The ISIS Files: The Islamic State’s Dawa and Mosques Administration - A New View of an Old Framework

Summary

On December 15, 2020, the Program on Extremism at The George Washington University published a new report authored by Aaron Zelin alongside a trove of previously unseen documents. The documents and accompanying report were made available on The ISIS Files digital repository, an online collection of primary source materials launched earlier this year by The Program on Extremism in partnership with the GW Libraries and Academic Innovation and The New York Times. The report, My Beloved Brothers in God, This is an Invitation: The Islamic State’s Dawa and Mosques Administration, is part of a series of thematic papers examining different facets of the Islamic State’s rule during the Caliphate phase.  

To accompany the release of the documents and related report, the Program on Extremism at The George Washington University hosted a virtual panel on December 15, 2020. The panelists discussed the Islamic State’s proselytization activities through its dawa and mosques administration, as well as the evolution of these activities from previous iterations of the organization and other jihadi groups. Through a combination of historical perspective and new insights made possible in part by The ISIS Files, the panelists shed light on one of the Islamic State’s most critical administrative bodies in its governance and state-building project. The discussion, moderated by Program on Extremism Senior Research Fellow Devorah Margolin, featured:

• Aaron Zelin, author of the report, Richard Borrow Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and author of Your Sons Are At Your Service: Tunisia’s Missionaries of Jihad
• Nelly Lahoud, Senior Fellow in New America’s International Security Program and author of forthcoming book on the Abbottabad papers