The cognitive and linguistic implications of ISIS propaganda: proving the crime of direct and public incitement to genocide

TThis chapter of the volume presents a model approach to the legal analysis of the most intricate cognitive and linguistic aspects of propaganda within the framework of international criminal law. As indicated by the authors, Mohamed Badar and Polona Florijančič, the chapter offers an analysis of “key concepts and labels employed by ISIS by placing them in their linguistic, historical, religious and ideological contexts.” This approach presents an advanced method of investigating various manifestations of intent and mens rea evidence on the one hand and its potential impact on the prospective perpetrators of the physical crimes on the other hand. Two distinct, but potentially related, cognitive modes of criminal conduct emerge from this method: the intentional, propagandistic conduct and the anticipated impact of such conduct on the perpetration of the physical crimes. The key lies in the historically and culturally determined meanings of the linguistic concepts employed by the ISIS propagandists, as subsequently understood and acted on by the ISIS combatants. The authors ultimately demonstrate how this type of propaganda can be prosecuted as the inchoate crime of direct and public incitement to commit genocide. This chapter can provide both the legal and academic contextual roadmap for the ISIS-related prosecutorial enterprises, namely, the ICC investigations into the mass atrocity crimes committed by this terrorist organization in Syria and Iraq.