An American Was Reportedly Killed While Fighting For ISIS And He Left Behind A Lot On Social Media
Douglas McAuthur McCain, 33, was killed in clashes between ISIS and other Syrian opposition groups. McCain, who branded himself "Duale ThaslaveofAllah" on Facebook and "Duale Khalid" on Twitter, was considered an unlikely jihadi by those who knew him.
Remembered as being affable and friendly, one former high school classmate at Robbinsdale Cooper High School, in New Hope, Minnesota, referred to McCain as a "goofball."
However, it appears that McCain became radicalized through social media. McCain's Twitter bio reads "Its Islam over everything," and his most recent Twitter activity was a series of retweets in support of ISIS and jihad.
Since the spring, he started to follow a number of jihadis on Twitter, at one point retweeting an English translation of a speech given by Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, the ISIS spokesman. McCain's jihadist inspired tweets came after four month break on Twitter. Before the break, McCain mostly tweeted about seeing friends, smoking hookah, hip-hop, and occasionally about Islam.
On Facebook, McCain's pictures featured the black flag of ISIS and an illustration stating "They are coming back, soldiers of Allah." At the time of writing, it appeared that photos from his profile page were starting to be removed.
McCain's Facebook photos paint a portrait of a young man who is questioningly observant, while also interested in a "gangster" lifestyle.
As time progressed through 2010, McCain posted progressively more suggestive photos of glorified violence and weaponry.
By the end of the summer of 2010, McCain was posting photos of men raising the black flag that has come to be associated with ISIS.
McCain is not the first American to die fighting for jihadis in Syria. In May, an American from Florida became the first American suicide bomber in the conflict. In total, there may be over 100 Americans currently engaged in fighting alongside ISIS and other jihadi groups in Syria.
Thomas Joscelyn, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, estimates that "Syria is attracting more foreign fighters than Afghanistan did in its heyday," in reference to the 1980 Soviet occupation that helped form the basis of al-Qaeda.
ISIS and other jihadist groups value foreign fighters for their potential symbolic and progoganda value. At press time, the State Department has not commented on the reports of McCain's death.