Džihádistická propaganda v zemích Západu za účelem rekrutace
Jihadist Recruitment Propaganda in the West

Summary/Abstract: Jihadist propaganda videos directed towards the purpose of foreign fighters‘ or lone wolves‘ recruitment in the Western countries are analysed in this paper. The aim is to identify what kinds of arguments are being used to recruit new jihadists and subsequently to evaluate to what extent these narratives correspond with current theoretical explanations of the radicalization process. It concludes that the discourse used in the videos typically intermingles rather superficial arguments revolving around faith and arguments targeting the personality of the potential recruits. In the latter case, two main narratives are being used which are labelled as “narrative of normalcy” and “narrative of desperation”. Finally, the importance of positive emotions in the recruitment efforts is emphasized. The jihadist life is depicted as providing feelings of pride, courage, happiness or even ultimate meaning together with an adventure and excitement. It is suggested that the dominance of the positive feelings in the propaganda videos may further increase relevance of some recent terrorism explanations highlighting the active search for positive emotions by the recruits and thus calling for efforts to humanize the agents of terrorism in order to understand their radicalization.

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