Danse macabre : Gore Images in the Islamic State’s “Dabiq” Magazine as a Propaganda Device

ABSTRACT

This paper, which adopts the form of a case study, aims to fill a gap in research on the use of gore content in the Islamic State’s online propaganda. It has two major goals. Firstly, to understand the most important features of the graphical imagery included in the former (2014–2016) Islamic State’s flagship online magazine – “Dabiq”. Secondly, to discuss its functions from the viewpoint of promoting the “Caliphate’s” jihadist agenda. In order to realize research objectives, image analysis of pictures included in all volumes of “Dabiq” was carried out. This paper argues that in contrast to audiovisual forms of the IS’s propaganda, editors of this magazine exploited the macabre only to a certain extent, as a tool of secondary importance, through which they attempted to positively influence and inspire Muslim audiences, legitimize violence against the disbelievers and legitimize its call for jihad. Shocking “infidels” – being the obvious motivation of many execution videos released online by Daesh – while sometimes noticeable, was among the least important goals of “Dabiq’s” editorial staff.

Resumen

Este artículo, que adopta la forma de un estudio de caso, persigue llenar un vacío en la investigación sobre el uso de contenido gore en la propaganda online del Estado Islámico. Tiene dos grandes objetivos. En primer lugar, comprender las características más importantes de las imágenes gráficas incluidas en la primera revista online del Estado Islámico (2014-2016): “Dabiq”. En segundo lugar, discutir sus funciones desde el punto de vista de la promoción de la agenda yihadista del “Califato”. Para realizar los objetivos de la investigación, se llevó a cabo el análisis de las imágenes incluidas en todos los volúmenes de “Dabiq”. Este artículo sostiene que, a diferencia de las formas audiovisuales de la propaganda de IS, los editores de esta revista explotaron lo macabro solo en cierta medida, como una herramienta de importancia secundaria, mediante la cual intentaron influir positivamente e inspirar a las audiencias musulmanas, legitimar la violencia contra los descreídos y legitimar su llamada a la yihad. Siendo la motivación obvia de muchos videos de ejecución publicados en línea por Daesh, impactar a los “infieles”, aunque en ocasiones noticiosos, se encontraban entre los objetivos menos importantes del personal editorial de “Dabiq”.

KEYWORDS:

• Cyber terrorism
• cyber jihad
• ISIS
• Islamic State
• propaganda

PALABRAS CLAVES:

• ciberterrorismo
• ciber-yihad
• ISIS
• Estado Islámico
• propaganda

Notes

1. The most popular, censored versions of Foley’s execution (A message to America), as well as media reports on this matter available on YouTube were viewed millions of times (YouTube, 2018).

2. This term was coined by Charlie Winter (2015) in one of his reports.

3. This amount includes separate images from photo collages, frequently exploited in banners advertising al-Hayat Media Center videos in the column “Selected10”.

4. Scenes preceding executions were excluded.

5. I.e. with excessive amounts of blood.

6. There were three exceptions from this trend: issues seven, twelve and fifteen.

7. However, it has to be stressed that one gore picture of the executed Norwegian citizen was also featured.

8. Moreover, “Dabiq” (2014f, p. 42–43) #1 presented the alleged crimes of the Syrian Arab Army against Sunni civilians, which were depicted by both images of dead children and an injured or dead adult within one article, but on separate pages.

9. On the rising importance of shuhada in its actions and ideology see works of Winter (2017) and Freamon (2003).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Narodowe Centrum Nauki (Polish National Science Center) under Grant no. 2017/25/B/HS5/00002.

Notes on contributors

Miron Lakomy

Miron Lakomy assistant professor at the Institute of Political Science and Journalism, University of Silesia, Poland. Holds Ph.D. and habilitation degrees in political science. During his academic career he was a visiting fellow at the University of Oxford and at the European University Institute in Florence. He was also awarded with two scientific scholarships at the University of Cambridge (2011, 2018). He lectured in Italy (Universita degli Studi di Napoli 2011) and France (Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis 2013) under Erasmus LLP program. His research interests focus on digital jihad, cyber security, and military conflicts in the Middle East, Europe and Africa.