Management of Savagery

Management of Savagery: The Most Critical Stage Through Which the Ummah Will Pass was uploaded to the Internet in 2004 by the al-Qaeda terrorist organization. Its author, Abu Bakr Naji, is unidentified and is known only for this piece plus some contributions to the al-Qaeda online magazine Sawt al-Jihad. A report by National Public Radio described the author as a "top al-Qaida insider" and characterized the work as "al-Qaida's playbook".

Management of Savagery has been translated into English and is available online. An overview is also available.

Summary
Management of Savagery is an open and frank description of the need to create and manage nationalist and religious resentment and violence in order to create long-term propaganda opportunities for jihadist groups. Most notably, the author discusses the value of provoking military responses by superpowers in order to recruit and train guerilla fighters and to create martyrs. Naji suggests that a longlasting strategy of attrition will reveal fundamental weaknesses in the abilities of superpowers to defeat committed Jihadists.

Naji uses the philosophy of Ibn Taymiyya, the influential 14th century theologian, and his book also displays a thoughtful understanding of western institutions and value systems, and the role and history of Islamist movements in Egypt, Afghanistan, and the Middle East, particularly the activities of Islamic Jihad in Egypt during the 1990s.