Media Strategies of Radical Jihadist Organizations: A Case Study of Non-Somali Media of al-Shabaab

Abstract

Al-Shabaab is a radical Jihadist organization in Somalia, designated by a part of the international community as a terrorist organization and sometimes blamed for its close relations with global Jihadist terrorist groups like al-Qāʻida (Tanẓīm Qāʻida al-Jihād, Jamā‘a Qāʻida al-Jihād or al-Qaeda etc.). 1 It has special and unique media strategies suitable for a country like Somalia, devastated by long civil wars and foreign interventions. Media strategies of Jihadist groups have held the attention of many scholars, specialists and journalists interested in the media, security and Middle Eastern affairs, because they are very unique in their use of the media as a tool for information and communication. Their use of the media seems different from traditional opposition groups or political parties especially in the Middle East and Muslim countries. Al-Shabaab, despite being an African organization, is no exception. It said in a statement published in July 2010 that the media battle being waged by the Mujāhidīn is now at one of its fiercest and the most important stages. 2 But, its media strategies are, at the same time, different from those of other groups mainly due to the special situation of Somalia as being the No.1 failed state. Al-Shabaab’s usage of the media has common characteristics with other Jihadist groups in, for example, their use of the Internet, websites, discussion forums, videos and file hosting services. They post text-based statements onto threads of radical Internet forums. They propagate their ideology; boasting of terrorist attacks executed by their members, or praising suicide bombers as great martyrdom-seekers. They produce video files showing off their activities and upload them to online storage provided freely by file hosting services, usually using temporary links between the texts written in their statements and their video files stored online. This process is shared by almost all the Jihadist groups, including al-Qāʻida and al-Shabaab. Most of the previous studies investigating al-Shabaab have recognized the importance of the media activities of the group, but failed to analyze its polyglot aspect. In their research scholars have almost exclusively used the statements written in English and Arabic, sometimes through English translations. Most previous studies have ignored the