Challenging the Narrative of the “Islamic State” Dr. Alex P. Schmid ICCT Research Paper June 2015 ISIS has brought terrorist propaganda to a new level, targeting its main audiences in nearly two dozen languages with up to 90,000 tweets every day. Governments have generally been at a loss as how to counter the ISIS narrative with persuasive counter-arguments to reduce its attraction for rebellious Muslim youths in Western diasporas and Muslim-majority countries. At the core of ISIS’ narrative are themes familiar to most Muslims. ISIS has appropriated and instrumentalised them for its main purpose: to expand the Caliphate proclaimed in mid-2014. In this Research Paper, Dr. Alex Schmid identifies a dozen narrative themes of ISIS and discusses them from theological, historical and other angles in an attempt to show vulnerabilities and point the way towards developing convincing counter-arguments. While the potential of this approach is demonstrated, Dr. Schmid argues that a concerted and systematic approach, based on synergetic, inter-disciplinary teamwork, is required to develop successful counter- narratives and that these need to be tested on audiences with a cultural affinity to ISIS main target groups before being utilised by credible Muslim voices who wish to engage terrorist ideologues and their potential followers with rational and faith-based arguments. The Research Paper concludes with the observation that developing counter-narratives, while necessary, is not enough. It is even more necessary to develop credible alternative narratives – narratives that can give a new sense of purpose, meaning and hope to those who feel that they have no future in their and our societies. About the Authors Alex P. Schmid is a Research Fellow at ICCT, and Director of the Terrorism Research Initiative (TRI), an international network of scholars who seek to enhance human security through collaborative research. He was co-editor of the journal Terrorism and Political Violence and is currently editor-in-chief of Perspectives on Terrorism, the online journal of TRI. Dr. Schmid held a chair in International Relations at the University of St. Andrews (Scotland) where he was, until 2009, also Director of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence (CSTPV). From 1999 to 2005 he was Officer-in-Charge of the Terrorism Prevention Branch at the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in the rank of a Senior Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Officer. From 1994 to 1999, Dr. Schmid was an elected member of the Executive Board of ISPAC (International Scientific and Professional Advisory Council) of the United Nations’ Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme. Until 1999 he held the position of Extraordinary Professor for the Empirical Study of Conflict and Conflict Resolution (Synthesis Chair) at the Department of Sociology, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, and the position of Research Coordinator of PIOOM (Interdisciplinary Research Projects on Root Causes of Human Rights Violations, Centre for the Study of Social Conflict) at Leiden University. In 2003, Dr. Schmid was appointed Corresponding Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), which was followed by an appointment as Fellow-in-Residence at the KNAW’s Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS) in 2011. Currently, Alex Schmid serves on a number of boards, including Europol’s TE-SAT, the Genocide Prevention Advisory Network (GPAN), the Asia-Pacific Foundation and the Global Terrorism Database of START, a Center of Excellence of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security at the University of Maryland. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT) in Oklahoma. About ICCT - The Hague The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – The Hague (ICCT) is an independent knowledge centre that focuses on information creation, collation and dissemination pertaining to the preventative and international legal aspects of counter-terrorism. The core of ICCT’s work centres on such themes as de- and counter- radicalisation, human rights, impunity, the rule of law and communication in relation to counter-terrorism. Functioning as a nucleus within the international counter-terrorism network, ICCT – The Hague endeavours to connect academics, policymakers and practitioners by providing a platform for productive collaboration, practical research, exchange of expertise and analysis of relevant scholarly findings. By connecting the knowledge of experts to the issues that policymakers are confronted with, ICCT – The Hague contributes to the strengthening of both research and policy. Consequently, avenues to new and innovative solutions are identified, which will reinforce both human rights and security. Contact ICCT – The Hague Koningin Julianaplein 10 P.O. Box 13228 2501 EE, The Hague The Netherlands T +31 (0)70 800 9531 E [email protected] All papers can be downloaded free of charge at www.icct.nl Stay up to date with ICCT, follow us online on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn © ICCT – The Hague 2015 ICCT The Hague – Research Paper Alex Schmid 1 Introduction1 The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (Greater Syria) [ISIS a.k.a. ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), IS (Islamic State) or DAISH (Al-Dawla al-Islamiya fi al-Iraq wa al-Sham)] has been a product of state failure, civil war and the repression of Sunnis by the Shi’ite government of Nouri al-Maliki in Iraq and by the atrocities of the regime of Bashar al-Assad against its own people in Syria.2 Almost as much, however, it is the product of the will to power of a branch of a broader Islamist movement that has been active in Iraq for more than a decade, following the American intervention in Iraq in 2003. Since 15 May 2010, ISIS has been led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who spent some five years in American captivity in the Bucca prison in Iraq, where he was forging ties with imprisoned officers from Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist regime right under the eyes of the American prison authorities.3 ISIS, a jihadi takfiri4 terrorist organisation, now controls, to varying degrees, almost half of northern Syria and more than one third of north- western Iraq, together an area larger than Belgium, an area inhabited originally by 5 to 6 million people of whom, however, more than half a million have fled. ISIS follows a totalitarian and genocidal project comparable in some ways to the one of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia in the late 1970s, with Shiites being the main targets. While estimates about the size of ISIS range from as low as 20,000 people to as high as 100,000 people and beyond,5 this is not enough to hold and govern such a vast territory with millions of people, except by a regime of terror under which a so far unknown (but high) number of people have been demonstratively killed in order to intimidate the rest.6 While controlling substantial areas of land – something unusual for terrorist organisations – ISIS is also very much present in cyberspace, on the Internet where its claims too often go unchallenged. With its propaganda in the social media, and with some of its video footage also broadcast in mainstream media, ISIS has caught the imagination of a considerable number of young rebellious Muslims all over the world who are attracted by its violent messages and catchy slogans. Its apparent success has also led to a number of instant conversions to Islam among mainly marginalised non-Muslim youths in Western countries. At the same time, it has also filled with terror those who have to endure its harsh rule and those who are facing fanatical ISIS fighters at the front lines in Syria and Iraq. The media campaign of ISIS is very professional by any standards, with high- quality visual footage and well-crafted ideological statements attracting young Muslims and some recent converts to Islam to join its ranks. Per day, ISIS produces up to 90,000 tweets and other social media responses – a volume 1 This text is a revised version of a presentation given on 8 December 2014 at a workshop in Hedayah, the International Center of Excellence for Countering Violent Extremism, in Abu Dhabi. The author wish to thank Prof. Rüdiger Lohlker, Dr. Philipp Holtmann, Dr. Milena Uhlmann, Dr. Ugur Ümit Üngör and Dr. Christophe Paulussen for commenting on an earlier version of this text. Responsibility for any shortcomings rests with the author alone. 2 According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, the Syrian government has killed at least 109,347 civilians since 2011 (including 15,149 children and 13,695 women). 5,892 persons were tortured to death. – Cit. Simon S. Cordall. “How ISIS Governs Its Caliphate”. Newsweek, 2 December 2014, http://www.newsweek.com/2014/12/12/how-isis-governs-its-caliphate-288517.html. The repression of Sunnis in Iraq under Maliki was on a lesser scale but includes summary executions of Sunni prisoners by Iraqi security forces, according to Human Rights Watch. (Cit. ibid.) 3 M. M. Gunter, “Why can’t we defeat ISIS”, Hurst, 17 October 2014, http://www.hurstpublishers.com/cant-defeat-isis/#at_pco=cod- 1.0&at_si=5479ca0c4d775ae5&at_ab=per-4&at_pos=1&at_tot=8. 4 Takfir refers to the practice of excommunicating Muslims judged to be insufficiently dedicated to their faith and to sharia rule. Pronouncing against someone takfir turns those targeted into unbelievers (kufar) who can be killed. – John L. Esposito, The Oxford Dictionary of Islam (Oxford: University Press, 2003), p. 312. Since the late 20th century, Islamic fundamentalists have applied the term to other Muslims who do not adhere to their strict interpretations of the Quran. (http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e1229?_hi=6&_pos=15) 5 Zack Beauchamp, “ISIS is losing”, VOX, 24 February 2015, http://www.vox.com/2015/2/23/8085197/is-isis-losing.