Egyptians Gleefully Remix ISIS ‘National Anthem’ · Global Voices
Tarek Amr

Egyptians are poking fun of the ISIS “national anthem” by uploading videos to YouTube featuring dancers swaying to the song's words
The militant group ISIS (or Daesh as it is called in Arabic) has its own flag, a self-declared head of state and even what seems to be its very own national anthem.
Whenever ISIS releases a highly produced and stylized videos of them beheading, bombing or burning someone, they always have their “Saleel Al-Sawarem” song playing in the background. Saleel Al-Sawarem, in Arabic, literally translates to “the clanging of the sharp swords.” The lyrics of the song are meant to instill fear in listeners. The words are:
صليلُ الصوارم نشيدُ الأباة
ودربَ القتال طريق الحياة
فبين اقتحام يبيد الطغاة
وكاتمُ صوتِ جميلِ صداه
Clanging of the sharp swords is the anthem for the proud ones.
Fighting is the way for the life to be lived.
Between storming and annihilation of tyrants,
And the beautiful voice of a silenced gun.
The song is part of four other releases, none of which are any less violent. However, recently, the song was turned into a joke among social media users in Egypt.
The song is being remixed and made as a background for dancing clips, as a way of mocking the ISIS, the Al-Qaeda affiliate, which has come to control large swathes of Iraq and Syria. In other words, Egyptians are stating that they do not fear them.
Karem Farok made the following remix under the name, Saleel Al-Sawarem — the pop version:
Others belly-danced, or made videos of belly-dancers, with the song playing as a background:
And some used dance scenes from Egyptian movies with the song in the background:
More videos are available on this link and this Twitter hashtag.
Mocking ISIS and those who side with them is not a new thing. One common rhetoric is that oppression and poverty is the main reason for people in the Arab world to join such groups. Sometimes people go further and use oppression as an excuse for them to do what they do, like with this Twitter user, who goes by the alias Abu Anas:
عندما يسعى المستضعفون في الأرض إلى رفع الظلم والقهر، والقتل عن أنفسهم .. هم بذلك إرهابيون خطرون !! #الدولة_الإسلامية دولة العز #داعش.
— أبوأنس (@abuanas572) March 2, 2015
How come it is that when the oppressed try to fight to lift the injustice they live in, they are considered dangerous terrorists. ISIS is the state of pride.
A few weeks ago, another hashtag “I am going to join Daesh” went viral, where people posted tweets like, “My brother took my charger and my phone's battery is dead now. I am going to join Daesh”, in order to ridicule this argument.
The mockery is not limited only to Egypt. In the United States, Saturday Night Live had a sketch about ISIS.
Nevertheless, ridiculing a militant group and mocking them can be seen as a positive thing, but on the other hand, the reported video of children playing ISIS and victims in Egypt, rather than playing their usual Cops and Robbers game is worrying.
Manaliana commented on the matter saying:
#ISIS is not a joke. #prt
— Mrs. Nobody (@manaliana) March 2, 2015