Mass media use by the Islamic State

Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (ISIL)^[1] is known for its extensive and effective use of propaganda.^[2] It uses a version of the Muslim Black Standard flag and developed an emblem which has clear symbolic meaning in the Muslim world.^[3]

Videos by ISIL are commonly accompanied by nasheeds (chants), notable examples being the chant Dawlat al-Islami Qamat, which came to be viewed as an unofficial anthem of ISIL,^[4] and Salil al-Sawarim.^[5]

In November 2006, shortly after the group's rebranding as the "Islamic State of Iraq", it established the Al-Furqan Foundation for Media Production (Arabic: مؤسسة الفرقان للإنتاج الإعلامي, romanized: Muasasat al-Furqān lil'īntāj al'ilāmī), which produces CDs, DVDs, posters, pamphlets, and web-related propaganda products and official statements.^[6] It is the primary media production house of the Islamic State and responsible for production of major media releases, including the statements of the spokesman and leader of the group.

It was founded by the Iraqi man Dr Wa'il al-Fayad, known as Abu Muhammad al-Furqan. He got his name "al-Furqan" from his role in founding this media house, which was named after the 25th sura of the Quran Al-Furqan.^[7] It is the oldest media production house for the Islamic State, being founded in November 2006 to release media for the Islamic State of Iraq. The earliest release indexed by the SITE Intelligence Group is on 21 November 2006, documenting the storming of a police station in the Iraqi town of Miqdadiyah.^[8][9]

Al-Furqan is considered to be a considerable innovation in jihadist media, with Kavkaz Center describing it as "a milestone on the path of jihad, a distinguished media that takes the great care in the management of the conflict with the crusaders and their tails and to expose the lies in the crusader's media."

In October 2007, the Long War Journal reported on United States Army raids targeting al-Furqan media cell members across Iraq, including in Mosul and Samarra.^[10] Between August 2013 and March 2014 they released the 22 part series Messages from the Land of Epic Battles.^[11] On 2 September 2014 SITE Intelligence Group discovered the beheading video called A Second Message to America,^[12][13] about the death of Steven Sotloff.^[14][15][16]

Since then, Al-Furqan has released videos of their operations across Iraq and Syria, as well as execution videos directed to governments around the world. In April 2019, Al-Furqan released a video Interviewing Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, which is their last video as of today.

Al-Furqan also produces media in the form of audio, which consists mostly of recordings of IS leaders and spokesmen giving speeches, as well as producing a single nasheed under their name called "Ya Allah Al-Jannah" (O Allah, (we ask you for) Paradise), sung by now-dead member of IS, Uqab Al-Marzuqi.

It began to expand its media presence in 2013 with the formation in March of a second media wing, Al-I'tisam Media Foundation, ^[17][18] and another ISIL media foundation, the Ajnad Foundation for Media Production (Arabic: مؤسسة أجناد للإنتاج الإعلامي; muasasat ajnād lil'īntāj al'ilāmī), established in January 2014, which specialises in acoustics production for nasheeds with no music, as to adhering to the prohibition of music instruments in Islam,^[19] and Qur'anic recitation.^[20][21]

The organization notably starts its career around in August 20, 2013, when the Islamic State started gaining territory.^[22] After Al-Furqan used the nasheed "Ya Dawlatal Islam, Ya Dawlatal Iqdam" as the sole intro for its 22-part series, the famous nasheed "Ummati Qad Laha Fajrun", one of the first nasheeds made by the Ajnad Foundation appeared in the last 2 parts of the series. Later on, the nasheed "Ya Dawlatal Islam, Ya Dawlatal Iqdam" would be recorded once again by Ajnad, featuring a brand-new melody and minor alteration of the original lyrics, as well as being sung by Maher Meshaal.

Ajnad Foundation would once again rise to fame when Al-Furqan released Saleel As-Sawarim 4 in 2014, which documents ISIL operations in Iraq and Syria, as well as premiering the famous nasheed Saleel As-Sawarim.^[23] Another nasheed, Qariban qariba would be released, often played alongside the group’s more unusual executions, including the burning of a Jordanian pilot, the burning of a Turkish and a Kurdish soldier, an execution where several prisoners of war were put into a car then shot with a rocket, and another execution where several prisoners would be drowned in a cage.^[24] Since then, more famous nasheeds would be released by Ajnad until its hiatus during 2020, when the last known nasheed released by then is "Gharibun Dammani Sha'uthul-Bawadi".

In the beginning, munshideen (singers) like Al-Mo'taz bil-'Aziz sang for the foundation. Uqab Al-Marzuqi sang 3 nasheeds, 2 recorded under Ajnad and another under Al-Furqan. After his death, Ajnad released a nasheed to commemorate him.

Some of the known later Ajnad munshideen (singers) are Abu Yasser, who produced more than 40 nasheeds under the labels of Al-Ma'sadah, As-Siddiq, Masami' Al-Khayr Media Centre(s) (all affiliated with Al-Qaeda) and Ajnad Foundation. Khilad Al-Qahtani is also a symbol for Ajnad, as he produced more than 10 nasheeds which is frequently used by ISIL media centers, as well as getting the honor of being mentioned by Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi in an interview with Al-Furqan Media Production.^[25] Maher Meshaal is another Internet-famous munshid who emigrated to the Islamic State from Saudi Arabia in 2013, and sang for Ajnad until his killing in 2015.^[26] Abul Hasan Al-Muhajir also was a munshid and the narrator for most Ajnad intros; as with other organizations, before he was promoted to spokesman of the Islamic State. Abu Hamzah al-Qurashi, the spokesman for the Islamic State until his demise in 2021 also produced around 15 nashids during his Ajnad career.^[27] Others like Abu Ghuraba' Al-Yamani, Abu Bara' Al-Madani, Nimr Al-Muhajir and others are also IS members that emigrated and joined the organization; though their career is not as famed as other munshids. As of now, some of the munshids still remain anonymous to this day.

Ajnad Foundation also produces full Qur'an recitations, which are recited by Abul-Hasan al-Hasani, Abu 'A'ishah, and other unknown people. They have produced 114 Surahs in the recitation of Hafs 'An Asim, and Surah Al-Ra'd in Warsh 'An Nafi'.

On 4 May 2016 Al-Battar Foundation (IS-supporter media) launched an application on Android called "Ajnad" that allows its users to listen to the songs of the Ajnad Foundation on their mobile phones.^[28] The foundation has many singers, the most famous of whom are Abu Yasir and Abul-Hasan al-Muhajir.^[29]

In mid-2014, ISIL established the al-Hayat Media Center, which targets Western audiences and produces material in English, German, Russian, Urdu, Indonesian, Turkish, Bengali, Chinese, Bosnian, Kurdish, Uyghur, and French.^[30] When ISIL announced its expansion to other countries in November 2014 it established media departments for the new branches, and its media apparatus ensured that the new branches follow the same models it uses in Iraq and Syria.^[31] Then FBI Director James Comey said that ISIL's "propaganda is unusually slick," noting that, "They are broadcasting... in something like 23 languages".^[32]

In July 2014, al-Hayat began publishing a digital magazine called Dabiq, in a number of different languages including English.^[33] According to the magazine, its name is taken from the town of Dabiq in northern Syria, which is mentioned in a hadith about Armageddon.^[34] Al-Hayat also began publishing other digital magazines, including the Turkish language Konstantiniyye, the Ottoman word for Istanbul,^[35] the French language Dar al-Islam,^[36] and the Russian language Istok (Russian: Исток журнал).^[37] By late 2016, these magazines had apparently all been discontinued, with Al-Hayat's material being consolidated into a new magazine called Rumiyah (Arabic for Rome).^[38]

Like the Ajnad Foundation, the Asdaa Foundation (Arabic: مؤسسة أصداء) or Asedaa Foundation also produces Anasheed (Islamic chants). Some of their Anasheed is used in IS's execution videos, a popular one is their human slaughterhouse execution video released during the time of Eid Al-Adha in 2016.^[39] The background nasheed they used was "We Came To Spread Terror Everywhere", produced by the Asdaa Foundation.

The foundation is the closest counterpart to Ajnad in producing Islamic State nasheeds, only difference being Ajnad is directly linked to the Islamic State while Asdaa is only classified as a "supporter organization" (munaser/munasera). One of its munshids, Abu Hafs is a renowned munshid who sings around 70 nasheeds, who as well works with Ajnad Foundation in some instances.

Another Yemeni munshid, Abu Musab Al-Adani, worked temporarily with Asdaa Foundation before defecting back to AQAP, from which he previously defected from.

al-Azaim Foundation for Media Production, run by Islamic State in Khorasan Province, publishes Voice of Khorasan magazine, which covers political and religious topics and also attempts to recruit and incite followers to carry out attacks (anti-Taliban narratives).^[40][41] Islamic State in Hind Province (Hind Wilayah) publishes Voice of Hind magazine, propaganda which encourages Indian Muslims to be recruited and wage jihad, and carry out attacks in the country.^[42] It was first published in 2020, and it also supports global warfare against Taliban in Afghanistan.^[43]

I'lam Foundation, announced in 2018, is an online multilingual platform mostly used by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, specifically the Tajikistan region of the organization,^[44] and the ISIS–K.^[40] In May 2021 it launched al-Hijrateyn, a weekly podcast which presents news, statistics and commentary from the Al-Naba newsletter, it focuses on solutions to moral dilemmas as interpreted by the Islamic State.^[45][46]

ISIL, in a mid-March 2020 Al-Naba article, described the fearful reaction to COVID-19 as a divinely wrought "painful torment" against Western "crusader nations".^[47] An early February article praised God for the same against Iran's Shiites and China.^[48]

Along with Fahras and al-Ru'ud (al-Raud Media),^[49] these propaganda repositories connected with channels designed to lure online audiences to hotspots of pro-IS communication, a method of designing and maintaining propaganda distribution networks.^[50]

At-Taqwa Media Foundation is an IS-sympathizer/supporter outlet^[51][52] which has published about targeting attacks in the Arabian Peninsula^[53] and specifically during the 2022 FIFA World Cup.^[54]

The group also runs a radio network called Al-Bayan, which airs bulletins in Arabic, Russian and English and provides coverage of its activities in Iraq, Syria and Libya.^[55] Huroof is an app created by the Office of Zeal, an Islamic State controlled agency,^[56] in order to teach kids Arabic, and to recruit young children into becoming Islamic State soldiers.^[57]

IS's use of social media has been described by one expert as "probably more sophisticated than [that of] most US companies".^[2][58] It regularly uses social media, particularly Twitter, to distribute its messages.^[58][59] The group uses the encrypted instant messaging service Telegram to disseminate images, videos and updates.^[60]

The group is known for releasing videos and photographs of executions of prisoners, whether beheadings, bombings, shootings, caged prisoners being burnt alive or submerged gradually until drowned.^[61] Journalist Abdel Bari Atwan described IS's media content as part of a "systematically applied policy". The escalating violence of its killings "guarantees" the attention of the media and public.^[62]

Along with images of brutality, IS presents itself as "an emotionally attractive place where people 'belong', where everyone is a 'brother' or 'sister'". The "most potent psychological pitch" of IS media is the promise of heavenly reward to dead jihadist fighters. Frequently posted in their media are dead jihadists' smiling faces, the Muslim 'salute' of a 'right-hand index finger pointing heavenward' (pointiong towards where Allah is), and testimonies of happy widows.^[62] IS has also attempted to present a more "rational argument" in a series of videos hosted by the kidnapped journalist John Cantlie. In one video, various current and former US officials were quoted, such as the then US President Barack Obama and former CIA Officer Michael Scheuer.^[63]

It has encouraged sympathisers to initiate vehicle-ramming and attacks worldwide.^[64]