European Female Supporters of the Islamic State: A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of their Facebook Profiles

This article presents multimodal discourse analyses of Facebook profiles set up by European women who support the Islamic State (ISIS). The research question guiding the analyses is: What types of discourses, modes and semiotic resources are these women drawn to, and how do they exploit them in sett...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Nilsen, Anne Birgitta (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Universitetsforlaget [2020]
In: Nordic journal of religion and society
Year: 2020, Volume: 33, Issue: 1, Pages: 4-15
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Europe / Woman / Facebook / Profile of / Islamischer Staat / Support
RelBib Classification:AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
BJ Islam
KBA Western Europe
ZC Politics in general
ZG Media studies; Digital media; Communication studies
Further subjects:B Discourse Analysis
B Jihadism
B Visual Culture
B Multimodality
B Radicalisation
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Summary:This article presents multimodal discourse analyses of Facebook profiles set up by European women who support the Islamic State (ISIS). The research question guiding the analyses is: What types of discourses, modes and semiotic resources are these women drawn to, and how do they exploit them in setting up a Facebook profile consistent with the ISIS ideology? The analyses are based on ethnographic data obtained from Facebook. The findings show that discourses related to the following Islamic concepts are prominent in their self-presentation on Facebook: hijra (migration), jihad (holy war), jannah (paradise) and ghurba (estrangement). The use of the concept of ghurba represents a new finding in the research on jihadi culture and radicalisation. I argue that the feeling of ghurba and the discursive use of ghurba may contribute to the processes of radicalisation.
ISSN:1890-7008
Contains:Enthalten in: Nordic journal of religion and society
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.18261/issn.1890-7008-2020-01-01