PART II: Jihadi media booming
By Ali K Chishti
“Sometimes jihadi media and especially the online media — web 2.0 gives us more information than our intel assets on ground,” confirmed a western intelligence operative based in Washington DC. And there are examples, like only in December the Somalian version of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Shabaab al-Mujahideen, announced its merger with another group Hizbul Islam based in Somalia and publicly boasted about their power apart from the Shabaab al-Mujahideen issued official communiqué claiming bombing into Uganda.
On November 4 last year, al Qaeda’s official As-Sahab media wing came out with a somewhat remarkable statement by al QaedaÂ’s number two, Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri, titled, “Who will support scientist Aafia Siddiqui?” where Dr Zawahiri remarkably ended addressing Pakistanis, “I say to you in few words because the time is work time: you made your government and you made your army leaders into a people without pride, and without sanctity and without dearness and without value.” The al Qaeda number two continues, “So whoever wants to free Aafia Siddiqui and take revenge on those who violated her and all Muslim women should join the Mujahideen because there’s no dearness except by jihad and no pride but by it.”
While the Kashmiri insurgents tend to stay low due to tighter scrutiny and publish magazines in the cover of various religious political parties, al Qaeda to TTP, including the Taliban, had been at the forefront of spreading their manufactured propaganda not just to show “how tech-savvy they are but to glorify what they are doing to gain attention, get praise, recruit and to send out coded messages,” confirms a former intelligence chief to Daily Times.
While organisations like Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Lashkar-e-Muhammad, Jaish-e-Muhammad and Lashkar-e-Tayyaba had to significantly cut back their online presence due to pressure from various intelligence agencies, which constantly monitor the unregulated and uncontrolled TTP and its affiliated organisations. While Ummat Studios, a Pakistani media organisation, which primarily focuses on TTP-led operation against the Pakistan Army in Waziristan, is the biggest Pakistani jihadi organisation which credits itself after coming up with the mantra of “Na-Pak Fauj” —the al Qaeda official media managed by Adam Yehiye Gadahn, runs from an undisclosed location in Pakistan, is the most influential jihadi media organisation in the world.
As-Sahab regularly carry’s out videos of Osama Bin Laden and Dr Zawahiri and of attacks on both Pakistani and US army in the region. In fact Osama Bin Laden sent out an audio message on January 22 to the people of France warning them of consequences if France did not withdraw from Afghanistan. While the Arabs and Pakistanis from the Pakistani Tribal Areas operate their own media, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) runs two media houses, named Jundullah Media and Badr at Taweed Media, through which it propagates violence against US interest in the region.
On a more mainstream level in Pakistan where visual media had seen an unprecedented boom since 2001, the prime time slots and maximum time is devoted to conspiracy and speculative culture which an industry leader confirms candidly, “We give you what majority of us wants to listen – the US has one FOX news and a Bible Belt — Pakistan as a whole is right-wing hence we cater to there needs.”
While another kind of extremism promoted by the security establishment of Pakistan was the well calculated launch of Zaid Hamid, previously an Intelligence Bureau asset, who came out lecturing what the military wants us to hear and made quite an impact only to do what all proxies of establishment end up doing — he went freelance. Some years ago a religious show host Amir Liaqat Hussain on a mainstream television channel gave out an irresponsible statement because of which two members of the Ahmedi community were killed. And more recently, Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer was shot dead just because the country’s mainstream media portrayed the assassinated governor in bad light and deliberately made him controversial. It is not that the media in Pakistan is used only by jihadis but had been used for “de-radicalisation” as well. The “Yeh Hum Nahin” (We are not them) campaign, which was aired some years ago with mega stars coming on television that “we are not terrorists”, was sponsored by British think-tank engaged in Pakistan from Birmingham and Soihull areas in West Midlands.
While all sort of radical ideas and jihadi publications are going viral in Pakistan, the government seems more interested in banning Black Berry services of foreign diplomats instead of shutting down the propaganda of jihadi organisations within the country. As a foreign diplomat noted, “The freedom of expression enjoyed by jihadis and radicals in Pakistan seems more than an average person based in Pakistan or anywhere else — unfortunately, Pakistan is where the production, direction and distribution of jihadi media takes place.”
Source: Daily Times
Date:2/4/2011
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