The path to Jihad: A critical metaphor analysis of religious conceptualisations in jihadist magazines

The ideological discourse of jihadist groups depends on their use of persuasive techniques as instruments for recruitment, radicalisation and more generally “to convince the audience of the veracity of the doctrine presented through it” [1]. The language choices therefore play a crucial role in reflecting their social relationships, motivations and beliefs, and what attempts they make to justify or enforce these values. By adopting Charteris-Black’s [3] Critical Metaphor Analysis framework, this paper explores the use of metaphor as a rhetorical and ideological dimension to jihadist texts. Data are taken from jihadist magazines and compared against the Qur’an. Results show that the pervasiveness of religiously inspired concepts like the JOURNEY metaphor help the writers to anchor their message to a deeply seated, authoritative set of ideologies. At the same time, differences in the use of these metaphors suggest an ability to manipulate pre-existing conceptualisations to embody the principles of jihadist groups.