Psychologists, sociologists, political analysts and experts on religion and spirituality should be outdoing one another to find reasons why female teenagers barely out of their childhood years are leaving home and country to join Isis (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). This group is considered to be a terrorist threat with intent to rule the world by creating a global caliphate. <\/p>\n
Isis, through mainstream media, continues to show the world the cruelty and barbarity it inflicts on those it considers antipathetic to its cause, especially Christians who, simply because they were Christians, were beheaded for the world to see. These Coptic Christians were not even armed fighters against Isis. <\/p>\n
But social media is where recruitment happens. Vulnerable, impressionable and disaffected teens can get fascinated by the idea of joining and fighting for a bloody cause that attaches a religious value to it, an eternal one at that. (Twitter recently removed Isis accounts and, as a result, received threats from Isis.) <\/p>\n
I found a recruitment video on the Internet, one that showed armed jihadists with gentle faces and modulated voices repeatedly invoking the name of God and speaking persuasively about why joining Isis would give meaning to ones life (lush greenery and soft chanting in the background). The gist of the message is this: Jihad does not need you, you need jihad, and God does not need you, you need God. The recruiters also mention the countries where their recent recruits are from. <\/p>\n
Compared to Isis beheading videos, the recruitment video is not blood-curdling but a soft-sell. But listen to the words. <\/p>\n
There are many opposing and overlapping views on what Isis is, how it came to be, or what spawned it. In his controversial article What ISIS really wants in The Atlantic, Graeme Wood said: The Islamic State is no mere collection of psychopaths. It is a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, among them that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse. <\/p>\n
Haroon Moghul hit back with his The Atlantics big Islam lie: What Muslims really believe about ISIS: But for every deluded soul ISIS ensnares, or who seeks them out, countless more condemn them, oppose them, reject them or fight them. Its beyond a stretch to argue that ISIS represents Islam, is grounded in Islam, or justified by Islam. Thats not to say they dont claim religious mandates, or exploit religion to enable their savagery. Its that no ones buying it. <\/p>\n
Whatever Isis is in ones Islamic spectrum, the grim reality is that it has succeeded in luring young people to join them, like the three British school girls who, it was discovered too late, were on their way to the Middle East. How and why they made that step, their parents have no clue. Then there was this pregnant Austrian teen who left all to join Isis. <\/p>\n
Read The Guardians Schoolgirl jihadis: Female Islamists leaving home to join Isis fighters, which is about hundreds of girls and women going missing in the west, reappearing in Iraq and Syria to bear children for the caliphate. <\/p>\n
But in the Vox website, lawyer Amada Taub says that The Guardian doesnt explain why a surprising number of women in the West have been leaving their homes to join ISIS in Iraq and Syria. She cites Dr. Erin Saltman, who researches processes of political radicalization, and who estimates that one in 10 of Isis foreign recruits from the United Kingdom are women. <\/p>\n
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