Marketing Terrorism: The Continental Fear from Middle East to Asia & Africa

By Noor Dahri

"The Book “Marketing Terrorism” is a hard work of ITCT analysts who have written great pieces of research in order to sketch the world map of terrorism. No doubt terrorism has created chaos and instability in the different regions and continents of the world. 
Every country has a different culture and counter culture of terrorism, such as the culture of terrorism in Pakistan and in the Middle Eastern countries is completely different due to their trend and tactics, sponsors and recruiting, funding and functioning even their grievances are different in the war-torn regions. 
The readers will analyze the security challenges and counter-terrorism efforts in the countries of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East in the book. They will also learn how Islamists use religion as a safe and justifiable tool for their heinous crimes of terrorism. The academics and counter-terrorism experts from different countries have brought the combination of the quality of counter-terrorism narratives together in this book."

• Language: English
• Publisher: VIJ Books (India) Pty Ltd
• Release date: Nov 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9789389620818

Book preview

Marketing Terrorism

The Continental Fear from

Middle East to Asia & Africa

Marketing Terrorism

The Continental Fear from

Middle East to Asia & Africa

Edited By

Noor Dahri

Vij Books India Pvt Ltd

New Delhi (India)

Published by

Vij Books India Pvt Ltd

(Publishers, Distributors & Importers)

2/19, Ansari Road

Delhi - 110 002

Phones: 91-11-43596460, 91-11-47340674

Mob: [phone]

E-mail: [e-mail]

Web : www.vijbooks.com

Copyright © 2020, Author

ISBN: 978-93-89620-79-5 (Hardback)

ISBN: 978-93-89620-81-8 (ebook)

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,

transmitted or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic,

mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior

permission of the copyright owner. Application for such permission

should be addressed to the publisher.

The views expressed in this book are of the contributors/authors in their

personal capacity.

Contents

About the Contributors

Acknowledgement

Introduction

The Middle East Region

1. The Security Challenges of Israel: National & Transnational Terrorism

Noor Dahri

2. An Account of Fact and Fiction Regarding ISIS Governance

Maia Brown

3. The Khawarij Paradigm: Takfirism as Expression of Unconstrained Islamism

Arturo Morselli

4. ISIS Brides: Perpetrators or Victims?

Maia Brown

The Asia Region

1. Militancy and Its Impact on the Foreign Policy of Pakistan

Dr Tehmina Ranjha

2. Human Security, Economic Vulnerability and Terrorism in Afghanistan

Maia Brown

3. Warfare in Pakistan

Sonia Faiz

4. The Epistemology of Extremism in Pakistan

Shemrez Afzal

The Africa Region

1. Countering Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jamo (Al -Shabaab) Insurgency in Mozambique

Dr Joan Swart

2. Policing, Terrorism and Jihadist Tendencies

Saron Obia

Notes to Chapters

Index

About the Author

About The Contributors

Noor Dahri - Founder & Executive Director - ITCT

Mr. Noor Dahri is the Founder and Executive Director of Islamic Theology of Counter Terrorism- ITCT, a UK based Counter Islamist Terrorism Think Tank. Noor is also a contributing writer at US Homeland Security Magazine. He was an active member of Lahskar -e-Taibah (LeT), a Jihadist organisation in Pakistan. Noor Dahri has also worked with the London Police department for the last seven years. He has studied Forensics and Criminal Psychology from Oxford - UK, Counter Terrorism from the University of Maryland - U.S.A and also studied Counter Terrorism from International Institute for Counter Terrorism ICT- Israel. He is an independent researcher in Counter Islamist Terrorism and Radicalisation.

Mr. Dahri has written many research articles on the hot issues such as Counter Terrorism, Violent Extremism, De-Radicalisation and Israel-Palestine conflict which have been published in various newspapers. Noor has attended many events, conferences on the threat of Counter Terrorism and also visited many institutes and libraries. Noor is a Middle East Analyst at The Great Middle East and a regular contributor at the Times of Israel (Israel) and The Daily Times (Pak). He has appeared on numerous TV and Radio shows for his interviews.

Noor is a first Pakistani, who has been officially invited to deliver his speeches at the International Institute for Counter Terrorism -ICT in Israel on the topic of From Daw’ah To Jihad: Breaking the Radicalization and Violent Cycle. Mr. Noor is the fellow member of the Intelligence Community USA and a member of the security think tank Henry Jackson society UK. He regularly attends discussion-based events in the House of Commons and the House of Lords (UK Parliaments). He has visited many countries for his research work.

Noor Dahri received a Life Achievement Award Certificate by Lord Frank Judd at The House of Lords-London in 2017.

He has authored two books: Global Jihad, Islamic Radicalisation and Counter Strategy and Terra Nullius: The Rebirth of a Land Without Peace that were published from India in 2019.

Maia Jackson-Analyst - Counter-terrorism-South Asia Desk (USA)- ITCT

Maia is a Development Analyst at Together Central Buganda and an Editor at Fletcher Security Review. She was a Research Intern at International Institute for Counter Terrorism, Herzliya, Israel. Ms Jackson also worked as an Educator with Yazda, a global Yazidi organization, on its Women & Children Trauma Victims Rainbow Support Program. She has also worked with Yazda as a Manager on its 2014 Yazidi Genocide United Nations Assessment Report.

She is currently pursuing her Masters in Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. Her field of study is in Human Security| International Security Studies and Perceptions of Governance in Nangarhar, Afghanistan. She writes about Islamic State and can speak Spanish as a second language.

Dr. Joan Swart-Senior Analyst - Psychology of Terrorism - Africa Desk (South Africa) - ITCT

Dr. Swart is a South African psychologist, author, consultant and researcher. Dr. Swart has completed Masters in Forensic Psychology at the HLC-accredited Walden University and a doctorate at the BPPE-approved Eisner Institute for Professional Studies, based in Encino, California. She is currently a consultant and researcher at the Apsche Institute, based in Leesburg, Virginia.

Swart is affiliated with the Apsche Institute where she conducts research and consultation. The Apsche Centre specializes in Mode Deactivation Therapy, a third-wave cognitive-behavioural therapy approach that was developed to treat adolescents with behavioural problems. She is an expert in behavioural analysis, especially in the field of criminal and violent behaviour, extremism, and personality disorders.

She is also a consulting committee member at the American Investigative Society of Cold Cases (AISOCC), which is a multidisciplinary group of scholar/practitioners, investigators, and others whose goal is to review cold cases in order to develop new leads/information and/or investigative strategies for the requesting agencies. She is a member of the AISOCC Behavioural Sciences Committee and Social Media Committee.

Swart is an editorial board member of the peer-reviewed journal, International Journal of Behavioural Consultation and Therapy (IJBCT), that is published by the American Psychological Association (APA).

Dr Joan has authored many books including:

1. Social Media & Mental Health: Depression, Predators, and Personality Disorders (Cognella Academic Publishing, 2018)

2. Homicide: A Forensic Psychology Casebook (CRC Press, 2017)

3. Treating Adolescents with Family-Based Mindfulness (Springer, 2015)

Dr. Tehmina Ranjha - Senior Analyst - Counter-terrorism - South Asia Desk (Pakistan) ITCT

Dr. Tehmina is from Pakistan and currently holds a position as a Research Analyst at Centre for Security Strategy and Policy Research and Assistant Professor at School of Integrated Social Sciences, University of Lahore. She has a distinguished academic record and she is the youngest PhD from University of the Punjab with a PhD in Political Science with focus on Religious Militancy in Pakistan. She is a CT expert and mostly works on Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) in college and university campuses. She is also a national speaker on topics related to CVE and de-radicalisation. She has also worked with the Pakistani military, Police and NACTA to help establish a CVE narrative of Pakistan and to educate students at campuses to counter violent extremism. She is among the very few Pakistani women who are working on CVE and de-radicalisation.

She has M.Phil in Political Science from GCU Lahore. She has had the privilege of working with esteemed educational institutions such as Government College University Lahore, University of the Punjab, Fast National University, Kinnaird College for Women Lahore and University of Lahore. She was also the former member of Youth Parliament Pakistan Batch 7-year 2015; a program by PILDAT and Danish Embassy, in Youth Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and National Security and developed a report on National Action Plan. She is part of the international CVE community with a constant networking on various platforms on Terrorism and Counter Terrorism, Countering Violent Extremism and Crime Prevention.

Arturo Morselli-Analyst - Counter-terrorism - Europe Desk (UK)- ITCT

Arturo is a second-year student in Religion, Philosophy and Ethics BA at Kings College London. He is to graduate in May 2020 with a dissertation project on Salafi Jihadism and a critical analysis of the theological elements in the ideology of the Hay’ at Tahrir al-Sham (a Syrian-based extremist group). He maintains a clear focus on the study of Islamic Theology and the way its interpretation feeds into such concepts as radicalisation and terrorism, with a further interest in the Middle East. He is also studying Arabic, so as to have a deeper understanding of original texts and Arabic-written content.

He is about to finish a four-month long internship with a diplomatic NGO in consultative status with the ECOSOC of the United Nations, and has carried out in-depth research and analysis on matters of policy-making and geopolitics. He had had the opportunity to present and argue his report at the UN General HQ in New York City, which surely was an incredibly valuable experience.

He has a strong and sincere passion for Islamic Theology and questions concerning the ways to counter extremist interpretations of the latter through a nuanced and thorough study and understanding of religious literature.

He believes that having the opportunity to get involved with the work he carries out would be extremely valuable to his personal growth of knowledge of such topics, and he also believes that he could positively contribute given is interest and knowledge of systematic Islamic theology and Islamic literature, together with the knowledge of past and current geopolitical aspects of the Middle East.

Sonia Faiz - Analyst - Counter-terrorism - South Asia Desk (Pakistan)- ITCT

Sonia holds M. Phil degree in Peace and Conflict Studies from National Defence University, Islamabad, Pakistan. She carried out her research work in ‘Counter-terrorism Narrative’; also, she has been playing a key role as messenger of Pakistan’s counterterrorism narrative campaign in main stream Pakistani media since media itself used to be confused or pro-Taliban. Previously, she also has served with a number of governmental organizations as a researcher in counter-terrorism affairs.

Shemrez Afzal - Analyst - CPEC and China - South Asia Desk (Pakistan) - ITCT

Shemrez is an economist and research analyst specializing in international trade, OSINT, SOCMINT, and the identity association(s) of terrorists and terrorist ideologies. An alumnus of the prestigious Aitchison College Lahore, and graduate of Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB), Shemrez is an experienced economic researcher who has successfully completed a number of field-based projects and third-party reviews for IFIs and INGOs. He specializes in political economy and institutional economics, and is a perpetual student devoted to the purpose of knowledge creation, the development of robust communication and interpersonal networks, and the pursuit of technologies which can be utilized for the benefit of mankind. He has authored reports on national security, peace and conflict, international relations, socioeconomic development, current affairs, the contemporary post-GFC global macroeconomy, enhancing trade between developing countries, and election manifestos of Pakistani political parties. In addition to multidimensional research on CPEC and OBOR / BRI, Shemrez is an active OSINT and SOCMINT operator, focusing on counterterrorism (CT), countering violent extremism (CVE) and countering financing of terrorism (CFT).

Saron Obia - Analyst - Africa Desk (Cameroon)- ITCT

Saron is an Africa-based security expert & consultant and specialist in cyber security, counter terrorism, & jihadist tendencies. He holds M.Sc. in Security Studies from Pan African Institute for Development West Africa (PAID-WA). He has also served as Assistant Editor and IACSP Representative for Cameroon Publication Division for International Association for Counter-Terrorism and Security Professionals (IACSP SEA). He has served as a security consultant with the Pan African Institute for Development - West Africa (PAID-WA).

Acknowledgement

The edited volume is a collaborative project and I am fortunate to have been able to work with leading academics and analysts from different countries to provide a global spotlight on the complex subject of terrorism. I would like to thank sincerely the participating authors who consented to give of their valuable time to write the papers at ITCT; my family, who understood and supported me throughout the entire process; and in particular, my wife, Farah, and my children Barirah and Bayyinah, who had to give up a great deal of quality time with their father while this book was being written.

My especial appreciation to my best friend Musa Khan Jalalzai for his unwavering support and help in editing and publishing this book.

- Author

Introduction

This is not the end; it is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

—Winston Churchill

Marketing of fear is in progress as states in Middles East, South Asia, Africa and Europe produce and train killers, murderers and so-called jihadists to further their foreign policy objectives. Pakistan, Afghanistan and some Arab states have established factories terrorists to market their fear and consternation across the globe. As we live in an era of fear marketing, where only ignorance drives our thoughts and responses every day, we observe many incidents of auctions in ‘terror markets’ across the globe. These terrorists damaged Israeli society and economy estimated $14 million in one year, and this is a great loss. Israel is the only country whose national security challenges are unique in kind that no other nation has ever been surrounded by potential and active enemies in this way.

The business of fear and terrorism is spreading successfully because we do not do our homework. In Pakistan and Afghanistan, the terror market is run in different ways. If we deeply study the news stories of just one month of suicide terror-related incidents, we will find that terrorists use different techniques for killing in the region. The method of destruction and killing is the same but the techniques are different. Soon after the Syrian war, the Fidayeen attacks rapidly dropped but it emerged in other parts of Israel. Although the PLO was established under the auspices of Egypt as the official voice of the Palestinians, the Egyptians soon realised that the Palestinians may abandon their semi-military effort and they organised a military component within the PLO, the Palestinian Liberation Army (PLA), with a conventional force structure equipped and trained by Egypt.

Palestinians enhanced their activities on the Israeli-Jorden border between 1968 and 1970. They carried out attacks against Jewish settlements and perpetrated gun attacks and planted explosives. There were more than 140 attacks which were set up by small terror cells that crossed the border and carried out ambushes against the Israel Defence Force (IDF). There are shocking stories of Pakistani, Afghani and Somali teenage suicide bombers who were captured during the military operation in Swat, Bajaur and Somalia. The case of Saudi Arabia is more complicated where parents are selling their sons to be used in a suicide attack in Syria. In 2016, a new video of marketing a suicide bomber appeared on YouTube. Apparently, it was made in a conference room of a hotel in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The video shows that a Saudi father, Abu Saleh was offering his son, Khalid, for sale to be used as a suicide bomber in Syria. Abu Saleh sold his son only for $400,000. Some Pakistani and Afghan men are also involved in the same business. The former ISPR chief, Major General Ather Abbas once said that the Taliban in Waziristan buy and sell children. In Tank, Wana, and other parts of South and North Waziristan and in several southern and eastern provinces of Afghanistan, suicide bombers’ ‘training academies’ recruit young children. When they complete their training, they are sent for a ‘great religious job’.

ISIS is a fundamentalist, Salafi, Sunni organisation. Practitioners of Islam can overall be divided into Shia and Sunni, due to a disagreement millennium ago over who was meant to be Mohammad’s successor. Salafism is a very conservative branch of Sunni Islam. Within Salafism, only a minority of practitioners are jihadists—and it is members of this group that compose ISIS. They view all those who do not conform to their specific brand of Islam as heretics and infidels, and thus enemies who must be defeated to create their caliphate. As a Sunni organization, they also build on the recent legacy of violence against Sunnis in Iraq in the wake of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein’s leadership to stoke sectarian divisions and recruit members. While ISIS is not one coherent and unified creature, it does have, according to its leaders and its self-published material, general goals and characteristics that make its followers a somewhat unified threat. Pakistani professor Dr. Yunis Khushi in his well-written paper has noted some aspects of the ISIS fear marketing in Pakistan, Syria and Iraq:

The recruitments for ISIS have been going on in Pakistan for the past more than 3 years, but the Foreign and the Interior Ministries of Pakistan have been constantly denying the presence and activities of ISIS in Pakistan. Law Enforcement agencies have very recently arrested many people from Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi and Sialkot who were associated with ISIS networks. Men have been recruited as jihadis or mujahids and women as jihadi wives to provide sexual needs of fighters who are fighting in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Many women, impressed and convinced through brainwashing with the concept of Jihad-Bil-Nikah, got divorce from their Pakistani husbands and went to marry a Mujahid of ISIS for a certain period, came back gave birth to the child of Mujahid, and remarried their former husband. Some decide to continue that marriage for rest of their lives. All of this is being done to obtain worldly wealth and later eternal life in Heaven because ISIS is paying something around RS. 50,000 to 60,000 per month to every warrior, which is a hefty amount for an unemployed youth suffering in unemployment, poverty and inflation here in Pakistan, which is ruled by corrupt ruling elite for the past 68 years and masses only got poverty for being true Muslims and patriot Pakistanis. Most secret and law-enforcement agencies have behaved like a silent bystander to the activities of ISIS in the country. Is this an unofficial channel of providing soldiers to provide the Saudi demands for fighters to fight on behalf of Saudi armies in Yemen and Syria.

Dr. Tehmina Ranjha supported the standpoint of Dr. Yunis Khushi and warned that All these forms of militancy can be found in Pakistan which is an Islamic Republic. For instance, the port city of Karachi, Sindh, is marred by ethnic militancy; the province of Balochistan is affected by separatist insurgency; and the rest of the country especially the Northern Areas are inflicted with sectarian militancy; Modes such as suicide bombing and target killing are part of all the three forms of militancy (Rizvi, 2005; Khan, 2005), as writes Rashid (2013a): the ethnic conflict is being articulated in sectarian terms. That is, the Pashtun-Muhajir conflict in Karachi—which is embedded in economic reasons— has been expressed in ethnic terms. Moreover, the Taliban-Shia conflict—which is actually embedded in ethnic reasons—has been expressed in sectarian terms. There is another facet of militancy which burgeons inside Pakistan but affects neighbouring countries such as the areas of Afghanistan and India (Jones, 2002; Haq, 2007). This militancy is expressed through a term called nonstate actors. These are volunteers who are members of various sectarian-cum-militant organisations and inflict terror both inside and outside Pakistan (Rizvi, 2005). The militants whether active inside Pakistan or outside have invited the ire of both far and neighbouring countries of the region and have made Pakistan feel embarrassed on the international level (Rizvi, 2005; Haq, 2007). That is how militancy affects the foreign policy of Pakistan.

There are different groups in Pakistan that market fear, Shemrez Afzal has described their way of operation: Pakistan’s modern experience of extremism and extremist tendencies in society can be ascribed to the Afghan Jihad era and the social policies of the Zia regime. Islam was used for the purpose of acquiring a legitimate character for a regime borne out of a military coup: the result was overall weakening of political as well as state institutions – except for the Armed Forces – while religio-political groups assumed greater roles and relevance in society. Some of these groups were radicalized (and militarized), after which they began espousing a distinctly sectarian and supremacist ideology. Groups such as LeJ, SSP, JeM, SMP, TeJ, TSNM, TNFJ, and others propagated a particular sectarian outlook, and targeted members of other sectarian groups in order to victimize them and exert their power and supremacy over them.

Terrorist organisations like al Qaeda, Al Shabab, and Boko Haram, the Taliban, Arab extremists and Takfiri jihadists in Europe, Pakistan and Afghanistan, through Facebook, YouTube and twitter invite young people to join their networks, using various marketing techniques of fear. These terror groups are marketers as well as consumers to a degree; their recruiters ‘market’ boys. They supply suicide bombers across Asia and the Middle East for just $ 20,000 for each bomber. Religious and political vendettas are being settled by using suicide bombers against rival groups or families in Pakistan. This generation of fear and panic is controlled by extremist elements and non-state actors in Waziristan, Kabul and Quetta, Saudi Arabis, and Qatar. Fear and terror marketing systems are updated every year and new techniques of destruction are being introduced every so often.

Analyst and commentator Sonia Faiz has noted some aspects of women recruitment by Taliban groups: The recruitment of women that took place under TTP is often mirrored by Al-Qaeda or IS. The recruitment patterns of ISIS seemed to be very lethal as its engaging women of the educated middle as well as upper-middle class mainly from urban centres; such as Lahore, Sialkot, and Karachi. In February 2017, the case of Noreen Laghari; who was a young medical student belonging to the highly educated family came to the fore, later after arresting in her own confessional video she herself claimed that she was radicalized by IS online and later she got married to a militant and also was about to detonate herself at church in Lahore. It seems rather absurd that most erudite and cultured women would readily like to join any terrorist group that openly denies them the same rights and privileges as the men enjoy candidly as well as above all those restricts their mobility. Sometimes, gendered or individual explanations are often installed to explain women’s participating in these violent groups. Per se, the woman is assumed to be following her males; father, husband, or brother or supposed as she is seeking reprisal for their killings by the opponent group or the state. On the other hand, in mid of year 2016, Bushra Cheema desolated her husband and she left for Syria in order to adhere with ISIS with her four children. And, in a voice note that has been sent to her husband, she said, I love ALLAH and his religion… If you can’t join us then at least pray that your wife and children die in jihad. Question arises in mind that what had motivated Bushra Cheema to join ISIS?"

Analyst Maia Brown has painted a gloomy picture of the ISIS activities: ISIS’ message and successes have led to a multitude of affiliate groups, or ‘provinces,’ across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Between 20,000 and 40,000 foreign fighters went to Syria and Iraq to fight with ISIS between 2014 and 2017. ISIS has conducted attacks in Egypt, sent fighters to Libya and recruited there, co-opted local militant groups like Boko Haram (which pledged allegiance to ISIS) in Nigeria, and prolonged battles in the Philippines (including a month’s long battle over the city of Marawi). Though many members have since died or returned home, this mobilization speaks to the highly effective use of social media by ISIS. Even without physical territory, it is able to spread its message and ideals digitally to recruit and mobilize supporters. ISIS has created a global movement and message, such that mere territorial defeat is not nearly enough to stop them. This group of potential youthful recruits are, due to their age and social development or lack thereof, vulnerable and often looking for support and a foundation on which to build their burgeoning adult selves.

In 2016, in the UK market, videos and CDs of suicide terrorism were openly available at cheap prices; young Britons were the main customers. In these CDs, the methods of suicide attacks, techniques of killings, religious zeal, accounts of events, explosions and the importance of time and distance were described in detail. These CDs were imported from Pakistan, Somalia, Algeria, Nigeria and Afghanistan and sold in open markets. In most cases, radicalisation is an easier process to execute when presented with vulnerable individuals who suffer from identity disorder – not necessarily in the psychological or psychosomatic sense, but in terms of one’s ideals and principles and self-assurance selfcertainty, or are confused about which identity assumes greater credence or priority. Even if one does not doubt one’s own self, the simple act of sowing doubt and confusion – about an element of identity, which the subject can closely identify with – can lead to over-thinking and result in uncertainty; this exposure enhances the subject’s vulnerability to radicalisation and reception (as well as acceptance) of extremist ideas and actions.

Expert Arturo Morselli in his paper argued that "On a practical level, this meant that kuffar, but not Muslims, could be enslaved and had their properties looted. The relevance of this particular issue is self-evident when thinking, for example, of the massacre committed by the