Jihadi Recollections

In this episode, Jesse Morton speaks to Dr. Michael Krona (@GlobalMedia_), Media Scholar, Assistant Professor at Malmo University (Sweden) and author of "The Media World of ISIS" (2019).

Going off Dr. Krona’s work on Islamic State propaganda, they discuss the evolution of ISIS’ communication strategies and the group’s ability to adapt to the takedown procedure implemented by Telegram in November 2019. They also touch upon the relationship between social media, radicalization and recruitment, and examine the role that technology, media, academia and other parts of society play in facilitating radicalization and recruitment processes alongside social media.

In this episode, Jesse Morton sits with Dr. Douglas Weeks (@dmw363). Together, they discuss Dr. Weeks’ trajectory, his nine years of extensive interaction with Al-Muhajiroun members and leaders and the results of his research, this latest book: “Al-Muhajiroun: A Case Study in Contemporary Islamic Activism.”

Al-Muhajiroun (The Emigrants) is a militant Salafi jihadist network based in the UK and founded by radical preacher Omar Bakri Muhammad. The group has been linked to the 7/7 bombings, international terrorism, homophobia and antisemitism. Revolution Muslim, organization co-founded and spear-headed by Jesse Morton, was the American offshoot of Al-Muhajiroun.

Based on his extensive ethnographic research, Weeks contextualizes the history, beliefs, methods, and differences between Al-Muhajiroun, Al-Qaeda, and ISIS so that the group and the threat it poses is comprehensively understood.

Week’s work is must-read for CVE practitioners, terrorism scholars & students, political Islam experts, policy makers and anybody interested in radical preachers and terrorist networks.

In this episode of Jihadi Recollections Jesse Morton sits with Dr. Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens (@amhitchens), the Research Director of the Program on Extremism at The George Washington University. Dr. Meleagrou-Hitchens recently published "Incitement: Anwar al-Awlaki’s Western Jihad," a book on the strategy and tactics of the man who aimed to make violent Islamism “as American as apple pie and as British as afternoon tea.” The book is a must-read for those interested in the history of English-language jihadist propaganda, as well as for those seeking to understand the threat posed by the Salafi jihadist movement going forward and how to counter it.

In this episode Jesse Morton interviews Aaron Zelin, author of the newly published "Your Sons Are at Your Service: Tunisia's Missionaries of Jihad." Jesse was an active jihadist when Aaron began his career as a researcher covering jihadism, and now that Jesse has de-radicalized, they discuss the publication of his new book, a byproduct of his dissertation research, and discuss the importance of utilizing primary propaganda sources to grasp the complexities of radicalization into violent extremism. You can order Aaron's new book here.