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This article seeks to explore specific modes of visual communication concerning the so called 'Islamic State of Iraq.' As an alliance of some Jihadist groups under the lead of al-Qa῾ida in Iraq, this movement managed after the year 2003 to temporarily seize control of some parts of the Iraqi soil and perpetrate mass-casualty attacks. Hence, it still poses one of the most serious threats for the young Iraqi republic.Regardless of the actual validity of this 'state', the article argues that Jihadist groups are able to operate in the Middle East, among other things, because they manage to connect their ideas, norms and beliefs to the cultural memory of their recipients. They employ symbols and semantics that gain effect through reconnection to the religious and cultural heritage. These symbols and semantics are, at the same time, used to frame reality in a specific way and portray the Jihadist ideology as the serious basis for an alternative model for society.The article will examine the political iconography of the 'Islamic State of Iraq' in digitally circulated images. It will present an iconological analysis of the composition and construction of paradigmatic icons and images and will show which motifs, themes and narratives are employed to give meaning to iconographical representations.

Since Ramadān 1435 (June/July 2014), the so-called ‘Islamic State’ (dawlat al-islāmiyya, IS), the ‘State of the Caliphate’ (dawlat al-khilāfa), publishes a periodic magazine entitled Dabiq. This glossy outlet, produced and distributed by al-Hayāt, one of the movement's media organizations, is widely disseminated on the Internet and forms part of IS's advancement in the field of the media. Published in English and other European languages, it allows the movement to spread its messages to an international audience. This article analyzes and evaluates four issues of Dabiq published in English between June and October 2014.It argues that three aspects are crucial for framing the ideological justification of the movement's warfare and help to rally support for their state-building project: the development and establishment of images of the enemy, the notion of ‘strangeness,’ and the call for emigration. Within this framework, the magazine intertwines textual and visual accounts of the movement's physical and virtual battlefields and mediates these to a non-Arab speaking public. Thus, Dabiq is – chronologically, technologically, and ideologically – the most recent and very well elaborated attempt of the Islamic State at winning support among the broadest public possible on a global level. The article concludes that the magazine at large and the abovementioned aspects reflect both the ideological structure of the movement and its current situation in Iraq and Syria. Utilizing derogative images of their enemies helps the Islamic State both to maintain its claim for legitimacy and to position their adherents and opponents within a dichotomous ideological framework. On this basis, it calls its followers to immigrate to the land of the two rivers and the Levant in order to support the establishment of an Islamic State and eradicate nation state borders.

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