This week, Jon Alterman, Will Todman, and McKinley Knoop talk about who joins militant jihadi groups and why. Then, Jon talks with Elisabeth Kendall, an Oxford University-based scholar of Arabic literature who has focused on poetry among Yemeni jihadis. They discuss poetry in Yemen, what makes “good” jihadi poetry, and differences between al Qaeda and ISIS poetry. 

Jon B. Alterman, Religious Radicalism After the Arab Uprisings, Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2015.

Elisabeth Kendall, “Militant Jihadist Poetry and the Battle for Hearts and Minds,” The Anglo-Omani Society, 2019. 

Elisabeth Kendall, “Contemporary Jihadi Militancy in Yemen: How is the Threat Evolving,” Middle East Institute, July 2018.