The sudden appearance of these videos — especially while the Taliban is conquering Afghanistan — raises the question: what can we expect next from Al Qaeda?

One of the videos, ‘An Unpardonable Crime’, may have some answers. The film shows video footage of speeches of living and dead Al Qaeda members. The video primarily attacks France and its president Emmanuel Macron, however there is also significant attention for Denmark and especially the Netherlands. In the video Al Qaeda specifically calls upon young Muslims in Western countries to kill those people who insult the prophet of Allah.

‘An Unpardonable Crime’ recalls the case of the Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, who was murdered by Mohammed Bouyeri in November 2004 after the release of his and Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s film Submission that summer. In ‘An Unpardonable Crime’, Van Gogh is described as having “crossed all limits in blasphemy directed at God, the Prophet of Islam and the Quran. He had committed all possible forms of blasphemy against Islam and its sacred symbols.” His assassination by Bouyeri is extensively recalled. To Al Qaeda, Bouyeri’s act was the perfect example of how a good Muslim should behave in the West.

In the video, Al Qaeda explain how violence in the name of Allah, such as the lethal attacks on Theo van Gogh and the staff of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, made the West realise that it had to stop drawing Muhammad cartoons and to stop ‘insulting’ the prophet.

Al Qaeda wants to inspire young Muslims to commit terrorist attacks in Western countries through videos published online. As Gabriel Weimann, professor of communication, observed, terrorists have relied on the Internet since its inception, for a large part of their successes. Weimann describes numerous benefits. There are four principle advantages to Al Qaeda’s online video. First, the costs of such an outreach are relatively low. Second, it gives Al Qaeda a global reach. Third, if only one attack follows from it somewhere in the world, no matter how small the scale, this can be regarded as a success already. Finally, it is very hard for intelligence agencies to prevent attacks from ‘lone actors’ from happening because of the limited communication and preparation involved in these attacks. To intercept the distributors of the ‘inspiring’ terrorist material is complicated as well, since these can easily hide in the dark; literally in the case of the Dark Web.

All of this raises the question of why the mainstream media are not reporting on As-Sahab’s publications. The content of these movies are a serious threat to our citizens. It is likely that these videos will have been spread in numerous jihadi Telegram groups and will have reached many potential offenders. Wherever that leads to is something that is hard to predict.

The Taliban created a safe haven for Al Qaeda before and might offer this again. As professor of jurisprudence Afshin Ellian stated: “Al Qaeda can celebrate 9/11 in Kabul this year. A resurgence of global jihad, that is no longer unlikely.” We should not underestimate Al Qaeda. It proved highly adaptive by focusing on propaganda and online video’s to call for violence. Instead of what politicians might state, this terrorist organisation is not coming back; it never left the scene.

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Bart Collard is a lecturer in Islamic terrorism at the University of Leiden.

Bart_Collard

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