The Islamic State’s use of the Qur’an in its Magazines, Dabiq and Rumiyah

This paper looks at the verses of the Qur’an that are most heavily cited by the Islamic State across all 28 editions of its magazines, Dabiq and Rumiyah. Published from July 2014 to September 2017, covering both the organisation’s rise to power and subsequent decline, these contain around 1500 references to the Qur’an. Here, the five verses that appear most often are considered. While all quotations are necessarily discerning (and it is no surprise to see that the Islamic State’s authors relay the scriptural extracts that best suit their purposes), it is, nonetheless, valuable to trace out the contours of, and reasons behind, such selectivity. To this end, it is argued that these five verses are firstly used to support notions of loyalty and disavowal, and, secondly, to justify its use of violence. Together, it is further concluded, they act in concert to serve the Islamic State’s primary imperatives of recruitment, power projection and mobilisation.