Media Biased Article

ISIS and the Lonely Young American

This pastiche is about an article written in the New York times about a girl who, on internet, started communicating with a man name Faisal who was apparently 51 and married. From the article we understand that Faisal was trying to convert this girl named Alex to islam. He eventually succeeded and from the article we can see that the girl doesn't seem to be that old. From the heading we can see how this article is going to regard the Islamic State in a certain way, even though that the man himself might be and extremist, but does not seem to meet the criteria of an ISIS member. He is considered to be an extremist due to the fact that the article mentions how the man used to experiment with bombs.

"For months, she had been growing closer to a new group of friends online — the most attentive she had ever had — who were teaching her what it meant to be a Muslim. Increasingly, they were telling her about the Islamic State and how the group was building a homeland in Syria and Iraq where the holy could live according to God’s law.

One in particular, Faisal, had become her nearly constant companion, spending hours each day with her on Twitter, Skype and email, painstakingly guiding her through the fundamentals of the faith.

But when she excitedly told him that she had found a mosque just five miles from the home she shared with her grandparents in rural Washington State, he suddenly became cold."

 The man started to drop off presents at her house which included head scarfs and other islamic gifts such as books and prayer mats. He also started sending her link on how to properly wear a head scarf and how to pray. Bare in mind that Alex has never met a muslim in person in her life. She then agrees to convert to Islam and publicly announces it on twitter.

This then cause many complications due to the fact that the man was able to change her belief into thinking that ISIS was a good organization and that all of her other christian followers on twitter and all her non muslim friends were are infidels and they were people that she shouldnt be around.

She was then accused of being a spy which cause many complications for her and her family.

The language being used in the article is seen to be as negative as the author uses a negative tone to explain the situation. I and most people would agree that the situation is wrong, but the way that the situation is expressed is seen as over exaggerated and that the whole situation is held out of proportion.