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November 15, 2006
Jihad beats McWorld
A story over the weekend in the Times chronicled the use of hip-hop music by Islamists to spread their messages.
HIP-HOP and rap artists are teaching young Muslims the ideology of radical Islamism through songs about the war in Iraq, the oppression of Muslims and the creation of an Islamic state governed by Sharia, or religious law.
Intelligence agencies have identified music as a “tool for indoctrination”. The phenomenon began with an American group called Soldiers of Allah. The group has since disbanded but its music and lyrics remain popular on the internet. Other groups in Britain, France and the US have been identified as giving cause for concern. Many use the derogatory term “kufur” to describe non-Muslims.[ . . . ]
“The music is very persuasive because it is giving young people ideas, and those ideas are what might motivate someone to become a jihadi. The material is all in English. It’s spreading a radical message to domestic populations that don’t speak Arabic or Urdu.”
Commentary
"American culture conquers all" is a meme that has circulated for years. A friend used to joke that if Britney Spears could have been convinced to do some concerts in Afghanistan, there would have been no need for a US invasion.
Yet stories like these hint at a different set of conclusions: that like any other Western innovation, pop culture can be subverted to serve the virus of radicalism. In this case, the use of hip hop, a form which glorifies the artist and his ego, serves to glamorize jihad.
Rather than meeting radicalism with apple pie and entreaties to freedom vacuously defined as popular music, jeans and McDonald's, it seems that the much-vaunted "war of ideas" that is sometimes heard but rarely elaborated upon will have to actually take place, and hold some substance. Moreover, it seems that any new memes introduced to fight against those of the radicals, will have to be Muslim in origin, even if they use Western forms, as seen here. It is a complex problem and one unlikely to be solved by any government, if it can be solved at all. Creating counternarratives is a task best left to the private sector in the West, and putting such narratives in the form of popular music will take some time -- not in the least because those most likely to do so probably feel that their lives will be endangered.
Posted by Chester at November 15, 2006 12:02 AM
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Comments
"Creating counternarratives is a task best left to the private sector in the West..."
This is true and very important. Unfortunately, the only segment of the West that is successfully generating and disseminating narratives for global consumption is the Left. And their narratives are working to undermine everything that we have that is worth defending. If we are going to win the Long War, people who actually believe that we have something worth defending are going to have to have the same kind of drive and persistence and creativity as the Left and the Jihadis in crafting narratives and organizing networks to succesfully distribute those narratives. Winning the narrative war is essential to victory. The private sector is indeed the better situated to wage this part of the war than government. But who is the "private sector"? It's you and me. It's citizens who are motivated to act and organize. The responsibility is ours.
Posted by: phil at November 15, 2006 11:01 AM
Jihadi Hip-Hop reminds me of a quote from gringoVision:
"They use the West against the West. Clever buggers, aren't they?"
Posted by: gringoman at November 15, 2006 5:58 PM
There is no narrative, no Myth, for the Good Strong King to have to fight against weak and evil enemies.
Either the King is not so good, or not so strong, or both.
I'm confident McWorld will beat the Jihadists, but I'm not sure it will happen BEFORE a nuke is used (on Tel Aviv? Miami? Moscow? Mumbai?).
To win before using nukes, we must speak the truth.
When Muslims murder Iraqis, it is not the fault of America, nor of American liberation of Iraq. It is because the Muslim killers don't care about innocent Iraqi life.
Posted by: Tom Grey - Liberty Dad at November 15, 2006 7:34 PM