Study: Unprecedented support for ISIS in the U.S.

[jtuck004]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/01/politics/isis-in-united-states-research/index.html

Washington (CNN)Support for ISIS in America has reached an unprecedented level with several thousand U.S.-based sympathizers and more terrorism-related arrests in 2015 than any year since 9/11, according to a report by George Washington University's Program on Extremism.

The report noted that the average ISIS recruit is male and around 26 years old. It identified at least 300 Americans who actively support ISIS on social media and spread propaganda on the terror group's behalf, with Twitter being the preferred platform. In addition to those supporters, the FBI has previously said that they also have 900 open investigations into homegrown violent extremists, a majority being ISIS related.
...
Of those 71 total individuals arrested for their involvement or interest in joining ISIS since the terror group's rise to prominence in early 2014, the vast majority of them were U.S. citizens or permanent residents, with the youngest suspect being 15. Their crimes ran the spectrum from the spreading of propaganda to actively seeking out weapons and co-conspirators to carry out an attack within the U.S.

The breakdown of those arrested with ISIS related crimes also gives a glimpse into the motive behind those supporters, with only 27% plotting to carry out an attack in America and more than half traveling or attempting to travel abroad to join ISIS in Syria or Iraq.
...

Only 27%...

[Jester Messiah]

1. Wow, so ISIS is about as popular as GWBush.

I wonder if there's a link there.

[sibelian]

2. OK. That's bad.

Probably best to be rid of them.

[Baitball Blogger]

9. I don't know who in their right mind would respond in the

affirmative to the support of Al Qaida or ISIS. Certainly would be grounds for deportation, IMHO.

[sibelian]

10. Whackdoodles. People who think moral existence is determined by skin colour or nationality

or religion or CATEGORIES THAT PEOPLE BELONG IN rather than what people actually do.

Idiots, basically.

[VMA131Marine]

3. I bet this number is dwarfed by the number of RW militia members,

skinheads, neonazis, KKK, etc. Just to put things in perspective.

[Democat]

4. I bet when someone posts a thread about right wing militias on DU

No one jumps in to say "but other kinds of terrorists are worse".

[VMA131Marine]

5. a terrorist is a terrorist regardless of ideology nt

[jtuck004]

6. Big, huge difference. When those folks see success, they don't see everyone dead.

Their actions are not geared toward getting their opponent to come a shoot them up so they can kill more. You point a gun at them most pee their pants, and the majority are not connected to a larger group. We watched an entire Aryan nation group brought down, property sold, organization bankrupted over them firing some shots on a road. Our laws actually mean something to them, more or less.

But their best quality is that they want to stay alive like you and I do.

ISIS is the exact opposite.

The strategy of ISIS or whatever their names evolve to is to kill everyone, including most of their own people, because that is what will bring them heaven on earth. They now exist in every country on the globe. The more they gin up the fight, the better they like it, because they know every bullet we fire is a score for them and perhaps a failure for us. To them winning means most everyone dies.

There's some perspective.

[lumberjack_jeff]

7. This phrase jumped out at me.

"Their crimes ran the spectrum from the spreading of propaganda..."

This article, and in particular it's liberal use of "data", needs to be taken with a huge grain... no, an entire salt-lick.

[jtuck004]

8. I know. For a US writer to castigate someone for propaganda is pretty two-faced.

But then, there are all those bodies scattered about, perhaps by people who have lived and worked here, but were radicalized by the call of ISIS.

Salt can be bad for you too.