http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/13/world/middleeast/twitter-backer-of-isis-is-identified-as-clean-cut-indian-executive.html 2014-12-12 17:40:41 Twitter Backer of ISIS Is Identified as Clean-Cut Indian Executive One of the most prolific cheerleaders for the Islamic State, @shamiwitness, is a marketing executive in Bangalore, India, Britain’s Channel 4 News said. === BEIRUT, Lebanon — As the extremists of the Islamic State rampaged across Syria and Iraq, the Twitter user @shamiwitness was among the group’s most prolific and widely followed English-language supporters. In a near-constant barrage of posts, he cheered the group’s advances, disparaged its enemies and called on Muslims from around the world to heed the call of jihad. When the Twitter mask fell, it revealed an identity behind the account that few had expected. According to a The rise and fall of @shamiwitness, whose Twitter account has since been deleted, illuminates the role of volunteer sympathizers in the global spread of the Islamic State’s message. The Islamic State, also known as Channel 4 said it had found the man behind the @shamiwitness account by first finding the name of a former Twitter account he had run, and then using that name to search other social media sites until it found a Facebook page belonging to a man named Mehdi. While photos from that page broadcast by the channel were blurred, they clearly showed a clean-cut man posing in locations far from the Middle Eastern battlefields that defined his online life. The channel did not release his full name, saying Mehdi had said that such a disclosure would endanger his life. Asked in an interview by the channel if he supported the Islamic State’s methods, which have included mass executions of captive soldiers, public crucifixions of people accused of spying, and videotaped beheadings of journalists and aid workers, Mehdi replied, “Mostly.” He said that he would like to leave everything behind and join the jihadists, but was not able to. “My family needs me here,” he said. “My parents, they are basically dependent on me.” While @shamiwitness was a prominent online voice and disseminator of information, it remains unclear how important the account was outside the virtual realm. Channel 4 reported that Mehdi had been in touch with a number of British Muslims before they traveled to Syria or Iraq to join the Islamic State, but he denied playing any role in their decision to pursue jihad. “There are real reasons, real reasons why people get quote-unquote radicalized,” he said. Peter Neumann, the director of the International Center for the Study of Radicalization at King’s College London, said online voices like @shamiwitness served as “cheerleaders” that many actual jihadists followed to monitor events. Such voices also spread the group’s ideology. “He was justifying and explaining ISIS so that lots of people who were thinking of going to join ISIS could find the arguments and information to justify to themselves and legitimize that choice,” Dr. Neumann said. When asked if he supported the Islamic State’s beheadings, Mehdi told the channel that beheadings were mentioned in Islam’s most important religious texts. “I don’t think that any honest Muslim will say that he is against beheadings, per se,” he said. When asked if he was “an honest Muslim,” Mehdi replied, “I try to, but I am not sure if I am.”