Key Contents in the Media of the Terrorist Group Jaish ul-Adl: A Case Study on Social Networks

The media world, particularly far-reaching media and virtual networks, have become influential instruments for mainstreaming, justification and persuasion for violent and subversive movements. Hence, they have significantly attracted the attention of terrorist groups. One of the most important media-virtual instruments used by these groups includes virtual space particularly social networks. Jaish ul-Adl has also sought to persuade and attract people and expand its activities, by establishing a variety of groups and channels in various social networks according to time and place necessities through releasing notices, religious trailers, motivational speeches, documentaries and so on. Apart from its degree of success in these three arenas, its political propaganda has reinforced its acts of terror and accordingly has threatened the border security of the Islamic Republic in eastern areas. Considering its vast similarity to ISIS, it has imitated their media-virtual pattern, thus increasingly elaborating its media-virtual language in its oratory literature, religious justification and alike. Drawing upon content analysis methodology, this article has identified Jaish ul-Adl’s propaganda in the Sunni-Shia, minority-majority, right-wrong, faith-paganism, and Jihad-peace binaries. The article has provided the ground for new findings by generalizing the binaries.