Although Command & Conquer: Generals made no explicit references to religion, it appears that the Global Liberation Army is based on Islamic extremist organizations such as Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Its vaguely Middle Eastern architecture, guerrilla warfare, tunnels, suicide units, accents and lines ("The higher order shall reign!", "I move to a sacred place!", "Infidels!", etc.), and use of anthrax and stolen nuclear weaponry are all evocative of radical Muslim terrorist groups that dominated the zeistgeist of the early to mid-2000's. In fact, when the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant rose into prominence in Syria 10 years after Generals' release, fans of the game were quick to draw comparisons between ISIS and the GLA.

As of the Rise of the Reds timeline, the GLA is currently based in Central Africa, below the Sahel line that divides the Muslim and Christian parts of the continent. This means that aside from the original GLA veterans who have relocated to Africa, much of the GLA (the native African recruits) are largely Christians, animists, and syncretists. This is verified by the December 6, 2013 update, which states that Sulaymaan's Mercenaries engage to traditional rituals before battle. However, even the RoTR universe hints to the Islamic fundamentalist nature of the original GLA: Both Mohmar and Sulaymaan wanted to form a new anti-Western caliphate, and Yusuuf was originally the head of a Saudi fundamentalist cell with ties to Al-Qaeda.

Though religion is always a contentious subject to discuss, this is a measured and balanced attempt to explain the spiritual aspect of the GLA. Hopefully, resolving this issue will enrich the lore of Rise of the Reds.

First of all, it is important to note that not all "Islamist" militant groups are the same. Considering Mohmar's Kazakh heritage, he is assumed to be of a Sunni background. There are roughly three ideological tiers of Sunni Islamist groups in terms of roots and goals.

1. Generic Sunni Islamist
Your run-of-the-mill Islamist militants seek to establish Sharia into the political system. They do not necessarily aim for the reestablishment of the caliphate, however, and they are willing to form alliances with secular and Shi'ite groups. Sunni Islamist organizations include Hamas, Algeria's Islamic Salvation Front, and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. The Muslim Brotherhood also belongs in this category, but it publicly eschews violence.

2. Salafi
Salafism is a movement within Sunni Islam that sees the 7th century as the pinnacle of Islam and all subsequent innovations as blasphemy. Though most Salafists reject violence and even disavow any form of political involvement, some Salafists believe that violent jihad is justified in "purifying" Islam and reestablishing the caliphate. Salafist groups like Al-Qaeda and al-Nusra Front are particularly hostile towards Shi'ites and Western influences. The Taliban may also belong on this category, though its philosophy lies in Deobandism and Pashtunwali.

3. Takfiri
Takfiris go beyond Salafi jihad and see all non-takfiri Muslims as apostates. ISIS, the leading power of the takfiri movement, has gone as far as to declare itself the caliphate outright, and claims spiritual and temporal jurisdiction over all Muslims. Once the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, ISIS now competes with its former parent organization over influence in the global jihad network. Other takfiri groups include Abu Sayyaf, Boko Haram, and the Caucasus Emirate.

Although Mohmar's original militia group may have opposed the secular Kazakh government on religious as well as on other grounds, a man with lofty goals of ridding the world of Western hegemony must have realized that basing his army on ideological puritanism would ultimately limit its expansion. He therefore formed the Global Liberation Army as an umbrella group, uniting Sunnis and Shi'ites under a common goal of driving Western influences out of the Muslim world. This explains how the GLA managed to receive funding from Shi'ite Iran while also joining forces with the Sunni Brotherhood of the White Falcon.

Hamas and Hezbollah would have joined the GLA due to their common anti-Zionism, while ISIS and other takfiri groups would have been brutally crushed and their ranks and resources absorbed. The latter action may have given the GLA a measure of support from those weary of ISIS violence, even though Mohmar may have personally seen al-Baghdadi as a role model in terms of brutality and exploitation of social media, if not religious dogma. Meanwhile, former ISIS members and Yusuuf's White Falcon Cell would have provided a source for the GLA's suicide bombers and a means for international recruitment.

Of course, there is a flaw to the Mohmar's umbrella strategy. Elements within the GLA have been known to defect on a whim, as demonstrated by China and Prince Kassad, and in the absence of a strong leader, the entire organization collapses altogether, with splinter cells more content on fighting each other than fighting Western oppression. Sulaymaan managed to reunite the GLA only through his skills in manipulation and utter cruelty, possibly developed from his experiences with ISIS.

Fast forward in time, the GLA is forced to retreat southward as the ECA flushes it out of its base in North Africa. Regrouping in the proverbial Heart of Darkness, the GLA had to adapt its umbrella strategy to the religious and ethnic mosaic of Central Africa. It from then on became a largely secular entity, whose ranks include Sunnis, Shi'ites, Christians, animists, and syncretists who blend any or even all of the four. Himself a Sunni Muslim with ambitions of becoming caliph, Sulaymaan nonetheless downplays the Islamic roots of the GLA , lest he alienates his non-Muslim subjects and allies. In turn, Yusuuf and his White Falcon cell are given free rein to proselytize their brand of fundamentalist Islam among the native population as well as on the Internet, providing a steady source of suicide bombers and kamikaze pilots for the Cause. Foreign missionaries and religious charities are barred from entering GLA territory, ensuring that Yusuuf's apostles face no competition.

In conclusion, the Global Liberation Army was neither Islamist nor secular. Though it did not espouse a secular ideology, it set itself apart from its terrorist predecessors by uniting disparate, even mutually hostile groups under a common mission of defeating Western imperialism in the Muslim world. As its influence expanded across the globe, the GLA turned to nationalism and class conflict to draw support from non-Muslims. By the time it reemerged in Central Africa, the contemporary GLA has become a truly secular entity, a "warrior paradise" where the dispossessed and the discontented from all over the globe make their pilgrimage to exact vengeance upon the world.

Wow... Very well done, new member. I applaude you as this is very well researched (I have never heard of takfiri or salafi before). A nice insight into the GLA's fundementalist nature, very informative. Pretty much canon-worthy too I assume.

I liked it, a quasi-academic approach to a difficult topic to write, great work.

Not bad...I've been writing the second part of my Generals timeline work on the GLA and have actually come to similar conclusions. One thing though...I figured that the GLA was a Sunni Salafist group in ideology. I explained Iranian support due to them (especially the Brotherhood of the White Falcon) being strongly opposed to the pro-Western Sa'ud clan, thus the Iranian funding in order to weaken the Sa'udi regime. Of course, this would later bite the Iranians in the ass later on.

Let me tell you something:

I'm pretty much sure that 80% of forum's members what you consider from a muslim: A man with long beard and bad teeth and black and dark skin, and wants to kill you if you even see him.

But the truth is something else. Terrorists have no place in Islam. You think that the Fu***** Al Qaede is belongs to Islam???? You're completely wrong about that. Those are just some dogs that created by USA government and USA trys to show people of the world that Musilms are terrorist. Why USA is doing that? It started after the revolution of Iran in 1979. They started an 8 year war against us, they used chimical weapons and killed a lot of the soldiers. We didn't have many assault hardware. But we won. Did we use vest bombs? Did we use chimical weapons against the enemy? No. But after that, they started to create trerrorist groups and started a soft war.

And by that, that means I'm a terrorist. But I'm not. I hope that I could change your mind about muslims and the middle east.

And I have to say Arab people (The people that I hate a lot) are completely deferent from Iranian people. So don't think that Iranians are Arabs too.

^ You are generalizing this, people here in the community do not think that all Islamic, Arab, etc are terrorists, and if anyone thinks so really is a pitiful ignorant.

This fanfiction was not exposed to the idea of generalization and groups cited by the author would be societies and fundamentalist factions - some probably supported by the West in the past - that act as arms of GLA.

"They are not muslim"

HA!

Learn reality, Islam is Hate Speech turned into a religion, if you are not already a muslim and don't convert, you are subhuman scum and should be either a slave or dead, that's what the koran says, that's what Terrorists are trying to achieve.

Don't listen to the bullshit lies of the apologists, nor the befuddled ignorance of those who actually believe any of the drivel fed to you in a mosque. Read, Analyze.

First and final warning: If this thread, which is clearly about the background of an in-game entity and its in-universe ideology, goes any further into the very RL-based debate on islam that keeps
coming up all the time, it will be locked without further comment. Don't let that happen - it'd be a major disservice to this rather thorough and impressive analysis that Pidorashka has provided.

I find it amazing that we always manage to delve into an unrelated discussion. But anyway, Pidorashka, you are a new forum member and has already written a piece of fan-fiction I consider one of the best here. And you might even know more about ROTR lore than me! Will you write more fan-fiction?

So, you're on of them.

Have you ever seen koran that you say those bullshits? Have you?

I know why you're saying it. Because you've watched those movies that US government made them and spreaded it to all over the world. And I think you should learn reallity, don't judge about something that you don't know anything about it.

And I apologize to Mr.MARS, Sorry about that.

www.fstdt.com
I'm not saying anything, just something everyone should read.

I wonder if Anubis would ever come here. It would be..."fun".

I dunno... I always imagined the GLA to be a group of Radicals

Fukken ROFL!
P.S. Я так понимаю, ты к нам с харкача?

That site just gave me a chronic case of euphoria.

Well this thread got derailed pretty quickly...

Anyways, I've compiled roughly three (or four) ideological phases of the Global Liberation Army, based on this excellent biography of Mohmar Deathstrike as well as incorporating DerKrieger's suggestion.

1. Pre-GLA (1993-2017)
The militia that young Mohmar joined after his desertion from the Kazakh army was among several that emerged in Central Asia following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Many, like the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, sought to overthrow the secular ex-communist elite that dominated the region and establish Sharia. These radical movements were increasingly influenced by Salafist ideology as they established ties with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in the mid-1990s. As an anti-Western mercenary, Mohmar would have crossed national borders routinely to fight alongside the likes of the Taliban and the IMU, eventually building a power base of his own in the region.

1.5. Connection with ISIS (2014-2017)
On June 29, 2014, the declaration of a new caliphate by ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi sent shockwaves throughout the world. The Islamic State's oil wealth, media savvy, and territorial gains in Syria and Iraq drew admiration among Salafist groups from Nigeria to the Philippines, allowing ISIS to supplant Al-Qaeda as the nexus of the global jihad network. Mohmar, by then a regional warlord in his own right, was inspired by the cunning and the brutality of ISIS and saw it as an opportunity to expand his influence beyond Central Asia. He pledged loyalty to the new caliph, who, aware of Deathstrike's fearsome reputation in Central Asia, bestowed upon him the title of emir. The influx of ISIS oil funds and weaponry allowed Mohmar to expand his army further, while he used ISIS recruiting network to contact potential followers throughout the world.


^ A man purported to be Mohmar Deathstrike in a 2014 video which showed Kazakh children being trained by pro-ISIS militants. He would have been 39 years old at the time. The training camp shown in the video, like many others scattered throughout Central Asia, would eventually be repurposed for training GLA rebels.

2. The First GLA (2017-2037)
By 2016, the strategic momentum of ISIS was spent, and anti-ISIS forces in Syria and Iraq began to make significant inroads into its territory. Mohmar, more a pragmatic opportunist than a religious puritan, knew that Baghdadi's jig was up. He began to distance himself from the faltering caliphate as he began co-opting its international network for his own ends. After announcing the formation of the Global Liberation Army a year later, Mohmar severed ties with ISIS altogether and reached out to Shi'ite groups like Hezbollah and Houthis as well as anti-ISIS Sunni groups like Hamas and the Taliban. He united these disparate groups, who would otherwise fight one another on sectarian grounds, under a common goal of anti-Westernism and vague pan-Islamism. Iran and Russia saw the utility of this new anti-Western organization and provided the GLA with funding and materiel. Mohmar even came in contact with non-Muslim insurgents like FARC and the United Armed Forces of Novorossiya, who sympathized with the GLA's opposition to Western imperialism.

However, the GLA retained a fundamentalist wing which traced its roots to the Central Asian jihadist militias and was bolstered in 2019 when Saudi terrorist Abdul bin Yusuuf and his followers pledged allegiance to the new organization. The White Falcon cell would replace Al-Qaeda and ISIS as the head of the jihad network, ensuring a steady supply of suicide terrorists and bomb truckers for the GLA. Takfiri organizations and the remnants of ISIS, on the other hand, refused to join the GLA, so Mohmar simply crushed them and conscripted their members under Yusuuf's command.


^ Mohmar Deathstrike as head of the GLA (as seen in Shockwave).


^ Mohmar in his disguise during his daring escape in 2027 (the first GLA mission on Zero Hour).

Yet another interesting take on the GLA, and I'm really glad that you liked my biography of Mohmar. Something that concerns me however is the further inclusion of real-life events into ROTR lore, because how far are we going to take it? If a war between two major powers erupts in 2015/16/whatever should that be incorporated as well? When do we draw the line between semi-realism and pure fiction?

That's why I placed the ISIS reference in a separate category, so that if MARS wills it, I can remove it altogether and just assume that ISIS did not exist in the RotR universe.

3. The Second GLA (2037-Present)
With the destruction of the GLA in North Africa after Operation Nemesis, the surviving militants fled southward, regrouping in the jungles of Central Africa. Now a religious minority in a region dominated by Christians and animists, the survivors realized that pan-Islamism was no longer an appealing ideology if the GLA is to recruit the natives to its side. Warlord General Sulaymaan therefore reinvented the GLA as a "warrior paradise", whose ideology is not of a particular creed or sect, but freedom itself. The new GLA quickly gained allegiance of the ethnic and anti-government militias that plagued the region, and even government troops defected to the GLA en masse as they took arms against the very post-colonial kleptocracies they once fought under.

Today, the Global Liberation Army is a de facto secular entity, where Sunnis, Shi'ites, Catholics, Protestants, animists, and syncretists live in (relative) harmony. Similarly to the Ottoman millet system, communities are allowed to govern themselves by their own religious laws, with Muslims following Sharia, Christians following Canon law, and animists following ancestral customs. Although Sulaymaan still holds onto Deathstrike's dream of a united Muslim caliphate, for now he follows his predecessor's umbrella strategy to the fullest, keeping in touch with guerrilla groups all over world and even hiring bloodthirsty tribal mercenaries as his shock troopers.


^ A tribal witch doctor leads young GLA recruits in an initiation ceremony. The GLA has wholeheartedly adopted the longstanding regional tradition of using child soldiers.

Curiously, the fundamentalist wing, having existed within the GLA since its very inception and undergone decades of trials and tribulations, is still alive and kicking in the Heart of Darkness. With the GLA's destruction of nation-states in Central Africa and its subsequent expulsion of foreign aid workers, the White Falcon cell has provided some semblance of a social safety net to the people, building food banks, hospitals, and schools with oil funds from Southeast Asia. With Sulaymaan's blessing, Yusuuf uses his philanthropic network to indoctrinate native children in his own militant, anti-Western brand of Sunni Islam. Salafism is now the fastest-growing denomination in Central Africa, and Yusuuf's violent, passionate preaching has ensured a steady supply of suicide bombers and Overwatch pilots for the Cause.

The White Falcon cell proselytizes on the Internet as well, drawing disaffected, radicalized youth from all over the globe towards the jungles of Central Africa to fight for the GLA. With the Middle East now in ruins, Southeast Asia is now the GLA's primary source of foreign recruitment, though Yusuuf will always have a special place in his heart for the Arab and Afghan compatriots with whom he had fought side-by-side through all these years.

very nice. Hmm, makes me wonder if there are/were any GLA cells in Asia such as Indonesia or Bangladesh?

I must say that you did a good job in making a great background story to the ROTR GLA based from events in real life, especially about the so-called "ultra-conservative hardliner Islam terrorists" as the GLA's predecessors, and I feel sorry to those who think that we Moslems are bloodthirsty terrorists.


For Indonesia, which is coincidentally my home country, most likely yes, given the fact that there are many conservative and ultra-conservative Moslems here which may be attracted to the GLA's Islamic ideology of "liberation". You can see from the the two Bali bombings and the fact that some Indonesians have joined the ISIS, which shows that some of my countrymen was attracted to such ideologies, and perhaps, given the GLA's more streamlined stance, they might have attracted even more of my countrymen to their cause, and eventually formed their own GLA cell in the country. If this is true, then they will be mounting numerous terrorist attacks in my country or even ended up initiating a revolution, turning the once peaceful Indonesia into a bloody war zone.

This is a very good, believable take on the ideological composition of the GLA and I don't mind the religious/RL references either since it is clear that these all refer to radical fringes, not the religion and its following as a whole.
If you'd like to take up the gauntlet, you could also try to provide some detail on the Middle Eastern Council which, unlike the GLA, is an actual alliance of states with an explicitely humanitarian, diplomatic and fiercely anti-GLA position.

Reading his analysis of GLA I believe it could be something complementary to something a little different that I made some time ago, speaking specifically of Pandemonium citadel - a kind of 'underworld capital' of GLA; this fanfiction approached the theme religion and I tried to show how different types of ideologies and beliefs are merged within the inner circles of the faction and that in theory it could cause one ideological/spiritual warfare between different sub-factions of the GLA - MARS has undertaken to write something about this in the future - so I would like to know your view on this: Pandemonium.

Thanks for the story, Crusher! I like how it's in first-person, since it infers a degree of bias on the part of the narrator, a Western agent who would obviously describe it as a literal hell on Earth. For the average bloke living in the GLA nation, the Pandemonium is no paradise, but it is not hell on earth, either. For him or her, it would be no different from a typical lively, crime-ridden African metropolis. Think Viva Riva!, but with Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian terrorists added to the mix.

As for the religious aspect of the story, I personally think that the foundations for a unique "GLA religion" would first arise among the native African recruits of the GLA. Instead of a distinct sect like the Abrahamic religions, it would most likely become a spiritual undercurrent within the pre-existing spiritual mosaic of Central Africa. Animists and syncretists would simply include revered GLA figures like Mohmar Deathstrike and Doctor Thrax as gods in the existing pantheon, just as how they placed Jesus and Muhammad alongside native deities and spirits. As the native contingent rises in rank, this GLA syncretism gains greater prestige and gradually spreads among the populace. Though himself a Sunni Muslim and ex-mujahideen, Warlord Sulaymaan would tolerate this new religious movement and even send approving gestures to the GLA cultists, just as how Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia visited Rastafarians in Jamaica.

However, this new spirituality directly conflicts with the GLA's other growing religious faction, the Salafists. Yusuuf and his coterie of radical converts and foreign jihadists would see it as shirk (idolatry) and disapprove of Sulaymaan for tolerating such a perversion. In turn, the syncretists fear that if the White Falcon cell takes power, it will forcibly Islamize the whole region and destroy their indigenous culture in the process. If an ideological power struggle is to emerge within the GLA in the future, it would most likely be between the GLA cultists and the fundamentalists.



^ The two emerging ideologies of the GLA, headed on a collision course.

I think it is a good take on GLA ideology. I think anti-colonialism is the main thing for the GLA, as their name suggests. And the colonialists aren't doing anything else than fuelling the fire (Middle East/Central Asia invasion of first GLA war) and ze great African resource rush. Even the usually domestic-centric Chinese are taking the great leap over the Indian Ocean towards Africa.

Nice