This past year, al-Qaida's position in the international media has dropped significantly. There have been a few notable examples. A Google search for the terms "al-Qaida" and "Islamic State (or ISIS)" reveals a large discrepancy in favor of the latter, with more than 240 million results, compared to 50 million for al-Qaida. Moreover, in a recent interview, Abu Muhammad Al Maqdisi and Abu Qatada Raad Adayleh, two prominent leaders of the ideological camp associated with global jihad, harshly criticized Islamic State's conduct, but were forced to admit it had beaten al-Qaida when it came to exposure to the general public. The success of Islamic State stems, among other things, from its savvy international media strategy. Given that, it is easy to under the latest move al-Qaida made in the media arena, when it published the first issue of an online newsletter called A-Risala ("The Message"), which is produced by the organization in Syria and is currently making its debut in English. The newsletter -- of top-quality design and production -- is presented as the official magazine of the mujahideen in "Bilad al-Sham" ("Greater Syria") and is very similar, both in design and content, to Dabiq, Islamic State's English-language propaganda sheet, launched in July 2014 after the declaration of the Islamic State. The 10th issue of Dabiq is slated to come out soon and will certainly be devoted to puffing Islamic State's achievements. An analysis of the content in the first issue of A-Risala makes it clear that al-Qaida and its Syrian branch, the Nusra Front, have decided to fight an assertive media battle for the hearts and minds of the Salafist-jihadist audience in the main arena of global jihad. That's why a large part of the magazine focuses on what is happening in Syria -- to bring readers "up-to-date news about what is taking place on the front lines." The magazine shows readers the gains made by al-Nusra and its partners from the "al-Fatah Army", a coalition of seven jihadist organization that are working together both to liberate Syria from the grip of President Bashar Assad and against IS. A-Risala excels at extremely fine visuals, with colorful headlines and high-quality photos, including media gimmicks based on pop culture content from Hollywood movies that are well-known to the western audience the messages are aimed at (just what Islamic State does in its foreign-language publications.) The magazine puts special emphasis on ridiculing the group and minimizing its gains, such as an article about the caliphates of the Islamic State a year after the group was founded, while aggrandizing the achievements of the Nusra Front in the Syrian battles. Islamic State leaders, for example, are portrayed as members of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's secular Baath regime, not as ardent Muslims working to spread Islam, which Islamic State pretends to be doing. To stress the magazine's global jihadist character and its ties to al-Qaida's system of alliances, A-Risala features a eulogy for Nasser al-Waheishi, the leader of the group in the Arabian Peninsula, who served as al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri's right hand and was killed by American drones at the end of June. The eulogy dwells on al-Qaida and its partners' familiar narrative about the holiness of the group's leaders' self-sacrifice, which sanctified the way of God, as the Quran instructs them to do. So it looks like A-Risala will be the first sign that al-Qaida is taking off its gloves in the battles to win back the crown of leading the old global jihad. It will be no less interesting to see when Ayman al-Zawahiri, who has been silent for a long time, makes his comeback to speak his piece in the media battle his group is waging against Islamic State. Yoram Schweitzer heads the Program on Terrorism at the Institute for National Security Studies. Doctoral candidate Adam Hoffman contributed to the article.
The jihadists' media war
מערכת ישראל היום
מערכת "ישראל היום“ מפיקה ומעדכנת תכנים חדשותיים, מבזקים ופרשנויות לאורך כל שעות היממה. התוכן נערך בקפדנות, נבדק עובדתית ומוגש לציבור מתוך האמונה שהקוראים ראויים לעיתונות טובה יותר - אמינה, אובייקטיבית ועניינית.
