Religion, Social Media, And Terror Religion is inevitably connected to the modern world of terror. It is used to rationalize, recruit, and rebel in an effort to change the world to better fit whatever end state is deemed to be a better way of life by a particular terrorist organization. There is a bountiful amount of information pertaining to this topic in the academic world. In order to differentiate from those papers previously written this paper will focus specifically on the use of social media and religion as a tool for motivation and indoctrination, information operations and the spread of religious ideologies, and finally the possible options for combating these types of terror groups. Religion has always had some role in branches of terror, though it has not always been as tightly wound around the issue as it appears today; "Terrorist activities have taken a new turn in the wake of 21st Century, thereby creating a sense of insecurity in the global family" (Kingsley, 2010, p. 550). As a society, western countries, particularly in the United …show more content…
While high profile leaders, such as the former Osama bin Laden and current al-Qaeda leader Zawahiri continue to disseminate information and communicate by messengers, lower level "bosses" or lieutenants can use social media. Groups leaders pass coded or sometimes blatant information about meetings or upcoming gatherings in order to mass market their ideas. This allows members to know what is going on within the organization and it allows for new members to become more familiar with plans and motivations. Again, while high priority levels of information generally do not get shared this way, due mostly to the monitoring of intelligence agencies from the west, this still allows for recruitment and