CONTEMPORARY DEBATES AND PERCEPTIONS
7. The Use of Violence
It is difficult to hold a serious discussion about ISIS without addressing its use of brutality and relentless violence. ISIS has attacked, tortured, and killed civilians in nearly every province it controls, amounting to massive war crimes and human rights atrocities. Unlike most perpetrators of violence, however, ISIS does not try to cover up its crimes, but rather promotes them through its media campaign. ISIS’s use of violence is to some extent connected to the legacy of Zarqawi, who was known for his horrifying use of violence and came to be known as "the Sheikh of the Slaughterers" amongst fellow jihadists.1 It is also important to recognize how the public display of violence factors into ISIS's state building strategy. ISIS is diligent about justifying brutal acts with religious texts and stories of how Muslim leaders acted in the earliest days of Islam. ISIS is not acting based on religious concepts or theories as most Muslims do, but is attempting to "match its practices with the 'practical' history of Islam," mimicking the often brutal actions of early Muslim leaders.2 Though ISIS frequently refers to Islamic texts to justify its use of violence, there is nothing exclusively Islamic about the brutal and graphic
1 Hassan Hassan, "ISIS has reached new depths of depravity. But there is a brutal logic behind it," The
Guardian, February 7, 2015, accessed February 10, 2015,
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/08/isis-islamic-state-ideology-sharia-syria-iraq-jordan-pilot.
means with which ISIS kills. As Kalyvas points out, many different types of insurgent groups throughout history have used ISIS’s violent tactics.3
Nevertheless, violence plays a very important role in ISIS's military strategy, particularly in its effort to gain control over new territory. A careful analysis of ISIS’s military strategy laid out in the first issue of Dabiq reveals that ISIS’s use of violence is inspired, at least in part, by a book called Idarat al-Tawahush, or Management of
Savagery, by jihadi ideologue Abu Bakr Naji. This book is reportedly a part of ISIS's
ideological curriculum and is widely read amongst ISIS leaders.4 In his book, Naji outlines a strategy for establishing a Sunni caliphate. He encourages jihadists to strategically inflict chaos by striking the country's crucial infrastructure and industries, such as oil fields and tourist sites. This will draw the country's security forces in and around such sites, thereby opening up security vacuums in other parts of the country. Insurgents can then move into these ungoverned areas and establish their own
governments.
In this first issue of Dabiq, ISIS outlines similar plans to weaken central
governments through nikayah (terrorist tactics). Through acts of terrorism, ISIS will be able to inflict tawahhush (mayhem or chaos), the second stage of ISIS's strategy. By inflicting chaos, ISIS is able to consolidate its power in unstable regions and establish
3 Stathis N. Kalyvas, "The logic of violence in the Islamic State's war," The Washington Post, July 7, 2014,
accessed February 3, 2015, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2014/07/07/the-logic- of-violence-in-islamic-states-war/.
new state-like structures. This final stage is referred to in Dabiq as tamkin.5 Thus, "what ISIS gains from violence, it calculates, trumps any losses in popularity.”6
The public display of brutal acts, often intended for foreign governments, serves other purposes as well. Public brutality, firstly, can be attributed to ISIS's desire to receive ransom. By circulating video footage of beheadings, ISIS is assuring foreign governments that it will carry out its threats unless governments pay up. Secondly, and more importantly, ISIS's public use of violence "takes on a media significance that distorts our sense of ISIS’s power. In turn, we become more willing to accept their territorial claims, even ones that don’t stand up to serious analysis."7 In other words, public brutality is a way for the Islamic State to flex its muscles and to prove to its
sympathizers abroad that, despite international efforts to defeat it, ISIS is still "winning." Thus, in an audio statement published by al-Furqan media, al-Adnani, the official ISIS spokesman, said,
Everyone is watching, wondering in confusion and astonishment. They say, 'Does this make sense?! Is the Caliphate rising in the midst of our armies? Is Allah’s law being implemented despite our legions, arsenals, planes, tanks, missiles, aircraft carriers, and weapons of mass
destruction...The Caliphate will remain, by Allah’s permission, until the Day of Judgment, for we are the followers of Muhammad (blessings and peace be upon him), and his followers will never be defeated."8
5 Dabiq, "From Hjrah to Khalifah.”
6 Hassan, "ISIS has reached new depths of depravity."
7 Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, "The Truth About ISIS…They're Better at Twitter Than War," Foundations for
Defense for Democracies, January 8, 2015, accessed February 26, 2015,
http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/gartenstein-ross-daveed-the-truth-about-isis-theyre-better-at- twitter-than-war/.
8 Pietervanostaeyen, "So They Kill and Are Killed" (audio statement by al-Adnani as-Shami), March 12,
This statement supports ISIS's overall message that God is on the side of the Islamic State, and that despite airstrikes and ground troop invasions, the Islamic State will remain. Thus, regardless of ISIS's actual military capabilities, the media plays an extremely important role in promoting ISIS's purported or real military prowess and allows ISIS to more easily consolidate control over its territories. Public displays of brutality against westerners help to reinforce this message.