In defence of Islam: How the Islamic State justifies violence

Abstract

This chapter applies a framework for analysing the psychology of persuasion to an Islamic State (IS) video on the fall of its last village. Militant groups such as IS have established media campaigns, but little work to date has examined how such media incites people. Understanding cultural justifications of violence helps psychiatrists to determine whether an individual’s violent behaviours represent abnormal behaviours within a social group and can be classified as those that require social, health, or criminal justice intervention. The mechanisms of psychological persuasion in IS’s Arabic video ‘Meanings of Constancy—Wilāyat Al-Shām, Al-Barakah’ include invoking authority by citing the Quran, drawing contrasts between Muslim believers and non-Muslim disbelievers, casting militants as likeable, and presenting audiovisual footage of IS’s enforcement of morality, the military blockade of its last village, and the suffering of children. This framework facilitates comparisons across militant groups and how mechanisms of persuasion evolve within the same group to generate policy-relevant scholarship.