Jihadism and hip-hop

While many Islamist jihadists view hip-hop negatively, due to its Western origins, there have also been examples of hip-hop songs with pro-jihadist lyrics, and of jihadists embracing hip-hop and gangsta culture as a way of attracting Westerners to join their organizations. The phenomenon is sometimes known as "Jihad Cool" and includes music, clothing, magazine, videos and other media.

Notable examples

German rapper Deso Dogg later took the names Abu Talha al-Almani^[1] and Abou Maleeq, and joined ISIL in 2014.

British-born Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary rapped under the name L Jinny, is the son of Egyptian militant Adel Abdel Bari, and was reportedly videotaped beheading journalist James Foley. Jinny once Tweeted a photo of himself holding a man's severed head, with the words “Chillin’ with my homie or what’s left of him.” ^[2] These rappers, in turn, have inspired other jihadist activities; one young Kosovar was reportedly inspired by Deso Dogg's lyrics to fire at an American military bus in Frankfurt.

Douglas McCain was an aspiring rapper and basketball player who was killed while fighting for ISIL in 2014. His classmates described him as a "goofball" who "got along with most", while a coworker referred to him as a "normal guy".^[3]

ISIL, in particular, has used social media in attempts to reach young people, many of whom do not necessarily have any Muslim background at all. Two young British jihadists who travelled to Syria to join ISIL reportedly learned everything they knew about Islam from reading the book Islam for Dummies. As a result, many of recruits are believed not to be motivated by Islam as such, but rather by a combination of anger (either feeling oppressed themselves, or wanting to fight on behalf of the oppressed) and the desire for fame and glory. They end up turning to ISIL and jihadism as an outlet for these feelings.^[2]

Analysis

Anthropologist Scott Atran argues that the phenomenon results from a search for "sacred values" and what Edmund Burke called "the sublime"; a "quest for greatness, glory, eternal meaning in an inherently chaotic world".^[2] Amir Khan has cited Douglas McCain as yet another example of this phenomenon, and said that both Islamism and gangsta rap foster a "sense of grievance towards wider society" and "focus on vengeance and fetishize violence as a way of redressing the balance". Khan says that while researching young Islamists in London, he found that they looked to the works of 50 Cent and Tupac Shakur for inspiration. Khan argues that what sets ISIL apart from other jihadist groups, and makes it far more dangerous as a result, is its ability to harness hip-hop to "bestow on its struggle a counter-culture sense of subversive 'cool' that mainstream political parties and even commercial brands might envy." ISIL's marketing methods and overall strategies are also reminiscent of those used by street gangs.^[4]

Hisham Aidi has written a book, Rebel Music: Race, Empire, and the New Muslim Youth Culture describing the phenomenon of Islamist hip-hop, but Aidi also mentions that the United States and other Western governments have attempted to use hip-hop and Sufi music to fight terrorism by deradicalizing young Muslims. One American rapper, Omar Hamaami, who later joined al-Shabaab, released a song with the lyrics "Bomb by bomb, blast by blast, only going to bring back the glorious past." ^[5]

The phenomenon of jihadi rap has been around since at least 2004, when the song "Dirty Kuffar" was released. In 2006, Aki Nawaz of the group Fun-Da-Mental released an album with lyrics comparing Osama bin Laden to Che Guevara and depicting the Statue of Liberty as an abu Ghraib prisoner.^[6]

See also

• Nipster, an analogous phenomenon of neo-Nazis embracing pop culture
• Taqwacore
• Rock Against Communism
• Nazi Punk
• Nazi Chic

References