“This is your Enemy”: Spiritual Warfare against Muslim Demons in Mogadishu and Beyond

In this presentation I examine how American evangelicals reproduce and mediate the demonic supernatural and link it to non-Christians and political opponents. I examine one case in particular—the case of US Army Lt. General Jerry Boykin, who fought in the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu and brought home supernatural photographs of the conflict. Boykin took photographs from a helicopter that seemed to show a shadowy figure in the sky over the city.  Back home in the U.S., he spoke at several churches about this. In this presentation I will talk about how Boykin and other evangelicals produce visual evidence of the demonic, how they (then and now) sometimes link this kind of visual evidence to Islam, and how related media (such as the film Black Hawk Down) all combine to create a representational regime that buttresses evangelical identity, rationalizes Christian missionary failures in Muslim-majority countries, and justifies ongoing western spiritual and political intervention.