In the past few months, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, known as ISIS, ISIL, or Daesh, has taken responsibility for several horrific crimes against innocent civilians. In the twelfth issue of the Islamic State’s propaganda magazine “Just Terror,” ISIS boasted about the terrorist attacks in Paris, France, as well as the double-bombing in a Beirut, Lebanon suburb and the downing of a Russian plane in Egypt’s Sinai desert.

Experts from the Council on Foreign Relations estimate that ISIS’ total forces range from around 30,000 to more than 100,000, coming from mostly Arab states. The main reason why fighters join ISIS has to do with the relatively high pay they receive.  The Islamic State pays its fighters monthly wages of around $350, more than rival rebel groups or the Iraqi government, and as much as five times what is earned by ordinary Syrians in territory controlled by the Islamic State.

But many of the ISIS recruits are people in their late teens and early twenties leaving their homes in Europe (and some in America) and joining or attempting to join ISIS. Attracted by the propaganda that ISIS produces through social media and published magazines, an estimated 4,500 Westerners have joined the Islamic State or other Sunni jihadist groups in Syria or Iraq. In January 2014, ISIS supporters announced the creation of the Al-Battar Media Battalion, a Twitter-based team designated to push ISIS propaganda. The Brookings Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World said, “By summer 2014, at least 3,000 users were working together to create coordinated hashtag campaigns. One individual in the United Kingdom admitted to posting over 45,000 pro-ISIS messages on Twitter and Instagram in less than a year, or more than 125 messages per day.”

In addition to YouTube videos and an estimated 46,000 Twitter accounts, ISIS regularly puts out a glossy propaganda magazine, “Dabiq,” aimed at recruiting jihadists from the West. A slick production printed in several languages, including English, it contains photos, current events, and informative articles on matters relating to the Islamic State. The ninth issue of Dabiq magazine included a piece justifying sex slavery and threatening to sell US First Lady Michelle Obama into sexual slavery for a third of a dinar (1 dinar = 0.00090 US dollar).   

More than 65 men and women from around the United States have been charged with supporting Islamic State activities, the youngest of them being 18 years old.

ISIS sells the ideas of adventure and romance to prospective young members. Their apocalyptic vision is “a big selling point with foreign fighters, who want to travel to the lands where the final battles of the apocalypse will take place,” Jerome Socolovsky and Kimberly Winston said in an article in the Huffington Post.

For the young men and women, “the lure of sex” that ISIS promises also contributes to the group’s appeal. ISIS promises young men who join its army concubines and wives, according to Socolovsky and Winston.  Marriages in ISIS are described in romantic terms as a deep connection between two souls, and many of the “young women who run off to join ISIS are looking for romance,”   political science professor at Columbia University Brigitte Lebans Nacos said. “They’re fans of ISIS, like others are fans of pop stars.”