Jesus and the Jihadis by Craig A. Evans

Author:Craig A. Evans [Craig A. Evans and Jeremiah J. Johnston]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Destiny Image, Inc.
Published: 2015-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 8

FROM CALIFORNIA TO THE CALIPHATE

The Wave of Westerners Joining the Islamic State

An astrophysics student from Turkey, a Briton with a computer programing degree, twin teenage schoolgirls from London, a hockey-loving young adult from Canada, and a rapper from southern California—these are the profiles of your modern-day fighter for the Islamic State, and they have all made the journey into Syria and Iraq to join ISIS. They are young, educated, connected, employed, born in the ’80s and ’90s, and drawn to the caliphate from the West.

According to the Islamic State, if you are a Muslim, you are already part of their caliphate, and your responsibility is to hijara (Arabic term for “emigrate”) or enact jihad where you reside. There is no third option. In his first released message after declaring himself the caliph or successor, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi pressed for emigration to the Islamic State, noting specifically the need for “people with military, administrative, and service expertise, and medical doctors and engineers of all different specializations and fields.”1

In May 2015 the Islamic State released a thirty-five-minute audio message from the self-proclaimed caliph, al-Baghdadi, calling for global jihad: “O Muslims go to war everywhere. It is the duty of every Muslim…. Islam was never a religion of peace. Islam is the religion of fighting. No one should believe that the war we are waging is the war of the Islamic State. It is the war of all Muslims.” No wonder Islamic wars are creating 10,000 refugees per day—a million Syrians fled for their lives in the past year while the Islamic State battled the Assad regime, evidencing an utter disregard for human dignity.2 Even more concerning is the fact that ISIS messaging and virtual recruitment is gaining traction, if not a foothold, as more than 20,000 foreign fighters, male and female, have joined the caliphate.

Douglas McCain, an American citizen from San Diego, California, loved his family, basketball, Pizza Hut, and rap music. In 2004 Douglas converted to Islam and tweeted that his conversion “was the best thing that ever happened to me.” Ten years later he died in Syria fighting for the Islamic State in August of 2014—the first American to die fighting for ISIS. Once described as a regular American kid, McCain was radicalized and lured to the Islamic State, dying not long after with his US passport and $800 in his possession. Identified by his neck tattoo, “Duale ThaslaveofAllah,” his final tweet was, “Pray for ISIS.” We mourn for Douglas’s family. His sister Delecia wrote on her Facebook page, “I really don’t understand why and how and I have no words, I never thought this will be the way we say goodbye.”3

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