Terrorists as Storytellers

Abstract

Counter-terrorist practitioners and policymakers seem to be intrigued by the notion of narratives. In addressing extremist terrorists’ worldviews, they tend to describe these as befitting the ‘Salafi-jihadi’ narrative. Efforts to confront these so-called narratives, are encapsulated within the field of counter-terrorism research with the notion of “counter-narratives”. This counter-narrative approach is generally aimed at replacing, resisting, or dismissing the appeal of the “terrorist’s narrative”. However, the current approach is based on the assumption that terrorist narratives are mainly homogenous or consisting of “single narratives” or “grand narratives”. This understanding of narrative fails to understand that terrorists’ narratives are narratives in the literary sense. Terrorist narratives are not solely ideological framings, or homogenous in their content, but can be also aesthetically, emotionally, and creatively appealing. In this thesis, I therefore analyze The Dust Will Never Settle Down from jihadist ideologue preacher Anwar al-Awlaki through a narratological framework based on the work of structuralist, literary scholar Mieke Bal. In doing so, I make a case for the value of paying attention to the narrative dimensions of extremist terrorists’ narratives. This is essential, I argue, to understand what makes terrorists’ propaganda persuasive beyond understanding them as ideological framings of extremist worldviews. This thesis thus showcases that terrorists must be considered capable storytellers.