by Marisa UrgoShaalan | Jun 9, 2013 | Monitor
I traveled to Turkey in March, as part of a class in public diplomacy, sponsored by George Mason University's Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution. During the trip, the class met with Syrians who were engaged in the early, non-violence...
by Marisa UrgoShaalan | Apr 8, 2013 | Monitor
More thoughtful analyts know that militant Islamic momvements existed long before September 11th. I make it an effort to collect books on political Islam, Islamism, jihad-centered groups, etc that predate 2001. This, in order to view radical movements without the...
by Marisa UrgoShaalan | Jul 5, 2012 | Monitor
Update [7/5]: After reading the passage again, I've added the preceding paragraph [in blue], because it enhances Zawahiri's primary argument – trust and dedication matter. On another note: I received several comments on the quality of the grammar and...
by Marisa UrgoShaalan | May 27, 2012 | Monitor
Zawahiri Describes the Afghan Camp ComplexIn Chapter 4 Section 4 of the 2d edition of his spiritual autobiography, Knights Under the Banner of the Prophet, Ayman al-Zawahiri describes the training camp complex that had developed throughout Afghanistan during the chaos...
by Marisa UrgoShaalan | May 27, 2012 | Monitor
Zawahiri’s Personal Theology of Risk In Section 2 of the Afghanistan chapters of his autobiography, Knights Under the Banner of the Prophet (2d ed), Ayman al-Zawahiri tells of the origins of the al-Qaeda’s efforts to unify the various Afghanistan-based “mujahideen”...
