Islamic State organisational skills keep it resilient

Subject

IS post-Baghdadi

Significance

On October 31, five days after the reported killing of Islamic State (IS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the group’s central media outlet al-Furqan released an audio message from one Abu Hamza al-Qurashi -- identified as IS’s new spokesman -- announcing the death of Baghdadi and the group’s previous spokesman Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajir. The message affirmed that a new 'caliph' called Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi had been chosen, and that IS soldiers and supporters of what the group describes as true Islam should hurry to pledge allegiance to him.

Impacts

• There is no evidence of an al-Qaida-IS rapprochement.
• For a reconciliation to take place, IS would have to cease claiming to be a caliphate.
• Non-IS jihadists reject rapprochement with the group and consider even IS defectors to be ‘renegades’ (‘khawarij’).