Fighting Terrorism and Radical Media: The Impact of al-Manar

Avi Jorisch is an expert on national security issues relating to terrorism, illicit finance, and radical Islam. He is the founder of Red Cell Intelligence Group, a firm that provides consulting and training services to the US government. In addition, Mr. Jorisch is a Senior Fellow for Counter-Terrorism at the American Foreign Policy Council and serves on the Advisory Board of United Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI). Mr. Jorisch is the author of several books, including Iran’s Dirty Banking: How the Islamic Republic Skirts International Financial Sanctions (2010) and Beacon of Hatred: Inside Hizballah’s al-Manar Television (2004).

In a 2011 article published in The National Interest, you state, “At the end of the day, organizations like Hizballah and Hamas really care not about the people of the region, but about amassing power and implementing their world vision.” Could you elaborate on how you perceive these organizations’ world vision? How has your thinking changed since 2011?

Ideologically, these organizations have not changed since their inception. If you look at their charters, and what they are today, they are pretty much the same organizations. Both Hamas and Hizballah wish to create Islamic Republics, states that are based on Islamic sharia law. Both of them also wish to gather power, play in elections, and essentially roll out their visions of an Islamic Republic.

Hizballah, which is a proxy for the Islamic Republic of Iran, wants to create states that are mullatocracies—that is, states run by the mullahs and based on principles of Islamic sharia law. Hamas also wishes to implement Islamic law, but with a Sunni interpretation. This would involve the implementation of a caliphate.

Unfortunately, my thinking has not changed since 2011. I have spent time with both Hizballah and Hamas, and I am intimately familiar with their ideologies. I also continue to monitor their radio and television stations and their print media, both in Arabic and in English.

How have organizations such as Hamas and Hizballah used the media as a platform to transmit their message? More specifically, could you speak about your efforts to expose the link between al-Manar, a Lebanese television station, and these organizations?

Both organizations have a tremendous presence online and in the print media. Al-Manar is an Iranian-funded and Hizballah-run Shiite television station that reaches around 20 to 25 million viewers a day. It is a massive media outlet that essentially calls on its viewers to carry out suicide operations, attack American and coalition troops in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, and implement Islamic sharia law. It also calls for the destruction of the state of Israel. I always like to say that al-Manar makes Al Jazeera look like a girl scout cookie infomercial.

Al-Manar is essentially terror television. I spent time with the organization in 2002 interviewing their officials, and if you read my first book, Beacon of Hatred, you’ll see the terrible, frightening messages that the news agency promotes. People in the United States and throughout the world should be aware of these types of messages and their potential impact on the next generation of Muslims and Arabs.

How has the recent surge in social media changed the way terrorist groups communicate their vision to the rest of the world?

Al-Manar uses all media outlets to communicate with its operatives in the field and to brainwash the population. This includes social media outlets such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. It is a very powerful media organization, and it is waging psychological warfare in a way that is very alarming.

What strategy should the United States use in fighting these terrorist organizations?

First of all, we should call this a war against radical Islam, and note my choice of words here. One in every four persons in the world is a Muslim, so this is not a war against Islam but a war against a radical derivation of Islam—both Democrats and Republicans fail to understand this.

If you look at Republicans, President Bush called this a “war against terror.” This is nonsensical because we do not wage wars against tactics; we wage wars against countries and ideologies. In World War II, we did not fight against Japanese kamikazes or German U-boats, we fought against the Japanese Empire and against Nazism. If you look at the Democrats, the current administration refuses to acknowledge the link between radical Islam and terrorism.

The US government has not come to terms with the fact that we are fighting against a radical ideology—an ideology that emanates from Iran and Saudi Arabia. Until it does, we are spinning our wheels in the wrong direction.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the interviewer or this publication.

Special thanks to Chicago Friends of Israel and Blake Fleisher.

Feature Photo: cc/IsraelMFA’s