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Recruitment and Conversion to Radical Islam
by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700
Copyright
August 27, 2014
All Rights Reserved.
Watching
the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria spread like wildfire over parts of Syria and
Iraq, the West finds itself dumbfounded about Abu Barkr al-Baghdadi’a success
recruiting and converting wayward youth. With estimates in the hundreds—maybe
thousands—of U.S., British, Australian, etc.—young people recruited and
converted into al-Baghdad’s jihadis or holy warriors, the West has no answer how
to stop the influx of foreigners into ISIS’s band of programmed assassin suicide
squads, ready, willing and able to sacrifice their lives for Islam. Watching 40-year-old U.S. journalist
James Foley beheaded on global TV by what appears like a ski-masked British
subject aids-and-abets ISIS recruitment efforts, offering disenfranchised youths
a way to satisfy unmet bloodlust—allowing otherwise damaged individuals a way of
acting-out childhood trauma and pent-up rage.
ISIS deceased founder Abu Musab al-Zarqawi set the barbaric tone to the
once al-Qaeda affiliate in Iraq beheading businessman Nick Berg May 7, 2004 in
one of the most shocking acts seen on the Internet. Since al-Zarqawi’s death via a 500-pound U.S. smart-bomb June 7, 2006, the reborn ISIS
under the leadership of al-Zarqawi’s successor al-Baghdadi topped the origninal.
Al-Zarqawi cut his teeth in the Iraq War murdering U.S. soldiers in Fallujah,
stringing them up like Christmas ornaments March 31, 2004 on a Iraqi bridge over
the Euphrates River. Today’s ISIS takes al-Zarqawi’s barbarism to a new heights, combining military prowess
helped by stolen U.S. weapons, including tanks, rocket launchers, mortars and
surface-to-air missiles. Like Osama
bin Laden’s magnetic appeal to disenfranchised youth in Afghanistan during the
‘80s fighting the Soviets, al-Baghdadi offers the same kind of appeal.
Giving wayward youth and disenfranchised Sunni Arabs faced with economic
hardship and intolerable poverty hope, al-Baghdadi promises a new Ottoman-like
Islamic empire. Al-Baghdadi gives his criminal gangs and outlaws power
after suffering in Western societies or Mideast fiefdoms. Watching Australian ISIS recruit
Khaled Sharrouf Aug. 10 let his 7-year-year-old son hold up the head of a
decapitated soldier showed unfathomable abuse of women and children by
extremists groups, offering unparalleled violence and bloodlust. Australian officials reacted with
utter disgust over the viral image.
Calling the images “hideous atrocities,” Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott
condemned the Sharrouft’s actions.
U.S., British and Australian officials have been shocked over ISIS’s capacity to
recruit otherwise normal citizens into Islamic jihad.
Confirming the death of American ISIS recrui 24-year-oldt Douglas
MacArthur McCain, AKA Duale Khalid, killed in Syria Aug. 26, U.S. officials
expressed shock over the more American converts posing a danger to the U.S.
homeland. British authorities
expressed similar concern about scores of U.K. citizens joining ISIS, seeking
the false promises offered violent religious groups. Watching a British citizen
decapitate U.S. journalist raises disturbing questions of how extremists groups
transform wayward citizens into programmed assassins. “It was a shocking thing to see but
it wasn’t surprising. If you look
at British fighters in Syria over the last year, we’ve seen them operate as
suicide bombers. We’ve seen them
execute prisoners of war. They are
participating in most of the brutal acts out there,” said Shiraz Maher, analyst
with the International Center for the Study of Radicalization.
U.S., British and Australian authorities can’t stop the appeal of joining
radical Islamic death squads that flirt with nihilism seen in devil-worshiping
cults, something no all that different from ISIS. ISIS is the first to accuse other
non-Islamic groups like the ancient Yazidis in Northern Iraq of devil worship,
despite the fact that they’re not the once beheading and executing infidels or
non-believers. “They’re disengaged
from British society, they’re disengaged from values, they’ve bought into
something else—a different identity,” said Maher, trying to explain how
otherwise normal individuals can be transformed into homicidal maniacs. Within the religious cult, there’s
no restraint on violence, murder and mayhem as long as it advances the cult’s
mission. ISIS has been involved in the largest sovereign land-grab since Russian President
Vladimir Putin decided to seize Crimea from Ukraine March 1.
Glorifying the Golden Age of Islam when Mohammed’s armies routinely
conquered foreign lands adding to a vast empire, al-Baghdadi has convinced
enough beaten-down souls that they’re taking place in the next Islamic empire. Giving broken down humans guns,
food, shelter and comradery, and, more importantly, purpose, ISIS substitutes
itself for a person’s brain, taking away all independent thinking, programming
recruits into committing the most horrific acts, including mafia-style
executions and savage-like beheadings.
Giving disenfranchised folks something to live for, ISIS provides the
ultimate omnipotence provided by Kalashnicovs, hand grenades and other
instruments of mayhem and mass murder.
Substituting the ISIS flag for any conscience, Islamic converts get all
the backing and support needed to commit any atrocity in the name of Allah.
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