By Claire Kim
The name ISIS should be familiar to many, considering how it has dominated a good portion of the media for some time. Short for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, it has since changed its name again to simply IS, Islamic State, and will be referred to as such for the rest of the article.
IS has had a fairly short rise to infamy. It first attracted world-wide attention in February, when it was cut off from Al-Qaeda for its brutality and “notorious intractability”; since then, it has had an almost meteoric rise in membership. This increase in members surprisingly consists of a great deal of Westerners–the majority from Arab countries, but also recruits from the EU, US, Canada, and Australia.
ISIS’s recruiting tactics are surprisingly modern and up-to-date. Using a blend of social media, such as Instagram and Twitter, they use a constantly changing number of accounts to describe and depict their life as jihads.
ISIS is particularly welcoming to foreign fighters, even if they don’t speak Arabic, or don’t have military training. Westerners can simply arrive one day, ask for a gun, and get one. Simple.
The jihadists are fairly dedicated to their media, which has a huge sway in attracting fresh recruits. Using sites such as ask.fm and Kik, among others, Western fighters can answer questions that potential recruits have. For the most part, the life they portray is warm and important, to sway the indecisive to joining their cause. However, these online identities can also be brutal and horrifying. Pictures of cats and sunsets can just as easily be followed with, say, a pyramid of severed heads.
