McIvor - Middle Eastern Islamist Extremist Groups: An Essential Guide

An Essential Guide

Dr Paul McIvor

Sapiens Academic Press

London

Published by

Sapiens Academic Press

521, Barry Road

London

SE22 0HP

First published 2021

Copyright Paul McIvor

Edited by Toby Giles

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

ISBN 978-1-8382959-43

Sapiens Academic Press is a registered trademark

This book must not be circulated in any other form of binding or cover

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing in any medium by electronic means) without the written permission of the copyright holder. In accordance with the International Copyright Act 1956, any person acting in contravention of this copyright will be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages

No legal or other liability is accepted by the publisher or the author for the lawful consequences of any reader accessing Islamist sites, be it for research or other purposes

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

By the Same Author

Understanding Islamic Terminology - An Essential Guide for a Diverse Multifaith World

A Death in Damascus

Arabian Gulf Sayings - A Guide to Life through Desert Arab Proverbs

Arabian Tales - Short Stories from the Arabian Gulf

The Lost Bedu - A Desert Arab Adventure

1,000 Words Worth Knowing - An Essential Guide for a Developed Vocabulary

Ignorance leads to fear; fear leads to hatred; and hatred leads to violence. This is the equation .

Ibn Rud (Averroes 1126-1198 AD)
(Hernndez, 1998 ).

Ibn Rud (1126-1198) - from Crdoba known to the Latins as Averroes was the great 12th century Middle Eastern philosopher, polymath and prolific scholar (Fakhri, 2001). He is credited by some scholars as having sown the seeds of the Renaissance in Western Christendom through his commentaries on the great classical works of Aristotle and Plato and was known to Aquinas by the sobrique t The Commentator. He is the only Islamic Middle Eastern philosopher to appear in Raphaels Vatican Renaissance fresco The School of Athens (1511) and in Dantes Inferno (The Divine Comedy ), Circle 1, Canto 4 (Limbo) (Kenny, 2002).

For the innocent victims of Islamist extremism, across the globe. May the flame of freedom and enlightenment burn bright in the face of darkness, ignorance, fear, hatred, and oppression .

I wish to convey my heartfelt thanks and appreciation to all of those individuals from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, whom I interviewed as part of the research for this book including: government officials from certain ministries; academics; Arab expatriates within the MENA region; and survivors of the conflicts in - Republic of Iraq, Syrian Arab Republic, Republic of Yemen, and State of Libya . They gave so much so freely. Finally, I am most grateful for the assistance provided by certain specialist analysts in Washington DC and London.

Middle East MOI Primary Research Interviews 2019/2020 933151/P.

Note : The groups appear in alphabetical order according to the accepted spelling of their transliterated titles. The page numbers for each are listed below.

Group

Group

AQ - Al-Qaeda .

CIA - Central Intelligence Agency.

FBI - Federal Bureau of Investigation.

FCO - Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

FGM - The repugnant practice of Female Genital Mutilation or Khaf .

FSA - Free Syrian Army.

FTO - Foreign Terrorist Organisation (US term).

GCC - Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, commonly known as the Gulf Cooperation Council, consisting of Arab Gulf States except the Republic of Iraq .

GCHQ - Government Communications Headquarters.

IDML - Islamic Dawn Movement of the Levant (Harakat Fajr ash-Sham Al-Islamiya ).

IED Improvised Explosive Device.

IHL - International Humanitarian Law.

IRGC - Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

IS Islamic State (Dawlah Al-Islmyah ).

ISI - Islamic State of Iraq (Dawlat Al-Irq Al-Islmiyyah ).

ISIL - Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Dawlat Al-Irq Al-Islmiyyah ).

ISIS - Islamic State of Iraq and Syria - Ad Dawlah Al-Islamiyah fi Iraq wash Sham , known by many Middle Eastern Arabs by the shortened form Dish .

JaN - Al-Jabhat Al-Nusra .

KSA - Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Al-Mamlakah Al-rabyah As-Sadyah ).

MB Muslim Brotherhood.

MENA Middle East and North Africa.

MI6 - The British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6.

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.

OIC - Organisation for Islamic Cooperation .

PBUH Peace Be Upon Him (Arabic - Alayhi as-Salm ) is the Arabic Durood (salutation) used in the Islamic World for the Prophet of Islam .

PTO - Proscribed Terrorist Organisation (UK term).

SAA - Syrian Arab Army (land forces of the Syrian Armed Forces).

SDF - Syrian Democratic Forces.

UNSCR - UN Security Council Resolution.

WMD - Weapons of Mass Destruction.

WoT - War on Terror or Global War on Terrorism (GWOT).

YPG - doywotho dSutoro dAmo - Peoples Protection Unit, the mainly-Kurdish militia in Syria and the primary component of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syrias, SDF.

YPJ - Yekneyn Parastina Jin - The all-female fighting units of the YPG.

Aim . This book is designed to guide the reader through a range of Middle Eastern Islamist extremist groups, to which they may have had little prior exposure, other than via contemporary events and the media. Despite being a quick reference guide, it aims to highlight the proliferation, range, and diversity of these groups. However, this book is not intended to be an encyclopedia of Islamist extremist groups but to complement existing established texts.