Jihad’s new frontier
“Hello my name's Ibrahim and I'm from Afghanistan. I'm part of Al-Qaeda and on June 1, I'm gonna do something really big. Bye”. This was the exact tweet message sent…
Resurgence of Jihad Inc
Our resurgent jihad factory seems to be working overtime, supplying well-trained and highly motivated fighters for the Syrian and Afghan war theatres. There’s no dearth of radicalised volunteers to take…
Welcome to Jihad Inc.
It’s the season for our worst fears to bloom. As extremist discourse becomes more mainstream, it’s worth considering what price our future bailouts might come at. For a useful illustration,…
From jihad to terrorism
As he squatted under a TTP banner and toted his Kalashnikov, his face looked familiar, though his beard had grown much thicker and was perhaps dyed in henna, hiding the…
Digital jihad
AS militant groups increasingly use social networking platforms to reach out to bigger audiences and shape media coverage of their actions, their drive to create sympathisers remains as relevant to…
Anchors, spooks and jihadis
When you make a name and a (very good) living from the spoken word, it’s hard to make the case that a recording of your voice is a forgery. This…
The infrastructure of jihad
From the moment the world saw footage of the SUV belching smoke in Times Square, you just knew that it was going to be a Pakistani. And Faisal Shahzad didn’t…
The jihad most needed
The word jihad’s literal meaning is to strive for anything good, including striving for peace and the welfare of humanity. If Quranic verses are read with the Quran’s oft-repeated command…
From jihad to ijtihad
‘Jihad’, with its imbued wrong meaning, became a notorious word in the West after 9/11. Terror now has an overwhelming presence in parts of the Muslim world, including Pakistan, Afghanistan…
Reformers and jihadis
The year 1990 was a turning point in Pakistan’s history in more ways than one. The Asghar Khan case has highlighted the lies that turned the 1990s into a political…
