With their methodical emphasis on indoctrinating the children who live under their rule ISIS is ensuring this war won’t be ending anytime soon.
Via NPR:
The Islamic State’s activities in Iraq and Syria are well-known, but the group is gaining a toehold elsewhere in the world as well. In a chilling new documentary, a long-haired fighter claims that an ISIS-run “school” teaches all local children from the age of 3 in Afghanistan’s Kunar province.
In the documentary, produced for PBS/Frontline and Al Jazeera, Afghan-British journalist Najibullah Quraishi highlights efforts by ISIS to indoctrinate young children.
In one scene, after herding a ragtag group of boys and girls into a room (girls are ordered to sit in back), the fighter conducts a grim lesson.
“What is this word?” he says, and answers his own question: “Jihad.”
“Jihad,” the children repeat.
“God says do jihad until intrigue, idolatry and infidelity are gone from the world.”
He tells a boy to stand up. “What is this?” he says, indicating his rifle.
“Kalashnikov.”
“Why do we use this?”
“To defend the faith.”
“And whose heads will we hit with this?”
“Kafir [infidels],” says the child.
“This is a hand grenade, meaning hand bomb,” the fighter continues.
“Hand bomb,” the child repeats.
Then he hands an unloaded gun to a boy, coaching him to “fire it from a standing position.”
One by one, the other boys (no girls, it must be said) handle the weapon.