 |
| The first issue of “Ahul-Taqwa” magazine. |
Wall Street Journal - I Invented the Jihadist Journal.
I deradicalized after 3½ years in prison. Now I’m reclaiming the medium to combat violent extremism.
By Jesse Morton
June 3, 2019
I’m a publishing pioneer: In April 2009, I launched the first English-language online jihadist magazine. A lot has changed since. I spent 3½ years in prison, where I deradicalized. I now work with Mitch Silber, the New York City Police Department’s former director of intelligence analysis, to combat violent extremism. The jihadist-magazine template I helped create is now among the most effective means of propagating extremist ideas.
Five years after Islamic State declared its so-called caliphate, I’m taking the template back. My new magazine is called Ahul-Taqwa, Arabic for “People of Consciousness.” Ahul-Taqwa aims to answer the transnational jihadist movement with an alternative worldview based on post-Enlightenment principles and democratic values.
Contrary to popular belief, jihadist magazines were an American export, not an import to the West. My 2009 magazine, Jihad Recollections, was designed by a small group of prominent American propagandists that included New Mexico native Anwar al-Awlaki, who became an “emir” of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and Pakistani-American Samir Khan, who joined Awlaki in Yemen after Jihad Recollections published its fifth issue. Sleekly designed and written in what one researcher calls “perfect idiomatic English,” Jihad Recollections Americanized the jihadi message.
In May 2010, my New York-based jihadist organization, Revolution Muslim, threatened the creators of “South Park” for an episode portraying Islam’s Prophet Muhammad in satire. Comedy Central censored the program. In response, a woman in Seattle started a Facebook “Everybody Draw Muhammad” page. Pakistan and Indonesia threatened to shut down Facebook in protest. The page vanished from the site, then reappeared; Facebook attributed the disappearance to a glitch. All this drew a flurry of attention to Jihad Recollections—and inspired Awlaki and Samir to go international. Soon they launched a new magazine, Inspire.
The first edition included a fatwa calling for the murder of those “insulting” the prophet as well as an article titled “Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom.” It was the start of what we at Revolution Muslim called “open-source jihad”: “America’s worst nightmare; it allows Muslims to train at home instead of risking a dangerous travel abroad.”
On May 2, 2011, U.S. troops killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan. I was arrested May 23. Mr. Silber’s NYPD colleagues had convinced the federal government that the “South Park” threat and spreading Inspire crossed the threshold of legal speech. Soon after my arrest, Awlaki and Samir were killed by a U.S. drone in Yemen. At the same time, the Arab Spring was emerging, and with it the promise of Middle Eastern democratization. It seemed the threat would diminish, that the war on terror was winding down.
After pleading guilty on three counts, I was sentenced in February 2012 to 11½ years in federal prison. At the sentencing, the prosecutor stressed that someday, somewhere, innocents would die as a result of jihadist magazines. I must admit I was in denial. I’d begun my trek out of extremism and had become an asset of the FBI.
The prosecutors’ warning proved true on April 15, 2013. The Tsarnaev brothers used the Inspire recipe to kill three and injure hundreds at the Boston Marathon’s finish line. And jihadist publications continue to influence violent extremists. In 2014, Western members of ISIS issued their own magazines, Dabiq and Rummiyah, which looked exactly like Jihad Recollections and Inspire. Their “Just Terror Tactics” section inspired a cascade of vehicular attacks in 2016 and 2017. That too, was derived from Inspire, a 2010 article titled “The Ultimate Mowing Machine.”
This March, a 28-year-old ISIS supporter allegedly stole a U-Haul truck, which he told investigators he intended to use to “keep driving and driving” through pedestrians at Baltimore Harbor. In April, a 46-year-old woman pleaded guilty to providing material support to ISIS. She had used hacked Facebook accounts to recruit members. Her posts began “Remember Boston Marathon bombing?” and referred to the Inspire recipe.
The caliphate has been defeated but the transnational jihadist movement endures, as evidenced by the Easter attacks in Sri Lanka. No issue of Dabiq or Rummiyah has been released in over a year. But extremists have launched an English-language magazine for Kashmir, and recent secret chats include calls to pay propagandists in cryptocurrency. The last issue of Inspire came out in August 2017. It gave operational advice for derailing trains; this March a German jihadist was arrested for trying the tactic three times. Jihadists continue to operate on the dark web, where old issues of the magazines are distributed.
Learning about the Boston Marathon bombing made me sick with guilt. I resolved to do whatever I could to make amends. My objective with Ahul-Taqwa is to reclaim the propaganda method my fellow jihadists and I developed and use it to kill the resonance of their ideas and ideals.
Mr. Morton, a former jihadist, is a co-founder of Parallel Networks and special adviser to the Counter Extremism Project.
Appeared in the June 4, 2019, print edition.
I deradicalized after 3½ years in prison. Now I’m reclaiming the medium to combat violent extremism.
By Jesse Morton
June 3, 2019
I’m a publishing pioneer: In April 2009, I launched the first English-language online jihadist magazine. A lot has changed since. I spent 3½ years in prison, where I deradicalized. I now work with Mitch Silber, the New York City Police Department’s former director of intelligence analysis, to combat violent extremism. The jihadist-magazine template I helped create is now among the most effective means of propagating extremist ideas.
Five years after Islamic State declared its so-called caliphate, I’m taking the template back. My new magazine is called Ahul-Taqwa, Arabic for “People of Consciousness.” Ahul-Taqwa aims to answer the transnational jihadist movement with an alternative worldview based on post-Enlightenment principles and democratic values.
Contrary to popular belief, jihadist magazines were an American export, not an import to the West. My 2009 magazine, Jihad Recollections, was designed by a small group of prominent American propagandists that included New Mexico native Anwar al-Awlaki, who became an “emir” of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and Pakistani-American Samir Khan, who joined Awlaki in Yemen after Jihad Recollections published its fifth issue. Sleekly designed and written in what one researcher calls “perfect idiomatic English,” Jihad Recollections Americanized the jihadi message.
In May 2010, my New York-based jihadist organization, Revolution Muslim, threatened the creators of “South Park” for an episode portraying Islam’s Prophet Muhammad in satire. Comedy Central censored the program. In response, a woman in Seattle started a Facebook “Everybody Draw Muhammad” page. Pakistan and Indonesia threatened to shut down Facebook in protest. The page vanished from the site, then reappeared; Facebook attributed the disappearance to a glitch. All this drew a flurry of attention to Jihad Recollections—and inspired Awlaki and Samir to go international. Soon they launched a new magazine, Inspire.
The first edition included a fatwa calling for the murder of those “insulting” the prophet as well as an article titled “Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom.” It was the start of what we at Revolution Muslim called “open-source jihad”: “America’s worst nightmare; it allows Muslims to train at home instead of risking a dangerous travel abroad.”
On May 2, 2011, U.S. troops killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan. I was arrested May 23. Mr. Silber’s NYPD colleagues had convinced the federal government that the “South Park” threat and spreading Inspire crossed the threshold of legal speech. Soon after my arrest, Awlaki and Samir were killed by a U.S. drone in Yemen. At the same time, the Arab Spring was emerging, and with it the promise of Middle Eastern democratization. It seemed the threat would diminish, that the war on terror was winding down.
After pleading guilty on three counts, I was sentenced in February 2012 to 11½ years in federal prison. At the sentencing, the prosecutor stressed that someday, somewhere, innocents would die as a result of jihadist magazines. I must admit I was in denial. I’d begun my trek out of extremism and had become an asset of the FBI.
The prosecutors’ warning proved true on April 15, 2013. The Tsarnaev brothers used the Inspire recipe to kill three and injure hundreds at the Boston Marathon’s finish line. And jihadist publications continue to influence violent extremists. In 2014, Western members of ISIS issued their own magazines, Dabiq and Rummiyah, which looked exactly like Jihad Recollections and Inspire. Their “Just Terror Tactics” section inspired a cascade of vehicular attacks in 2016 and 2017. That too, was derived from Inspire, a 2010 article titled “The Ultimate Mowing Machine.”
This March, a 28-year-old ISIS supporter allegedly stole a U-Haul truck, which he told investigators he intended to use to “keep driving and driving” through pedestrians at Baltimore Harbor. In April, a 46-year-old woman pleaded guilty to providing material support to ISIS. She had used hacked Facebook accounts to recruit members. Her posts began “Remember Boston Marathon bombing?” and referred to the Inspire recipe.
The caliphate has been defeated but the transnational jihadist movement endures, as evidenced by the Easter attacks in Sri Lanka. No issue of Dabiq or Rummiyah has been released in over a year. But extremists have launched an English-language magazine for Kashmir, and recent secret chats include calls to pay propagandists in cryptocurrency. The last issue of Inspire came out in August 2017. It gave operational advice for derailing trains; this March a German jihadist was arrested for trying the tactic three times. Jihadists continue to operate on the dark web, where old issues of the magazines are distributed.
Learning about the Boston Marathon bombing made me sick with guilt. I resolved to do whatever I could to make amends. My objective with Ahul-Taqwa is to reclaim the propaganda method my fellow jihadists and I developed and use it to kill the resonance of their ideas and ideals.
Mr. Morton, a former jihadist, is a co-founder of Parallel Networks and special adviser to the Counter Extremism Project.
Appeared in the June 4, 2019, print edition.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.