Egyptians mock the Islamic State on Twitter

Laura Dean | GlobalPost

CAIRO — The Islamic State has been known to use Twitter to attract recruits and supporters to its cause. But recently, the social network has been used as a weapon against it.

The hashtag "I'm going to join Daesh" (Daesh is the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State, or ISIL) was trending on Twitter earlier in the week when Egyptians joked about joining the militant group to escape their everyday problems.

"Every time I clean the house the children dirty it again. I'm sick of it. I'm going to join Daesh," read one.

Others ran along a similar theme.

"I have a big problem, there's no more light roast coffee so my wife made me dark roast. I'm going to join Daesh."

"My brother took my charger and my phone died. I'm going to join Daesh."

"I want to lose weight. I'm going to join Daesh."

But keen to make the best of being the butt of the joke, some tweeters identifying themselves as ISIL members responded by inviting those who had used the hashtag to join them.

"Daesh is the only solution to bring you out from under the humiliation of slavery to the oneness of the praised and glorious one," wrote one.

The Islamic State has been at the front of many people's minds in Egypt since the dramatic execution by the group of 20 Egyptians on a beach in Libya.

The Egyptian government responded by launching airstrikes in eastern Libya. There are currently up to 500 Egyptians believed to be fighting in Iraq and Syria.

But Egyptians aren't the only ones taking a pop at ISIL on Twitter. Accounts linked to the group began using the hashtag, #We_Are_Coming_O_Rome‪, threatening to invade the city to advance its war against other religions.

Italian tweeters responded by offering some helpful travel tips to the jihadists.

This article originally appeared on GlobalPost.

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