Wednesday, September 3, 2014

The Islamic State's Recruitment Strategy Part 2

ISIS, now known as IS, has now released Volume 3 of their glossy recruitment/propaganda magazine, Dabiq.  As I posted here, Dabiq is produced by the ISIS-affliliate and media wing, Al-hayat Media Centre known for producing such videos as this one that shows the story of a Canadian from Timmins, Ontario, Abu Muslim, who converted to Islam and joined the battle for the revival of the Caliphate:


Dabiq is released in several languages including English so that it can reach a world wide audience.

Dabiq Volume 3 has a cover that calls its warriors (and potential recruits) to Hijrah, a reference to the migration of the Prophet Muhammed from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE which marks the beginning of the Islamic era as you can see on this screen capture:


Volume 3 opens with a missive about the involvement of the United States in the affairs of the Muslim Ummah (nation or community) as you can see on this page:


The Foreward notes that there were countless accounts of American soldiers, both U.S. military forces and Blackwater contractors, that were responsible for executing families and raping women in Iraq prior to its withdrawal.  The author notes that "...if a mujahid kills a single man with a knife, it is the barbaric killing of the "innocent".  However, if Americans killed thousands of Muslim families all over the world by pressing missile fire buttons, it is merely "collateral damage"...

The author also states that the Islamic State made demands of the United States for the exchange of Muslim prisoners held by the U.S. in exchange for James Foley's release but they were ignored.

This volume has an interesting look at the IS policy of execution as you can see on these two pages:



The author, quoting Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, former Jordanian leader of the al-Tawhid wal-Jihan who was killed by U.S. forces in June 2006, states that 

"...So we warn the tribes, that any tribe or party or assembly whose involvement and collaboration with the crusaders and their apostate agents are confirmed, then by He who sent Muhammad with the truth, we will target them just as we tar- get the crusaders, and we will eradicate and distinguish them, for there are only two camps: the camp of truth and its followers, and the camp of falsehood and its factions. So choose to be from one of the two camps...From now on, everyone whose affiliation with the pagan guards, police, and army is confirmed, or his collaboration and espionage for the crusaders is verified, then his ruling is execution, and not only that, his house also will be destroyed and burnt, after removal of the women and children. This is in retribution for his treachery towards his religion and ummah, and so that he becomes a manifest lesson and a deterring example."

This is what IS is using to justify its execution of "traitors" who resisted the imposition of their brand of Sharia law by ambushing, torturing (including amputation) and killing Islamic State soldiers.  When the villages involved would not turn over the "traitors" after 24 hours, the IS soldiers entered the villages where they found "...the men hateful of the Shari'ah, drowning in fahishah (unlawful sexual intercourse or fornication), alcoholism and drugs, some of them married to more than four wives!".

Here is the IS version of the occurrences in Northern Iraq in the Province of Nineveh (Ninawa) where hundreds of thousands of Yezidis (IS refers to them as devil worshipping Yazidiyyah because the Yezidi religion is based on worship of the Peacock Angel which Muslims believe is Satan) were forced to flee and where it appears that at least some executions of men and boys may have taken place: 



Lastly, here is the IS version of their conquest of Tabaqah Military Air Base in Syria:


Once again, we can see how the Islamic State is using very western means of recruitment to entice new followers into their fold.  People like Abu Muslim/Andre Poulin from Canada who gave his life for the cause.  With this kind of propaganda, they are joining the western world in promoting their military victories among their believers and potential recruits.

1 comment:

  1. "This is what IS is using to justify its execution of "traitors" who resisted the imposition of their brand of Sharia law by ambushing, torturing (including amputation) and killing Islamic State soldiers." Not to get to philosophical or theocratic but the way Sharia law works is that its laid out pretty clearly so there is not a “their” version it is what it is. Its just that most muslims don’t follow it to T they might agree to follow some or most but forget about the annoying parts. What IS and the Taliban do is actually enforce following sharia to the T. So yes there is grey areas that get ironed out locally by the Islamic courts but most the stuff that seems radical and makes no sense to westerns is part of sharia law and is what it is

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