Islamic State Supporters Rally behind New Caliphate
Supporters of the Islamic State—formerly the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS)—have taken to Twitter to support and celebrate the group’s announcement of Caliphate.
Many celebratory posts reflected on the Islamic State’s journey leading to their establishment of Caliphate. Abu Suleiman, brother of deceased British jihadist Iftikar Jaman, tweeted “My brother rahimullah would had loved to see this day, just the excitement he would had shown would've been joyful to see.”
On July 1, 2014, user “Abu Umar” tweeted, “Do Dua for the mujahideen and shuhada, especially the ones who stuck with the #Islamic_State from the beginning,” claiming that they “brought glory to this Ummah.”
Other users took a more aggressive approach to their celebrations by threatening non-supporters of the Islamic State’s announcement. User “Rayat Al Tawheed,” for instance, tweeted on June 29, 2014, “Its either u r with the khaliah or u r against it. Being against it means you join the ranks of the disbelivers& munafiqeen in fighting it.”
Some users have also been keeping track of who has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. On July 1, 2014, user “Ibn Umar” tweeted, “Now Waiting for #TTP (tehreek e taliban pakistan) to give Baayah .. Mostly Done Alhamdulillah [praise to God].”
On July 1, 2014, jihadis also began using the #KhilfaRestored hashtag to promote quotes from al-Baghdadi’s first message as Caliph. On this day, user “Julaybib” pulled several quotes from the speech, tweeting, “Soon, by Allah’s permission, a day will come when the Muslim will walk everywhere as a master, having honor, being revered” and also, “So by Allah, we will take revenge! By Allah, we will take revenge! Even if it takes a while, we will take revenge.”
