Power is given to those with impressive recruiting abilities. Any group whether it is Student Senate, the Peace Corps, or even a terrorist cell, would be nowhere without an aggressive recruiting campaign.

With a successful campaign, organization sizes could multiply quickly. With the right propaganda, terrible people can gain a prominent foothold in society.

This is, by far, one of the most worrisome aspects about the future of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, more commonly known as ISIS, because their tactics are working out extremely well.

Their recruiting campaign is terrifying because of how much traction it seems to have.

Recently, one reported ISIS recruiter, had a Q&A on Ask.fm, a site predominantly visited by teenagers, talking about how normal and potential fun ISIS is a group. His profile tagline stated, “I’m just like you.”

ISIS has been synonymous with trying to infect the youth through popular social media like Twitter and Instagram. One tweet sent out by a ISIS recruiter said, “put the chicken wings down n come to Jihad Bro.”

They have even Instagramed pictures of ISIS soldiers photoshopped to make it seem like a video game like Call of Duty.

While these posts have been taken down not long after they were originally posted, I feel the impact is still being made.

These tactics are clearly working, and their recruiting success should be focused on as much as trying to take down the organization. Teenagers are extremely impressionable, and I have no faith that they would not just join because it looked cool.

I feel like if someone like Kim Kardashian became the face of ISIS, thousands of idiotic teenagers would follow ISIS and her.

The only way I could see us combatting this would be by continually and consistently reporting on the atrocities they commit. As much as I hate seeing extensive coverage on things that do not deserve it like the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, this goes beyond just providing news. It is showing ISIS for who they really are, monsters.

Recruiting is a fine art awful people like ISIS seem to have a grasp on. Counter terrorism groups need to make sure to focus on preventing their propaganda from being spread.

Terrorism groups should not be considered a cool new fad, which unfortunately seems to be the case.

Jarad Jarmon is a senior journalism major. He can be reached at 581-7912 or [email protected].