Unexpected Jihad

warning: this entry contains videos that are potentially offensive.

About

Unexpected Jihad are a series of YouTube remixes that typically begin with some sort of found or otherwise unrelated footage. Often, the sound of a typical Islamic prayer song, or Nasheed, is added, followed by the phrase “Allahu Akbar” and an explosion. The remix style is similar to that of Unexpected Thug Life.

Origin

The first two videos using the term “Unexpected Jihad” were uploaded to YouTube on January 16th, 2015. Both titled “Unexpected Jihad Life”, the two videos feature the Nasheed but not the phrase or the explosion. The more popular of the two, below left, is by user DataManagementGroup, and as of April 2015 it has more than 80,000 views. The less popular one, below right, is by user Joshua Weininger, and as of the same time period it has garnered more than 29,000 views.

The subreddit /r/unexpectedjihad^[1] was created the next day and has more than 53,000 subscribers as of April 2015.

Spread

In less than a month, /r/unexpectedjihad had over 1,000 submissions, and the meme had garnered significant media attention from publications like tech blog Motherboard^[2], who called it “problematic” and Digg^[3], who filed their post about it under the category “Disturbing and Potentially Offensive.”

In the meantime, several videos in the style reached hundreds of thousands if views, including one titled “Birthday party.” by YouTube user Jemiide, which as of April 2015 has over 650,000 views.