Inside Salafi-Jihadist Governance: The Strategies and Characteristics of Islamist Insurgent Rule

In the years following the Arab Spring, a number of Islamist insurgent groups conquered swaths of territory across the Middle East and North Africa and began governing civilian populations. These groups have been faced with the complexities of administering justice, collecting taxes, and providing public services such as health care and education. How do Salafi-jihadist armed groups, which typically claim to be committed to ideological purity, approach administration, and what does this reveal about rule by insurgent forces?

This book is a groundbreaking comparative exploration of Salafi-jihadist governance, drawing on in-depth case studies of the Islamic State in western Iraq and eastern Syria, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in northwestern Syria, and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in southern Yemen. Marta Furlan examines rebels’ experiments in ruling, considering issues such as the treatment of non-Muslims, the extent of civilian participation, the use of coercive measures, and the scope of social and political change. She assesses whether there is a single model of Salafi-jihadist governance, the degree to which ideology and doctrine inform the behavior of rebel rulers, and the similarities and differences between Salafi-jihadists and other armed nonstate groups. Offering a window into the inner workings of government and civilian life under Islamist power, Inside Salafi-Jihadist Governance sheds new light on rule by nonstate groups more broadly.

Marta Furlan is senior program manager for research at Free the Slaves. She has worked as a research consultant on human rights issues for a number of nongovernmental organizations and holds a PhD in international relations from the University of St Andrews.