'I say to you that we are in a battle, and that more than half of this battle is taking place in the battlefield of the media." These were the words in a letter written in 2005 by Ayman Al Zawahiri, who was the deputy leader of Al Qaeda at the time. Al Zawahiri was concerned that the images of beheadings and cruelty in Iraq would turn Muslim people away from Al Qaeda and their vision for the future; that they would lose the battle for their hearts and minds.
Fast forward to the present day, and media, more specifically social media, is at the core of the ideological war, but also follows boots on the ground to give a first-hand look at what life is like for the “jihadis” and ISIL. In 2015, Twitter reported shutting down 125,000 accounts linked to ISIL – that number today is about 300,000.
According to one Twitter executive: “Battling extremism and terrorism online is one of the most difficult tasks; for every one you close another five pop up.”
They are relentless. They have an official media company that regularly churns out high-quality content of battles and young recruits (usually western) rationalising and explaining why there is no life without jihad. They have cameramen who film battles, and even instances where cameras attached to guns and drones have been used to capture wide angles and views of their latest “victory”. In a sense they have Hollywood-ised the experience. One PR executive said: “If they weren’t a terrorist organisation, a lot of firms would want to hire them.”
The key to good or influential media is getting someone who is watching or listening to imagine themselves in that situation; to make it relatable; to connect with the audience in a way that makes them want to be there. Extremists and terrorist organisations on social media have found a great deal of success in this regard, and recruited young people from all over the world based on that strategy alone. There was never a strong and focused counter narrative, until now.
This week I took part in a workshop set up by Hedayah, an Abu Dhabi-based international organisation tasked with countering extremists through a number of programmes and activities. The main focus of the workshop, titled Creative Minds for Social Good, was to bring artists, filmmakers, writers, actors, PR executives and students together in one room for one goal – to create content that counters the narrative developed and used by extremists to recruit young people and paint a picture of our religion.
As we watched presentations and engaged in content-creation discussions, I couldn’t help but think we were being tasked to create stories that would counter one of the most evil organisation of our modern era. It was humbling and inspiring, watching artists and students work together with passion and commitment.
My simple belief is that ISIL are “winning” the social-media war because they work so hard. They are quick, too. They capture footage and get it out to the masses in any way they can. While we need several people to approve content, the extremists will have released numerous videos in that time.
The most important point isn’t that we’re creating content as a group, but we are inspiring people around the region and the world to do the same – that they feel empowered to counter extremist narratives themselves. Where a group that supports a terrorist organisation rises, five that are against extremist groups face them head on. We need to work harder and faster.
In the short term, there’s a lot of work to do, but if our goals are achieved, in the long-term, we will have communities around the world to support us, where we all come together as one force against extremists. We will show them that we will not be beaten, on the battle fields or in the media. Our future may depend on it.
Khalid Al Ameri is an Emirati columnist and social commentator. He lives in Abu Dhabi with his wife and two sons.
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