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.

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.

The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the lawfulness of the use of force by the United States of America against the so-called Islamic State in the territory of Syria, in terms of Ius ad bellum. For this purpose, the thesis is divided into three parts. The first part focuses on assessing the subjectivity of the Islamic State. In particular, the subjectivity is examined with regard to the criteria arising from the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States and from professional experience. The Islamic State is assessed in terms of defined territory, permanent population, effective government, capacity to enter into relations with other states, independence and legitimacy. The second part deals with the legal regulation of the use of force in international relations. After the presentation of the historical development, the attention is paid especially to the UN Charter and the ensuing prohibition of the threat or use of force in international relations. In the context of the use of force against the Islamic State, legal exceptions to this prohibition, which could be used in the fight against the Islamic State, are presented. First, attention is paid to the exceptions resulting from the UN Charter, which are self-defense under Article 51 and actions under Chapter VII. Two types of...

Submitted by Ana Carolina Costa (karoll.costa2013@gmail.com) on 2018-10-14T12:40:21Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTAÇÃO - Versão repositório.pdf: 3971401 bytes, checksum: f0adf483f08a8c158f8283dbdc869088 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Lucilene Cordeiro da Silva Messias null (lubiblio@bauru.unesp.br) on 2018-10-15T19:16:35Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 costa_ac_me_bauru.pdf: 3971401 bytes, checksum: f0adf483f08a8c158f8283dbdc869088 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-10-15T19:16:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 costa_ac_me_bauru.pdf: 3971401 bytes, checksum: f0adf483f08a8c158f8283dbdc869088 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-08-30 / Esta pesquisa se propõe a investigar as marcas da cultura audiovisual contemporânea inscritas nas propagandas produzidas pela Al Hayat Media Center, braço midiático do Estado Islâmico (EI) especializado na produção de conteúdos em inglês e idiomas europeus. A investigação cerca-se de um repertório teórico que procura elucidar os motivos por trás das escolhas discursivas e técnicas que dão forma a essas produções, o que nos conduz a três etapas iniciais de trabalho. A primeira é o mapeamento do processo de ascensão dos movimentos fundamentalistas islâmicos modernos, o que nos dá um vislumbre da narrativa que influenciou o pensamento dos ideólogos criadores do Islamismo no século XX, cujas ideias servem como base para a construção do discurso do EI. O passo seguinte é desvelar as práticas midiáticas do movimento do qual o grupo deriva, mostrando como elas evoluíram paralelamente ao processo de globalização e disseminação de novas tecnologias da comunicação. Reflexões sobre os processos constitutivos da cultura e os impactos dos novos sistemas de informação e comunicação sobre eles, sob o viés da midiatização, completam a apreensão do fenômeno, assim como os parâmetros da cultural audiovisual contemporânea que nos ajudam a situar as ações do Estado Islâmico numa sociedade permanentemente "atacada" por bombas de imagens que reavivam o poder do realismo. A partir dessa base teórica, analisamos 10 vídeos lançados pela Al Hayat Media Center entre 2014 e 2016. Disponibilizados no repositório online mantido por Aaron Zelin, pesquisador do The Washington Institute For Near East Policy, eles atendem dois critérios principais: foram divulgados no período de ascensão do Estado Islâmico como personagem global (por isso sintetizam seus anseios e estratégias publicistas) e constituem uma rica amostra do hibridismo das peças audiovisuais do grupo destinadas à audiência ocidental, sustentando a hipótese de que elas fundem elementos da cultura audiovisual contemporânea e da cultura jihadista, neste caso fortemente representada pelo formato do vídeo nashīd. Nos propomos a identificar as características de cada produção e traçar pontos de conexão que nos permitem agrupá-las em grandes categorias, que chamamos de "marcas audiovisuais" e cujo objetivo é provar onde a propaganda do Estado Islâmico busca seu respaldo. Para tanto, propomos um método de análise baseado no esqueleto metodológico criado por Francis Vanoye e Anne Goliot-Lété (1994) para analisar os spots publicitários. Ele baseia-se em dois eixos centrais: estilo e discurso. O primeiro é composto por quatro diretrizes que nos ajudam a descrever a estrutura dos vídeos e determinar suas particularidades estilísticas: duração, matéria visual, característica dos planos e montagem. O segundo eixo procura determinar como a mensagem do grupo é articulada em cada vídeo. Para isso, propõe três locais de observação baseados na funcionalidade do "contrato de comunicação" proposto por Patrick Charaudeau (2006). A combinação desses dois polos nos permite comprovar que a propaganda do EI dispõe de lógicas construtivas e ferramentas de edição naturalizadas pela cultura audiovisual contemporânea, o que converte o arsenal simbólico do Estado Islâmico num exímio exemplar da nova face do terror. / This study aims to investigate the marks of the contemporary audiovisual culture inscribed in the propaganda produced by Al Hayat Media Center, a media arm of the Islamic State (IS), specialized in the production of content in English and European languages. The investigation bases on a theoretical repertoire, which seeks to clarify the motives behind the discursive and technical choices that shape these productions, leading us to three initial stages of work. The first is the mapping of the ascension process of modern Islamic fundamentalist movements, which gives us a glimpse of the narrative that influenced the thinking of the ideologists who created Islamism in the 20th century and whose ideas serve as the basis for the construction of the IS discourse. The next step is to unveil the media practices of the movement from which the group derives, showing how they evolved in parallel to the process of globalization and dissemination of new communication technologies. Reflections on the constitutive processes of culture and the impacts of the new information and communication systems on them, under the mediatization bias, complete the apprehension of the phenomenon. In addition, the parameters of contemporary audiovisual culture help us situate the actions of the Islamic State in a society permanently “attacked” by bombs of images that revive the power of the realism. It is the background, which supports the analysis of 10 videos released by the Al Hayat Media Center between 2014 and 2016. Available in the online repository by Aaron Zelin, a researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, they respond to two main criteria. One of them being the fact that they were released in the ascension period of the IS as global character (for this reason synthesizes its publicist longings and strategies) and constitute a rich sample of the hybridism of the group’s audiovisual pieces intended for the western audience. The other is the evidence that they sustain the hypothesis that they merge elements of contemporary audiovisual culture and jihadist culture, in this case strongly represented by the format of nashīd video. From the detailing of the videos, we propose to identify the characteristics of each production and draw points of connection between them to group them into large categories, which we call “audiovisual marks” and which the objective is to prove where the Islamic State propaganda seeks its backing. For this purpose, we propose a method of analysis based in the methodology framework developed by Francis Vanoye and Anne Goliot-Lété (1994) to scrutinize a genre that shares the genetic material of our object of study: the propaganda spots. It bases in two central axes: style and discourse. The first one consists of four guidelines that help us to describe the structure of the videos and determine their stylistics particularities: duration, visual material, characteristic of plans and assembly. The second axis seeks to determine how the group message articulates in each video. To this end, it proposes three observation spots based on the functionality of the “communication contract” proposed by Patrick Charaudeau (2006). The combination of these two poles allows us to proof that the IS propaganda has constructive logics and editing tools naturalized by the contemporary audiovisual culture, which turns the symbolic arsenal of the Islamic State into an eximious model of the new face of terror.

Magister Legum - LLM / The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is a jihadist militant group. The members of this militant group have committed criminal acts of unspeakable cruelty. These staggering criminal conducts are documented by the United Nations, international human rights organisations, and media. Besides, the group itself gives first-hand information through social media and its magazine. Having witnessed the atrocities committed by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the United Nations Security Council affirmed that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s conduct in Syria and Iraq is a threat to international peace and security. Therefore, the media and various role players have called for the intervention of International Criminal Court. This research paper analyses whether the International Criminal Court is a viable prosecutorial option to account the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant members for their crimes. For the Court to be a viable prosecutorial avenue, it must have a jurisdiction. Accordingly, this research paper critically examines whether the International Criminal Court has subject matter, personal and/or territorial jurisdictions to try the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant perpetrators. The study concludes that although the criminal conducts by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant members constitute crimes under the Rome Statute, the Court, however, has limited jurisdictional reach over the perpetrators. It is submitted that with a limited and fragmented territorial and personal jurisdictional reach over the perpetrators, the Court is not a viable prosecutorial avenue. / German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).

The Islamic State (IS) infamously carried out brutal acts of terrorism against the west. These acts of terrorism in Europe and the USA does, however, not make up most of the violence instigated by the Islamic State. This majority of violence took place in Iraq and Syria, where the Islamic State conquered large territories. The forces that the IS battled in the Iraqi-Syrian theatre of war consisted largely of individuals identifying as Muslim. In some cases, the Islamic State fought other Islamist militias. In this context the concept of Takfir, i.e. excommunication within Islam, is central in the rhetoric of persecution. This paper analyses the Islamic State’s beliefs and practices on Takfir, as it is shown in the propaganda magazine Dabiq. Following a qualitative content analysis of Dabiq's articles relevant to Takfir and defining true Muslims, central themes were identified.  The bulk of the apostasy arguments found in Dabiq is targeted against ethnicities and sects that the Islamic State is at war with. Several arguments for the apostasy of the IS's enemies are explored, and an internal logic is presented throughout Dabiq. Neither the criteria’s nor the process that leads to the proclamation of Takfir, outside fighting the Islamic State, are explained in Dabiq. While examples of such Takfiri declarations are found in Dabiq, they are considerably less common than war-aligned claims of apostasy. What motivates the Islamic State’s practice of Takfir is open ended, as it can be both considered a result of their religious doctrine and a justification for the conflicts which they have partaken in.

This diploma thesis examines the prospects of the Islamic State's expansion to Libya. Using the method of process tracing, the author assesses the campaign of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq and establishes 6 factors he calls ‚enablers' that played key roles in facilitating its success - the ideology, exploitation of state breakdown and governance, funding, combat know-how, propaganda, and sectarianism. He dedicates special attention to the problematics of sectarianism and the way the Islamic State made instrumental use of it in both of these countries. The author then proceeds to assess the viability of the IS enterprise in Libya, examining whether the conditions and circumstances in the country are conducive for an IS unsurgency. He identifies 8 structural conditions that underpinned the relevant enablers in Syria and assesses their relevance in Libya. Comparison of the two cases shows that except for sectarianism all the structural conditions are relevantly present in Libya which, according to J. S. Mill's method of a difference of J. S. Mill's method of a difference, should explain the stalling campaign of IS in Libya. The author proceeds to confirm this hypothesis by assessing the actual campaign of the Islamic State in Libya. He contends the Islamic State tried to follow the successful...