ISIS, the jihadist militant group fighting in Iraq and Syria, has extensively used social media and print media for recruitment and marketing purposes. Now, the group has taken its propaganda efforts a step further, selling ISIS-branded T-shirts, hoodies and toys on a number of online outlets.
According to Vocativ, the T-shirts and hoodies are available on websites based in Indonesia, and are decorated with the ISIS name or logo, various phrases, weapons, and images of soldiers posing “as if they’re promoting a Hollywood blockbuster.” One site, the now-unavailable Rezji.com, offered a figurine holding a gun and an ISIS flag. Many of the items have been available for several months.
CNN reports that it’s unclear whether the items are being manufactured by ISIS or produced by outside organizations looking to capitalize on the group’s current newsworthiness, but that some experts “wouldn’t be surprised if the money ends up going to ISIS.” Said the website:
While some of the Indonesian manufacturers of the ISIS merchandise may be opportunistic capitalists, others may be sympathetic to ISIS.
On the Twitter feed of the Rezji manufacturers, they describe themselves in the Indonesian language as “distributors of anti-Western culture” and state “together we stand with you against the tyrants.”
Zirah Moslem, an apparel company based in Indonesia and one of the major sellers of ISIS products, had been promoting the designs on its Facebook page, which according to International Business Times has more than 9,000 likes. Facebook removed the company’s page and pages from other companies offering the products, and Zirah Moslem’s website, still available as recently as Tuesday, now registers a 404 error with a message from Google: “The requested URL/was not found on this server. That’s all we know.”
