Downloading of Radical Content Does Not Only Serve to Entrench Ideologies
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1 Studying Jihadism 2 3 4 5 6 Volume 1 7 8 9 10 11 Edited by Rüdiger Lohlker 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 The volumes of this series are peer-reviewed. 37 Editorial Board: Farhad Khosrokhavar (Paris), Hans Kippenberg 38 39 (Erfurt), Alex P. Schmid (Vienna), Roberto Tottoli (Naples) 40 41 Rüdiger Lohlker (ed.) New Approaches to the Analysis of Jihadism Online and Offline With 34 figures V&R unipress Vienna University Press Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. ISBN 978-3-89971-900-0 ISBN 978-3-86234-900-5 (E-Book) Publications of Vienna University Press are published by V&R unipress GmbH. Copyright 2012 by V&R unipress GmbH, D-37079 Goettingen All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this work may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, microfilm and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Printing and binding: CPI Buch Bücher.de GmbH, Birkach Printed in Germany Contents Rüdiger Lohlker Introduction . ................................ 7 Philipp Holtmann Virtual Jihad: A Real Danger . ................... 9 Orhan Elmaz Jihadi-Salafist Creed: Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi’s Imperatives of Faith 15 Thomas K. Gugler From Kalashnikov to Keyboard: Pakistan’s Jihadiscapes and the Transformation of Lashkar-e Tayba . ................... 37 Philipp Holtmann Virtual leadership: How Jihadists guide each other in cyberspace . 63 Rüdiger Lohlker The Forgotten Swamp Revisited . ...................125 Bouchra Oualla YouTube Jihad: A Rhetorical Analysis of an Islamist Propaganda Video . 141 Nico Prucha Worldwide Online Jihad versus the Gaming Industry Reloaded – Ventures of the Web . ......................153 Nico Prucha Jihad via Bluetooth: Al-Qa’ida’s Mobile Phone Campaign . ......183 Bibliography . ................................203 6 Contents Contributors . ................................219 Index . ................................221 Rüdiger Lohlker Introduction This volume is a result of an ongoing research project at the University of Vienna (Austria). The project “Jihadism online” aims at a multi-dimensional analysis of the online presence of the transnational tendency often called Jihadism. Five of the contributors work in the context of this project, the sixth contributor (Holtmann) is a PhD student at the University of Vienna and an affiliated member of the project. Since various aspects of the project will be discussed in the chapters of this volume we may only mention the specific approach of the project combining elements of religious and media studies. A short overview by Philipp Holtmann introduces the field of Jihadist online campaigns. Orhan Elmaz demonstrates how a close reading of Jihadi ideo-theological texts discovers the slight shifts Jihadi authors use when moving from main- stream Islamic ways of thinking to Jihadist ones. Understanding these shifts is necessary to understand the strategies Jihadists use to claim their Islamic le- gitimacy. Thomas K. Gugler analyses the development of militant groups in Pakistan, the state where modern transnational Jihadism was born in the city of Peshawar. He is focussing on the organization Lashkar-e Tayba and its diverse manifes- tations, offline and online. Understanding the specifics of the South-Asian di- mensions of Jihadism is indispensable for a thorough analysis of the future of Jihadism. The emergence of specific forms of virtual Jihadist leadership on the web is analysed by Philipp Holtmann distinguishing three levels of leadership: hier- archical, mutual and discursive leadership. The online communication of Ji- hadist communication is described as being structured by a multi-layered in- teraction of rituals. Rüdiger Lohlker tries to clarify some basic categories currently used in the study of Jihadism stressing the importance of a religious studies approach. Since the religious dimensions of Jihadism are often seen and misunderstood as mere 8 Introduction varieties of ideology this approach must be added to the toolbox of Jihadism studies. Videos on popular platforms like YouTube are an important medium for jihadi propaganda. Bouchra Oualla meticulously analyses one video following the rhetorical strategies used by the producers of these videos. This aspect of online communication is still not thoroughly understood so Oualla lays the foundations for a new approach in Jihadi studies. Nico Prucha contributes two articles. The first one describes the ways Jihadis use modern devices for mobile phones to disseminate their worlview via blue- tooth etc., the second one deals with the ways jihadis are operating online compared to the strategies of the gaming industry. His two contributions are giving new insights into jihadism online as a media phenonemon. Thomas K. Gugler contributed a lot of editorial work to finish this volume. Special thanks to him. Andrea Nowak did the final editing. The research was funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF): P22706-G17. Philipp Holtmann Virtual Jihad: A Real Danger In the end of February 2011 a suicide bomber by the nickname of Abu Omar al- Shami detonated himself in a cultural centre in Western Iraq. The man was a former jihadi forum member. He was the second high profile jihadi forum member within one year who perpetrated a suicide attack. Also in February 2011, an ethnic Kosovan killed two U.S. Soldiers at Frankfurt Airport. Arid U. was a lone wolf and radicalized via jihadist propaganda on the Internet. Cur- rently, a Saudi national is on trial in the United States for the planned attack of high profile U.S. targets. The accused, Khalid Aldawsari, did not have operational ties to a terrorist group, but was guided through the Internet. In march 2011, a Bangladeshi national was sentenced in Great Britain for his support of media jihad and for plotting to bomb a U.S.-bound British Airways flight. He received operational orders via the Internet from the US-Yemeni al-Qaeda preacher Anwar al Awlaki, who is a further example for the connection between internet activism and terrorism: A dozen attempted and executed attacks are supposedly linked to al-Awlaqi’s calls for Jihad. All above mentioned individuals are deeply entrenched into a terrorist thought milieu, which is being created via the Internet and its propaganda. Online jihad and especially jihadi fora play an increasingly important role for Islamic terrorists. Chatting, up and downloading of radical content does not only serve to entrench ideologies. Terror scenarios propagated on the internet are increasingly put into action. In view of this it is important to closely observe how the virtual jihadi subculture promotes attacks.1 Besides its many positive aspects such as the use by democratic opposition groups, the internet also has a more disturbing darker side. One element of which is the increasingly professional exploitation of its communicative possi- bilities by jihadis. As yet, these individuals are less interested in attempts to jam the public transport, information, or supply system (cyber hacking). Internet jihadis focus much more on perfecting terrorist propaganda. It is their aim to 1 The original version of this article was published in German by the SWP. The article was translated into English by Michael McEvoy and updated by the author. 10 Philipp Holtmann make the divide between the virtual and the physical more permeable with the help of elaborate media strategies. The participants in discussions call more and more for the keyboard to be exchanged with the detonator. The reference to “role models”, such as the Khost attacker Humam al-Balawi, is designed to inspire sympathizers to mutate from internet surfers to terrorists. In large scale media campaigns this transfer process is glorified. Al-Qaeda on the Net Online Jihad means that sympathizers can adopt the ideology of al-Qaeda from their computers. The jihadi scene on the internet is admittedly a subculture that only represents a fraction of Muslims. However their propaganda is so massive that they seem many times greater. Al-Qaeda and affiliated groups are steering the mindsets of followers by initiating propaganda. Followers are then re- producing the propaganda and trying to re-enact their jihadi role-models. As U.S.-terrorism researcher Jarret Brachman argues, key individuals like the U.S.- Yemenite cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is related to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, present themselves increasingly in simple, but popular ways. Jihad related concepts are constantly watered down. This makes it even easier for followers to jump on the ideological band wagon of Jihad and become radi- calized. In this sense, one could also speak about communicative leadership via the Internet (virtual leadership). A handful of Arabic speaking jihadi fora constitute the scaffolding of al- Qaeda’s virtual infrastructure. These are currently “Ansar” (supporters), “Hanin” (yearning), “Shumukh” (glory), “al-Buraq” (the horse of Mohammed), “al-Mujahidin al-Elektruniyya” (electronic fighters), “at-Tahaddi” (the chal- lenge) and “Sinam al-Islam” (hump of Islam). If any of these websites are blocked, their operators immediately upload them with all associated data onto a different server. The main fora have