Gil J. Stein

From 2013 to 2019, Da’esh (ISIS) waged a violent campaign across much of Syria and Iraq in a dangerous new paradigm of “performative destruction”—a choreographed combination of cultural and physical genocide, publicized globally through the Internet. Da’esh framed its actions as a religious duty targeting people and cultural heritage monuments.
Abstract

The rise of Da’esh (ISIS) and its expansion across Syria and Iraq were characterized by well-publicized attacks on both religious groups and cultural heritage, disseminated through a dangerous new paradigm of “performative destruction.” The performative destruction of monuments and sites was a carefully choreographed, Internet-propagated, public strategy of cultural genocide combined with acts of physical genocide. Da’esh’s war on people and things was effective because it was embedded in an integrated system combining religious ideology, a political agenda, and extreme violence, amplified and intensified through the Internet. Political actions were recast as religious acts consistent with Da’esh’s jihadist interpretation of Salafi Islam and its mission of returning to an idealized vision of Islam in its earliest, purest form. Although the Da’esh caliphate was destroyed as a polity, its paradigm for viral violence is a highly adaptable model that risks being emulated by other nonstate armed groups worldwide.[1]
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