Jihad & Co. Black Markets and Islamist Power

For two decades, militant jihadism has been one of the world's most pressing security crises. In civil wars and insurgencies across the Muslim world, certain Islamist groups have taken advantage of the anarchy to establish political control over a broad range of territories and communities. In Jihad & Co., Aisha Ahmad argues that there are concrete economic reasons behind Islamist success. By tracking the economic activities of jihadist groups in Afghanistan, Somalia, Pakistan, Mali, and Iraq, she uncovers an unlikely actor in bringing Islamist groups to power: the local business community. To illuminate the nexus between business and Islamist interests in civil war, Ahmad journeys into war-torn bazaars to meet with both jihadists and the smugglers who financed their rise to power. From the arms markets in the Pakistani border region to the street markets of Mogadishu, their stories reveal a powerful economic logic behind the rise of Islamist power in civil wars. Moving readers back and forth between mosques, marketplaces, and battlefields, Ahmad makes a powerful argument that economic savvy, as much as ideological fervor, explains the rise of militant jihadism across the modern Muslim world.

Aisha Ahmad is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto.

Preface
Chapter 1: Mosques and Markets
Chapter 2: Black Flags in the Bazaar: The Making of Modern Islamist Proto-States
Chapter 3: Mafia and Mujahideen: Trafficking and Trust-Building under Soviet Occupation
Chapter 4: Traders and Taliban: Business Interests and Islamist Power in Afghanistan
Chapter 5: Beards for Business: The Origins and Evolution of the Mogadishu Mafia
Chapter 6: The Price of Protection: The Rise of the Islamic Courts Union
Chapter 7: The Blowback Effect: International Intervention and the Collapse of the Proto-State
Chapter 8: The Proto-State Goes Global: Criminal Business Networks and Jihadist Power across the Muslim World
Appendix: Methodology and Field Research