The Insurgency Research Group at King’s College London recently held a workshop on Propaganda of the Deed 2008. One of the key speakers was Nick O’Shaughnessy, Professor of Communication, Queen Mary University of London, author of Politics and Propagnda: Weapons of Mass Seduction. He presented the research he has done with colleagues Paul Baines (Cranfield University), Kevin Maloney and Barry Richards (Bournemouth University), and Sara Miller and Mark Gill (Ipsos MORI) on The British Muslim Response to Islamist Video-Polemic which I have attached with their permission. The primary aim of the research was ‘to explore amongst a small number of selected groups of Muslims their perceptions of and reactions towards radical anti-western propaganda material broadcast by Al-Quaeda and the major Iranian TV channels, using an advertising evaluation approach, with a view to informing a more detailed future research programme in this area.’ To that end they held four group discussions in June & August 2006 with Bangladeshi women 18-34 years old, in Edgware, London; Bangladeshi men 18-34 years old in Tower Hamlets, London; Pakistani mothers of young men in Dewsbury, Yorkshire; and Pakistani men 18-34 years old in Birmingham.
I found the paper absolutely fascinating. There is much talk and concern nowadays about the radicalization of Western Muslims which it is argued at least in part is caused by Islamist propaganda but there is not much empirical data in support (or otherwise) of this thesis. What O’Shaughnessy et al’s exploratory research suggests is that the linkage between cause (Islamist propaganda) and effect (radicalized Western Muslims) is weaker than is often thought. The truth is rather more alarming, in my view: some Western Muslims are self-radicalizing through a process of small-group socialization fed by images from the Western media which Islamist propaganda confirms and reinforces rather than initiates; meanwhile, a large number evince understanding and even sympathy for terrorist protagonists as victims, resorting to desperate measures out of frustration; and there is a growing belief in the fundamental Islamist proposition that there is a real war against Islam. The authors are cautious about the survey (it’s still small) and conclude that most Muslims were unsympathetic to the messages contained in Islamist propaganda. Personally, I wonder if they are understating their own case and am eagerly looking forward to the follow on research which they are conducting now because it seems to me from this research already that there is a worrying consolidation of the ‘meta-narrative of Muslims as a unitary grouping self-defined as victims of Western aggression’.
Anyway, you may judge for yourself. Read the report. However, to really make sense of it you need to view the following clips which were shown to the focus groups:
Clip 1: Bridegroom turns into suicide bomber, Iran TV music video
Clip 2: Palestinian children clash with an Israeli soldier, Iran TV cartoon
Sunday, 17, February, 2008 at 7:34 am |
For anyone interested in the process of self or small group radicalization read the NYPD’s report on radicalization in the West (google it). It supports the same conclusion then goes into several case studies.
I am surprised that Western Media is more influential in pushing them down the continuium of radicalization then Islamist propaganda, but I guess it makes sense. Western media would be more familar and more trusted. We really need to ramp up the I.O war.