Constructing ‘the Jihadi’

Having considered in what senses the word ‘jihadi’ is used, we now turn to the second question posed above. How is ‘the jihadi’ constructed? What things does the label happen to adhere to? An initial way into this question – bypassing issues of language and linguistic context – is through the visual. In asking how ‘the jihadi’ is pictured, or what a picture ‘of jihad’ looks like, it might be suggested that we can obtain an idea – to use the word in its etymological sense – of the ‘imagination’ of jihad within Arabic Web content.

Contemporary weapons

Enemy/regular military

Suicide bomb vests Medieval weapons Lion Horsemen !Traditional" costume Explosions/flames Scenes of destruction

Countryside/landscape

Banners

Maps

National flags

Group logo

Particular individuals

(Desecration of) Enemy Symbols

Al Aqsa Mosque

Globe in space (and other celestial bodies represented astronomically)

Prayer/Mosque

Women and children as participants/combatants Victims Martyrs Demonstrations/Crowds Satirical cartoon/morph

There is, it should be pointed out, nothing especially surprising or original about the categories of image identified here. Indeed, the basic types of image overlap to a substantial extent with those identified by Brachman, Boudali and Ostovar’s ‘Islamic imagery project’.373 This is precisely the point, however. For it demonstrates that a study based on Westpoint military academy’s ‘extensive collection of jihadi imagery’ (presumably based on that institution’s subjective understanding of what constitutes ‘jihadi’) is dealing, in its essentials, with the same body of imagery that just

happens to be turned up by Google web spiders looking for images tagged with this word. It may, of course, be objected that this fact is no coincidence, but rather is explained by mainstream Arabic media picking up on the same notion of ‘jihadism’ put forward by the US led ‘war on terror’. Except that – as we saw with reference the previous searches, and as is true for these as well – the ‘jihadi’ material turned up by Google searches of Arabic content derives from forum posts, user generated sites, and even self-styled ‘jihadi’ forums just as it does from mainstream news.

An agglomeration of ‘jihadi’ images produced in this way is clearly a very artifical text to work with, and attempts to advance towards what Strauss and Corbin would call an ‘axial’ level of coding374 must, of course, proceed with caution, lest patterns be found where none really exist. And yet, the basic themes that can be discerned within this set of categories seems so clear, and so coherent as to be expressable with reasonable confidence. ‘The jihadi’ – according to these search results – is consistently about violence (both given and received), solidarity and – certainly in the most iconic and superficial sense – Islam. 375

A somewhat more complex and extensive set of (sometimes overlapping) sub themes might tentatively be developed along the following lines.

First, there are images which seem to be quite straightforwardly about fighting. Images of paramilitiaries, of guns and rocket launchers, as well as groups of fighters in military clothing, disciplined or patrol formations and covered faces present the notion of the central importance of armed activity. Medieval weapons and equipment are relevant here too, but have more complex implications.

Secondly, and nearly as straightforward are images of oppression. This would include portrayals of conventional military forces which, in a ‘jihadi’ context seem almost always to be engaged in

illegitimate violence, generally aimed at civilians. This in turn links into images of vulnerable civilians bloodied, killed, screaming or hiding. Oppressive enemies can also be represented through their own symbols, particularly the hateful image of the Star of David. And this, in turn, offers the possibility of symbolic resistance - for instance, through the destruction of such symbols.

Thirdly, images such as maps, national flags and certain kinds of traditional clothing (such as the Palestinian 'atta) illustrate the importance of geographical community. It should be noted that this may be less significant in parts of the world where ‘traditional’ clothes are simply part of everyday dress.

Fourthly, place overlaps with but does not necessarily reduce to history. In the context of ‘jihadi’ images this is primarily invoked through the generic medievalism of swords, horses and banners. Slightly more obscure is a reference such as that in the logo of the Islamic State of Iraq to the seal of the prophet Muhammad which, apart from the distinctive writing style and design, consists only of the Muslim declaration of faith. Significantly, (though not surprisingly) historical images in content labeled as ‘jihadi’ appear to invoke only the most generic notions of ‘Islamic’ history, rather than histories of particular groups and communities.

Fifthly, there is the theme of devotion to the group. Here might be placed specific group logos and images of leaders and martyrs. Conceivably, certain images also relating to violence might too be placed in this category. The guerrilla style of covering the face – which suppresses identity in more senses than one – the use of clothing styles unique to a particular group or even, perhaps, the gesture of solidarity implied by the image of the suicide bomb vest (allowing, of course, for the complex range of resonances such an image might have).

Sixthly, there is a wider theme of solidarity within the community. Most obviously this can be seen in images of crowds and demonstrations. Pictures of armed children and (particularly where they do not seem to be of an age or appropriately clad for actual combat), women can perhaps also be read not so much as images of violence per se, but rather as delibarate incongruity, showing that the whole community, combatant and non-combatant is united in the cause.

Seventhly, there is in addition to the theme of collective solidarity, a theme of devotion to the

cosmic or transcendent. This is achieved through images of prayer, of mosques, or the Qur’an. It is also achieved through astronomical depictions of the globe in space, of the moon, or of other planets or, sometimes of images of nature: landscapes, sunsets or seascapes. Such images might bring to mind at once Qur’anic passages concerned with the awesome spectacle of the night sky, the demand that Muslims ‘read’ the signs (ayat) of nature, and the marvels of the Universe as revealed by modern science.

Thus ‘the jihadi’ might be seen as being characterized as the representation of violence in response to oppression by particular organized groups on behalf of a wider community occurring within the bounds of three spheres: a geographical one of space, a temporal one of (shared) history and a moral one of the physical and ethical laws of the cosmos. This is, as has already been pointed out,

scarcely a new point to make. Indeed, Armborst’s definitional fields of ‘jihad – military conflict, jihad – dogmatic and jihad – Islamic activism’ seem well represented here. ‘The jihadi’ on the Web is then, it seems, tolerably close to ‘jihadism’ as Western academic literature seems to understand it.

4.4 Jih!d" An!sh"d/Poetry

The corpus of ‘jihadi’ images located by search engine algorithms provides a useful starting point for analysis precisely because it suppresses much of the complexity introduced by the editorial choice of the individual online contributor. As such, it would seem, potentially, to offer us a basic ideographic vocabulary of ‘the jihadi’ as a universal, shorn of partisan and ideological difference, individual artistry and contextual nuance. It helps to provide the contours, in other words, for what might be called (following Manovich’s ideas on new media artistry), a ‘database of jihad’ - the set of stock motifs available for constructing more complex ‘jihadi’ items. But jihadi images in the form we have considered them are not jihadi media in their natural contexts: rather, they are artificially broken down elements. The next stage then must be to examine jihadi content items as unified pieces of work.

Along with ‘operation’ the single word most commonly combined with the word ‘jihadi’ in Arabic material on the web is the word nash"d. The jihadi nashid is a subgenre of the Islamic nashid generally. As such, these are (usually) à capella songs for one or more male voices. Instruments, which are often considered 'ar!m by strict Muslims376 rarely appear in accompaniment. However, voices are generally multi-layered and manipulated with studio effects. The nashid form - as a general term for religious singing - is a well established Islamic tradition.377 However, the

contemporary form of the Islamic nashid as represented by most ‘jihadi’ nashids may be a relatively modern introduction.378 The lack of instrumentation and use of harmonic vocal lines - almost choral in style - does not seem to be reminiscent of previously widespread Middle Eastern musics, with the

possible exception of certain ancient chants such as the (ajj anthem Labbayk Allahumma, whose words, at least go back to the dawn of Islam and beyond, and are said to have been sung by Adam on his arrival at the original Ka‘aba.379

Jihadi nashids can be found in a wide range of online locations. They are posted to sites such as YouTube or Archive.org and to mainstream and secular Arabic bulletin boards (such as Majida,380

Ibtesama381_{or Al Jazeera Chat}382 _{just as they are also posted to ‘Islamic’ sites such as Muslm.net,} Palestinian sites such as Paldf383 or ‘jihadi’ forums such as Al Fallujah,384Shumukh al-Islam385and so on. Commonly, however, such posts link back to ‘Islamic’ websites, or to Islamic websites specifically specialising in the nashid genre such as www.enshady.com or www.dawa.ws.

Moreover, they are often found as part of collections of other ‘Islamic’ or ‘da‘wi ’ nashids. As such, the jihadi nashid appears to represent a relatively ‘mainstream’ form, with famous ‘munshids’ (nashid singers) such as ‘Abu ‘Ali’ releasing large numbers of nashids on jihadi as well as other Islamic themes.386 This compares usefully with online references to jihadi ‘operations’ which are more often found on - and which generally refer back - to a specifically ‘jihadi’ website. As such, nashids can be seen as representative of a more ‘popular’ jihadi tradition than other jihadi items, with relatively less dependence on access to the official or semi official propaganda productions of fighting groups.

Where only the words of jihadi nashids are posted, these may be described as ‘jihadi poetry’. And indeed, since the following analysis will not take account of musicological considerations, the two genres can be treated as essentially the same. 387

At the simplest level, the nashids examined exhibit the same set of themes suggested above. They are about violently fighting an oppressive and murderous enemy. The vengeful heroes are marked out by their qualities of ‘steadfastness’ or ‘solidarity’ (%um"d); by their pious yearning for the

rewards of paradise and the accounts of the Day of Reckoning over the transient pleasures of the world (‘they did not care whether there was rice or anything between their teeth’. Their primary weapon is the machine gun, from which nothing will separate them. But explosives, too, have their part to play. Through this combination of piety, loyalty, devotion to the point of sacrifice and aggressive violence, the heroes will redeem their people, liberating ‘Al Aqsa today - Al Andalus tomorrow.’

Nashid collections are sometimes labelled so as to indicate that they represent a particular jihadi group - for instance, a ‘collection of 300 hamasi jihadi nashids’.388 However, in general there appears to be a good deal of ideological plasticity to the genre. A nashid commemorating an attack by, for instance, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, such as fajr" al-mal‘"n ya bint al-jih!d (Blow Up the Cursed One, O Girl of Jihad), may turn up as the soundtrack for a montage of attacks by the Al Qaida affiliate Islamic State of Iraq.389 On the other hand, it would seem that jihadi nashids enjoy a fairly broad audience. For instance, a nashid relating to the Chechen jihad such as 'ayy al-kata’ib

can be appreciatively received by very secular presenting forum goers.390

In the same collections of jihadi nashid lyrics, it is possible to encounter nashids which appear to relate to jihad by groups in Palestine, by groups in Iraq, and specifically by Al Qaida. It may be suggested that there are particular shared characteristics to the former group as opposed to nashids relating to other fields of jihad. Specifically, in ostensibly Palestinian nashids, the authorial voice suggests a narrator who is profoundly engaged in what is portrayed as a collective and enduring struggle by a whole people. What is distinctive is a quality of solidity and permanence - even of the eternal - to the set of relations embodied in this struggle. Indeed, so intertwined are themes of the natural world, of fertility, the shared fate of the people and the land, and the redemptive courage of the martyr hero (which will ‘plant’ a seed which will grow into ‘thorns of vengeance’ among the coming generation)391 that they almost seem to bring to mind romantic notions of pagan sacrifice to

appease the forces of nature of the sort imagined in, for instance, James Frazer’s notion of the year king.392

Sacrifice, as presented in such songs, appears to be an event of tightly circumscribed symbolic significance.393 There is, for instance, an important motif of body parts: ‘our skulls are offered so that your [Islam’s] honour can remain whole’. ‘I have given you’ [Jerusalem] a pledge of my blood’. ‘They were covered in blood and smiled in great jubilation’. The idea of sowing the dragon’s teeth is almost explicitly used in Blow Up The Cursed One O Daughter of Jihad, when it says ‘pour out your blood, for if good blood falls upon the ground it will grow into soldiers in the time of need’. The hero’s denial of the body is that of the inward-looking ascetic. Its value is mediated by the good of the community, which through the sacrifice, is connected directly to the eternal. In this poetic scheme explicitly religious themes – prayer, mosques, religious labelling of opponents and, more important, Paradise and Judgement Day are invoked more as powerful abstractions than as concrete realities. Indeed, in one poem, the end of service through jihad as a good in itself seems almost to be elevated above that of attaining salvation in paradise.

To the gardens [of paradise], and the gardens are an abode... they are a resting place and a shelter for the shahid. And more wondrous than their yearning for Eden...their yearning for God, the Majestic If they were called upon they said, in hope... we would have returned and fought all over again. For to have fought for you once is satisfaction enough... and in satisfaction we aspire still more

The same song culminates: ‘And if we die it does not matter to us... we are not pleased with the life of the slave.’ It is, therefore, not the prospect of achieving Paradise which ‘teaches solidarity’ as the song puts it, but rather the determination not to live in dishonour and ‘slavery’. In these songs religion seems to be as Durkheim insists, ‘a figurative expression of the society’.394

Indeed, so closed is the imaginative system - so fixated on the triangular relationship between martyr, community and the eternal - that even violence against the enemy seems to disappear into abstraction. The hero dies fighting the enemy. But it is the gore of his own demise that is valorised - not that of his opponents. It is somewhat paradoxical that even the violence of the fighter is

subsumed into wider story of victimhood. ‘A generation refusing injustice’ is raised by the blows and injustices of the enemy. But the main role of the heroes thereby produced is, in turn, to die heroically. The concern here is not, it seems, the actual physical destruction of the community, but its social death, its dissolution through loss of honour.

Other nashids - while not using a fundamentally different ‘vocabulary’ of images, differ in some important ways from this template. Here, the community - or at least the narrator’s membership of it - seems not necessarily to be a given. Feelings of commonality may be temporary, and the narrator may even appear to express notions of alienation and nostalgia. No longer does the author merely celebrate the outstanding dedication of a third person hero. Rather, he is at pains to declare his own loyalty. In the case of one example by a person who writes under the pen name of ‘poet of Al Qaida’, it is the very act of producing poetry itself which affirms the writer’s commitment.

Do not doubt my heart, O friend

I am the pure one, and your outpouring that cries out My arm rhymes precious verses

Over the concert of the swords, and the shields Proud, sweet rhymes

Calls- ‘come to prayer, come to salvation’ to the people of jihad. It paints its letters, it makes my hymn become

As sharp as the spear of Al-Samhariyyat

I have given my slaughter to the Islamic state I have sworn allegiance to it, and forfeited all return. I reach out to the Amir with an overflow of longing

So reach out so that we can swear allegiance by hand

Indeed - as can readily be noted, the possibility that the writer’s sincerity might be doubted is offered at the very inception of the work. Elsewhere, the community and solidarity expressed in the first category is represented as a longing for a time which has now vanished.

Where are our days? Where? ... Where have we spent them? They went in the blinking of an eye... O my place, remember them

O blessed Kandahar... the Lord keep her .... by jihad... The Guide build her

Paradise of the merciful... noble Kabul

By God, we are not pleased... with injustice anywhere

Perhaps as a consequence of this, these poems seem simultaneously more concerned with violence against a specific enemy, and less sure about the prospect of salvation. As one nashid asks: ‘One day a whole Ummah will kneel... in healing gloom...To an important question... did you do your duty to the prophet?’. No longer is the existence of an afterlife merely a matter for celebration. Now, it is a matter for concerned personal reflection, which presumably is compounded for some by feelings of distance and lack of agency, as for the author of O World What is this Silence? Who in