One of the reasons ISIS has swelled in ranks is because of their social media savvy. The group knows how to use the internet to both inspire loyalists and recruit new members.
But like that perfectly ‘grammed sunset that took you 14 takes to get one you knew would crack 20 likes, the behind the scenes of ISIS isn’t as glamorous, either.
Mohamad Jamal Khweis, a 26-year-old Virginian, decided to join ISIS in June of 2014.
There, he found that he didn’t agree with what ISIS believed in. And that is wasn’t all that fun.
Seems to me like something you should have researched beforehand. Lazy fucking millennials. The same thing happened to this girl. How do these kids not realize war zones aren’t spring break?
Khweis biggest issue was that ISIS didn’t properly practice Islam. Via NBC:
“There was an imam who taught us the sharia and the religion,” he said. “I didn’t complete the whole sharia. I didn’t agree with their ideology and that’s when I wanted to escape.”
“Our daily life was prayer, eating and learning about the religion for eight hours,” he said. “It was pretty hard to live in Mosul. It’s not like the Western countries … There’s no smoking.”
Oh. Sorry. Sorry there’s no cigs allowed by the radical Islamic terrorist organization you joined. Sorry the group that performs beheadings and posts videos of them to the internet wasn’t what you thought it would be.
Khweis surrendered to Kurdish forces this week after escaping. It is unclear whether the U.S. citizen will be extradited or prosecuted by the Kurds for being part of the terrorist organization.
But seriously, how can you spend more than eight seconds online and not realize ISIS is 1. Awful, and 2. Not something that would be fun to be a part of?
Millennials. SMDH. SMDH so hard.
[Via NY Mag]