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This Is Not A Drill with Gavin Esler

McJihad - How Terror Became a Global Franchise

This Is Not A Drill with Gavin Esler

Podmasters

News, Society & Culture, Politics

4.91.6K Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2022

⏱️ 53 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What could persuade someone to leave a comparatively wealthy country in the Western Hemisphere to fight and die in the hellhole of the Islamic State? That’s exactly what happened in the unlikely setting of Trinidad and Tobago. Arthur Snell pieces together an astonishing story of how radicalisation is continuing in unexpected places around the world – how jihad leaders learned from the experts in global expansion, the fast food giants – and how jihad has found its mirror in QAnon. How do we fight terror when global jihad has gone local? We're putting out irregular war bulletins covering different aspects of the Ukraine crisis. Help our work, and shape the next full series of Doomsday Watch, by supporting us on Patreon. Resources to help the Ukrainian people can be found here: https://ukrainewar.carrd.co/ “Trinidadians who had never driven a tanker before were suddenly sending me pictures where they were holding up machine guns.” – Asha Javeed “These threats have grown out of the very measures that were supposed to contain them.” – Arthur Snell “The US invasion of Iraq was the most severe strategic misjudgment since Hitler decided to invade Russia.” – David Kilcullen “Jihad has become a global product that adapts to its surroundings. Think of it as fast food.” – Arthur Snell “When I was in Iraq during the insurgency, al-Zarqawi was the one you feared, not Bin Laden.” – Arthur Snell DOOMSDAY WATCH was written and presented by Arthur Snell, and produced by Robin Leeburn – with assistant production from Jacob Archbold. Theme tune and original music by Paul Hartnoll. The group editor is Andrew Harrison. DOOMSDAY WATCH is a Podmasters production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

If you're wondering what you're listening to, it's a boxing match.

0:08.5

No, we haven't become a sports podcast, this is relevant, I promise.

0:13.0

Back in 2011, Antony Joshua, who of course would go on to become the World Heavyweight Boxing Champion,

0:19.0

found himself in a gruelling bout against a promising young heavyweight called Tariq Abdul-Hack.

0:25.5

A year before that, Hack had wet openly as he accepted a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games.

0:31.5

Yet, by 2015, the young athlete was dead, an all-too-commentary of youthful promise turning into personal tragedy.

0:41.0

Except, what may surprise you, and why we're talking about him on a geopolitics podcast,

0:47.5

was that Hack died on the battlefields of Syria fighting for ISIS and their caliphate.

0:53.5

That, despite the fact that he was born into a Christian family on the Caribbean island of Trinidad.

1:00.0

It sounds like a one-off crazy story, a young Afro-Caribbean convert to Islam traveling to fight and die in the Middle East.

1:08.0

But his was far from an unusual tale in the context of his homeland of Trinidad and Tobago.

1:15.0

So, what could possibly motivate anyone to leave a comparatively wealthy country in the Western Hemisphere

1:23.0

for the hellhole of the Islamic State in Syria?

1:27.0

The answer to this illustrates a much bigger story, the globalization of Jihad,

1:32.8

and a threat that has grown because of the very campaign that's sought to prevent it.

1:39.0

The war on terror.

1:43.0

We had not invaded Iraq, and there wouldn't be no ISIS today.

1:47.5

Global terror has gone local.

1:49.5

There is more and more vectors of exposure.

1:52.5

For bombs and London, there are fewer people than this one guy with a truck and a truck.

1:57.0

If the ideology is a product, why does it have so many customers?

2:00.0

ISIS will send you rights.

...

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