{"id":82,"date":"2015-01-02T20:48:11","date_gmt":"2015-01-02T20:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raqqa-sl.com\/en\/?p=82"},"modified":"2015-01-05T23:50:37","modified_gmt":"2015-01-05T23:50:37","slug":"frontline-isis-meet-women-children-britons-core-islamic-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raqqa-sl.com\/en\/?p=82","title":{"rendered":"Frontline Isis: Meet the Women, Children, and Britons at the Core of the Islamic State"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"imageBox\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"i1393813\" class=\"imgPhoto aligncenter\" title=\"A group of Islamic State fighters pose for the camera\" src=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20140908183113im_\/http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/d.ibtimes.co.uk\/en\/full\/1393813\/isis-fighters.jpg?resize=600%2C397\" alt=\"Isis fighters\" width=\"600\" height=\"397\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"caption\"><span class=\"cap\"><span id=\"IL_AD10\" class=\"IL_AD\">A group<\/span>\u00a0of Islamic State fighters pose for the camera<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Zaid Al Fares<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>In the weeks after Isis took control of the Raqqa province, northeast of Syria, and then rampaged through Iraq, a hazy\u00a0<span id=\"IL_AD2\" class=\"IL_AD\">picture of<\/span>\u00a0this ultra-barbaric group began to emerge. We soon knew of their penchant for hanging bodies in their street, and that several foreign fighters, including Britons, have joined them.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, in those early weeks and months, people couldn\u2019t really get behind Isis, get a clear\u00a0picture of\u00a0who they are and what they are fighting for. Sure everyone could see the headless bodies and the teens on tanks, but no-one could get the high-definition close-up they longed for.<\/p>\n<p>Now, after speaking to my contacts in Raqqa and drawing on my own experience of living in\u00a0<span id=\"IL_AD4\" class=\"IL_AD\">the city<\/span>under Isis rule, I can offer a detailed view of this terrifying and enigmatic group \u2013 and shine a light on the women, children, and British fighters at their core.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Child soldiers and female vigilantes<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It is well known that the \u201cIslamic State\u201d recruits a large number of children under the age of 18 who do not have any form of religious extremism. In fact, there are people in the organisation whose task it is to recruit\u00a0<span id=\"IL_AD7\" class=\"IL_AD\">children by<\/span>\u00a0brainwashing or by offering large sums of money; they also have dedicated camps for ideological\u00a0<span id=\"IL_AD3\" class=\"IL_AD\">training<\/span>\u00a0and a \u201creligious\u201d military service.<\/p>\n<div class=\"relatedArticle\">\n<div class=\"label\">Related<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20140908183113\/http:\/\/www.ibtimes.co.uk\/islamic-states-women-warriors-how-fierce-al-khansa-battalion-was-borne-out-repression-1461016\">Islamic State\u2019s Women Warriors: How Feared Al-Khansa Battalion was Borne Out of Repression<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>Also, in Raqqa there is a battalion consisting of more than 50 women affiliated to Isis called the \u201cAl-Khansa Battalion\u201d, whose job it is to patrol the streets to pursue women. These women are the wives of immigrants to Syria, who are from a number of different nationalities but mainly Tunisian, Moroccan, French, and British.<\/p>\n<p>Not too long ago the Al-Khansa battalion patrolled the city\u2019s schools shortly before they were closed down by the Islamic State and introduced legal marriage, as they call it, to the\u00a0<em>Mujahidin<\/em>\u00a0which was met with big disapproval from the city\u2019s people and the families of the female students, prompting many of them to leave the city and not to send their\u00a0<span id=\"IL_AD5\" class=\"IL_AD\">daughters<\/span>\u00a0to schools, and even leave the house.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2018We left Britain because you can\u2019t\u00a0<span id=\"IL_AD9\" class=\"IL_AD\">practice<\/span>\u00a0religion there\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are people from many nationalities in the Islamic State, including several\u00a0<span id=\"IL_AD12\" class=\"IL_AD\">groups<\/span>\u00a0from Western Europe, who live in Raqqa with as much luxury as Isis can provide them. They get their homes for free, as well as flashy cars and huge salaries, while the people of\u00a0the city\u00a0of Raqqa suffer from not having a living wage because most of them are employed in public or state institutions or live off agriculture, which has now almost been\u00a0<span id=\"IL_AD1\" class=\"IL_AD\">discontinued<\/span>\u00a0due to the high cost of raw materials.<\/p>\n<p>Abu Hammam, one of the activists who works\u00a0<span id=\"IL_AD11\" class=\"IL_AD\">inside<\/span>\u00a0the city\u00a0secretly, said that he saw several European people, whom he could tell were British from the manner in which they spoke, wanderinginside\u00a0the city. One of the Britons, he says, was called Abu Abdullah.<\/p>\n<p>Upon seeing them, Abu Hammam said \u201cI have a question: why did you all come to Raqqa?\u201d They replied saying that in Britain you cannot (truly)\u00a0practice\u00a0your religious rites, while acknowledging that the British government doesn\u2019t infringe on the freedom of religion and religious rites. They said they came here after the announcement of the Islamic State organisation to establish a Caliphate based on the method exemplified by\u00a0<span id=\"IL_AD8\" class=\"IL_AD\">the prophet<\/span>\u00a0Mohammed.<\/p>\n<p>The Britons added that they were assured of this after their leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, announced the establishment of a true Islamic Caliphate; they also came to fight the Nusayri \u201cinfidels\u201d \u2013 as Abu Hammam calls them.<\/p>\n<div class=\"imageBox\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"i1393812\" class=\"imgPhoto aligncenter\" title=\"Children in the 'Osama bin Laden Cub Camp'\" src=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20140908183113im_\/http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/d.ibtimes.co.uk\/en\/full\/1393812\/islamic-state-kids.jpg?resize=480%2C480\" alt=\"Islamic State kids\" width=\"480\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"caption\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span class=\"cap\">Children in the \u2018Osama bin Laden Cub Camp\u2019<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Zaid Al Fares<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Osama bin Laden Cub Camps<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Abu Hammam also revealed that the presence of people of different nationalities is severely straining the demographic situation of\u00a0the city\u00a0and that the Islamic State began the process of demographic change in Raqqa after they deported all other non-Sunni Muslim sects. He said that this matter is very serious and that the organisation poses a major threat to the Syrian society in general and Raqqa in particular.<\/p>\n<p>This threat is most acute among children under the age of 18, as the Islamic State has started to prepare \u201cshariah camps\u201d, including one named the \u201cOsama bin Laden Cub Camp\u201d in the eastern countryside of Raqqa, and another named \u201cCamp Al-Zarqawi\u201d in the rural north. In these camps, there is brainwashing, military\u00a0training\u00a0and psychological preparation for the making of suicide bombers to carry out suicide operations for them.<\/p>\n<p>This is considered a danger for the distant future; even if the Islamic State does leave Raqqa, the danger that its men, women and children will leave behind could haunt us for 10 years.<\/p>\n<p>Source\u00a0ibtimes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A group&nbsp;of Islamic State fighters pose for the cameraZaid Al Fares In the weeks after Isis took control of the Raqqa province, northeast of Syria, and then rampaged through Iraq,<\/p>\n<div><a class=\"permalink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.raqqa-sl.com\/en\/?p=82\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[27,26,28,10,29,12,17,9],"class_list":["post-82","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press","category-syria","tag-almossa","tag-hamood","tag-hamood-almossa","tag-isis","tag-press","tag-raqqa","tag-raqqa-is-being-slaughtered-silently","tag-syria"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.raqqa-sl.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/01.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raqqa-sl.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raqqa-sl.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raqqa-sl.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raqqa-sl.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raqqa-sl.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.raqqa-sl.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128,"href":"https:\/\/www.raqqa-sl.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions\/128"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raqqa-sl.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raqqa-sl.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raqqa-sl.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raqqa-sl.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}