Name: Veerle Ritzema Student number: 10072950
Master program: Literary Studies: Comparative Literature Thesis director: Murat Aydemir
University of Amsterdam Academic year: 2015-2016 Date: 15-06-2016
Title:
Samenvatting
In deze scriptie wordt de wijze toegelicht waarop de macht van IS zich via taal manifesteert. Deze groep voert momenteel strijd in het Midden-Oosten en hun acties hebben al aan heel wat mensen het leven gekost. De groep heeft een nieuw kalifaat gesticht in veroverd gebied. Ondanks het feit dat het gebied waarin de groep actief is in het Midden-Oosten ligt, is zowel door de media als door de intimiderende wijze waarop IS gebruik maakt van het internet en de aanslagen die door hen worden gepleegd, de hele wereld zich bewust van dit conflict, waardoor angst op veel locaties regeert. IS verspreidt haar ideologie op verschillende wijzen: via geschreven taal, en middels andere vormen van communicatie, verbale en non-verbale. Het internet is een modern medium om propaganda te ver-spreiden. Dit heeft consequenties voor de manier waarop oorlogen worden gevoerd, aangezien een strijd niet zoals vroeger alleen in de echte wereld plaats vindt, maar tegenwoordig ook psychologisch middels de digitale wereld gevoerd wordt. Een specifieke vorm van taalgebruik is naast in propaganda ook te vinden in de opgelegde censuur. Om aan te tonen dat taal een belangrijke rol speelt in de machtsuitoefening van IS, en het feit dat zij zich er bewust zijn hoe krachtig dat instrument is, is een analyse gemaakt van het taalgebruik in zowel de propaganda als de censuur van IS.
Sleutelwoorden: Islamitische Staat, censuur, propaganda, taalgebruik, communicatievormen, intimidatie.
Abstract
In this thesis I intend to highlight the way in which language manifest itself in the power imposed by the Islamic State. This group is currently at war in the Middle East, which already cost many lifes. The group founded a new caliphate and therefore took over several areas. Despite the fact that the area in which the group is active is concentrated in the Middle-East, through the media and the intimidat-ing use of the internet by Isis, almost the entire world is aware of this conflict, makintimidat-ing it appear like an even bigger threat. IS spreads their propaganda in different forms, such a written, verbal and non-verbal communication. The internet is a modern method to spread propaganda. This has conse-quences for the way in which wars are being fought, since one of its battlefields is found like the old days in the real world but also nowadays in the digital world. Besides the propaganda, a specific type of language is also used in the imposed censorship. To demonstrate that language plays an important role in the power of IS, and the fact that they are aware of the powerful tool it is, an analysis of the language used in both propaganda and censorship will be proposed.
Ter verantwoording
In deze verbeterde versie zijn paragrafen uit de eerste versie van de scriptie overgenomen. Naar aanleiding van het commentaar heb ik verschillende punten aangepast. In het commentaar stond dat er geen sprake was van een duidelijk theoretisch kader of een onderzoeksmethode, dit is aangepast en hetzelfde geldt voor de onderzoeksvraag. Daarnaast werd het tweede hoofdstuk van andere voorbeelden van censuur in Europa niet als substantieel beschouwd, dus is ervoor gekozen dit hoofdstuk weg te laten. De bibliografie werd als te beperkt gezien, en is daarom aangevuld met academische bronnen. Verder werd er commentaar gegeven op het feit dat de hoofdstukken niet goed georganiseerd waren en een introducerend overzicht ontbrak. De volgorde is daarom aangepast en er zijn stukken tekst toegevoegd om een duidelijke opbouw te creëren. De introductie en conclusie vormen nu beide circa 10% van de tekst, terwijl het grootste gedeelte uit de analyse bestaat. Ook werd gezegd dat de focus op IS afnam, doordat er informatie werd gegeven over andere landen in het Midden-Oosten, daarom is dit aanvullende beeldmateriaal weggehaald, zodat de focus nu wel zuiver op IS ligt. Verder is er in plaats van voor drie onderwerpen: internet, propaganda en censuur, nu voor twee gekozen: propaganda en censuur. Ten slotte zijn zowel de introductie als de conclusie compleet herschreven, aangezien de conclusie werd bekritiseerd als “vague and somewhat obvious”. Ik hoop van harte dat het cijfer daardoor naar boven kan worden bijgesteld.
Index 1. Introduction ... 5 1.1. Definition of a problem ... 6 1.2. Objective ... 7 1.3. Research question ... 7 1.4. Theoretical framework ... 8 1.5. Structure ... 8
2. The Islamic State ... 9
2.1. Law: Sharia ... 10
3. An analysis of the used language ... 10
3.1. Propaganda ... 10
3.1.1. Recruiting ... 11
3.1.2. The use of social media ... 12
3.1.3. Books ... 14
3.1.4. Wall paintings ... 17
3.1.5. Magazine ... 18
3.1.6. Pictures ... 20
3.1.7. Videos ... 21
3.1.8. Videos with speech ... 24
3.1.9. Partial conclusion ... 26 3.2. Censorship ... 26 3.2.1. Guidelines ... 27 3.2.2. Prohibited words ... 28 3.2.3. Media rules ... 30 3.2.4. Partial conclusion ... 32 4. Resistance ... 33 5. Conclusion ... 36 Bibliography ...39
1. Introduction
When the word “censorship” comes into the minds of people with good will and intentions, it often automatically calls up images of a violent constitutional body and judiciary system, that enforce all conceivable means to silence people like reporters, scientists, writers and other artists. These
suppressive actions are connected to events like book burning, imprisonments, abductions, the gulag, torture and murder (van Toorn, 1997: 7). Even though censorship may occur in many different forms, these always imply that its victims are declined the freedom to express what is on their minds, whether this concerns verbal communication, printed items or nowadays even digital data. In times of war, censorship by the state or by others is usually accompanied by propaganda, both of which appear in various forms. Quite a few of those forms of propaganda and censorship, forced by terrorism are known by mankind in the past.
There are several theories than can be applied to the concept of censorship, just like you can find thousands of opinions concerning the concept of censorship, of which some provide a more positive outlook than others.
According to the theory of David C. Rapoport (2004) we can distinguish four waves of modern terrorism, namely the anarchistic wave (1880-1918), the anti-colonial wave (1920-1960), the new left wing wave (1960-1990) and finally the religious wave (present day). This shows that terrorism is not something that has changed, since it is no different for all these groups. It takes place in different periods (waves), so it might be considered an evolution since each group appears to have learned from the previous one. They all manifest themselves similarly by the use of propaganda and censorship. Basically they all want the same things: to intimidate, to provoke, to silence their
proclaimed opponents and enemies, and to mobilize their followers. IS is considered to be part of the last wave: the one of religious terrorism. The last wave is crucial for the theme of this paper.
The scholar Robert Darnton argues that censorship may take place in more subtle and more balanced ways than is usually assumed to be the case. In his book Censors at work. How States Shaped
Literature (2014) he draws a comparative ethnography of censorship, by examining three examples of censorship in three different time periods and happening in three different countries: Bourbon France: Privilege and Repression, British India: Liberalism and Imperialism, and at last, Communist East Germany: Planning and Persecution. It is being emphasized that when the state sets itself up as the arbitrator that decides what is allowed in books and what cannot be printed, the results may be surprising and even sometimes beneficial to authors. In addition to printed data, he claims about the digital world that “free spirits might imagine that electronic communication could take place without running into obstacles, but that would be naïve” (2014: 13). He continues by stating: “The Great
Firewall of China and the unrestricted surveillance by the National Security Agency illustrate a tendency for the state to assert its interests at the expense of ordinary individuals” (2014: 13). This indicates that the form of censorship can adopt different shapes.
In his book Language and symbolic power (1991), Pierre Bourdieu shows, by questioning the constitutive role of language and by proposing that censorship may even be a structural necessity, that it is in some cases unavoidable. While examining the relationship between the linguistic content and the form, he observes that: “The censorship exercised by the structure of the field determines the form [...] and, necessarily, the content, which is inseparable from its appropriate expression and therefore literally unthinkable outside of the known forms and recognized norms” (Bourdieu, 1991: 139). With this observation he indicates that this constitutive level of censorship is in some ways profoundly compelling. In this essay, which is titled Censorship and the Imposition of Form (1991), he assumes that from a linguistic point of view there is a relationship between content and form. Furthermore, according to Bourdieu, social actors develop a habitus to be able to move in the social world, through different classes, or as he calls them: fields. The habitus is determined within a field of actors that have certain tasks, interests and evaluations of what has and what does not have
importance. An illusio belongs to a habitus, which is a natural orientation concerning certain tasks and interests, and at the same time a lack of interest for other tasks and matters (Bourdieu, 1992: 373). The conception of Bourdieu illustrates how a regime can violate words, or simply said: how to do things to words; not to be confused with John. L. Austin’s well-known work How to do things with words (1975). These two scholars do not share the exact same opinion. According to Bourdieu, his fellow scholar was not able to provide a satisfactory explanation concerning the origin of the illocutionary power of performatives, since he was too much concerned with their linguistic
properties (Bourdieu, 1991: 74-75). In Bourdieu’s perspective, the performative utterance may imply an overt claim to possess a certain form of power. However, it is the power of a social institution that provides the words with their representative illocutionary force, that enables a person to “do things with words” (Volkov, 2002: 84).
1.1. Definition of a problem
As mentioned above, there are several forms of propaganda and censorship forced by terrorism, that mankind has known in the past and we are now concerned with the fourth so called wave. IS can be seen as a suppressor, that uses a different kind of forms of propaganda to create and enlarge the group of followers. The group IS, is known as the Islamic State, it is a terroristic organization and a state that is still in the making. Once someone is considered a follower, a certain type of censorship is imposed upon them. In this whole process language plays an important role, since there cannot be
communication without language. Or, as we observe in the field of Discourse Analysis: “The way we use language is inseparable from who we are and the different social groups to which we belong” (Jones, 2012: 2). Since we may consider IS both a social group and a terroristic group, this statement applies in this case as well. This research derives its relevance from the fact that the rest of the world is not able to control the situation regarding IS at the moment, many people are on the run, and because of this other countries need to be concerned about their well-being.
1.2.Objective
The objective of this research is to highlight the way in which language is used by the Islamic State, namely in propaganda and censorship. They use language to maintain, spread and enlarge their power. Through an analysis, different elements in which language is present will be discussed. Consequently this research should provide insight on why an organization like the Islamic State is considered with their choose of language and knows that their force of violence is not half as strong and effective if it is not supported by the right words.
1.3.Research question
For this research the following main research question is posed:
In what ways IS uses forms of propaganda and censorship to maintain, spread and enlarge its power? Through a descriptive research method I will intend to formulate an answer to this question, by looking at the role that language plays in the power possessed by IS. Even though it is not mentioned in the research question, this issue contains a restriction in time, namely the 21th century. Since this is the period in which IS is operating, while using different tools of propaganda and censorship that are available nowadays. Language is used in different forms to obtain the four so called goals
mentioned before, namely intimidation, provoking, silencing of presumed and proclaimed adversaries and on the other hand the mobilization of followers. Information originating from two theories will be serving as a guide during the analysis of several matters relating to either propaganda or censorship. Austin (1975) and Rodney H. Jones (2012) provided us with these theories.
To obtain an answer to the main question, several sub questions will be discussed throughout the paper, namely:
In which way does language manifest itself in propaganda? In which way does language manifest itself in censorship? In which different forms is language present?
These sub-questions are derived from the main question. The hypothesis is that IS uses language in specific ways to obtain their goal, some more discrete than others.
1.4.Theoretical framework
As mentioned above, during the analysis different results will be related to the theories provided by Austin (1975) and Jones (2012). The accountability of this created theoretical framework is found in the fact that both theories concern the use of language. As already mentioned in the introduction, there are several theories concerning elements such as censorship, propaganda, language and communication. However, to avoid the risk that the analysis becomes too extensive, the choice has been made to only use a combination of two theories. These theories complement each other, by the fact that for Austin the focus is more on how to do things with words, introducing aspects such as performative verbs. The theory by Jones considers language as a tool of communication, through which people intend to show what they are doing and how they are trying to achieve their goal. Finally, in the introduction other scholars have been mentioned briefly, to explain the current situation of the theme of this paper. The opinions of these scholars will not be a part of the analysis, except a short recall of Bourdieu in the conclusion.
1.5. Structure
Before starting with the analysis, I will briefly introduce the Islamic State in a following section. The analysis that follows will be divided in two aspects: propaganda and censorship. The aspect of propaganda will be discussed analyzing the following elements: messages, videos, social media, books, wall paintings, magazines, and pictures. After the propaganda has done its job, someone is turned into a follower and will be applied censorship to. Concerning censorship other elements will be discussed and analyzed: guidelines, prohibited words and media rules. Finally I will discuss shortly some possible reasons for the fact that the Islamic State has not taken over the world already, despite of their powerful propaganda and censorship, online and offline, in a chapter called “Resistance”. The focus in this paper will be on the propaganda and censorship carried out by IS, mostly by ways of the internet. A fragment of the censorship carried out by IS will be discussed in the last chapter, in which a possibility for more research can also be found. In the conclusion I will try to indicate the way language is used as a powerful tool in different elements that themselves are a part of propaganda or censorship.
To end this introduction, I would like to make clear that this thesis should not be seen as a preparation for a PhD project. However, when looking at research by Beatrice de Graaf, professor 'History of International Relations & Global Governance' at the University of Utrecht and known
expert on terrorism, I do think the topic of propaganda and censorship of a terroristic group could very well be an adequate theme for a PhD research.
2. The Islamic State
The Islamic State, also known as ISIS, was one of the fighting parties in the Syrian civil war, but then it decided to invade areas in Iraq, where it occupied several big cities such as Mosul and Tikrit. Soon after the homes of Christians were marked with the Arabic letter “N”, which stands for Nasrani (Nazarenean), which is a bad name for Christians (Verhalen uit de vervolgde kerk, 2015). Originally it is not considered an insult, it has the meaning of Nazarene, which means citizen of or follower of the man from Nazareth. The new regime makes all women wear the Islamic veil to cover up their face in Mosul. There are several checkpoints in the city, to make sure that women actually follow this command (Parbonieuws, 2014). In regards to the origin of the Islamic State, Djaït mentioned: “Certainly among the foundations of this State should be mentioned the supreme authority of God, the charisma of the Prophet , the constitution of community of solidarity or Umma, the founding of a system of law, the appearance of a unifying ritual. Here we have constructive State elements which gave the first nucleus its cohesion’’ (2013: 75).
According to the organization Open Doors, which stands up for persecuted Christians, Christians are leaving Mosul. Since the city Mosul in Iraq has been taken over by ISIS, Christians have left the city in large numbers. There used to be a large Christian society in Mosul that had suffered a lot the past few years from threats, murder and kidnapping. Christians that are still located in this area are afraid that most of the remaining Christians will leave too now because of the occupation of Mosul. After ISIS took over the city, more than approximately 150.000 of the 1, 8 million citizens fled, from which a large number were Christians. It is said that thousands of families left, they were the last ones of a big group of Christians that got away from the area since the deposition of Saddam Hussein in 2003. A lot of Christians fled to the Kurdish autonomous region several miles north from Mosul, where they have found shelter in monasteries. Besides these people, Syrian Christians are as well trying to flee to bigger cities such as Dohuk and Erbil. Mosul is the capital of the Iraqi province Nineveh, which has Jewish-Christian roots. In the city you can find the grave of the prophet Jona. In a village nearby, Al Kosh, another prophet named Nahum lived (Nederlands Weekblad, 2014).
Almost 25.000 people fled the city Ramadi in Iraq, after it was taken over by IS. According to the United Nations, most of the citizens went to Bagdad which is located at a distance of 190 kilometers, where they hope to be safe from the violence. According to the news agency AP, IS did a purification throughout the city that turned out to be really violent and a lot of blood was shed. IS went
door-to-door, looking for police officers and other supporters of the government, and whose bodies whenever they were found out subsequently were thrown in the river called Eufraat (Remie, 2015).
2.1. Law: Sharia
In the Islamic State, people are expected to live by a certain law, which has the name of Sharia, in Arabic it is written as : ةعيرش. It has the literal meaning of “law”, but can also be interpreted as “way to the source”. Since the 70s of the twentieth century in some Muslim countries parts of the national justice system have been adjusted to the Sharia, which is the religious Islamic law. Through this law, the position of women, non-Muslims and people that don't obey certain rules, are different in each country. Rules that have to be complied with concern the issue of adultery, street robbery and the use of alcohol. A lot of people have the opinion that this law is in contradiction with human rights (Otto, 2005: 17). The law can be considered as a plan, made by God for humans and his society of people that believe. In the first two centuries after Mohammed ulama -where ulama is a term to indicate scholars- drew this plan and developed it further into a corpus of rules of conduct that give instructions about the way that someone is supposed to behave. However, among the people that live by this law, there are big differences in interpretation of these rules, so the rules are complied with in different ways (Otto, 2005: 23). In the western world the most well-known aspects of this system are negative ones, such as lapidation, chopping off hands, and the consideration and
treatment of women as inferior creatures (Otto, 2005: 13). There is an important difference between what is said in the Koran and what is stated in the Sharia. Even though according to the Koran God will provide the final judgment over the behavior of people, this is not exactly how it is formulated in the Sharia. The Sharia contains rules about what is the right behavior when this is better for social purposes, thus pushing itself between man and God (Berger, 2006: 31-33).
3. An analysis of the used language
This analysis will consist of two aspect, namely: propaganda and censorship. This order has been selected since people are first persuaded by propaganda, and once they live by the rules of IS the censorship is imposed upon them. By introducing several news articles, websites and literary sources, I will intend to analyze the current role that language plays in the way that IS in maintaining,
spreading and enlarging the power that it has nowadays, since it is a divers role. 3.1. Propaganda
Propaganda can be described as the art of persuasion (Rhodes, 1976), so obviously it is to be
expected that signs of this can be recovered in the language that is being used. According to Christian Lange, “Propaganda, defined as the systematic spreading of information, ideas, and rumors in the
effort to help or harm a particular group or cause, plays an integral role in the activism of modern Muslim groups for social, religious and political purposes” (2013: 431). The group uses two types of propaganda: on the one side, messages to recruit people for their group and on the other side, messages that have the function of scaring people. They are trying to recruit two different kinds of people, males that can become warriors and females that can become wives (Knack Magazine, 2015).
3.1.1. Recruiting
There are several websites through which the members of the group IS communicate with one another. Since these conversations take place online, instead of face-to-face, it is possible to make a distinction between synchronous interaction and asynchronous interaction. In the case of
synchronous interaction, the person responds to the interlocutor right after the message was sent, for example when people are talking in a chat and they are messaging each other back and forth. On the other hand, asynchronous interaction means that not all participants respond immediately, for example when an email is sent and a response is sent the next day (Solomon et al., 2013: 15).
In 2013, Jane’s Defence and Security Weekly, in which international weapons, technology and military news are provided, estimated that more than 50 percent of the opposition forces were jihadists, many of them foreign (Bari Atwan, 2015: 123). Furthermore, according to Abdel Bari Atwan, writer of the book titled Islamic State. The Digital Caliphate (2015): “In May 2014 ISIS began its online
campaign to increase its profile and notoriety. A steady stream of images and videos of suicide bombings, raids, beheadings and other grizzly punishments and executions was posted on a wide variety of social media and online platforms. The aim was to grab world headlines and inform as wide a pool of potential recruits as possible of the ‘opportunities’ ISIS was offering in Iraq and Syria. This digital psychological warfare was also designed to terrify citizens and any forces that might confront ISIS, allowing the group’s onward march to seize many territories unopposed” (2015: 125). And they have not stopped this online propaganda since 2014.
Through online propaganda, IS is trying to recruit soldiers for their army. These soldiers can come from all over the world, they do not already have to be located in Iraq or Syria, through the internet also people out of for example Europe come in contact with this type of online propaganda. There are quite a lot of Europeans who joined the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. According to a report made by the Spanish police there are about 30.000 to 100.000 Europeans who joined. The report was made by a special police unit that is involved in illegal immigration and counterfeit papers. They assume that Spain is an important place to pass to get into Europe for refugees coming from the Middle-East. Among these refugees, jihadists apparently could be hiding. One of the killers involved in the attack at
the magazine Charlie Hebdo in January 2015, made his wife and family travel to Syria before the attack took place. They also traveled through Spain and Turkey (nu.nl, 2015).
Out of what is described in previous paragraph one can deduce that the propaganda is working, since people are indeed joining the group. Just as in previous times of war, IS is trying to recruit people, they are in constant need of soldiers and try to spread their ideology. Besides soldiers, they are trying to recruit young women that can be brides for their soldiers. The written communication that is sent into the world with the goal to recruit people, tends to have a positively rewarding character. By promising good things, they intend to persuade people. It is characteristic for a conversation, that the people who are having it are always engaged in some kind of activity (Jones, 2012: 18). In this case, the activities that can be recognized are diverse: they are recruiting and intimidating, yet sometimes the communication is more neutral when they are only advising or sharing their ideology. By making promises and using verbs that are connected to this persuasive act, they are performing performative utterances. An example of such a performative verb used by IS is “to warn” (Austin, 1975: 5). This adds intensity to the ways in which IS is doing things with words.
3.1.2. The use of social media
An important part of the internet is used by so-called social media. There are different social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter that are used as tools of propaganda by IS but at the same time they also provide a possibility for the mass to avoid censorship. According to two independent researches, at least 90.000 of the messages posted on Facebook and Twitter on a daily basis are sent by IS. Those messages don't all originate from IS but are sent by sympathizers that are tweeting a lot as well (Knack Magazine, 2015). Messages by IS and by sympathizers tend to share the same type of language, since they stand for the same thing.
It is important to realize that with the conversion of adolescents, IS is dealing with a temporary youth culture (Mansour: 2015:93). Young people make abundant and skillful use of social media, so IS does not only adjust the language of their propaganda, but also the tools, therefore they use social media. They probably hope to influence the youth on a device they feel comfortable using. Since there has not been a lot of research on the subject, there is not much data available concerning the relation between age and persuadability (Cronkhite, 1969: 137). However, it is plausible that older people are less open to persuasive communication because their opinions are more developed and fixed than is the case in younger people (Janis & Rife, 1959: 137).
The Islamic State has used different types of social media to share information, for example to report they opened a school especially for English-speaking Jihadis. On Twitter a picture was posted of a
letter written by IS. In the letter IS let parents know that a new school was going to open in Raqqa, which can be considered the capital of the Islamic State. On the letter the symbol of ISIS was visible and alongside it was the following message written in English: “by the grace of Allah we have opened schools for English speaking children”. There are two separate schools located next to each other, one is intended for girls, boys are welcome at the other school. The boys’ school has the name of “Abu Mus’ab Zarqaqi”, which was the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq from 2004 to 2006, till he was murdered in an US airstrike. The girls’ school is called Aisha School. In the letter IS shares that the school is for children from age 6 till 14, and different kinds of lessons are provided such as lessons in Islamic scripture, mathematic and the English language. Besides that, it appeals to teachers to work at the newly opened school too. The reason for opening the new school or reporting about it through social media is unknown. However, it could be that IS is trying to cater to foreign fighters and their wives who speak English and are currently staying in the Islamic State (Webb, 2015). IS claimed that it opened several schools throughout Syria. However, this may not be true and might only be a way to make sure there is a continued flow of recruits (Armstrong, 2015).
Furthermore, earlier this year a certain Abu Rahin Aziz was banned from Twitter because of posting tweets that were considered inappropriate. Later Abu Abdullah Britani, who is presumed to be Aziz, posted some disturbing tweets containing several threats. He tweeted that terrorists were organizing the destruction of several monuments, such as the Big Ben in London and the Eiffel Tower in Paris. He gave people the advice to say goodbye to their beloved monuments (Hamill, 2015).
Besides the well-known social media websites, IS is also active on other social networks that might be less known in the Western world, for example: Quitter, Friendica and Diaspora. These websites might have another name and shape, but the basic concept is the same as famous social media websites such as Facebook: it connects people together (Knack Magazine, 2015).
Finally, considering the form of the propaganda on social media, not only messages in the form of tweets are used to propagandize IS, they as well launch special hashtags like the one meant to threaten the city of Rome (#we_are_coming_o_rome), which by the way was rendered useless by Italians posting funny tweets. Sometimes IS or sympathizers are able to hack twitteraccounts of others, such as those of the Pentagon and the newsmagazine Newsweek (Knack Magazine, 2015). Hashtags can spread incredibly quick and they seem hard to stop so they are better used to fight IS, like the Italians did by outwitting the forementioned 'Rome'-tag.
Conversations, such as online propaganda, maintain another aspect of language, known as conversational strategies. Most of the time people talk to others to accomplish an objective; conversations are used to show that they are a certain kind of person and to establish and maintain
certain type of relationships with the interlocutors. To be able to accomplish these negotiations between each two different parties, methods are being used that are known as conversational strategies. A distinction can be made between face strategies and framing strategies, which both have their own function. By using face strategies, someone shows his identity as well as the relationships with others. This means that they are used to show who we are. And by using frame strategies, someone demonstrates what they are doing in the conversation that they are engaged in (Jones, 2012, 18). The members of IS that are active online, apply those conversational strategies, both face and framing strategies. In regard to face strategies, a more detailed description can be given by making a distinction between strategies of involvement and of independence. Where the first kind is used to prevent social distance, the second kind on the other hand is used to create more social distance between the speaker and the interlocutor. There are several kinds of involvement strategies that may be applied when someone is in contact with someone else. Strategies such as the use of informal language, referring to each other by their first name, expressing interest, claiming a common point of view, making assumptions, being optimistic, being voluble and finally, using the expression ‘us’ (Jones, 2012: 21). Different conversational strategies are used online by IS, such as when they obviously claim a common point of view, and where they claim “that Muslims are persecuted and that we are under attack from Non-Muslims. The only way for Muslims to defend themselves is to rebuild the Caliphate to protect their dignity and honor” (Masi, 2014). And when they use the word “us” by saying: “join us or die”, they express unity. In regards to the independence strategies, these are less often applied than the involvement strategies on these websites. Examples of some independence strategies are shown in being undeniably direct and hedging and secondly being pessimistic (Jones, 2012: 21). In some ways the language used by IS can be really direct, like how Abu Rahin Aziz, posted several direct threats. This direct form of communication is also used in their propaganda videos, which will be discussed in section 3.1.7. It is obvious that in the case of language used by IS, the amount of involvement strategies that are being applied is higher than that of
independence strategies. They are trying to create as little distance as possible, so a feeling of unity is being invoked. Once people feel comfortable, it is easier to persuade them. Above all, besides using social media as an important propaganda tool, IS also demands to control the social media accounts of others, through which they show that social media are of great interest to them. This topic will be discussed later in section 3.2.3.
3.1.3. Books
Another form of written propaganda used by IS, is found in the books they produce and distribute. Let's for example look at the book titled Sister’s Role in Jihad (2014), which was discovered online and was supposedly released by militants of ISIS. The book seems to function as a way to provide helpful
tips to Muslim mothers on how they can raise their children so that they will become extremists. According to several media outlets, the book encourages mothers to already start training their children when they are only babies. The book appears to be some type of guidebook, in which mothers can read how to cultivate a child. For example, they should get their children military books, which would be of better quality if they would contain pictures. Then they should also get them other similar books, CDs and videos. Mothers are also given the advice to go online with their child and visit several websites where more information is available, but unlike the computer the television should be banned. Finally, children should also play games using gun toys and other military devices, so this will raise the interest that they show in military matters. Propaganda by means of a book like this has not only the function of scaring other people about what is going on, but more importantly to prepare the next generation that can take over when the time is there. No matter what might happen in the future in this area, the children here are raised with the idea that the Western world thinks differently and because of this they will hate the West. One could say that the children are basically being brainwashed (Pandey, 2015). “Don't wait until they are seven to start, for it may be too late by then!” is said in the book. In addition to all this the book contains a list of do’s and don’ts, concerning the militant’s treatment of children (Withnall, 2015: independent).
The language used in this book shows different aspects of IS, namely that they are warning people and they all stand for the same cause. In this perspective IS can be considered a discourse
community, since this is a certain group of individuals that share specific joint goals and have the same ways of reaching these goals (Jones, 2012: 10). To be a discourse community you should at least share one voluntary aspect, which in this case would be the way they aim to live in the caliphate. Apart from that, it is interesting that the book is written in English instead of Arabic, which makes it accessible for way more people. This shows that IS is aware of the fact that they have to adjust their language to reach a bigger crowd and to make their propaganda a lot more effective. This may support the statement by Rapoport (2004) mentioned in the beginning of the paper, that each terroristic group learns from the previous one. Since this type of propaganda is not new at all, in every war older people intend to make younger people believe that who they see as the enemy is indeed the real enemy. Since the youth gets to hear from the start that what their side thinks is right and that on the other hand what the enemy does is bad, they grow up with that idea. Like a small seed the idea is planted in their minds and grows every single day as they grow older. Later it is hard to convince these people that the side their family is on actually is the wrong side. A notorious organization during World War II that had one objective, to reform youth and make them fit to execute the intentions of the Nazi’s, was called Hitlerjugend, which simply means Hitler youth. However, Hitler spoke German with the members of this group, by which he automatically was
excluding possible members that did not master this language. IS uses English because they are probably aware of the fact that the amount of people in Europe and the United States that speak English are significant larger than those that speak Arabic.
Furthermore, propaganda books are also released by individuals. Abu Rumaysah is mentioned as the author of the e-book with the title A Brief Guide To The Islamic State (2015). He is a British jihadist who left the United Kingdom and went to Syria with the intention to join ISIS. The book also is propaganda, since it tries to recruit people from the Western world by comparing the terroristic group to a “plush holiday resort”. The book only counts 46 pages divided into several parts, namely “food in the caliphate”, “weather”, “transport”, “technology”, “people” and “education”. Unlike the truth, the books tells about a life in the Islamic State were things from the Western World are still available such as chocolate and “fruity cocktails”. There is a menu in the book containing popular dishes and snacks, like falafel sandwiches, Snickers and Kit Kat. All those treats would be there for everyone that joins the group. Then the author continues by comparing the caliphate to a big city, saying “If you thought London or New York was cosmopolitan then wait until you set foot in the Islamic State, because it screams diversity”. It is worth mentioning, that women are not at all
mentioned in the book, unlike the climate. The weather did earn a place in the guideline (Saul, 2014). Even though it is not clear if this e-book is indeed written by Abu Rumaysay, nor if his motivation is being shared, it is obvious that this book is a form of propaganda.
Like the book I discussed earlier, this book is written in English, which allows us to make a connection to it possibly having been written by a British jihadist. Since this book intends to provide a positive outlook on the situation of one being able to live in the caliphate, it is clear that it needs to be written by using words that belong to the same positive semantic field, such as sweets. The use of these types of words causes lexical cohesion, which requires the exact repetition of words or the use of words that belong to the same semantical field (Jones, 2012: 39). These similar words in a text, or in this case a book, are called lexical chains (Jones, 2012: 41). Several words are being used that belong to the semantic field of snacks such as Snickers, Kit kat and Chocolate. Furthermore, just as the language analyzed in the earlier paragraph on recruiting, this language also shows a promising character. The writer is trying to persuade his readers by promising them a better life. Although this is a different approach then trying to intimidate possible adversaries, both are ways of mobilizing their followers.
3.1.4. Wall paintings
There are several paintings spotted in Mosul, for example on the 21th of august in 2014 a picture was taken of this wall painting (see image on the right).
The painting is a message from IS, since they took over the city they could paint on the walls without taking anyone’s feelings into consideration. On the painting one can see the Koran and the sword. Since the Arabic people read from
right to left, they first see the Koran and then later the sword, in this way the Koran funds as a guideline on how the sword needs to be used (Brabosh, 2014). Besides this type of wall painting with a deeper meaning, there are also less complicated murals made by IS, that usually just exist of two colors. An example of one of this is their flag that is sometimes painted on walls, just as in the picture. This flag is a symbol of the group, and is considered to be the official symbol of the group. The flag has the color black and on it the following sentence is written in Arabic “There is no god than god”. Underneath it is shown a white circle with the words “Mohammed is the messenger from god”. The flag has been used for several years now by different terroristic groups, among others al-Shabaab from Somalia. However, IS claimed the flag and therefore it is now associated with them all over the world. During a demonstration against the violence in the Gaza that took place in The Hague, several participants were showing flags, including the one from IS but most flags were different. The so-called “rayat-al-sawda”-flags that were also seen, are black as well with the same Islamic creed, but then in calligraphic writing. The text is not distinctive for IS, it is also visible on other flags, even on the national flag of Saudi Arabia. However, there is only one similarity with the IS flag concerning the used text, since Saudi Arabia's flag is colored green. A well-known group from which jihadists used the black rayat-al-sawda-flag is al-Qaida, that is responsible for several deadly attacks. The flag is old, it has been used for centuries already during wars that were fought in the Islam. Besides the black flag, there is also a white version of the flag. The white flag has also been carried during pro-Gaza demonstrations. This type of flag has often been associated not specifically with terrorism, but with the caliphate, an Islamic state that goes across borders. In June IS proclaimed this caliphate. For people that speak the language, the statements on the flag are clear written statements. However, for the people who do not speak the language, this written communication turns into nonverbal
communication, where it can just be considered an image of threat without expressing the exact message.
Furthermore, you can also find wall paintings that just exist of Arabic text, which for anyone that understands Arabic contains clear messages, such as “Allahu Akbar”, which means 'God is great'. This text has been associated with more terroristic actions, such as the one in Paris, when the men who attacked the employees of the Magazine Charlie Hebdo, reportedly were screaming this text. Clear quotes expressed by certain groups are characteristic for those groups when it comes down to showing where they stand for. These types of quotes are different for each group or movement, just as each group is different.
3.1.5. Magazine
Printed propaganda is a form of propaganda that appears a lot, both in the past and nowadays, previously we already mentioned books and wall paintings as an example of printed propaganda. Another example of propaganda on paper is a magazine, which is issued by the relevant group or organization. Such a magazine usually has a name that has been picked out for a special reason, it contains several stories or articles through which the ideology and motives of the group are being showed. It promotes the great status of the group, through which they hope to gain support and maybe it will even be inviting enough to have people join their group. Because of the objectives the magazine has, the language that is being used to write its messages in is considerably important. The magazine Dabiq can be described as a glossy magazine of roughly fifty pages, like there are lots and lots on the market nowadays, with the difference that this one only promotes the ideology of IS since it is a way of propaganda. More terrorist groups have used this form of propaganda, for example Al-Qaeda had a magazine with the name Inspire. When the existence of this magazine was discovered back in July 2010 it made the news in several countries, probably since people thought a glossy magazine was quite a remarkable method of propaganda to be used by a group of terrorists. Terroristic groups and glossy magazines overall have very different reputations, however IS is proving by their magazine Dabiq that the two can pretty well work together in spite of the differences (Roelants, 2014). This propaganda magazine published by IS has the name Dabiq, which has its origin in mythology. Dabiq is a location in Syria, supposedly the place where one of the last battles took place according to several Muslim myths that discuss the apocalypse. By selecting this rather specific name for the magazine, the ultimate goals of the caliphate are emphasized. Dabiq presents itself as a periodical magazine, that puts the focus on several issues such as tawhid (unity), manhaj (truth-seeking), hijrah (migration), jihad (holy war) and finally jama’ah (community). It contains photo reports, discusses current events and publishes informative articles about matters that are related to IS. In the magazine IS is presented in the way they see themselves, they talk big about their victories and intend to portray a romantic image of their restoration of an Islamic golden age and the
precursor of a new founded caliphate which is based on a holy war. Besides sharing their story and ideas, it can be assumed that they also intend to recruit jihadists from the west through the magazine. It is worth mentioning, that Dabiq is published in several languages, including English (Clarion project, 2014). There are at least eight issues from Dabiq published by IS since its first printed release. On every cover the name Dabiq is presented in the same white letters.
The lay-out of the magazine is very professional and there are digital versions of the magazine available online. Every edition of the magazine has a certain theme. The first edition on “The return of Khilafah” discussed extensively the strict ideology of the group and the idea behind the new caliphate. The second edition is called “The Flood”, in which a comparison is drawn between the story of the ark of Noa and the Islamic State. Either you join IS and move to the caliphate, or you are against IS and will be “destroyed”. The third and fourth editions ask Muslims to move and laugh about the attempts of the United States that have no chance at all in succeeding, since they're doomed to fail. And the seventh edition starts off with a declaration of war given to Japan and finally ends with interviews in which several jihadists speak and also an interview with John Cantlie, the journalist that is being held hostage (Knack Magazine, 2015). A rather specific example of an article is the one in which the act of slavery is being discussed and basically accepted. When ISIS took over areas in the northwest of Iraq, thousands of yezidi-women and girls were imprisoned, while their husbands and fathers were murdered in front of them. In this article, IS propagates the slavery of this female prisoners, while they refer to the Koran. In the article it was written that IS had the intention to bring this forgotten aspect of the Islam back to life. Since the yezidi’s are considered to be people that do not believe, it is no more than appropriate to use them as slaves. In contrast to Jews and Christians, this group of people did not have to be given the possibility to redeem themselves by paying taxes (Heck, 2014).
It was not possible to get hold of a copy of all editions of the magazine, so a profound analysis of the entire magazine published so far, word by word, was not possible. However, there are some things that can be said about the language used in the magazine without having seen all of them. The magazine is considered more to be a glossy than a terroristic propaganda report, which is motivated not only by its content but also by the language used. Considering the content, it contains quite remarkable things such as recipes. And the language that is used is quite casual, which does not make it heavy reading material. The magazine contains a lot of pictures, that function as illustrations to the written text. These images do show aspects such as war, however they are not as shocking as the propaganda videos. There are also pictures of a normal and more neutral nature that show people, which could as well have been placed in an everyday newspaper and pictures that show aspects not related to war, such as the market in the new Wilāyah (4th edition, p. 19). The magazine contains
more profundity than might be expected at first sight. This is shown for example by referring to the Skyes-Picot agreement, (4th Edition, p. 18), which was a secret agreement between France and the United Kingdom in 1916, during the First World War, which concerned the division of territory. This magazine is an obvious way to combine nonverbal communication with written communication, which may eventually lead to verbal communication.
Besides the written language mentioned in the previous part, there are also some nonverbal modes of communication applied during the propaganda of IS. Communicative modes in which we
communicate in a way that does not involve language (Jones, 2012: 2), are for example pictures. These examples of non-verbal communication used by IS will be discussed in the following part of the analysis.
3.1.6. Pictures
The news agency Novum has reported that IS had spread pictures through a website whose link was made available on a Twitter account controlled by IS, so as discussed before in paragraph 3.1.2. they use social media as a platform for written communication and as it appears now also to communicate in a nonverbal way. It was not clear when and where the pictures where taken, but there was no discussion about the shocking content. Most likely the pictures show executions of the people who were captured in Iraq. On the pictures one can see for example how men dressed in citizen clothing, are taken away in trucks, are lying in ditches and then being shot. There are also pictures of shot soldiers, with clearly visible injuries in the heads of those men (Eigenraam, 2014). These images are considered disturbing by most people and show how big the wish is of IS to radicalize a next generation of Jihadists.
Furthermore, IS has released a picture of baby that is dressed as a fighter. The image can be
considered shocking, not only because of the clothing but also because there is a grenade placed on the chest of the baby. The mother of the baby was a jihadi bride who willingly dressed her baby in an ammunition vest. It is known that mothers are encouraged by IS to show their children images of the war and read them certain bedtime stories. These bedtime stories should treat topics such as death and destruction. This nonverbal example of propaganda fits perfectly in the propaganda guideline book discussed in paragraph 3.1.3. Another picture that is part of the propaganda, showed a boy of 12 who was joining a fight armed with a M16 riffle. The boy is described as “our youngest lion”, he has been seen on a checkpoint in Syria. He is one of the school-age kids that is forced onto the front line. Since manpower is low, children are also fighting for IS. These children are brainwashed and trained in training camps. It has been reported that around 300 children a month are joining the camps, where they participate in trainings in which they learn how to use weapons and make bombs.
There are at least five camps that the outside world knows of, from which one is named after bin Laden, located near Raqqa. Camp commanders, that are known as “emirs”, take the children through a six-week training, which is followed by three months of intense “war courses”. However, emirs only are able to provide this type of training when they are not needed at the fight themselves. So IS has the intention to give these children some kind of preparation before they go off fighting the enemy, but when the need of new fighters is high, the children are forced into battle after only 45 days of training (Armstrong, 2015).
As briefly mentioned above, pictures are considered a form of nonverbal communication, and in this way an example of language. The pictures at the same time show other modes of communication, such as gestures, clothing and facial expressions. Regarding these additions to spoken language, James Paul Gee claims that “People build identities and activities not just through language, but by using language together with other ‘stuff’ that isn’t language. If you want to get recognized as a street-gang member of a certain sort you have to speak in the ‘right’ way, but you also have to act and dress in the ‘right’ way, as well“ (2011: 28). Appearance can be a key element of belonging to a group, this may not be innate but can be formed by elements such as clothing, haircuts or
accessories. For example, all the warriors on the pictures, and in the videos that will be discussed in the next section, are all dressed in a similar way. Besides their clothing, their weapons can be considered as an obliged “accessories”.
3.1.7. Videos
Their videos have received a lot of attention worldwide in several media outlets, caused by the fact that those videos are of a really violent nature. The methods that are used by IS to kill people, such as beheading, have their origin basically in the Middle Ages. But these old methods are distributed in a modern way.
Some videos made by IS surfaced on the internet. Among the videos watched by large numbers of viewers are those showing the assassinations of journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and the ones portraying other people that are being held hostage. Besides videos of whom IS considers to be the enemy, IS also released videos that give a peek in the way they operate, for example in a training camp. For myself, for personal reasons, I decided not to watch the videos of the beheadings
completely. The moment the violence started I stopped watching since I definitely did not want to see the rest. Through articles and other people’s opinions nonetheless I am aware of what takes place in these types of videos. According to an article written by David Carr, published on the website of the well-known newspaper The New York Times, ISIS sends a medieval message through a modern
method with distributing their videos of killings. This modern method was not really used before in previous wars.
In comparison, the Nazis did release some propaganda videos, a few of them offered the viewer a look in one of the camps, such as the one titled Theresienstadt from 1944. This video gives a wrong idea of what happened in the camp, since the Jews are filmed working and smiling while they are wearing their civilian clothes. On their clothing the star of David is visible, which tells the audience that they are Jewish. The video is in black and white and there are no guards shown, nor weapons, in this case there is no trace of any violence. They appear to be happy, while in fact their own clothes would have been taken away from them immediately after their arrival in the camp and they would all wear the same clothes. And also armed guards would be present. The fact that the Nazis made this type of misleading propaganda videos, did not mean that everyone in the world would get to see them. It would not reach all the people, since not everyone would have access to a cinema where the movie would be shown, and most important, in this period there would not be tools such as
television or a computer. Nowadays, almost everyone owns a television or a computer, and the internet provides us with a large virtual range through which a big audience can be reached, and in a very short period of time as well.
Carr claims that IS does not spread the videos of two American journalist being beheaded with the goal to deter attacks, but he thinks that “the true aim is to spread dread and terror”. He says that the videos give people in America the same type of chills as when they saw the footage of the Twin Towers falling down back in 2001. It shows that no one is safe and the United States is powerless against this enemy. It is clear that the Islamic State has access to good cameras and editors to make the videos turn out to be as they want them to be. The videos not only serve as propaganda, but also as a time machine; they are an attempt to wipe away centuries of civilization. Since beheading people is something that was common centuries ago and is also normal for IS. In 2002, a video was posted online showing the beheading of Daniel Pearl, an American Jew. He was a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Now there is also footage of Sotloff’s death, in this video Barack Obama is presented as the enemy, and also appears in the video by some montage effect. His face during a news
conference about ISIS appears to be ominous. As Carr describes it “an electronic buzz effect signals an interruption - a kidnapping, if you will - of the broadcast before a graceful typographical segue promises ‘A second message to America’.” Then the video changes its scenery into a desert, where the viewer can see the horizon. In regard to the clothing, the victim wears an orange jumpsuit, which is known to be the typical costume of a detainee in America. The killer looks more like some kind of ninja, since he is all dressed in black and his face is hidden. Unlike his face, it is clear to see that the man is holding a knife and a holster. When the other man introduces himself as being Mister Sotloff,
he talks in sober tones and reads a scripted statement. Sotloff is bound when he is attacked by the executioner, but only the beginning of the attack is shown after which the screen fades to black. When the picture returns, a lot of blood is visible and then there is another cutaway. Finally, they also show who might be the next potential victim, with a relevant warning message that he could be next (Carr, 2014).
Furthermore, Alex Gibney said that “It is an interesting aesthetic choice not to show the actual beheading”, probably so it will get passed around more than when it would be more horrible to watch. Carr draws the comparison between the propaganda videos from IS and other hypes that are popular on the internet, such as the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. He says: “We don’t want to look, but some of us do and the rest of us talk about it. ISIS seems to understand that the same forces that carried the Ice Bucket Challenge’s message of uplift — the desire to be part of something, to be in the know — can be used to spread fear and terror as well” (Carr, 2014).
An important fact worth mentioning is that in the video of the beheading of James Foley, another American journalist, one can clearly hear that the person who is the murderer and whose face is not shown, talks with a British accent. This shows that indeed people from outside Iraq and Syria are being recruited and joining the group. Beheadings in videos not only are to be considered as cruel murders, but they also are murders in the public way the victims are humiliated. And on top of these double killings the internet and websites such as Youtube become a platform for these murderers to show what they do. Since the world wide web came into the world, people would be able to create a platform where other people could share their content and this would give more value to the
website, such User Generated Content has many different forms, such as blogs, make-up tutorials and nowadays also propaganda videos of all sorts.
In another released video, boys are shown while being beaten by instructors during a training of the Islamic State. Besides the beating, one can see how the young boys are trained to use certain weapons, such as AK47 rifles. The boys seem to be about 12 years of age and their identity is not being revealed. The video is shot in an old and dusty warehouse, where the boys, dressed in black, are lined-up during the whole time. An older jihadist is in control, and the boys try to show no fear when they are kicked with sticks. The incident comes across as really brutal and apparently is designed to turn the boys into killers. The video of this so-called training camp was released by IS on the website YouTube. Where the boys in the video are coming from is unknown and not clarified. However, there are a few known ways that explain how some young boys might end up in such a type of training camp. Some boys are sold to IS by their own family, because these families are starving and need the money. This is told to happen specifically in the area around the capital Raqqa. Other
children are not bought by IS, but join the camp voluntarily. They appear to be brainwashed at mosques in Raqqa, and believe a camp like this is the place they need to be (White, 2015). Boys are being sold for a sum of 300 dollars, with that money their families are able to buy food. It can be seen as an act of despair. Furthermore, an important aspect that influence children to join a camp lies in the fact that IS has made the promise to provide them with three meals a day in the camps
(Armstrong, 2015).
It might seem a lot of execution videos are going around on the internet nowadays, of which some even gain a rather dubious type of fame, like the one on Foley's killing. However, the amount of videos are by far not comparable with the number of executions that have actually taken place in Mosul in Iraq. In one year almost one thousand executions took place in this city. The so-called Sharia courts from the Islamic State sentenced almost a thousand people to death for different reasons. According to the German press office DPA the exact number of people, that have been put to death by high clergy mounted up to 944. The number of women that have been executed is most certainly 98, but the office did not provide an exact number. Since IS took over Mosul, the courts stick to a really strict Islamic form of justice, according to which you can even get the death penalty for an act of adultery (cheating) (Nu.nl, 2015).
Even though these videos do not contain large amounts of language, they do need to be part of this analysis, since they play an important role in the propaganda sent out by IS. The videos show some similarities with the pictures, the other form of nonverbal communication, since they both show horrible images. Just as the pictures, these videos are strong examples of nonverbal communication, since people in most videos do not talk, but the images themselves do the talking. One could say that these nonverbal modes of communication are consistent throughout the videos: the “bad guys” are dressed the same, the victims that will be beheaded are overall dressed in an orange overall and weapons are presented. Where part of the propaganda mentioned before shows more of a persuasive approach, this type is a clear example of intimidation. Weapons, grenades and assassinations, they are all tools of intimidation.
3.1.8. Videos with speech
Even though it might not look like that at first glance, a lot of work goes into the making of these videos, such as the one of the beheading mentioned in the section above. Some of the videos show more and a lot more text and speech is used in them.
There is a series of videos, which you might be able to look at through various websites, for example Youtube. The series is called Mujatweets, and shows happy young men that are part of IS and that
feel quite pleased being in the “freed” parts of both Syria and Iraq. The videos are either subtitled in English, or the people in them address the viewers in broken English, so a far bigger audience can be reached by these visualized tweets. According to the people that make an appearance in those videos, it is everyone’s religious duty to come to live in the caliphate. This series of videos is probably a product of the media department Al-Hayat, which means “the life”. Their logo is visible in the upper right corner of most videos. According to them, their duty is to transfer the message of the Islamic State in different languages so all the Muslims can be united under one flag. Basically, they are trying to intimidate their opponents with scary videos and attract families to come to the caliphate.
The fact that a terroristic group has a media department is not a new phenomenon, in this way IS is not that special. Back in 1982 Dutch terrorism-experts, going by the names of Alex Schmid and Janny de Graaf already made clear that “without communication there is no terrorism” (Roelants, 2014). The terroristic group Al-Qaeda had their media department called Al-Sahab, which means “the cloud”, that during the so-called “glory days” of the group continuously produced videos. Those videos contained messages of the leaders and all kinds of recordings of jihadists killed when fighting the suppressor to become a martyr for the cause. Unlike IS, Al-Qaeda would use Chatfora, a private website, and following this unusual detour the videos would reach a big audience. However, the videos of the IS are way easier to find online and also from a better quality (Roelants, 2014). Next to the videos of Mujatweets, department Al-Hayat also produces videos from Syria and Iraq in which young men give children cotton candy and ice cream. The same children chant “God is great” and “the Islamic State” in Arabic. In other videos butchers and other shops are being inspected to achieve approval. Al-Hayat produces still another series of videos titled “seeking knowledge”. These have another objective, this time it's not about scaring or seducing people, but trying to convince others that all the Christians that made themselves fugitives upon their arrival did not have to flee at all. Teachers explain in English and other languages that these people were not forced to leave, but that they in fact gave in to the false propaganda of the western world. As long as they would not associate with Americans, they could stay in the area, they would even receive full protection, free healthcare and free baby milk, they only had to obey to just one rule which was they'd have to pay the tax for non-Muslims. And according to the teacher in one of the videos, this special tax was no more than a small part of the 30 percent tax that Muslims were due to pay (Roelants, 2014). Besides all these short and very short videos, the department even produced a more or less regular movie, called Salil as-Sawarim 4, which means ‘the rattling of the swords’. After the production of the movie it was then spread through Twitter. The movie was about an hour long, showed images of excellent quality but with a slightly different content as what you'd expect to come across in cinema:
it was filled with images of Iraqi tanks that were set on fire and executions of Iraqi soldiers that first had to dig their own graves before they were murdered. The movie was of greater length than the rest of the videos produced by Al-Hayat, but its goals were still the same: propaganda, intimidation and recruiting by blood spill (Roelants, 2014).
These videos contain a form of language we have not seen before during this analysis, namely verbal communication: people express their thoughts by talking. Verbal communication provides the possibility to use other modes of communication such as intonation. When someone expresses an utterance, other nonverbal actions are used to empower the spoken words. A person gives meaning to an utterance through different modes of communication. These modes are elements such as gesture and intonation, which are all part of the context in which the utterance is expressed (Gee, 2011: 28). Considered explicit language utterances that are used in the video, they show similarities with other written propaganda, such as the expression “God is great”. They also contain written language in the form of subtitling, which makes the videos accessible for a far bigger audience, of which advantage the media-department is obviously well-aware. A not yet discussed, and clearly nonverbal mode of communication such as a country's flag, is also visible in these videos in the form of the logo of the media department. It can be said that the language shows similarities throughout every aspect discussed in this analysis, however, the way the messages are being sent across and reach the public are quite diverse.
3.1.9. Partial conclusion
After this analysis of the language used in the propaganda, an answer can be given to the first formulated sub question, namely: In which way does language manifest itself in the propaganda? Language manifest itself in different forms in the propaganda presented by IS. Some messages are forms of written communication, where others are strong examples of nonverbal communication. Despite the fact that all propaganda is accessible for pretty much the same public, since nowadays the internet provides a great way to spread propaganda, not all forms of nonverbal communication are as direct as others. The wall paintings and the flag can be considered less shocking than videos in which beheadings or training camps are shown. Even though different forms of language are being used, such as written and nonverbal language, persuasive and intimidating language, they all in some way connect to each other, and so all kinds of propaganda form one solid construction.
3.2.Censorship
One could say that censorship and war are inevitably connected, no matter where they occur. Words are used as a weapon of defense in these times of fear, and people express themselves in their own
language. Censorship puts a stop to all that, basically by telling people what they are allowed to read and write. Most people will associate the word censorship with the fact that people are not allowed to write certain things. However, in this analysis the term will be enlarged so it includes other prohibited aspects as well, bearings that include hampering and crossing normal civilians instead of merely writers. Even though the internet provides writers and other people nowadays with a new kind of independence which makes it easier for them to circumvent the censorship put upon them by IS. At the same time it is definitely harder for the suppressor to maintain the censorship. Despite of these new challenges, IS is still clearly trying to control their allegiance by censorship such as rules.
3.2.1. Guidelines
The fact that the religion of the Islam comes with certain rules, is nothing new. According to Ramadan: “Muslim societies are still relatively preserved from the contemporary scourge of drugs [...], the religious prohibition of alcohol and forbiddance, by analogy, to consume any kind of
stupefying substance, has played, and is still playing, and important safety role” (2001: 248). With this statement he refers to all kind of drugs such as alcohol, medicine, tobacco, hashish, cocaine, heroin, etc. In regards to certain rules to live by, however, IS has taken it to another level in comparison to other Muslim societies.
According to ABC-News, in Mosul, ISIS has given several guidelines to schools, which state that classes in history, literature and Christianity no longer will be provided (Bacchi, 2014). Besides that Darwin and his theory of evolution are explicitly forbidden from now on. These new guidelines were presented outside on the walls of mosques, on markets and on electricity pools down the street. School year was supposed to start the fifth of September, but according to sources in Mosul a lot of families fled away and remaining parents sometimes intend to keep their children away from school. These parents try to avoid the ISIS-schools by providing private lessons for their children. In other guidelines of ISIS it is said that patriotic songs are considered wrong and will not be tolerated anymore, and that specified pictures need to be removed from textbooks used during class. According to ISIS, songs that promote the love for the country can be seen as an expression of polytheism and are considered to be profane, because of this perspective the songs need to be prohibited. Each and every reference to the republic of Iraq or Syria needs to be removed and be replaced by a reference to the Islamic State. It has been said that the person that does not follow these guidelines will be punished. Furthermore, in Raqqa, location of the Syrian headquarters of ISIS, they have already been teaching classes for a longer period of time. However, the curriculum
(educational program) is not complete anymore, since philosophy and chemistry among others have disappeared from the program (Knack Magazine, 2014). In a certain way it's rather funny that the
