Dirty Kuffar (''
Kuffar
Kafir ( ar, كافر '; plural ', ' or '; feminine '; feminine plural ' or ') is an Arabic and Islamic term which, in the Islamic tradition, refers to a person who disbelieves in God as per Islam, or denies his authority, or rejects ...
'' is
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
for "nonbelievers") is an Islamic extremist 2004
Jihad
Jihad (; ar, جهاد, jihād ) is an Arabic word which literally means "striving" or "struggling", especially with a praiseworthy aim. In an Islamic context, it can refer to almost any effort to make personal and social life conform with Go ...
Islamist extremist
Extremism is "the quality or state of being extreme" or "the advocacy of extreme measures or views". The term is primarily used in a political or religious sense to refer to an ideology that is considered (by the speaker or by some implied shar ...
rap
Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...
video produced by
Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
British rappers Sheikh Terra and the Soul Salah Crew, or, as the video says, featuring the Soul Salah Crew.
The music video begins with a
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
video clip
Video clips refer to mostly short videos, most of the time called memes, which are short videos of silly jokes and funny clips, most of the time coming from movies or any entertainment videos such as YouTube. The term is also used more loosely to ...
showing US troops shooting an Iraqi individual and then rejoicing,
the clip is then followed by the logo, "Digihad", playing on the terms
Digital
Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits.
Technology and computing Hardware
*Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals
**Digital camera, which captures and stores digital i ...
and
Jihad
Jihad (; ar, جهاد, jihād ) is an Arabic word which literally means "striving" or "struggling", especially with a praiseworthy aim. In an Islamic context, it can refer to almost any effort to make personal and social life conform with Go ...
. The beat of Dirty Kuffar is taken from the popular Lumidee song "Never Leave You-Uh Oh."
The soldier being interviewed at the beginning of the video is allegedly called Riddle and was interviewed by
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
.
The 'Digihad' logo has been
spoof
Spoof, spoofs, spoofer, or spoofing may refer to:
* Forgery of goods or documents
* Semen, in Australian slang
* Spoof (game), a guessing game
* Spoofing (finance), a disruptive algorithmic-trading tactic designed to manipulate markets
__NOTOC__ ...
ingly taken from the
racist
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...
and
White supremacist
White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other Race (human classification), races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any Power (social and polit ...
British
Combat 18
Combat 18 (C18 or 318) is a neo-Nazi terrorist organisation that was founded in 1992. It originated in the United Kingdom, with ties to movements in Canada and the United States. Since then it has spread to other countries, including Germany. ...
website logo, only that the
Swastika
The swastika (卐 or 卍) is an ancient religious and cultural symbol, predominantly in various Eurasian, as well as some African and American cultures, now also widely recognized for its appropriation by the Nazi Party and by neo-Nazis. It ...
has been removed.
Significance
"Dirty Kuffar" has been mentioned in the media
and even internationally. ''
The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
'' on 17 August 2007 have said that: "Since its release, 'Dirty Kuffar' has been downloaded onto millions of computers and remixed by many like-minded web jihadists. You can find it on video-sharing sites such as YouTube."
The Arabic news station
Al-Jazeera
Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...
reported on the phenomenon.
Screen shots from the video depict the singers wearing
Palestinian
Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
keffiyeh
The keffiyeh or kufiya ( ar, كُوفِيَّة, kūfīyah, relating to Kufa, link=no), also known in Arabic as a ghutrah (), shemagh ( '), (), in Kurdish as a Shemagh ''(''شهماغ'')'' or Serwîn (سهروین) and in Persian, as a ...
s around his head, atop a
balaclava.
2004
The song is a rap/dancehall song that is underpinned by the much-used
Diwali Riddim
''Greensleeves Rhythm Album #27: Diwali'', also known as the ''Diwali Riddim'', is an album and popular dancehall riddim that came to prominence in 2002. The riddim is credited to Jamaican producer Steven "Lenky" Marsden. This has appeared on ...
. The video has recently been posted on the British website run by the Islamic extremist
Mohammad al-Massari
Mohammad al-Mass'ari ( ar, محمد المسعري) is an exiled Saudi physicist and political dissident who gained asylum in the United Kingdom in 1994. He runs the Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights (CDLR) and is an adviser to the ...
,
the UK-based
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
n dissident who has lived in Britain since 1994. Al-Massari claims that the video has been selling in large quantities at mosques to the younger generation and is in heavy demand overseas. In 2004 al-Massari told the Guardian newspaper that he did not know a single young Muslim who has not either seen or got the video.
Al-Massari also stated that "It is selling everywhere. Everyone I meet at the mosque is asking for it." Al-Massari's Committee for the Defence of Legitimate Rights in Saudi Arabia—a group which came to Britain in 1994 to publicise injustices in the desert kingdom—also distributes the four-minute video on its website.
The rapper fronting the video calls himself Sheikh Terra and the Soul Salah Crew—a take on the rap group
So Solid Crew
So Solid Crew are a British UK garage and hip hop collective originating from the area on and surrounding the Winstanley and York Road Estates in Battersea, London which achieved wide success in the early 2000s. The group consisted of many m ...
. ''
Salat
(, plural , romanized: or Old Arabic ͡sˤaˈloːh, ( or Old Arabic ͡sˤaˈloːtʰin construct state) ), also known as ( fa, نماز) and also spelled , are prayers performed by Muslims. Facing the , the direction of the Kaaba wit ...
'' is Arabic for "prayer". On the video
Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
,
Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...
,
Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
,
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
,
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
,
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
,
Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon (; ; ; also known by his diminutive Arik, , born Ariel Scheinermann, ; 26 February 1928 – 11 January 2014) was an Israeli general and politician who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Israel from March 2001 until April 2006.
S ...
and
Nick Griffin
Nicholas John Griffin (born 1 March 1959) is a British politician and white supremacist who represented North West England as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2009 to 2014. He served as chairman and then president of the far-righ ...
are main Dirty Kuffars. The video attacks Muslim political leaders like former
Egyptian President
The president of Egypt is the executive head of state of Egypt and the de facto appointer of the official head of government under the Egyptian Constitution of 2014. Under the various iterations of the Constitution of Egypt following the Egy ...
Hosni Mubarak
Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak, (; 4 May 1928 – 25 February 2020) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011.
Before he entered politics, Mubarak was a career officer in t ...
and former
Pakistani President
The president of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=s̤adr-i Pākiṣṭān), officially the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is the ceremonial head of state of Pakistan and the commander-in-chief of the Pakistan Armed Forces.[Pervez Musharraf
General Pervez Musharraf ( ur, , Parvez Muśharraf; born 11 August 1943) is a former Pakistani politician and four-star general of the Pakistan Army who became the tenth president of Pakistan after the successful military takeover of the ...]
as traitors to Islam. The video also featured
Hamza Yusuf
Hamza Yusuf (born: Mark Hanson; 1958) is an American Islamic neo-traditionalist, Islamic scholar, and co-founder of Zaytuna College. He is a proponent of classical learning in Islam and has promoted Islamic sciences and classical teaching metho ...
with the caption stating that he was one of the ''"Scholars for Dollars"''.
The ''Daily Times'' of Pakistan stated that "Al Qaeda's newest weapon against the West is a violent English-language rap tune".
The
British National Party
The British National Party (BNP) is a far-right, fascist political party in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Wigton, Cumbria, and its leader is Adam Walker. A minor party, it has no elected representatives at any level of UK gover ...
has stated that "More than a tiny minority of young British Muslims turned the 'Dirty Kuffar' rap video into a cult."
On 10 November 2004, former Jihadist
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross (born 1976) is an author and the founder and chief executive officer of Valens Global. In addition to his role at Valens Global, Dr. Gartenstein-Ross is a Senior Advisor on Asymmetric Warfare at the Foundation for Defen ...
, reviewed the song for ''
Frontpage Magazine
''FrontPage Magazine'', also known as ''FrontPageMag.com'', is an American political website edited by David Horowitz and published by the David Horowitz Freedom Center. It has been described by scholars and writers as right-wing, far-right, and ...
''.
2005
On the 2 August 2005 the well-known Bronx artist
DJ Damien released an Internet-based tribute single in conjunction with Morcoq, entitled "Dirty Kuffar (Acoustic Tribute)." The lyrics follow the theme of the original, but in this version main Dirty Kuffars include
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac (, , ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. Chirac was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988, as well as Ma ...
and
Lap Fung Chan.
In 2005 'Dirty Kuffar' featured extensively in a programme called '' 'Media Jihad: As Sahab Foundation' '', A CBC programme based on a documenaty originally produced in Japan by
NHK Television and was updated by the Discovery Times Channel.
2006
On 6 December
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
's
''Dispatches'' programme aired 'Jihad TV', a documentary investigating the fact that "Internet footage of beheadings has become a vital weapon in al-Qaeda's jihad against the West. Dispatches investigates this powerful propaganda machine and its impact on young Arabs and Muslims in the UK." In this show the Dirty Kuffar video was extensively reviewed.
On 27 November the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
reported into "Online Jihadism" and exclusively featured the 'Dirty Kuffar' rap video.
The 2006 documentary, ''
'', features 'Dirty Kuffar' and discusses online Jihad.
'' newspaper reported that the 21 July bombers appeared in court and it was witnessed that they had watched the video.
In January 2007 the 'Dirty Kuffar' video was featured in the CNN ''Behind the Scenes'' series documentary 'The War Within' about radical Islam in Britain.
The video also featured in the
''.
In May 2007 Digihad remixed Dirty Kuffar, version 2.1 and released it through the video sharing website
was released. However, although not promoting 'Dirty Kuffar', '
' was an anti-Jihad video spoofing Dirty Kuffar."''
In July, online news websites are featuring stories on Islamic extremism and Jihad on the internet, mentioning 'Dirty Kuffar', and on 18 August ''
'' ran a story entitled 'Terror goes digital. With Canadian help', reporting how popular the song is still.
In May 2008 ''Investor's Business Daily'' reported in the article 'Google's TerrorTube'