Richard W. Bulliet: Devices of propaganda
In viewing the videotape circulated in the Arab world by Osama bin Laden's sympathizers, American viewers must recognize that the images, voices, labels, and music were chosen to resonate with pre-existing ideas and images that are foreign to most Americans. Where an American viewer might be surprised or shocked by a video clip showing Israeli soldiers brutalizing a Palestinian woman or child and protest that the scene fails to present the violence in any context other than oppression, viewers in the Arab world are more likely to see it as an affirmation of what they have always known or assumed about Israel. Where an American viewer might consider tearful appeals to masculine honor emotionally overdone, a young man socialized within the strongly patriarchal ethos of the Arab world might find them profoundly moving.
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| Arab viewers are likely to see violent scenes involving Israeli soldiers as an affirmation of their preconceived notions about Israel. |
There is no way to calculate the effectiveness of this videotape. Some young Arab men who watch it find it gripping; some feel it contains nothing new. Effective propaganda often contains nothing new, however. It works by triggering latent feelings, by manipulating familiar words and images. Looked at strictly from a structural standpoint, the bin Laden videotape shows a highly professional mind at work. The psychological understanding of how propaganda can move people to action is of a very high order, as are the technical skills deployed in the video and sound editing. Though some propagandists for the American side in the current conflict portray Osama bin Laden as the enemy of America's modern technological civilization, this tape proves that he is capable of using both the techniques and the professional production skills of the modern television industry to convey his message. Though never named in the tape or accorded a rank or title confirming his implicit leadership, Osama bin Laden's face, voice, and thinking dominate it throughout. Whoever the actual producer, the animating intelligence is that of bin Laden, a man who shows himself here as a master of propaganda and an intelligent, ruthless, and, yes, modern adversary.
Structure, imagery, and sound
The structure of the argument these three scenes constitute is familiar to every high school debater: describe the problem, explain the causes of the problem, propose a solution to the problem that addresses the causes you have described. The logical simplicity of the argument forecloses any need to understand Islamic theology, specific political grievances in different lands, or the structure and organization of the group summoning you to war.
Accordingly, none of these elements plays a role in the tape. While religious appeals suffuse all three reels and reference is made to the example of Muhammad and his early followers, the many and complex theological, social, and religious issues that surround discussions of jihad in Islamic intellectual history remain unmentioned. Reel I, which contains subsections labeled "Land of the Two Holy Places" (i.e., Saudi Arabia), Palestine, Chechnya, Iraq, Lebanon (specifically the village of Qana), Indonesia, and Kashmir, avoids discussion of specific political grievances and demands. And the al-Qaeda organization is never mentioned, nor is there any specification of the hierarchical or command relationship between Osama bin Laden (never identified by name) and the other shaykhs who appear.
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| Thinking Point | |
| Can you think of other instances when propaganda was used to mobilize a group of people? How does bin Laden's use of propaganda compare to other examples of propaganda? | |
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The less obvious rhetorical structure derives from the imagery and the sound track. The tape's prologue shows bin Laden in religious garb reciting a poem of his own composition about the attack on the USS Cole, followed by pictures of the Cole with an explosion superimposed over the hole in the ship's side. Then follows Scene One, which begins with an evocation of the Muslim holy places in Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem juxtaposed with clips of American armed forces in Arabia and subservient Saudi leaders. The link to the section on Palestine brings the viewer back to the Muslim holy places by portraying the struggle there as a defense of the sacred al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The visit to the mosque by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, portrayed as a defilement, completes the link, and the clip showing his visit reappears in the jihad portion of Reel III to remind viewers of the religious underpinnings of Palestinian violence.
The sections on Palestine, Chechnya, Iraq, the Israeli bombardment of the village of Qana in Lebanon, Indonesia, and Kashmir show unremitting violence or the tragic consequences of violence. Particularly moving scenes, like women being manhandled or a Palestinian boy being shot to death while trying to shelter behind his father, receive special editing treatment: slow motion, close-ups, repetitions, zooms, etc. The sound track combines Koran recitation, religious appeals, songs, poetry, tearful pleading voices, and the sounds of war. The scene ends with a renewed evocation of the holy places.
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| John O. Voll, professor of Islamic history at Georgetown University |
John O. Voll: Themes in the bin Laden tapes
The bin Laden recruitment film emphasizes a significant dimension of global conflicts and interactions that the religio-cultural models often ignore: the importance of raw physical, military power in shaping the contemporary "world order." Many of the most powerful images in the film are those of military force. The repetition of pictures of large tanks in battle formation and of soldiers, clearly identifiable as soldiers by their clothing and weapons, pushing and beating children and Islamically-dressed women emphasize the military and force dimensions of the situation.
The tanks and soldiers represent the sheer power of the adversary as defined in the film. The words of the songs and the exhortations as well as the visual images of the film emphasize that the conflict in which bin Laden and those associated with the film are involved is, in many important ways, an issue of power. The constant reference to the Quranic message and the mission of Islam provides a religious framing for the presentation, but the subject of the presentation is power and how the power of the forces that have suppressed and exploited Muslims can be countered and defeated.
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| Bin Laden stresses the power of military strength in determining the present world order. |
This video does not engage in the "Islam and democracy" debate. It presents a perspective that argues that however democratic and free American society might be domestically, the face that it presents to the Muslim world is one of overwhelming military force that is used to compel Muslims to submit, without choice, to the commands of those who control that military force. In other words, in the minds of those who created this video, the conflict is not about attacking or defending Western style democracy and freedom, it is about responding with force to the seemingly overwhelming military power of the West.
This video seeks to inspire and mobilize people. It is not a careful intellectual presentation of an ideological program or theological position. It does, however, have its place in a significant modern tradition of thought and faith in the Muslim world. The so-called fundamentalists seldom advocate a return to medieval conditions of life, and often reject medieval scholastic formulations as strongly as they reject contemporary secularist ideologies. Most Muslims within this tradition do not advocate violence as a response to contemporary problems. However, many recognize that coercive power is a decisive aspect of the contemporary Muslim world. The video goes through a long list of places where Muslims have been defeated and oppressed by superior military force and says that force can only be countered by force. This is in the tradition of a Shiite teacher writing from a besieged section of Beirut during the Lebanese civil war in the 1970s, Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, who said: "History! The history of war and peace, in knowledge and wealth and in all other things. Truly, it is the history of the powerful and their adversaries who are the followers of the Truth. As for the weak and the powerless, they are not able to gain benefit until they take hold of the sources of power." (al-Islam wa mantiq al-qawah [Islam and the Logic of Power], 1979, page 17) The video seeks to mobilize the weak and the powerless by offering a way to take hold of the sources of power.
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| Fawaz A. Gerges, adjunct professor at Columbia University. |
Fawaz A. Gerges: Land of the two holy places
Several themes are highlighted in this skillful propaganda tape. The first revolves around the sacredness of Bilad al-Harmein (Land of the Two Holy Places) in Mecca, Medina, Saudi Arabia, and the profanity of the US military presence in the Saudi Kingdom. Bin Laden uses fiery religious symbolism to appeal to Muslims' sensibilities and shock them out of their political slumber. Standing in front of a wall-sized map of the world, symbolizing the scope of the problems and solutions he wants his Muslim audience to be conscious of, he cries, "The wounds of the Muslims are deep everywhere. But today our wounds are deeper because the crusaders and the Jews have joined together to invade the heart of Dar al-Islam (The Abode of Islam): our most sacred places in Saudi Arabia, Mecca and Medina, including the prophet's Mosque, and the al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem (al-Quds)."
Throughout the tape, alternating images of American troops in Saudi Arabia with former US presidents visiting, socializing, and fraternizing with Saudi rulers are designed to show that the latter have not only failed to protect Islam's most sacred places but they have also forsaken their moral and religious responsibilities. Worse still in bin Laden's eyes is the fact that Saudi rulers allow American Jewish and Christian male and female soldiers to roam freely on the land where the Prophet Muhammad was born and the Quran descended. "How could it be, bin Laden asks rhetorically, "that the Americans are permitted to wander freely on the Prophet's land? Have Muslim peoples lost their faith? Have they forsaken the prophet's religion? Forgive me, Allah, I wash my hands of these rulers!"
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| Bin Laden decries the profanation of Islam's most sacred places. |
Make no mistake: first and foremost bin Laden is concerned about his home front in Saudi Arabia. His main goal is to challenge and deny the very legitimacy of the Saudi royal family in order to topple it. In this context, bin Laden resembles other Islamists who focus on their immediate national environment. They are religious nationalists. Under the thick layer of bin Laden's rhetoric of pan-Islamism and Islamic transnationalism lies an unconscious Saudi nationalist similar to Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini and Sudan's Hassan Turabi.
Palestine
Next, bin Laden uses the Palestinian intifada and the prolonged tragedy there very effectively, not only to appeal to the honor of Arab men to defend religion and the sanctity of their defenseless sisters and mothers who are being violated by "the Jews" but also to mobilize the Muslim umma against "cowardly Arab presidents and kings [who] betray the Prophet's path and way." Bin Laden asks, "Where is the Muslim umma and its one billion believers? The umma sees and hears that the Quran is being defamed, burned, and used by the Jews as disposable tissues. Yet it stands idly by." Visually, the transition from "Land of the Two Holy Places" to "Palestine" focuses on images of the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Recitation of verses from the Quran mentioning al-Aqsa supports this.
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| Thinking Point | |
| In what ways does the editing of the footage of the father and son affect the emotional impact of the sequence? | |
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The video also focuses extensively on the frequently recalled killing of Palestinian boy Muhammad Durra, while his father tried to shield him from Israeli soldiers' fire. The video and sound editing expertly intensify the emotion of the scene: Muhammad's father recites a moving poem, mourning his baby's death. The video skillfully uses this dramatic occasion to attack the "cowardly Arab rulers, thieves and cronies, who betrayed Palestine and Palestinians and sold them out at the altar of material and political gains." These denunciations of the Arab governments are accompanied by images of cheerful American leaders and a clip subtitled "The Army of the Saud family dances with Christians and Jews during the al-Aqsa intifada." Bin Laden aims at discrediting the Arab ruling establishment, particularly in Saudi Arabia, and at exposing its collusion with the Arabs' tormentor--the United States. He knows well that this issue resonates in the imagination of many Arabs and Muslims who tend to uncritically subscribe to this collusion conspiracy.
The primacy of jihad and the Islamic state
Several points deserve highlighting. As usual, bin Laden invokes both religious symbolism and tribalism to drive his message home. His appeal is also politically astute and motivated, including not only the ulama but also the tribal shaykhs and businessmen. Far from being politically naive and uninitiated, bin Laden appears to appreciate the political realities within the Muslim umma and aims at constructing an inclusive alliance of the leading social forces and groups there. Furthermore, like other militant Islamists bin Laden is more concerned with change from top down, by the state, than with reforming Muslim society from bottom up. The Saudi dissident, like other Islamists, wants to capture power and to establish an Islamic state as an essential step to enforcing strict religious morality and standing up to the great powers.
America
The direct target of bin Laden's propaganda strategy is not the United States but rather the existing Arab political order. The United States, the crusaders, and the Jews are indirect targets, however. Bin Laden and his senior lieutenants think that the United States sustains and supports the established regimes, which, in turn, maintain the status quo and oppress their peoples. As Ayman Zawahiri, bin Laden's most trusted confidant and right-hand man, who is featured in the videotape, claimed "America is responsible for everything that happens in Egypt and responsible or human rights violations there, and in other Arab countries as well." By attacking the United States, bin Laden and his aides hope to hit two birds in one stone. They aim at making it very costly for Washington to maintain its military presence in the Arab world as well as vital political support for the pro-Western Middle Eastern regimes. Bin Laden also aims at mobilizing Muslim young men, particularly in Saudi Arabia, and pushing them to destroy the temple on their heads and everyone else's.
