Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T16:45:52.899Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Islam and the Islamic State's Magazine, Dabiq

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 August 2018

Tim Jacoby*
Affiliation:
University of Manchester
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Tim Jacoby, University of Manchester, Global Development Institute, Room 1.014 Arthur Lewis Building, Oxford Road, M13 9PL, UK. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

Since the emergence of the Islamic State, considerable debate has arisen over the relationship (or lack of therein) between its ideological discourse and broader Islamic exegeses and learning. This paper aims to connect these wider discussions to its self-defined ideological standpoint as set out in its magazine, Dabiq. All 15 of these, published between June 2014 and July 2016, amounting to more than 900 pages, are examined to assess their authors’ (1) analysis of the Qur'an (2) use of classical scholarship, and (3) engagement with contemporary readings of Islam.

Type
Article
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abdel Haleem, M. A. S. 2011. Understanding the Qur'an: Themes and Style. London: I B Tauris.Google Scholar
Abdul-Khaaliq, A.-Q. 2001. Iqaamatul-Burhaan: The Establishment of Proof. Riyadh: Al-Haramain Foundation.Google Scholar
Afsaruddin, A. 2013. Striving in the Path of God: Jihad and Martyrdom in Islamic Thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Alexander, Y., and Alexander, D. 2015. The Islamic State: Combating the Caliphate Without Borders. Lanham: Lexington.Google Scholar
al-Ghazali, M. 2000. A Thematic Commentary on the Qur'an. Herndon, VA: International Institute of Islamic Thought.Google Scholar
al-Ibrahim, B. 2015. “ISIS, Wahhabism and Takfir.” Contemporary Arab Affairs 8(3):408415.Google Scholar
Alnogaidan, M. 2015. “The new Qa'ida Wahhabists and the Revival of Jihad in Saudi Arabia.” In Twenty-first Century Jihad: Law, Society and Military Action, eds. Kendall, E. and Stein, E. London: I B Tauris, 152163.Google Scholar
al-Rasheed, M. 2002. A History of Saudi Arabia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Amitai-Preiss, R. 2004. Mongols and Mamluks: The Mamluk-Ilkhanid War, 1260–1281. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Amjad-Ali, C. 2009. “Jihad and Just war Theory: Dissonance and Truth.” Dialog: A Journal of Theology 48(3):239247.Google Scholar
Ammar, J., and Xu, S. 2018. When Jihadi Ideology Meets Social Media. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Anjum, O. 2010. “Sufism Without Mysticism? Ibn Qayyim Al-Gawziyyah's Objectives in “Madarig Al-Salikin”.” Oriente Moderno 90(1):161188.Google Scholar
Anjum, O. 2012. Politics, Law, and Community in Islamic Thought: The Taymiyyan Moment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
An-Na'im, A. 1992. Toward an Islamic Reformation: Civil Liberties, Human Rights, and International Law. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press.Google Scholar
Arberry, A.J. 1955. The Koran Interpreted. London: Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Asad, M. 1980. The Message of the Qur'an. Gibraltar: Dar Al-Andalus.Google Scholar
Bazam, A. 2017. The biggest enemies of ISIS are the Iranians. So why did they leave them alone until now? Haaretz June 27 https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/why-did-islamic-state-wait-so-long-to-attack-in-iran-1.5488663.Google Scholar
Bewley, A., and Bewley, A. 2013. The Noble Qur'an: A New Rendering of its Meaning in English. London: Ta-Ha Publishers.Google Scholar
Bonney, R. 2004. Jihad: From Qur'an to bin Laden. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Böwering, G. 2008. “Recent Research on the Construction of the Qur'an.” In The Qur'an in Its Historical Context, ed. Reynolds, G. S. London: Routledge, 7087.Google Scholar
Blankinship, K. 2009. “Sword Verses.” In The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World, ed. Esposito, J. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t236/e0979.Google Scholar
Bunzel, C. 2018. “The Kingdom and the Caliphate: Saudi Arabia and the Islamic State.” In Beyond Sunni and Shia: The Roots of Sectarianism in a Changing Middle East, ed. Wehrey, F., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 239264.Google Scholar
Campanini, M. 2007. The Qur'an: The Basics (trans. O Leaman). Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Campanini, M. 2012. “The Mu'tazila in Islamic History and Thought.” Religion Compass 6(1):4150.Google Scholar
Colas, B. 2017. “What Does Dabiq do? ISIS Hermeneutics and Organisational Fractures Within Dabiq Magazine.” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 40(3):173190.Google Scholar
Commins, D. 2006. The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia. London: I B Tauris.Google Scholar
Cook, M. 2000. Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong in Islamic Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Crawford, B. 1998. “The Causes of Cultural Conflict: An Institutional Approach.” In The Myth of “Ethnic Conflict”: Politics, Economics, and “Cultural” Violence, eds. Crawford, B. and Lipschutz, R., Berkeley: University of California Press, 343.Google Scholar
Delong-Bas, N. 2004. Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Devji, F. 2005. Landscapes of the Jihad: Militancy, Morality, Modernity. London: Hurst.Google Scholar
Firestone, R. 1999. Jihad: The Origin of Holy War in Islam. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fischer, M., and Abedi, M. 1990. Debating Muslims: Cultural Dialogues in Postmodernity and Tradition. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Fishman, B. 2016. The Master Plan: ISIS, al-Qaeda, and the Jihadi Strategy for Final Victory. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Gambhir, H. 2014. Dabiq: the strategic messaging of the Islamic State. ISW Backgrounder, August 15 http://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/dabiq-strategic-messaging-islamic-state-0Google Scholar
Gerges, F. 2016. ISIS: A History. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Günther, C. 2015. “Presenting the Glossy look of Warfare in Cyberspace—the Islamic State's Magazine Dabiq.” CyberOrient 9(1):113.Google Scholar
Günther, C., and Kaden, T. 2016. The Authority of the Islamic State. Halle: Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology.Google Scholar
Harris, W. 2012. Lebanon: A History, 600–2011. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hazleton, L. 2009. After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Hope, M. 2017. “Oljeitu (R. 1304–1316).” In The Mongol Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia Vol I, ed. May, T. Santa Barbara CA: ABC Clio, 173176.Google Scholar
Ingram, H. 2015. “The Strategic Logic of Islamic State Information Operations.” Australian Journal of International Affairs 69(6):729752.Google Scholar
Ingram, H. 2016. “An Analysis of Islamic State's Dabiq Magazine.” Australian Journal of Political Science 51(3):458477.Google Scholar
Jackson, P. 2000. “The Mongols and Europe.” In The New Cambridge Medieval History Vol. 5, eds. Abulafia, D. and McKitterick, R. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 701719.Google Scholar
Jackson, R. 2014. What is Islamic Philosophy? Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Jaques, K. 2006. Authority, Conflict and the Transmission of Diversity in Medieval Islamic Law. Leiden: E J Brill.Google Scholar
Johansen, B. 2002. “Signs as Evidence: The Doctrine of Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d 1351) on Proof.” Islamic Law and Society 9(2):168193.Google Scholar
Joscelyn, T. 2017. “CENTCOM confirms Islamic State's ‘Grand Mufti’ Killed in Airstrike.” Long War Journal. June 20 https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2017/06/centcom-confirms-islamic-states-grand-mufti-killed-in-airstrike.php.Google Scholar
Julaymee, S. 2015. Imaam Muhammad al-Ameen ash-Shanqeetee. The Clear Path July 16 http://www.theclearpath.com/viewtopic.php?t=48#p77.Google Scholar
Kalyvas, S. 2014. “The Logic of Violence in the Islamic State's war.” In Iraq Between Maliki and the Islamic State (POMEPS Briefings 24: George Washington University) 3436.Google Scholar
Kaminski, J. 2017. The Contemporary Islamic Governed State: A Reconceptualization. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Khalidi, M.A. 2005 Medieval Islamic Philosophical Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Khalil, M.H. 2018. Jihad, Radicalism and the New Atheism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kundnani, A. 2014. The Muslims are Coming! Islamophobia, Extremism, and the Domestic War on Terror. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Lahoud, N. 2010. The Jihadis’ Path to Self-Destruction. London: Hurst.Google Scholar
Lea-Henry, J. 2018. “The Life and Death of Abdullah Azzam.” Middle East Policy 25(1):6479.Google Scholar
Leaman, O. 2006. “Wali—Issues of Identification.” In The Qur'an: An Encyclopedia, ed. Leaman, O. London: Routledge, 678682.Google Scholar
Lohlker, R. 2016. A roadmap to terror in Saudi-Arabia. Arab Studies Occasional Papers 8. Oriental Institute University of Vienna. https://islamicstudiespapers.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/astop-8.pdf.Google Scholar
Macris, J. 2016. “Investigating the Ties Between Muhammed ibn Abd al-Wahhab, Early Wahhabism, and ISIS.” The Journal of the Middle East and Africa 7(3):239255.Google Scholar
March, A., and Modirzadeh, N. 2013. “Ambivalent Universalism? Jus ad bellum in Modern Islamic Legal Discourse.” The European Journal of International Law 24(1):367389.Google Scholar
March, A., and Revkin, M. 2015. Caliphate of law: ISIS’ ground rules. Foreign Affairs April 15 https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/syria/2015-04-15/caliphate-law.Google Scholar
McCants, W. 2006. Militant Ideology Atlas: Executive Report. West Point: Combating Terrorism Center.Google Scholar
McCoy, T. 2014. How ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi became the world's most powerful jihadist leader. The Washington Post June 11 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/06/11/how-isis-leader-abu-bakr-al-baghdadi-became-the-worlds-most-powerful-jihadi-leader/?utm_term=.9aa842bfb4afGoogle Scholar
Milton-Edwards, B. 2006. Islam and Violence in the Modern Era. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Mojaddedi, J. 2001. The Biographical Tradition in Sufism: The Tabaqat Genre From al-Sulami to Jami. Richmond: Curzon Press.Google Scholar
Morkevičius, V. 2018. Realist Ethics: Just War Traditions as Power Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Murphy, C. 2010. “AQAP's Growing Security Threat to Saudi Arabia.” CTC Sentinel 3(6):14.Google Scholar
Nafi, B. 2005. “Ṭāhir ibn ʿĀshūr: The Career and Thought of A Modern Reformist ʿālim, with Special Reference to his Work of Tafsīr.” Journal of Qur'anic Studies 7(1):132.Google Scholar
Nöldeke, T. 2010. Sketches From Eastern History (1892) (Trans. J Sutherland Black). Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing.Google Scholar
Novenario, C.M. 2016. “Differentiating Al Qaeda and the Islamic State Through Strategies Publicized in Jihadist Magazines.” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 39(11):953967.Google Scholar
Olsson, S. 2017. “Shia as Internal Others: A Salafi Rejection of the ‘Rejecters’.” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 28(4):409430.Google Scholar
Open Letter to Dr Ibrahim Awwad al-Badri Alias ‘Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’ (2014) September 19 http://www.lettertobaghdadi.com/.Google Scholar
Paton, C. 2016. Isis: Saudi cleric Sheikh Aaidh al-Qarni injured in Philippines assassination attempt on IS hit list. International Business Times March 3 https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/isis-saudi-cleric-sheikh-aaidh-al-qarni-injured-philippines-assassination-attempt-hit-list-1547040.Google Scholar
Post, A. 2016. “A Glimpse of Sufism From the Circle of Ibn Taymiyya.” Journal of Sufi Studies 5:156187.Google Scholar
Ramsden, M. 2011. “Targeted Killings and International Human Rights law: The Case of Anwar Al-Awlaki.” Journal of Conflict & Security Law 16(2):385406.Google Scholar
Robinson, N. 2003. Discovering the Qur'an: A Contemporary Approach to a Veiled Text. London: SCM Press.Google Scholar
Sarrio, D. 2011. “Spiritual Anti-Elitism: Ibn Taymiyya's Doctrine of Sainthood (Walaya).” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations 22(3):275291.Google Scholar
Shahi, A. 2013. The Politics of Truth Management in Saudi Arabia. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Sheikh, N. 2015. “Reclaiming Jihad as A Strategy of Conflict Transformation.” Peace Review 27(3):288295.Google Scholar
Sicker, M. 2000. The Islamic World in Ascendancy: From the Arab Conquests to the Siege of Vienna. Westport, CT: Praeger.Google Scholar
Stern, J., and Berger, J.M. 2015. ISIS: The State of Terror. London: William Collins.Google Scholar
Tamer, G. 2013. “The Curse of Philosophy: Ibn Taymiyya as a philosopher in Contemporary Islamic Thought.” In Islamic Theology, Philosophy and Law: Debating Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, eds. Krawietz, B. and Tamer, G. Berlin: de Gruyter, 329376.Google Scholar
The Carter Centre. 2015. Overview of Daesh's Online Recruitment Propaganda Magazine: Dabiq. Atlanta.Google Scholar
Watt, M., and Bell, R. 2005. Introduction to the Qur'an. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Weiss, M, and Hassan, H. 2015. ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror. New York: Regan Arts.Google Scholar
Wiktorowicz, Q. 2006. “Anatomy of the Salafi Movement.” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 29(3):207239.Google Scholar
Wilson, T. 2008. “The Bengali Taliban: Jamaat-Ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh.” Terrorism Monitor 6(10):1012.Google Scholar
Winter, C. 2015. The Virtual “Caliphate”: Understanding Islamic State's Propaganda Strategy. London: Quilliam Foundation.Google Scholar
Wood, G. 2017. The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State. London: Allen Lane.Google Scholar
Zelin, A. 2015. “Picture or it Didn't Happen: A Snapshot of the Islamic State's Official media Output.” Perspectives on Terrorism 9(4):8597.Google Scholar
Zgryziewicz, R. 2015. Daesh Information Campaign and its Influence. Riga: NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence.Google Scholar