The concept of civilians in terrorist thought : A multiple case study on the discourse of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State

Abstract: Following the 9/11 attacks in 2001, studies on Islamic terrorism and terrorist ideology dramatically increased. Although the term has been difficult to define, "terrorism" is commonly used to describe unlawful violence against civilians for political aims. As civilians are the frequent targets of terrorist organizations, research has investigated the link between terrorism and civilians, the motivations behind terrorist attacks, and the effects it has on the civilian targets. However, one component of the research that is absent is how the terrorists conceptualize civilians; as a result, this is the subject of the research addressed in this thesis. Methods of preventing terrorism and organized violence can be further investigated by looking into possible ways of terrorist minds and their targets by studying their language. Thus, the research questions aim to capture how civilians are conceptualized in terrorist discourse. The Islamic State and Al-Qaeda are the cases that set the stage for analysis to address the research questions, where their statements lay the basis for the data that will be examined to reach the thesis's aim. A Critical Discourse Analysis was used as the method for investigation, which laid the groundwork for an analytical framework and provided the tool to guide the analysis and interpretation of the data. The research shows that how terrorist organizations conceptualize civilians, where in-groups and out-groups are deeply embedded, depends greatly on how such organizations socially construct civilians. The study focuses on how civilians who belong to the “out-group” and “in-group” are conceived, however the first mentioned receives more attention in the analysis. The study of the conceptualization of civilians associated with the out-group demonstrates that the key characteristic of civilians is their label as enemies. Based on this feature designated by the organizations, Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State makes no significant distinction between civilians and military. Therefore, civilians are typically not seen as innocent or victims, and attacks against them are often justified. In this study, this reasoning is frequently related to religion.