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After the Caliphate: The Islamic State & the Future Terrorist Diaspora
In 2014, the declaration of the Islamic State caliphate was hailed as a major victory by the global jihadist movement. But it was short-lived. Three years on, the caliphate was destroyed, leaving its surviving fighters – many of whom were foreign recruits – to retreat and scatter across the globe. So what happens now? Is this the beginning of the end of IS? Or can it adapt and regroup after the physical fall of the caliphate? In this timely analysis, terrorism expert Colin P. Clarke takes stock of IS – its roots, its evolution, and its monumental setbacks – to assess the road ahead. The caliphate, he argues, was an anomaly. The future of the global jihadist movement will look very much like its past – with peripatetic and divided groups of militants dispersing to new battlefields, from North Africa to Southeast Asia, where they will join existing civil wars, establish safe havens and sanctuaries, and seek ways of conducting spectacular attacks in the West that inspire new followers. In this fragmented and atomized form, Clarke cautions, IS could become even more dangerous and challenging for counterterrorism forces, as its splinter groups threaten renewed and heightened violence across the globe.
240 pages, Hardcover
Published June 10, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 16, 2020
The Dark Wave: Islamic Caliphate and the New World Order
In the liberal media and politically correct environment, Islam is treated as a peaceful religion, and terrorism is a product of the economic and political ferment of the twentieth century. If one looks at 1,400-years of Islamic history and its rise in Asia and Europe, it becomes obvious that terrorism results from the Islamic teachings.
In the summer of 2014, three years after America’s full troop withdrawal from the Iraq War, President Obama authorized a small task force to Iraq to stop rapidly emerging terrorist threat. A plague of brutality that would come to be known as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) had created a foothold in northwest Iraq and northeast Syria. It had declared itself a Caliphate, an independent nation-state administered by the Islamic law, and it was spreading like a newly evolved virus. Most of its fighters were foreigners who were influenced by the Islamic teachings. In ISIS controlled areas, Islamic laws were rigidly applied. Homosexuals were hanged or pushed from high-rise buildings; adulterers were stoned, religious minorities were reduced to dhimmitude, a form of second-class citizenship, they were denied civil rights, and specially taxed via the Islamic Jizya. Young men were abducted as conscripted soldiers and young women as sex slaves of ISIS soldiers. What ensued after this was the battle to defeat ISIS, which was ferocious and brutal. The U.S troops and Iraqi army with cooperation of local militia had to break it down village by village to a final victory when ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who once controlled a vast territory with tens of thousands of jihadist fighters died in a recent raid by U.S. Delta Force.
The fight against terrorism and global jihad is unending since it did not go out of existence completely. It is back to a focus on local and regional conflicts to fragmented groups with same ideology as ISIS. These splinter groups are waiting to be taken over by a new Caliph who can offer leadership. Then a new generation of Muslim men and women from across the globe move forward with the belief that Islamic Caliphate is attainable and desirable objective. This would result in a relentless pursuit of global jihad.
The track record for preventing another mass mobilization of jihadist movement is not promising. As of 2018, there were 230,000 jihadists prepared for suicide missions. A 247 percent increase from 2001, and this threat is not new. The aftermath of Soviet-Afghan war in 1980s; Bosnia and Chechnya in the 1990s, Iraq in the 2000s or Syria in 2014. Most defining moment for these Muslims is the establishment of the Caliphate. In chapter 3, the author focuses on Europe which has the prospect of turning itself into next ISIS-building project. It has become fertile for the incursions of sharia law and other Islamic practices that is totally alien to Western civilization. No-go zones created by Muslim communities provides opportunities for radicalization which has become a normal way of life. Most European citizens have liberal and leftist tendencies, they have supported the immigrant population which makes it all to comfortable for the next jihadist sanctuary. ISIS or its equivalent is waiting to happen, but this may occur in an Islamic country in Asia or Africa, but much of the fighters will be young men and women from Western hemisphere.
Author Colin Clarke’s work is critical to understand what is ahead in terms of terrorism. This is an excellent book of scholarship and highly analytical in contemporary literature that is already filled with radical and leftists’ writings that is too sympathetic to Muslim ideology. This work should prove useful to scholars and policymakers alike.
In the liberal media and politically correct environment, Islam is treated as a peaceful religion, and terrorism is a product of the economic and political ferment of the twentieth century. If one looks at 1,400-years of Islamic history and its rise in Asia and Europe, it becomes obvious that terrorism results from the Islamic teachings.
In the summer of 2014, three years after America’s full troop withdrawal from the Iraq War, President Obama authorized a small task force to Iraq to stop rapidly emerging terrorist threat. A plague of brutality that would come to be known as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) had created a foothold in northwest Iraq and northeast Syria. It had declared itself a Caliphate, an independent nation-state administered by the Islamic law, and it was spreading like a newly evolved virus. Most of its fighters were foreigners who were influenced by the Islamic teachings. In ISIS controlled areas, Islamic laws were rigidly applied. Homosexuals were hanged or pushed from high-rise buildings; adulterers were stoned, religious minorities were reduced to dhimmitude, a form of second-class citizenship, they were denied civil rights, and specially taxed via the Islamic Jizya. Young men were abducted as conscripted soldiers and young women as sex slaves of ISIS soldiers. What ensued after this was the battle to defeat ISIS, which was ferocious and brutal. The U.S troops and Iraqi army with cooperation of local militia had to break it down village by village to a final victory when ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who once controlled a vast territory with tens of thousands of jihadist fighters died in a recent raid by U.S. Delta Force.
The fight against terrorism and global jihad is unending since it did not go out of existence completely. It is back to a focus on local and regional conflicts to fragmented groups with same ideology as ISIS. These splinter groups are waiting to be taken over by a new Caliph who can offer leadership. Then a new generation of Muslim men and women from across the globe move forward with the belief that Islamic Caliphate is attainable and desirable objective. This would result in a relentless pursuit of global jihad.
The track record for preventing another mass mobilization of jihadist movement is not promising. As of 2018, there were 230,000 jihadists prepared for suicide missions. A 247 percent increase from 2001, and this threat is not new. The aftermath of Soviet-Afghan war in 1980s; Bosnia and Chechnya in the 1990s, Iraq in the 2000s or Syria in 2014. Most defining moment for these Muslims is the establishment of the Caliphate. In chapter 3, the author focuses on Europe which has the prospect of turning itself into next ISIS-building project. It has become fertile for the incursions of sharia law and other Islamic practices that is totally alien to Western civilization. No-go zones created by Muslim communities provides opportunities for radicalization which has become a normal way of life. Most European citizens have liberal and leftist tendencies, they have supported the immigrant population which makes it all to comfortable for the next jihadist sanctuary. ISIS or its equivalent is waiting to happen, but this may occur in an Islamic country in Asia or Africa, but much of the fighters will be young men and women from Western hemisphere.
Author Colin Clarke’s work is critical to understand what is ahead in terms of terrorism. This is an excellent book of scholarship and highly analytical in contemporary literature that is already filled with radical and leftists’ writings that is too sympathetic to Muslim ideology. This work should prove useful to scholars and policymakers alike.
January 17, 2020
The Dark Wave: Islamic Caliphate and the New World Order
In the liberal media and politically correct environment, Islam is treated as a peaceful religion, and terrorism is a product of the economic and political ferment of the twentieth century. If one looks at 1,400-years of Islamic history and its rise in Asia and Europe, it becomes obvious that terrorism results from the Islamic teachings.
In the summer of 2014, three years after America’s full troop withdrawal from the Iraq War, President Obama authorized a small task force to Iraq to stop rapidly emerging terrorist threat. A plague of brutality that would come to be known as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) had created a foothold in northwest Iraq and northeast Syria. It had declared itself a Caliphate, an independent nation-state administered by the Islamic law, and it was spreading like a newly evolved virus. Most of its fighters were foreigners who were influenced by the Islamic teachings. In ISIS controlled areas, Islamic laws were rigidly applied. Homosexuals were hanged or pushed from high-rise buildings; adulterers were stoned, religious minorities were reduced to dhimmitude, a form of second-class citizenship, they were denied civil rights, and specially taxed via the Islamic Jizya. Young men were abducted as conscripted soldiers and young women as sex slaves of ISIS soldiers. What ensued after this was the battle to defeat ISIS, which was ferocious and brutal. The U.S troops and Iraqi army with cooperation of local militia had to break it down village by village to a final victory when ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who once controlled a vast territory with tens of thousands of jihadist fighters died in a recent raid by U.S. Delta Force.
The fight against terrorism and global jihad is unending since it did not go out of existence completely. It is back to a focus on local and regional conflicts to fragmented groups with same ideology as ISIS. These splinter groups are waiting to be taken over by a new Caliph who can offer leadership. Then a new generation of Muslim men and women from across the globe move forward with the belief that Islamic Caliphate is attainable and desirable objective. This would result in a relentless pursuit of global jihad.
The track record for preventing another mass mobilization of jihadist movement is not promising. As of 2018, there were 230,000 jihadists prepared for suicide missions. A 247 percent increase from 2001, and this threat is not new. The aftermath of Soviet-Afghan war in 1980s; Bosnia and Chechnya in the 1990s, Iraq in the 2000s or Syria in 2014. Most defining moment for these Muslims is the establishment of the Caliphate. In chapter 3, the author focuses on Europe which has the prospect of turning itself into next ISIS-building project. It has become fertile for the incursions of sharia law and other Islamic practices that is totally alien to Western civilization. No-go zones created by Muslim communities provides opportunities for radicalization which has become a normal way of life. Most European citizens have liberal and leftist tendencies, they have supported the immigrant population which makes it all to comfortable for the next jihadist sanctuary. ISIS or its equivalent is waiting to happen, but this may occur in an Islamic country in Asia or Africa, but much of the fighters will be young men and women from Western hemisphere.
Author Colin Clarke’s work is critical to understand what is ahead in terms of terrorism. This is an excellent book of scholarship and highly analytical in contemporary literature that is already filled with radical and leftists’ writings that is too sympathetic to Muslim ideology. This work should prove useful to scholars and policymakers alike.
In the liberal media and politically correct environment, Islam is treated as a peaceful religion, and terrorism is a product of the economic and political ferment of the twentieth century. If one looks at 1,400-years of Islamic history and its rise in Asia and Europe, it becomes obvious that terrorism results from the Islamic teachings.
In the summer of 2014, three years after America’s full troop withdrawal from the Iraq War, President Obama authorized a small task force to Iraq to stop rapidly emerging terrorist threat. A plague of brutality that would come to be known as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) had created a foothold in northwest Iraq and northeast Syria. It had declared itself a Caliphate, an independent nation-state administered by the Islamic law, and it was spreading like a newly evolved virus. Most of its fighters were foreigners who were influenced by the Islamic teachings. In ISIS controlled areas, Islamic laws were rigidly applied. Homosexuals were hanged or pushed from high-rise buildings; adulterers were stoned, religious minorities were reduced to dhimmitude, a form of second-class citizenship, they were denied civil rights, and specially taxed via the Islamic Jizya. Young men were abducted as conscripted soldiers and young women as sex slaves of ISIS soldiers. What ensued after this was the battle to defeat ISIS, which was ferocious and brutal. The U.S troops and Iraqi army with cooperation of local militia had to break it down village by village to a final victory when ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who once controlled a vast territory with tens of thousands of jihadist fighters died in a recent raid by U.S. Delta Force.
The fight against terrorism and global jihad is unending since it did not go out of existence completely. It is back to a focus on local and regional conflicts to fragmented groups with same ideology as ISIS. These splinter groups are waiting to be taken over by a new Caliph who can offer leadership. Then a new generation of Muslim men and women from across the globe move forward with the belief that Islamic Caliphate is attainable and desirable objective. This would result in a relentless pursuit of global jihad.
The track record for preventing another mass mobilization of jihadist movement is not promising. As of 2018, there were 230,000 jihadists prepared for suicide missions. A 247 percent increase from 2001, and this threat is not new. The aftermath of Soviet-Afghan war in 1980s; Bosnia and Chechnya in the 1990s, Iraq in the 2000s or Syria in 2014. Most defining moment for these Muslims is the establishment of the Caliphate. In chapter 3, the author focuses on Europe which has the prospect of turning itself into next ISIS-building project. It has become fertile for the incursions of sharia law and other Islamic practices that is totally alien to Western civilization. No-go zones created by Muslim communities provides opportunities for radicalization which has become a normal way of life. Most European citizens have liberal and leftist tendencies, they have supported the immigrant population which makes it all to comfortable for the next jihadist sanctuary. ISIS or its equivalent is waiting to happen, but this may occur in an Islamic country in Asia or Africa, but much of the fighters will be young men and women from Western hemisphere.
Author Colin Clarke’s work is critical to understand what is ahead in terms of terrorism. This is an excellent book of scholarship and highly analytical in contemporary literature that is already filled with radical and leftists’ writings that is too sympathetic to Muslim ideology. This work should prove useful to scholars and policymakers alike.
January 21, 2024
A modest academic work breaking down the diffuse and divergent nature of modern Islamic extremism. After the Caliphate's strength lies in its nuanced approach to proposed solutions; one-size will never fit all types, instances, nor futures of radical Islamic terrorism. From preventing the capture of disaffected minds to focusing attention on cooling areas of civil strife, Clarke does a commendable job easing the reader through a multifaced problem. Recommendable to those curious about how to evaluate the US, and future nation's, actions to combat state-based and diasporic terrorism.
March 12, 2025
very informative and gave a great comparison of al-Qaeda and IS. recommend reading beyond fundementalism by reza aslan first because it gives really good background about religious extremism which is helpful for reading about these groups.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews