( CNN ) -- An al Qaeda-produced video posted on a website in early July opens with uplifting images of smiling Syrian children and jovial old men listening to speeches delivered by al Qaeda militants . The video seems startlingly out of place on a website usually devoted to serious young men learning to fire machine guns , bloodshed and graphic images of civilian casualties purportedly caused by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan . Instead , the video , featured on a site aligned with al Qaeda , shows a Jordanian member of al Qaeda 's affiliate in Syria insisting that his group 's poor image is just a myth propagated by Western media . He says : `` The international channels try to twist the picture and portray the mujahedeen as bloodthirsty , as distanced from the people -- that they reject the people and do n't love them . '' As the Jordanian militant speaks , young Syrian boys crowd around him . Al Qaeda-affiliated fighters have set up `` Advocacy Tents '' in Syria 's largest city , Aleppo , where the jihadists can `` educate the people on our point of view . '' In another apparent attempt to soften its image , al Qaeda members in Syria held something akin to a town fair . Another al Qaeda video produced in Syria surfaced online in July , this one showing an al Qaeda-organized ice cream-eating contest in Aleppo . Around the same time , an Arabic-language news outlet , Aleppo News , published a video of a tug-of-war between members of the two al Qaeda-affiliated rebel groups fighting in Syria . In the video , crowds of young boys and older men cheer on the members of al Qaeda . Al Qaeda and its regional franchises understand they need to try to win the `` heart and minds '' of the local population ; something they have generally failed to do in the past and something that the leaders of these groups have come to understand is a major problem . In documents recovered in Osama bin Laden 's compound in Abbottabad , Pakistan , bin Laden and his top advisers privately criticized the brutal tactics of al Qaeda in Iraq , which had provoked a tribal uprising known as `` the Sunni Awakening '' that almost destroyed al Qaeda 's Iraqi affiliate in 2006 and 2007 . Now , al Qaeda in Iraq and in neighboring Syria are experiencing a revival , a revival at least somewhat fueled by al Qaeda learning from some of the mistakes it made during the previous decade in Iraq . This is significant because al Qaeda 's Syrian affiliate , al Nusra , is widely considered to be the most effective rebel force fighting the Assad regime , and the group pledged allegiance to the leader of al Qaeda , Ayman al-Zawahiri , in April . But videos of al Qaeda militants playing tug-of-war or joking with members of the local community are hardly signs of moderation . Al Qaeda 's Syrian branch releases lengthy and passionate sermons dedicated to denouncing Shi ' a Muslims as apostates who should be killed . And although some al Qaeda fighters in Syria might be engaging the public with ice cream , games and conversation , their colleagues in neighboring Iraq continue to launch bloody attacks on civilians . On Monday , at least 50 people were killed in 15 separate car bomb attacks in Baghdad . Many of those bombings are believed be the work of al Qaeda 's Iraqi affiliate . In all likelihood , al Qaeda and its allied groups are doing too little , too late , in their quest to win the public 's hearts and minds . The group 's senior leaders recognized the dangers of killing too many Muslim civilians as far back as 2005 , when Zawahiri reprimanded the founder of al Qaeda in Iraq , Abu Musab al-Zarqawi , for alienating the Iraqi people with indiscriminate violence . And the majority of Muslims around the world reject violence in the name of Islam , particularly in the form of suicide bombings . This is unsurprising , given that al Qaeda 's violence has primarily claimed Muslim lives . It will take a lot more than ice cream socials to undo that damage .
Writers : Al Qaeda posting feel-good videos , holding ice cream eating contests , tugs of war . They say Al Qaeda and affiliates want to win `` hearts and minds , '' but the groups have failed . Writers : Islam fighters in Iraq try sugar and spice tack , but in Syria they kill civilians . New image will not win over people appalled by murder in the name of al Qaeda , they say .