Jihad 2.0 — the “sleeping threat” recruitment video of Zawahiri and Gadahn
We encourage you to watch the entire 48 minute video of Adam Gadahn on an invitation to Islam (download here), and not content yourself with an excerpt. The excerpts, however well intended, do not convey at all the seriousness of the tone of Zawahiri and Gadahn, nor the extensive theological arguments that are made for Islam. Here is a link to the transcript as well, but it has a few mistakes. We agree with Walid Phares that this is quite an important document, a prelude to future jihad in America.
The video is a highly scripted, well produced piece of work. Its tone is meant to underline the gravity of the questions of eternal life and correct theology that are the foundation of the message. It seems to us that one of the main purposes of the tape is its use in recruitment activities for converts to Islam and jihad within the United States. From a purely tactical perspective, it seems clear enough to us that al Qaeda and affiliates are looking to recruit US-based non-Arabs into the fight, a response no doubt to the de facto increase in profiling taking place worldwide. One notes particular appeals to African Americans, in the recitation of the evils of slavery, Jim Crow, and other matters. As well, there is an appeal to the young, alientated, and possibly suburban, who are looking for a meaning to life beyond what Gadahn calls “debt, debauchery and doubt,” which he says constitute the American Dream.
Gadahn and al Qaeda make a strong pitch for sleeper cells, both within the military and in civilian society:
It’s no surprise then that over the past few years we have seen some high ranking Crusaders among them the FBI chief, Mueller, expressing their anxiety at the tsunami of conversions to the truth of Islam that is sweeping across America which constitutes a fearsome challenge to the identity, security, and survival of the Crusader state and to the authority of these con men and women. I believe that it is this phenomenon, more than anyone or anything else, which poses the real sleeping threat that prevents the Crusaders from sleeping at night and I don’t think a freedom struggle could wish for a better endorsement to have its cause taken up by a courageous group from within the oppressor nation itself. We shouldn’t be surprised because after all, it is the duty of every Muslim to fight evil and oppression wherever he finds it and no matter who the evildoers might be….
I can’t tell you how delighted I was to receive good news of the embracing of Islam by a number of US soldiers at the hands of the Muslim mujahideen in prison in some of the American concentration camps which blacken the globe. And I ask God to benefit Islam and Muslims with them and that he make them role models for their comrades. And I advise them to take every precaution and practicing their faith and making good their escape from the oppressor army, lest they suffer the persecution meted out to those soldiers who openly proclaim the rejection of American terrorism and Crusader values while still within the reaches of military authorities. May Allah free them.
Again, we ask you to watch the video, because it is hard to convey its rather somber tone in a paragraph or two. Zawahiri and Gadahn, in our opinion, come across to their target audience as serious men who are concerned with their eternal fate. Gadahn is no Lord Haw Haw as far as we are concerned, with a mocking tone easy to dismiss. The video is extremely well designed to have precisely the sober tone that would appeal to the young and impressionable minds it seeks to influence.
This video is Jihad 2.0 — jihad for the youth of America. It seeks to create a “sleeping threat” within the country, and to reinforce and motivate those sleeper cells already here. It remains to be seen how significant is the “sleeping threat” that Gadahn refers to, but it would be unwise to underestimate it.