Introduction
The Islamic State and The Power Of The Visual Medium as an Instrument of Propaganda
The Islamic State As A Physical Entity is Dead
The Virtual Caliphate Is Reborn - Lessons From The Past -
The Islamic Caliphate of Iraq and al-Sham is in the process of being destroyed completely.
Its main proponents, however, have already fled the scene - leaving mainly foreign volunteer recruits from Europe, Chechnya, Dagestan the Philippines and other parts of the world to provide cover, support the retreat, and return to Allah as martyrs.
As to why such recruits have the most passion fierce zeal and will fight to the last bullet, that is another story for another era.
The caliphate and its supporters worldwide number at most 34-45 million out of an estimated 1.6 billion Muslims. This is less than 4% of believers.
Out of this figure the numbers engaged in acts of violence is likely to be far less. And engaged in extreme acts of violence perhaps as low as a few thousand believers, worldwide.
With the destruction of the Islamic Caliphate and, for those not martyred, the dispersal of its acolytes to the four corners of the earth, what we are left with is, in many respects, similar to what Christians were left with after the death of Jesus - when he was crucified on Good Friday.
Christianity - As A Terrorist Sect Within The Roman Empire
Christians were the 'terrorists' of their day. A rabble of 'insane' believers supporting an anarchist who called himself 'the Messiah' 'the Chosen One' and who challenged the divine power of the Roman Emperor and challenged the authority of the Sanhedrin.
He even challenged the legitimacy of Judaism itself with his scandalous statements that he was the son of God, the Messiah foretold in biblical prophesies from time immemorial. He was now here, in flesh and bone, on the planet, to herald in a new era so they should abandon Judaism and follow him as the true long-awaited Messiah.
We are talking, folks, about this insane individual challenging the legitimacy of Judaism in the land of Judea.
It was apostasy, heresy and he was promoting anarchy.
Jesus as a 'Terrorist'
He also exhorted his followers not to pay taxes, and to challenge everywhere the authority of Rome, the Roman Empire and its authority in matters spiritual and temporal.
This was, in effect, sedition. Rebellion against the Empire and the inciting civil disobedience and 'enrolling' Jews to join his self-styled religion [Christianity] as a sect of Judaism.
He even had rites and rituals to separate them from their fellow Jews and from Judaism. So this guy, folks, was a real troublemaker - and a serious threat to the authority of both the Roman Empire's authority in Judea and to the authority of the established church - Judaism.
Everywhere he went there were crowds gathering, those mainly with a 'grudge' against either the established church or the Roman Empire, some quite angry as he (or indeed his followers) would commit acts of violence - overturning the money-changing stalls in the Temple as just one example (Bureaux de Change-Cambio) and the prospect of civil disobedience and anarchy loomed large almost everywhere he turned up to 'preach'.
His followers were not without using 'the sword' to 'settle scores' or perceived insults.
In ancient Judea, he politically agitated his followers to rise up and overthrow civilian administrations through civil disobedience, to ignore the divine power of the Emperor Tiberius - as a heretic and apostasy against the one true God - and likewise to challenge and question the temporal and spiritual authority of the Emperor's Governor of Judea, of local officials, and the Jewish Sanhedrin.
Jesus was a political dissident and the endless 'prophesies' about his 'imminent' 'coming' or 'arrival' were a source of constant rebellions by 'revivalist' or 'evangelical' sects of Jews for Herod The Great (who died a short time before Jesus was born) and, later on, for both the Sanhedrin and Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor.
The Resurrection and Its Application
to the Islamic Caliphate
On the third day, Jesus' place of burial was found unblocked and, it is said, someone with the resemblance of Jesus was sitting there to proclaim the good news - of rebirth and resurrection from the dead through belief (faith) in the Lord.
He then 'appeared' to the faithful until, after a period of time, it is said that he then physically 'ascended into heaven'.
That is the story of the Crucifixion and The Resurrection in a nutshell.
Martyrdom and Inspiration
After that story, for those who saw and believed in the resurrection, death had no meaning to his followers who traveled to the four corners of the Roman Empire (and, it is said, beyond, to India and to China) proclaiming the 'good news' of salvation and 'rebirth' through redemption and faith in Christianity.
Many were martyred. It is from such martyrs that the Catholic Church derived its genesis, its first Pope (Pontiff) and first Saints.
So from being a cult (or sect) of Judaism, Christianity grew to what it is today.
From Pacifism To The Sword
Interestingly, it (Christianity) started out as a mainly 'pacifist' sect and only later, when it assumed the mantel of political, economic and military power, did it become a 'religion of the sword' - the exact opposite of the genesis of the Islamic Caliphate.
Christianity Was Originally Not Just a Religion But Also A 'Lifestyle' Choice
What initially attracted people to Christianity was, I believe, its pacifism, the monotheistic nature of the belief and the 'commandments' - which offered people a chance to live in peaceful regulated harmonious communities governed by sets of rules, values and rituals for every aspect of their religious, social and political life. Christianity, in the beginning, was not just another religion, but a way of life with prescribed laws for every aspect of a Christian's conduct in this world and their exact relationship to God and to man.
In many regards at the outset Christianity was similar to Islam today as practiced by 98% of the Muslim population worldwide today.
It was not just a religion but a 'lifestyle' choice with rules governing economics, politics and social relationships.
It initially offered equality, justice and an escape from servitude to attract the masses.
It also offered an escape from slavery and disenfranchisement with the belief that all men are equal under God.
[It was only after it was 'established' as a church of state that its priorities changed to reflect social hierarchies and political control of the masses wherever it was being adopted by the ruling elites.]
It was quickly seen by ruling elites not as a challenge to their authority but as a useful tool supporting new rituals to continue to maintain the status quo.
It became as 'fashionable' to be a Christian as it is, in some parts of the world today, to convert to Islam or an Evangelical Christian faith or to Kabbalism.
It was very easy for Christian 'brothers' and 'sisters' throughout Christendom to 'recognize' each other by the 'signs' and 'symbols' of their faith.
[I should add that because there were prescribed rituals of cleanliness, Christians tended to live healthier - and longer - lives than their pagan counterparts.]
Martyrs and Ghosts
How can you 'kill' someone who embraces death more than life? How can you destroy an idea?
How can you torture someone who will chant and sing for their imminent crucifixions or dismemberments?
All of the above caused pagans to reflect and, for example, the throwing of Christians to the lions no longer got he 'rave' reviews by the 'spectators' that they used to. The public simply 'tired' or 'fatigued' of seeing Christians 'embrace' death as the former embraced life.
So there you have it.
Why They Have All Got It Wrong
I have looked at the dynamics of many 'experts' in counter-terrorism and I only wish I could connect them to the Roman Empire's 'experts' of two thousand years ago because both would find very common ground in the strategies required to 'kill' that which is already dead, but resurrected and reborn in the Aether.
Hearts Minds and Souls
How will the 'battle' for hearts, minds and souls end? I have no idea.
Was all the butchery, carnage and waste of precious life worth the price of redemption and conversions? I have no idea.
Lessons To be Learned For The Future
What I can say with certainty is that there are no lessons to be learned for the future.
That future proselytising sects with similar zeal, be they Christian or otherwise will take examples from those preceding them and do likewise. Sects from whatever spiritual belief are as forever doomed to repeat history - as are politicians - because they never learn from their mistakes.
That is the plain and simple truth.
Martyrdom and Mental Illness
The good news is that the 'fanatics' who drive cars into people and kill with knives and guns are very few and far between. These are mainly the 'lunatic fringe' elements which every society has and whose 'mental illness' (or indeed the State itself will 'conspire' to create such individuals for its own reasons) more motivates them to carnage than any to training having been undertaken with the Islamic Caliphate State.
For example, veterans returning from the first and second world wars - and from the Korean and Vietnam wars - did not, in general, go onto Main Street and start murdering people because of what they had either experienced or partaken during the wars they fought in.
[Many, however, have many mental health issues because of what they had either done or experienced first hand - and there were few solutions to assist with their 'recovery' at that time - but that is another story for another era.]
What will be of real interest are the 'little things' - how many people in the Muslim world, for example, will (have) proudly name their children 'Osama' [or Usama] or 'Ayman' or 'Abu Bakr'.
Indeed, how many Christians will likewise proudly name their children in honor of those who, as innocent victims, gave their lives in the fight against 'terrorism' - 'Keith' or 'Aysha' or 'Kurt' as just a few examples of 'passive' [non-violent] opposition to perceived injustices and wrongdoings.
Propaganda
Many of the hundreds of propaganda images below are reflective of earlier works I saw in Northern Ireland and Lebanon during the civil war years.
They are also indicative of earlier ages - during the second world war - when propaganda was in full flow by all opposing sides.
They 'romanticize' and 'fantasize' the glories of insurgency.
All are designed to motivate, to inspire to victory, to shock or to demoralize.
If you really want to see propaganda at its worst [or best, depending on your viewpoint] that put out by Germany the United States Great Britain and Japan during the first and second world wars are good examples.
Look up the references below for some excellent examples of the best propaganda available at that time.
[The greatest visual propagandist of the 20th century was Leni Riefenstahl.
While her work was banned during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s it was required viewing for anyone - including journalists - engaged in aspects of the visual arts and their impact on public opinion.]
My opinion is that the Caliphate's propaganda is more indicative of a video game a 10 year old might be playing.
Images for war represented today by the Islamic Caliphate are now more indicative of a video game and have more of an 'interactive' quality than their predecessors.
They are likewise all quasi-surreal, more designed for X box or 3-D or even VR mediums than their predecessors.
They are targeted at a very specific audience and age group - for which key words are very easily identifiable and familiar.
I have not included those which 'add' 'shock' value because of their relational aspects nor images of individuals murdered but focus on their [imagined fantasy] 'battle' against the 'hearts' of the political and economic orders they are hoping some day, at the 'heart' of Empires (pagan Rome) to overthrow and replace.
The images you can view in history books - of German and Japanese soldiers bayoneting, impaling babies and raping women - produced by the Ministry of Information in London and by the Japanese Ministry of Information in the Far East during WWII, are far more graphic than anything I have chosen here for this display.
So the art of propaganda to 'incite' 'anger' and 'motivate' as a call to war and violence, has a long history.
Here are just a few examples of its recent past.
©Patrick
Emek, Easter 2017
''When Democracy is Not Enough:Japan’s information policy and mass politics in diplomatic and economic crisis in the 1930s '' 民主主義は万能ではない—1930年代の外交、経済危機における日本の情報政策と大衆政治が示すもの
When you compare below with the above, the Caliphate's 'propaganda' is no less shocking but more 'video game' and X-Box orientated.
I have chosen just a small few from a collection of hundreds.
If you compare them with past propaganda you will see an evolution towards the Internet and virtual reality and interactive world modes which most consumers partake in these days.
©Patrick
Emek, Easter 2017
Not Islamic State:
Artist unknown
.