by Doyle Quiggle
In this article, I apply Jonathan Matusitz’s insights from Symbolism in Terrorism to identify and isolate the plotline of the ISIS beheading narrative.[i]
If we want to undermine and neutralize ISIS internet recruitment
propaganda (the E-jihad), then we need to understand how and why their
symbols appeal to their target audience. Narratives kick symbols into
motion. ISIS are excellent narrators. We must find ways to
counter-narrate and neutralize their group-forming narratives.
Qu’ran 47:4: “When you encounter the unbelievers on the
battlefield, strike off their heads until you have crushed them
completely; then bind the prisoners tightly.”
Because ISIS communicators legitimize beheading by reference to
Islamic history and Islamic theology,
local Islamic authorities who do not share ISIS’s interpretation of
Sura 47:4 will need to take careful heed of how ISIS have made beheading
into a powerful symbol and narrative of their jihad.
[ii]
Beheading an enemy, an Islamic terrorist symbolically links his (increasingly
her)
Jihad today to the sword-driven rise of Medieval Islamic Empire and to
the late Medieval and Early Renaissance blood-soaked contest between
Christendom and Islam for control of Europe.
A symbolic connection is
made objectively visible in the beheading by the use of the most
important Islamic Salafic weapon—the sword. Therefore, to understand the
full symbolic energies of Islamic beheadings today, we must also
understand the past symbolism of swords and blood in Islam. Here, I will
introduce only the symbolic structure of the ISIS
beheading narrative.[iii]
Timothy Furnish, a leading scholar of Islamic beheadings, notes:
“Islam is the only major world religion today that is cited both by
state and non-state actors to legitimise beheadings…In contradiction to
the assertions of apologists, both Muslim and non-Muslim, these
beheadings are not simply a brutal method of drawing attention to the
Islamist political agenda and weakening an opponent’s will to fight.
Zarqawi and other Islamists who practise decapitation believe that God
has ordained them to obliterate their enemies in this manner.” [iv]
The ISIS beheading narrative derives its moral, legal, and theological authority directly from Islam.
[v]
But it swipes some of its aesthetic appeal from non-Islamic sources,
such as comic books, film, and video games. These non-Islamic sources
have long circulated images of beheading in popular culture and have
kept decapitation actively present in the visual fields and cultural
imaginations of potential ISIS recruits, especially of gamers.
Biologically, neurologically, and anthropologically understood,
narrative performs the primary social function of creating cohesion and
cooperation among in-group members. Creating cohesion and cooperation
and activating the altruistic pre-adaptations of group members is why we
evolved narrative as a primary social tool of our species.
Out of the
feeling of cohesion created by shared narrative there emerges powerful,
neurologically compulsive feelings of reciprocal altruism, commitment to
the group—trust. Neurologically, we encode narrative-induced
cohesion-trust as
courage. And courage is as indispensable a
virtue to small hunting parties on the ancient Savannah as it is to SF
operators storming a qalat compound in Afghanistan or to ISIS fighters
in Iraq.
[vi]
The ISIS beheading narrative performs all primary, primal social tasks
for group members, beginning as communal blood ritual and ending as a
personal trophy that increases a member’s sense of pride in his group
membership.
The Beheading Plotline
In her book on beheadings in literature, LOSING OUR HEADS: BEHEADINGS
IN LITERATURE AND CULTURE, Regina Jones (2005) identifies these four
categories of beheading: Judicial; Sacrificial; Presentational; Trophy.
Judicial: Citing a Wahhabist interpretation of Islamic
justice, SAUDI ARABIA beheads criminals it has found guilty of murder,
drug trafficking, rape, burglary, witchcraft, and apostasy. The state of
Saudi Arabia thereby symbolically and jurisprudentially legitimises
ISIS beheadings. And we may wonder if the international community
indirectly legitimises beheadings because it recognizes the legitimacy
of Saudi Arabian state-conducted decapitation—JUDICIAL beheading.
Sacrificial: Borrowing legitimacy from Saudi Arabia,
ISIS beheadings participate in all four beheading categories. However,
ISIS beheadings begin as a form of RITUALISTIC murder. All ritual is a
kind narrative that derives its meaning largely from sequence, doing
things in the correct order at the correct moment, just as narrative
creates meaning by having characters do things (events) through time.
ISIS beheadings begin as COMMUNAL BLOOD RITUALS. As with any ritual,
the beheading ritual is performed to create cohesion and loyalty among
ISIS members. The fear and outrage that beheading creates among non-ISIS
onlookers often obscures the “group-building” aspect of the beheading
narrative. Creating terror, however, is not the main goal of beheadings
at this stage in the narrative plot. The social goal is to create group
cohesion.
[vii]
Beheading as communal blood ritual is also used as a
rites of passage
to initiate newcomers, to mark their identities as “timeless” Jihadis,
to link them to an eternal, timeless, “sacred” space. Beheading as
communal blood ritual cleanses European-born ISIS of “Westoxification.”
That term (in Persian,
Gharbzadegi) was first used by the
Ayatollah Khomeni during the Islamic Revolution in Iran (1979) to mean
“the state of being inebriated with Western culture and ideas.”
[viii]
ISIS beheadings represent a symbolic severing with Western ideals,
beliefs, culture—the main source of the spiritual toxins that infect
Islam, according to all-known varieties of modern Salafism. Beheading an
infidel, the ISIS executioner symbolically cuts off his own “Western”
head. He sacrifices an Infidel’s head to re-gain his Islamic identity.
Communal blood ritual inculpates ISIS members in the same crimes as
their fellow Jihadis, a technique of coerced loyalty typically practiced
by criminal gangs. Beheading represents a point of no “legal” return.
Moreover, beheading as communal blood ritual transforms a ritual
participant’s neuro-network/brain chemistry. Beheading may embody a
point of no psychological return as well.
My hypothesis: As a communal blood ritual, beheading is a
potently addictive psychotropic agent that radically and permanently
alters the neurology of ritual participants. Corollary: The limbic
system of ritual practitioners is permanently altered by the communal
blood ritual of beheading. We must account for this neurological
transformation when assessing any ISIS defector’s claims about rejecting
violence as a form of religious practice. [ix]
(When displayed on YOUTUBE, a beheading video can also act as a remote communal blood ritual.)
We need more information about who gets to perform beheadings within
ISIS. Are beheadings “permitted” only to privileged members? Are ALL
initiates required to attend beheadings? Are women allowed to
participate directly in this ritual?
Presentational: The beheading plotline enters the
mediation stage when the beheading becomes PRESENTATIONAL, a sign of
victory in the Jihad. Presenting the decapitation is an assertion of
success on the battlefield, even as the presentation is also meant to
create terror in infidels. According to the logic of magical thinking,
the blood spilled during the beheading and presented to a remote
audience has the power to cleanse all of Islam, starting with the
Infidel-contaminated territory (i.e. Libya) onto which the beheading
blood is directly spilled.
In this magical sense, the blood sacrifice
presented and projected to a global Caliphate cleanses the mythic map of
the greater Islamic Caliphate, which the ISIS Jihad purports to be
re-conquering. When GPSed on today’s map, recent ISIS beheadings become a
key part of ISIS mythic cartography, which corresponds to the imperial
landmass of the Islamic Empire of Harun Al Rashid (ca. 800). Blood
cleansing of the Salaf’s imagined Caliphate sets up the presentational
use of the beheadings as a tool of recruitment, and the presentation of
beheadings becomes a weapon in the Electronic Jihad (E-Jihad).
There’s a distinct aesthetic quality to ISIS beheading presentations.
ISIS communicators clearly design beheading videos to maximize aesthetic
pleasure for an ISIS audience, for example, making the executioners of
the Coptic victims appear seven feet tall, as if they’re larger than
life, like comic book and video game heroes. In mediation, such as
Youtube, ISIS beheadings provide remote ISIS members, ISIS sympathizers,
or the ISIS-curious a source of voyeuristic pleasure.
As noted above, the beheading narrative borrows its aesthetic appeal
from non-Islamic sources that have primed today’s youth to critically
“appreciate” beheading, especially blood on swords. The blood-dripping
beheading sword resonates not only with slasher films but also with
popular “sword & blade” films like
Lord of the Rings and
with even more popular video games like SKYRIM and the METAL GEAR SERIES
(i.e. REVENGANCE) that feature decapitation as a regular part of
gameplay. Video games do not create terrorists.
My point is that
decapitation had been implanted as a common feature of the cultural
imaginary of game players and film goers long before ISIS began
producing its version of Islamic snuff film. ISIS communicators exploit
the decapitation pre-implantation of popular culture.
In its presentational mode, the beheading narrative announces victory
on the battlefield, projects the blood cleansing of the ISIS mythic map
(the global caliphate), and, with the aim of recruitment, exploits a
pre-existing popular blood aesthetic in which the contemplation of
beheading is source of pleasurable entertainment. ISIS recruits have
likely been primed to become decapitators both by Islamic and by
non-Islamic imagery of beheading.
[x]
Trophy: The beheading plotline is consummated when the
severed heads are made into personal possessions by ISIS members, to
increase their status and prestige among fellow Jihadists. The heads
become TROPHIES. They perform all of the typical cultural functions of
other kinds of trophies. They mark the completion of a rites of passage.
Does the accumulation of heads, Colonel Kurtz style, increase status and prestige among ISIS members?
In sum, the ISIS beheading narrative begins at a primal,
neuro-biological level, as a blood ritual meant to link ISIS members
horizontally to each other, backward to an Islamic past of sword-driven
imperial conquest, and vertically up into a timeless space of eternal
Jihad. At the ritual stage, the narrative performs the primal
evolutionary function of all narrative/ritual—to create group cohesion
and loyalty. Specific to ISIS beheadings is how the “West-toxified” self
of the ISIS member is sacrificed in order to gain or re-gain a purified
Islamic identity. In cutting off the head of an infidel, the ISIS
member heals himself of Occidentosis.
The communal blood ritual is then presented, via mediation, to a remote
global audience, to signal victory in the Jihad and to project to the
blood cleansing of the terra sancta of the caliphate. As a form of
presentation, the beheading becomes an object of aesthetic contemplation
(a source of pleasure) and a recruitment lure that exploits non-Islamic
imagery of beheadings.
Finally, the severed heads become trophies used to increase prestige and status among ISIS members.
We need further investigation into the neuro-psychology of communal blood ritual.
[xi]
We also need to know the neurological implications of viewing blood
rituals in mediation: To what bio-psychological extent does one
participate in this ritual (experience the same neuro-peptide buzz)
remotely, through the internet? We also need to contrast the beheading
narrative/ritual to other, more pragmatic forms of ISIS violence.
End Notes
[i] Jonathan Matusitz,
Symbolism in Terrorism: Motivation, Communication, and Behaviour, (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015)
[ii] For recondite but instructive discussions of Islamic law, see Bernard Weiss,
The Spirit of Islamic Law (London, 1998); Hashim Kamali,
Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence (Cambridge,
1991); Ann Lambton “Changing Concepts of Justice and Injustice from the
5th Century to the 8th Century in Persia: The Saljuq Empire and the
Ilkhanate” in
Studia Islamica (volume 68, 1988) pp. 27-60; Wael Hallaq
A History of Islamic Legal Theories (Cambridge, 1997); Franz Rosenthal, “Political Justice and the Just Ruler” in
Israel Oriental Studies (volume
10, 1982) pp. 92-101. I owe these references to Gudrun Krämer,
“Wettstreit der Werte: Anmerkungen zum zeitgenössischen islamischen
Diskurs” in
Die kulturellen Werte Europas edited by Hans Joas and Klaus Wiegandt (Bonn: Bundes zentrale für politische Bildung, 2005) pp. 469 – 493.
[iii] For an overview of Islamic history, see Efraim Karsh’s
Islamic Empire: A History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007).
[iv] Timothy Furnish, “Beheading in the Name of Islam” in The Middle East Quarterly, (12 (2), 51-57, 2005)
[v] See Michael Bonner’s
Jihad in Islamic History: Doctrines and Practices. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008).
[vi] For a comprehensive discussion of the evolutionary development of narrative as a social tool, see Brian Boyd’s
On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009).
[vii] Dawn Perlmutter, “Mujahideen Blood Rituals: The Religious and Forensic Symbolism of Al Qeada Beheading” in
Anthropoetics (11-2, 10-21, 2005) and
Investigating Religious Terrorism and Ritualistic Crimes (Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2003) and “Mujahideen Desecration: Beheadings, Mutilation & Muslim Iconoclasm” in
Anthropoetics (12, 2, 1-8, 2006).
[viii] Jonathan Matusitz,
Symbolism in Terrorism: Motivation, Communication, and Behaviour, (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015)
[ix] See Eugene G. d’Aquili, Charles D. Laughlin, Jr., John McManus, et al,
The Spectrum of Ritual: A Biogenetic Structural Analysis (New York: Columbia University Press, 1979). Victor Turner, "Body, Brain, and Culture," in
The Anthropology of Performance (New York: PAJ Publications, 1987). Ronald Grimes,
Beginnings in Ritual Studies, Revised Edition (University of South Carolina Press, 1995). D’ Aquili and Andrew B. Newberg,
The Mystical Mind: Probing the Biology of Religious Experience (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1999). Nathan Mitchell, "What Biogeneticists Are Saying About Ritual: A Report,"
Liturgy Digest,
1:1 (Spring 1993). Pascal Boyer Religion Explained: The Human Instincts
that Fashion Gods, Spirits, and Ancestors (Wiedenfeld and Nicolson:
London, 2001).
[x] Combating Terrorism Center
The Islamic Imagery Project: Visual Motifs in Jihadi Internet Propaganda, 2014.
[xi] For accounts of the evolutionary development of ritual, see Pascal Boyer’s
Religion Explained: The Human Instincts that Fashion Gods, Spirits, and Ancestors 2001 (New York: Basic Books) and Robin Dunbar’s
The Human Story,
2004 (London: Faber & Faber). For an early but still-useful look
at the neurological basis of ritual, see Eugene D’Aquili’s
The Spectrum of Ritual: A Biogenetic Analysis, 1979 (Columbia: Columbia University Press) and
The Mystical Mind, 1999 (Fortress Press).
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