Pupils aged seven brainwashed by IS textbooks of terror
LESSONS IN WEAPONS ... AND OPPRESSION
ISLAMIC State has produced a series of sick textbooks to help convert innocent children to its twisted ideology, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The terror group, which controls territory in Iraq and Syria that is roughly the size of England and Wales, is feared to be indoctrinating almost two million children and teenagers – dubbed the Cubs of the Caliphate – through its schools in the Middle East.
About 80 British-born children are among them, raising fears that they may later launch ‘lone-wolf’ attacks if they return to the UK.
An investigation by terrorism monitoring group MEMRI has uncovered two IS school textbooks. Written in English, they feature images of jihadi fighters, weapons and armoury such as pistols and tanks, and even show the bedroom of one pupil with a Kalashnikov rifle on his desk.
The aim, experts say, is to turn the children into ‘pure soldiers’.
In the volume aimed at seven-yearolds, the first four English words the pupils are taught are army, hand, bullet and arm.
Other military terms such as sniper, pistol and bazooka are also included, while illustrations feature mortars, weapons and even mujahidin – jihadi fighters.
Both books also give a clear indication of how Islamic State views women. The word ‘woman’ is illustrated with a picture of a female covered from head to toe in black, and children are instructed to learn the words veil and hijab.
Pictures of a grandmother, aunt and sister show them veiled.
The first IS textbook, called Eng- lish For The Islamic State Book One, also appears to reveal another disturbing fact about its education system – no girls are taught in its schools. As a result, all pictures of classrooms show only boys, while the teachers wear army uniform.
A speech bubble conversation between two pupils provides an insight into IS’s agenda. One pupil asks: ‘What are the subjects in the timetable?’ The second one replies: ‘Jihadi education, Islamic education, Arabic, maths and English.’
In one lesson, pupils are taught to describe the infamous black and white flag of IS. They also chant: ‘This is our flag! It’s the flag of the Islamic State. It’s black and white.’
In the second textbook, which is aimed at 12- to 13-year-olds, the attempt to ‘normalise’ jihad becomes even more obvious. Almost all the pictures used are of IS fighters on the battlefield.
In one, a soldier is brandishing a pistol, while in others, jihadi fighters are shown holding their Kalashnikovs in the air.
Terrorism experts at the Quilliam Foundation, which describes itself as the world’s first counter-extremism think tank, have likened IS’s creation of its so-called Cubs of the Caliphate as the 21st Century equivalent of the Hitler Youth.
Nikita Malik, who has written Quilliam reports about IS, said: ‘The indoctrination of children by IS is a three-stage process.
‘First of all, they normalise violence for them, and then they expose them to things like executions and beheadings, and then get them to do physical training.
‘They see children as assets you invest in, so that you can turn them into “pure soldiers”.’
Anat Agron, a terrorism expert at MEMRI, added: ‘Teaching these concepts and items to children can be a way to normalise fighting and warfare.’
Ms Agron believes the fact that IS is teaching in English could in itself be sinister.
She said: ‘English could serve a purpose in attacks in the West, and for creating and disseminating propaganda to the West.’
Last month, IS published a gruesome propaganda video showing a three-year-old boy shooting dead an alleged spy in the back of the head.
Afterwards, two older boys are shown beheading two more alleged spies with a hunting knife.
‘They want to turn them into pure soldiers’