting other students to the cause. Once elected as president of the student union, I exploited the naïveté of the college, registering supporters to vote for me and consolidating our control.

The poisonous atmosphere that my supporters and I created at Newham College grew so dangerous that in 1995 my self-appointed bodyguard stabbed to death a non-Muslim student on campus, to cries of "Allahu akbar!" The killer, Saeed Nur, was convicted of murder.

I was rightly expelled from the college, though my activism did not end there. I worked first in Pakistan and then in Egypt to recruit young military officers to Hizb-ut-Tahrir's revolutionary agenda. In 2001, I was arrested by President Hosni Mubarak's secret police. During four years in a Cairo prison, I gradually reconsidered the ideology of Islam, and eventually abandoned it. On my release, I took up the human rights and counter-extremism work that occupies me now.

The Islamic Society at the University of Westminster, like others at universities across Britain, is still targeted by entryist radicals. While such institutions must guard free speech, they should also be vigilant to ensure that speakers are not given unchallenged platforms to promote their toxic message to a vulnerable audience.

These speakers claim to preach Islam, but they peddle a highly politicized, often violent strain of my faith. It is easier than one might think for bright, capable people like Mr. Emwazi to fall for the myopic worldview of the preachers of hate. Young people from relatively prosperous, educated backgrounds have long been overrepresented in jihadist causes.

Just last month, Britain was thrown into consternation to learn that three young women, teenagers from the Bethnal Green Academy, had slipped out of the country to join the Islamic State. Kadiza Sultana, Amira Abase and Shamima Begum were all, according to their parents and peers, straight-A students.

Challenging the notion of statehood, democratic theory and Middle Eastern power politics certainly takes a degree of intellectual sophistication, but it does not make an idealistic young person less vulnerable to exploitation by skilled recruiters. Regardless of good grades, they may suffer from a crisis of identity or grievances that radicalizers can prey on.

The desire to impose any religion on society is an inherently repugnant idea, but it is not so among many British Muslims. For decades, we've allowed Islamist ideologues to work unfettered across our communities, to the extent that Islamism has become the default form of political expression for many young Muslims in Britain and across Europe.

The leap from being an ordinary British teenager to joining the Islamic State is huge. But it is a much smaller step for someone raised in a climate in which dreams of resurrecting a caliphate and enforcing a distorted form of Islam are normalized. Until we confront this seeming legitimacy of Islamist discourse at the grass roots, we will not stop the scourge of radicalization.

[Valmy]

That is bizarre.  I guess my experience with Islamic student societies has always been how un-controversial they are.  Heck they have been posting 'Stop ISIS' posters all over campus at UT for months.

[mongers]

An honourable death in Syria:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31720274

Syria death reported of ex-British marine fighting alongside Kurds

A former Royal Marine has become the first Briton to be killed while fighting alongside Kurdish forces against Islamic State in Syria, the Kurdish militia has told the BBC.

The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) named him as Konstandinos Erik Scurfield, from Barnsley.

A British pro-Kurdish activist said he had informed Mr Scurfield's family of the death, at the request of the YPG.

The Foreign Office said it was "aware of reports" of a Briton dying in Syria.

The YPG said the "British volunteer martyr" died in an area west of the city of Qamishli on Monday.

A Kurdish commander said clashes against Islamic State (IS) in that area were continuing.

The BBC's Guney Yildiz said the YPG had asked Mr Scurfield's family if they could bury him in Syria "as a martyr".

'Extremely difficult'

In a statement, the Foreign Office said: "We are aware of reports of the death of a British national in Syria.

"The UK has advised for some time against all travel to Syria, where all UK consular services are suspended.

"As we do not have any representation in Syria it is extremely difficult to get any confirmation of deaths or injuries and our options for supporting British nationals there are extremely limited."

The BBC understands about 100 Western volunteers - including some Britons - are fighting as part of the 30,000-strong Kurdish forces.

More than 500 Britons are believed to have travelled to join IS.

BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said the UK government's position was "probably going to lead to accusations of double standards".

He said if Britons went to Syria and were suspected of trying to join IS they would get their "collar felt at Heathrow" - but there "seems to be a silence about people going to fight on the other side".