Written by: Aziz Azam
ISIS, in its pursuit of malevolent objectives, spares no resources and engages in any despicable acts deemed necessary. Its leaders and alleged followers maintain no genuine connection or understanding of one another, as this lack of transparency conceals their true intentions and actions.
The security forces of the Islamic Emirate, in their ongoing struggle against ISIS, have uncovered the methods through which ISIS recruits and coerces individuals into their ranks. Presented below is a succinct overview of some of the techniques ISIS employs to recruit its fighters:
1. Children and Young Teenagers
ISIS often recruits children and teenagers for warfare and labor, which is against all legal standards. During raids in certain areas and villages, they forcibly separate young children from their families, treating them as slaves or spoils of war for their battles. Reports from Iraq have shown that parents who attempt to retrieve their children are threatened with death.
2. Individuals Lured by Financial Incentives
ISIS exploits unemployed and financially distressed young individuals and families, enticing them with promises of lucrative salaries and rewards. They offer fighters monthly salaries ranging from $500 to $1,000, in addition to other perks. The mention of dollar-based salaries in itself exposes their foreign supporters.
3. Those Misled by a False Sense of Sacred Struggle
The Kharijites present their conflict as a righteous struggle, deceiving their fighters with assurances of paradise and elevated spiritual status. However, these assurances are deceptive; Islam categorically rejects this distorted ideology, and those who pervert Islam are undeniably destined for damnation.
4. Hostages and Coerced Fighters
Individuals taken hostage or detained for various reasons, such as outstanding debts, are also compelled to engage in combat or serve ISIS to settle their debts. Many of these individuals, often young people or children, are threatened with death or the murder of their family members if they refuse.
5. People Misled by Empty Promises
The Kharijites harbor ambitions of extensive territorial control, aiming to establish a government and self-proclaimed caliphate. They make grandiose promises of authority and status to their recruits, assuring them of gaining power and esteem. However, these aspirations have crumbled, and their control over substantial territories has proven unsustainable.
6. Fear and Intimidation
Instilling fear is ISIS’s primary strategy. They have executed or vanished their own fighters who displayed retreat in battle, charging them with cowardice. Similar threats are extended to their mercenaries and others who acknowledge their corruption and hold them in contempt.
People must recognize the malevolent nature of these Kharijites, the adversaries of true religion. By exposing and denouncing their transgressions, they can uphold their religious duty by cooperating with the Islamic Emirate.
