{"id":41946,"date":"2019-12-15T07:22:20","date_gmt":"2019-12-15T07:22:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=41946"},"modified":"2019-12-15T07:22:20","modified_gmt":"2019-12-15T07:22:20","slug":"ahlam-al-nasr-daesh-poet-of-poison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=41946","title":{"rendered":"Ahlam Al-Nasr: Daesh poet of poison"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nLONDON: \u201cThere is no life but through jihad and its honor \u2026 jihad is our life and our victory It is what the soldiers of the enemy fear \u2026 and it is what created happiness in our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe above two stanzas are taken from a poem by the poet and writer Ahlam Al-Nasr encouraging women from around the world to join the terror group Daesh.<\/p>\n

\nWhile little is known about Al-Nasr, her unconditional support for Daesh\u2019s extremist, expansionist aim of imposing strict Shariah law on the world is obvious \u2014 and clearly evident through her writing.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cAhlam Al-Nasr\u2019s poetry was punchy and fresh, while still using mainly classical Arabic and the traditional monorhyme and focusing on the timeless tasks of praise, celebration, lament and lampoon,\u201d Dr. Elisabeth Kendall, senior research fellow in Arabic and Islamic Studies at Pembroke College, Oxford University, told Arab News.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cAl-Nasr\u2019s most powerful and enduring poems are simple clipped compositions that are ideal for conversion into nashids (anthems).<\/p>\n

\n

\nBIO<\/span>
\n<\/h4>\n
\n
\n
    \n
  • \nNationality: Syrian<\/li>\n
  • \nPlace of residence: Unknown<\/li>\n
  • \nOccupation: Poet,<\/li>\n
  • \nDaesh propagandist<\/li>\n
  • \nMedium: Poetry, book entitled \u2018The Blaze of Truth\u2019<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

    \n\u201cSet to non-instrumental music and sometimes with violent video footage, their catchy sing-along rhythms can appeal to aspiring Daesh fighters in the West even if their Arabic is weak.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \nAl-Nasr, whose real name cannot be verified, is thought to have been originally named Shaima Haddad, a young girl from Damascus who fled after the Syrian civil war erupted in 2011. A report by the New Yorker magazine claimed that firsthand experience of the Syrian regime\u2019s air raids had triggered her radicalization.<\/p>\n

    \n\u201cTheir bullets shattered our brains like an earthquake\/Even strong bones cracked then broke. They drilled our throats and scattered\/our limbs \u2014 it was like an anatomy lesson!\/They hosed the streets as blood still\/Ran\/Like streams crashing down from the\/Clouds,\u201d reads one of her earlier poems on the bloody conflict.<\/p>\n

    \nAl-Nasr\u2019s family fled to Kuwait shortly after fighting broke out, but the writer did not plan on staying in the small Gulf state for long.<\/p>\n

    \nShe returned to Syria in June 2014 and, four months later, wed Vienna-born extremist Abu-Usama Al-Gharib in the terror group\u2019s de-facto capital Raqqa, which capitalized on her recruitment into Daesh\u2019s ranks.<\/p>\n

    \nAl-Nasr quickly rose to prominence among the extremists. Her poems covering death and destruction, of loyalty to the caliphate and the beheading of apostates, spread like wildfire among militants and commanders, spurring them even further through romanticized versions of their plight.<\/p>\n

    \n\u201cPoetry is an incredibly powerful medium of communication in the Arab world, much loved among educated and illiterate alike,\u201d Kendall said. \u201cThe Arab version of \u2018Pop Idol\u2019 features aspiring poets and has over 70 million viewers.<\/p>\n

    \n\"\"<\/p>\n

    \n\u201cMore importantly, poetry endures. Militant jihadi Twitter feeds, Facebook pages and chat forums can be closed down, but the poetry remains lodged in the collective memory.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \nAl-Nasr was a court poet in Raqqa and was used as an official propagandist for Daesh \u2014 an ironic move given the strict restrictions the terror group places on women.<\/p>\n

    \nHer book \u201cThe Blaze of Truth\u201d is a collection of 107 poems praising the militants\u2019 goals and supporting their \u201cjourney,\u201d with the poetic, elegant prose designed to recruit even more extremists.<\/p>\n

    \nIn one of her poems, she incites Muslims across the world to kill and burn the enemies of Islam, saying: \u201cOur innocent children have been killed and our free women were horrified\/Their only crime was being Muslim\/They have no savior\/Where are the heroes of Islam?\/Kill them and burn them and do not worry about the consequences\/follow your almighty sword, and you will make the best news.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \n

    \nThis section contains relevant reference points, placed in (Opinion field)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    \nOther poems include praise for Daesh\u2019s self-proclaimed caliph and Preacher of Hate Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, who committed suicide during a US raid in October, as well as a poem titled \u201cOsama, You Have Left\u201d in which she mourns Al-Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden and refers to him as a \u201creformer.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \nAl-Nasr not only writes poems, but has also delivered a 30-page essay detailing her support for Daesh\u2019s decision to burn captured Jordanian pilot Muath Al- Kasasbeh.<\/p>\n

    \nMuch is yet to be discovered about Al-Nasr and her place within Daesh as the organization crumbles in the face of international coalition raids, but one thing is certain \u2014 her poetry will continue to be sung by the militants.<\/p>\n

    \n\u201cMy own survey work in Yemen shows that 74 percent of the population consider poetry either \u2018important\u2019 or \u2018very important\u2019 in daily life,\u201d Kendall said.<\/p>\n

    \n\u201cNo surprise, then, that extremists use it to spread their message,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

    \n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    LONDON: \u201cThere is no life but through jihad and its honor \u2026 jihad is our life and our victory It is what the soldiers of the enemy fear \u2026 and it is what created happiness in our lives.\u201d The above two stanzas are taken from a poem by the poet and writer Ahlam Al-Nasr encouraging…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":41947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}