Al-I'tisam Media Foundation

Al-I'tisam Media Foundation

مؤسسة الإعتصام للإعلام
Formation	March 8, 2013; 11 years ago (2013-03-08)
Dissolved	April 5, 2015; 9 years ago (2015-04-05)
Owner	Islamic State of Iraq (until February 3, 2014) Islamic State (from February 3, 2014)

Al-I'tisam Media Foundation (Arabic: مؤسسة الإعتصام للإعلام, romanized: Muʼassasat al-Iʻtiṣām lil-Iʻlām) was one of the main media foundations of the Islamic State and the Islamic State of Iraq.[1]

History

Al-I'tisam Media Foundation was established in March 8, 2013 under the Islamic State of Iraq after its expansion into Syria during the Syrian civil war.[2][3] It was first announced through Al-Qaeda online forums that the original publications would be produced via the Global Islamic Media Front.[4]

The media foundation primarily focused on Islamic religious topics during its time of establishment, including the fatwas of Ayman al-Zawahiri and the fatwas of Osama Bin Laden after his assassination. After the establishment of a so-called caliphate under the Islamic State, Al-I'tisam Media Foundation started publishing sermons of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, audio addresses from the official Islamic State spokesperson Abu Mohammad al-Adnani, and issues of the English-language magazine Dabiq, French-language magazine Dar al-Islam, and Turkish-language magazine Konstantiniyye.[5]

One of the more religiously motivated videos the media foundation published was the A Window Upon the Land of Epic Battles, a series that focused on the life inside the Islamic State and how the so-called caliphate expanded.[6] Al-I'tisam Media Foundation also published execution videos from the Camp Speicher massacre and other extrajudicial killings.[7] The last official publication by Al-I'tisam Media Foundation was on April 5, 2015, with a video entitled "Repelling of the Safavids in Salah al-Din".[8]

References

1. "Foreign Terrorist Organizations' Official Media Arms and Violent Extremist Web Forums" (PDF). Reference Aid. 4 (4): 1. April 13, 2016. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 25, 2022. Retrieved November 27, 2022 – via Homeland security.
2. Merrin, William (2019). Digital war: a critical introduction. London ; New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. ISBN 978-1-138-89986-5.
3. Hamming, Tore (2022). Jihadi politics: the global Jihadi Civil War, 2014-2019. Oxford scholarship online Political Science. London: Hurst & Company. ISBN 978-1-78738-702-7.
4. "New statement from the Global Islamic Media Front: "Announcement on the Publishing of al-I'tiṣām Media Foundation – A Subsidiary of the Islamic State of Iraq – It Will Be Released Via GIMF"". jihadology.net. Retrieved 2025-02-02.
5. Robinson, Linda; Helmus, Todd C.; Cohen, Raphael S.; Nader, Alireza; Radin, Andrew; Magnuson, Madeline; Migacheva, Katya (2018). Modern political warfare: current practices and possible responses. Research report. Arroyo Center. Santa Monica, Calif: RAND Corporation. ISBN 978-0-8330-9707-1.
6. Hamming, Tore (2023-02-01), "Diverging Attitudes", Jihadi Politics (1 ed.), Oxford University Press, pp. 177–200, doi:10.1093/oso/9780197685563.003.0007, ISBN 978-0-19-768556-3, retrieved 2025-02-02
7. Atwan, Abdel Bari (2016), "7. Im Innern des Islamischen Staates", Das digitale Kalifat, Verlag C.H.BECK oHG, pp. 175–193, retrieved 2025-02-02
8. "al-I'tiṣām Media presents a new video message from The Islamic State: "Repelling of the Safavids in Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn"". jihadology.net. Retrieved 2025-02-02.