The Media World of ISIS

Michael Krona, Rosemary Pennington, Michael Krona, Rosemary Pennington

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780253045935
• Topic: Sciences sociales
• Subtopic: Étude des média

This anthology explores how ISIS used media and propaganda, shedding light on the characteristics, mission, and tactics of its messaging. From efficient instructions on how to kill civilians to horrifying videos of beheadings, no terrorist organization has more comprehensively weaponized social media than ISIS. Its strategic, multiplatformed campaign is so effective that it has ensured global news coverage and inspired hundreds of young people around the world to abandon their lives and their countries to join a foreign war. Contributors consider how ISIS's media strategies imitate activist tactics, legitimize its self-declared caliphate, and exploit narratives of suffering and imprisonment as propaganda to inspire followers. Using a variety of methods, contributors explore the appeal of ISIS to Westerners, the worldview made apparent in its doctrine, and suggestions for counteracting the organization's approaches. Its highly developed, targeted, and effective media campaign has helped make ISIS one of the most recognized terrorism networks in the world. Gaining a comprehensive understanding of its strategies will help combat the new realities of terrorism in the twenty-first century.

PART I

MEDIA AND ISIS’S IMAGINARY GEOGRAPHY

1 The Myth of the Caliph

Suffering and Redemption in the Rhetoric of ISIS

Jason A. Edwards

SINCE ITS FOUNDING in 2010, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, often called ISIS, has grown in strength.¹ It has filmed high-profile executions for the world to see, recruited thousands of jihadists through sophisticated propaganda techniques, conducted terrorist attacks in more than a dozen countries, and conquered swaths of territory over Iraq and Syria. ISIS controlled so much territory at one time that it declared the formation of a new Islamic caliphate, and ISIS’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, anointed himself as Caliph Ibrahim. As later chapters in this volume will show, ISIS is extremely sophisticated in communicating its ideology and propaganda through social media; its magazine, Dabiq; and various speeches, sermons, and other public pronouncements setting forth an agenda for the world. ISIS has become one of the international community’s most dangerous foes and the focus of a multination military intervention in Iraq and Syria. Understanding the rhetoric ISIS uses to communicate to its supporters, to the Islamic community, and to the world in general offers an opportunity to ultimately combat the group’s message.

In his study of extreme Hindu nationalism, Abhik Roy argues it is the job of rhetoricians to explain the rhetoric of extremist groups so their narratives can be understood and confronted and counternarratives can be introduced.² Jerry Long and Alex Wilner note in their study of al-Qaeda that it is immersed in a war of narratives among the West, Middle Eastern governments, and its members. Long and Wilner expose the contradictions of al-Qaeda’s discourse and offer ways to “delegitimize” it to Muslims and the global community.³ ISIS has taken its narrative war into extremely sophisticated territory with its recruitment techniques, propaganda, use of social media, and overall rhetoric. Considering the conflict with ISIS is not just a military conflict but a battle of ideas, this chapter argues that it is imperative we gain a better understanding of ISIS’s rhetorical strategies. One major strategy is a reliance on mythic narratives.

Robert Rowland and Kirsten Theye claim terrorism is an inherently rhetorical act, and the rhetorical DNA of terrorism is a mythic/symbolic pattern that serves as a persuasive and epistemic device.⁴ Anthony Smith asserts the myth of the Golden Age is a narrative that terrorist groups have used to promote national renewal.⁵ Similarly, Abhik Roy and Robert Rowland maintain that a myth of return is a fundamental narrative extremists use to promote their belief system.⁶ Jason Edwards contends mythic themes of suffering and redemption underwrite the rhetoric of Osama bin Laden.⁷ Samuel Perry and Jerry Long explain that ISIS suicide-attack videos construct a mythic account of martyrdom to help recruit members.⁸ In this chapter, I argue that a fundamental myth underwriting the rhetoric of ISIS is the myth of the caliph. I suggest ISIS uses this myth to offer a sense of identity to Muslims, make sense of the chaotic modern world, and legitimize their caliphate by chronicling the suffering of Muslims over the past century, emphasizing that ISIS has brought redemption to the Islamic world.

The idea of the caliphate has been an important part of Islamic thought for fourteen hundred years. For some jihadists, the restoration of the caliphate by ISIS and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is a vehicle for salvation.⁹ If ISIS’s followers die in the service of the true caliph, they believe they are guaranteed an exalted place in heaven. Musa Cerantonio, a prominent ISIS defender and spokesperson, asserted that Islam had finally been reestablished with the caliphate.¹⁰ Historically, the caliph is the religious, political, and military leader of all Muslims. Islamic sharia law cannot be truly implemented until a caliphate has been created and a new caliph anointed. Thus, the caliph is extremely important to Islam and to ISIS’s cause in general. According to al-Baghdadi’s logic, Muslims have long suffered without the strong rule of a supreme leader. Because the caliphate has been reestablished, ISIS argues, Muslims can rise up, cast off their oppressors, and regain the prominence they so richly deserve. Muslims who join, fight, and potentially die for the caliph are working in support of God’s anointed leader. By implication, they are part of God’s chosen community. Therefore, despite the suffering Muslims have experienced on earth, they are ultimately redeemed in the service of God’s chosen leader.

In order to fully explicate this argument, I analyze the rhetoric of ISIS’s caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. He has made few public statements, but those he did produce, particularly his July 1, 2014, sermon on his new caliphate, offer important insights into the strategies and beliefs of ISIS, while potentially offering a means to counter its message. Thus, I begin with a discussion of the myth of the caliph. Then I unpack al-Baghdadi’s rhetorical strategies within the context of this myth. Finally, I offer some suggestions to counter this narrative.

Understanding Myth and the Islamic Caliphate

Myth is a common form of discourse. Rhetoric scholars have analyzed myths in a number of political situations.¹¹ Myths at their most basic are narratives. However, not all narratives are myths. A narrative of one’s day, for example, is not mythic, because myths involve stories that are ingrained into the specific political and cultural discourse of a society. These stories articulate the society’s beliefs, dilemmas, and values.¹² Rhetors who use myths offer audiences a way to frame the reality of a situation.

Myths perform a variety of functions for rhetors, three of which are most important to this study. First, myths help us make sense of the world around us. They provide people with a place in the social order of the universe.¹³ This function becomes most apparent when some form of disorder has befallen a community. All individuals and communities are struck by some sense of disorder in their lifetimes. This disorder can come in the wake of a natural disaster, an attack by another nation, an illness, a downturn in the economy, or other disturbances to the regularity of life. From this vantage point, the world looks too complicated to grasp—too much information, too many countries, and too many factors to manage all at once. It is here that myths are invoked to offer a sense of stability and structure. They provide a means of coping with all the disturbances around us. Myths, in this sense, work to clarify challenges that are a threat to our universe, opportunities that may pose a threat to our success, and the limitations within which we must work to accomplish an objective.

Second, myths perform an identity function. Myths offer people a worldview that helps them see the world as a whole instead of in pieces.¹⁴ This worldview generates a strong sense of identification. In this sense, myths provide a community with a form of “social glue.”¹⁵ Myths work to hold a group together by providing the basis for peoples of diverse backgrounds to find common ground with each other. This common ground defines who we were, are, and will be. Often a particular myth can unite a small or larger group around a common ideal, one that can be expanded further if the group accepts a specific casting of the myth. For instance, the myth of divine election holds that a community collectively believes it has an exclusive place within the overall order of communities. This community is special or “chosen” and destined for a unique mission that will demonstrate its exceptional nature to other communities.¹⁶ The sense of closeness within this mythic narrative serves to provide individuals and communities with a sense of identity and place.

Finally, myths work to establish political legitimacy. Obtaining, maintaining, and enhancing legitimacy is one of the key functions of political communication. Rhetors use myths to establish legitimacy by making overtures toward the past and using them in the present for their political purposes. Leaders often discuss important historical events in a way that suggests they are carrying on the legacy of their predecessors. The past is connected to the present to offer seamless continuity. American presidents often discuss their predecessors or historical events in a way that serves to sanction their current policies. For example, George W. Bush often mythologized World War II in his war on terror discourse.¹⁷ Bush discussed the sacrifice and heroism of the “greatest generation” in ways that made them seem larger than life. This is not to say that members of the World War II generation were not heroes. However, the exploits of that generation have become engrained in US social and political culture, exemplifying what it means to sacrifice. Their memory has become almost sacrosanct. For Bush, the mythologizing of World War II became a means to establish legitimacy for the war on terror.

There are a variety of different types of myths and specific themes that animate them. I assert that ISIS’s discourse is underwritten by the myth of the caliph, which contains a message of suffering and redemption at its core. George Schopflin asserts that myths that encompass prominent themes of suffering and redemption are used by a nation to explain its “particularly sorrowful history,” that it “is undergoing or has undergone a process of expatiating its sins and will be redeemed or, indeed, may itself redeem the world.”¹⁸ These themes tell a story of a nation or a people who have suffered but will be compensated for their powerlessness. Ultimately, that group will engage in redemptive acts to stop the suffering, which lays the groundwork to bring that community back to prominence. According to ISIS, true Muslims have long suffered under Western influence and domination, while Middle Eastern governments were not truly dedicated to Islam but maintaining their own power. ISIS is the cure to the ailment of Muslims everywhere. The group’s redemptive act has been to restore the Islamic caliphate, which begins the process of restoring Islam to its true roots and its rightful place as God’s chosen community.

The position of caliph has been an extremely important aspect of Islamic thought for the past fourteen hundred years. The word caliph means successor, as in successor to the Prophet Muhammad. The person who declares himself the successor to the Prophet has spiritual, legal, cultural, political, and military authority over Muslims everywhere.¹⁹ The caliph can declare a holy war (jihad) in which all Muslims must participate and can demand all states that identify w...