Critical Discourse Analysis of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan: An Intertextual Recontextualization
Abstract
This article presents Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Drawing upon the post structuralist method of deconstruction, this article identifies key persuasive strategies and thematic formations that underlie the rhetoric of Taliban. It seeks to examine how TTP contextualizes the political environment and securitizes Islamic values using identity-mediated discourse of danger to the Islam through speech acts that mediate war against the ‘ideological other’—Pakistan. In addition, it attempts to expose the discursive structures upon TTP challenges counter terrorism campaign of Pakistan in an extreme manner by analyzing the articulation, interpellation, and operationalization of militant discourse—sustained through the production, distribution, and consumption of the text. Furthermore, it also discusses how master narrative of Taliban problematizes the existing context and promise to deliver revisionist solutions. Finally, article concludes that, TTP’s so-called ‘defensive jihad’ narrative is a war legitimizing discourse—constructed on religious discursivity and sustained through language.
Authors
Zahid Mehmood Zahid
PhD Scholar, Department of International Relations, National Defence University, Islamabad, Pakistan
Khuram Iqbal
Assistant Professor, Department of International Relations, National Defence University, Islamabad, Pakistan
Tahir Abbas Sial
PhD Scholar, Department of International Relations, National Defence University, Islamabad, Pakistan