Jihad as an Ideograph: Osama bin Laden's rhetorical weapon of choice

<p>On August 23rd, 1996 The Declaration of Jihad was released by Osama bin Laden urging the Muslim community to heed to the call to jihad. The longest of bin Laden’s early messages, the Declaration of Jihad outlines a call to jihad against America for their continued presence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Using Michael Calvin McGee’s “ideograph” (1980), I argue in this thesis that bin Laden’s usage of fulfills the characteristics of an ideograph through the employment of cluster words and narratives. I illustrate my argument through a textual analysis of The Declaration of Jihad where I identify the various narratives and cluster words throughout the declaration. I argue that bin Laden’s usage of these rhetorical methods contribute to a reframing of . Osama bin Laden’s reframing of fulfills his ideology of radical Islam and consequently makes the appeal to his audience to embrace the duty of . I conclude by discussing the theoretical implications of this thesis to the theory of ideograph, the appeal to audiences and advances for future research.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Montana

Year

2011

Author dc:creator

• Lingarajan, Faye

• ideograph
• jihad
• osama bin laden
• terrorism

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/18

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarworks.umt.edu:etd-1037