Archive for March, 2008

Terror in the network

The last video attributed to Bin Laden addresses “the intelligent of the European Union”, which apparently are none other than those who follow the admonitions of the famous Saudi terrorist. Once again, the Internet is offered as the appropriate means of communication ‘policy’ of terrorists and for recruiting new suicide bombers. That is, for propaganda and to mobilize .

Although the recent edition of the “Introduction to Communication Policy ‘Brian McNair believes the terrorists involved in political communication should be made clear that their activities are more characteristic of Propaganda of political communication, the latter uses persuasion (and not coercion or violence) to try to reach power or influence in his administration. Admittedly, however, that terrorists are increasingly appropriated for estilemas of conventional political communication. The aforementioned video is produced by the media which is considered branch of Al Qaeda, Al-Sahab, whose logo is displayed in the film which anagram of television chain. Also included in an macabre header filing with spears key player in the European continent .

Interestingly, while the EU has spent 50 years of his life trying to create a European identity and a version of the Community languideciente NATO, Bin Laden and radical Islamism have been resolved in just five years these two challenges of the old continent. What is a European? Cruzado a Christian. What is Europe? A political unit in any order. Bin Laden does not threaten any particular member state, but the entire Union. Islamist terrorism is the defining Europe, which is in the EU unity cultural, political, military and the Europeans themselves do not just think .

But Bin Laden is wrong (knowing, because everything meets a very precise calculation). The mortar that binds the European nation-states is not Christianity, but secularism. The footprint of Christianity is obvious (the dates of the posts in this blog are governed by the Gregorian calendar) but what unites Europeans is not the attendance Sunday for their beautiful churches, but precisely its lack of them. This converts to secularism in Europe being very tolerant towards religious criticism. Sometimes it ends up insensitive, it is true. The average European can not help but feel surprised by the attempts to make blasphemy a crime. More than a Christian-European would consider making healthy humor critical of the Holy Inquisition .

Answers such as video of the Dutch MP Geert Wilders is precisely what Bin Laden looking for. The radical Islamists already have a new excuse to cut off heads, while the debate among European citizens consider the video a provocation or a manifestation of Islamophobia is more than (do this) venerated freedom of expression. But what matters is that here we are, again, the Internet has been the valve dissemination of content filters that did not pass ethics (or did not beat the fear) of the conventional media .

The latest issue of the magazine Political Science and Politics could not be more now because collects several articles on Islam in the UK and Europe. Without doubt, the most disturbing phenomenon is the radicalization of individuals apparently integrated. Know what that leads to a parent with good economic position to come in and take a train to jump through the air is one of the questions to which authors try to answer as Akil N. Awan ( “antecedents of Islamic Political Radicalism Among Muslim Communities in Europe”, pp. 13-17) or Brendan O’Duffy ( “Radical Atmosphere: Exploring Jihadist Radicalization in the UK”, pp. 37-42). But the role of Internet in this radicalization is still, today, one unknown .

In a recent interview, the New York Times reveals the Pentagon’s new strategy to prevent terrorist attacks: deterrence. The hyper-vigilance in public places and the introduction of messages in the forums frequented by jihadists intend to do with Islam what was done before with communism: try to demoralize. The odd thing is that governments are trying to communicate to combat terrorism with his own weapon. We have just learned that the Government of Israel has used YouTube to post videos that are showing the consequences of the attacks against the Talmudic school in Jerusalem .

Morale is perhaps the key word in this whole affair. A State becomes less democratic when it comes to war, no matter how just it might be. In the middle of conflict dissent and criticism are seen as a disloyalty towards the young people who play life on the front. The very political atmosphere suppresses criticism of government action. When the enemy is not a conventional army, but the elusive snake of terrorism, the rules of war are being violated more easily. Intellectuals of the caliber of Michael Ignatieff have come to justify torture as a lesser evil and needed to draw information that can save lives. The price is the moral authority of the democratic state, just to deteriorate to catch up with its enemy. The alleged double standards of the West is one of the themes of the video attributed to Bin Laden, who draws the line paralegal limbo at Guantanamo to imbue their threats of justice. The justification for the war is precisely the title of an upcoming academic conference in the UK, which will address the subject of propaganda in the war of terror .

Fortunately, extremism does not always win on the Internet . The winner of the YouTube Video Awards this year in the category of politics is a call to understanding between cultures of the organization Avaaz.org, a global network of activists who intended to “reduce the distance between the world we have and where everyone, around the world, we want to have “.

Technorati Tags: politicalcommunication, political communication, comunicacionpolitica, political communication, alqaeda, Avaaz, chord, Islamism, Islamophobia .

Research opportunities in Amsterdam

The Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR) from the University of Amsterdam, one of the research centers of communication most prestigious in Europe, offers scholarships for doctoral and postdoctoral research in communication policy .

More information on the Web The ASCoR.

T echnorati Tags: politicalcommunication, political communication, comunicacionpolitica, political communication, ascor, grape .