ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book aims to discuss the symbolic aspects of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) connected to its rise, its spread, and its legitimization strategies and narratives. It discusses the symbolics of the discourse of ISIS, mostly through symptomatic readings of ISIS-published materials, and connect their pronouncements to the core historical concepts and ideas or frames that their rhetoric invokes. The book focuses on to discuss a particular male Muslim subjectivity that ISIS mobilizes and further provide a discussion of the Western responses that instead of fighting the ISIS ideology effectively tend to provide ISIS the very narrative oxygen that it needs to sustain itself. It provides an overview of the rise of ISIS and the state of its infrastructure and organization.
