The war for supremacy of the jihadist movement

Syria today is torn by a major civil war and does not yet have the prospect of peaceful solution. The Syrian civil war is an offshoot of the Arab Spring, the widespread protests which began in Tunisia in 2010 and spread across the region. The civil war in Syria proved to be the right circumstances for several jihadist movements, and they have been able to establish themselves in the country. This research focuses on intra-movement rivalry and framing between ISIS, al-Qaeda and Jabhat al-Nusra during the ongoing civil war in Syria. The main research question is: What discourse have al-Qaeda, ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra adopted in their media expressions in order to legitimize jihadist differentiation and the use of violence, both symbolic and real, against their jihadist competitors? The main conclusion is that jihadist use a defectional discourse in order to legitimize jihadist differentiation and the use of violence against their jihadist competitors. ISIS, al-Qaeda and Jabhat al-Nusra have adopted and developed a radical discourse, which I have called the defectional discourse. They make use of the notion of takfir to legitimize violence, claiming the ‘other’ is not a pious Muslim. This defectional discourse interacts with a political and religious salafist discourse, drawing on early Islamic history and early Islamic religious texts.