orwa ajjoub

On the morning of the 8th of April 2013, the world woke up to Abu Bakr Al- Baghdadi, the leader of what was called the Islamic State in Iraq or ISI, announcing the expansion of his group from Iraq into Syria. Al-Baghdadi also announced the merger of ISI and Jabhat al-Nusra (JN) into a new group called the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham or ISIS. Only one day after the announcement, JN released a recorded speech from its leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, in which he denied the merger while accepting the ties between the two groups. To make things complicated, al-Jolani swore a new oath to the head of al-Qaeda Central (AQC), Aymen Al- Zawahiri. Tension escalated between the two groups until the dispute was referred to al- Zawahiri in his capacity as the head of AQC. In June 2013, al-Zawahiri sent a letter to both groups to resolve the dispute in which he ruled against ISI’s decision to merge the two groups and thus created a split between ISI and JN. This thesis contends that the split between JN and ISI has led to a theological debate between Salafi-Jihadi ulamaʾ, in which they interpreted the same Islamic concepts differently to argue about the validity of al-Baghdadi’s decision to merge with JN, al-Jolani’s refusal of the merger, and al-Zawahiri’s letter itself. On the one hand, this reflects the commonalities between the adherents of this interpretation of Islam, and on the other it shows that Salafi-Jihadism is not and has not been a homogenous entity.

Beginning in December 2010, the Arab world was hit by huge anti-government revolutionary waves, popularly known as the Arab Spring. In Syria, the uprising did not take long to morph into a bloody war with international and regional powers wrestling for geopolitical influence and economic gain. The war has significantly changed Syria in terms of politics, economy, and culture. While the first two have had an immediate effect on the ground and therefore constitute rich and sometimes easily-accessed materials for academic studies, the cultural aspect and particularly the daily life activities of Syrian citizens living in Syria during the Arab Spring have been understudied. This article investigates the cultural changes in the lives of Syrian citizens living in the city of Damascus. It seeks to understand how Damascus residents spend their leisure time during the war and in which ways the war has affected their daily life activities

Orwa Ajjoub Abstract The Islamic State group (IS) has grabbed the world’s attention as one of the most dangerous and gruesome terrorist organizations in history. The group has been studied from different disciplines such as political science, history, and theology. Michael Krona and Rosemary Pennington’s edited volume, The Media World of ISIS, is an attempt by media studies scholars to explore different aspects and dimensions of the IS usage of media.

On the morning of the 8th of April 2013, the world woke up to Abu Bakr Al- Baghdadi, the leader of what was called the Islamic State in Iraq or ISI, announcing the expansion of his group from Iraq into Syria. Al-Baghdadi also announced the merger of ISI and Jabhat al-Nusra (JN) into a new group called the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham or ISIS. Only one day after the announcement, JN released a recorded speech from its leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, in which he denied the merger while accepting the ties between the two groups. To make things complicated, al-Jolani swore a new oath to the head of al-Qaeda Central (AQC), Aymen Al- Zawahiri. Tension escalated between the two groups until the dispute was referred to al- Zawahiri in his capacity as the head of AQC. In June 2013, al-Zawahiri sent a letter to both groups to resolve the dispute in which he ruled against ISI’s decision to merge the two groups and thus created a split between ISI and JN. This thesis contends that the split...