Local and Global Jihadist Narratives in Afghanistan

Author(s):  
Martha Turnbull

This chapter explores the relationship between local and global jihadist narratives in Afghanistan by examining the public messages of the Afghan Taliban and Al-Qaeda since 2011. It argues that the two groups have formed a closer partnership following the emergence of the Islamic State and its affiliate group the Islamic State Khorasan Province. Unlike the events of the Arab Spring, which had little impact in Afghanistan, the rise of the Islamic State and its offshoot in the region forced the Taliban and Al-Qaeda to create a robust counter-narrative which has brought the two groups closer together. This development marks a new era in the relationship between the Taliban and Al-Qaeda and has significant negative implications for the peace process in Afghanistan.

Author(s):  
Jeff Haynes

This chapter explores the relationship between religion and politics. It first defines the concept of religion before discussing its contemporary political and social salience in many developing countries. It then considers how religion interacts with politics and with the state in the developing world, as well as how religion is involved in democratization in the developing world by focusing on the Arab Spring and its aftermath. It also examines the differing impacts of the so-called Islamic State and Pope Francis on the relationship between religion and politics in the developing world. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the role of religion in international politics after 9/11.


Author(s):  
Elisabeth Kendall

This book chapter begins by showing how Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) speaks to local audiences at both practical and emotional levels, rather than just through religious ideology. It demonstrates how AQAP narratives resonate strongly with local tribal codes of honour and revenge, and how these can then be harnessed to serve the global agenda of militant jihad. The chapter then explores two key themes that thread through AQAP’s jihadist narratives: the celebration of death and the construction of the enemy. It shows how these themes are tuned towards local audiences and how they have developed since the “Arab spring” uprising, the emergence of Islamic State and the onset of all-out war in 2015. Lastly, the chapter looks at the relative appeals of AQAP and Islamic State in Yemen. It outlines the potential trajectories of AQAP and briefly suggests ways in which the jihadist threat in Yemen might be countered.


2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 515-538 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zahra Mustafa-Awad ◽  
Monika Kirner-Ludwig

This article reports on the first stage of a research project on German university students’ conceptualization of Arab women and to what extent it is affected by the latters’ representation in the Western press during the Arab Spring. We combined discourse analysis and corpus-linguistic approaches to investigate the relationship between lexical items used by the students to express their attitudes toward Arab women and those featuring in news headlines about them published in British, American, and German news media. Results show that the portrayal of Arab women in Western news headlines has a clear impact on German students’ opinions of them. The findings also show that our participants tend to be aware of this effect, which could be partly due to their familiarity with discourse analysis as students of linguistics. These results have implications for incorporating media education systematically in general university courses.


Author(s):  
L. Fituni

The author presents his own original conception of the 2011 Arab upheavals. First, he tries to find parallels between the Arab Spring and the 19th century European Spring of Peoples. Second, he dwells on the idea of three types of transition in the Arab World: economic, demographic, and ideological. Third, he reflects on the issues of democracy and autocracy in the Arab countries emphasizing the role of youth. Fourth, he puts forward some new ideas as regards the relationship between Europe and the Arab World, offering such terms as “democratic internationalism” and “young democratic safety belt” in the Mediterranean region.


Author(s):  
Hossein Taghdar ◽  
Zaid Ahmad ◽  
Abdolreza Alami

Egypt has experienced drastic changes in government recently. Studying these changes can lead to more understanding of the revolutions caused by the Arab Spring in other countries and can also explain the hegemonic conduct of the United States. This qualitative study was conducted through 1) reviewing scholarly published documents and other relevant official news resources that were published on the relationship between Egypt and the United States after the 2011 revolution, and 2) interviewing 12 key informants (ethnic, academic, and administrative elites). Qualitative content analysis was the main approach to data analysis. The results with a focus on both Obama’s administration and Trumps’ administration revealed that Egypt and the United States relations were affected due to Egypt’s anti-western agenda. Later, the United States’ main strategies in maintaining its hegemony in Egypt were discussed. Among these factors, 1) the United States’ aid policy, 2) the United States’ tolerance policy, 3) aborting FJP, 4) imposing the western culture, and 4) the United States’ support of street protests can be mentioned. Areas for further research are discussed at the end of the study.


2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdullah K. Al-Kindi

The central aim of this paper is to critically analyze the role of the media during public protests that occurred in the GCC countries during 2011. These protests were part of what came to be called the “Arab Spring”, which started in late 2010. Particular focus will be on how the Arab Spring resulted in fundamental changes and how various institutions played roles in this. The study draws on Gulf region literature about the Arab Spring in order to offer a critical and informed overview on the topic under discussion. The paper’s main question is: what are the main roles played by the GCC media (old/new) during the public protests of 2011? The paper argues that the role of the media in the 2011 protests, while important, was rather limited and affected by the unique contextual characteristics of the media environment in the GCC countries. 


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-71
Author(s):  
Marta Stempień

Nasheeds outpace the era of Internet and Youtube. Jihadist poetry in the Islamist hymns can be seen as an extension of the 19th-century anticolonial style of poetry called qaseeda. Presented article shows that nasheeds were not always a significant element in the jihadi culture. The increase of their role was observed quite recently, after the outbreak of the “Arab Spring”. This article is a case study. It attempts to fill a gap in research on the IS’s propaganda materials. The major objective of this article is to investigate the phenomenon of jihadist naseeds, including their role in the ‘jihadi culture’. The author seeks to answer to the question whether the presented facts may indicate the increase in their role occurred with the transfer of IS’ activities to cyberspace and whether it will be intensified in the future. The article takes into account historical conditions, briefly describing the genesis of the naseeds and their proliferation after the events of the “Arab Spring”. Then, using systemic analysis, the author presents their role in the activities of the Islamic State. In addition, theoretical and empirical research methods, such as: scientific literature analysis, case analysis, content analysis, classification, generalization were taken to solve the research problem.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 14-20
Author(s):  
Hani Albasoos ◽  
Buthaina Al Hinai

Following the Arab Spring in 2011, Yemen’s devastating conflicts have deepened even further, leading the country to be the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Despite the international community's multiple attempts to resolve this conflict, the conflict seems to have reached a stalemate. To make matters worse, resolving the conflict is made difficult by the large number of parties involved, internally and externally, and by the complex, dual and fluid nature of the relationships they share. Although the media and international community's focus is directed towards the binary conflict between the Hadi government and Saudi Arabia on one side and Iran and the Houthis on the other, the conflict is greatly multifaceted and far from being binary. This paper critically analyzes and explores other participating actors to comprehend the root causes of the conflict entirely. Although this conflict has been advertised as a proxy war, while others trace back the motivation to sectarianism, this paper argues how this analysis can be misleading and hindering the peace process.


Author(s):  
Daniel Toscano López

This chapter seeks to show how the society of the digital swarm we live in has changed the way individuals behave to the point that we have become Homo digitalis. These changes occur with information privatization, meaning that not only are we passive consumers, but we are also producers and issuers of digital communication. The overarching argument of this reflection is the disappearance of the “reality principle” in the political, economic, and social spheres. This text highlights that the loss of the reality principle is the effect of microblogging as a digital practice, the uses of which can either impoverish the space of people's experience to undermine the public space or achieve the mobilization of citizens against of the censorship of the traditional means of communication by authoritarian political regimes, such as the case of the Arab Spring in 2011.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document