Abdalaziz Alhamza “RBSS”
Islamic conquests in previous eras were accompanied by a lot of encouraging poems. These poems encouraged heroism and courage and helped the fighters to achieve victories. As the Syrian revolution started in 2011, this kindof poems returned and talked about the glory of the rebels and the revolution.
ISIS, however, used this kind of poetry as well. The terrorist group started to show its brutality through enthusiasm songs. ISIS and other terrorist groups used this kind of poems to show there tyranny against all oppose opinions.
ISIS recorder hundreds of songs incite violence, most notably Salil Al Sawarim, which has the greatest influence in attracting fighters especially foreigners. This song has a lot of metaphors such as (And concealment of the voice results in the beauty of the echo) as well as showing battlefields and the afterlife (Will enjoy eternity in Paradise, mourning will depart).
In addition, the sound effects used in the background audio such as swords voice and horses snorting voice, makes the fighters feel the previous glory of Islam according to the perception of the terrorist group. According to a study made by an Islamic advisory office, through these songs we can dive into the group’s mind because the lyrics of these songs incite violence and they help us to figure out the group’s mentality.
These songs talk only about Jihad and martyrs and they describe the bad status which Islamic nation is witnessing nowadays.
Reports has indicated that this kind of songs is made in high specifications, and they purposely used words such as burn, slaughter and destruction as well as describing the West, who is struggling to exterminate Muslims, by the word (infidel).
It is also noted that these songs mention Al Baghdadi repeatedly and encourage the fighters to show their love and loyalty to the Caliph (Be prepared and declare loyalty to Al Baghdadi).
These violence lyrics reflected on the fighters’ behavior. Nowadays, we are witnessing what was promised in (Soon, Soon) song, several terrorist attacks launched lately in several European countries, most recent one was in a church in France which ended by slaughtering a priest.
According to the report, the most important fact that helped spreading these songs is social media along with cinema techniques. According to different sources, ISIS has about 20 official accounts on Twitter as well as thousands of unofficial accounts related to its fighters in addition to Al Bayan radio station.
As for the psychological impact of these songs, ISIS seeks to control its fighter’s minds in anyway so they are using enthusiasm songs and sharing them among people and fighters through the group’s media points. Each and every vehicle belongs to ISIS has these songs to encourage the fighters and strengthen them.
The greatest impact of these songs is on children because of their ideological content which affects the children’s minds.
