Morale: Weaponizing Bollywood

[Valin]

Strategy Page:

June 14, 2016:

 

Loud music can be incredibly annoying and sometimes extremely dangerous if if the aggrieved is an Islamic terrorists or a desperate tyrant armed with nuclear weapons. This odd but important phenomenon was reaffirmed recently when it was reported that British commandos in Libya, working with local forces resisting ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) efforts to establish a presence there, suggested that loud Indian movie music be played near ISIL positions. This would annoy the Islamic terrorists and persuade them to either attack (and be killed) or retreat (and allow the Libyan forces to advance). If nothing else it makes the much hated (by most Libyans) ISIL gunmen (most of them foreigners) uncomfortable.

 

It’s not just ISIL that hates music. Conservative Arab Moslems have a particular distaste for all music and especially “Bollywood” (hit tunes from Indian movies) music. Early Moslems were particularly hostile to Hinduism (for reasons too complex to explain here) but young Moslem men in Arabia and throughout Asia find Bollywood films, especially the many musicals and their memorable melodies, irresistible. The images of pretty young women dancing with handsome young men added to the appeal but all of this stuff was strictly forbidden by Islamic radicals, like those running al Qaeda and ISIL. Worse, when this music is used as a “weapon” some of the young men on the receiving end find they do like it but have to conceal that lest they be accused of apostasy and executed. No one expected Bollywood sound tracks to be weaponized, but commandos are known for coming up with clever solutions. Nevertheless music as a weapon has been around for a long time.

 

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Some Islamic countries, especially those in the Persian Gulf, were so upset with the growing use of blasphemous pop music as a weapon that they have tried to get the UN and Western countries to ban the practice. They have not been able to muster enough support in UN, yet, but they have had some success getting Western nations to go along. Thus in 2006 the U.S. Department of Defense forbade American troops from making music videos by taking their combat videos (often taken with a GoPro camera on their helmet) and adding a pop music sound track and then posting them on the Internet. The Department of Defense order was made so that Arab feelings would not be hurt. These videos showed Islamic terrorists getting killed to accompaniment of rap or heavy metal music. Arab media depicted this as a sign of American barbarism and anti-Arab attitudes.

 

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