“Jihadi Cool?” Al-Qaeda’s New “American” Recruitment Strategy
A couple of days ago the Washington Post ran an article about the arrest of Zachary Adam Chesser, 20, of Virginia. Chesser had publicly posted internet death threats against the creators of “South Park,” and it was also his intention to travel to Somalia to join the terrorist group known as al-Shabaab. As discussed in the article, Chesser also sought to become an American “superstar” for al-Qaeda, as seen with the likes of Omar Hammami, 26, Adam Gadahn, 31, and two others. What these men have done, essentially, is to create a very Americanized way of recruiting fellow Americans to their jihadi cause, whether it be through rap videos, Facebook, Twitter, or other venues. As highlighted by the author of the article, it would be difficult to see the likes of Osama bin Laden or his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, both relatively old, unattractive, traditional leaders of al-Qaeda, doing a rap video along the lines of Jay-Z or Kanye West espousing the “awesomeness” of jihad.
Where this becomes an interesting issue is the fact that these recruitment methods are so, in essence, “American.” Hammami and others, having grown up in the U.S., speak English fluently and, most importantly, understand cultural nuances that other al-Qaeda recruiters simply miss and can’t use to their advantage. Is it possible that these American recruiters will be able to make jihad look “cool,” creating an image of something people in their teens or 20’s want to join?
This creates an entirely new set of issues that law enforcement and the U.S. government must deal with when it comes to domestic radicalization. With an apparent increase in U.S. citizens charged with direct involvement in terrorism (34 in the past 18 months), it seems worrisome that the likes of Chesser and Hamammi, among others, could use pop culture and social networking sites to recruit a new generation of jihadists. If jihad starts to look “cool” to a younger generation of men (and women), what can be done to stop something that has become “trendy”? Albeit, jihad is unlikely to become as fashionable a phenomenon on the same level of say, Lady Gaga or skinny jeans, but with this new recruitment strategy comes the possibility that the U.S. has only hit the tip of the iceberg in terms of the radicalization of young Americans and the potentially violent fallout.
Perhaps it’s time for those career FBI agents to dust off their CD players, “get with the times,” and crank out some Lil’ Wayne for counterterrorism inspiration.
Just a suggestion.
