Shredding the oft- and self-propagated notion the Islamic State is comprised of radical Muslims, the vast majority of the group’s recruits have only superficial knowledge about the religion of Islam — some even purchased the book “Islam for Dummies” just prior to joining.
An analysis of leaked Islamic State documents obtained by Syrian opposition site Zaman al-Wasl and undertaken by the Associated Press found 70 percent of recruits at the height of the group’s push for members only possessed basic knowledge of Shariah, laws derived from verses in the Quran, and “hadith,” the words and actions of the prophet Mohammed.
While 24 percent had attained an intermediate understanding of the religion, a mere 5 percent were considered advanced students of Islam.
That exact ignorance of the religion’s true tenets likely helped inflate Islamic State numbers. As the outlet explains:
“At the height of the Islamic State’s drive for foot soldiers in 2013 and 2014, typical recruits included the group of Frenchmen who went bar-hopping with their recruiter back home, the recent European convert who now hesitantly describes himself as gay, and two Britons who ordered ‘The Koran for Dummies’ and ‘Islam for Dummies’ from Amazon to prepare for jihad abroad. Their intake process complete, they were grouped in safe houses as a stream of imams came in to indoctrinate them, according to court testimony and interviews by the Associated Press.”
Recruits like these, largely unaware of what violent extremism entails, can be facilely manipulated by actual radicals once family ties have been severed and means of communication with the world, like cellphones, have been taken away. Once in the clutches of the group, either full indoctrination into ISIL’s perverted interpretation of Islam occurs, or the realization its terrorist ways go too far still leave a recruit without means of escaping easily.
Read more: http://thefreethoughtproject.com/isis-docs-recruits-ignorant-islam/
It's the same as everywhere. They prey on young people desperate to feel like they belong somewhere, so they are easy targets for manipulative people who want's nothing but fear and terror..
It makes me sick!
Best case for free world wide education I can think of.
Less stupid people less mindless follwers..
Exactly, thanks for keeping an open mind. We the people have to unite! We are the 99%!
Upvoted!
Criminals, including the pathological and sociopathic, have often found cover under banner of some pseudo-religious crusade. The problem is not what to do about such surface appearances, but how to counter actual intentions.
I find the whole "terrorist"-branded bureaucracy-bloating responses by western politicians to be self-defeating and veering toward authoritarian suppression of individual liberties, for the convenience of a conniving few. How are seventeen "intelligence" agencies realistically helping deal with anything? Far more costly to society of human lives and well-being than so-called foreign conspiracies are the domestic ones of sugar price-supports and sugar-water carbonated beverages that result in thousands more deaths per year than any "terrorist" intrigues.
Thanks for your honest opinion! Upvoted!
Agreed! The media talking heads with megaphones shouting "terrorism" makes it seem like a much larger problem than it is. How does a geographically isolated nation with a military over one million strong, that spends hundreds of billions of dollars on defense and intelligence feel threatened by a band of rag-tag fighters in the desert? And, why, as you point out, aren't more people concerned about the very real and fixable problems that they face every day?
^^I have a conspiracy theory that alternative media talking heads like Jan Morgan and Pamela Gellar are CIA operatives with the primary purpose of making Americans be cool with the Patriot Act and all of its unAmerican trappings
I converted to Islam back in 2014 after a hypo-religious experience involving my special needs Palestinian coworker. Its to long a story to tell in a reply box but I'll probably write a post about it soon. I definitely should! At the time of my conversion I was on disability from UPS because I was attending a drug treatment program so I was at the Masjid (Mosque) every day. I was going to an extremely conservative Masjid in Jersey City NJ many of the parishioners did not speak English at all and all services were done completely in Arabic which I was desperate to learn. However on Sundays they would have a Sunday school and THE KIDS would come. The contrast in culture was outrageous on Sundays compared to the rest of the week. One time I was in the prayer room and a young teenage girl yelled at her mother YOU FUCKING BITCH! I was shocked to say the least. You're not supposed to fart in the prayer room let alone CURSE AT YOUR MOM. That's the kind of kid that joins ISIS. Mislead children who know nothing of the Sharia law that their parents came to America to escape. They're all on drugs which is good because it makes them easy to control. Also ISIS members and radical Muslims often have TATTOOS. For those of you who don't know about Islam getting a Tattoo is probably one of the worst things you could possibly do in the eyes of God it is a form of Idolatry. Idolaters and Pagans are the Qur'anic definition of Infidels. Sunni Islam is occupied by a Wahhabi conspiracy. Basically its being run by Satanists. Sunni Islam and Islam are not the same thing. Sunni Islam is a religion, Islam is a way of life. My philosophy toward religion is this, God is like heroin and religion is like the dopeman the cuts the product with imitation chemicals to maximize his profits. Thanks for the article anonymous I have resteemed and upvoted it. SO SHOW ME SOME LOVE!
Thanks for clarifying, upvoted!
This is exactly the type of information propagandists ignore when they rush to present "proof" to a docile and ignorant public in order to generate support for senseless violence. Lest we forget (and ascend to the seat of judgment), and get into a futile debate about "who's god is the best", almost all large scale atrocities in human history have been carried out under the cloak of some religion (the Inquisition, the Crusades, colonialism, slavery, witch hunts, the Holocaust, just to name a few). While good intentioned but ignorant and easily distracted people battle over hypothetical gods, those "in power" do their dirt and carry out their conquests with the (silent) consent of the public.
Very well said. Upvoted!
So, when I was in Iraq, the Army had this program where you could attend sessions to learn about Islam with local nationals who had a security clearance. It was basically Sunday School for grown-ups, but they used the Qur'an instead of the Bible. It was led by a Muslim chaplain at the height of the hearts and minds campaign. One thing that struck me was how many questions the native Muslims had (much like Christians do about scripture when they're discussing it with more knowledgable clergy), and how easily a bad person could use their illiteracy to convince them that God wanted them to become terrorists and that they would find Paradise if they became a suicide bomber. The Qur'an is very specific about not harming innocents, and that intellectual jihad is far superior to violence. But if a group with money and growing political power assures you that your family will be taken care of, you'll escape the impoverished hell on earth you're living in, and you'll find favor with God and you can't read your Holy Book to discover that this contradicts the truth...well, that's how terrorists are made.
That poverty is used by those in power to recruit soldiers to protect their wealth and financial interests is a recurring theme, not (only) in the distant past, but it is in full swing today. Low level drug dealers, ISIS fighters, piracy... Any one of us caught in that soul-wearying predicament might become victims to this system. The problem is the system, not the people (unwittingly) caught up in it.
They intentionally make children orphans so that they can raise them and educate them. Most people can't imagine the number of street children in Iraq. It's heartbreaking.
Interesting, didn't know about that. Upvoted!
I'm following you now Mtgmisfit
Thank you. Followed back.
The Rothschild's are using Islam, bringing the most extreme form of It Sunni Islam to change the Western societies to a totalitarian society. The problem Is Sunni Islam and Sharia Law Is Incompatible with western society. It promotes pedophilia, Muhammad consummated his marriage with a nine year old girl, this Is clearly stated In the Koran, this religion executes homosexuals, demands genital mutilation of girls and women and women are second class citizens In this religion. Muhammad also used jihad for the forced conversion of other religions to Islam, If they didn't convert he would kill them. I understand the NWO agenda but this religion Is Incompatible with western culture.
My only issue is that I've read the Quran. It doesn't sound like a zen Rumi poem. It reads like an instruction manual for Wahhabism.
1/3 of the book is about subjugation. Even if Muhammad was a divinely ordained prophet, he's still a warlord, right? Would people even argue that he wasn't?
Interesting question, opening a possibility for a discussion. Maybe someone can answer who has already read the quran and or compared it to other divine books?
I've read scriptures from most major religions. The only ones that seem to encourage subjugation of entire peoples is the Torah and the Quran. And Jews pretty much never act in those ideas anymore.
I actually find Mormonism the most comparable to Islam. The context of their foundation and spread are strikingly similar.
I think you'll find the Rothschild Zionists and the pedophile elites In London do. They follow the Talmud and see us as worthless Goyim.
I don't think they practice anything we'd readily recognize as Judaism.
I see them as Satanic trash.
I agree, the average Jewish person would never accept the Talmud, It Is very evil.
I found it similar to the Bible if you look at them both in terms of historical context. All three Abrahamic religions believe in the Torah, which isn't exactly all rainbows and roses.
So, basically: All three are the same?
Hardly; they all view the role of Jesus differently, making them fundamentally incompatible. But morally, as the books are written, believers are given similar instructions in all three faiths. And killing innocent people for political power is abhorrent in all of them. ISIS is a political group with a religious sounding name, but that doesn't make them the defining group for all Muslims. Muslims refer to the group as Daesh specifically for this reason. And Daesh has been slaughtering Muslims in the Middle East and Pakistan at a much higher rate than Christians for several years, so this is hardly a religious war. It's politics, and they've used propaganda against Muslims to help destabilize the world and make it more difficult to defeat ISIS/Daesh.
"killing innocent people for political power is abhorrent in all of them"
You need to re-read the Old Testament. God specifically commands his people to slaughter innocents over and over exactly for political power. What do you think happened to the Canaanites?
The thing about the Quran and the Old Testament is that non-believers aren't innocent.
I meant currently; I made the point earlier that Biblical history was also violent, and that historical context is important when comparing religious texts. Unless you actively seek out foreign news sources, it's easy to think that all Muslims are calling for violence against "infidels", but the vast majority of Muslim leadership denounces terrorist acts claimed by ISIS.
There's a great deal of debate as to whether Christians and Jews are believers according to the Quran. Every Muslim I've spoken to has said that they are, but I've read conflicting accounts on the oh-so-reliable internet, so I need to study that issue further.
It is similar in context to the Torah, but not the New Testament at all.
And to say they all believe in the Torah is highly misleading. Muslims believe the bible is corrupted beyond any practical use, and Christians generally think Jesus' sacrifice supercedes old testament law.
Even the Jews don't practice those laws today, as they are currently impossible to fulfill as prescribed Moses.
The only religion that still normalizes crap in large numbers like stoning women is Islam. We can pretend it's not the case, but the practice is still common in some of the most visible and influential Islamic countries.
I was speaking from a "they all acknowledge the Torah as the Word of God" perspective. What you say about the different faiths is true, but I was speaking to the historical context of violence in the Old Testament, as it's easy for most Westerners to view the Bible in its proper context, but we don't apply the same metric to other systems of belief. It's part of being human and having bias as a survival mechanism, but doesn't mean we shouldn't try to be aware of it.
It always cracks me up when people talk about how Islam is so awful to women, because most of that is cultural than Quranic. I don't disagree that there are some places in the world that are predominantly Muslim where women are fighting for equality and oppression, but they're fighting humans, not God. A good Muslim would explain that the Quran actually allows women to own and inherit property and pursue formal education, straying from the cultural traditions of the time. In America, which so many people claim as a Christian nation, women who have been raped are still asked if they were wearing "fashionable clothing" by police officers, so we're not exactly a shining beacon of justice when it comes to violence against women.
I really appreciate the intelligent comments, but I gotta say comparing the plight of women in places like Saudi Arabia to women is the USA is laughable. Is there even a feminist movement at all there lol?
Actually there is. http://nyp.st/2fTsL1J
And in Iran. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/01/04/war-of-words-annals-of-activism-laura-secor
And Pakistan. https://tribune.com.pk/story/764036/feminism-in-pakistan-a-brief-history/
Iraq is secular, but here's a woman who was raised there's experience as well: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/31/iraq-feminist-hard-to-understand