What does a terrorist magazine look like?

Pop quiz. Who do you think publishes this magazine, and what do you think it discusses?

 

Terror-fying

Is it up-and-coming political commentary? English-language analysis in the MENA? Some government nonprofit?

No. Correct answer: this is the official magazine of al-Qaeda.

What does a terrorist magazine look like? Apparently, like this.

The magazine has been much-discussed by CNN since its first publication, though there are some (namely, Max Fisher of AtlanticWire), who seem to doubt it is a genuinely “authentic” al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula publication. Mark Ambinder (also of AtlanticWire) claims that the first issue “reads almost like an Onion parody.” I myself don’t know, and the arguments for either side (terrorist mag, CIA-created parody mag meant to “demoralize the enemy”) seem pretty well founded. It would NOT be the first time satire (read: fake news) actually made headlines — like that time two years ago in Bangladesh when they published that the moon landings were faked.

Issandr says it looks “like an in-flight magazine,” and I have to agree — and because of that I think it’s very, very frightening. The idea of Al-Qaeda having (or there being a pretend version for some bizarrely outlined US psych-ops project) “slick Web-based publication, heavy on photographs and graphics that, unusually for a jihadist organization, is written in colloquial English” is nothing short of…well, terrifying. I’ve been using that word a lot in this post.

Says Wiki:

The Inspire magazine propaganda by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is a perfect example of methods of cultivating perceptions. It is a comprehensive propaganda campaign using mass communication mediums. It is a professional looking publication by using the dual-use technology ability of current technology and internet resources. In the fall 2010 issue of; it installed in the magazine a repetition of themes to create a singular voice of triumph, strength, and resolve. The only voice of dissent comes from positions of weakness […] submitting to God requires the highest honor of jihad to protect the ummah (Global Islamic Community). The magazine uses the themes of guilt and cowardice and the need to redeem past acts in order to be with God. Martyrdom becomes a quick fix for past transgression to a sure ticket to heaven.

What strikes me about this description is pretty much how political-religious polemic has changed so little over the course of the past thousand years. Why does a terrorist organization publish, of all things, a magazine?

Ostensibly, to get the word out. To gain converts. That’s what the mission statement says, anyway, and Peter Bergen of CNN — who remarks that “About a decade ago Bin Laden wrote to Mullah Omar that 90% of his battle was conducted in the media” — seems to agree. But I don’t.

From what I’ve read of the magazine’s reviews (I don’t want to post links to their actual magazine, sorry), Inspire appears to employ the same tactics of “letter exchanges” between Christians and a Muslims, which emerged as a genre in nineth-century Syria. Post-Islamic conquest, the most famous of these is the “exchange” that took place between the Byzantine emperor Leo the Isaurian and caliph ‘Umar II — preserved by the Armenian chronicler Ghevond, in which the emperor refutes Islam argument-by-argument after the two invite one another to convert to Christianity or Islam. John Tolan, author of Saracens points out that, as a genre, there are other, more widely read examples of the genre (his chapter in Saracens pays particular attention to Risalat al-Kindi) but they generally follow the same format: invites to convert, Muslim objects, Christian refutes all Muslim arguments (unsurprisingly, given the context) to the silent or nodding bewilderment of the “Muslim,” who (we assume) walks away or converts (There is a similar tradition of polemical letter-exchanges where the victor is Muslim). But the “weaker” part of the exchange is given only to bolster the argument of the polemicist:

“These authors, despite their pretensions of converting thoughtful Muslims, are writing for Christian readers, hoping to instill in them a sense of religious superiority that will help them cling to their Christianity even while accepting their subordinate role in [8th-century Syrian) Muslim society.”

Similarly, if Inspire is indeed run by al-Qaeda, it falls in line with a broader history of polemical writings; despite the pretension of converting outsiders to a radical faith, they are not writing for new converts.

Rather, they’re trying to keep the insiders, the converts, and the radicals hooked.