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-----Original Message-----
From: Matthew Russo via Marxism
"To the best of my knowledge, ISIS diverge from Al Qaeda orthodoxy in
switching tracks to the "near enemy", Israel and Saudi Arabia. Now if
ISIS
and Baathist allies actually went after these, I am sure they would
wildly
cheer them on."
I don't think this is quite right. ISIS diverges from Al Qaida orthodoxy
in switching tracks to the "near enemy," their Shiite (or Alawite) Arab
(or Persian) neighbours. Al Qaida, by contrast, still wants to focus on
the big picture, namely US imperialism, and it sees Israel and Saudi
Arabia etc as part of this struggle against the US.
ISIS also claims this, of course. But ISIS has a state-building project,
and those immediately in its way are the Shia. Thus what appears to be
more "radical" about ISIS compared to Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria and
al-Qaida generally - its penchant for monstrous sectarian brutality - is
precisely due to a more *conservative* project, that of building an
actual state.
The dispute goes back to 2005 when al-Qaida chief Zawahiri strongly
criticised Zarqawi's ISI for its slaughter of Shiites, bombings of
Shiite holy places and grisly slaughter of hostages
(https://www.fas.org/irp/news/2005/10/dni101105.html), and precisely
from the point of view that it divided Muslims in the main fight, to
expel the US occupation, and from there to go on to liberate Palestine
(in their fashion).
That's why JaN can cooperate with the rest of the Syrian resistance
against the regime, while ISIS builds a state in the far north and eat
of Syria and collaborates with the regime even while slaughtering
Alawite non-combatants.
And that's why the heroic battles waged by the FSA and the united rebel
front against ISIS haven't won them an ounce of American support - JaN
fights on the side of the united rebel front against ISIS, but the US
regards JaN to be more of a threat than ISIS.
Of course, ISIS brutality provides the propaganda for Assad/Maliki/US to
fight the uprisings more generally, but it is precisely its sectarian
slaughter that divides the people in Syria and Iraq and thereby makes
ISIS less dangerous.
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