The Literature of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba

Description

Since its inception in Afghanistan in the late 1980s, the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT), also known as the Jamaat-ul-Dawa (JuD), has arguably been the most threatening and disruptive terrorist organization in South Asia and beyond. While there is considerable scholarship on its history and operations, few scholars have exploited the organization's vast publications. This volume is the first scholarly effort to curate a sample of LeT's Urdu-language publications and then translate them into English for the scholarly community studying this group and related organizations. While the original texts were written and published by Dar al Andalus, which exclusively publishes LeT's books, pamphlets, posters, speeches, and other materials with the explicit intention of diffusing the group's ideology, raising funds, and cultivating volunteers for the organization, the authors hope that by rendering the group's materials more accessible, this book can contribute to the myriad efforts to combat such groups and the violence they perpetrate.

About the authors:

C. Christine Fair is Professor, Security Studies Program, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, USA. She previously served as a senior political scientist with the RAND Corporation, a political officer with the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan in Kabul, and a senior research associate at the United States Institute of Peace. Her most recent book is In Their Own Words: Understanding Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (Hurst/OUP, 2018/2019). She has authored, co-authored, and co-edited several books, including Fighting to the End: The Pakistan Army's Way of War (OUP, 2014), Pakistan's Enduring Challenges (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015), Policing Insurgencies: Cops as Counterinsurgents (OUP, 2014), Political Islam and Governance in Bangladesh (Routledge, 2010), and Treading on Hallowed Ground: Counterinsurgency Operations in Sacred Spaces (OUP, 2008), among others.

Safina Ustaad is a freelance translator, poet, and conceptual artist based in Providence, Rhode Island, with a Master's in Theater Studies from Brown University. Ustaad has translated for various academics and journalists researching militancy and political violence in Pakistan.

Reviews

'The Literature of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba is the foundational book on Lashkar. This work by two leading scholars fills a major gap in literature and sheds new light on an often misunderstood militant organization. It is essential reading for practitioners, scholars, and students alike who seek to understand the doctrine and worldview of one of the most sophisticated jihadist groups operating today. ' (Tricia Bacon, School of Public Affairs, American University )

'With exemplary scholarship in multiple languages, Christine Fair and Safina Ustaad interpret the stories Lashkar-e-Tayyaba use to inspire the group's fighters and followers and to justify its violence. This extraordinary book permits a glimpse inside the distorted thought-world of one of Pakistan's most dangerous terrorist organisations. ' (Ian Hall, Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University )

'Finally we can read Lashkar-e-Tayyaba in their own words. With this captivating, accessible, and painstakingly accurate book, Fair and Ustaad have made a landmark contribution to the study of militant Islamism. ' (Thomas Hegghammer, All Souls College, University of Oxford )

'Few scholars have done as much as C. Christine Fair to educate the academic and policy communities worldwide about how Pakistan has tragically undermined its own national security since its independence. The Literature of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba vivifies one of the most dangerous terrorist groups employed by Pakistan. Through carefully translated texts that let its protagonists speak for themselves, Christine Fair and Safina Ustaad have illumined the cancer afflicting Pakistan while leaving the non-Urdu speaking scholarly community in their debt. ' (Ashley J. Tellis, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, D.C. )

Table of contents

•    Dedication
•    Acknowledgements
•    Notes on Transliteration and Translation
•    Foreword by Hussain Haqqani

Chapter 1   Introduction to this Volume

Chapter 2   What is the 'Lashkar-e-Tayyaba'?

Chapter 3   Islamic Sources Used in this Volume

Chapter 4   'Why Are We Waging Jihad?' With a Foreword by Abdus Salam bin Muhammad

Chapter 5   'In Defense of Jihad' by Ubaidurrahman Muhammadi

Chapter 6   'The Mujahid's Call' by Naveed Qamar

Chapter 7   'We the Mothers of the Lashkar'

Chapter 8   Fighter Biographies

Chapter 9   'Highway to Heaven' by Amir Hamza

Chapter 10   'The Problem with Takfir

Chapter 11   'Destination Kashmir is Nigh' by Ali Imran Shaheen

Chapter 12   'Noble Warriors and Battlefronts' by Muhammad Tahir Naqqash

•    References
•    Index