“Propaganda does not aim to elevate man, but to make him serve.”
Propaganda – The Formation of Men’s Attitudes – Jacques Ellul
Before I begin, I feel it’s necessary to outline a very basic fact that all who wish for Islamicate Sovereignty one day should be cognisant of. The American Empire is a power and a reality for decades to come – decline is a cruelly slow mistress and I believe those who are optimistic about its imminent end are mistaken. It is with this realisation that Muslim must build because it focuses the mind on the horizon of a distant future when our descendants must be well prepared and placed for its eventual dimming. Moreover, the world we inhabit is fundamentally a technological one as a consequence of the enduring power of American Empire.
In admitting the above foundations, one is left with no option but to entertain propaganda as a necessary dark art to be adopted. In this respect, historical and scholastic definitions of propaganda are often far too narrow and tied to particular instances of European fascism in the 20th century. Broadly speaking, propaganda is simply the means by which psychological and social forces are marshalled towards achieving aims and objectives. In this respect, all players on the board are engaged in it whether they choose to admit it or not. Here, I offer some preliminary thoughts about propaganda.
Part of the necessity and need for propaganda is technology. The technological society with digital media and content has made it absolutely necessary for the arts of propaganda to be perfected – the volume, complexity and sheer speed by which information is produced has created significant obstacles to the time, calm and space required for measured curation and reflection necessary over months and years that allows information to be harnessed into knowledge. It is still possible, but it cannot be seen as the primary mechanism of discourse in communities striving to establish notions of Sovereignty and civilizational consciousness. Propaganda in all its complex facets thus is now a matter of necessity and to deny propaganda its place in the modern world is to condemn oneself to the existence of the Amish or similar neo-Luddite collectives.
The Technological Society has not produced a utopia of human communication – we do not find, to our dismay great sophistication or space for nuanced disagreement. Ideas are not debated rigorously on their premise and merits. What man yearns for amidst the endless streams of digital information is a higher calling, a purpose, a sentiment, and deep spirit to move him towards some great good in the distance. Some great good where dignity and honour beckons. Propaganda in this respect is not something distinct but the force by which men’s hearts are moved to action.
This current period during the latest chapter of Zionist genocide against the Palestinian people has unmasked much of the hostility towards Islam that was present in the Western bloc during the so called “War on Terror”. During that period, for those of us who are old enough to remember there was unprecedented psychological warfare against Muslims all over the world – a constant, concerted effort to destroy and delegitimise every authentic expression of the Islamic creed, to absorb Muslims into the larger complex of unthinking NPCs that stood by and did nothing as the American Empire extended its territorial reach far and wide at the cost of Muslim blood. Aided and abetted of course by its Praetorian proxies — post-Caliphal Muslim armies that have no notion of civilizational consciousness and serve their imperial masters in Washington for personal financial gain.
During that time of immense pressure, in many respects Muslim minorities failed to stand up to the challenge of psychological warfare. Our discourses were on the whole apologetic, on the defensive, constantly seeking to appease, to accommodate and under the guidance of patrician scholars sought to reach a common understanding. Our community leaders took great pride in walking out and meeting with governments, NGOs, and other such alphabet agencies to show that Muslims still had a “seat on the table”. I do not necessarily begrudge that – at the time the choices available were few and all of them were inevitably terrible, but I think we would be damned if we sought to repeat the mistakes of the last twenty years all over again. Fundamentally there was a huge mistake in assuming that respectability and public displays of civility – arm in arm with the State was our best defence. It is important that we do not make the mistake of focusing on different parts of the so called “political spectrum” – the State which is the centre piece of American Empire sees Islam as a rival and threat.
The Right may try the “shock and awe” approach of endless neo-con bombardment but the Left too has its ways of undermining Islamic feeling through more insidious and pervasive means. Of note and suspicion must be the “Islamophobia” campaigns that Biden has announced and which in time no doubt will be adopted by American vassal states. These so called “Islamophobia” campaigns are a Trojan horse of getting Muslim consent for allowing the State to arbitrate what are acceptable and authentic expressions of Islamic creed. In exchange, the State will afford “protection” of said sentiments. The State under the Biden regime much like the State under the Bush regime is identical in so far as the ambition is to build and fashion a form of Islamic practice that is palpable and able to integrate itself into the reality of American Empire that at present and for some time before this latest catastrophe in Gaza, has warranted the killing of Muslim children and infants as “necessary”.
There are different streams of propaganda to consider, and it would be foolish hubris to expect that one can effectively organize, channel, and direct the propaganda efforts of a religious and spiritual community spanning the globe. Particularly in the glaring absence of an anchor-Muslim state that is responsive to the aspirations and sentiments of the global faithful. Yet, all must be cognisant of its different streams – some will seek to convert, some to integrate, others to deconstruct, to mock, to parody, to identify and find friend, to identify and find foe. There is also the manner by which propaganda emerges – sometimes it may emerge from the shadows of the chronically online world – diffuse, decentralised, spontaneous, and erratic. Other times it will come from a single source, a central authority that commands the respect of the faithful. The point in illustrating this is simple – all forms and streams of propaganda have a place, a virtue, a niche, and a need. Unlike the last twenty years where the preferred mode of engagement was through bureaucratic entities and aimed mainly towards reassuring State authority, this time all avenues must be given permission to flourish.
One stream that requires urgent attention is that of mockery and satire. We must acknowledge that our foes have left the bounds of reason and rationality when they assume the moral high ground lecturing us about the virtues of using modern weaponry to bomb hospitals, mosques, churches going after women and children deliberately so as to make a place like Gaza “unfit for human habitation”. Mockery, satire, sarcasm and even character assassination and psychological war against public figures who take up the station of defending Israel must be exercised. Such people are not deserving or warrant “rational dialogue” – in this respect such people have declared war against Islam, a war that was not of our asking or choosing but now that we are condemned to participate in.
One must strive towards emotion, spirit even – appealing to that cosmic sense of larger belonging – the Ummah as a focus of this stream of propaganda. No longer must one assume undue responsibilities to condemn, to explain, to rationalise or to act as defendant in the court of American Empire. This “court”, carefully calibrated media machines, organizations, NGOs, alphabet agencies, astroturf initiatives and the like must simply be undermined. They can no longer be afforded respectability, the need for “engagement” and must be starved of all sensibility and legitimacy. Such an understanding of propaganda must be calibrated and located within a larger understanding of the Islamic Secular. There can and should be “Islamic” or “Islamicate” forms of intellectual activity beyond the confines of scholastic conduct and enterprise. The ulema are but one part of a larger tapestry of Islamic energies and movements. In doing so, this all reincorporates those Muslims who feel “unmosqued” to view their services as outside of the religion. In the coming decades of conflict on the horizon all Muslims, regardless of their religiosity and personal practice must feel they are part of a whole, a much larger enterprise in defending Islamicate Sovereignty, in defending the worth and value of Muslim blood against rabid foes who make absolutely no distinction what school of Fiqh you follow or what school of creed you adopt. I believe there is and will be a price to pay for participating in the art of propaganda – the inevitable child of the technological society, one should not be naive that indulging in propaganda is without complication or cost but clearly the cost of abdicating it completely is far higher. However, that price will have to be negotiated at a later date.
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