The Straits Times
22 April 2015
- RSIS
- Media Mentions
- The Allure of Cinematic Violence in ISIS
The Allure of Cinematic Violence in ISIS
Those attracted to ISIS may be less drawn to its religious ideology than to the spectacle and glorification of its violence.
THE most harrowing thing I have ever witnessed in the course of my field research on religious and political violence was the sight of young boys being made to watch a video of someone being decapitated and dismembered in a religious school in a South Asian country.
That the video was gory was upsetting enough; but even more disconcerting was the fact that the children who were made to watch it were unmoved, even jaded, by the spectacle of violence that was enacted before them.
… The writer is associate professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University.
GPO / Online / Print
