Skip to main content

Death of Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi

 One week ago today, President Joe Biden announced that ISIS chief, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi was killed, "remov[ing] a major terrorist threat to the world." Since the death of his predecessor, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019, Abu Ibrahim has acted as the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq. Qurayshi is said to have been groomed his whole life for a leadership position within IS. Prior to his death, the American government had offered ​​a reward of around $7.3 for information on Qurayshi’s whereabouts or general intelligence.

The blast that killed Qurayshi and his family came from an American-led raid in Northern Syria. Biden promises that the death of their leader will set ISIS back significantly- greatly impacting the group's ability to function and progress. However, ISIS experts around the world hold a different opinion. This is a result of Qurayshi’s leadership and also the very organization of ISIS today. “Qurayshi is no Baghdadi.” His length of leadership seemed to impact the way in which he was viewed as a leader. Also, ISIS once controlled land almost as large as the UK. Now, they are acting almost as a guerrilla insurgency with confused and scattered leadership.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dr. Cornel West and Dr. Robert George Equip the Poly Community with the Tools to Combat Groupthink and Engage in Productive Discourse

    T his evening, Poly students, Jason Mayo, Megan Ha and Opal Hetherington impressively facilitated a hugely impactful conversation with Drs. Cornel West and Robert George. In our current sociopolitical climate, our Poly community will certainly benefit from what we collectively learned tonight. Despite their diverging ideological and political viewpoints, the two intellects’ relationship “extends beyond friendship and into brotherhood.” "Love is not reducible to politics or public policy," shared Dr. George at the beginning of the program. To me, this sentiment was consistently reinforced throughout their time with us. Their brotherhood, built on the foundation of truth-seeking, and seemingly epitomizing true friendship, served as proof of Dr. George's statement.       When asked about discourse, Dr. George defined civility for the audience- outlining the importance of listening from a place of wanting to learn; acknowledging the possibility that "I coul...
Post a Comment
Read more

Capstone Project Reflection

On Thursday, May 12, Jackie Sabbag and I presented our capstone project with our other GS cohort members. In attendance were a handful of budding global scholars- it was inspiring to see the continued interest in the program. Jackie and I outlined the specificities of our early relationship with I Am A Girl, and the grant proposal process that followed. The presentation marked a very special culminating moment for our time with the GIP. We presented a similar set of slides to our audience today to the slides that we presented to the grant donors. We wanted the audience today to fully understand why we chose to work with I Am a Girl, why the work we wanted to do through our project was important, and what the money would allow for within the Ugandan Mbale community and beyond. In addition to the grant proposal information we also shared our take-aways from the project. We spoke about the importance of really being able to fulfill our theme of empathy into action.
Post a Comment
Read more

Haitian President, Jovenel Moise, Shot and Killed Amid Political Turmoil

Yesterday, Haitian President Jovenel Moise was shot and killed in his home. Much controversy surrounded his term length, as alleged election fraud resulted in a 12 month delay in which the new polls opened, and the election results of 2015 were annulled. These new polls were won by Moise. His opposition denied the legitimacy of the upcoming year of his presidency, claiming that he had served his 5-year term, because former Haitian president, Michel Martelly, stepped down 5 years prior. Moise, however, argued that he still had another year of his presidency due to the fact that he only took office in February of 2017 as a result of the aforementioned delay. Mr Moise continued to rule by decree, causing outrage throughout Haiti. Protests riddled the streets of Haiti, calling for Mr Moise’s resignation. Opponents also claimed that Mr Moise was to blame for a surge in violence, seeing as he left Haiti without a Parliament during the postponement of the October 2019 legislative elections. O...
Post a Comment
Read more