Inspire (magazine)
Encyclopedia
Inspire is an English language online magazine reported to be published by the organization al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
(AQAP). The use of the magazine is to increase the availability of their message without challenges to their value system. The magazine is one of the many ways AQAP uses the Internet to reach its audience. However, its message is also intended for the enemy. The magazine is a political warfare
tool targeting the American and other Western governments, with the intent of inspiring homegrown terrorism
. The tactic is used to generate over-reaction by the governments of its Muslim population with threats of individual jihadist attacks. Since AQAP lacks the 'Open Front' capabilities to assault the West, its tactic is to attack the West using covert operations run independently by radicalized individuals. They believe this strategy will eventually lead to an overt open front attack from Islam against the West. The magazine features the logo of the "al-Malahim Media", AQAP's media arm, and contains articles by and about AQAP members and the al-Qaeda core to promote "open source jihad". It is an important brand-building tool, not just of AQAP, but of all al-Qaeda branches, franchises and affiliates.
. The first issue appeared in July 2010. A second edition of 74 pages was published in October 2010. It confirmed the magazine was then produced by Samir Khan
, an online propagandist who has since been killed, and most of the material was apparently written by him. Various articles in the second issue encouraged terror attacks on U.S. soil, suggesting that followers open fire at a Washington, D.C. restaurant or use a pickup truck to “mow down” pedestrians.
Inspire was not the first English language magazine published by Al Qaeda. Federal authorities said that Samir Khan, a former American blogger who distributed terrorist propaganda material online with his earlier magazine "Jihad Recollections" before moving to Yemen and aligning himself with Al Qaeda, was the principal author of the magazine. Indeed, the October 2010 issue included an article penned by Khan, entitled "I Am Proud to be a Traitor to America".
Samir Khan was killed on September 30, 2011, in the U.S. targeted killing
Predator drone attack in Yemen that also killed Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
leader Anwar al-Awlaki
.
to the West. Inspire focused on what the United States counterterrorism officials call "the narrative". The magazine portrayed the West, and especially America, in war with Islam as part of a Zionist-Crusader conspiracy. Joscelyn continued by stating that it is a typical message by al Qaeda, and the words in the magazine, although partially true, are mostly mythology.
While some do not believe Inspire magazine alone is enough to radicalize an individual, its aim is to inform and persuade a committed audience by distributing internal communications called "auto-propaganda" to strengthen morale, reduce dissent, or justify and legitimize an attack or controversial doctrine. It was also used to target an uncommitted audience to eventually win sympathy and support. Therefore, APAQ has the ability to represent themselves and their actions exactly as they wish. The controlled message is unfettered from the scrutiny of the local and international media.
Bruce Riedel
of the Brookings Institute described the magazine as "clearly intended for the aspiring jihadist in the U.S. or U.K. who may be the next Fort Hood murderer
or Times Square bomber
". It was described by Michelle Shephard
, author of Guantanamo's Child, and a reporter for the Toronto Star
, as being an extension of the online Arabic magazine Sada al-Malahim (Echo of the Battle).
The magazine was thought to be the work of Anwar al-Awlaki
, an English-speaking cleric and al-Qaeda leader based in Yemen
. Awlaki was on the United States' "kill or capture list
". An editorial by al-Awlaki, entitled May Our Souls Be Sacrificed For You appeared in the first issue. In the article, al-Awlaki called for attacks against all those who had slandered the Prophet Muhammad, including all Western targets. It was intended to help recruit more jihadists like Hassan and Abdulmutallab (the Underwear Bomber), both of whom Awlaki had called his "students."
The magazine stated that its title came from a verse in the Qur'an
, "Inspire the believers to fight"and described itself as "A special gift to the Islamic Nation". In the words of the editor, “This Islamic Magazine is geared towards making the Muslim a mujahid in Allah’s path. "Al Qaeda typically tries to portray its violence as a justifiable response [defensive jihad] to the supposed sins of the West and, in particular, American foreign policies.” The magazine was first "discovered" online by the SITE Institute
. When the first issue of the magazine was initially released, a technical error prevented most of the magazine's pages from loading properly. An uncorrupted version of the magazine was released a few days later.
The magazine encouraged its readers to submit their own material for publication: "We also call upon and encourage our readers to contribute by sending their articles, comments and suggestions to us." The magazine’s production users were able to use multiple third-party sources (photos, videos, and etc.) to create content with ease. The use of mass media was also capable of doctoring content. The separation of form and content of the media and then the ability to ‘mash’ content together with little effort had the ability to create persuasive presentations that would catch the attention of the attended audience.
(House of Islam) and the dishonorable mindless interpretation of Dar al-Kufr (House of Unbelief). Those in the House of Unbelief were also associated with the West which is also positioned in Dar al-Harb (House of War). Dar al-Harb is the world outside the Islamic nation that is always in conflict. The outside world is in a state of jahiliyya (ignorance) which lives outside the rule of sharia law. Dar al-Islam is the part of the world that is under Islamic law and perpetual peace according to AQAP. The second theme is the justification and need of individual jihad against the West in order to attack the West overtly. There were continual messages and lessons on the verifiability of small cell or individual jihad that is permissible. This belief is mainly followed by the fatwa
of Ibn Taymiyyah against non-Muslim rulers in the 14th century. The third repetitive message was to have faith and willingness to give one’s life to Allah in order to fight Harb al-Kufr. The rewards were divine intervention to be saved from pain. There was no pain with death in martyrdom. Finally, submitting to Allah required the highest honor of jihad to protect the ummah
(Global Islamic Community). To promote the theme of umma, the magazine used the imagery and descriptions of guilt and cowardice and the need to redeem past acts in order to be with Allah. Martyrdom became a quick fix for past transgression, a sure ticket to paradise.
and burqa
which Inspire magazine argued as an attack on the dignity of Muslim women. “It is not the niqab or the minaret that the West is against, it is Islam itself, and these are merely symbols of it.” The most commonly claimed conspiracy was the targeting of women and children. These themes were a continuation of previous arguments by the leadership of al-Qaeda. “[T]heir theme is always the same: al Qaeda is merely retaliating for all the injustices the West and the United States in particular, has brought upon Muslims.” Much like the theological tract that Osama bin Laden
and Ayman al-Zawahiri
released from al-Qaeda
proper. AQAP used previous messages from their inspirational leaders to provide Muslims with reasons to hate and fight the West.
’s
attack as retaliation. “Al Qaeda says that violence is just retribution for Western injustices and that Islam authorizes this position.” In an interview of Abu Basir in the Summer 2010 periodical, Basir asserted the need to retaliate because of the greed of the Americans. The imagery attached along with the argument showed a progression of the argument. The first two photos showed Times Square and Muhammad bin Nayef
, the Saudi Assistant Minister. Those photos were linked together in the argument as the problem. Below was the result, a dying or dead child. At the bottom was the "solution", a picture of Omar al-Faruq, in response to America’s transgressions, AQAP merely responded in defense. “Al Qaeda typically tries to portray its violence as a justifiable response [defensive jihad] to the supposed sins of the West and, in particular, American foreign policies.”
"Open source jihad" emerged as a necessary tactic as al-Qaeda leadership steadily vanished in the ten years since 9/11. With leader either dead or in jail, al-Qaeda had to consider new ways to attack its enemies. Al-Qadea first splintered into "franchises" by country or region, then further degenerated into solo operators, mostly of dubious capabilities. Inspire became an important al-Qaeda brand tool for recruiting informing and motivating these open source jihadis.
"Open source jihad" allowed for an emotional response to events and validation in smaller, less spectacular attacks, such as Arid Uka's attack on American servicemen in Germany on March 2, 2011. Uka had no training except from the Internet, where he saw a fake video of American servicemen raping a girl. Though the video was falsified al Qaeda propaganda, it was meant to elicit strong responses from their followers.
) and Jarret Brachman
, argued that the magazine was an unexceptional example of jihadist online literature and did not deserve the media attention it received. Hegghammer wrote that "there is nothing particularly new or uniquely worrying" about the magazine's content, and its connection to AQAP is likely weak: "Without signals intelligence it is extremely difficult to determine the precise nature of the link between the editors and the AQAP leadership. Judging from the amount of recycled material in Inspire, I would be surprised if the AQAP connection is very strong."
While the SITE Institute
and at least one senior U.S. government official described Inspire as authentic, there was some speculation on jihadist websites and elsewhere that the magazine, due to its low quality, may have been a hoax. This view was advocated, in particular, by Max Fisher, a writer for The Atlantic. Fisher listed five reasons to suspect the publication was a hoax. According to Fisher, the portable document format
(PDF) file that contained the first issue also contained a computer virus
.
Fisher noted that the magazine contained an article by Abu Mu'sab al-Suri, noting that al-Suri had been in Guantanamo since 2005, and that whether he was actually tied to al Qaeda remained unclear.
Peter Bergen
, the national security analyst for CNN
, describing it as "a slick Web-based publication, heavy on photographs and graphics that, unusually for a jihadist organ
, is written in colloquial English", on 31 March 2011 discussed the column of Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki
, a leader of AQAP, in its fifth issue.
Azzam Publications
, Qadaya Jihadiyya, and other non-English language publications, Inspire focused on action and appeals to youths in the modern, flashy style of Western magazines.
One example was in the use of imagery and text in the operations of Abyan in the Fall 2010 release. The images were of operations that attacked Yemeni troops at checkpoints, base ambushes, explosions, and cleaning the streets (killing the enemy). The photos showed images of action and carnage performed by the mujahid against the murtad. The captions told a story of victory for the holy warriors with little to no casualties. Images and message gave a story of invincibility and defeat of Yemen’s Special Forces. It also proclaimed support for AQAP within the community. The article targeted both audience demographics of Westerners (far enemy) and Yemenis (near enemy).
forecasted that 2011 would be a year filled with grassroots jihadist activity. Both its editor and Anwar al-Awlaki were killed in a targeted killing attack in September 2011. The loss Inspire's top promoters has dealt a serious blow to the power of the al-Qaeda brand.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is a militant Islamist organization, primarily active in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. It was named for al-Qaeda, and says it is subordinate to that group and its now-deceased leader Osama bin Laden, a Saudi citizen whose father was born in Yemen...
(AQAP). The use of the magazine is to increase the availability of their message without challenges to their value system. The magazine is one of the many ways AQAP uses the Internet to reach its audience. However, its message is also intended for the enemy. The magazine is a political warfare
Political warfare
Political warfare is the use of political means to compel an opponent to do one's will, based on hostile intent. The term political describes the calculated interaction between one's government and a target audience to include another country's government, military, and/or general population...
tool targeting the American and other Western governments, with the intent of inspiring homegrown terrorism
Homegrown terrorism
Homegrown terrorism is commonly associated with an international organization rather than being a ‘lone wolf’ act committed by isolated and disturbed individuals. It constitutes terrorist attacks from within the target nation, often Western...
. The tactic is used to generate over-reaction by the governments of its Muslim population with threats of individual jihadist attacks. Since AQAP lacks the 'Open Front' capabilities to assault the West, its tactic is to attack the West using covert operations run independently by radicalized individuals. They believe this strategy will eventually lead to an overt open front attack from Islam against the West. The magazine features the logo of the "al-Malahim Media", AQAP's media arm, and contains articles by and about AQAP members and the al-Qaeda core to promote "open source jihad". It is an important brand-building tool, not just of AQAP, but of all al-Qaeda branches, franchises and affiliates.
History
The magazine aimed at young British and American readers and provided translated messages from Osama bin LadenOsama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
. The first issue appeared in July 2010. A second edition of 74 pages was published in October 2010. It confirmed the magazine was then produced by Samir Khan
Samir Khan
Samir ibn Zafar Khan was the Pakistani American editor and publisher of Inspire magazine, an English language online magazine reported to be published by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula , in which he authored articles such as "Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom"...
, an online propagandist who has since been killed, and most of the material was apparently written by him. Various articles in the second issue encouraged terror attacks on U.S. soil, suggesting that followers open fire at a Washington, D.C. restaurant or use a pickup truck to “mow down” pedestrians.
Inspire was not the first English language magazine published by Al Qaeda. Federal authorities said that Samir Khan, a former American blogger who distributed terrorist propaganda material online with his earlier magazine "Jihad Recollections" before moving to Yemen and aligning himself with Al Qaeda, was the principal author of the magazine. Indeed, the October 2010 issue included an article penned by Khan, entitled "I Am Proud to be a Traitor to America".
Samir Khan was killed on September 30, 2011, in the U.S. targeted killing
Targeted killing
Targeted killing is the deliberate, specific targeting and killing, by a government or its agents, of a supposed terrorist or of a supposed "unlawful combatant" who is not in that government's custody...
Predator drone attack in Yemen that also killed Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is a militant Islamist organization, primarily active in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. It was named for al-Qaeda, and says it is subordinate to that group and its now-deceased leader Osama bin Laden, a Saudi citizen whose father was born in Yemen...
leader Anwar al-Awlaki
Anwar al-Awlaki
Anwar al-Awlaki was an American and Yemeni imam who was an engineer and educator by training. According to U.S. government officials, he was a senior talent recruiter and motivator who was involved with planning operations for the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda...
.
Purpose
According to Thomas Joscelyn, the chief purpose of Inspire is to spread AQAP's propagandaPropaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
to the West. Inspire focused on what the United States counterterrorism officials call "the narrative". The magazine portrayed the West, and especially America, in war with Islam as part of a Zionist-Crusader conspiracy. Joscelyn continued by stating that it is a typical message by al Qaeda, and the words in the magazine, although partially true, are mostly mythology.
While some do not believe Inspire magazine alone is enough to radicalize an individual, its aim is to inform and persuade a committed audience by distributing internal communications called "auto-propaganda" to strengthen morale, reduce dissent, or justify and legitimize an attack or controversial doctrine. It was also used to target an uncommitted audience to eventually win sympathy and support. Therefore, APAQ has the ability to represent themselves and their actions exactly as they wish. The controlled message is unfettered from the scrutiny of the local and international media.
Bruce Riedel
Bruce Riedel
Bruce Riedel is a Senior Fellow in foreign policy at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy of the Brookings Institution, a Senior Advisor at Albright Stonebridge Group, a former CIA Analyst, a counter-terrorism expert, and an author. He retired in 2006 after 29 years with the Central...
of the Brookings Institute described the magazine as "clearly intended for the aspiring jihadist in the U.S. or U.K. who may be the next Fort Hood murderer
Fort Hood shooting
The Fort Hood shooting was a mass shooting that took place on November 5, 2009, at Fort Hood, the most populous U.S. military installation in the world, located just outside Killeen, Texas. In the course of the shooting, a single gunman killed 13 people and wounded 29 others...
or Times Square bomber
2010 Times Square car bombing attempt
The attempted car bombing of Times Square on May 1, 2010, was a planned terrorist attack that was foiled when two street vendors discovered the car bomb and alerted a NYPD Patrolman to the car bomb threat after they spotted smoke coming from a vehicle...
". It was described by Michelle Shephard
Michelle Shephard
Michelle Shephard is an investigative reporter with the Toronto Star newspaper in Canada. She has been awarded the Michener Award for public service journalism and twice won Canada's top newspaper prize, the National Newspaper Award. In 2011, she was an associate producer on an Oscar-nominated...
, author of Guantanamo's Child, and a reporter for the Toronto Star
Toronto Star
The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...
, as being an extension of the online Arabic magazine Sada al-Malahim (Echo of the Battle).
The magazine was thought to be the work of Anwar al-Awlaki
Anwar al-Awlaki
Anwar al-Awlaki was an American and Yemeni imam who was an engineer and educator by training. According to U.S. government officials, he was a senior talent recruiter and motivator who was involved with planning operations for the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda...
, an English-speaking cleric and al-Qaeda leader based in Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
. Awlaki was on the United States' "kill or capture list
USA kill or capture strategy in Iraq
USA kill or capture strategy in Iraq refers to a strategy adopted in 2007 by the United States in Iraq to confront "suspected Iranian operatives in Iraq".-Policy:In January 2007 the Bush administration authorized the U.S...
". An editorial by al-Awlaki, entitled May Our Souls Be Sacrificed For You appeared in the first issue. In the article, al-Awlaki called for attacks against all those who had slandered the Prophet Muhammad, including all Western targets. It was intended to help recruit more jihadists like Hassan and Abdulmutallab (the Underwear Bomber), both of whom Awlaki had called his "students."
The magazine stated that its title came from a verse in the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
, "Inspire the believers to fight"and described itself as "A special gift to the Islamic Nation". In the words of the editor, “This Islamic Magazine is geared towards making the Muslim a mujahid in Allah’s path. "Al Qaeda typically tries to portray its violence as a justifiable response [defensive jihad] to the supposed sins of the West and, in particular, American foreign policies.” The magazine was first "discovered" online by the SITE Institute
SITE Institute
The Search for International Terrorist Entities Intelligence Group is an organization that tracks the online activity of terrorist organizations. The SITE Institute was founded in 2002 by Rita Katz and Josh Devon, who had left the Investigative Project...
. When the first issue of the magazine was initially released, a technical error prevented most of the magazine's pages from loading properly. An uncorrupted version of the magazine was released a few days later.
The magazine encouraged its readers to submit their own material for publication: "We also call upon and encourage our readers to contribute by sending their articles, comments and suggestions to us." The magazine’s production users were able to use multiple third-party sources (photos, videos, and etc.) to create content with ease. The use of mass media was also capable of doctoring content. The separation of form and content of the media and then the ability to ‘mash’ content together with little effort had the ability to create persuasive presentations that would catch the attention of the attended audience.
Common themes
Inspire Magazine followed a common and strict theological premise. The ideas and strategies were centuries old as well as within the scope of new jihadism within the last century. They adhered to its most rigid interpretation. They were very religious and devout practitioners that interpreted every phase of Islam’s genesis as universally true. Walid Phares said: "Their ideology was born decades ago, but was inspired by doctrines from the Middle Ages." They saw themselves as the correct interpreters of the Islamic faith and the in direct charge of reestablishing the Islamic Caliphate. To affirm their message to the readers, AQAP used several common themes. These themes were identified between editions such as conspiracy theories, defensive jihad, call to individual jihad, and what Muslims in the West should do. AQAP utilized a repetition of themes to create a singular voice of triumph, strength, and resolve. The identified enemy's position is illustrated from a point of weakness.Underlying themes
AQAP used the following arguments based on the fallacy of irrelevant conclusion to support the common themes between each magazine. First, millions of Muslims killed by Americans; there must be payback. There were repetitions of conspiracy theories that America hated Muslims and have declared war against Muslims. There a paradoxes draw between the ideological (utopian) existence in Dar al-IslamDar al-Islam
The idea of geographical divisions along religious lines i.e. the dur is neither mentioned in the Qur'an nor in the sayings of the Prophet , which are considered the primary sources in Islamic jurisprudence...
(House of Islam) and the dishonorable mindless interpretation of Dar al-Kufr (House of Unbelief). Those in the House of Unbelief were also associated with the West which is also positioned in Dar al-Harb (House of War). Dar al-Harb is the world outside the Islamic nation that is always in conflict. The outside world is in a state of jahiliyya (ignorance) which lives outside the rule of sharia law. Dar al-Islam is the part of the world that is under Islamic law and perpetual peace according to AQAP. The second theme is the justification and need of individual jihad against the West in order to attack the West overtly. There were continual messages and lessons on the verifiability of small cell or individual jihad that is permissible. This belief is mainly followed by the fatwa
Fatwa
A fatwā in the Islamic faith is a juristic ruling concerning Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar. In Sunni Islam any fatwā is non-binding, whereas in Shia Islam it could be considered by an individual as binding, depending on his or her relation to the scholar. The person who issues a fatwā...
of Ibn Taymiyyah against non-Muslim rulers in the 14th century. The third repetitive message was to have faith and willingness to give one’s life to Allah in order to fight Harb al-Kufr. The rewards were divine intervention to be saved from pain. There was no pain with death in martyrdom. Finally, submitting to Allah required the highest honor of jihad to protect the ummah
Ummah
Ummah is an Arabic word meaning "community" or "nation." It is commonly used to mean either the collective nation of states, or the whole Arab world...
(Global Islamic Community). To promote the theme of umma, the magazine used the imagery and descriptions of guilt and cowardice and the need to redeem past acts in order to be with Allah. Martyrdom became a quick fix for past transgression, a sure ticket to paradise.
Conspiracy theories
The most common theme in the magazine was the alleged West’s collective war against Islam. “The magazine portrays the West, and in particular, America, as being in war with Islam as part of a Zionist-Crusader conspiracy.” The alleged injustices to Islam ranged from the portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad in cartoons to the ban of the niqabNiqab
A niqab is a cloth which covers the face, worn by some Muslim women as a part of sartorial hijāb...
and burqa
Burqa
A burqa is an enveloping outer garment worn by women in some Islamic religion to cover their bodies in public places. The burqa is usually understood to be the woman's loose body-covering , plus the head-covering , plus the face-veil .-Etymology:A speculative and unattested etymology...
which Inspire magazine argued as an attack on the dignity of Muslim women. “It is not the niqab or the minaret that the West is against, it is Islam itself, and these are merely symbols of it.” The most commonly claimed conspiracy was the targeting of women and children. These themes were a continuation of previous arguments by the leadership of al-Qaeda. “[T]heir theme is always the same: al Qaeda is merely retaliating for all the injustices the West and the United States in particular, has brought upon Muslims.” Much like the theological tract that Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
and Ayman al-Zawahiri
Ayman al-Zawahiri
Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri is an Egyptian physician, Islamic theologian and current leader of al-Qaeda. He was previously the second and last "emir" of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, having succeeded Abbud al-Zumar in the latter role when Egyptian authorities sentenced al-Zumar to life...
released from al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
proper. AQAP used previous messages from their inspirational leaders to provide Muslims with reasons to hate and fight the West.
Defensive jihad
Declarations were made for Muslims to rise in defense of their Prophet, families, justice, and the umma. AQAP propagated that the U.S. was bombing of Yemen and categorically targeting women and children. Thus they used this alleged targeting as justification of Omar al-FaruqOmar al-Faruq
Omar al-Faruq was a Kuwaiti of Iraqi descent, and a senior al-Qaeda member. He was a liaison between al-Qaeda and Islamic terrorists in the Far East, particularly Jemaah Islamiyah. He was captured in Bogor, Indonesia in 2002 by an Indonesian security agent who handed him over to the United States...
’s
attack as retaliation. “Al Qaeda says that violence is just retribution for Western injustices and that Islam authorizes this position.” In an interview of Abu Basir in the Summer 2010 periodical, Basir asserted the need to retaliate because of the greed of the Americans. The imagery attached along with the argument showed a progression of the argument. The first two photos showed Times Square and Muhammad bin Nayef
Muhammad bin Nayef
Prince Mohammad bin Naif bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud is the Saudi Deputy Interior Minister in charge of Counter-Terrorism. He survived an assassination attempt in August 2009.-Personal life:Born in Jeddah, he moved to Riyadh...
, the Saudi Assistant Minister. Those photos were linked together in the argument as the problem. Below was the result, a dying or dead child. At the bottom was the "solution", a picture of Omar al-Faruq, in response to America’s transgressions, AQAP merely responded in defense. “Al Qaeda typically tries to portray its violence as a justifiable response [defensive jihad] to the supposed sins of the West and, in particular, American foreign policies.”
Call to individual jihad
The articles inside Inspire were used to incite rage against non-believers and the West. The Recruiting pitch was based on the conspiracy theories and through the ideology of defensive jihad. The periodical explained what to expect in jihad and the theory of open front jihad and individual jihad. The arguments presented explained the difficulty of an open front engagement with American forces and the difficulty of traveling overseas to conduct jihad. Therefore, the solution for Muslims was individual obligatory (fard’ayn) jihad to attack while the Islamic nation was strategically weak. “[S]pontatenous [sic] operations performed by individuals and cells here and there over the whole world, without connections between them, have put the local and international intelligence apparatus in a state of confusion, as arresting the members of aborted cells does not influence the operational activities of others who are not connected with them.”"Open source jihad"
Inspire magazine promoted "open source jihad". This shifted away from al Qaeda’s traditional terrorist attacks to simple attacks by individuals using common items for weapons. The Summer 2010 issue advised making a pipe bomb using everyday materials ("How to make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom"). The Fall 2010 issue encouraged using one's car to "mow down" people in crowded places ("The ultimate mowing machine"). The Winter 2010 issue discussed how to blow up buildings. These provided individuals with simple ideas for terror attacks, without direct ties to al Qaeda or its affiliates. It had become too great a threat to travel abroad and receive training in al Qaeda training camps, and direct contact with al Qaeda members endangered the member and the aspiring terrorist. Therefore AQAP's "open source jihad" promoted attacks without the support of a physical community. Marc Sageman, a leading expert in the field, described this phenomenon as "leaderless Jihad". While he considered this threat as "self-limiting" and one that would quickly die out, the difficulties in stopping the lone wolf attackers were great. Fortunately, law enforcement were very successful in identifying and stopping many of these attacks."Open source jihad" emerged as a necessary tactic as al-Qaeda leadership steadily vanished in the ten years since 9/11. With leader either dead or in jail, al-Qaeda had to consider new ways to attack its enemies. Al-Qadea first splintered into "franchises" by country or region, then further degenerated into solo operators, mostly of dubious capabilities. Inspire became an important al-Qaeda brand tool for recruiting informing and motivating these open source jihadis.
"Open source jihad" allowed for an emotional response to events and validation in smaller, less spectacular attacks, such as Arid Uka's attack on American servicemen in Germany on March 2, 2011. Uka had no training except from the Internet, where he saw a fake video of American servicemen raping a girl. Though the video was falsified al Qaeda propaganda, it was meant to elicit strong responses from their followers.
Authenticity
Some scholars, such as Thomas Hegghammer (of the Norwegian Defence Research EstablishmentNorwegian Defence Research Establishment
The Norwegian Defence Research Establishment is a research institute that conducts research and development on behalf of the Norwegian Armed Forces and provides expert advice to political and military defence leaders...
) and Jarret Brachman
Jarret Brachman
Jarret Brachman is a terrorism expert, the author of Global Jihadism: Theory and Practice and a consultant to several government agencies about terrorism.-Education and career:...
, argued that the magazine was an unexceptional example of jihadist online literature and did not deserve the media attention it received. Hegghammer wrote that "there is nothing particularly new or uniquely worrying" about the magazine's content, and its connection to AQAP is likely weak: "Without signals intelligence it is extremely difficult to determine the precise nature of the link between the editors and the AQAP leadership. Judging from the amount of recycled material in Inspire, I would be surprised if the AQAP connection is very strong."
While the SITE Institute
SITE Institute
The Search for International Terrorist Entities Intelligence Group is an organization that tracks the online activity of terrorist organizations. The SITE Institute was founded in 2002 by Rita Katz and Josh Devon, who had left the Investigative Project...
and at least one senior U.S. government official described Inspire as authentic, there was some speculation on jihadist websites and elsewhere that the magazine, due to its low quality, may have been a hoax. This view was advocated, in particular, by Max Fisher, a writer for The Atlantic. Fisher listed five reasons to suspect the publication was a hoax. According to Fisher, the portable document format
Portable Document Format
Portable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
(PDF) file that contained the first issue also contained a computer virus
Computer virus
A computer virus is a computer program that can replicate itself and spread from one computer to another. The term "virus" is also commonly but erroneously used to refer to other types of malware, including but not limited to adware and spyware programs that do not have the reproductive ability...
.
Fisher noted that the magazine contained an article by Abu Mu'sab al-Suri, noting that al-Suri had been in Guantanamo since 2005, and that whether he was actually tied to al Qaeda remained unclear.
Peter Bergen
Peter Bergen
Peter Bergen is a print and television journalist, author, and CNN's national security analyst. Bergen produced the first television interview with Osama Bin Laden in 1997. The interview, which aired on CNN, marked the first time that bin Laden declared war against the United States to a Western...
, the national security analyst for CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, describing it as "a slick Web-based publication, heavy on photographs and graphics that, unusually for a jihadist organ
House organ
A house organ is a magazine or periodical published by a company for its customers or its employees...
, is written in colloquial English", on 31 March 2011 discussed the column of Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki
Anwar al-Awlaki
Anwar al-Awlaki was an American and Yemeni imam who was an engineer and educator by training. According to U.S. government officials, he was a senior talent recruiter and motivator who was involved with planning operations for the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda...
, a leader of AQAP, in its fifth issue.
Audience
Inspire magazine is a unique terrorist publication in that it was very specific in the audience in which it targets instead of publishing general ideological arguments to all Muslims. Studies in terrorism have noted that most Islamic terrorist attacks on the West were from people living in the west, well educated, and young men with the average age of 26. AQAP also knew this and targeted this demographic with their publication. While other publications been focused more on the ideological issues with complex theological arguments, such as Jihad Recollection,Azzam Publications
Azzam Publications
A British publishing house, Azzam Publications has been accused of being "part of a conspiracy to provide material support and communications links to people engaged in terrorism" by authorities...
, Qadaya Jihadiyya, and other non-English language publications, Inspire focused on action and appeals to youths in the modern, flashy style of Western magazines.
One example was in the use of imagery and text in the operations of Abyan in the Fall 2010 release. The images were of operations that attacked Yemeni troops at checkpoints, base ambushes, explosions, and cleaning the streets (killing the enemy). The photos showed images of action and carnage performed by the mujahid against the murtad. The captions told a story of victory for the holy warriors with little to no casualties. Images and message gave a story of invincibility and defeat of Yemen’s Special Forces. It also proclaimed support for AQAP within the community. The article targeted both audience demographics of Westerners (far enemy) and Yemenis (near enemy).
Future of AQAP and Inspire
STRATFORStratfor
Strategic Forecasting, Inc., more commonly known as STRATFOR, is a global intelligence company founded in 1996 in Austin, Texas by George Friedman who is the founder, chief intelligence officer, and CEO of the company...
forecasted that 2011 would be a year filled with grassroots jihadist activity. Both its editor and Anwar al-Awlaki were killed in a targeted killing attack in September 2011. The loss Inspire's top promoters has dealt a serious blow to the power of the al-Qaeda brand.
Al-Shamika
Al-Shamika (The Majestic Woman) was a new fashion and lifestyle magazine for Muslim women and suicide bombers published online by Al-Qaeda.Inspire: Summer 2010
- “May Our Souls be Sacrificed for You!” Feature article by Anwar al-Awlaki
- “Interview with Shaykh Abu Basir”
- “Open Source Jihad: Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of your Mom” by the AQ Chef
- “Six calls of al-Anfal” by Shaykh ‘Umar Hussain
- “Don’t be sad: O our Brothers in al-Shabab al-Mujahidin” by Abu Atta
- “Message to the People of Yemen” by Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri
- “The Way to Save the Earth” by Shaykh Usamah bin Ladin
- “The Fight over the Mountains” by Adnan Muhammad ‘Ali As-Sa’igh
- “Shaykh Anwar’s Message to the American People and Muslims in the West” by Shaykh Anwar al-Awlaki
- “How to Use Asrar al-Mujahideen: Sending and receiving Encrypted Messages” by Terr0r1st
- “The Jihadi Experiences: The Schools of Jihad” by Abu Mus’ab al-Suri
- “The West Should Ban the Niqab Covering its Real Face” by Yahya Ibrahim
- “What to expect in Jihad (Part 1)” by Mukhtar Hassan
Inspire: Fall 2010
- “The Operations of Abyan in Images” Courtesy of al-Malahem
- “I am proud to be a traitor to America” by Samir Khan
- “The New Mardin Declaration” by Shaykh Anwar al-Awlaki
- “Interview with Shaykh Abu Sufyan al-Azdi
- “My life in Jihad” by Cmdr. ‘Uthman al-Ghamidi
- “Obama’s ploy and the peak of Islam” by Shaykh Ibrahim al-Banna
- “A Call to Islam” by Hazim Noor
- “Legitimate Demands 2” by Adam Yahiye Gadahn
- “O Hesitant one: It’s an Obligation!” by Abu Dujanah al-Khurasani
- “What to Expect in Jihad (2)” by Mukhtar Hassan
- “The Jihadi Experience: The Open Fronts and Individual Initiative” by Abu Mus’ab al-Suri
- Open Source Jihad: by Yahya Ibrahim
- “The Ultimate Mowing Machine”
- “Tips for Our Brothers in the United Snakes of America”
- “Asrar al-Mujahideen 2.0 extras” by Terr0r1st
Inspire: Special Issue: November 2010
- “$4,200” by Yahya Ibrahim
- “The Objectives of Operation Hemorrhage” by the Head of Foreign Operations
- “Technical Details” by Ikrimah al-Muhajir (Explosives Department)
- “Tawaghit Expose” by Shaykh Ibrahim al-Bann
- Exclusive Images
Inspire: Winter 2010
- “The Ruling on Dispossessing the disbelievers wealth in Dar al-Harb” by Anwar al-Awlaki
- “Q&A with Shaykh Adil al-Abbab on targeting non-Muslim civilians and Yemeni soldiers”
- “The Jihad of Abyan” by Abu Zakaria al-Eritri
- “The Central Issue” by Samir Khan
- “Which is better: Martyrdom or Victory?” by Abu Khowla
- “Why did I choose al-Qaeda” by Shaykh Abu Mus’ab al-Awlaki
- “Roshanara & Taimour: Followers of borderless loyalty” by Muhammad al-Sana’ani
- “The Jihadi Experiences: The Military theory of Open Fronts” by Abu Mus’ab al-Suri
- “In order that they taste some of what we tasted” by Shaykh Usama bin Ladin
- “What to expect in Jihad? (3)” by Mukhtar Hassan
- “The Call of the Qur’an” by Hazim Noor
- “Know that Jihad is your duty” by Adam Gadahn
- “Destroying Buildings” by the AQ Chef
- “Training with the AK” by Abu Salih
- “Advise for those who want to help al-Malahem Media” by Terr0r1st
Inspire: Spring 2011
Published 29 March 2011, 70 pp.- "The Tsunami of Change" by Anwar al-Awlaki
- “The Short and Long term plans after protests” by Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri
- “The Overlooked Backdrop” by Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri
- “Al-Saud: Lodging a Criminal” by Shaykh Ibrahim al-Rubaish
- “The Oppressors’ End” by Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abd al-Qadir al-Murshedi
- “The Egyptian” by Samir Khan
- “The Way Forward” by Abu Suhail
- “Individual Terrorism Jihad” by Abu Mus’ab al-Suri
- “The Middle Path and the Enemy’s plot” by Shaykh Abu Yahya al-Libi
- “What to expect in Jihad? [4]” by Mukhtar Hassan
- “A Reply to a Question on Yemen’s Assistance and its People” by Shaykh Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi
- “My Life in Fallujah” by Hashim al-Hindi
- “Why did I choose al-Qaeda? [2]” by Shaykh Abu Mus’ab al-Awlaki”
- “AQAP Military Report”
- "Interview with AQAP Military Commander Qasem Al-Raymi" (aka Abu Huraira Al-San'ani)
External links
- Samir Khan's blog, 2004-2005