Terrorist cartoons

A supporter of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the Yemeni branch of al Qaeda, plans to introduce an animated cartoon with the objective of teaching children and young people the history of al Qaeda and to attract them to the terror network.

Stills from the proposed short animated film depict young, masked men wearing camouflage, firing rifles and participating in battles and raids.

News of the cartoon was announced by a man called Abu al-Laith al-Yemeni, a jihadist forum member, on the password-protected Arabic-language al-Shamouk jihadist website in mid July, reported the London-based Quilliam Foundation, which was formed by former Jihadists and now aims to stamp out extremism.

AQAP: rising threat

British intelligence officials view AQAP, made up largely of Yemeni and Saudi nationals, as a significant threat. The US and Yemen’s gulf neighbors fear that al Qaeda and other militant groups could exploit the chaos and power vacuum in Yemen to increase the reach of their operations. Security across Yemen has virtually collapsed after five months of mass protests calling for the end of autocratic President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 33-year rule.

AQAP is responsible for several bombings and attempted attacks on Western targets, including a failed 2009 bid to down an airliner over Detroit and, most recently, the bombing of a British man’s car in southern Yemen late July.

The new cartoon would add to an expanding repertoire of media tactics employed by al Qaeda, which is placing increasing reliance on online propaganda to shore up support in the absence of successful attacks in the West. AQAP has helped to lead al Qaeda's use of the Internet by producing sophisticated Arabic-language propaganda and a snazzy, teen magazine-style online publication called Inspire, which is produced in English. Recently, a Yemen-based extremist group released an online women’s magazine with makeup and chastity tips.

Further PR attempts to widen the al Qaeda base include a Flash-based cartoon made in December 2005, and a Flash-based animation entitled "Stick Jihad," showing a cartoonish representation of al Qaeda fighters in Iraq striking foreign forces from January 2006 onwards. In March, media outlets picked up on an amateur video on YouTube which showed young boys, some as young as three or four, acting out a suicide attack. The video shows children throwing sand in the air to imitate the dust created by a bomb before falling to the ground as if killed by the explosion. The origin of this video is unclear, but it appears to have been filmed in the border areas of Pakistan or Afghanistan.

In a statement, Quilliam analyst Noman Benotman said many Muslim parents would see the cartoon as a direct attempt by al Qaeda to create divisions within families and to undermine the authority of parents. Benotman, who is also a former Islamist militant and associate of Osama bin Laden, believes "al Qaeda's plan may backfire."

While cartoons could help get complex messages to various audiences, this venture can be perceived as an indication that al Qaeda "can no longer attract new followers in much of the Arab world," Benotman said.

A new audience

Adam Raisman, a senior analyst for the Site Intelligence Group, which monitors Islamist web pages, told Deutsche Welle that "the focus of the release on children demonstrates jihadists' interests in indoctrinating people at a young age." He adds that Al-Yemeni's message noted that the cartoon would highlight not only battles glorifying AQAP fighters, but would also show the "advantages of Islamic Shariah-based governance, which is what AQAP and its ilk strive to achieve."

Plans for the comic have garnered much media attention, appearing in articles in newspapers and websites around the world. According to Jihadica.com, members of the Shamouk forum are elated at the press attention and are calling on the cartoonists to hurry up and release the film.

Raisman believes the reason for the public interest lies in "the idea that ‘al-Qaeda is targeting the minds of children,’ especially at a time when al Qaeda and its supporters are trying to incite lone-wolf attacks and looking for new avenues to reach its audience."

Will McCants, the editor of Jihadica.com and former Adviser for Countering Violent Extremism at the US Department of State, told Deutsche Welle that the cartoon is a major advancement in al Qaeda propaganda, as it requires more organizational sophistication to produce it. People are also paying attention because Salafis, or Islamic fundamentalists, generally consider pictorial representations of humans to be forbidden. "So this is a risky move doctrinally but would show that sometimes pragmatism prevails over religious dogma," says McCants.

Bark bigger than the bite

The cartoon’s bark may be bigger than its bite. Many experts doubt that the cartoons will actually have an impact on children. Dr. Cheryl Olson, a public health researcher and expert on the effects of electronic media on children, told Deutsche Welle that the idea that "a child can learn a new value system or take on a new goal completely from a cartoon" is unrealistic. "The child would have to be already exposed to these ideas and concepts by adults in positions of trust and authority. It has to be part of a much larger context," Olson adds. She believes the risk is low. "They’re just trying to panic people, which they obviously have."

Dr. Jordan Grafman, a neuroscientist at the National Institute of Health, brings up another point that has often been debated in the West when it comes to child violence and violent video games. He believes that while there is strong support for the idea that frequent exposure to violent media may dampen the emotional response to violent scenes, "there is weak support for the thesis that cartoons or other visual media that contain violence can directly induce aggression in the user or reader."

Author: Shivani Mathur (Reuters)
Editor: Sarah Berning