by Claudia Basrawi and team
Are we being manipulated? German rappers reporting from Syria with propaganda videos. Fear of attacks, fear of returnees, fear of IS… or is it all just media hype? The term “jihad” keeps coming up without anyone really knowing what it actually stands for. For some, jihad means the day-to-day effort of living a life that is pleasing to God, for others it means the armed struggle against infidels.
It is a little-known fact that in Germany during World War I the idea of the jihad was accompanied by the same amount of hope as it is regarded as dangerous one hundred years later. Jihad made in Germany?
The German Reich considered the jihad as a secret weapon against Britain and France. In 1914 the German Emperor William II called for a “holy war” against the colonial powers, thereby trying to “incite the whole Mohammedan world for a mad uprising”. German intelligence engaged in propaganda in the name of pan-Islamism, plotted assassinations, bomb attacks, coup d’états and acts of sabotage. Muslim prisoners of war were to be instigated for the jihad in the “Half Moon camp” in the vicinity of Berlin. Finally, in the 1980s the Western world waged a proxy war against the Red Army with the mujahidin in Afghanistan. History demonstrates that in today’s “holy war”, Islamic and western strategies are intertwined.
Are we the heirs of these politics? How is the jihad exploited today, who has a stake in it and how does the recruitment machinery work?
A team surrounding the German-Iraqi theatre maker Claudia Basrawi embarks on a research mission using music, video and performance to examine propaganda and recruitment in the name of jihad. It is a political and personal exploration between yesterday and today, between Baghdad and Berlin.
Co-produced by Ballhaus Naunynstraße and 400asa Sektion Nord. First production funded by the Capital Cultural Fund with the support of 400asa Sektion Süd.
