Counter Terrorist Trends and Analysis (CTTA) – Volume 6, Issue 8

The three articles in this issue focus on the notorious Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) or Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist movement, recently renamed the Islamic State (IS): (1) Guillaume N. Beaurpere offers a systematic overview of the nature of the ISIS threat and means to counter it. He shows that ISIS uses Maoist principles of protracted war as its strategy for advancement in gaining control of territory and people; (2) Marcin Styszynski identifies differences in ideology as well as operational capacities with regard to financial and military strength and propaganda dissemination between ISIS and Al Qaeda Central and its affiliates, and concludes that the competition between the two groups has led to an increased terrorist threat; (3) Mustazah Bahari and Muhammad Haniff Hassan explain ISIS’ black flag, which is also used by other jihadist groups. The black flag never being mentioned in the Quran, they provide an analysis of its derived meaning through Hadith Studies and determine the authenticity of the relevant Hadith.