Al Qaeda Starts up Anti-Western Magazine–in English

posted at 4:06 pm on July 29, 2010 by Howard Portnoy

If I didn’t know better, I’d assume the report came from The Onion, but it doesn’t. It’s from Forbes. The report, by writer Abigail Esman, allows as how al Qaeda is starting up an online English-language magazine titled Inspire. The publication’s sole purpose is to recruit Muslims in the West to its violent cause. Notes Esman:

Cover lines promise to instruct readers on how to ‘Make a bomb in the kitchen of your Mom,’ while columns praise the efforts of ‘Christmas Bomber’ Umar al Faruk and Fort Hood killer Nidal Hassan. Quoting the Koran, the letter from the (anonymous) editor that inaugurates Inspire’s first issue explains the mission of the magazine: ‘Toward making the Muslim a mujahid in Allah’s path.’ Because ‘jihad has been deconstructed in our age,’ the editor continues, ‘its revival in comprehension and endeavor is of utmost importance for the Caliphate’s manifestation.’ Later in the magazine, a statement by the editorial staff declares, ‘Wherever there are mujahidin, there is danger awaiting the disbelievers.’

Shouldn’t the embedded headline in that initial sentence read “Make a bomb in the kitchen of your Imam,” instead of “your Mom”?

I wonder also whether the magazine will have a recipe section with step-by-step instructions for concocting mouth-watering treats such as chocolate roadside bomb(e) and pie Allah mode. Anybody up for a poll on who Inspire will nominate for its first Suicide Bomber of the Year cover?

Okay, on to the serious questions that arise out of news of this enterprise. One, asked implicitly and answered by Esman, is whether “Inspire should be taken off the Web and out of circulation.” Her answer is an unqualified no. First there is the matter of the First Amendment, which in this instance translates to “I may disagree with what you say, but I’ll defend to the death” etc. Esman offers an additional reason for not censoring the publication that seems sound:

[To] move [the magazine] underground would not change its influence or the ideas that it promotes. It would only serve to keep us unaware of its purpose and influence. And we are unaware enough already.

I suppose all that awaits now is the advice, delivered with some urgency by the Council on American-Islamic Relations to young and impressionable Muslims, not to buy in to this violent distortion of an otherwise peaceful religion. Such a message certainly has the potential to win hearts and minds. Anybody up for a poll on when CAIR will deliver that message?

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