Alienating the Grassroots: Looking Back at Al Qaeda's Communicative Approach Toward Muslim Audiences

Donald Holbrook

Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 2013, vol. 36, issue 11, 883-898

Abstract: This article explores the way in which the Al Qaeda leadership appeals to and addresses different cohorts of Sunni Muslim audiences through its statements. This communicative approach is understood in the context of collective action frames from the social movement literature. The article analyzes the way in which communiqués from Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri have approached different Muslim audiences, defining three principal approaches: encouragement, excommunication, and exasperation. The article discusses how these approaches developed from the early 1990s up until the end of 2011, arguing that denunciation of Muslim publics has become an ever more prominent feature of this discourse.

Date: 2013
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DOI: 10.1080/1057610X.2013.832116

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