The Arab Gulf States use the air war against the IS for a PR campaign. To publish images of their pilots, to promote the fight against the jihadists. The protagonists: a Saudi prince and a female pilot from the Emirates & Arab world.

The pictures look like advertising posters for the Arabic version of “Top Gun”: Soldiers posing in a hangar in front of a fighter jet. In another photo, a female pilot sits smiling in the cockpit, with a raised thumb.

But these recordings are not promoting a new movie, but for a war that it really is. The armies of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) the images have been published. They show pilots, are involved in the bomb attacks on positions of the terrorist organization “Islamic State” (IS) in Iraq and Syria.

The PR strategists in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have chosen the motives to present the Gulf monarchies as modern Islamic states, which precede the fight against the jihadists. One of the Saudi Arabian pilots who were photographed in the mild evening sun, Khalid Bin Salman, son of Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz. He flies a fighter-bomber type Tornado IDS. According to the royal family, Prince Khalid controls one of four fighter jets, which are involved in the operation against the “Islamic State”.

Fight against IS as a PR offensive:Many Saudis support the IS

For the Saudi Arabian regime, the publication of the images is risky. Because many subjects of King Abdullah sympathize with the IS. The ideology of the jihadists is also not so far from the state-supported interpretation of Islam. Finally pursued Saudi Arabia of other faiths, since the beginning of the regime has let several dozen people beheaded.

The daily “Al-Hayat” led in August by a survey in Saudi Arabia. Thus, 92 percent of respondents were of the view that the “Islamic State” agree with the values ​​of Islam and Sharia. Several wealthy Saudis are suspected of having financed the rise of jihadists.

Now the royal family tried to counteract: The media in the country to spread the images of pilots and declare that the IS must be fought because the terrorists engaged Islam in a bad light.

The jihadists reacted immediately: you now call on you to kill Prince Khalid and his comrades, because they participated in the part of the United States in the war against the IS.

Fight against IS as a PR offensive:Sexist Sayings on Fox News

The United Arab Emirates move a woman at the center of their PR campaign. According to the government Mariam al-Mansuri is at the head of the squadron. “She is a highly qualified, well-trained fighter pilot. And she has a mission,” said the Ambassador of UAE in the United States, Jussif al-Utaiba.

The diplomat stylized the 35-year-old to the symbol of the struggle of moderate Muslims against the jihadists. “They are a threat to us. They are a threat to our country to live a threat to our way.”

Mansuri is the first female combat pilot in the history of the UAE. She flies a fighter-bomber of the type F-16 Block 60 Previously she had studied English literature since 2008. On Twitter, the female pilot is celebrated for its use. “IS, you are just been flattened by a woman. Nice day” was one of the comments.

But the use of the female pilot also proves that misogyny is widespread not only among Islamists. A moderator in the conservative U.S. news channel Fox News commented on the reports of Mansuri with the words: “She was able to bomb, but not to park the jet after that.” His colleague was still clumsy, “If they would fight on the ground: Had the then ‘Boobs on the Ground’?”

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