I Am Proud to Be a Traitor: The emotion/opinion interplay in jihadist magazines

Abstract

Neojihadism taps successfully into the Internet’s influence to disseminate its oppression narrative of Muslims vs. non-believers (Al Raffie 2012). Whilst this type of radicalisation has received attention from psychoanalysis (Kobrin 2010), jihadist discourse is in need of more exhaustive examination. By detecting recruiters’ key persuasive strategies, we may understand what can move people to violent action. In this paper, we employ SFL Appraisal Theory (Martin and White 2005; Bednarek 2008, 2009; Benítez-Castro and Hidalgo-Tenorio 2019), to undertake a detailed analysis of the interplay between EMOTION and OPINION in a pair of exemplars from two jihadist magazines: The Taliban’s Azan and Al-Qaeda’s Inspire. The close inspection of these texts reveals two distinct persuasive strategies: One revolving around a markedly negative pathos of victimhood and deep distress caused by injustice, past and present; and the other conveying pride and confidence at the many virtues behind the jihadi path.