My Third Guest Piece on Prof. Juan Cole's Informed Comment Blog: "From ‘Martyrdom’ Videos to Jihadi Journalism in Somalia" on Al-Shabab's Media

Harakat al-Shabab's "news channel," Al-Kata'ib (Brigades).

I'm excited to write that today I have a third guest editorial on Informed Comment, the widely-read blog of Prof. Juan Cole of the University of Michigan's Department of History, who is a noted expert on the modern Middle East and South Asia, with a specialty in Shi'i Islam. The essay is entitled, "From ‘Martyrdom’ Videos to Jihadi Journalism in Somalia: The Rapid Evolution of Harakat al-Shabab al-Mujahideen’s Multimedia."

Harakat al-Shabab "reporter" closes the video "Mogadishu: Crusaders' Graveyard," which I discuss in my guest piece. He says, "Al-Kata'ib News Channel, from the frontlines of Mogadishu."

It focuses on the surprisingly fast-paced evolution of the media wing of Somalia's largest anti-government insurgent-jihadi group, Harakat al-Shabab al-Mujahideen (Movement of Warrior-Youth; Al-Shabaab) during the past two years. The essay also discusses Harakat al-Shabab's attempt to install the institutions usually associated with nation-states in their effort to establish an Islamic state based on their radical interpretation of Islamic law (Shari'ah).

"Caliphate is Coming"

_______________________________

My first guest editorial, "The Islamic State of Iraq’s Positions on Iraqi National Elections: The Continuing Decline of a Self-styled Jihadi State," can be read HERE.

My second guest editorial, "The Death of a Caliph: Will the Reported Killings of the Islamic State of Iraq's Two Senior Leaders Spell the End of the Self-styled Jihadi State?", can be read HERE.