Christoph Günther is the Principal Investigator of the junior research group Jihadism on the Internet: Images and Videos, their Dissemination and Appropriation in the Department of Anthropology and African Studies at the University of Mainz. Christoph's research interests include religio-political movements in the modern Middle East, visual cultures and iconography, and the sociology of religion. His research has been published in the International Journal of Communication, Sociology of Islam, International Journal of Contemporary Iraqi Studies, among others.

Simone Pfeifer is Postdoctoral Researcher in the junior research group Jihadism on the Internet: Images and Videos, their Dissemination and Appropriation at the Department of Anthropology and African Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz (Germany). In her research, she focuses on everyday life of Muslims in Germany, and gender specific and affective dimensions in the appropriation of Islamic videos and images in social media. She recently published a book on social media in transnational everyday life on social and visual media practices, kinship and migration of Senegalese in Berlin and Dakar: Soziale Medien im transnationalen Alltag (transcript, 2020).

Explores the use of images, sounds and videos in Jihadi media and how people engage with them
ISIS is often described as a terrorist organisation that uses social media to empower its supporters and reinforce its message. Through 12 case studies, this book examines the different ways in which Jihadi groups and their supporters use visualisation, sound production and aesthetic means to articulate their cause in online as well as offline contexts.
Divided into 4 thematic sections, the chapters probe Jihadi appropriation of traditional and popular cultural expressions and show how, in turn, political activists appropriate extremist media to oppose and resist the propaganda. By conceptualising militant Islamist audiovisual productions as part of global media aesthetics and practices, the authors shed light on how religious actors, artists, civil society activists, global youth, political forces, security agencies and researchers engage with mediated manifestations of Jihadi ideology to deconstruct, reinforce, defy or oppose the messages.
Key Features
¿ Fosters theoretical approaches to audiovisuality in the context of 'propagandistic' imagery
¿ Points to strategies and logics of appropriation within and around Jihadi audiovisuality, such as humour, re-enactments and memetic forms of cultural resistance
¿ Considers cultural and aesthetic expressions that evolve in response to Jihadi media output
¿ Presents empirically grounded research, combined with historical, multi-modal, rhetorical, ethnomusicological and digital audio-visual analysis and interpretations
¿ Case studies include: an exploration of: staged violence in IS productions; the appropriation of IS's nashid S¿alil al-S¿awarim in digital contexts; the responses by social workers and former supporters of jihadi groups and movements; and how researchers themselves are part of the entanglements caused by politicisation and securitisation of Islam
Christoph Günther is the Principal Investigator and Simone Pfeifer is a Postdoctoral Researcher of the junior research group 'Jihadism on the Internet: Images and Videos, their Dissemination and Appropriation' at the Department of Anthropology and African Studies, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz.

Acknowledgements

Jihadi Audiovisuality and its Entanglements: A Conceptual Framework
Christoph Günther and Simone Pfeifer

1. On Speaking, Remaining Silent and Being Heard: Framing Research, Positionality and Publics in the Jihadi Field
Martijn de Koning, Annelies Moors, Aysha Navest

2. Designing Research on Radicalisation using Social Media Content: Data Protection Regulations as Challenges and Opportunities
Manjana Sold, Hande Abay Gaspar, Julian Junk

3. Ethics in Gender Online Research: A Facebook Case Study
Claudia Carvalho

4. Appropriation in Islamic State Propaganda: A Theoretical and Analytical Framework of Types and Dimensions
Bernd Zywietz and Yorck Beese

5. Visual Performativity of Violence: Power and Retaliatory Humiliation in Islamic State (IS) Beheading Videos between 2014 and 2017
Michael Krona

6. From the Darkness into the Light. Narratives of Conversion in Jihadi Videos
Christoph Günther

7. Artivism, Politics and Islam - An Empirical-Theoretical Approach to Artistic Strategies and Aesthetic Counter-Narratives that Defy Collective Stigmatisation
Monika Salzbrunn

8. Re-enacting Violence: Contesting Public Spheres with Appropriations of IS Execution Videos
Simone Pfeifer, Larissa-Diana Fuhrmann, Patricia Wevers

9. 'You're against Dawla, but you're Listening to their Nasheeds?' Appropriating Jihadi Audio-Visualities in the Online Streetwork Project Jamal al-Khatib - My Path!
Rami Ali, Dzemal sibljakovic, Felix Lippe, Ulrich Neuburg, Florian Neuburg

10. 'Nashid' between Islamic Chanting and Jihadi Hymns: Continuities and Transformations
Ines Weinrich

11. Anashid at the Crossroad between the Organizational and the Private
Karin Berg

12. Contested Chants: The Nashid Sòali¯l al-Sòawa¯rim and its Appropriations
Alexandra Dick and Larissa-Diana Fuhrmann