Our Emerging American Problem

I noticed that the UK Telegraph reported on the content of The Pest's new jihadi journal. 

There is also a warning against visiting "un-Islamic" western gyms including LA Fitness with their "music, semi-naked women, free mixing and the danger of showing off".

Here in the US, I didn't see any mainstream reporting on the journal. However, Thomas, Aaron, Jarret and Rusty all commented on it after its release.

By the way, you can find the journal here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/13978807/Jihad-Recollections-Issue-1

I find it interesting that the only content generally reported in the *mainstream media* -- and quite frankly, within the IC -- are the paramilitary articles.  Yet, I see the emerging threat not in the paramilitary content, but in the theological content.  The majority of the daily material produced by the small, but always energetic, Salafist-Jihadist community here in the United States is related to the theological concepts that characterize the movement such as hakamiyyah (sovereignty of God), and tawhid (monotheism).   

The Pest's friends such as "Abu Sabaya" at http://iskandrani.wordpress.com/ are dedicating a lot of their efforts creating a regional Salafist-Jihadist milieu, a particularly American version of the movement that stands in unique contrast to the surrounding popular culture, both Muslim and non-Muslim.  Individuals like "Abu Noah" spend most of their time on dawah and devotional matters (ibadat), not matters of violent jihad:
http://www.scribd.com/Abu_Noah

The paramilitary content is  a staple of jihadi journals.  They're the indirect progeny of the first post-9/11 jihadi periodical, Al Battar Training Camp.  Al-Battar was the brainchild of the AQAP's first generation of leaders, like Abdul Aziz al-Muqrin (see http://www.archive.org/details/abdul-aziz-almuqrin).  But even the early journals like Voice of Jihad and Al-Battar dedicated a lot of their content to the jihad of the pen -- polemics, poetry, justifications, expositions, and the rare fatwa -- not the paramilitary content.

I don't want to downplay the significance of the paramilitary material.  I use it all the time when producing certain analytical reports.  However, perhaps there should be more effort at dismantling the unique theological character of this small movement before it becomes a well-organized American movement.