VOA慢速英语2014 Social Media Support for IS Higher in Europe, US

 

AS IT IS 2014-12-09 Social Media Support for IS Higher in Europe, US

The further you are from violence in the Middle East, the more likely you are to have a good feeling about the Islamic State and express those opinions on social media.

That finding comes from a new Italian study. Researchers at the University of Milan examined over two million Arabic-language social media posts from July to October of this year. They found positive, or good, feelings toward the Islamic State militant¹ group was stronger in Europe and the United States than in Syria and Iraq.

In Syria, the group was described in a positive way in only eight percent of social media posts. In Iraq, the rate was 19.7 percent.

But support for the Islamic State in European countries was much higher. The study found that 31 percent of posts in Belgium were positive. In the United Kingdom, the rate was 24 percent.

In the United States, the support for the Islamic State among Arabic-language posters to Facebook and Twitter was 21.4 percent.

The countries with the highest levels of social media support were Qatar, at 47 percent, and Pakistan, at 35 percent.

Eric Saltman works for the Quilliam Foundation, an anti-terrorism group, in London. He says that people who are experiencing war and feel in danger have different position toward terrorist groups.

“Those experiencing war, who are threatened and endangered will have a different stance toward a terrorist organization,” he said. “Whereas the more distance you are from the violence, the more likely you can sympathize with the propaganda and theology, that the ends justify² the means.”

The research also showed that events like the execution of American James Foley intensified³ online messages both for and against the Islamic State.

The researchers used algorithms -- a series of rules -- to study social media posts with IS-related words like ‘Syria’ and ‘Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.’ They said that men wrote about 75 percent of the posts they studied. Ninety three percent of the posts collected were from Twitter. The rest were posted on Facebook and other social media websites.

Jytte Klausen of Brandeis University is the founder⁴ of the Western Jihadism Project. The project explores jihadi activities in the West. She says the recent study explains what she called “substitute jihad.”

“It documents the extent to which jihadists and their supporters have captured Twitter for their purposes,” she said. “There are some hyperactive hubs in countries, like Belgium, that spend a lot of time disseminating⁵ [extremist] content.”

Professor Klausen thought the percentage of women included in the study was probably too low. She warned that being involved in substitute jihad is a “gateway⁶ to the broader jihad movement.”

The Italian study showed that Belgium had the highest percentage of positive views of the Islamic State on social media outside the Muslim world. A separate study found that Belgium has the highest per capita number of Western fighters in Iraq and Syria.

Guy Van Vlierden is a reporter for a Belgian newspaper. He also started a blog that documents Belgian jihadists. He says a few extreme Islamic State supporters posting on Twitter many times a day could have a big effect on the study’s findings.

He also said that by only looking at Arabic language posts, the study may have not included many posts by opponents of the Islamic State.

“Lots of IS opponents probably are well-integrated and don't tweet in Arabic, but in one of the official languages here,” he wrote in an email.

“The large amount of support in my country is consistent with the high number of fighters in Syria and Iraq, and it isn't wrong to say that for every Belgian fighter, there are at least ten people at home supporting them,” he wrote. “Tracking their communications on social media makes that completely clear. A sort of snowball effect, you can say.”

Words in this Story

theology – n. the study of religious faith, practice, and experience

peer-reviewed – adj. scholarly work (such as a paper or a research proposal) that has been checked by a group of experts in the same field to make sure it meets the necessary standards before it is published or accepted

jihadi – adj. war fought by Muslims to defend or spread their beliefs

gateway – n. something that is thought to lead to the use of a more dangerous thing.

snowball effect – n . a situation in which one action or event causes many other similar actions or events

1 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。

2 justify   

vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护

参考例句：

• He tried to justify his absence with lame excuses.他想用站不住脚的借口为自己的缺席辩解。
• Can you justify your rude behavior to me?你能向我证明你的粗野行为是有道理的吗？

3 intensified   

v.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Violence intensified during the night. 在夜间暴力活动加剧了。
• The drought has intensified. 旱情加剧了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

5 disseminating   

散布，传播( disseminate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Our comrades in propaganda work have the task of disseminating Marxism. 我们作宣传工作的同志有一个宣传马克思主义的任务。
• Disseminating indecent photographs on the internet a distasteful act. 在因特网上发布不雅照片是卑劣的行径。

6 gateway   

n.大门口，出入口，途径，方法

参考例句：

• Hard work is the gateway to success.努力工作是通往成功之路。
• A man collected tolls at the gateway.一个人在大门口收通行费。