ISIS and the Pornography of Violence

Description

'ISIS and the Pornography of Violence' is a collection of iconoclastic essays on ISIS, spanning the four-year period from its ascendancy in late 2014 to its demise in early 2018. From a trenchant critique of the infantilization of jihadists to a probing examination of the parallels between gonzo porn and ISIS beheading videos, the pieces collected in this volume challenge conventional ways of thinking about ISIS and the roots of its appeal. Simon Cottee’s core argument is that Western ISIS recruits, far from being brainwashed or “vulnerable” dupes, actively responded to the group’s promise of redemptive violence and self-sacrifice to a total cause. Cover Front Matter Half-title Title page Copyright information Dedication Table of contents Preface Chapter 1-3 Chapter 1 ISIS and The Theatre of Horror The Pornography of Jihadism Islamic State’s Willing Executioners ISIS and the Intimate Kill ISIS and the War on Children ISIS and the Logic of Shock Why It’s So Hard to Stop ISIS Propaganda The Cyber Activists Who Want to Shut Down ISIS Translating ISIS’s Atrocity Porn The Jihad Will Be Televised ISIS and the Little Monsters Why Do We Want to Watch Gory Jihadist Propaganda Videos? Inside Europol’s Online War Against ISIS Chapter 2 The Meaning and Appeal of Jihadist Violence Terrorism with a Human Face What Exactly Is the Allure of Islamic State? What Motivates Terrorists? Pilgrims to the Islamic State The Challenge of Jihadi Cool Reborn into Terrorism Is There Any “Logic” to Suicide Terrorism? What If Some Suicide Bombers Are Just Suicidal? What’s the Right Way to Think About Religion and ISIS? ISIS in the Caribbean How a British College Student Became an ISIS Matchmaker Osama bin Laden’s Secret Masturbation Fatwa ISIS Will Fail, but What About the Idea of ISIS? The Islamic State’s Shock-and-Bore Terrorism The “Softer” Side of Jihadists Chapter 3 How Not to Think About ISIS The Zoolander Theory of Terrorism The Pre-Terrorists Among Us Europe’s Joint-Smoking, Gay-Club Hopping Terrorists What ISIS Women Want Anjem Choudary and the Criminalization of Dissent “The Real Housewives of ISIS” Deserves a Laugh Trump’s Travel Ban Will Not Help ISIS Recruitment Terrorists Are Not Snowflakes All That We’ll Never Know About Manchester Bomber Salman Ramadan Abedi Can Ex-Militants, and Their Redemption Stories, Stop Anyone from Joining Islamic State? The Myth of the ISIS Patsy What We Talk About When We Talk About Violent Extremism End Matter Notes Preface Chapter 1 ISIS and the Theatre of Horror Chapter 2 The Meaning and Appeal of Jihadist Violence Chapter 3 How Not To Think About ISIS Credits Index