Jihadists on Twitter have provided overwhelming celebration of Chattanooga shooter Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez, who killed four U.S. Marines, as a hero to the jihadist movement.

Statements made by jihadist accounts extoled Abulazeez as a hero who “walked the way we kept talking of” and rallied behind the attack.

User “Waqqas ibn Nuhas” tweeted:

Actions breed retaliation nd we swear by Allah til death, we'll avenge all the Muslim blood spilt by the west

#Killorbekilled

#Chattanooga

You drone 1 member of family. He has 5 brothers, 20 cousins & 1000s loyal muslims who all want to avenge him.

#ChattanoogaShooting

#IS

British Islamic State (IS) resident and fighter “Abu Rumaysah Britani” tweeted of the event in the context of the July 17, 2015 Eid holiday:

Remember Muslims it's Sunnah to be happy on Eid. Walk around with a smile on your face and celebrate this great day.

#Chattanooga

Many users gave tribute to Abdulazeez by setting their profile pictures to a photo of him. To that point, the pro-IS account of “Media Activist,” after changing to the name “Muhammad Youssuf” (shown below along with other accounts), tweeted:

Time to change avi to this bro pic

plz make it the same bros...

#Chattanooga #ChattanoogaShooting #IslamicState

 

The four Marines killed by Abdulazeez have also been used as a point to claim Western hypocrisy and criticize those they deem moderate Muslims. The account of “Tunsi Marwan” tweeted:

A single man attack a Marines base: “Cowardly attack”.

A man pilot a drone from Arizona to kill kids in Afghanistan: “Hero”.

Pathetic world.

One account tweeted:

We live in a world where Muslims cancel Eid prayer to gather in remembrance of US marines, while they ignore Muslim massacres in Iraq&Syria.

To this tweet, the account of “Palace Scholar” replied:

where are the mosque closures and protests for children bombed in Raqqa hospital newborns? munafiqin [hypocrites] will munafiq

Jihadist accounts also discussed what group was or might have been behind the attack, as no official claims have yet been made of the matter. Tunsi Marwan posted the question:

Now that we know the brother who performed an operation is Muslim let the traditional "Guess who did it" game start:

Al Qa'ida

Islamic state

One pro-IS account, however, projected that the attack was inspired by IS and asserted that Abdulazeez was a “soldier of the Islamic State.” The tweet was accompanied by the picture:

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