#IamMuath — social media activists from around the world voice solidarity with Jordanian pilot

AMMAN — Since Jordanian pilot Muath Kasasbeh was first captured by the so-called Islamic State (IS) in late December, tens of hashtags were created on Twitter in support of and in solidarity with his family.

When IS released a video this week purportedly showing Kasasbeh being burned to death, the number of hashtags further increased, with many of them trending on Twitter for the past few days.

Before and after news of Kasasbeh’s murder, there were at least 15 separate hashtags about the Jordanian pilot, according to BBC trending.

Many social media activists created Facebook pages, bringing together support for Jordan and sympathy with the Kasasbeh family from all over the world, while other pages and hashtags were launched to urge the public not to repost and publish the IS video.

Twitter hashtags in English such as #Iammuath and #Weareallmuath, and in Arabic such as “The country’s martyr” and “the Jordanian response is coming” were extensively used in posts about Kasasbeh from around the world.

Photos of Kasasbeh with Jordan’s flag also flooded social media websites, with many using them as profile pictures on Facebook or Twitter.

The popular hashtags also enabled activists in Jordan to promote events held in the Kingdom in solidarity with the slain pilot and to condemn the way he was killed.

English hashtags like #Iammuath gained popularity with the promotion of major public figures, such as best-selling Brazilian author Paulo Coehlo (@paulocoelho), who has 9.82 million followers. 

#IAmMuath was used in 58,000 tweets and #isis_are_not_muslims was tweeted 65,000 times, according to BBC trending.

Veteran British actor Cary Elwes (‏@Cary_Elwes), who has 34,000 followers, paid condolences to the pilot’s family.

“RIP Muath Al-Kasasbeh. Our deepest condolences to his family and to all Jordanians #IAmMuath,” he tweeted. 

Andrew Bonar (‏@andrewbonar) also expressed support for Jordan through the hashtag #IAmMuath. 

“I was born in Amman Jordan, as was my mother, her father before her, and his father before him. #IAmMuath,” he tweeted. 

Aisha ‏(@Aisha_Khaledd) wrote: “... Real terrorists are those who kill anyone with that cruel way. #IAmMuath.”

Elizabeth Wachsberg (‏@EWachsberg) urged the whole world to unite to fight against a common enemy.

“Because we can’t let them win. We as a world need to put aside our differences & unite against a common enemy. #IAmMuath #unity,” she added.

Emily Morgan (@ImABookThief)  said she is “Muath”.”#IAmMuath because he was strong and defended his country. The cruelty in this world pains me...” she added.