Article published In:
Journal of Language Aggression and ConflictVol. 12:2 (2024) ► pp.263–288
A multimodal analysis of (de)legitimation through argumentation in extremist discourse: The case of Dabiq
Even after the demise of its territorial caliphate in 2019, ISIS persists as a potent threat, adapting to new technologies and maintaining its status as an active insurgency. Amidst the backdrop of the terror group’s demonstrated resilience, this paper examines its practice of (de)legitimation and language of persuasion through a multimodal argumentation analysis. It combines the argumentation strategies (topoi) proposed by Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) and tools from Social Semiotics with argumentation theories, achieved through a comprehensive enthymematic deconstruction of arguments in ISIS’s e-magazine, Dabiq. The findings reveal four interrelated sets of plausibly inferable premises, namely, advantage and disadvantage; threat and obligation; negative consequence and history; and authority and Shariah law. These premises fall within broad social, political, historical, and religious categories and are deliberately crafted to lend support to ISIS’s desired conclusions, aimed at systematically altering the addressees’ state of knowledge and eventually eliciting acceptance from the intended public.
Keywords: argumentation, (de)legitimation, extremism, ISIS, multimodal argumentation, persuasion,
topoi
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.The persuasiveness of ISIS
- 3.Data and method
- 3.1Argumentation scheme and DHA
- 3.2Visual argumentation
- 4.Findings and discussion
- 4.1 Topoi of advantage and disadvantage
- 4.2 Topoi of threat and obligation
- 4.3 Topoi of negative consequence and history
- 4.4 Topoi of authority and Shariah law
- 5.Conclusion
- Data
- Disclosure statement
-
References
References (39)
Al-Dayel, Nadia, Andrew Mumford, and Kevin Bales. 2022. “Not Yet Dead: The Establishment and Regulation of Slavery by the Islamic State.” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 45 (11): 929–952. 
Ali, Mah-Rukh. 2015. “ISIS and Propaganda: How ISIS Exploits Women.” Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism 10 (11). [URL]
Bates, David. 2023. “‘The jobs all go to foreigners’: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Labour Party’s ‘Left-Wing’ Case for Immigration Controls.” Critical Discourse Studies 20 (2): 183–199.
Bolechów, Bartosz. 2022. “The Islamic State’s Worldview as a Radical Terror Management Device.” Studia Politologiczne 631: 61–85.
Boukala, Salomi. 2016. “Rethinking Topos in the Discourse Historical Approach: Endoxon Seeking and Argumentation in Greek Media Discourses on ‘Islamist Terrorism’.” Discourse Studies 18 (3): 249–268.
Braet, A. C. 2005. “The Common Topic in Aristotle’s Rhetoric: Precursor of the Argumentation Scheme.” Argumentation 19 (1): 65–83.
Frissen, Thomas, and Leen d’Haenens. 2017. “Legitimizing the Caliphate and its Politics: Moral Disengagement Rhetoric in Dabiq.” In Authoritarian and Populist Influences in the New Media, edited by Sai Felicia Krishna-Hensel, 138–164. London: Routledge.
Galloway, Chris. 2016. “Media Jihad: What PR can Learn in Islamic State’s Public Relations Masterclass.” Public Relations Review 42 (4): 582–590.
Goodwin, Jean. 1998. “Forms of Authority and the Real Ad Verecundiam.” Argumentation 121: 267–280.
Halliday, Michael A. K. 1985. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Edward Arnold.
Ihnen, Constanza, and John E. Richardson. 2011. “On Combining Pragma-Dialectics with Critical Discourse Analysis.” In Keeping in Touch with Pragma-Dialectics, edited by Eveline T. Feteris, Bart Garssen, and Francisca Snoeck Henkemans, 231–244. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Ingram, Haroro J. 2016. “An Analysis of Islamic State’s Dabiq Magazine.” Australian Journal of Political Science 51 (3): 458–477.
2017. “Learning from ISIS’s Virtual Propaganda War for Western Muslims: A Comparison of Inspire and Dabiq. IOS Press.” [URL]
Jacoby, Tim. 2019. “Islam and the Islamic State’s Magazine, Dabiq.” Politics and Religion 12 (1): 32–54.
KhosraviNik, Majid. 2010. “The Representation of Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Immigrants in British Newspapers: A Critical Discourse Analysis.” Journal of Language and Politics 9 (1): 1–28.
Kress, Gunther, and Theo van Leeuwen. 1996. Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. 1 edn. London: Routledge.
. 2006. Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. 2 edn. London: Routledge.
. 2020. Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. 3 edn. London: Routledge.
Kugle, Scott Siraj al-Haqq. 2010. Homosexuality in Islam: Critical Reflection on Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Muslims. Oneworld Publications.
Ladd, Brian K., and Jean Goodwin. 2022. “Extreme Arguments: Anwar al-Awlaki’s Radicalizing Discourse.” Journal of Pragmatics 2001: 39–48.
Lorenzo-Dus, Nuria, Luke Walker, and Anina Kinzel. 2017. “The Role of Discourse Analysis in Terrorism Studies: Comparing Inspire and Dabiq.” In Terrorists’ Use of the Internet, edited by Maura Conway, Lee Jarvis, Orla Lehane, Stuart Macdonald, and Lella Nouri, 158–169. IOS Press Ebooks.
Macdonald, Stuart, Sara Giro Correia, and Amy-Louise Watkin. 2019. “Regulating Terrorist Content on Social Media: Automation and the Rule of Law.” International Journal of Law in Context 15 (2): 183–197.
McMinimy, Kayla, Carol K. Winkler, Ayse Deniz Lokmanoglu, and Monerah Almahmoud. 2021. “Censoring Extremism: Influence of Online Restriction on Official Media Products of ISIS.” Terrorism and Political Violence 35 (4): 971–987.
Nagata, Michael, Ali Abbas, Scott Atran, Bill Braniff, Andrew Bringuel, Muayyad al-Chalabi, Sarah Canna, and Jocelyne Cesari. 2014. “Preface.” In Multi-method Assessment of ISIL, edited by Hriar Cabayan, and Sarah Canna. [URL].
Rasoulikolamaki, Sahar, and Surinderpal Kaur. 2021. “How ISIS Represented Enemies as Ineffectual in Dabiq: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis.” Discourse & Communication 15 (6): 650–671.
. 2023. “The Representational Strategies of Lionization and Victimization in ISIS’s Online Magazine, Dabiq.” Terrorism and Political Violence 35 (5): 1161–1180.
Reisigl, Martin, and Ruth Wodak. 2001. Discourse and Discrimination: Rhetorics of Racism and Antisemitism. London: Routledge.
Salahshour, Neda, and Dimitris Serafis. 2022. “(De-)constructing New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern’s Initiative to Wear the Hijab after the Christchurch Terrorist Attack: Critical Perspectives on Newspapers’ Discourse and Argumentation.” Journal of Argumentation in Context 11 (2): 157–179.
Schmid, Alex P. 2015. “Challenging the Narrative of the ‘Islamic State’.” The Hague: International Centre for Counter-Terrorism 51.
Spier, Troy E. 2018. “Extremist Propaganda and Qur’anic Scripture: A ‘Radical’ Corpus-Based Study of the Dabiq.” Discourse & Society 29 (5): 553–567.
Strnad, Vladislav, and Nik Hynek. 2020. “ISIS’s Hybrid Identity: A Triangulated Analysis of the Dabiq Narrative.” Defence Studies 20 (1): 82–100.
The Clarion Project. 2014. Accessed May, 2016. [URL]
van der Krogt, Christopher J. 2022. “Incitement: Anwar al-Awlaki’s Western Jihad.” Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations 33 (3): 326–328.
van Eemeren, Frans H. 2010. Strategic Maneuvering in Argumentative Discourse: Extending the Pragma-Dialectical Theory of Argumentation. Vol. 21. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
van Eemeren, Frans H., Bart Garssen, Erik C. W. Krabbe, A. Francisca Snoeck Henkemans, Bart Verheij, and Jean H. M. Wagemans. 2014. Handbook of Argumentation Theory. Dordrecht: Springer.
Walton, Douglas Neil. 1997. Appeal to Expert Opinion: Arguments From Authority. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Wozniak, Jesse, Joshua Woods, and Quentin King. 2018. “Chaos and Civilization: The Organizational Impression Management of the Islamic State in Dabiq Magazine.” Social Science Quarterly. [URL]
Žagar, Igor. 2010. “
Topoi in Critical Discourse Analysis.” Lodz Papers in Pragmatics 6 (1): 3–27.
Zappettini, Franco. 2019. “The Brexit Referendum: How Trade and Immigration in the Discourses of the Official Campaigns Have Legitimised a Toxic (Inter)national Logic.” Critical Discourse Studies 16 (4): 403–419.