As experts explain that jihadist fighters signing up to Isis aren’t being recruited by hate preachers, but social media, up pops an Isis Twitter account all about that uniting pillar of the internet – cats. Created presumably in an attempt to make the fighters seem a lot friendlier and more accessible, to send out propaganda that they’re a good bunch of blokes, it basically vibes off of the ‘Can I haz’ joke, repeatedly.
Called @ISILCats (‘ISIL’ standing for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which entails all of the Middle East), is a jihadist posting photos of furry cats with their soldier owners, in amongst piles of arms and weapons, all with the half-jokey phrase ‘I can haz’. Whoever made the account hasn’t quite realised that the whole (presumed) grabby-greedy nature of cats could be a great analogy for those invading Kurdish areas and capturing hundreds of Yazidis and forcing them to convert. They also haven’t quite furthered that old ‘I can haz’ joke.
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We’ve previously told you how young jihadists have set up social media accounts where photos of them innocently eating dinner are interspersed with photos of the heads of ‘infidels’ or non-believers, killed and beheaded, stuck onto poles. They also give advice to would-be jihadists who might want to be considering taking up the cause.
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The propaganda machine is incredibly and devastatingly accessible; the world was collectively sickened after footage of photojournalist James Foley being beheaded by a British Isis fighter was uploaded to YouTube. Particularly alarming was the fact that the imagery, was repeatedly shared by people convinced they were just doing so to show how awful Isis are, not realising they were fuelling Isis’ propaganda. Plus, it only takes a few clicks around to see that jihadists’ retweets, favourites, followings and general interconnectivity could link back to other young disenfranchised people in this country.
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One really important thing to remember is that, first off, don’t share stuff like this (this is totally helped along by @ISILCats being a bit lax with the lols). Second of all, it’s totally okay to be tempted to watch this sort of stuff – but don’t. Thirdly, while jihadists are using the exact same means as us to talk about themselves, their lives, their ideas for a brighter future – their lives aren’t that great. Like, if they were, they’d probably be able to bust out a much better cat joke.
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Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.