Keeping Awlaki's Online Legacy Alive

A new blog and several archiving sites are keeping alive the writings of American al-Qaida ideologue Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in a drone strike in late September. Awlaki's popular lectures and writings made him profoundly influential to English-speaking jihadis, creating a major gap in English-language al-Qaida propaganda after his death.

Anwar-awlaki.blogspot.com is the latest site to repost Awlaki's educational materials and thoughts on various Islamic themes. The posts in this new blog focus primarily on Awlaki's political writings, including the rejection of democracy to establish an Islamic state and his numerous calls for jihad, but also touch on Awlaki's less violent works. By linking posts from the blog to jihadi forums, jihadists recycle Awlaki's older, but still relevant, ideas.

Much of the material used for Awlaki propaganda sites comes from his original blog, Anwar-alawlaki.com. Taken down after he posted in support of the Fort Hood shooting massacre, the original blog posts are archived at sites like Pure Islam. Additional radical materials are drawn from his articles in Inspire magazine and online speeches. Less openly radical websites, such as imamawlaki.blogspot.com, repost violent material alongside Awlaki's popular speeches on Islamic prophets and Mohammad.

Related Topics: IPT News, Anwar al-Awlaki

en