Inspiring hate: AQAP’s “Inspire”

• In Event: Ethnic Conflict: Constructing, Deconstructing, and Reconstructing Ethnic Divides

Abstract

Conflict scholars have long acknowledged the centrality that identity construction plays in conflict dynamics. Research of the communiqués of terrorist organizations highlights the importance of these frame characterizations in advocating violence. Likewise, research into the language of genocide has found that Self and Other characterization is central to campaigns inciting violence against specific target groups. Of importance to this project is the internet dissemination of these writings in the jihadist publication Inspire. Inspire is reportedly produced by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and published by Al-Malahem media. It is described as an Open Source Jihad magazine that is designed to promote homegrown terrorism among a Western target population. Central to these writings is the construction of a Self and oppositional Other identity. The purpose of this investigation is the identification of the thematic narratives published in Inspire, as written by individual members of al-Qaeda, so to frame the characterizations of Self and Other.

Author

• Randall Gage Rogan, Wake Forest U