Identity Construction Through Discourse: A Case Study of ISIS’s No Respite Video

Post‐national brand utopias: Islamic State and the Good Country as challengers to the nation‐state

“…Taken together, they illustrate Islamic State's challenge to nationalism and the promise of an alternative utopia for its followers. The outputs of Al Hayat Media Center have been analysed extensively (e.g., Conroy & Al‐Dayel, 2020; Macnair & Frank, 2017) and this literature aids my analysis of the intertextual webs of meaning that surround the two videos.…”

“…The same themes and symbolism are reiterated in the ‘No Respite’ video, released in November 2015, which is the focus of this textual analysis. ‘No Respite’ was intended as a direct response to a UN resolution, adopted during the same month, which condemned IS' acts of violence and warned that there would be ‘no respite’ in efforts to ‘stop and destroy’ the group (Conroy & Al‐Dayel, 2020: 2). The video is designed as a polemic addressed directly to the international community.…”

“…First, while both projects present themselves as challengers to the nation‐state, each reproduces the state form as an essential element of its ideological legitimacy. The ability to claim a functioning territorial Caliphate, even one whose boundaries are unspecific and fluid, is a central point of Islamic State's legitimacy claims and helps its efforts to attract foreign fighters (Bunzel, 2015; Conroy & Al‐Dayel, 2020; Sheikh, 2016). Some scholars have argued that, despite its virulent anti‐nationalist rhetoric, Islamic State is a crypto‐nationalist movement predicated on establishing a state and the exclusion and oppression of non‐members (Blankinship cited in Malesevic, 2019: 78).…”

“…4 4 Not all themes in the videos will be discussed to maintain focus on the three research questions. For an analysis of additional themes in ‘No Respite’ see Conroy and Al‐Dayel (2020). …”

“…Overviews and suggestions for further readings are found inWinter (2017) andKrona and Pennington (2019).4 Not all themes in the videos will be discussed to maintain focus on the three research questions. For an analysis of additional themes in 'No Respite' seeConroy and Al-Dayel (2020).5 The complex relationship between Islam and nationalism cannot be addressed here (see, e.g.,Addi & Roberts, 2017;Roy, 2004;Zubaida, 2004), but it is part of the historical context for interpreting Islamic State's ideology. To summarise loosely, Islamists view the nation-state as a Western, colonialist invention, which divided Muslims and deprived them of their former glory.…”