|Jihadi Culture
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|Jihadi Culture Thomas Hegghammer is senior research fellow at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI) and adjunct professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Oslo. Trained in Middle East Studies at the University of Oxford and at Sciences-Po, Paris, he has held fellowships at Harvard, Princeton, New York, and Stanford Universities and at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He is the author of the prize-winning Jihad in Saudi Arabia (Cambridge, 2010) and many other books and articles on jihadism. He has conducted extensive field- work in the Middle East, including interviews with former militants, and he has testified on jihadism in the U.S. Congress and the British Parliament. Jihadi Culture The Art and Social Practices of Militant Islamists thomas hegghammer Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI) University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10006, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia 4843/24, 2nd Floor, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, Delhi 110002, India 79 Anson Road, #06 04/06, Singapore 079906 Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107017955 DOI: 10.1017/9781139086141 © Cambridge University Press 2017 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2017 Printed in the United Kingdom by TJ International Ltd. Padstow Cornwall A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Names: Hegghammer, Thomas, editor. Title: Jihadi culture : the art and social practices of militant Islamists / [edited by] Thomas Hegghammer. Description: Cambridge, United Kingdom : Cambridge University Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016054366| ISBN 9781107017955 (Hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781107614567 (pbk. : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Jihad. | Jihad in literature. | Islamic music History and criticism. | Islamic countries Civilization. Classification: LCC BP182 .J54155 2017 | DDC 297.7/2 dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016054366 ISBN 978 1 107 01795 5 Hardback ISBN 978 1 107 61456 7 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. To the memory of Patricia Crone Contents Illustrations page ix Tables x Acknowledgments xi About the Contributors xiii Introduction: What Is Jihadi Culture and Why Should We Study It? 1 Thomas Hegghammer 1 Poetry in Jihadi Culture 22 Robyn Creswell and Bernard Haykel 2 A Cappella Songs (anashid) in Jihadi Culture 42 Nelly Lahoud 3 A Musicological Perspective on Jihadi anashid 63 Jonathan Pieslak 4 The Visual Culture of Jihad 82 Afshon Ostovar 5 A History of Jihadi Cinematography 108 Anne Stenersen 6 The Islamic Dream Tradition and Jihadi Militancy 128 Iain R. Edgar and Gwynned de Looijer 7 Contemporary Martyrdom: Ideology and Material Culture 151 David B. Cook 8 Non-military Practices in Jihadi Groups 171 Thomas Hegghammer vii viii Contents Bibliography 202 Notes 221 Index 264 Illustrations 2.1 Distribution by topic of anashid in sample collection page 56 4.1 Flag of the Tamil Tigers and the emblem of al-Shabab 85 4.2 Emblems of (left to right) Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Lebanese Hezbollah, and Kata’ib Hezbollah 86 4.3 Emblems of (left to right) Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Jaysh-e Muhammad, and Sipah-e Sahaba 86 4.4 The flag of Islamic State 89 4.5 Flags of al-Qaida and associated jihadi groups 92 4.6 Minbar al-Tawhid wa’l-Jihad (c. 2011), Kuwait jihad (c. 2005) 94 4.7 Nusra Front, “Day of the Infiltration” (2012) 95 4.8 Jundallah poster (c. 2010) and Global Islamic Media Front advertisement (c. 2005) 96 4.9 Mujahid as superhero (left) and Marvel’s The Punisher (right) 98 4.10 “Khattab, Lion of Chechnya ...” (c. 2005) 99 4.11 “Lion of Tawhid: Abu Umar al-Maqdisi” (2012) 100 4.12 “O Martyr, You Have Illuminated!” (2010) 101 4.13 “Calls” to Paradise Jama‘ (c. 2005) and AQAP (c. 2011) 102 4.14 Iranian Baluch martyrs (c. 2010) and Usama bin Ladin in Paradise (2010) 103 4.15 Ansar al-Mujahidin Internet forum art competition submissions 106 ix Tables 8.1 Key primary source documents page 175 x Acknowledgments This book owes its existence to many extraordinary people and insti- tutions. As the editor, I thank the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton for hosting me as a William D. Loughlin fellow in 2009–2010, when I had the idea for the book. The Institute’s quiet surroundings, Princeton’s stimulating intellectual environment, and Patricia Crone’s enthusiastic encouragement helped nurture the project in its crucial early stages. Moreover, the Institute hosted me again as a summer visitor in 2015, enabling me to undertake the final editorial work. In the meantime, I had enjoyed the generous support of Stanford University’s Centre for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), which gave me a Zuckerman Fellowship in 2012–2013 to work on jihadi culture, among other things. At Stanford, CISAC’s research director Lynn Eden was a particularly strong supporter of the project and a very useful discussion partner. I am extremely grateful to the Norwegian Defence Research Estab- lishment (FFI) for supporting the project throughout the six years it took to complete. In an age where research is increasingly expected to offer short-term policy relevance, Espen Skjelland and Espen Berg- Knutsen let me spend considerable time on the seemingly esoteric topic of jihadi culture. FFI also funded two workshops at which the con- tributors got together to discuss early drafts of their chapters. One workshop was held in Oslo in July 2011, the other in Washington, DC, in December 2011. For the Washington meeting, Odd-Inge Kvalheim and Olav Heian-Engdahl at the Norwegian Embassy kindly helped with advice on logistics. The book has also benefited from stimulating discussions at sem- inars on jihadi culture held at University of California–Berkeley, the University of Exeter, University of Oxford, University of St Andrews, the U.S. State Department, and the Oslo Student Society. I am also extremely grateful to the many people who have contributed ideas and source material for the book, including Christopher Anzalone, J. M. xi xii Acknowledgments Berger, Michael Cook, Martha Crenshaw, Manni Crone, Alexander De la Paz, James Fearon, Diego Gambetta, Amir Goldberg, Ron Hass- ner, Ann-Sophie Hemmingsen, Elisabeth Kendall, Stéphane Lacroix, Brynjar Lia, Will McCants, Flagg Miller, Petter Nesser, Joanna Para- szczuk, Behnam Said, Alex Strick van Linschoten, Jeremy Weinstein, Elisabeth Wood, and Aaron Zelin. This list is undoubtedly incomplete, and I apologize to all whose name escaped me as I wrote this note. I am also grateful to the editors at Cambridge University Press, in particular Marigold Acland and her successor, Maria Marsh. Both enthusiastically supported the project throughout and displayed excep- tional patience as we missed deadline after deadline. Last, but not least, I want to thank Juan Masullo, whose meticulous copyediting improved both the content and the form of the manuscript. The names I have mentioned here are only those that I, the book’s editor, relied on. The nine other authors no doubt have additional people to thank. We are all acutely aware that we stand on the shoulders of an entire community of writers. We hope that the same community will appreciate this humble contribution to the literature and forgive its errors. About the Contributors David B. Cook is associate professor of religion at Rice University. Robyn Creswell is assistant professor of comparative literature at Yale University and poetry editor of The Paris Review. Gwynned de Looijer is honorary research fellow in anthropology at Durham University. Iain R. Edgar is emeritus reader in anthropology at Durham University. Bernard Haykel is professor of Near Eastern studies at Princeton University. Thomas Hegghammer is senior research fellow at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI) and adjunct professor of polit- ical science at the University of Oslo. Nelly Lahoud is senior fellow for political Islamism at the International Institute for Strategic Studies–Middle East. Afshon Ostovar is assistant professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School. Jonathan Pieslak is professor of music at the City College of New York. Anne Stenersen is director of terrorism studies at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI). xiii Introduction: What Is Jihadi Culture |and Why Should We Study It? thomas hegghammer This book is the first in-depth exploration of the cultural dimension of jihadism. We wrote it because so many others cover the operational stuff. There is no shortage of works on the operations, structures, and resources of radical groups, and many studies of jihadi ideology focus on political objectives, strategic thinking, or views on tactics. But militancy is about more than bombs and doctrines. It is also about rituals, customs, and dress codes. It is about music, films, and story- telling. It is about sports, jokes, and food. Look inside any radical group – or conventional army for that matter – and you will see daily life inside it filled with a range of artistic products and social practices that serve no obvious strategic purpose: Think of the songs of leftist revolutionaries, the tattoos of neo-Nazis, or the cadence calls of the U.S.