Thread by @rcallimachi

1. Hello everyone, Chapter 2 of #Caliphate is now up on iTunes, Spotify etc. In this episode, we explore the ideas - boiled down to three religious concepts- that are used to lure potential recruits to ISIS. itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/cal…

2. I’d spoken to numerous ISIS recruits and had a general sense of how the recruitment worked. But it wasn’t until I sat down with former al-Qaeda recruiter @_JesseMorton that it began to make sense. After being released from jail, Jesse has worked to deradicalize others.

3. Read about Jesse’s journey out of extremism below: mobile.nytimes.com/2016/08/30/us/…

4. Just today, @_JesseMorton published a piece on Revolution Muslim, the group he used to run which lured numerous future attackers to al-Qaeda. It’s co-authored by the official at NYPD @MitchSilber who used to track Jesse: ctc.usma.edu/nypd-vs-revolu…

5. Among the concepts @_JesseMorton used to lure people to extreme Islam was the concept of “al wala wal bara” which has a long history dating hundreds of years & was revived & propagated by the Wahhabi school in Saudi. It calls for believers to show enmity to non believers

6. How do we know ISIS used this concept too? For one because we found this book in Mosul, which Iraqi security forces gave us permission to take. It’s a book by a 19th c Wahhabi scholar, who helped develop the concept of al wala wal bara. ISIS also published it online.

7. To better understand this concept, I reached out to the erudite @colebunzel. He explained that al wala wal bara means “loyalty and enmity.” It enjoins Muslims to only show love and loyalty to members of their faith and to reject everyone else. Every faith has a version of this

8. But groups like ISIS, and al-Qaeda before it, mandate this behavior. It’s not enough to be a believer. You are only a true believer if you reject - show hatred, and in the case of jihadist groups you translate that to violence - toward everyone else.

9. In Chapter 2 today, you will hear how this concept was used by ISIS to recruit a young Canadian. @nytimes listeners get to listen right away to Chapter 3, at the following link where you learn how this concept and others translate into violence: nytimes.com/interactive/20…