Life's Disappointments and Letters Home
"There was neither a holy war, nor any of the preachings in the holy book were followed. [Islamic State] fighters raped many women there."
Majeed, 23, from Kalyan, India
"I'm fed up. My iPod doesn't work anymore here. I have to come back."
French Muslim jihadist, Syria
"They want to send me to the front, but I don't know how to fight."
French Muslim jihadist, Syria
"I've basically done nothing except hand out clothes and food. I also help clean weapons and transport dead bodies from the front."
"Winter's arrived here. It's begun to get really hard."
French Muslim jihadist, Syria
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| Fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) try to calm civilians demonstrating against the rebel infighting in Aleppo, Jan. 6, 2014. (photo by REUTERS/Jalal Alhalabi) |
Disaffection has set in among some of the Western-raised young Muslim men who responded to the romance of a holy war that would allow them to wear real military fatigues, carry really powerful weapons and use them to great effect. Some of them now have jihadist wives, and children born to them in Syria. Wishing to return, what do they do with their children who will not be recognized by France?
Why didn't the romance materialize for them, poor things, with their high aspirations for success on the battlefield and enamoured of the thought of assembling a harem of their very own. Reality, that kind of spoiled everything. Living rough isn't all that much fun, after all. Exploiting advantages would be fun of course, but they haven't materialized, either.
Le Figaro has written that Islamist commanders have made note of the fact that some of their French recruits among the 376 estimated French citizens, haven't worked out too well. What can they say about namby-pamby jihadis who complain of conditions not to their liking, and plan to return from whence they came? Well, they of course make an example of them as an effective deterrence, naturally.
One such young French jihadist was rumoured to have been beheaded once he courteously explained to his commander that he thought it would now best suit his purposes after all, to follow a friend who had already left to return to France. Now, he follows other friends killed in combat and travelling instead to Paradise to be greeted by lissome virgins.
Evidently some one hundred jihadists have already made the return trip to France, and of that number 76 now languish in prison. Majeed, from a city east of Mumbai, travelled to Syria as well among four others to join the Islamic State terrorists. To him, of course, from his Indian town of Kalyan, they were noble warriors, mujahideen, fighting in the name of the Almighty.
He too became disillusioned from cleaning one too many latrines, and decided to return home after six months of fighting for the caliphate. For a young man from India where women are incessantly harassed in a culture of violence against women resulting in mass rapes and murder, even he evidently was disgusted at the rape culture he found in Syria amongst the pious Islamic State jihadis.
Labels: Conflict, France, India, Islamic State, Sexual Predation, Syria
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, December 04, 2014
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