National Post (National Edition)
TERRORIST MAKES HORRORS OF ISIS A FAMILY AFFAIR
Photo of child with severed head shocks
It was the sort of message from a boastful parent one reads all the time on social media: “That’s my boy!”
But on the Twitter account of Australian jihadist Khaled Sharrouf, beneath a photo of what is reported to be his young son clutching the severed head of a Syrian soldier, the posting served to highlight the depravity of the terror group Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS). The photo, published Monday by the newspaper The Australian, prompted an immediate response from Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio it was further evidence of “just how barbaric” ISIS is.
The newspaper reported the picture was taken in Raqqa, Syria, capital of what ISIS has declared an Islamic caliphate.
ISIS is using social media for intimidation
Sharrouf, convicted of terrorism in Australia in 2009, used his brother’s passport to leave last year with his wife and three sons to fight in Syria and Iraq.
The photo of the child, who appears to be younger than 10, is a new low for a group that it would have been thought could sink no further. Following an unwavering “convertor-die-by-the-sword” doctrine, the predominantly Sunni jihadist group has left heads on stakes, victims buried alive and murdered children in its wake as it expanded its influence in Syria and Iraq.
Robert McFadden, senior vice-president with New Yorkbased Soufan Group, a private intelligence security firm, said the ISIS atrocities have proved an effective weapon.
He noted other terror groups in the region have used beheadings as a tactic, but never on the same scale. “What’s different now than from the mid-2000s is social media,” he said. Jihadis can easily broadcast their atrocities to the world, which serves the dual purpose of instilling terror in their enemies and enticing new recruits inspired by the cult of martyrdom.
“ISIS is using social media for intimidation, for the fear factor and also it most likely sees it as a recruitment tool for young guys who are just mesmerized by this kind of violence and successes on the battlefield,” said Mr. McFadden, who has worked in counterintelligence for the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
“It’s a vicious cycle where it plays into the narrative that they are fearless ruthless fighters for their cause, which they wrap in religion.”
He said in his previous career he got a glimpse into the jihadi mindset by interrogating Al-Qaeda detainees. They told him “with a straight face and without any hesitation that these tactics are called for in serving their higher ideological purposes.
“It’s not so much that that level of bloodthirstiness applies to all of the rank and file, but when you’re in that sort of environment with that sort of inculcation, then these types of things tend to feed on themselves, particularly as the battlefield successes grow.”
The spread of gruesome images on social media is enough to sicken even a seasoned counterterrorism officer. Mr. McFadden recounted recently watching a video in which ISIS fighters ordered Shiite Iraqi border guards to say their names, before declaring them apostates. “Then I had the chill feeling. You know what’s coming next,” he said.
Lorne Dawson, a sociology professor at the University of Waterloo and co-director of the Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security & Society, said religious puritanism is the main factor behind the ISIS brutality.
“They subscribe to such an extreme and totalistic conception of proper Muslim practice that it’s absolutely intolerant of all other perspectives,” he said.
“A core part of their identity is the calling out of heretics and the calling out of those who are not abiding by the true, pure belief.” He described them as more radical than the Taliban, for whom money could sometimes be more important than religious purity.
Mr. Dawson said as many as 100 Canadians have travelled to Syria to fight in the civil war. “Probably we’re seeing way more young Canadians entertaining going to Syria and fighting for ISIS or one of the other groups because it has this exotic adventure component to it, and it is easier for them to morally justify,” he said.
Once overseas, recruits are quickly sucked in.
“As in gangs, the groups know they have to get you to do something pretty violent, pretty quick, so you are then committed,” he said. “The more you get the person engaged in the actions, the more you get them interacting with other people with equally intense commitments, that’s when you get the absolute commitment.”
He suspects, however, the growing atrocities could diminish the allure of Syria for aspiring jihadis.
“For some, once they’re committed it may mean, ‘That’s it, this is my moral foundation, and I’m willing to do anything in support of it.’ For others, I think the moral principles that got them involved may cause them to be repelled by slaughters of innocent children or burying people alive,” he said.