Islamic State has a de facto national anthem — and it's actually quite pleasant

Islamic State has a de facto national anthem — and it's actually quite pleasant
(Image credit: YouTube)

ISIS has a whole branch dedicated to creating propaganda music, "almost like a Motown hit factory," British journalist Alex Marshall told Piya Chattopadhyay on Canadian public radio show Q. One song in particular, "My Ummah, Dawn Has Appeared," has "become de facto the sort of national anthem" of Islamic State, a "massive tool of nation-building," Marshall said, though like the Taliban, "the whole concept of an anthem to them would be sort of anathema."

Nobody knows who works at the ISIS hit factory, Ajnad Media Foundation, which cranks out propagandistic "nasheeds," or a co-opted style of traditional Islamic vocal music. The lyrics are pretty terrible, in a jihadist sense, but "My Ummah, Dawn Has Appeared" isn't really a recruitment tool, Marshall says, since most people in the West don't speak Arabic and "the fact it sounds like sort of a yoga meditation tape isn't really going to appeal to foreign fighters."

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.