International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence
ISSN: 0885-0607 (Print) 1521-0561 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ujic20
The Taliban’s Online Emirate
Carl Anthony Wege
To cite this article: Carl Anthony Wege (2017) The Taliban’s Online Emirate, International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence, 30:4, 833-837, DOI: 10.1080/08850607.2017.1337453 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08850607.2017.1337453
Published online: 07 Sep 2017.
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Download by: [73.190.106.112] Date: 07 September 2017, At: 14:50 BOOK REVIEWS 833
The Taliban’s Online Emirate
CARL ANTHONY WEGE
Neil Krishan Aggarwal: The Taliban’s Virtual Emirate: The Culture and Psychology of an Online Militant Community Columbia University Press, New York, 2016, 211 p., $60.
Neil Aggarwal, a Harvard- and of its distinct target audiences Yale-trained psychiatrist, has turned thereby increasing support for the his many talents to an analysis neo-Taliban insurgency. of The Taliban’s Virtual Emirate During the 1980s, foreshadowing emergent over the last decade. modern Taliban efforts in the cyber While a number of studies have been domain, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s published on al-Qaeda’s virtual Hizb-e Islami began publishing hard world and some on the Islamic State copy Islamist periodicals in Arabic, (ISIS), rather little is available on Pashto, Dari, Urdu, and English the Taliban’s cyber presence. Dr. during the Jihad against the Aggarwal utilizes his training in Soviets. According to Aggarwal, cultural psychiatry and medical this enhanced the organization’s anthropology to address this gap and recruitment efforts by motivating does so with a depth of perspective Afghan students from those years uncommon in many analytical works. to see politics through the lens Aggarwal formulates a comparative of religion rather than merely analysis of Taliban texts and content considering Islam in terms of in English, Arabic, Dari, Pashto, and Qur’anic recitation and Hadith Downloaded by [73.190.106.112] at 14:50 07 September 2017 Urdu to address how the Taliban examinations. Hekmatyar’s foresight configures its virtual messaging to portended the Taliban’s Virtual enhance the sociopolitical awareness Emirate.
Carl Anthony Wege in early 2017 became Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the College of Coastal Georgia, Brunswick, where he had taught since 1989. A graduate of Portland (Oregon) State University, with an M.S. from the University of Wyoming, Professor Wege has written extensively on Middle East issues in a wide range of academic and professional journals. He is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence.
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THE PAKISTANI INFLUENCE northeast. Traders whose smuggling business between Central Asia and Aggarwal notes that the particular South Asia had been disrupted by Pakistani madrasa network that the civil war provided much of the shaped the worldview of students who initial funding which allowed the would later lead the Taliban prepared Taliban to coalesce in 1994 and them for both a strict interpretation establish a new and somewhat stable of Islam and political activism. The Islamic order. madrasas that trained the Taliban leadership, many of whom were war THE RISE OF OMAR orphans from the Soviet occupation, were said to have originated at the The Taliban ruled Afghanistan only inspiration of the Dār al-ʿUlūm briefly, between 1997 and 2001, and Islamic School, founded in Deoband, during that time they were known India in 1867 by scholar-jurists abroad and particularly in the Muhammad Qasim Nanotvi, Rasheed West for an insularity defined by Ahmed Gangohi, and ‘Abid Husaiyn. an ideology that fused Deobandi Since the early twentieth century, interpretations of Islam with Pashtun Deobandi scholars trained in these tribal honor codes. Aggarwal networks have fostered political necessarily portrays Mullah Omar mobilization across the Pashtun through a limited set of sources territories, from modern Pakistan’s encompassing a few interviews, Indus River to Afghanistan’s Amu recollections from Omar’s associates, River. Although Taliban leader statements by Mullah Omar at Mullah Mohammad Omar was from religious festivals, and by a total of the Ghilzai tribe, the bulk of the thirty-four orders issued by Omar original Taliban leadership learning in and included in every issue of the the Deobandi tradition came from Urdu language periodical Sharī’at. Afghanistan’s Durrani tribe and were Omar himself is portrayed in largely trained in the Darul Uloom contrary vignettes as living opulently
Downloaded by [73.190.106.112] at 14:50 07 September 2017 Haqqani and Jamiatul Uloomil in Kabul while ruling Afghanistan, Islamiyyah madrasas in Pakistan. although simultaneously humble in The first incarnation of the Taliban dress and personal habits. Likewise, emerged in the chaotic aftermath sophisticated prose has been of the Soviet withdrawal from attributed to Omar while by all Afghanistan in 1989 which left an accounts his formal education was amalgam of warring sovereignties. virtually non-existent. Aggarwal Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s Pashtuns describes a crucial event shaping dominated the south in competition Mullah Omar’s worldview that with Ismail Khan’s Afghan Shia, occurred in 1996 when he put on Abdul Rashid Dostum’s Uzbeks a cloak that was allegedly worn by ruled in the north, and Ahmed Shah Mohammed and, according to one Massoud’s Tajiks controlled the story, given to Mohammed by
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Enoch at the gate of the fourth United Nations authority, though heaven. In 1996, the cloak (Kerqa) he was later “elected” in 2004 as was located adjacent to the main the country’s President. Over time, mosque in Kandahar under the the Taliban’s supporters slowly control of the Akhundzada family began to reconstitute themselves and who acted as the cloak’s traditional establish an insurgency against the guardians. It was provided to Omar new Western-backed government. and he donned it atop a platform The Taliban, like most social and in front of a crowd including political organizations, initially scholar-jurists from Afghanistan and reflected their origins but evolved to Pakistan. The crowd then began to see that reflection fade as time and proclaim Omar Amir al-Mu’minin or events shape the larger movement. Commander of the Faithful. This The first Taliban were then was the title favored by Caliph superseded by what Aggarwal calls a ‘Umar Ibn Al-Khattab (579–644 “neo-Taliban” whose fighters now CE). The intentions of the Afghan use Pakistani cities for sanctuary, and Pakistani scholar-jurists were and whose emergent Afghan rural presumably limited to solidifying networks are anchored in the Mullah Omar’s leadership between application of Islamic law, militancy, rival factions of Ghilzai scholar- and funded by the opium trade. jurists from Kabul and Durrani This “neo-Taliban” is also scholar-jurists from Kandahar rather characterized by an increased cyber than any intention to declare Omar presence. The Taliban, of course, the new Caliph. But he instead took are only one of many cyber actors the title seriously and apparently representing disparate Islamist sub- attempted to pattern himself after state radicals who utilize virtual ‘Umar, or at least his rural Afghan space in multiple ways congruent folk view of Caliph ‘Umar, which with their political objectives. For likely had little in common example the Salafist Islamic State’s with scholarly assessments of Caliph Al Itisam media establishment utilizes
Downloaded by [73.190.106.112] at 14:50 07 September 2017 ‘Umar or his Caliphate. its multiple organizations and platforms to deliver propaganda and, more importantly, to engage both AFTER 9/11, THE NEO-TALIBAN the curious and sympathizers in Aggarwal describes how, following the conversation aimed at recruitment. American-led invasion of Afghanistan This “conversation,” a very critical in late 2001 in the aftermath of the 11 part of the Islamic State social September 2001 (9/11) Islamist attacks media effort, is aimed at convincing on New York City and Washington, potential warriors to make the Hijrah DC, the Taliban quickly scattered to (religious migration) to Islamic State the winds. Hamid Karzai, backed by territories. Conversely, al-Qaeda’s the Northern Alliance, was initially cyber and social media electronic installed to the leadership under jihad messaging is spread more
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diffusely among the objectives of endow cultural communities with a recruitment, planning, and facilitating sociopolitical awareness favorable donations than are Islamic State to the Taliban. Consequently, the information operations. But the Taliban master narrative can be Virtual Emirate of the Taliban parsed in different languages to appears to have a focus on using persuade individuals far from Taliban virtual space to support the real world territories to support the movement by kinetic insurgency in Afghanistan. In creating a hybridized identity driven engaging the multilingual discourse by Taliban propaganda promoted in of the Virtual Emirate, Aggarwal virtual space. Aggarwal explains that analyzes how Talibanic social media is the Taliban’s English and Arabic configured to link their messaging to materials are particularly important culturally relevant symbols in a way because the two are considered the designed to appeal to distinct English, transnational cosmopolitan languages Arabic, Dari, Urdu, and Pashto most useful for shaping opinion and audiences. He observes that in the promoting fundraising. In the Dari hybrid imagined community such and Pashto languages Taliban disparate audiences can see the propaganda reflects the vernacular of Taliban through their own cultural lens. Afghanistan, while Urdu is considered a regional parochial language symbolic of religious identity across South Asia, THE IMPORTANCE OF as well as for nationalist Pakistanis. LANGUAGE By linking the Taliban Virtual Emirate Aggarwal suggests that the audience to both political realities and the for the Taliban’s Virtual Emirate is madrasas of memory, Taliban less the rural Afghan populations, propaganda portrays Pakistan as most of whom are blissfully unaware having been founded on Islam and its of cyber existence, but rather Taliban scholar-jurists as allies, although the military commanders, expatriate government of Pakistan is seen as Afghans abroad, donors, journalists, corrupt. This is stylistically similar
Downloaded by [73.190.106.112] at 14:50 07 September 2017 and other opinion leaders. By to the common “we are enemies of utilizing his training in psychiatry, the government but not the people” psychology, and South Asian studies meme exploited by militants Aggarwal, a self-described Indian everywhere. Russia is described by American Hindu, examines the the Taliban through the lens of multiple messaging in Taliban imperialism and, in that sense, Taliban discourse across audiences and seeks propaganda echoes the 19th century to understand the Taliban’s master arguments of activist Sayyid Jamāl narrative. He refers to the theory al-Dīn al-Afghānī (1838–1997) who, of imagined communities to explain while a modernist in some senses, group identity formation through was nonetheless a vocal opponent of communication in the context of that era’s British imperialism. In this Virtual Emirate, intending to general, the leadership of many
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radical movements (with a few identify the messengers of the exceptions like Caliph Ibrahim of the Taliban’s Virtual Emirate to discover Islamic State) utilizing Islam for who decides the content of their political objectives has little to no messaging. The Taliban is after all a element of advanced religious learning and teaching organization education. They therefore must use and is nearly a generation removed social media to bypass the traditional from Mullah Omar’s brief rule. The scholar-jurists whose opinions would generation that waged a jihad against otherwise be understood as the Soviets is now comprised of authoritative in politically mobilizing mainly old men while the bulk of target populations. Aggarwal today’s Taliban fighters were infants demonstrates that the “neo-Taliban” or small children when the Taliban have been somewhat sophisticated in were driven from power. their efforts to achieve this effect. In summary, Neil Krishan Aggarwal Aggarwal’s work might challenge has made a significant contribution to other scholars to ask if counter- understanding an important ethnic narratives by non-governmental and religious movement through this organizations like Aaron Lobel’s comparative analysis of the Taliban’s America Abroad Media could open English, Arabic, Pashto, Urdu, the target audiences of the Taliban’s and Dari messaging across their Virtual Emirate to additional points worldwide Virtual Emirate. of view. Scholars might also seek to Downloaded by [73.190.106.112] at 14:50 07 September 2017
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