The Influence Of ISIS In The United States

ISIS is a Salafi jihadist militant group based mostly in Iraq and Syria. Salafi refers to a follower of a strictly orthodox Sunni Muslim sect urging a return to fundamental Islam of the Koran The group aims to become a theocracy under Islam and promotes violence against those who do not abide by its own strict interpretations of the faith, even practicing members of the religion. In the past few years, ISIS has been expanding in size and increasing its prevalence in the news cycle in order to increase the reach of its influence. ISIS has targeted the West, including the United States, for potential recruits to the group through its tactical use of the technology available today, particularly social media. ISIS uses social media effectively
government responds to these efforts with numerous counterterrorism techniques, with limited progress.
ISIS sells an image and dream of paradise, both to the general public and individually to potential recruits, to attract an audience who will support the group. ISIS presents literature and videos to the public that display its supposed utopian features, like a complete lack of religious persecution, which allows the audience to see an actual flourishing caliphate, instead of having to imagine it. ISIS created a documentary series called Inside in which a captive of the group, John Cantlie, describes the details of the “paradise,” life under the caliphate (Rawlinson). In another ISIS-created video, entitled Honor Is in Jihad: A Message to the People of the Balkans, a happy-looking Albanian combatant is pictured holding his daughter’s hand at peaceful, outdoor market that is full of ripe fruit. He guarantees fellow Albanian Muslims that if they fight for the caliphate, they will never again have to be concerned about police “finding [their] wives uncovered”
The search for acceptance, power, and identity appears to be the key motivator for most Americans who embrace ISIS’ ideology (Vidino). Young Muslims in non-Muslim Western communities who feel isolated within the societies in which they live sometimes experience strong distrust for Western society and believe that they can find an identity in an all-Muslim community, on which ISIS capitalizes (Vidino). “Lone wolves” who feel marginalized and impotent see an opportunity for acceptance and strength in belonging to a group such as ISIS, which has cachet and presence in social media (Lister). ISIS is influencing the targets to act on its beliefs by urging Americans inside the domestic bubble of ISIS influence to, at some point, move from talk to action. Some Westerners travel to ISIS controlled territory to fight for the group, and get there by following one of many travel guides made for would-be recruits that include online step-by- step guides to crossing the Turkish or Syrian border and/or contact information for individuals involved in smuggling ISIS volunteers (Vidino). In several cases, the targeted individuals plan attacks in the U.S., though the FBI frequently successfully uses “sting operations” to prevent aspiring jihadists from executing large acts of