Extremist Discourse and Sectarian Incitement in the Digital Era

Amid the extensive use of digital media platforms by extremist groups operating in war-torn countries like Syria and Iraq, the discourse of such organizations is believed to have incited sectarian confrontations among diverse components of the society and to have contributed to the escalation of violence and the deterioration of living conditions at the heart of the Middle East. Major extremist religious organizations that emerged in the recent years in Syria and Iraq include the Islamic State (Daesh), embodying radical Sunni Islam, and al-Hashd al-Shaabi, representing extremist Shia Islam. Each organization has founded multiple media platforms and made a remarkable use of the digital era to convey their messages and promote their activities to an unlimited audience. These groups have developed a discourse mainly characterized by sectarian extremism and immense rancor towards rivals. The impact of the discourse employed by such radical organizations is deemed wide-ranging, with considerably resounding manifestations on local, regional and international levels. This corpus-based discourse analytical study delves into the diverse aspects and dimensions of the discourse of Daesh and al-Hashd al-Shaabi. It explores the discursive practices and strategies utilized by media outlets associated with these extremist organizations. This study also delves into the discursive environment within which these organizations emerged and developed, namely the multifaceted Syrian and Iraqi media landscape and the discursive activities pursued by influential local outlets. While multiple previous studies shed an increasing light on the emergence and the development of radical groups and their digital activities in the Middle East, the domain of discourse analysis with respect to such organizations remained poorly investigated. Besides, various previous studies illustrate remarkable academic efforts to focus on the exploration of radical Sunnism, whereas radical Shiʿism remained scarcely researched, especially in terms of discourse. Thus, the dissertation at hand tackles a poorly investigated area of research, as it strives for providing a better understanding about the specific elements of the extremist discourse of influential radical Islamist organizations with diverse sectarian affiliations. It involves an exploration of linguistic and contextual activities and seeks to identify explicit and implicit messages associated with the discourse of the concerned organizations. The methodological framework applied for the sake of accomplishing the objectives of this study comprises van Dijk’s (2000) Ideological Square and Blass’s (2005) Manipulative Strategies. These methodological instruments and the associated tools have allowed the researcher to conduct an in-depth discourse analytical study to the data included in the corpus of this research. Hence, activities and practices that fall under discursive ideologization and discursive manipulation are thoroughly investigated. Key aspects and features identified within the discourse of the studied organizations include politicization, religionization and sectarianization. Each organization has developed a discourse characterized by manipulative and ideological practices. Political, religious, sectarian and ethnic affiliations and loyalties appear to have played a key role in the way the concerned organizations discursively approached ongoing matters and developments in the Syrian and Iraqi arenas. Religio-sectarian references are deemed crucial elements within the discourse of both Daesh and al-Hashd al-Shaabi. While the former emerges as global-minded in its discursive approach towards a worldwide Sunni community, the latter arises as more local- and regional-minded within the framework of its Shia-based discourse. The establishment of legitimacy and righteousness in leading the community, based on extremist sectarian-guided interpretations of theological concepts, doctrinal principles and jurisprudential tenets, is deemed to be of a fundamental significance for each of these radical organizations. The incitement of sectarian and social divide emerges as a main dimension of the discourse employed by the organizations studied within the framework of this dissertation. The impact of such discursive dimensions, once adopted and acted upon, is believed to hold serious consequences with regard to the attitudes and behaviors of the concerned individuals and the society at large.nrpages: 332status: accepte