The Islamic Imagery Project Visual Motifs in Jihadi Internet Propaganda The Combating Terrorism Center Department of Social Sciences United States Military Academy The Islamic Imagery Project: Visual Motifs in Jihadi Internet Propaganda Combating Terrorism Center Department of Social Sciences United States Military Academy March 2006 Published in 2006 by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point 607 Cullum Road United States Military Academy West Point, NY 10996 http://www.ctc.usma.edu To obtain additional information, contact the CTC at 845.938.8495 or email:
[email protected] Foreword Back to table of contents Fred Barnard once said that “One picture is worth a thousand words,” summarizing the reason why we focus on pictures as much as words when we communicate with one another. As many people grapple with how to communicate effectively with the Islamic world, understanding the pictures, motifs, and images and, more importantly, the emotions that they evoke is essential. The Combating Terrorism Center at the United States Military Academy is pleased to provide this report on Visual Motifs in Jihadi Internet Propaganda. This report is the first comprehensive cataloging of the most important and recurring images used in violent jihadi literature, websites, and propaganda. These images can have very different meanings in different cultural contexts, and it is essential for students, teachers, and policy makers to have a way to understand the meaning of these images. This project supports the mission of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, which is to understand better the foreign and domestic terrorist threats to security, to educate leaders who will have responsibilities to counter terrorism, and to provide policy analysis and assistance to leaders dealing with the current and future terrorist threat.