Narrative Counter-Terror: Deconstruction, Deliverance, and Debilitation

ABSTRACT

The aim of this article is to explore and evaluate narrative analysis as a counter-terror strategy. Research has demonstrated that both the white supremacist and Muslim fundamentalist calls to global violence are instantiations of a single master narrative, victim, which commits the ingroup to the restoration of utopia by the expulsion or extermination of the outgroup. This study deconstructs texts from American Renaissance and Rumiyah to show that the victim master narrative is underpinned by the concept of deliverance, which combines the desirability of the survival of the ingroup (with its various superior qualities) and the likelihood of destruction by the outgroup (with its vastly superior numbers) to justify resistance, defense, and attack. The expanded and elaborated master narrative is then assessed in terms of its potential to: (1) debilitate extremist recruitment; and (2) transform attempts to reduce global terrorism by providing a soft-power alternative to the unsuccessful hard-power strategies that have characterized twenty-first century counter-terror thus far.

KEYWORDS:

• Counterterrorism
• deconstruction
• narrative strategy
• Salafi jihadism
• white supremacism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Ajit Maan, Counter-Terrorism: Narrative Strategies (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2015).

2. Alex Schmid, “Al-Qaeda’s ‘Single Narrative’ and Attempts to Develop Counter-Narratives: The State of Knowledge,” ICCT Research Paper, International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – The Hague, January 2014, 1–38. https://www.icct.nl/download/file/Schmid-Al-Qaeda%27s-Single-Narrative-and-Attempts-to-Develop-Counter-Narratives-January-2014.pdf.

3. Institute for Strategic Dialogue & RAN Centre of Excellence, “Counter Narratives and Alternative Narratives,” RAN Issue Paper, October 1 (2014), 1–15: 4. https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/sites/homeaffairs/files/what-we-do/networks/radicalisation_awareness_network/ran-papers/docs/issue_paper_cn_oct2015_en.pdf.

4. Maan, Narrative Strategies, 11.

5. Ibid., 16.

6. Ibid., 17.

7. Jacques Derrida, Of Grammatology, trans. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1967/1976).

8. Maan, Narrative Strategies, 20.

9. I want to be clear that non-white is a white supremacist term, but that I employ it here and elsewhere in this article because it clearly and concisely describes the other to which white supremacists believe they are opposed.

10. Maan, Narrative Strategies, 28.

11. Ibid., 29.

12. Ibid., 36.

13. George W. Bush, “Remarks by the President Upon Arrival,” The White House: President George W. Bush, September 16, 2001. https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010916-2.html.

14. Maan, Narrative Strategies, 70.

15. Ibid., 3.

16. Ibid., 73.

17. Ibid., 66.

18. Ibid., 19, 20.

19. Osama bin Laden, “Declaration of Jihad against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holiest Sites,” Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, 1996. https://ctc.usma.edu/posts/declaration-of-jihad-against-the-americans-occupying-the-land-of-the-two-holiest-sites-english-translation-2.

20. Dr Ford [pseudonym], “Introduction to Stormfront,” Stormfront.org. July 5, 2013. https://www.stormfront.org/forum/t538924/ (accessed January 9, 2018). Although listing American Renaissance, Black and his team note that it (erroneously) includes Jews as white whereas Jews are (in fact) the main problem facing the white race.

21. Ramón Spaaji, “The Enigma of Lone Wolf Terrorism: An Assessment,” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 33, no. 9 (2010): 854–70: 856. There are, of course, important questions to be asked about the extent to which lone wolf terrorists are encouraged and enabled by the implicit and explicit support of states with right wing leadership, but such considerations are beyond the scope of this article.

22. BBC News, “Timeline: How Norway’s Terror Attacks Unfolded,” April 12, 2012. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14260297; BBC News, “Christchurch Attack: Brenton Tarrant Pleads Not Guilty to All Charges,” June 14, 2019. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-48631488.

23. Matthew Taylor, “Breivik Sent ‘Manifesto’ to 250 UK Contacts Hours Before Norway Killings,” The Guardian, July 26, 2011. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jul/26/breivik-manifesto-email-uk-contacts; Lizzie Dearden, “New Zealand Attack: How Nonsensical White Genocide Conspiracy Theory Cited by Alleged Gunman is Spreading Poison Around the World,” The Independent, March 16, 2019. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/new-zealand-christchurch-mosque-attack-white-genocide-conspiracy-theory-a8824671.html.

24. Anders Behring Breivik, “2083. A European Declaration of Independence,” The Washington Post, July 25 (2011), 96. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/anders-behring-breivik-oslo-terror-suspect-detailed-attack-planning-in-diary/2011/07/25/gIQAPiiHZI_story.html?utm_term=.89069f74ffd5; Brenton Harrison Tarrant, “The Great Replacement,” Observer+, March 15, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190316213703/https://observer.news/featured/the-manifesto-of-brenton-tarrant-a-right-wing-terrorist-on-a-crusade/ (accessed April 6, 2019).

25. J. M. Berger, “Alt History: How a Self-Published, Racist Novel Changed White Nationalism and Inspired Decades of Violence,” The Atlantic, September 16, 2016. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/how-the-turner-diaries-changed-white-nationalism/500039/.

26. Southern Poverty Law Center, “David Lane,” no date. https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/david-lane (accessed February 19, 2018); Der Brüder Schweigen Archives and David Eden Lane’s Pyramid Prophecy, “White Genocide Manifesto,” no date. https://www.davidlane1488.com/whitegenocide.html (accessed February 19, 2018).

27. White GeNOcide Project, “About White Genocide,” 2017. http://whitegenocideproject.com/about-white-genocide/ (accessed December 22, 2017).

28. White GeNOcide Project, “Terminology & Education,” 2017. http://whitegenocideproject.com/terminology/ (accessed December 22, 2017).

29. American Renaissance Staff, “The Best of American Renaissance in 2017,” American Renaissance, December 31, 2017. https://www.amren.com/commentary/2017/12/best-american-renaissance-2017/.

30. Gustavo Semeria, “Argentina: A Mirror of Your Future: How Demographic Change can Destroy a Country,” American Renaissance, April 14, 2017. https://www.amren.com/features/2017/04/argentina-a-mirror-of-your-future-buenos-aires-latin-america/.

31. Ibid.

32. Ibid.

33. Ibid.

34. Ibid.

35. Ibid.

36. Rafe McGregor, Narrative Justice (London, UK: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2018).

37. Shiraz Maher, Salafi-Jihadism: The History of an Idea (London, UK: C. Hurst & Co., 2016).

38. Simon Staffell and Akil Awan, “Introduction,” in Jihadism Transformed: Al-Qaeda and Islamic State’s Global Battle of Ideas, ed. Simon Staffell and Akil Awan (London, UK: C. Hurst & Co., 2016), 1–20: 8.

39. Yahya Ibrahim, “Editor’s Letter,” Inspire 17: Train Derail Operations (2017), 3. http://jihadology.net/2016/07/31/new-issue-of-the-islamic-states-magazine-dabiq-15/ (accessed January 12, 2018).

40. Anonymous, “Foreword,” Dabiq 15: Break the Cross (2016), 4–7: 4. https://azelin.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/the-islamic-state-e2809cdacc84biq-magazine-1522.pdf (accessed January 12, 2018).

41. Haroro Ingram, “An Analysis of Inspire and Dabiq: Lessons from AQAP and Islamic State’s Propaganda War,” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 40, no. 5 (2017): 357–75: 358.

42. Kareem Shaheen, “Turkish-Backed Syrian Rebels Recapture Town of Dabiq From Isis,” The Guardian, October 16, 2016. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/16/turkish-opposition-fighters-syria-dabiq-islamic-state.

43. Fred M. Donner, Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010/2012), 85–87.

44. Anonymous, “The Hijrah of Umm Sulaym al-Muhajirah,” Rumiyah 13, September 9, 2017: 30–35: 30. https://azelin.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/rome-magazine-13.pdf (accessed January 12, 2018).

45. Donner, Muhammad and the Believers, 157–159; Shahah Ahmed, What is Islam? The Importance of Being Islamic (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016), 135–40.

46. Anonymous, “The Hijrah,” 31.

47. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS, also ISIL) changed its named to Islamic State and announced that the caliphate had been restored on June 29, 2014. See: Adam Withnall, “Iraq Crisis: Isis Declares its Territories a New Islamic State with ‘Restoration of Caliphate’ in Middle East,” The Independent, June 30, 2014. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-declares-new-islamic-state-in-middle-east-with-abu-bakr-al-baghdadi-as-emir-removing-iraq-and-9571374.html.

48. Anonymous, “The Hijrah,” 35.

49. Wladimir Van Wilgenburg, “Analysis: Can Syrian Kurds maintain momentum after IS defeat in Tal Abyad?” Middle East Eye, June 15, 2015. http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/analysis-can-syrian-kurds-maintain-momentum-after-defeat-tal-abyad-345059446.

50. Charlie Winter, “Apocalypse, Later: A Longitudinal Study of the Islamic State Brand,” Critical Studies in Media Communication 35, no. 1 (2018): 103–21.

51. Anonymous, “The Hijrah,” 35.

52. Ibid.

53. McGregor, Narrative Justice.

54. United Nations, “Security Council ‘Unequivocally’ Condemns ISIL Terrorist Attacks, Unanimously Adopting Text that Determines Extremist Group Poses ‘Unprecedented’ Threat,” Meetings Coverage and Press Releases, November 20, 2015. https://www.un.org/press/en/2015/sc12132.doc.htm.

55. New Century Foundation, “Activist’s Corner,” American Renaissance, 2018. https://www.amren.com/about/activists.

56. Twitter Safety, “Enforcing New Rules to Reduce Hateful Conduct and Abusive Behavior,” Twitter Blog, December 18, 2017. https://blog.twitter.com/official/en_us/topics/company/2017/safetypoliciesdec2017.html; Ryan Lenz, “Twitter Begins Long-Awaited Crackdown on Hate Groups and Extremist Rhetoric,” Southern Poverty Law Center, Hatewatch, December 18, 2017. https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/12/18/twitter-begins-long-awaited-crackdown-hate-groups-and-extremist-rhetoric.

57. Peter Lipton, Inference to the Best Explanation, 2nd ed. (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 1991).

58. Maan, Narrative Strategies, 29.

59. John B. Vickery, The Literary Impact of “The Golden Bough” (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1973).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rafe McGregor

Rafe McGregor is senior lecturer in criminology at Edge Hill University, specialising in the intersection of critical criminology with philosophical aesthetics. He is the author of A Criminology of Narrative Fiction, Narrative Justice, The Value of Literature, and 150 journal papers, review essays, and magazine articles.