The dissident trend that emerged within the Islamic State and has since become a trend in opposition to the group’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi continues to produce output intending to expose the failings of the Islamic State project. This new release from Mu’assasat al-Turath al-‘Ilmi (‘The Knowledge Heritage Foundation’) is another example of this output. The work, written by a certain Abu Jandal al-Ha’ili (who is originally from the Arabian Peninsula and held multiple positions inside the Islamic State), consists of pieces of advice he and others sent in private to Baghdadi and other Islamic State leaders. These texts were written in 2018 CE as the Islamic State’s formal territorial holdings in Syria became confined to a small strip of land in eastern Syria.
His declared purpose in publishing these pieces of advice is to refute the claim that dissidents like him were broadcasting problems within the group to the outside world in a bid to stir up internal strife and undermine the Islamic State. Rather, he emphasizes that the dissidents tried their utmost to advise the Islamic State leadership privately but to no avail. Instead, the leadership supposedly became more obstinate in its troublesome ways.
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