Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) wants to use digital media to take its jihadist message beyond North Africa to the rest of the continent.
Al-Andalus Media took the "Africa Muslima" blog live on Thursday (May 2nd), about a month after the terrorist organisation's propaganda arm unveiled the new al-Qaeda Twitter account.
The media foundation has been known for years as the distributor of terror tapes featuring hostages and promoting jihadist ideology.
The new blog called for jihad and encouraged Africans to defend the Muslim ummah. The website also posted videos of operations against the French forces in Mali.
"AQIM is paying more attention to media propaganda in order to get out of its isolation," journalist Fadia Sendesni said.
"We've noticed this media activity," she said. "In the past, it was restricted to videos of low technical quality. Al-Qaeda appears to now be developing a media strategy, and wants to consolidate its presence on social networking websites. It also is now translating statements to French and English," she added.
AQIM is resorting to "media jihad" to win the biggest possible number of supporters, especially among youth, according to Sendesni.
"Al-Qaeda's betting on the media," agreed Mohssen Hidoussi, a professor of contemporary history.
But AQIM's use of the media is not a new approach, said Bassel Torjmen, a professor at Tunisia's Institute of Press and Information Sciences (IPSI).
"Since the 1980s, the group has used cassette tapes and then videos to promote their ideology and the so-called jihadist operations,' he said.
"The group is not using these blogs or websites to propagate its ideas. It has gone past this stage a long time ago, thanks to the scores of uncontrolled religious satellite channels, which spread their destructive ideas among young people," he added.
To reach recruits, AQIM is trying to show that it "left the shadows" and is now modern, Torjmen explained.
Given this media push by the terrorists, Torjmen wondered how countries could keep silent about online "content that promotes extremist and obscurantist ideology, without any control or monitoring".
© Magharebia.com 2013
