IS is known for its extensive and effective use of propaganda. [1] It uses a version of the Muslim Black Standard flag and developed an emblem which has clear symbolic meaning in the Muslim world. [2]
Videos by IS are commonly accompanied by nasheeds (chants), notable examples being the chant Dawlat al-Islami Qamat, which came to be viewed as an unofficial anthem of IS, [3] and Salil al-Sawarim. [4]
In November 2006, shortly after the group's rebranding as the "Islamic State of Iraq", it established the Al-Furqan Foundation for Media Production (Arabic : مؤسسة الفرقان للإنتاج الإعلامي, romanized: Muasasat al-Furqān lil'īntāj al'ilāmī), which produces CDs, DVDs, posters, pamphlets, and web-related propaganda products and official statements. [5] It is the primary media production house of the Islamic State and responsible for production of major media releases, including the statements of the spokesman and leader of the group.
It was founded by the Iraqi man Dr Wa'il al-Fayad, known as Abu Muhammad al-Furqan. He got his name "al-Furqan" from his role in founding this media house, which was named after the 25th sura of the Quran Al-Furqan. [6] It is the oldest media production house for the Islamic State, being founded in November 2006 to release media for the Islamic State of Iraq. The earliest release indexed by the SITE Intelligence Group is on 21 November 2006, documenting the storming of a police station in the Iraqi town of Miqdadiyah. [7] [8]
Al-Furqan is considered to be a considerable innovation in jihadist media, with Kavkaz Center describing it as "a milestone on the path of jihad, a distinguished media that takes the great care in the management of the conflict with the crusaders and their tails and to expose the lies in the crusader's media."
In October 2007, the Long War Journal reported on United States Army raids targeting al-Furqan media cell members across Iraq, including in Mosul and Samarra. [9] Between August 2013 and March 2014 they released the 22 part series Messages from the Land of Epic Battles. [10] On 2 September 2014 SITE Intelligence Group discovered the beheading video called A Second Message to America , [11] [12] about the death of Steven Sotloff. [13] [14] [15]
Since then, Al-Furqan has released videos of their operations across Iraq and Syria, as well as execution videos directed to governments around the world. In April 2019, Al-Furqan released a video Interviewing Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, which is their last video as of today.
Al-Furqan also produces media in the form of audio, which consists mostly of recordings of IS leaders and spokesmen giving speeches, as well as producing a single nasheed under their name called "Ya Allah Al-Jannah" (O Allah, (we ask you for) Paradise), sung by now-dead member of IS, Uqab Al-Marzuqi.
It began to expand its media presence in 2013 with the formation in March of a second media wing, Al-I'tisam Media Foundation, [16] [17] and another IS media foundation, the Ajnad Foundation for Media Production (Arabic : مؤسسة أجناد للإنتاج الإعلامي; muasasat ajnād lil'īntāj al'ilāmī), established in January 2014, which specialises in acoustics production for nasheeds with no music, as to adhering to the prohibition of music instruments in Islam, [18] and Qur'anic recitation. [19] [20]
The organization notably starts its career around in August 20, 2013, when the Islamic State started gaining territory. [21] After Al-Furqan used the nasheed "Ya Dawlatal Islam, Ya Dawlatal Iqdam" as the sole intro for its 22-part series, the famous nasheed "Ummati Qad Laha Fajrun", one of the first nasheeds made by the Ajnad Foundation appeared in the last 2 parts of the series. Later on, the nasheed "Ya Dawlatal Islam, Ya Dawlatal Iqdam" would be recorded once again by Ajnad, featuring a brand-new melody and minor alteration of the original lyrics, as well as being sung by Maher Meshaal.
Ajnad Foundation would once again rise to fame when Al-Furqan released Saleel As-Sawarim 4 in 2014, which documents IS operations in Iraq and Syria, as well as premiering the famous nasheed Saleel As-Sawarim. [22] Another nasheed, called Qariban Qariba (Soon, Soon) would be released, often played alongside the group’s more unusual executions, including the burning of a Jordanian pilot, the burning of a Turkish and a Kurdish soldier, an execution where several prisoners of war were put into a car then shot with a rocket, and another execution where several prisoners would be drowned in a cage. [23] Since then, more famous nasheeds would be released by Ajnad until its hiatus during 2020, when the last known nasheed released by then is "Gharibun Dammani Sha'uthul-Bawadi".
In the beginning, munshideen (singers) like Al-Mo'taz bil-'Aziz sang for the foundation. Uqab Al-Marzuqi sang 3 nasheeds, 2 recorded under Ajnad and another under Al-Furqan. After his death, Ajnad released a nasheed to commemorate him.
Some of the known later Ajnad munshideen (singers) are Abu Yasser, who produced more than 40 nasheeds under the labels of Al-Ma'sadah, As-Siddiq, Masami' Al-Khayr Media Centre(s) (all affiliated with Al-Qaeda) and Ajnad Foundation. Khilad Al-Qahtani is also a symbol for Ajnad, as he produced more than 10 nasheeds which is frequently used by IS media centers, as well as getting the honor of being mentioned by Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi in an interview with Al-Furqan Media Production. [24] Maher Meshaal is another Internet-famous munshid who emigrated to the Islamic State from Saudi Arabia in 2013, and sang for Ajnad until his killing in 2015. [25] Abul Hasan Al-Muhajir also was a munshid and the narrator for most Ajnad intros; as with other organizations, before he was promoted to spokesman of the Islamic State. Abu Hamzah al-Qurashi, the spokesman for the Islamic State until his demise in 2021 also produced around 15 nashids during his Ajnad career. [26] Others like Abu Ghuraba' Al-Yamani, Abu Bara' Al-Madani, Nimr Al-Muhajir and others are also IS members that emigrated and joined the organization; though their career is not as famed as other munshids. As of now, some of the munshids still remain anonymous to this day.
Ajnad Foundation also produces full Qur'an recitations, which are recited by Abul-Hasan al-Hasani, Abu 'A'ishah, and other unknown people. They have produced 114 Surahs in the recitation of Hafs 'An Asim, and Surah Al-Ra'd in Warsh 'An Nafi'.
On 4 May 2016 Al-Battar Foundation (IS-supporter media) launched an application on Android called "Ajnad" that allows its users to listen to the songs of the Ajnad Foundation on their mobile phones. [27] The foundation has many singers, the most famous of whom are Abu Yasir and Abul-Hasan al-Muhajir. [28]
In mid-2014, ISIL established the al-Hayat Media Center, which targets Western audiences and produces material in English, German, Russian, Urdu, Indonesian, Turkish, Bengali, Chinese, Bosnian, Kurdish, Uyghur, and French. [29] When ISIL announced its expansion to other countries in November 2014 it established media departments for the new branches, and its media apparatus ensured that the new branches follow the same models it uses in Iraq and Syria. [30] Then FBI Director James Comey said that ISIL's "propaganda is unusually slick," noting that, "They are broadcasting... in something like 23 languages". [31]
In July 2014, al-Hayat began publishing a digital magazine called Dabiq , in a number of different languages including English. [32] According to the magazine, its name is taken from the town of Dabiq in northern Syria, which is mentioned in a hadith about Armageddon. [33] Al-Hayat also began publishing other digital magazines, including the Turkish language Konstantiniyye , the Ottoman word for Istanbul, [34] the French language Dar al-Islam , [35] and the Russian language Istok (Russian : Исток журнал). [36] By late 2016, these magazines had apparently all been discontinued, with Al-Hayat's material being consolidated into a new magazine called Rumiyah (Arabic for Rome). [37]
Like the Ajnad Foundation, the Asdaa Foundation (Arabic : مؤسسة أصداء) or Asedaa Foundation also produces Anasheed (Islamic chants). Some of their Anasheed is used in IS's execution videos, a popular one is their human slaughterhouse execution video released during the time of Eid Al-Adha in 2016. [38] The background nasheed they used was "We Came To Spread Terror Everywhere", produced by the Asdaa Foundation.
The foundation is the closest counterpart to Ajnad in producing Islamic State nasheeds, only difference being Ajnad is directly linked to the Islamic State while Asdaa is only classified as a "supporter organization" (munaser/munasera). One of its munshids, Abu Hafs is a renowned munshid who sings around 70 nasheeds, who as well works with Ajnad Foundation in some instances.
Another Yemeni munshid, Abu Musab Al-Adani, worked temporarily with Asdaa Foundation before defecting back to AQAP, from which he previously defected from.
al-Azaim Foundation for Media Production, run by Islamic State in Khorasan Province, publishes Voice of Khorasan magazine, which covers political and religious topics and also attempts to recruit and incite followers to carry out attacks (anti-Taliban narratives). [39] [40] Islamic State in Hind Province (Hind Wilayah) publishes Voice of Hind magazine, propaganda which encourages Indian Muslims to be recruited and wage jihad, and carry out attacks in the country. [41] It was first published in 2020, and it also supports global warfare against Taliban in Afghanistan. [42]
I'lam Foundation, announced in 2018, is an online multilingual platform mostly used by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, specifically the Tajikistan region of the organization, [43] and the IS–K. [39] In May 2021 it launched al-Hijrateyn, a weekly podcast which presents news, statistics and commentary from the Al-Naba newsletter, it focuses on solutions to moral dilemmas as interpreted by the Islamic State. [44] [45]
IS, in a mid-March 2020 Al-Naba article, described the fearful reaction to COVID-19 as a divinely wrought "painful torment" against Western "crusader nations". [46] An early February article praised God for the same against Iran's Shiites and China. [47]
Along with Fahras and al-Ru'ud (al-Raud Media), [48] these propaganda repositories connected with channels designed to lure online audiences to hotspots of pro-IS communication, a method of designing and maintaining propaganda distribution networks. [49]
At-Taqwa Media Foundation is an IS-sympathizer/supporter outlet [50] [51] which has published about targeting attacks in the Arabian Peninsula [52] and specifically during the 2022 FIFA World Cup. [53]
The group also runs a radio network called Al-Bayan, which airs bulletins in Arabic, Russian and English and provides coverage of its activities in Iraq, Syria and Libya. [54] Huroof is an app created by the Office of Zeal, an Islamic State controlled agency, [55] in order to teach kids Arabic, and to recruit young children into becoming Islamic State soldiers. [56]
IS's use of social media has been described by one expert as "probably more sophisticated than [that of] most US companies". [1] [57] It regularly uses social media, particularly Twitter, to distribute its messages. [57] [58] The group uses the encrypted instant messaging service Telegram to disseminate images, videos and updates. [59]
The group is known for releasing videos and photographs of executions of prisoners, whether beheadings, bombings, shootings, caged prisoners being burnt alive or submerged gradually until drowned. [60] Journalist Abdel Bari Atwan described IS's media content as part of a "systematically applied policy". The escalating violence of its killings "guarantees" the attention of the media and public. [61]
Along with images of brutality, IS presents itself as "an emotionally attractive place where people 'belong', where everyone is a 'brother' or 'sister'". The "most potent psychological pitch" of IS media is the promise of heavenly reward to dead jihadist fighters. Frequently posted in their media are dead jihadists' smiling faces, the Muslim 'salute' of a 'right-hand index finger pointing heavenward' (pointiong towards where Allah is), and testimonies of happy widows. [61] IS has also attempted to present a more "rational argument" in a series of videos hosted by the kidnapped journalist John Cantlie. In one video, various current and former US officials were quoted, such as the then US President Barack Obama and former CIA Officer Michael Scheuer. [62]
It has encouraged sympathisers to initiate vehicle-ramming and attacks worldwide. [63]
A nasheed is a work of vocal music, partially coincident with hymns, that is either sung a cappella or with instruments, according to a particular style or tradition within Sunni Islam.
A beheading video is a video which depicts a live murder in which a hostage or victim is shown to be graphically decapitated, or the head is displayed in the aftermath. Such videos are typically distributed mostly through the Internet, and are often employed by groups seeking to instill shock or terror into a population. Although beheading has been a widely employed public execution method since the ancient Greeks and Romans, videos of this type only began to arise in 2002 with the beheading of Daniel Pearl and the growth of the Internet in the Information Age, which allowed groups to anonymously publish these videos for public consumption. The beheadings shown in these videos are usually not performed in a "classical" method — decapitating a victim quickly with a blow from a sword or axe — but by the relatively slow and torturous process of slicing and sawing the victim's neck, while still alive, with a knife.
Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri, commonly known by his nom de guerreAbu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was an Iraqi militant who was the first caliph of the Islamic State (IS) from 2014 until his death in 2019.
Ahmad Abousamra, known also as Abu Sulayman ash-Shami and Abu Maysarah ash-Shami, was a Syrian-American Islamic militant and ideologue who served as the chief editor of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's Dabiq magazine. In 2013, he was placed on the US Federal Bureau of Investigation's 'most wanted list' and made the subject of a $50,000 reward because of his connections to a Massachusetts terrorism investigation centering on his alleged close associate Tarek Mehanna, who was arrested in 2009 and convicted of terrorism-related charges in a Boston court in late 2011. He was featured on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list for allegedly attempting to obtain military training in his trips to Yemen and Pakistan for the purpose of killing American soldiers overseas.
Taha Sobhi Falaha, better known by his nom de guerreAbu Muhammad al-Adnani al-Shami, was a Syrian militant leader who was the official spokesperson and a senior leader of the Islamic State. He was described as the chief of its external operations. He was the second most senior leader of the Islamic State after its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Media reports in August 2016 suggested he was in charge of a special unit, known as the Emni, that was established by IS in 2014 with the double objective of internal policing and executing operations outside IS territory.
Steven Joel Sotloff was an American-Israeli journalist. In August 2013, he was kidnapped in Aleppo, Syria, and held captive by militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). On September 2, 2014, ISIS released a beheading video, showing one of its members beheading Sotloff. Following Sotloff's beheading, U.S. President Barack Obama stated that the United States would take action to "degrade and destroy" ISIS. President Obama also signed an Executive Order dated June 24, 2015, in the presence of the Sotloff family and other hostage families, overhauling how the U.S. handles American hostages held abroad by groups such as ISIS.
Mohammed Emwazi was a British militant of Kuwaiti origin seen in several videos produced by the Islamist extremist group Islamic State (IS) showing the beheadings of a number of captives in 2014 and 2015. A group of his hostages nicknamed him "John" since he was part of a four-person terrorist cell with English accents whom they called 'The Beatles'; the press later began calling him "Jihadi John".
A Second Message to America is an undated beheading video, depicting the death of Steven Sotloff, published by the Islamic State media department Al-Furqan Media Productions.
David Haines was a British aid worker who was captured by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in early 2013 and beheaded in early September 2014.
Al-Hayat Media Center is a media wing of the Islamic State. It was established in mid-2014 and targets international (non-Arabic) audiences as opposed to their other Arabic-focused media wings and produces material, mostly Nasheeds, in English, German, Russian, Urdu, Indonesian, Turkish, Bengali, Chinese, Bosnian, Kurdish, Uyghur, and French.
The Islamic State – Algeria Province was a branch of the militant Islamist group Islamic State (IS), active in Algeria. The group was formerly known as Jund al-Khilafah fi Ard al-Jazair.
The Islamic State (IS) had its core in Iraq and Syria from 2013 to 2017 and 2019 respectively, where the proto-state controlled significant swathes of urban, rural, and desert territory, mainly in the Mesopotamian region. Today the group controls scattered pockets of land in the area, as well as territory or insurgent cells in other areas, notably Afghanistan, West Africa, the Sahara, Somalia, Mozambique, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As of 2023, large swathes of Mali have fallen under IS control.
Executions by ISIS refers here to killing by beheading, immolation, shooting, or other means of soldiers and civilians by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). ISIL has released a number of propaganda/publicity videos of beheadings or shootings of captives. Houtat Sulūk is reported to be a mass grave.
Maher Meshaal, known as Abu al-Zubair al-Jazrawi, was a Saudi Arabian munshid and Islamic State member.
Dr Wa'il Adel Hasan Salman al-Fayad, known as Abu Muhammad al-Furqan, was an Iraqi man and senior leader in the Islamic State, who served as the head of its central media department and was on the group's shura council.
Salil al-Sawarim is a nasheed (chant) produced by the Islamic State in 2014 and used in Islamic State propaganda and beheading videos and as a theme. It is a melodic a cappella hymn, in which the lyrics discuss about bloodshed and war.
Dawlat al-Islam Qamat, also known by its English name My Ummah, Dawn Has Appeared, is an Islamist jihadi nasheed (chant) which became an unofficial anthem of the Islamic State. It was released in December 2013 and soon became their most popular nasheed. The American magazine The New Republic referred to it as the most influential nasheed of 2014.
Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi was the fourth caliph of the Islamic State and allegedly the first Syrian to serve as caliph. He took office on 30 November 2022.
Hussam Sayid known by his nom de guerre Abu Hamza al-Qurashi was an Iraqi who served as the third spokesman for the Islamic State (IS) from 2019 until his death in November 2021.
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: CS1 maint: ignored DOI errors (link)As of late 2016, Rumiyah has apparently supplanted other internationally oriented publications, as al-Hayat has ceased publishing them