ISIS militants buy “Islam for Dummies” from online giant Amazon to learn about the religion

Published on:

16 Aug 2016, 11:00 am

Many Islamic State recruits have poor or no knowledge of Islam
These ISIS amateurs are buying books online to educate themselves about the same religion for which they stake their lives
ISIS uses this ignorance to their advantage by manipulating such recruit's faith and beliefs

August 16,2016: It is true that terrorism has no religion, but it has numerous names for sure. An investigation done by AP (Associated Press, a US press agency) has revealed that IS recruits know little or nothing about Islam or they hardly bother to know about it at all. Apart from that, in another study, it was found that few with the most religious knowledge among the ranks of the terrorist group do not rush to become martyrs, mentioned a leading news portal.

The surprising part is the IS employment form requires new recruits to test their knowledge of Islam and then rate it on a scale of one to three and the applicants fail or have failed miserably. Moreover, two 22-year-old, British recruits, Mohammed Ahmed and Yusuf Sarwar, even purchased books "The Koran for Dummies" and "Islam for Dummies" from Amazon before leaving to brush up on the same belief they planned to kill and die for.

Koran for Dummies. Image source: Amazon.com

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The AP analysis report of some thousand leaked Islamic State documents has revealed that most of the recruits from its earliest days knew little or nothing about Islam. More than 70% of the new recruits said they had "basic" knowledge of Islam and Shariah, the lowest level listed on the form. 24% said they had an "intermediate" knowledge. Only 5% listed themselves as advanced Islam students, and another 5% said they had memorized the Koran, mentioned Daily Mail.

The documents also showed some recruits admitting that they were not quite sure as to what they were getting into when they joined the group, which claims to be strictly enforcing the inflexible Islamic rule.

"It only required one prayer and no prior understanding of Islam..there was no hierarchy and it was all about living a good life…People like me were tricked into something that they didn't understand. I never meant to end up with IS", – a gay European recruit told AP

The documents showed that the ignorant newcomers are often informed with ISIS propaganda once they join and then trained to be terrorists. In fact, a study released by the US Military Academy's Combating Terrorism Center found that ISIS members "with the most religious knowledge within the organization itself are the least likely to volunteer to be suicide bombers."

In the past year, in 2015, ISIS started taking credit for single terrorist attacks by amateur militants who had no connection to the terror network whatsoever. Omar Mateen, the man who killed 49 people in Orlando, pledged connection with ISIS, but authorities found no evidence he had any ties to the group.

ISIS later claimed a truck rampage in Nice, France that took 85 lives. But the driver, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, reportedly ate pork, take drugs, consumed alcohol and ignored Islamic prayers.

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Karim Mohammad-Aggad traveled with his younger brother and friends to Syria in late 2013. Seven of them returned to France within a few months and were arrested. Two died in Syria, while his 23-year-old brother, Foued, was one of the men who stormed the Bataclan on November 13, 2015, that killed 130 people in Paris, reported Daily Mail.

"My religious beliefs had nothing to do with my departure..Islam was used to trap me like a wolf," Karim Mohammad-Aggad told the court before he was sentenced to nine years in prison.

When pressed by the judge on his knowledge of the Islamic law, and its implementation, Mohammad-Aggad appeared to be short of words, saying, "I don't have the knowledge to answer the question", the terror group preys on this ignorance, because it manipulates extremists to interpret Islam in such a way that it suits its goal of terrorism".

-prepared by Yajush Gupta, twitter :@yajush_gupta

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