What is it about?
It basically examines a 30-episode Arabic-language TV drama about a Syrian city under ISIS’s control to identify the underlying religious messages, the character development approach, and representation of ISIS and those who fight it.
Featured Image
Photo by Jonas Leupe on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Because it fills a gap. The research on ISIS and counter-extremism has rarely touched on the use of entertainment-education (E-E) in general. And even in the instances where E-E has been discussed in relation to extremism, Arabic-language, faith-based projects didn’t receive much attention despite the majority of fighters who joined ISIS being from Iraq, Syria, and neighboring Arab countries.
Perspectives
It was very rewarding working on this project because it felt like there is indeed an approach that can be effective in targeting the mainstream audience by entertaining them, while also dismantling extremists’ arguments in a nuanced, culturally-sensitive way. Hope you enjoy reading it the way I enjoyed writing it!
Kareem El Damanhoury
University of Denver
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Fighting Religious Extremism with Faith-Based Entertainment-Education: The Portrayal of isis in Arab Drama, Journal of Religion Media and Digital Culture, January 2023, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/21659214-bja10070.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
