Al-Qaeda’s debt to the American music industry

Abu al-Zarqawi is the mastermind behind this week’s gruesome hostage beheadings in Iraq. By filming himself doing the beheadings and then selling the resulting snuff movies as DVDs all over the Middle East, al-Zarqawi has turned himself into radical Islam’s hottest celebrity. What nobody has pointed out is how influenced by hip hop his approach is. The macho posturing, the flags and logos, the righteous anger, the 50 Cent prison gym-honed muscles, the guns: Al-Z’s whole image is taken straight from a Public Enemy video. All that’s missing is Osama Bin Laden appearing with an enormous clock around his neck…