Self‐representation of Islamic State. How to understand it by means of the orientalist and occidentalist discourse.

Abstract

In this essay I have analyzed an Islamic State beheading video in order to find an answer to the following research question: To what extent do ‘orientalism’ and ‘occidentalism’ help us to understand the self-‐representation of the Islamic State in their beheading videos? The topicality of Islamic State’s media appearances and people’s responses to it, have led me to research the meaning behind their representation. I have found the most helpful theories in Edward Said’s book Orientalism and Buruma & Margalit’s book Occidentalism: the West in the Eyes of its Enemies. In the theoretical framework I have discussed, analyzed and compared these two theories, in order to find out what they had to say about representation. Some very stereotypical formulations came out of this analysis and led me to also make use of Homi K. Bhabha’s works on stereotyping, mimicry and the Other. His work has helped me to deepen my Islamic State video analysis. Eventually I have analyzed the beheading video of British aid worker David Haines on aspects such as: speech, clothing, scenery, positioning and message/act. I have put these concepts in the light of my theoretical framework, to find out what the occidentalist and/or orientalist discourse could say about them, in order for us to understand Islamic State’s choice for the way it represents itself. Ultimately, I have found that by appropriating the orientalist discourse and its representations, Islamic State has expressed its occidentalist body of thought in an aggressive manner that has clearly affected its audience.