Al-Qaida of the Arabian Peninsula's [AQAP] media wing is developing a new cartoon film to promote the group, according to militant monitoring website Jihadica.com. It's an attempt to make kid-friendly propaganda that will replace prevalent Western media.
An AQAP member calls it "missionary work for us to raise our children and youth in the blessed life in the shade of the sharia of Islam, rather than what is being transmitted to our children and youth on the poisonous channels," according to a translation provided by Jihadica's Will McCants to wired.com. The cartoon features an "exciting story and clarifies truths like the weakness of some in their religion, defending the Prophet, the collaboration of rulers with the West, and other Islamic matters."
Information about the cartoon first appeared in the Shumukh al-Islam forum, a closed al-Qaida forum. "Abu al-Layth al-Yammani" posted pictures and plans to develop the cartoon, and then to pursue the blessing of AQAP's senior leadership. The cartoon will show "operations surrounding real events among the heroic deeds of the mujahids in the Peninsula of Muhammad, including incursions, clashes, and assassinations."
"AQAP has experimented a tiny bit with animation before. In 2009, the group released a video, 'Grandson of Muhammad bin Maslamah,' that contained a short computer animated recreation of its assassination attempt against Saudi Arabia's deputy interior minister, Muhammad bin Nayef," wired.com notes. "The animation was pretty crude and stiff, though — not at all like the anime-style toons that Yammani's post previews."
Al-Qaida has also experimented with developing video games to indoctrinate members of the organization. However, most of these games are limited modifications of existing popular games.