Military Review English Edition July-August 2015 | Page 111

ROLE OF TRIBES

and more patient when dealing with local populations.
For instance, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb emir Abu
Musab Abdel Wadoud reprimanded jihadists for their
iron-fisted governance approach in Mali in 2012, telling
them that “our previous experience proved that applying
sharia [Islamic law] this way, without taking the environment into consideration, will lead to people rejecting the
religion and engender hatred toward the mujahedin.”29
In contrast, the conclusion IS drew from AQI’s defeat
is seemingly that AQI had collapsed because it failed to
sufficiently stamp out opposition. Rather than viewing
the population as a potential ally, IS generally perceives
tribes as a potential threat to its supremacy, as well as
religiously suspect.
Despite IS’s excesses, Sunnis feel marginalized and
targeted by the Iraqi government. They are not equally
represented, and the Sunni es