by Matthew Barber Al-Qaida and Jabhat al-Nusra have each declared an Islamic State in Syria, in their own way. And by the way, Jabhat al-Nusra is al-Qaida. T he head of al-Nusra, Abu Muhammad al-Julani, finally confirmed the obvious through an official declaration of allegiance. An Islamic State in Syria? For Real? Al-Qaida in Iraq already styles itself as the “Islamic State in Iraq” (ISI). The difference between it and Jabhat al-Nusra is that the latter actually controls territory, making the declaration of a state cause for a moment of disconcerted reflection: If Jabhabt al-Nusra currently administers various villages and cities (such as Raqqa) through a manifestation of Islamist governance embodied in shari’a councils, and if Jabhat al-Nusra is al-Qaida, then it’s not absurd to say that something resembling a rough patchwork of quasi city-states has been established by al-Qaida in Syria. This is a strange station that no one expected to arrive at when the Syrian upris...
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