Lara Abdallat (born 1981 or 1982) is a Jordanian

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

, hacker, and former

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. She was crowned Miss Jordan in 2010 and was the first runner-up in the Miss Arab beauty contest in 2011. Her online activism began following the release the video of the execution of Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasaesbeh and the 2015 attack on French satirical magazine ''

Charlie Hebdo ''Charlie Hebdo'' (; meaning ''Charlie Weekly'') is a French satirical weekly magazine, featuring cartoons, reports, polemics, and jokes. Stridently non-conformist in tone, the publication has been described as Anti-racism, anti-racist, sceptica ...

,'' though elsewhere she has stated that she first reached out to

hacktivists In Internet activism, hacktivism, or hactivism (a portmanteau of ''hack'' and '' activism''), is the use of computer-based techniques such as hacking as a form of civil disobedience to promote a political agenda or social change. With roots in ha ...

in November 2014. She is part of the hacktivist groups CtrlSec and "

Ghost Security Ghost Security, also known as GhostSec, is a self-described "vigilante" group that was formed to attack ISIS websites that promote Islamic extremism. It is considered an offshoot of the Anonymous hacking collective. According to experts of online ...

" (GSG), which work to block or suspend Twitter accounts, hack websites, and have propaganda videos removed from sites when these posts, tweets, or videos promote Islamic fundamentalist groups such as

ISIS Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingd ...

Boko Haram Boko Haram, officially known as ''Jamā'at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da'wah wa'l-Jihād'' ( ar, جماعة أهل السنة للدعوة والجهاد, lit=Group of the People of Sunnah for Dawah and Jihad), is an Islamic terrorist organization ...

Al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...

Al-Nusra Al-Nusra Front or Jabhat al-Nusra ( ar, جبهة النصرة لأهل الشام, Jabhat an-Nuṣrah li-Ahl ish-Sham lit. ''Front of the Supporters of the People of Syria/the Levant''), known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham ( ar, جبهة فتح ال ...

, and Al-Shabaab. In November 2015, some members of Ghost Security decided to cooperate with government security forces, while others wanted to continue the anti-government stance of its parent organization

Anonymous Anonymous may refer to: * Anonymity, the state of an individual's identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown ** Anonymous work, a work of art or literature that has an unnamed or unknown creator or author * Anonym ...

. Abdallat chose to side the former, and this branch of the group was renamed "Ghost Security Group." The group states that alerting governmental counterterrorist organizations stopped a potential attack in 2015 in Times Square and another in Tunisia. Of GSG's role in preventing these incidents, Abdallat said: "I want to tell you, I got goosebumps that day. It was like my joy rom it wasmore than delivering a baby to this world. I felt this more intensely." She has also said that she only desires to use her hacktivism against terrorist organizations: "We would only ever hack in a humanitarian way. We would never use it in a way to disturb normal individuals or governments." Abdallat is the only member of Ghost Security Group whose identity is public, and according to articles published in 2015, is its only Muslim member. Her goals seem to be both to save lives and to provide the world with another view of Islam. She stated in an interview with ''Mic'': "Islam is a peaceful religion. Nothing in it says we should take souls. A soul is something very precious." Elsewhere, she has said: "They are committing crimes that are against Islam – they are destroying the image of our religion, and I wanted to do my part to stop them." She has also engaged in public disagreements with or protests against ISIS via

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. Her father is Jordanian and her mother is Turkish-Syrian.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abdallat, Lara 1980s births Living people Jordanian women activists Date of birth missing (living people)