A blog dedicated to the destruction, eradication and information plus news and knowledge of the terrorist and criminal group known as ISIS/ISIL and also similar terror groups Al Quedam The Taliban and Boko Harem.
These terror groups must be destroyed, they are a disease on the human race.
A former member of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria
(ISIS) has given CBS News a detailed look at what life is like under the
terror group's reign. The man, whose voice is altered and whose face we
cannot show, recently left ISIS and is trying to get home. He was
interviewed by CBS News correspondent Clarissa Ward.
Abu Ibrahim is one of thousands of westerners who have traveled to Syria to fight jihad.
"A
lot of people when they come, they have a lot of enthusiasm about what
they've seen online or what they've seen on YouTube," Ibrahim told me.
"They see it as something a lot grander than what the reality is. It's
not all military parades or it's not all victories."
CBS News' Clarissa Ward interviews ex-ISIS member Abu Ibrahim
CBS News
A
convert to Islam, Ibrahim wanted the chance to live under strict Islamic
Sharia law so he joined the most extreme group there - ISIS. During his
six months with the militants he saw crucifixions. In December, he
witnessed the stoning to death of a couple convicted of adultery.
"It
was done publicly," said Ibrahim. "There were many hundreds of people
there who observed. While seeing someone die is not something anyone
would probably want to see, having the actual Sharia established is what
many Muslims look forward to."
Ibrahim told me the methods don't strike him as medieval: "It's harsh, it's real but it's the Sharia," he said.
He
described the role of the Hisbah - the religious police - in the
Islamic State. He says their role is to enforce Islamic code.
"Their
presence which may deter any thieves or any bad behavior but also look
out for things like music isn't being played or women are covered up
appropriately or that men are growing their beards," he said.
Life for western jihadists under ISIS' rule is almost completely
subsidized. Ibrahim told us they provide housing, food and an allowance.
"Initially
it was approximately $50 a month," Ibrahim said. "During winter it went
up to $100 so people could purchase warm clothing or items for the
house. They provided heaters for each house and for married couples they
provide housing for them - furniture, the essentials."
But there is one condition: once you join ISIS, it is virtually impossible to leave.
"The
restrictions on leaving made it feel a bit like a prison in that
respect that you couldn't leave the state," Ibrahim told me. "Myself if I
was caught I would probably be imprisoned and questioned."
Ibrahim says ISIS is paranoid about spying and is worried about infiltration. Those found guilty of spying are executed.
Despite
the risk, Abu Ibrahim began to look for a way out. He was increasingly
disillusioned by the executions of western aid workers and journalists.
"Some
of the policies such as the beheadings of non-combatants, therefore
innocent, some of those things I didn't agree with," Ibrahim said.
He missed his family and felt bored - jihad wasn't what he thought it would be.
"My
main reason for leaving was that I felt that I wasn't doing what I had
initially come for and that's to help in a humanitarian sense the people
of Syria," he told me. "It had become something else. So, therefore, no
longer justified me being away from my family."
Fighting ISIS with the Badr Brigade
He described morale within the ranks as "pretty strong," but mentioned there are some who are growing disillusioned.
"There's
a lot of enthusiasm but there's also some people who are not so
enthusiastic, who are even scared,"
Ibrahim said. "Obviously with the
coalition, things have become much more difficult."
Ibrahim told me his departure from ISIS isn't something he thinks he'll miss.
"I'll miss the friends I made and the brotherhood, but ISIS itself - no."
Speaking in
general, Mr. Obama began by condemning zealots who hijack religion “for
their own murderous ends.” He cited the recent massacre at a Pakistani
school carried out by the Taliban, the assault on Charlie Hebdo
headquarters in Paris perpetrated by radical Islamists, and the
terrible murders carried out by the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS or
ISIS).
He widened his lens a
bit, talking about the killings of Muslims and Christians in Nigeria
and religious war in the Central African Republic.
Then
the president said this: “And lest we get on our high horse and think
this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades
and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of
Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ."
This
did not go down well with right-leaning pundits. They noted that Obama
had not actually said “Taliban” when he mentioned the school attack or
“radical Islam” in the Charlie Hebdo reference.
“ISIS chops off heads, incinerates hostages, kills gays, enslaves girls. Obama: Blame the Crusades,” tweeted Michelle Malkin, conservative talker and author.
Right-side radio host Rush Limbaugh made the Christianity reference the subject of one of his segments on Thursday’s show.
“Why would you attempt to downplay Islamist extremism?” Mr. Limbaugh said.
“Why would you attempt to put in perspective the actions taken today by
Al Qaeda and ISIS and Boko Haram and the Khorasan Group and all of the
rest of them by claiming that just as many atrocities have taken place
in the name of Christ?”
So what was Obama thinking when he mentioned Christianity in this way?
First,
it’s possible he was just trolling, knowing that Limbaugh et al. are
always looking for ways to stimulate anger in their audience. But it’s
more likely that he was taking the ecumenical setting of the prayer
breakfast to try to reiterate something that’s been a US talking point
since the Bush administration: America is not at war with Islam. It is
fighting individuals who use distorted versions of faith as a weapon.
That’s the context of the remark. He leads into it by talking about the way religion can be misused.
“Part
of what I want to touch on today is the degree to which we’ve seen the
professions of faith used both as an instrument of great good, but also
twisted and misused in the name of evil,” the president said.
Then
he tries to make clear that it is people who are doing the twisting and
misusing here. It is not inherent in religion itself. And he tries to
link this thought to Islam in particular.
“We have seen violence
and terror perpetrated by those who profess to stand up for their faith,
professed to stand up for Islam, but in fact are betraying it,” he
said.
Obama then muses on how people of faith can reconcile these
matters, the good of religion and the evil of those who misuse it.
That’s when the Christianity reference comes in, as a kind of aside to
try to establish that it’s not just Muslims who have this problem.
Conservatives
have several issues with this line of reasoning. Some – certainly not
all – on the right think the premise is wrong. They believe the United States is indeed at war with Islam as a whole, or at least a broad strain of Islam, and the sooner we recognize this, the better.
Here’s Limbaugh from Thursday’s show: “Sharia law is the present-day threat to individual and civil liberties all over the world. Sharia is not a narrow cult. Sharia law is Islam.”
Others
agree that we’re not at war with a religion itself, but just think
Obama expressed himself poorly and made an inapt comparison.
The
president specifically noted that the violent acts of Islam are carried
out by “twisted” individuals. But his reference to Christianity, the
Crusades, and Jim Crow was less about individuals and more about the
religion as a whole, writes Noah Rothman at the right-leaning Hot Air.
“The
president, and many of his allies on the left, frequently trip over
themselves to emphasize – correctly, as it happens – that ISIS’s acts of
brutality are not archetypical Islamic behavior.... But to assert this
and in the same breath suggest that Christianity was also a violent,
expansionist religion a mere 800 years ago is a contradiction. Why make
this comparison if ISIS is not representative of Islam?”
So there you have it. The president’s full remarks
are worth reading if you want to make up your own mind. It’s possible
he knew they would blow some of his opponents' stacks; it’s possible
he’s surprised by the controversy. But controversy there is,
manufactured or genuine.
As Washington Examiner political correspondent Rebecca Berg tweeted Thursday:
“Today in hyperbole: Former VA Gov Jim Gilmore calls Obama’s Prayer
Breakfast remarks ‘the most offensive I’ve ever heard a president make.’ ”
Here's some interesting outliers. Information that isn't easy to parse. Over the last week, local ISIS forces have:
Publicly executed 13 teens in Mosul who were watching a soccer game (Iraq vs. Jordan).
Rounded up 15 teen boys for raising pigeons as a hobby in Diyala. They executed three of them and burned the birds.
Why did they do this? It wasn't just because they were being strict.
The key to unlocking this is found in this simple statement:
"It distracted them from a focus on Islam"
In other words, these activities made it more difficult for ISIS is
recruit these boys for jihad. So, by making the distractions and
activities for teen boys prohibatively dangerous -- it makes peace
boring.
PS: Indoctrination in the military and with cults begins by
stripping all vestiges of normal life away until nothing is left but the
ideology.
Also: "ISIS is an aggressively expansionist fundamentalist jihad. It kills,
enslaves, or routs unbelievers, moderates, apostates, etc. wherever it
finds them, which is the ultimate manifestation of Wahhabi
fundamentalism.".(from ISIS is Kryptonite via Global Guerrillas)
Reuters/REUTERS/Social media via Reuters TV - A man purported to be
Islamic State captive Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasaesbeh (in orange
jumpsuit) stands in front of armed men in this still image from an
undated
video filmed from an undisclosed location made available on social
media on February 3, 2015. Islamic State militants released the video on
Tuesday purporting to show Kasaesbeh being burnt alive, and Jordanian
state television said he was murdered a month ago. Reuters could not
immediately confirm the video, which showed a man resembling the captive
pilot standing in a black cage before being set ablaze. (REUTERS/Social
media via Reuters TV)
What was the west’s response? Censorship. Here’s a full version
of the video I’ve found (it won’t last long). The US government is
putting on Web hosts around the world to remove videos like this. So,
it will be censored and removed soon. Censorship isn’t a smart
strategy.
Censorship turns the video into “secret knowledge.” Accessing
it in defiance of dictates of a state adds to its allure, particularly
for young people targeted by ISIS.
Censorship displays a complete misunderstanding of how online
discussion works. IF it had been allowed online, it would have ignited
tens of thousands of discussions required to turn this into learning
event.
Censorship gives the impression that the West is weak and in retreat. The danger is that weakness invites aggression.
A member loyal to the
Islamic State waves an ISIS flag in Raqqa, June 29, 2014. The offshoot
of al Qaeda, which has captured swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria,
has declared itself an Islamic "Caliphate" and called on factions
worldwide to pledge their allegiance.
REUTERS/Stringer When Andre Poulin, a Canadian who converted to Islam, first appeared on YouTube
in Syria last year, he said his family didn’t understand why he had
moved to the country to fight with other jihadists against President
Bashar al-Assad’s forces. Allah, he said during his video message, had
pulled him to Syria. Poulin was just one of several Westerners to join the Islamic State,
which at the time was just a small group of extremists vying for power.
Now the Islamic State (also called ISIS) has obtained millions of
dollars in new weaponry and is gaining more followers like Poulin,
pledging allegiance to a group so barbaric that even al-Qaida has
denounced it.
“We tend to think they are crazy,” John Horgan, a psychologist and
professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell’s Center for
Terrorism and Security Studies, said. “Because of what terrorists do, we
assume that can be explained via the pathology of those people, but
trying to explain terrorism as mental illness is misleading.”
The recent beheadings of U.S. journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff set off a wave of fury on
social media and forced Western leaders to publicly address ISIS’
barbarity. At the same time, news broke that dozens of young men --
neighbors, sons, friends, from places like London and Minnesota -- had
left their homes to join the group.
Horgan is one of the few psychologists in the U.S. who study the
minds of terrorists. In the more than 20 years he has been researching
the topic, he said he had never seen a message by a member of a
terrorist organization as compelling as Poulin’s.
In the video message, which ISIS later used in a propaganda video,
Poulin explained why he had joined the Sunni militant group. “Before I
come here to Syria, I had money, I had a family, I had good friends. It
wasn’t like I was some anarchist or somebody who just wants to destroy
the world and kill everybody. I was a regular person,” Poulin, who later
began calling himself Abu Muslim, said in the message. “We need the
engineers, we need doctors, we need professionals. Every person can
contribute something to the Islamic State.”
“Very often we see radicals decide they want to become a terrorist
turn away at the last minute, but [Poulin’s] message hit the nail on the
head, which is to say there is a road for everyone. It makes
radicalization and recruitment much easier,” Horgan said. “It is an
equal opportunity organization. It has everything from the sadistic
psychopath to the humanitarian to the idealistic driven.”
As far as foreign fighters are concerned, Horgan said, they are
driven to join ISIS by the need to “belong to something special.”
“They want to find something meaningful for their life,” he said. “Some are thrill seeking, some are seeking redemption.”
For many, the only way to learn about ISIS is through the news, or
through social media. It is not often we hear honest accounts of why
people join terrorist organizations, Max Abrahms, an expert on terrorism
from Northeastern University, said.
“If you ask terrorists why they joined an organization after they
have been in it, they will pair it with the official line of the group,”
Abrahms said. “But in reality they don’t join the group for that
reason.”
For the members of ISIS, joining the group means promoting the creation of an Islamic caliphate and ridding it of infidels. Last month Vice Media gained exclusive access
to some ISIS fighters. In a documentary, Vice interviewed Iraqi and
Syrian children who said they wanted to become part of ISIS so they
could kill infidels.
No one knows exactly how many fighters ISIS has; estimates vary
anywhere between 10,000 to 40,000. The majority of them come from Middle
Eastern countries, particular Iraq and Syria, but about 2,300 are
foreigners.
ISIS has been particularly successful in recruiting its members through social media.
In that sense, Horgan said, there is a "truly global appeal of ISIS"
that is new. "They have become so adept at social media that they are
reaching out to disaffected individuals on a global scale," he said.
When al-Qaida first began to form under Osama Bin Laden, members of
the organization were recruited from communities that already had a
large presence in the organization. They were then taught and
essentially radicalized in the infamous madrasas, partnered with a mentor, and eventually worked their way up in the ranks of the organization.
Today, terrorist organizations including ISIS rely heavily on Twitter
and Facebook to reach out to potential recruits -- those who are
friends or family with someone already affiliated with the organization.
From most of the terrorism research available, Abrahms said, those who
join terrorist groups like ISIS are the most "ignorant people with
respect to religion and they are generally the newest members to the
religion."
"They would probably fail the most basic test on Islam," Abrahms said.
There is still a lot we don't know about ISIS members, Horgan said.
We only ever see the end products like the beheadings and the mass
executions. "The commission of those kinds of acts takes a long process
of radicalization and recruitment," he said. "We don’t get to see the
gradual radicalization process or the interaction between a leader and a
follower. It would work differently depending where the fighter is
coming from and how it is getting to the region."
Over the past two weeks, the U.S. and its allies in Europe and the
Middle East have been working to build an international coalition to
fight ISIS. President Obama said at the NATO summit Thursday that one of
the ways the coalition would stop the threat of the Sunni militant
group was to cut off its recruitment from Western countries.
"We are struggling to control the stem that recruits to ISIS," Horgan
said. "It is important to look at accounts of individuals that have
become disallusioned as a result of joining ISIS. It is key to
preventing the next generation from joining."
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