Middle East Studies

Ruba Aleryani in Business Insider

August 20, 2015

Ruba Aleryani, undergraduate MES and Development Studies concentrator, has been featured in Business Insider. She created a database regarding ISIS’ twitter usage, based on a Brookings Institute Report. Aleryani summarizes her work and findings in the article entitled, “These are the tactics that ISIS used to become Twitter’s most dangerous extremist group.”

In early 2015, Amira Abase and Shamima Begum, both 15-year-old girls, and Kadiza Sultana, 16, boarded a plane from England to Turkey. From there the teens crossed over to Syria to join the Islamic State (otherwise referred to as ISIS, ISIL, or Daesh).

The story of these London schoolgirls captured widespread media attention, driving headlines and leaving the world haunted by Shamima Begum’s last words to Umm Layth, a female ISIS member, on Twitter: “follow me so I can dm [direct message] you back.”

Continue reading here.