Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, Incitement: Anwar al-Awlaki’s Western Jihad

Abstract

Reviewed by: Incitement: Anwar al-Awlaki’s Western Jihad by Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens Stephen Nemeth Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, Incitement: Anwar al-Awlaki’s Western Jihad (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2020) Few have done more to popularize and operationalize the ideas of Salafi-Jihadism than American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. Despite a lack of religious qualifications and education, his charisma and deftness as a storyteller provided the justification that allowed scores of Muslims in the West to commit acts of violence. Islamic terrorism, under his watch, transformed from the near-exclusive province of organizations to that of “open-source jihad”: an action that can be done individually and by any true believer. Since his death in 2011—an event that gained him the dubious distinction of being the first US citizen killed in a US drone strike—the story of his life, combined with his writings and lectures, have continued to serve as an inspiration. In Incitement: Anwar al-Awlaki’s Western Jihad, Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens seeks to understand the cleric’s enduring impact. He does so through the perspective of social movement theory (SMT) with Awlaki serving in the role of a “movement entrepreneur.” This is a useful theoretical grounding; understanding Awlaki in this way allows us to contextualize and recognize his impact much more so than simply viewing him as an influential agitator. In order to understand Awlaki’s efforts, Meleagrou-Hitchens uses SMT tools of framing theory and collective identity construction. These, in essence, help to define a [End Page 133] community, determine the problems of the world, develop solutions, and then provide the motivation to act. Incitement proceeds in three parts. In the first, we are presented with the story of Awlaki’s ideological evolution and a discursive analysis of his output. Two points become readily evident. The first is that, as the author notes, Awlaki’s beliefs remained relatively consistent throughout his adult life. From one of his early positions—a part-time imam at a Denver mosque—Awlaki was an advocate of jihad. While after 9/11 Awlaki served as a voice of moderation to a frightened American public, he still seemingly agreed with “al-Qaeda’s analysis and diagnosis of the problems with the current world order as it related to Muslims. He did not at this point publicly share in its prognosis” (27). This would occur in due time. Second, it was evident at an early stage that Awlaki would become a skilled movement entrepreneur; he possessed a prodigious talent to captivate and persuade. His teachings were eclectic, drawing from a wide variety of references— allusions to Islam’s past, theology, and current events. This drew large and enthusiastic crowds. He created a collective identity for today’s Muslims that resonated: they, like their predecessors from Islam’s early days, were under threat. If Muslims wanted to fight back and regain their former glories, he argued, jihad was the answer. This message spread far and wide, bolstered by his (questionable) credentials as a legitimate and learned religious scholar. Central to Awlaki’s teachings were two fundamental Muslim concepts. The first was the concept of hijrah. This refers to the period of time when Muhammad left Mecca for Medina to avoid persecution. From this new location, Muhammad undertook a variety of jihad campaigns against the pagan tribes. For Awlaki, one of Islam’s greatest successes occurred in this period: the number of followers ballooned. Today’s Muslims, he argued, were living in similar times and, like their predecessors, had to engage in action against the non-believers. True Muslims could not simply feel that they were part of the ummah. Rather, this had to be backed up by action—either by making hijrah to go to jihadist war zones or by conducting operations at home. The second concept is that of al-wala wal-bara. This relates to the delineation of the world between Muslims and non-Muslims. For Awlaki, life in the West and its attendant cultural and political practices served to dilute Muslim identity. In order to combat this, true Muslims should put up a barrier between themselves and their non-Muslim counterparts. This served to create intra-Muslim distinctions...