I've a short piece in this month's Prospect magazine which looks at the suicide bomber videos of the men currently on trial for plotting to blow up Atlantic flights mid air.  You can read it here.

The suicide bomber video used to be a fairly well thought out and impassioned justification.  However, these recent videos are more like ego-centric farewells which resemble pop videos or a myspace page, complete with the clichéd Palestinian headscarf and Arabic posters. They are designed for the youtube audience.   One says "don't mess with tha Muslims". There is even the occasional faked theatrical finger point. It's almost laughable.  
The degeneration of the suicide video is symptomatic of the change in al-qaeda's appeal. Young Western Muslims now join groups like al-qaeda because they like the adventure, the excitement, the notoriety, not because they have any deep engagement with their theological or political position.

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