ISIL’s gruesome reality TV is an exercise in shock and awe

The militant group's horrific videos says something about human nature we'd rather not face, writes Sharif Nashashibi

Pep Montserrat for The National

Not a week seems to go by without another slick execution video from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The latest, released on Tuesday, shows men being drowned in a cage submerged in water, and others being decapitated by explosives strapped to their necks, or trapped in a car blown up by a rocket-propelled grenade.

The imagination and production values of such videos clearly illustrate ISIL’s fetishism of death. This has led many to wonder how its members (indeed any human being) can take so much pleasure in committing such atrocities and go to such lengths to publicise them.

The knee-jerk reaction of governments and organisations accused of war crimes tends to be denial, no matter how unconvincing. In the last week alone, the governments of Israel and Syria, as well as Palestinian faction Hamas and Syrian rebel groups, have denied war crimes accusations by the UN. ISIL, however, takes pride in its barbarism. The reason it does so is actually quite simple: on various levels, this strategy has proven highly successful.

From a military point of view, flaunting its atrocities strikes fear into the hearts of communities under its rule, and those in its sights, as well as opposing ground forces.

ISIL’s grisly publicity is its own form of “shock and awe”. This limits resistance to it for fear of the consequences, making it easier for the organisation to capture territories and maintain control of them. It also partially explains why, in some cases, larger forces have fled after ISIL advances.

This concept, however, is nothing new – fear has always been a fundamental and highly effective weapon of war.

In the context of the Middle East, a stark example is the infamous massacre by Jewish forces of scores of civilians, including women and children, in the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin in 1948. The resulting terror that spread throughout Palestine contributed to many people seeking refuge; others were forced out at the point of a gun. The country’s subsequent depopulation enabled the establishment of Israel.

There is an assumption that ISIL’s horrific videos will deter people from joining its ranks, but those who would be put off are not the kind of recruits the group wants.

It seeks precisely those who would be attracted by its gruesome tactics, and carry them out when they become members.

ISIL has been successful at recruiting people who feel powerless, angry, voiceless or disenfranchised in their own countries. They are relatively easy to indoctrinate, and find it appealing to join an organisation that has not only enjoyed striking battlefield successes in a short period of time, but will give them the power of life and death over individuals and entire communities. Furthermore, ISIL’s propaganda machine can give these recruits “fame” in the process. For a certain type of individual, that is a heady mixture of incentives.

The media and audiences ponder the allure and rise of ISIL, while often neglecting the roles they themselves play as distributors and viewers of its material.

In determining an item’s newsworthiness, the age-old industry slogan “if it bleeds, it leads” means the media gives prominence to violence – the more violent, the more prominent – because this is what attracts audiences, and hence what keeps these businesses operating.

However, it is not just about profits, though people often forget that media outlets are businesses like any other. It would be contrary to the nature of news – indeed against the public interest – to ignore or downplay ISIL’s barbarity, the spread of the organisation and its ideology, and the potentially global repercussions.

As such, ISIL is happy to satisfy demand while receiving valuable and free publicity in return. This is likely a major reason why the organisation has become so “creative” in its methods of execution, because variety keeps the media and audiences interested. The high production values only increase the material’s attractiveness, as if one is watching an action movie.

It is a grotesque, if perhaps unavoidable symbiotic relationship between ISIL, the media and the public that most would rather not acknowledge because that would serve to recognise an unpleasant basic truth: humans are drawn to images of suffering even if they know they will be revolted by them.

For example, as pedestrians or drivers, we have all slowed down or stopped in the aftermath of a car accident to see if anyone has been hurt or killed. Part of us is filled with dread during the process, but that does not stop us.

Similarly, many of us have clicked on videos on our Facebook newsfeeds despite (and maybe even because of) warnings about the distressing nature of the content. It is this basic instinct that ISIL plays on, and the internet and social media make it is easier to find photos and videos in their full gore, rather than sanitised versions on mainstream media.

There is a misconception that ISIL is a pioneer or innovator in this regard, but publicising acts of barbarity is nothing new. Its parent organisation Al Qaeda and others were doing so long before ISIL came into existence.

The difference is that, as a relatively new group, ISIL was born in the age of social media. Al Qaeda, on the other hand, was formed in the late 1980s, before the rise of the internet, and under Osama bin Laden it focused its propaganda resources primarily on satellite TV, as that was the flourishing medium at the time.

ISIL is able to utilise social media sites that are more numerous, larger and more widely followed than ever before. The internet has always provided a global network – more so than any other medium before it – but ISIL benefits from the fact that there are now an unprecedented number of people worldwide connected to that network.

Also, ISIL’s members – particularly youths, who are especially targeted for recruitment – are inclined to be naturally adept at using such sites because, for the most part, they have never known a life without the internet.

ISIL is a product of its time, with expertise in new technologies. However, it also utilises methods of warfare and propaganda that are more traditional than many realise. It is the combination of the two that has made its tactics so effective and prevalent. As such, until the scourge is defeated, expect more abhorrent, imaginative, professional videos of death – because ISIL knows the various benefits of maintaining supply.

Sharif Nashashibi is a journalist and analyst on Arab affairs