The purpose of this thesis is to investigate if women from the Western world joined ISIS in search of respectability. Beverly Skegg’s (1997) theory of respectability was used as the theoretical framework and as a lens to shape the result. The study collected information on women from the Western world known to have joined the Islamic State and then analyzed them to see if it was respectability they were searching for. Skeggs theory will be further explained in the theory chapter. This thesis is looking at articles, interviews, and YouTube clips of women who have joined ISIS this thesis will determine if it was because of respectability or not. The findings were relevant and useful because the interviews and articles went into depth on why Western women joined ISIS. The result and conclusion for this study are that Western women join ISIS in search of respectability.

This study critically engages with the current security debate on the conceptual understanding of the Islamic State (IS). The study critically evaluates the dominant Western view within the debate that conceptualises IS as an ‘Islamic’ terrorist organisation and a product of the ‘backwardness’ of Islam. By conducting a critical review of the literature on IS, the author argues that such a conceptualisation of IS is rooted in a racist, orientalist and Islamophobic Western epistemological narrative which seeks to create a ‘natural’ link between terrorism and Islam. Through a conceptual discussion on terrorism and a critical assessment of the Eurocentric nature of security studies theories, both traditional and critical, the study shows how hegemonic Western epistemologies are able to conveniently ignore the European roots of terrorism in the foundation of Western modernity. The result of this is that hegemonic Western epistemologies are able to appropriate the concept of security as an exclusive domain of Western states and their societies. This whilst carving out the non-European world, particularly Islamic societies, as the exclusive sources of potential terrorist threats. The study therefore advances the decolonial theoretical concept of global coloniality as a means of reframing the debate and shifting the point of enunciation from dominant Western views of IS to a more critical Global South decolonial perspective. As such, the study places emphasis on the European origins of terrorism as a constitutive element of the foundation of Western modernity, whilst addressing the cognitive confinement of security studies theories. In this light the study concludes by asserting that the Islamic State is a creation of the constitutive violent logic of Western modernity/coloniality, which has terrorism as its foundational core. / Mini Dissertation (MSS)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / National Research Foundation (NRF) / Political Sciences / MSS / Unrestricted

This thesis discusses women and their changing subjectivity in connection to their participation within terrorist movements. Work emphasizes on the case of the Islamic State, currently the most influential terrorist movement; and the role of women within it. For the purpose of introduction into the topic- as well acquaintance with the current state of knowledge- work discusses historical examples of women's participation within terrorist groups. Concerning theoretical framework, this thesis is based on constructivist feminism and gender theory, which examines how thoughts about gender influence global politics. Empirical part of this thesis is devoted to the method of CDA, namely three-dimensional model of CDA implemented by Fairclough as well as additional conceptual framework - grammar of visual design introduced by Kress and van Leeuwen. The main purpose is to examine what the role of women within the Islamic state is, why they are so crucial and the most importantly how the Islamic State affects women's emancipation. Various propaganda materials of IS are analyzed in order to address these issues.

Yes / This paper develops the notion of ‘Talibanization’ – a concept which stems from the resilience and the determination of the Taliban to remain a dominant player in Afghanistan even after the downfall of their state in 2001. The factors that helped the Taliban to maintain their influence after the disintegration of their state constitute a pattern which could be applied to other conflict-driven areas such as Syria. By critically examining the socio-political conditions in the Syrian district of Jarablus, this paper demonstrates the ways in which the inept post-IS administration is inadvertently helping IS to gain what we call ‘retrospective legitimacy’ a drive which could sustain its influence for many years following its downfall.

Abstract This master thesis examines the development of the Islamic discourse on Internet, by a research of the two Islamic expressions ummah and Islamic state. As a platform for the research is a discussion about 9/11 used, in which Giovanna Borradori interviews Jürgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida about terrorism in the modern time. The research has been made in two steps, the first research is made in December 2005 and the second in February 2015. In the first research is the examined words study in BBS’s and blogs, and in the second case is same expressions examined in Twitter. As analyse method is Hans- - George Gadamers displacement of perspective used, to understand the movements in the discourse and the development of Islamic use of Internet. Manuel Castells thoughts about the network society and his work about the power of communication are used as a theorem to understand the Internet and its development in the last decades. The conclusion of this work is pointing at a progression in the use of Internet as a tool for communication in the Islamic community, and a displacement of perspective from western society as the primary enemy, through an internal religious movement to a more diversified conflict among different Islamic groups. Keywords: Internet, E-jihadism,, network society, Islamic, ummah, Islamic state, Twitter, blogs, BBS’s, mediated history, modern history

The aim of the study has been to analyse IS-sympathizers and their commitment to the Islamic State; however, this study will not be able to establish a representative result. The study has instead made an attempt to provide knowledge about four young Swedes who chose to leave Sweden in purpose to sympathize with, and to participate in the Islamic State. By announcing the aim of the study and the complexity of the subject area, the study has a hypothesis appropriated from earlier research which has been investigating young western Muslims. Hence, three question formulations derived; the first question intends to identify the previous research within two subject areas: religious identity and radicalization. The second question intends to analyse which common aim the four IS-sympathizers had for participating with the IS. In conclusion, the third question will analyse the possibility of a correlation between previous research and the collected empirical data. The study used a qualitative content analysis which also applied a deductive approach based on theories of deprivation and radicalization. The result of this study underlines that young Muslims acquire a stronger conflict between their individual and social concept of the world in relation to youths with the major ethnic background. The Western culture is being held up as a factor for a strengthened religious identity among the young Muslims when they are constantly forced to defend their religion. It appears that with a strengthened religious identity and a weakened national identity, the four Swedish IS-sympathizers chose to participate in the fighting in Syria after observing how the Western world had a passive standpoint regarding the prevailed situation in Syria. In this way, the four IS-sympathizers fought in favour of a religious identity in a country that they previously did not acquire a national belonging to.

This thesis looks beyond the sensationalized coverage of Islamic State and instead utilizes Islamic State materials as a window into the remote radicalization and recruitment process of susceptible English-speaking individuals in the West. This thesis considers Islamic State’s mode of operation in conjunction with the appeals made in its online materials to devise a framework for understanding how Islamic State materials interact with susceptible individuals. The framework lends insight into how the body tasked with creating counter-narratives within the U.S. State Department can more effectively disrupt the remote recruitment and radicalization process.

The current conflict in Syria and Iraq has attracted a large number of foreign fighters (FFs) from Western countries. The main question of this thesis is why these countries do not have a similar pattern for their proportions of FFs. This thesis explores this question in nine Western countries with varying proportions of FFs: Finland, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, England, Canada, Australia, and America. Through a case study of Islamic State’s online FF recruitment campaign, it will be shown that common religious identity is the main part of the group’s recruitment message. However, comparing the identified countries on factors related to Muslims’ identity and integration uncovers that common Muslim identity itself is not capable of answering the question; instead, it is Muslims’ integration into their surrounding societies that correlates with proportions of FFs from identified countries. / Graduate / 0615 / 0616 / 0750 / mhashemi@uvic.ca

Bibliographic note Author. ISIS: Terrorist state or terrorist organization . 65 p. Master thesis. Charles University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of International Economic and Political Studies. Supervisor. Abstract The thesis deals with the investigation of the terrorist activities run by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), an entity in the Middle East which is commonly referred to as a terrorist organization. By evaluating the activities run by ISIS in the seized territories, the organization of civil governance and public administration in them, the investigation of the propaganda model applied by ISIS for attracting new members from around the globe, and the analysis of the main sources of funding used by the Islamic State, the author proves that ISIS significantly differs from classical terrorist organizations, and therefore might be assigned the status of a terrorist state. Abstrakt Diplomová práce se zabývá. Keywords Insurgency, ISIS, Islamic State, propaganda, terrorism. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Book Summary: This work is the fourth Small Wars Journal anthology focusing on radical Sunni Islamic terrorists and insurgent groups. It covers this professional journals writings for 2016 and is a compliment to the earlier Global Radical Islamist Insurgency anthologies that were produced as Vol. I: 2007-2011 (published in 2015) and Vol. II: 2012-2014 (published in 2016) and Jihadi Terrorism, Insurgency, and the Islamic State spanning 2015 (published in 2017). This anthology, which offers well over 900 pages of focused analysis, follows the same general conceptual breakdown as the earlier works and is divided into two major thematic sectionsone focusing on Al Qaeda and Islamic state activities in 2016 and the other focusing on US-Allied policies and counterinsurgent strategies.