While the holy month of Ramadan is of undeniable importance in Salafi-jihadi ideology, being rooted in the Quran and in the Muslim tradition, as well as in more mainstream forms of political Islam, the Islamic State (ISIS) has come to place special emphasis on the month, as is evident in the group’s media output. ISIS leadership often chooses the occasion of Ramadan to announce new operations, goals, and strategies. It was on the first day of Ramadan 2014 (June 19) that ISIS officially declared the establishment of a caliphate and appointed Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi as its caliph.
Every year during Ramadan, the organization’s leadership has issued written, audio, or video statements marking the holy month and sending out greetings to all Muslims. Such statements also applaud ISIS fighters, report on the group’s achievements, threaten enemies of the organization, and articulate the group’s current plans. Indeed, ISIS leaders have sought to “brand” Ramadan not only as a traditional month of fasting, but as a period for jihad, victories, and martyrdom. Their statements mark the occasion of Ramadan by urging the group’s supporters and fighters to be steadfast, to perpetrate attacks wherever ISIS enemies are to be found, and to aspire to martyrdom on the battlefields of jihad.
Across its media outlets, ISIS has disseminated the notion that Ramadan is the most auspicious time for jihadi terrorism. While jihad is viewed as the enactment of a good deed by believers, in accordance with Allah’s commands, ISIS has emphasized that acts of jihad performed during Ramadan are believed to garner greater divine rewards.
Depicting Ramadan as the month of jihad appears to serve two purposes for ISIS. Not only does it inspire fighters and supporters to step up their attacks, but it also sparks fear among its enemies by marking the holy month as a time of slaughter. Academic research reveals that ISIS significantly increases its military activity at this time of year, with a statistical model presented by researchers at American University in 2018 indicating that ISIS attacks increased by an average of 24% during Ramadan. While this “Ramadan effect” on the rate of terror attacks was shown to be consistent across all jihadi groups since 1985, the increase in the rate of attacks perpetrated by ISIS members during the holy month proved to be much higher.
The following report provides background about the Islamic tradition of Ramadan being perceived as the month of jihad, victories, and martyrdom, and presents ISIS’s perspective on the phenomenon. The research includes an overview of ISIS communications during Ramadan, from its early days in Iraq to present times, and aims to demonstrate the consistency of the message conveyed by the ISIS media apparatus.