The twenty-year old daughter of a Muslim couple in Birmingham, Alabama was recruited over the internet to join ISIS. The attorney of the couple, Hassan Shibly, spoke at a Birmingham mosque on Monday on behalf of Hoda's parents. He states that Hoda had been "brainwashed" and left in November and that it was against her families' wishes and against the Islam religion. Families were meeting at the mosque to discuss how to protect their children from ISIS recruitment. Though we are not experiencing the horrific violence of ISIS on our home front, we are seeing the dangers of their manipulation. They are pulling people from our country and it makes me wonder what exactly they are saying to convince kids to join them. This can be related to the red scare in the sense that Americans, especially Muslim families, are become terrified of their children and others they know giving in to ISIS like people were afraid of communism.
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In most cases, many of the recruiters for ISIS like to play the victim card when appealing to potential followers. For example, they fill the heads of the exposed with thoughts about how all westerners hate Muslims which they justify by bringing up the Crusades, the 50-Day War which occurred not too long ago in Palestine, and the fact that more than a million innocent Iraqi civilians were killed because of the War on Terror Bush Jr. launched. Even though ISIS obviously exaggerates the details, many of their potential followers (particularly westerners) feel like they have been lied and deceived to by their government, which pushes them into the wrong direction towards ISIS.
ReplyDeleteVery apt connection. Similar to the Cold War, this is as much an ideological struggle as it is a military one.
ReplyDeleteIt is really alarming to know how effective ISIS is at recruiting teens. This organization gains about 20 new members daily, and many of these people come from France, the UK, and Germany, in addition to America. Considering the barbaric activities performed by this group, I don't understand what attracts young people to ISIS.
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