Counter Jihad provides a sweeping account of America's military campaigns in the Islamic world and fills a gaping void in our understanding of the War on Terror.

The untold story of how an unlikely anti-Islamic alliance of gay activists, feminists, fascists, evangelical Christians, populist politicians, and surfing rabbis from California fuelled the rise of the hard right across Europe and gave us President Donald J Trump.

Reveals the endemic nature of Islamophobia in the West across various sections of society, both left and right

The rise of this self-described "counter-jihad" movement in Europe, which seeks to combat the perceived threat of "Islamization" through Europe-wide protests and awareness and advocacy campaigns, has added a new and complex element to the study of the far-right in Europe. The concept has spread to the continent, and Scandinavia in particular, where Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and Finnish defense leagues have emerged. This report outlines the history, influence, and the potential dangers the movement poses. This loosely-organized, decentralized network of sympathetic far-right groups and political parties has used the internet to coalesce into a more effective and international anti-Islam movement, not of racism, but of cultural nationalism. Recently its leading members have established international umbrella organizations in an effort to shift more of the movement's activism from the virtual into the physical world.

Three to four dozen international and local organizations, up to one hundred thousand individuals, and millions of supporters are part of the phenomenon of Global Jihad. The Global Jihad Movement endeavors to name and differentiate these organizations and to explain their infrastructure, operational capabilities, and activities. It also analyzes their mutual and multi-lateral relations inside and outside the “jihadi framework.” In essence, this is a “who’s who” in the Global Jihad. The first section deals with ideology, focusing on the emergence of the Salafi and the Salafi-jihadi ideologies, which are still the most important factors behind the operational performance of Global Jihadi elements. The second section addresses the “affiliate groups” of al-Qaeda, such as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and al-Qaeda in Iraq. This section focuses mainly on the groups that adopted al-Qaeda’s Global Jihad strategy by incorporating Western targets in their vicinity of operations in their targeting policies. The next section discusses the different jihad arenas that have emerged over the last three decades, absorbing jihadi fighters from Islamic communities around the world. Finally, tThe last section examines the long process of radicalization, from regular and normative lifestyle patterns to the final jihadi stage—which in many cases involves martyrdom as suicide bombers in the name of radical Islam.

Tunisia became one of the largest sources of foreign fighters for the Islamic State—even though the country stands out as a democratic bright spot of the Arab uprisings and despite the fact that it had very little history of terrorist violence within its borders prior to 2011. In Your Sons Are at Your Service, Aaron Y. Zelin uncovers the longer history of Tunisian involvement in the jihadi movement and offers an in-depth examination of the reasons why so many Tunisians became drawn to jihadism following the 2011 revolution. Zelin highlights the longer-term causes that affected jihadi recruitment in Tunisia, including the prior history of Tunisians joining jihadi organizations and playing key roles in far-flung parts of the world over the past four decades. He contends that the jihadi group Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia was able to take advantage of the universal prisoner amnesty, increased openness, and the lack of governmental policy toward it after the revolution. In turn, this provided space for greater recruitment and subsequent mobilization to fight abroad once the Tunisian government cracked down on the group in 2013. Zelin marshals cutting-edge empirical findings, extensive primary source research, and on-the-ground fieldwork, including a variety of documents in Arabic going as far back as the 1980s and interviews with Ansar al-Sharia members and Tunisian fighters returning from Syria. The first book on the history of the Tunisian jihadi movement, Your Sons Are at Your Service is a meticulously researched account that challenges simplified views of jihadism’s appeal and success.