The Syrian war has been affecting Jordan directly and indirectly for the past few years. The refugee crisis and the rise of jihadism in the region has challenged both its political system and its social cohesion. The inability to cope with the constantly growing needs of the refugee population, along with the simmering political unrest, is threatening the social cohesion of the country, while the rise of Salafism poses a threat to the stability of the regime. The way with which the state reacts to these challenges will shape Jordan’s future for the next years to come.

Hizb al-Nahdah―officially founded in 1981―witnessed a ‘rebirth’ of its political career in the post revolution Tunisia (March 2011), thereby posing a considerable impact on the political milieu of the region. The restructure and reformation of the Movement besides the devising of new strategies and policies befitting the changing socio-political atmosphere are the key involvements of al-Nahdah. The emergence of Salafis as a new political force obviously demanded al-Nahdah to redefine its role, strategy, and outlook. This has been recently manifested in its role as a mediator between different political actors―Secularists and Salafi groups―which is most difficult and complicated endeavor as per Rashid al-Ghannushi, the primary ideologue of the Movement.

Σήμερα κοινός παρονομαστής του βίαιου και αιματηρού ξεσπάσματος εναντίον της επίμαχης ταινίας, είναι η ανάπτυξη των κινημάτων και οργανώσεων των σαλάφι ισλαμιστών. Οι εξεγέρσεις εναντίον των αυταρχικών καθεστώτων τους έδωσαν τη δυνατότητα να εισέλθουν στο κεντρικό πολιτικό παιχνίδι αν και ήταν από τους τελευταίους που συμμετείχαν στις εξεγέρσεις κατά του Μουμπάρακ και του Μπεν Άλι. Παράλληλα, το Κατάρ και η Σαουδική Αραβία θέλουν να δημιουργήσουν ένα αντίπαλο προς τους Αδελφούς Μουσουλμάνους δέος με την υποστήριξη των σαλάφι οργανώσεων.

Είναι κοινό μυστικό ότι όταν κανείς αξιολογεί μια πληροφορία ή είδηση μεγαλύτερη σημασία έχει το ποιος το λέει και δευτερευόντως το τι λέει, καθώς η απόδοση της αλήθειας υποκρύπτει από μόνη της μια πολιτική σκοπιμότητα. Το ζήτημα της παρουσίας των salafi-jihadi στο Λίβανο και τη Παλαιστίνη δεν ξέφυγε από αυτή τη λογική.

"ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror" follows ISIS throughout the years of its existence, with the scope of defining not only its origins but also the dynamics that transformed it from a minor jihadist group to a powerful worldwide menace. Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassan track ISIS since its very beginning as al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) up until the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, using the method of original interviews with US military intelligence and officers and western diplomats, as well as with ISIS fighters or people who got in touch with key people of the group. Their goal is to offer the readers the chance to form their own judgment about the growth of ISIS, by presenting the facts objectively and staying to the point.

A series of French and foreign scholars and researchers have embarked on an effort to approach a phenomenon that has increased in ìpopularityî since 9/11 in western media, academic communities and thinkñtanks; however, it still remains widely ambiguous. Analyses which focus on extremist movements in the Muslim world quite often use the term ìSalafismî along with ìJihadismî, ìWahhabismî and ìextremist Islamî. This kind of mixing of theological, militant and political terms obscures more than it reveals while confusing the reader and intensifying his or hers already troubled perception of the phenomenon under discussion. This work - the first one to approach the Salafist phenomenon under a global prism - sheds light on the course of salafism from its cradle in the Arabian Peninsula to its apparition in the Parisian suburbs, passing by the Middle Eastern world and particularly Morocco.

Osama is dead. Seemingly, there couldn’t be a worst time for alQaeda. The death of a leader in the midst of confusing and challenging developments is never good news for a militant “vanguard” organization like Al Qaeda, who together with the Salafi-jihadi current in general, found themselves up against the wall by the untimely winds of the Arab Spring. Nevertheless, by one of those twists of history, the death of Osama may turn into a very timely development for the survival of “Jihad