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The Visual Apparatus of a Would-be Caliphate

Fig 1: The death march - 21 hostages in Libya, held by ISIS members and walking to their death point, ISIS video, Reblop (00:02:22)

University of Amsterdam

Research Master’s Thesis in Media Studies

Department of Media Studies

Moran Zelikovich10852824

e-mail: Zelikovich@gmail.com

Supervisor: Dr. Catherine Lord

Second Reader: Prof. Patricia Pisters

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Table of Contents

Introduction; ISIS, Nature, and the Would-be Caliphate ... 2

Chapter 1 - Nature and God; and their Connection with Terror and Violence ... 17

God as a Liquid Concept ... 22

Divine Violence ... 25

Terror and Violence ... 29

Chapter 2- The Aesthetics of Destruction; The Sublime and The Ugly Sublime ... 36

The Sublime ... 39

The Ugly Sublime ... 43

Chapter 3- Soft War: ISIS Videos as a Propaganda Tool to Promote its Targets ... 50

Images Manipulate the Mind ... 53

Propaganda Machine ... 60

Social Media Masters ... 62

Conclusion ... 65

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Introduction; ISIS, Nature, and the Would-be Caliphate

On February 12, 2015, the international media reported that aJihadist extremist

militant organization, the self-proclaimed “Islamic State” (ISIS)1, had executed 21 Coptic

Egyptian Christians in Libya and published a video entitled “A Message Signed with Blood to the Nation of the Cross”, which revealed the horrific mass murder to the international public, via the global news: for instance, CNN, The Guardian, NBC News,

Fox News; and to a myriad of online audiences via You Tube, Twitter, Facebook, and

more. This video inaugurated a new style of visualizing ‘reality video’ that showed mass murders on screen as they were being committed. The novelty also lay in its length, cinematic style, and editing. The disturbing 05:15 minute video was filmed not only professionally, but also against the background of a beautiful and pastoral2 setting, with

great attention paid to detail.

Such professional production is part of the ISIS visual cinematic apparatus, as a representation of the ‘reality’ they are trying to build, reflecting the Apparatus Theory of cinema developed by Jean-Louis Baudry in “Ideological Effects of the Basic

Cinematographic Apparatus” (1974). The Apparatus Theory maintains that cinema's nature is ideological precisely because the cinematic technology of representation is ideological: for instance, choosing the frame, camera angle, image selection, editing, and the overall mise-en-scène3. According to Baudry: “The paradoxical nature of the

cinematic mirror-screen is without doubt that it reflects images but not ‘reality’” (45).

1 The ISIS' militant group, recognized as The Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham, uses different

operational and ideological names; it is also known as Daesh and ISIL – Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or simply the Islamic State. This work will refer to it as ISIS.

2 Darío Fernández-Morera explains in The Oaten Flute: Essays on Pastoral Poetry and the

Pastoral Ideal (1982), that ‘pastoral’ was originally referred in ancient poetry when a poet was in a state of otium (15). Over the years it changed engendering a diversity of pastoral modes, of which Greg Gerrard identifies three pastoral modes: Classical Pastoral, Romantic Pastoral, and American Pastoral. In this work, ‘pastoral’ refers to the appreciation of nature and regards as ‘Classical Pastoral’ a place for human pondering and relaxation and as defined by Greg Gerrard, “characterized by nostalgia” (37).

3 Taken from the book by the French philosopher, André Bazin, What is Cinema? (1967), in

which mise-en-scène refers to the arrangement of the scene, the design of the visual theme, actors, props, décor, camera angles, lighting and the visual construction of the scene (34).

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Consequently, the cinematic technology establishes the spectator's perspective and how, frame-by-frame, reality is put together. In ISIS’s case, being an ideological militant group calling for a caliphate4, the central position of the spectator within the

perspective of the composition is also ideological, and it is my contention that this is dominant in their videos.

The visual apparatus in this ISIS film directs the spectators’ gaze to the 21 hostages being marched to the killing point by their captors (00:00:28). An additional and dominant gaze directs the spectators to the background of the setting - the stunning southern Mediterranean coast in Libya (figure 1). Indeed, in some shots the frame remains motionless with nothing shown but nature, devoid of people; while in others people appear and disappear from the frame (figure 2). The sound-track presents a long establishing sound of trickling, calming water, sometimes harmonized with exotic Arabic music that accompanies the hostages’ silent march. Such a ferocious

juxtaposition of beauty with death appears in severe contrast to the brutal spectacle of death, violence, and the real loss of human lives that the spectators witness.

Fig 2: An image of the southern Mediterranean coast in Libya: nature without people, ISIS video, Reblop (00:00:24)

4The term ‘World Caliphate’ relates to the concept of a single theoretic one-world government,

seeking to return to the early days of Muhammad's prophecy. James L. Gelvin, in his book The Arab Uprising: What Everyone Needs to Know (2012), suggests that this form of governance is sought by Muslim extremists (13).

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When watching the violence and ’reality videos’ involving actual death, which ISIS bluntly presents in the 21 Coptics video, one cannot ignore the background, the décor (a stage setting) as part of the mise-en-scène, revealing the natural beauty of the Libyan coast (figure 1); the location choice, the wide establishing shot showing the hostages with the sea in the background, and the composition of the frames in each scene, which all include strong natural visuals. Moreover, at moments in which the camera zooms in to the faces of the victims (00:02:58), the spectators also view a glimpse of blue skies, sandy beach, or the ocean. The rocky shore with the soft sand and blue water is very dominant in each frame, in almost complete contrast to the horrors at the heart of the scenario. This motif of nature and death constitutes a prominent signature in ISIS videos, as will be demonstrated later in this work. This contradiction reflects the incongruity between the pastoral view of peaceful nature and the blood pouring from the dead bodies of the 21 men killed simultaneously. It also leads to the question: why does ISIS choose to use such outstanding film locations, when other militant groups before them did not?

Rooted in a cruel, remorseless, and radical approach to Islam, ISIS's use of nature as location and setting is intriguing and requires an examination of the different

meanings of the concept 'nature'. The film of the murder of the 21 Coptics’ combined with Nature presented in all its glory is quite outstanding visually. I deliberately use the term Nature with a capital N in order to distinguish it from nature with a small 'n'. Nature with a capital N is borrowed here from Timothy Morton’s concept of Nature, which also contains the ‘unnatural’ qualities of nature.

As argued by Morton in his book The Ecological Thought (2010) in the

“Introduction”, these unnatural qualities are, namely: “hierarchy, authority, harmony, purity, neutrality, and mystery” (3). As I will argue, these ‘unnatural’ qualities in the Nature discourse can also include God5, religion, and belief. In defining Nature with the

5‘God’ is used here with a capital ‘G’ to reference the monotheistic religions’ entity, but in

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extra ‘unnatural’ qualities, we seek to consider it as commenting and reflecting on it within a particular societal context. The last three additions – God, religion, and belief - can after all vary and be the result of the differential behavior and education of different groups in society. Similar to Morton's introductory chapter, I refer here to nature, lowercase n, in its simplistic meaning as in green fields and animals, without the unnatural aspects of the concept. However, it should be noted that nature with ‘n’, and Nature with ‘N’ are both ambiguous concepts, with Mortonshifting their meaning and changing their uses in his text from time to time, and also departing from the original definition. In some parts of the book he refers to nature with a small n as an "unnatural, uncanny, sequence of mutations and catastrophic events" (8), lacking the simple natural qualities he had pointed out in the concept in the introduction. Furthermore, he does the same with Nature with a capital N, using it differently to his original definition, considering it ‘natural’ again: "Plants are green (the color of Nature) because they contain chloroplasts" (34). In my use of the term ‘nature’in this work, I will employ Morton's initial use of the term nature with a small n as natural, together with the definition given by The Oxford English Dictionary: "The phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations." (nature, Oxford English Dictionary). My thesis will explore both nature as a simple ‘green concept’ and Nature with its metaphysical content. I will argue that both nature and Nature with a capital N are present in ISIS's videos and suggest that they embody a deeper meaning. It is this deeper meaning in ISIS's use of Nature that is the focus of this work. To illustrate this, I attach a short video that is composed of three (censored and edited) ISIS videos in order to illustrate the connection between ISIS and its use of nature:

https://vimeo.com/168069151. The video focuses mainly on three natural elements: water,

desert (sand), and fire, and demonstrates their dominance in the films. I also examine the possible agenda behind the use of images as part of a ‘soft-war’ with the Western world. The term ‘soft power’ was coined by Joseph S. Nye, an American political

scientist, in his article “Soft Power” (1990). By ‘power’ he means “the ability to do things and control others” (154). Thus, he shifts the concept of power in the direction of

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“technology, education and economic growth”, which, he argues, “are becoming more significant in international power” (154). This greater power of the media as another battlefield differs from that of the troops and heavy weapons. On a soft-war battlefield, the weapons are cameras, microphones, and the effect on public opinion. ISIS exploits this battlefield to transmit its nature and horror images.

To begin understanding this connection of ISIS and Nature it is essential to understand the mechanism, the machine, or the ‘mind’ behind these visualized

murders: behind the acts that have been carried out by ISIS, currently the world's most notorious militant group. This group acquired their notoriety in the wake of their successful dissemination on-line of their uncensored, horrendous films. All three shocking videos elaborated upon below are well-presented, professionally filmed and edited, and were created by a special department of the organisation - the ISIS media department and production company al-Hayat Media Centre. This department is in charge of ISIS’s public relations strategy, the videos' quality, and their on-line distribution, using various well-known social media networks6, later picked up by leading news channels around the world. Mastering these skills has made ISIS a matter for concern due to the organization’s success, as an ISIS expert explains: "ISIS has emerged as the most sophisticated group yet at using the service to spread its bloodthirsty message" (Altman, n.pag). Its achievements are also supported by the report "The ISIS Twitter Census", in which Berger and Morgan argue that ISIS: "has exploited social media, most notoriously Twitter, to send its propaganda and messaging out to the world and to draw in people vulnerable to radicalization" (2). According to Altman, Berger and Morgan, these tools function as an ISIS propaganda machine. Consequently, the videos present an interesting tool for my analysis.

6 In addition to Twitter as a prominent tool by which to disseminate their messages, their videos

are constantly circulated on YouTube, and even when deleted due to their problematic content, they can still be found on different websites, for instance: PirateBay, op-edaily, LiveLeak, Bittorrent, and BestGore.

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Fig 3: A photo7 claiming to present the ‘behind the scenes’ of James W. Foley’s execution

video, ISIS, Daily Star, (00:00:22)

In relation to the above, it appears (figure 3) that the al-Hayat Media Centre functions as a professional film and production company, with what seems to be a film set 8 on

which they filmed one of the videos analyzed here: the beheading of James Foley. The video from which this photo is taken is from July 2015, and reveals a film set with familiar roles: camera crew, actors, director, and lighting crew.

The importance of al-Hayat's operational tactics of filmmaking and distribution on social media networks is significant to the success and recognition of the

organization as a powerful militant group. It also makes it an intriguing topic for research, as ISIS exploits the videos to attract more supporters. According to a special report on ISIS, written by Richard Barrett, Senior Vice-President of The Soufan Group, which provides strategic security intelligence services to governments and

multinational organizations, "In terms of targeting Western supporters, Al-Hayat Media

7The source for this photo claims in its description that it was hacked and obtained from the US

senator John McCain’s team.

8 The origin for this image is taken from a video posted on the newspaper the Daily Star’s

website. Link to the origin: http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/453413/ISIS-beheading-videos-staged-actors

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Centre is key. It acts as a multilingual recruitment channel and provides a large

selection of media material, aiming to attract potential foreign recruits" (55). Recruiting new people to the group is part of the overall aim of ISIS. The videos it produces are in line with the ISIS strategy as declared on the 29th of June 2014, the day they announced

the beginning of the would-be caliphate, their holy mission to establish a new world order and global domination by their forces within five years, influenced by radical Islam and its systems of rules and punishments based on the Qur'an also known as ‘Sharia law’ (Stakelbeck,12). This declaration matches their actions, mainly the conquering of lands, as their goal does not only present a very radical reading of the Qur'an but also a very violent and non-compromising interpretation of Islam in general: "ISIS and its followers are adherents of Jihadist-Salafism, the most extreme and violent interpretation of Islam– and the ideology of choice for Sunni Islamic terrorists”

(Stakelbeck,12). From a different perspective, and regarding the caliphate declaration, the ideology and goal of this organization, as suggested by its name The Islamic State, is to conquer the world and in enforce Islam in the form that was practiced during the time of the Prophet Muhammad. The caliphate notion that ISIS pursues is quite similar tothat of the Apocalypse, as described in the Book of Revelation in the Bible as the complete and final destruction of the world: to go back to point zero and start a new world, cleansed of non-believers in Allāh, and of the non-believers’ historical heritage, as in the days of the Prophet Muhammad.

This aspiration to establish a caliphate requires an apocalypse-like situation to be created in order to succeed. ISIS and al-Hayat have realized the advantage of mastering social media skills in order to create fear and gain supporters. The social media and on-line distribution of their videos offer yet another tool by which to reach mass audiences.

ISIS presents an important case study because it is a rising and intriguing phenomenon. Its propaganda is novel in spreading its ideas through fear via social media. Its videos, even though containing disturbing acts of detailed murder, have reached global exposure and an enormous number of people around the world, as the organisation continues to dominate the world's media headlines with its horrific acts of

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ruthless violence. A survey of the academic literature on ISIS reveals that most research has been focused on its establishment, its connection to other militant groups, and its caliphate ambitions, as discussed for example in the books: Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS (2015) by Joby Warrick; ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror (2015) by Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassan; and ISIS: The State of Terror (2015) by Jessica Stern and J. M. Berger. However, research is still lacking on the organizations motives from a theological but also visual viewpoint. In this study I engage with the way they portray their agenda and viewpoints through the impact of shocking images.

ISIS and al-Hayatcould not have achieved such large audiences, sharpened their media skills, and spread their propaganda with shocking images combined with nature, without strong financial resources. al-Hayat's social media campaign triggered a

substantial global migration of militants to the ISIS bases, stated The Washington Post in its story “Inside the surreal world of the Islamic State’s propaganda machine” published in 2015. The organisation grew in power and size and became a financially strong military force within a relatively short time - from spring 2011 when the civil war in Syria started. This success has contributed in turn to the ever-growing number of soldiers and supporters world-wide joining the organization. According to the same news report, the U.S. intelligence service estimates that within a two-year period there had been a flood of 30,000 people from more than 100 countries, leaving their old lives behind them to fight for ISIS in its religious war (Miller and Mekhennet, n.pag). With this vastly growing militant group the ISIS army has marched across Syria and Iraq, terrorizing millions. Studies of ISIS, such as Erick Stakelbeck’s book ISIS Exposed:

Beheadings, Slavery, and the Hellish Reality of Radical Islam (2015), contend that the

evidence demonstrates how ISIS men are raping and enslaving women, destroying historical sites, and beheading captives (94). Numerous news reports have supported these claims and, according to Time magazine, regarding the Iraqi Yezidi minority who were suffering from ISIS’s intention to eradicate them after taking over their villages: "Over 5,200 Yezidis were abducted in 2014 and at least 3,400 are still in ISIS captivity, according to community leaders, and most, if not all, of the captives are women", and these women were abused as part of the “systematic rape and sexual enslavement of

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non-Muslim women”; (Atler, n.pag). Time magazine further warns that many of these women are still enslaved by ISIS. Regarding the destruction by ISIS, the National

Geographic magazine published a list of ancient sites that ISIS has damaged or

destroyed, some of which were UNESCO World Heritage Sites (National Geographic, n.pag). Satellite footage in the article shows that ISIS had reduced these sites to rubble.

Regarding ISIS’s financial success, according to Forbes magazine, ISIS has become: “The richest terror organization in modern history” (Forbes, n.pag). It is estimated to have an annual turnover of 2 billion U.S. dollars, as it controls

approximately 60% of Syrian oil reserves (Ibid.). Their wealth also derives from natural resources, mainly from seizing oil resources, in which the connection with nature is revealed again: oil can be animal, vegetable, or petrochemical in origin. The same glorified visual nature seen in the ISIS videos, and which is the focus of this thesis, is also the same nature (oil) that is giving it the power (money) to continue in its mission. However, simultaneously, it is also the same nature that ISIS destroys when its militants attacks villages with heavy artillery, whose smoke damages the ozone layer; or when it deliberately destroys some of the world’s historical cultural monuments and symbols (figure 4).

Fig 4: An image published by ISIS showing the destruction of the Temple of Bel in Palmyra, Syria, ISIS, reuters.com

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Figure 4 presents an example of what ISIS referred to as a ‘pagan temple’, the Temple of Bel, an historical site in Palmyra, Syria. Reuters news agency reported that in August 2015 ISIS detonated explosives around the interior and exterior of the structure destroying the temple, in addition to using heavy artillery and air strikes to flatten the earth back to sand and dust (Reuters, n.pag). In their article "Mutilating the Past – The Islamic State and the Last Song of History", Ansuk Kumar Padeny and Nilotpal Bansal describe the destruction:

The devastation brought about by ISIS is of such a degree that it is important to treat it separately to understand the magnitude of its war crimes. Nineveh, Mosul, Hatra, Nimrud and most recently, Palmyra are some of the cities that have fallen prey to this grotesque project of mutilating the past and attacking the civilizational memory of an entire society (4).

These acts of destroying historical world heritage sites, which were filmed and distributed, also generated fear, which added to that produced by the murderous videos. Exposed to these acts of death and destruction the public could not remain indifferent. ISIS’s horrific actions gained it massive publicity, and in 2015 it was

considered a greater world threat than global warming (Pew Research Center, 2). This evident public fear has lead to the ISIS 'fear factor' being perceived as terror9.

In an article on ISIS's financial means, Forbes magazine called it a "terror organization”, which has become common usage when referring to this militant group (Forbes, n.pag). The concept of 'terror', as well as evaluating ISIS as a threat, requires an understanding of this concept in connection to militant groups. There are over 200 definitions of ‘terrorism’, as noted by Jeffrey D. Simon in The Terrorist Trap (1994). It is

9The word ‘Terror’ comes from the Latin "terrere", which means to fear or tremble; synonyms for

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generally defined as the use of violence and generation of fear in order to achieve an ideological agenda with a religious or political aim. Terror is also considered to be widespread, as suggested by the French philosopher and cultural theorist, Jean Baudrillard. In his book The Spirit of Terrorism: And Requiem for the Twin Towers (2002) on the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers in New-York City, he notes: “Terrorism, like viruses, is everywhere. There is a global perfusion of terrorism, which accompanies any system of domination as though it were its shadow, ready to activate itself

anywhere, like a double agent,” (Baudrillard , “The Spirit of Terrorism”, 10). This concept will be expanded in Chapter 2.

This study presents a critical look at the way ISIS uses these videos as

propaganda, and focuses on the on-screen apparatus. The ISIS reproduction of death as a spectacle has shocked and awed audiences globally. The organization performs its killing acts in the name of God (Allāh), using modern equipment: cameras, computers, etc. With its rationale of divine inspiration for its acts, I contend that the Auteur Theory is thus applicable to ISIS. This theory of filmmaking perceives the director as the major creative force in a film which reflects the director's personal creative vision, as if he or she were the primary ‘auteur’. My own perspective on this theory is somewhat

different, as the religious motives are inherent in ISIS’s every step. The role of the auteur thus receives another level of meaning when dealing with an extremist religious group. I argue that due to ISIS's religious motivation, in addition to the human factor of al-Hayat's director(s) as auteur(s), it seems that ISIS considers Allāh as its auteur. The members of ISIS are merely a tool to deliver God's will; and their actions, killings, and films are merely following God's orders, the orders of the so-called real auteur who guides them.

André Bazin is considered to be the father of ‘auteurism’ because of his

appreciation of the world-view, style, and observation of the world around him. In his article “On the Auteur Theory” in the journal Cahiers du Cinéma (1957), he developed this thinking, arguing that the auteur is a director who brings the film to life, and that the film should represent the director’s vision on a personal level. Similar to Bazin’s

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notion, in ISIS's case it seems that in its media department, al-Hayat, the style, content and its director teams all have the same artistic "fingerprint" as one auteur.

In addition to positioning to the Auteur Theory, as relevant to this ISIS videos, this work is located within eco-cinema studies, while touching upon terrorism studies and partially also upon theological studies. I do not presume to suggest a

comprehensive solution to what is at present an unsolvable problem, but rather to unravel the thinking and mechanism behind this group’s horrendous actions. I

investigate nature in its different contexts and the aesthetics of death and destruction as part of the ISIS’s media apparatus. As core theories I will refer to Timothy Morton’s ‘Nature concept’, Walter Benjamin, Slavoj Žižek and others on ‘divine violence’, and to Immanuel Kant on ‘the sublime’. Various concepts will be discussed: Nature, nature, violence, terrorism, the sublime, the ugly sublime, soft war, and how the ISIS

propaganda and social media campaign exploit the above concepts as tools to achieve their caliphate mission.

The core argument of my thesis is that ISIS exploits the concept of Nature in its execution videos as part of its mission to enforce a new world order – a caliphate, in a soft-war battle against the Western world. I will contend that the strong connection between the concepts ‘nature’, ‘Nature’, and ‘God’, underlies ISIS’s use of Nature as the setting in its execution videos as a part of its soft-war against the Western world. I will argue that ISIS uses and abuses nature in all its beauty and uses powerful images in order to make its horrendous videos resemble an oeuvre, an art work, and appeal to the spectators. These acts are not only meant to disseminate their caliphate notion and spread fear among the Western viewers, but also to recruit supporters to join their war. In Chapter 1: “Nature and God; and their connection with terror and violence”, I will explore the connection of the concepts ‘God’ and ‘nature’; recognizing that ISIS's Islamic connection and motives hold an obvious connection to God (Allāh). I will examine the bond between the concepts ‘Nature’ and ‘God’, theorizing the philosophical connection that binds them in relation to Islam from a theological and an ecological point of view. These two concepts frequently accompany one another in academic literature and theological debates, and are sometimes even treated as identical (Sprigge; Spilka,

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Armatas, and Nussbaum). As will be demonstrated in Chapter 1, a big part of ISIS activities seems to be justified by its religious caliphate mission.

There also exists a tension between these two concepts, with 'nature’ indicating an innate ‘pureness’ and ‘wilderness’10. The videos present nature with its obvious beauty, glorification, and greatness in the same way that religious people might

experience the notion of 'God' as the great and divine. Therefore, ‘nature’ is turned into ‘Nature’ with its extra meanings. Chapter 1 is connected to how ISIS uses ‘Nature’ in its videos as a tool to promote its fundamental Islamic agenda. I refer to Charles Sanders Peirce's ‘Sign Theory’ to connect the concepts ‘God’ and ‘nature’. I suggest that by merging the concepts, ISIS exploits nature as part of its caliphate mission in order to demonstrate that God is with it in spirit. The chapter also looks at violence and terror as part of ISIS’s religious motives, by discussing terrorism and how ISIS correlates with the different terror definitions, and how it helps them to promote the caliphate.

Chapter 2: “The Aesthetics of Destruction; the Sublime and the Ugly Sublime”, starts with investigating the relationship between death and war as a spectacle, and refers to Immanuel Kant’s concept of ‘the Sublime’, together with a variation of it, the ‘Ugly Sublime’. The notion of ‘the Sublime’ was proposed by Walter Benjamin, who added the idea of beauty in ruin and destruction. The chapter analyzes not only the visualized death, but also the acts of ruin and mutilation of the world’s historical heritage symbols. The chapter also engages with the human fascination with

destruction and death as spectacles, and examines the spectacle from the perspective of Jean Baudrillard’s analysis in connection to media events, and to the nuclear bomb and 9/11 as spectacles. I will establish the connection between ruins and death as spectacle and the concept of ‘The Sublime’.

The second part of Chapter 2 examines the visualization of nature in the ISIS videos, with an analysis of the aesthetics, mise-en-scène, and visual theme that ISIS uses

10 ‘Wilderness’ is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “an uncultivated, uninhabited, and

in hospitable region” (wilderness, Oxford English dictionary); and according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, wilderness is simply: "a wild and natural area in which few people live" (wilderness, Merriam-Webster).

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to tell its story: the location, colors, and composition of the scenes, the establishing shot, the background of the scene, and the focus. It also examines to what extent Nature and nature are dominant in the settings, and are in contrast to or in line with the killings that occur in the following three videos: the mass murder of 21 Coptic Egyptian

Christians in Libya; the beheading of James Foley; and the immolation of the Jordanian pilot Muath Al-Kassasbeh. I selected these three videos (out of many) as the elements of nature featuring in them are prominent. ISIS connects its videos with the natural

elements of water, fire, sand, desert, and wilderness. As a group publicly declaring its aspiration to establish a new world order, a caliphate, the concept of wilderness, a “naked” natural environment, is important in seemingly embodying such aspiration.

Chapter 3: “Soft War: ISIS videos as a propaganda tool to promote its targets”, connects the other chapters to the idea of a soft-war and the purpose of using images of nature in the videos as a powerful weapon. This chapter explores the definition of ‘soft power’ as coined by Nye, as the immense power of the media as another battlefield. In light of this, I also examine the after-effect of ISIS’s video messages on a soft-war battlefield, in its use of social media tools aimed at affecting the minds of the public.

This chapter also provides an overall view of another historical propaganda machine that exploited images to construct its ideology – that of the Nazi propaganda. I compare the two and argue that ISIS propaganda differs from that of the Nazis not only due to technological developments in transmitting images and concepts to the public (including the Internet), but also in ISIS’s deliberate use of horror images on screen. Furthermore, since the organization has the finances to fund its media activities, this could also explain its ability to produce such high-tech professional videos. Its media department has continued to post gory images, videos, and jihadist rhetoric on their social media accounts throughout the Syrian civil war. I discuss the connection between images and their effect on the spectator. I also relate to Patricia Pisters, professor of media studies, whose research and teaching focus on film-philosophy, in conjunction with neuroscience, and on the political implications of the image, as well as ecology studies. She contends that the image has a direct and psychological influence on the spectator’s perception and mind. In her book The Neuro-Image: A Deleuzian

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Philosophy of Digital Screen Culture (2012) she discusses the cinematic neuro-image

and explores the way in which spectators receive images. Pisters’s argument adds another dimension to the discussion on the media and soft-war as presented by Nye, as she similarly argues that images, or the screen they are presented on, play a role as a weapon: “The screen has become a weapon in the sense that it works on our minds, in a psychological warfare.” (273). In that respect, ISIS functions as a visual regime, using the media, screen, cameras, and other technologies to affect the mind.

The overall aim of this study is to demonstrate, through employ the various concepts mentioned in this Introduction and reflecting the above-noted philosophical discourse, that ISIS deliberately chooses this specific form of visual apparatus, which interweaves horror with Classical Pastoral nature in a highly sophisticated way. It is not accidental that ISIS adopts exotic locations as a decorative background to its killing. Rather, it is a strategic maneuver in a soft-war battle against the Western world.

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Chapter 1 - Nature and God; and their Connection with Terror and Violence The landscape called Nature, has no frame. We are

painted there too so we do not see the frame called God (Inuo Taguchi, "Nature is God")

The connection between‘Nature’ and‘God’isevident in the above poem entitled "Nature is God", as well as in books such as God's Book of Works: The Nature and

Theology of Nature (2003), and is also known as a philosophical theory called

Pantheism, which sees nature or the Universe as identical with the divinity: “God is everything and everything is God” (Sprigge, 191). The father of Pantheism is considered to be the Dutch-Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza, who mentions early on in his book

The Ethics (1677) the indistinguishability between God and nature: “The eternal and

infinite being whom we call God or Nature acts by the same necessity by which he exists […] Therefore, why God or nature acts and the reason why He exists are one and the same" (162). Spinoza asserted that it makes no sense to discuss the notion of God separately from nature, as they are one. Nature is everywhere and God is not outside of it and therefore must be a part of it. Spinoza was not the only one to posit this binding of the concepts. This section further examines the thinking of other philosophers, debating God, nature, and religion from different angles, in connection to their appearance in the ISIS execution videos. My rationale for examining these concepts together is that ISIS motivations to kill are often justified by it by its Islamic religion, a holy war - ‘Jihad’, and faith in God (Allāh), which is connected to the hypothesis of this study that ISIS uses nature as décor, a setting in its representation of God. This section focuses on the idea that ISIS uses these beautiful natural locations as décor not just as an artistic choice but also as a religious choice, considering the equivalence between nature and God.

God’s name is used in their films, such as in the mass murder of the 21 Coptics in Libya, "A message signed with blood to the nation of the cross", in which one of the killers in military camouflage uniform, intended to blend him in with his natural

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surroundings, similar to animals in nature, declared in American-accented English that: “We swear to Allāh we will mix it with your blood” (00:04:50)11. In another video "A

message to America", Islam and Muslims also feature in an ISIS speech: "Any aggression towards the Islamic State, is an aggression towards Muslims" (00:03:59)12. In the video

"Healing the Believers' Chests" displaying the immolation of the Jordanian pilot Muath Al-Kassasbeh13, Islam and Muslims are mentioned (00:01:17; 00:01:25), as are

quotations from the Qur'an (00:18:57). In addition to the obvious religious symbols, nature is clearly prominent in all the films mentioned whether a sea shore, a desert, or an urban sandy location reduced to rubble, all these elements are fully present in their films. The question thus arises as to whether there is a connection between presenting them on-screen or is it purely an artistic choice, meaningless and disconnected from the concepts derived from the theological world?

In this chapter I explore this connection between nature, Nature, and God, referring to Charles Sanders Peirce's ‘Sign Theory’ in order to demonstrate that such bond can exist. I then explore the ‘liquidity of God’ as a concept in reference to Spilka, Armatas, and Nussbaum who studied the phenomenon of God as a central theme in an effort to comprehend the nature of God in Christianity and Judaism. I demonstrate how ISIS embodies the idea of radical Islam and point out the connections between Islam and nature, as indicated by various Islamic scholars, such as Kamla, Gallhofer, and Hasla. I continue the discussion on ISIS, terror, and violence – focusing on Walter

Benjamin’s ‘Divine Violence’, a concept discussed in the chapter “Critique of Violence” in his book Selected Writings: Volume 1 1913-1926 (1996). In addition to Benjamin’s

11 The full video "A message signed with blood to the nation of the cross" video can be viewed

at: Graphic Video: When Is This Going to End? New ISIS Video Shows Beheading of 21 Kidnapped Egyptian Christians!Perf. 21 Coptic Egyptians.Reblop. DISQUS, 15 Feb. 2015. Web. 26 May 2015. http://reblop.com/graphic-video-new-%E2%80%8Eisis-video-shows-beheading-21-egyptian-copts-christians-beheads-by-islamic-state-nsfw/

12 The full video "A message to America" can be viewed at:

http://op-edaily.com/world-news/warning-extremely-graphic-video-of-james-wright-foley-beheading/

13 The full video "Healing the Believers' Chests" :

http://www.zerocensorship.com/bbs/show_topic/82965-isis-burning-jordanian-pilot-alive-uncut-video#axzz3QigXG96k

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concept and discussion of ‘Divine Violence’, I reference other scholars: Catherine Lord, Slavoj Žižek, and Jacques Derrida. The concept ‘violence’ raises questions of power struggles and I introduce differing perspectives, such as violence as a result of natural causes, as argued by Benjamin; or as an act emerging from the violence we humans use against our planet, as argued by Lord. As suggested by Benjamin, violence can be associated with laws and punishment, and in connection to God as ‘divine violence’ (Benjamin, “Critique of Violence” 249) meaning divine 'commandments' related to God (as God can be a punisher too). This discussion develops with reference to Žižek’s reviews of the ways we perceive and misperceive violence. Žižek also recognizes different kinds of violence, one of which is connected to Benjamin’s ‘Divine violence’ notion, albeit from a different perspective - Žižek refers to ‘Divine Violence’ as a violence influenced by religion and as any extreme form of violence (Žižek, “Violence", 9). I relate to Lord’s article “Precarious Planet: Ecological Violence in The Age of Stupid” (2012), which borrows Žižek’s and Derrida’s concepts and employs them in terms of ecological violence. She adopts them and Benjamin’s terminology in order to explain human violence against the earth and the biosphere, as a power struggle between them. This human violence against the earth is also evident in ISIS’s use and abuse of nature support its own cause – stealing and selling oil to finance their destruction of more nature and world heritage symbols, turning them into dust.

Finally, this chapter explores Timothy Morton’s idea of ‘the beautiful soul syndrome’ in his book Ecology Without Nature: Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics (2007), and its connection with the ISIS actions. This approach highlights the ISIS actions that the public perceives as horrific, but which are perceived by ISIS supporters differently. Bettering the world is a matter of perspective, and when acting from radical belief one can do harm while believing that one’s actions are pure as being ‘the beautiful soul’. The complexity of the term ‘the beautiful soul’ in connection to ISIS is further discussed in this chapter.

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God = Nature

It is my contention that a firm connection can indeed be established between nature, Nature (with a capital N), God, and religion. Before beginning the discussion of the ramifications of each concept individually, I would like to suggest a semiotic, philosophical argument that supports this connection. The logic behind connecting these concepts, especially nature, which seemingly derives from a different world of thoughts than God and religion, is connected to semiotics, or the theory of sign relations. This theory is posited by Charles Sanders Peirce, in Letters to Lady Weltby (1953). Peirce's Sign Theory, or Semiotics (the science of signs), is a theory of language and reasoning, and offers an account of signification, representation, reference, and meaning. He defines “semiosis” as an "action, or influence, which is, or involves, a cooperation of three subjects, such as a sign, its object, and its interpretation not being in any way resolvable into actions between pairs" (Peirce and Houser, 411). The theory, based on a triadic sign model, suggests that all forms of thinking depend on the use of signs. He suggests that there are three kinds of signs: the icon, the index, and the symbol. The sign is a stimulus pattern that has a meaning; an icon is the pattern that physically resembles what it `stands for'; and the index is defined by some sensory feature 'A' (for instance, smell, hearing, or sight) that correlates with and thus implies or indicates 'B' as something with a meaning as an indexical sign. Moreover, each thought is itself already a sign, and every act of reasoning consists of an evaluation process and deciphering of signs. The signs can function as mediators between different ideas from the external world, and the theoretical, conceptual, or even theological world. In the present study it means a connection between nature – water, sand, rocks, and so on, and the internal spiritual world of ideas – God and faith. It is a process of alliance between signs, their objects, and their mental representations. According to this theoretical logic a desert or water in the ISIS films is a symbol of God, an index, a visual metaphor. Consequently, ISIS's Nature (with a capital N which contains the un-natural parts) is connected to religion and God. Thus, I argue that for ISIS Nature =

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God14. Although, one of this work’s aspects is to discuss the comparison of nature (with

a small n) to God, I argue that the definition of Nature (with a capital N) with its unnatural qualities as presented in the Introduction, is a more appropriate definition when also including God, religion, and belief.

However, beyond signs and the symbolic approach that acknowledges the connection between the symbols of Nature and God as suggested in the semiotic

approach, the two concepts - nature and God - often seem to accompany one another in the academic literature and theological debates, and sometimes are even treated as identical (Sprigge; Spilka, Armatas, and Nussbaum). In the present examination of whether ISIS is trying to enforce upon the world a caliphate, an Islamic religion-based government, the notion of God needs to be discussed, as religion and God are the main components in ISIS’s propaganda and its motives for terror. In Islamic theology, God (Allāh) is the ultimate powerful, knowledgeable creator, and judge of everything in existence. God appears with 99 names in the Qur'an, each time with a different quality or aspect of his nature (Fleming and Worden, 37). The word 'God' in its simplest meaning has no direct connection to nature. Nevertheless, according to the Oxford

English Dictionary ‘God’ is defined as “the creator and ruler of the universe; the supreme

being”, and also as an entity that has “power over nature” (God, Oxford English

Dictionary). Thus, the word ‘nature’ seems to be built-in already in the general

definition of God.

Surprisingly, even though God is perceived as a divine concept, with no scientific proof of existence, a connection between God and nature is also evident in legal

terminology. The legal term ‘act of God’ refers to natural disasters, as defined in the

Black Law Dictionary (1995): “Any misadventure or casualty is said to be caused by ‘the

act of God’ when it happens by the direct, immediate and exclusive operation of the forces of nature, uncontrolled or uninfluenced by the power of man and without human intervention”; and it is also emphasized that it happens in such a manner that it could not have been avoided (act of god, Black Law Dictionary). God in this case, in legal

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discussions, is who the court of law sees in charge and as legally responsible for disasters like floods, earthquakes, and storms, which are pure acts of raging nature. This somewhat absurd claim that God is legally guilty for natural disasters was

parodied in the film “The Man Who Sued God” (Joffe,2001), about a lawyer whose boat was struck by lightning and who sued the church and his insurance company under the claim that God was responsible for the damage. That the law charges God for these natural disasters rather than, for instance, calling them an ‘act of nature’, demonstrates how strong the bond is between these concepts, and reinforces the focal hypothesis of this study.

God as a Liquid Concept

‘God’, however, is a very complex concept, an abstract idea that can be interpreted in different ways. Here, I refer to God as a concept according to the hypothesis posited by Spilka et al. in their article “The Concept of God”, in which they attempted to

comprehend the different meanings given to God, in both Christianity and Judaism. They recognize that this concept, God, has different stages of understanding from childhood to adulthood: the fairytale stage, the realistic stage, and an individualistic stage. They conclude that God as a concept has a self-defined meaning: “Self-concepts are virtually a linear transformation of the social desirability scale values of the referent words themselves, the same may also hold true to mother, father, and God-concepts” (29). They base their methodology on the question – “What does God mean to you? Please indicate by defining what the nature of God is” (30). In other words, God is a liquid concept that changes for each person individually, and is also continuously affected and structured by the changes that occur in our social values. This liquidity allows different religions, or sets of beliefs, to define the subjective meaning they attach to this concept. Consequently, I argue that ISIS as a religious terror group constructs its own concept of God as its own interpretation of its own God, and its own view of the book it claims to follow: the Qur'an.

This argument is supported by the scholarly discussion on the interrelationship between God, nature, and law, with agreement on a possible connection between these concepts. For example, Adrian Michael Hough subscribes to this sense in his book God is

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Not 'green': A Re-examination of Eco-theology (1997), and suggests replacing the word

'environment' with the word 'creation' in order to indicate the theological connection or God-like guidance: "It may be preferable to use the word 'Creation' rather than 'Environment', provided that we acknowledge that we are a part of that creation. Such a use also serves to remind us of a higher authority which lies behind the universe and which is responsible for its creation" (Hough, 21). He suggests that by using ‘Creation’ we detach the human factor from nature, making humans weak and passive. He also argues that humanity should act in an opposite way and return power to humankind by ‘environing’ the Creation and controlling it.

The phenomenon of God as the monotheistic ruler has developed in different religions, all claiming God for themselves, from their different schools of thoughts, views, and books with interpretations of God’s will. Žižek defines religion as “a multifarious phenomenon, which offers itself for different uses” (Žižek, “Living in the End Times”, 97), and as such the results are also diverse. It is this diversity that is a source of confusion as, according to Žižek, together with the good influences and virtues, some aspects of religions also has a dark, negative, and radical side: “Only religion can make good people do bad things” (Ibid.), he argues, and explains how this ideology of evil versus good can be created by religious or denominational belief. He refers to the use of violence in the name of God, providing examples from Christian ideology, and especially focuses on the statement: “I bring not peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34-9). This statement matches the ISIS ideology and its calls to bring war and destruction upon the West. This is clearly seen for instance in the video of the 21 Coptics by the Libyan shore, when the ISIS member conducting the killing says: “We will conquer Rome, by Allāh’s permission," pointing his knife toward the sea (00:04:30). ISIS repeats these threats publically both on-line and in its other videos. In that sense

equivalent to Matthew’s statement according to Žižek's understanding, aiming to bring the sword and not peace as an extremist Islamic group.

However, Islam is also known to have other more peaceful aspects; the color representing Islam is green, also associated with the color of nature, which is often believed be the favourite color of the Prophet Muhammad. Other scholars, such as

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Kamla, Gallhofer, and Hasla, in their article “Islamic Nature and Accounting: Islamic Principles and the Notion of Accounting for the Environment” (2006), have indicated a relationship between Islam and nature. According to them there is a strong connection in the Qur'an between nature and God and the need to respect the environment: “The Qur’anic emphasis on the environment and the Earth is an indication of how critical the relationship is between humankind and the Earth and Universe in Islamic discourse. The need to care for the Earth and the environment, and a related need to spread virtue and good deeds, are repeatedly demanded in the Qur'an.” (248). In the connection between God and nature they also explain that the color green is considered to be blessed in Islam, as “It represents a ‘profound sense’ of the value of nature for God and Muslims” (248). Therefore, it is not too surprising that the “eco Muslim” magazine has called the Qur'an “The ultimate green-guide” for Muslims (Zaufidhan, n.pag).

Considering the above, it seems that the use of Nature as a setting in the ISIS videos comes naturally to it. The relationship between humankind and the Earth that the Qur'an suggests could present one reason for Nature being so clearly evident in its videos. In “A message signed with blood to the nation of the cross” (figure 5), the beautiful wild nature by the sea functions as a setting for the ISIS scenario throughout the 5-minute video: as the ISIS members march their victims in orange jumpsuits to their execution, the beauty of the water behind them recalls the connection between Nature, God, and the acts that this group is about to perform in the name of God.

Fig 5: An image published from an ISIS video “A message signed with blood to the nation of the cross”, ISIS, Reblop (00:03:22)

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Divine Violence

According to the scholars Benjamin and Lord, violence in our world is a result of natural causes, emerging from the violence we humans use against our planet. As suggested by the German philosopher and cultural critic, Walter Benjamin, violence can be associated with laws and punishment also including those related to God’s commandments in that sense, ‘divine violence’ can also mean ‘divine commandments' (“Critique of Violence” 249). Benjamin also refers to violence as a natural act or response by human beings, and it could thus also be argued that violence, ISIS’s motives and its brutal acts of killing, could be perceived as natural acts.

Already in the early 20th century Benjamin discussed the philosophical and ethical rationale to analyse the rationale for the unreasonable act of the deliberate murder of humans. Furthermore, he discussed the connection between violence and nature, arguing that “Violence is a product of nature, as if it were a raw material, the use of which is in no way problematical unless force is misused for unjust ends” (“Critique of Violence”, 236). For Benjamin, the border between what seems to be legitimate, natural violence, and illegitimate violence, is not easily defined: “The meaning of the distinction between legitimate and illegitimate violence is not immediately obvious: The misunderstanding in natural law by which a distinction is drawn between violence used for just ends and violence used for unjust ends must be emphatically rejected” (Benjamin, “Critique of Violence”, 238). Regarding ISIS’s murderous acts, Benjamin could have perceived its violence as a natural act, but this does not mean he would have justified it as what he calls a ‘just end’. Could it be that, in this case, the ISIS murders can be perceived as falling under the category of 'unjust ends', although this may well

depend on the view point of those who see its acts, and how much they identify with the ISIS general agenda. Moreover, ISIS's violent acts can be viewed in reference to

Benjamin’s discussion of ‘mythical violence’ and ‘divine violence’, in regard to ethical questions.

Benjamin is interested in the nature of violence, and looks at the term ‘violence’ in relation to moral perspectives. His concept of ‘divine violence’ in “Critique of

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between ‘mythical violence’ and ‘divine violence’ as two opposing and colliding forces. At the same time, the separation between these two is not always clear. By ‘mythic violence’ he refers to the power of human law and authority while ‘divine violence’ constitutes the force that reflects God’s will, a divine will. He writes: “If mythic violence is lawmaking, divine violence is law-destroying; if the former sets boundaries, the latter boundlessly destroys them; if mythic violence brings at once guilt and retribution, divine power only expiates; if the former threatens, the latter strikes; if the former is bloody, the latter is lethal without spilling blood” (“Critique of Violence”, 249), and continues: "If mythic violence brings at once guilt and retribution, divine power only expiates" (“Critique of Violence”, 250). Benjamin asserts that mythic violence is the “ground” of the “law”; while divine violence opposes it “in all respects”: "Just as in all spheres God opposes myth, mythic violence is confronted by the divine" (Ibid). He uses various examples to illustrate the difference between mythic violence and divine

violence, such as contrasting the legend of Niobe’s fate with that of the judgment by God in the Bible: "God's judgment strikes privileged Levites, strikes them without warning, without threat, and does not stop short of annihilation" (Ibid).

Benjamin writes about the State’s (political) violence, which can be understood here as mythical violence, versus the people’s (proletarian) violence. Only the former seems to be unjustified violence, as the proletariat seek rather to put an end to the violent acts of the State. The ISIS acts can be similarly perceived as acts of anarchism against the State, as mythic violence. However, the issue is more complicated, as ISIS, the Islamic State proclaimed group, actually wishes to become a State itself. It destroys the existing laws in order to create its own laws, based on Sharia law (the body of Islamic law). Perceived thus its violence is unjustified from Benjamin’s point of view. Its behavior is also violent and unjustified from another perspective; Benjamin argues that it is only when there is a moral aspect to an action that it can be considered as a

justified violent action. ISIS’s acts are immoral, and therefore cannot be justified. Benjamin also relates to divine violence as an act of violence that supposedly reflects Gods’ wishes: “Mythic violence in its archetypal form is a mere manifestation of the gods”, and as a manifestation of their existence (“Critique of Violence”, 248). In that

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sense ISIS can also be seen as acting from a divine violence perspective as it claims to be following God’s orders in its violent acts. Benjamin also refers to two legal aspects that legitimate violence; the ‘natural law’ and the ‘positive law. The natural law is the natural behavior of a person to move in the right direction (a natural act). Regarding natural behavior and terrorism, he argues: “Violence is a product of nature, as if it were a raw material” (“Critique of Violence”, 236). However, this does not justify ISIS’s terrorism acts, and Benjamin further restricts his claim, arguing: “Unless it is misused for unjust ends” (“Critique of Violence”, 237). The question of whether or not the ISIS goal is just or unjust can be debated between radical Islamists and ISIS supporters, and the rest of the world, the majority of which objects to the ISIS actions. Considering that most people see the ISIS acts as brutal, I conclude that, according to Benjamin’s perspective, the ISIS misuse of power makes its acts un-natural.

Thus, global warming, pollution, and even 'terror' activity can all be argued to be part of this natural process of rebound violence by the eco-system against humans. In the article “Precarious Planet: Ecological Violence in The Age of Stupid” the eco-fiction writer, director, and scholar Catherine Lord relates to Benjamin’s ‘Divine Violence’ as the ‘Divine Power’ (3). She employs his terminology in order to explain human violence against the earth and the biosphere as a power struggle between them. She strengthens the idea that ‘divine violence’ or ‘power’ is used in the name of God as punishment, and argues that “In contrast, the violence that is associated with the Judaic tradition of punishment and law, the ‘divine power’ is modern, ‘expiatory’ and ‘educative” (Ibid.). This argument suggests that in ISIS’s case it is winning a power game over nature, like painting the blue ocean in blood-red: a power game of Ego versus Eco, ISIS versus Nature or God. Moreover, from another angle, Benjamin’s and Lord’s thoughts on the ‘divine’ could explain why Nature with a capital N and its additional religious content appear in the background of the beheadings. It may be there because ISIS might have chosen deliberately to use nature as God in the films, and to demonstrate that God as Nature is on its side. Thus, if God is on its side, this use of Nature also follows the tradition of reason and punishment, of the ‘Divine Violence’, familiar from the three major monotheistic books: The Bible, the Qur'an, and The New Testament. The 21

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Coptic Egyptians who were brutally beheaded on the Libyan beach had sinned in the eyes of ISIS and so, in the name of God (Allāh); ISIS performs its ‘divine violence’ and acts to punish the sinners. In all three ISIS videos, Allāh’s name is mentioned multiple times. For instance, in the previously mentioned video, against the sea as background, the leader of the event (dressed in camouflage) says: “The sea you've hidden Sheikh Osama bin Laden’s body in, we swear to Allah we will mix it with your blood”

(00:02:31). The name of Allāh with ISIS as his messenger, demonstrates how ISIS embodies God-like powers: it is controlling nature, controlling the lives and deaths of people; and it also destroys nature, by bombing and vandalizing it.

Thus, by exploiting the planet in the name of God, ISIS indicates Nature as divine, as the additional religious flavor to their messages. By using nature’s beauty, they add an aesthetic theological dimension that embodies their ideological representation. ISIS seemingly follows the Qur'an. Indeed, there are many similarities in the different monotheistic religions in the idea of re-creation, of chaos, of a new world order, and of punishment. For ISIS a caliphate means a new world order, and if God is, according to some religions, the source of creation, the ISIS mission is to follow that line of

theological thought. If we relate to the first verse of the first chapter in the Bible (Genesis1:1), which narrates God’s creation, then ISIS’s use of Nature as décor in its videos could make sense.

‘Divine Violence’ is a term that romanticizes the use of violence as something that is divine, as in superior and holy. The souls of the ISIS members are thus rewarded for their being faithful to their God. Therefore, I argue that the act of killing is also the act that brings them close, to their new goal, and closer to their God, and imbues in them a sense of religious exultation. I mentioned earlier that ISIS exploits nature’s beauty and ‘beauty’, introducing the issue of aesthetics, which will be discussed in depth in the next chapter, referring to ‘the sublime’ and ‘the ugly sublime’ concepts . However ‘beauty’ is not just an external aesthetic mode but also a matter of an internal state, such as the beauty of the soul. ISIS reflects Timothy Morton’s particular notion of ‘the beautiful soul syndrome’. Morton borrows the concept ‘beauty of soul’ from the German philosopher, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. However, differing from Hegel,

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who discusses the purity of the soul, Morton mocks the beautiful souls. While he attributes this concept to environmental fundamentalists, I borrow his concept in connection to ISIS’s actions. Morton argues: “The beautiful soul washes his or her hands of the corrupt world, refusing to admit how in this very abstemiousness and distaste he or she participates in the creation of that world. The world-weary soul holds all beliefs and ideas at a distance. The only ethical option is to muck in” (Morton, 13). He sees in the one who claims to better the world as one who in fact participates in destroying it. Similarly, ISIS acts as if it is developing beautiful souls, believing that creating a better world with its caliphate and new world order. Its path, however, is one of destruction, death, terror, and sin. Morton further explains that there is a gap between the way the beautiful souls, ISIS in this case, perceive themselves as the world’s saviors enforcing what they see as the correct way, and the actual horrific acts they perform to achieve their goal. As ISIS employs terror and violence to achieve what it believes is a noble cause (see all three videos in which God is mentioned as its inspiration), these acts should be further analyzed.

Terror and Violence

ISIS’s acts present a clear use of violence in order to achieve its goals, to conquer, to return the world to the time of the Prophet Muhammad, to a caliphate. Violent acts performed by different groups are frequently termed ‘terrorism’. The New York Times

Magazine has noted that research is struggling with defining who is to be considered a

terrorist, a rebel, or a soldier? In an article describing the methods used by the U.S. government to identify potential terrorists, employing data such as education, age, and behavior, the reporter Matt Apuzzo concludes that: “The murky science seems to imply that nearly anyone is a potential terrorist. Some studies suggest that terrorists are likely to be educated or extroverted; others say undereducated recluses are at risk” (n.pag). Consequently, there are conflicting findings, and many of them are motivated by politics.

In light of this, it seems appropriate to discuss the term “terrorism” and ask - When do we as a society consider militants and their resistance or means of war as terrorism? The shift to considering them as terrorists happened immediately after ISIS exploded

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into the public eye in August 2014. The execution video that got the media's attention was the beheading of the American freelance journalist, James Foley. ISIS stunned the world with its graphically detailed brutal murder. It also provoked the West, mainly America, with direct messages to their leadership: the video entitled "A Message to America" contained a direct threat to the American President, Barack Obama, with a demand to stop the air strikes and military operations against the ISIS forces in Iraq. Foley's execution in the video showed him kidnapped and executed in desert-like surroundings, dressed in an orange jump-suit, similar to the outfits worn by the 21 murdered hostages in Libya. These images became viral, opening the news reports world-wide, and ISIS became notorious almost overnight. This was not ignored by the American Government, and two months later (October 2014), ISIS (under the name ISIL - Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) was officially declared a foreign terror group15.

From that moment on there was global agreement that the ISIS actions constituted pure acts of terror and its members were considered terrorists. However, ‘terrorism’ itself is a problematic term, with more than 200 definitions, none of which are internationally agreed upon as a single definition (Simon, 29). The aim here is not to add yet another definition of the term, but more to explain why the definition itself is problematic in tagging a group as a terror group. It is quite clear nonetheless that the term has its negative connotations. According to Jonathan Matusitz, who focuses on the role of communication in terrorism in his book Terrorism and Communication: A Critical

Introduction (2013), the very use of the word ‘terrorism’ suggests a negative action:

‘’Terrorism is a pejorative term. When people employ the term, they characterize their enemies’ actions as something evil and lacking human compassion. Terrorism is considered worse than war, torture, or murder’’ (2). ISIS actions in which they execute people, film it, and distribute it on-line, reflect the idea of lacking human compassion. Such actions can also be seen as worse than war, as some of their victims are civilian aid workers or journalists and not part of any army.

15The source for the American government declaration is taken from the U.S. Department of

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ISIS's violent actions used to terrorise the public seem to be part of a religious war, a Jihad. As noted earlier, this sort of religious fervor was discussed by Benjamin, as

‘divine violence’ and ‘mythic violence’, and was mentioned briefly by Žižek regarding the extreme sides of religions, leading to violent behavior. To elaborate more on his thinking on violence, Žižek suggested a few years ago in his book, Living in the End

Times (2010), that terror is one of the concerns which might bring the apocalypse upon

humankind. This connects to Derrida's ‘natural behavior’ in Žižek’s discussion of the idea of ‘liberalism’, where he touches upon different kinds of societies; and each one, he suggests, constitutes more of an evil association than the other. He concludes that there is pessimism regarding human nature and argues: "Man is a selfish and envious animal, and if one attempts to build a political system appealing to his goodness and altruism, the result will be the worst kind of terror" (Žižek, "Living in the End Times", 38).

Therefore, human nature with all its flaws such as envy, selfishness, and enforced ideas, is thus currently leading to terrorism. As humans living in the end times, we are

witnessing an increasing amount of threats such as terrorism, climate change, and political instability, with ‘the end of times’ prophecy finding expression in the ISIS videos, and its self-justified attempt to enforce a caliphate. Žižek’s claim is also similar to Lord’s contention regarding the eco-system fighting back against humanity, as if terror is another by-product of this struggle.

Žižek reviews the ways in which we perceive and misperceive violence, and he recognizes different kinds of violence: physical violence (terror, mass murder), ideological violence (racism, incitement, sexual discrimination), subjective violence (created by social agents, evil individuals), and divine violence as a result of religion or an extreme forms of violence (Žižek, “Violence", 9). With divine violence he, again, refers to Benjamin's ‘divine violence’, however in a more extreme way. Divine violence for Žižek differs from regular violence – divine violence is an act so strong and powerful that it must upset the social order and capitalism. If it derives from revenge, or is

deployed for a political agenda, like terrorism in general and ISIS in particular, for Žižek it will not be considered as ‘divine’. This perspective allows Žižek to dismiss monsters such as Hitler and Nazism as not violent enough but rather as “tasteless”. In his book In

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Defense of Lost Causes (2008), he provocatively argues that the Holocaust was not

violent enough, as it did not shake the status quo: “Crazy, tasteless even, as it may sound, the problem with Hitler was that he was not violent enough, that his violence was not ‘essential' enough. Nazism was not radical enough, it did not dare to disturb the basic structure of the modern capitalist social space” (Žižek, “In Defense of Lost Causes", 151). Following this argument, the ISIS violence, according to Žižek, should not only be considered the opposite act of ‘divine violence’ due to its connection to terrorism and its political agenda, but also because its financial model, annexing oil fields, is based on a capitalistic model. ISIS is calling for an Islamic religious new order, after the

apocalypse; but at the same time it maintains the financial model of the Western world. Lastly, Žižek examines the causes motivating ISIS and other violent organizations to act violently. He suggests looking at violent acts, like ISIS's acts, as various forms of

subjective violence caused by objective violence:

Objective violence is invisible since it sustains the very zero level standard against which we perceive things as subjectively violent. Systemic violence is thus something like the notorious dark matter of physics, the counterpart to an all too visible subjective violence. It may be invisible, but it has to be taken into account if one is to make sense of what otherwise seem to be ‘irrational’ explosions of subjective violence (“Violence”, 2)

The outbursts of subjective violence are caused, according to Žižek, by various invisible social conditions, which were created by other forms of systemic violence towards them. In connection to ISIS, Žižek implies its violence could be “blamed” as a result of other invisible forms of violence towards ISIS members and could actually have initiated their violent behavior.

In addition to Žižek's connection between violence, religion and terror, the French-Algerian philosopher Jacques Derrida discusses violence as a natural or un-natural act. In his book Acts of Religion (2002), Derrida suggests that the connection between

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Dit komt omdat Sociale Koop voor de belasting in zijn oorsprong eigenlijk geen koop met bijzondere voorwaarden is, waarbij geldt dat de overdrachtsbelasting betaald dient te

Various factors were identified as possible contributors to poor control and were grouped as follows: insufficient treatment for disease state, dispensing problems, adverse effects

A body that is described by this technique will be referred to as an Element Orientation based Body (EOB). Once the internal configuration in the EOB is obtained, its stiffness

Among the skills and abilities people develop in the human form of life are skills for expressing, either in the activity of speech or in writing, ways of thinking about the