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Muslims move to Islamic State to safeguard children’s spiritual lives

Sep 25, 2014 7:52 pm By Robert Spencer

SahinAktan“She said that living under Shariah, the Islamic legal code, means the boy’s spiritual life is secure.” Wait, what? She thinks that she is living under Sharia in the Islamic State? Doesn’t she know that the Islamic State has nothing to do with Islam or Sharia? Are Ibrahim Hooper of Hamas-linked CAIR and John Kerry making their way to the Islamic State now to set Asiya Ummi Abdullah straight about Islam?

“Turks leave for ‘family-friendly’ IS group,” by Berza Simsek and Raphael Satter, Associated Press, September 24, 2014:

ISTANBUL (AP) — The Islamic State group is run by religious zealots and marked by war, mass killings, crucifixions and beheadings.

But for a growing number of fundamentalist Muslim families, the group’s territory is home.

“Who says children here are unhappy?” said Asiya Ummi Abdullah, a 24-year-old Muslim convert who traveled to the group’s realm with her infant son last month. She said that living under Shariah, the Islamic legal code, means the boy’s spiritual life is secure.

“He will know God and live under his rules,” she said.

Ummi Adullah’s story, told to The Associated Press in a series of messages exchanged via Facebook, illustrates how, despite the extreme violence which the radical group broadcasts to the world, the territory it controls has turned into a magnet for devout families, many of them Turkish, who have made their way there with children in tow.

Ummi Abduallah said her move to the militant group’s realm was in part to shield her 3-year-old from the sex, crime, drugs and alcohol that she sees as rampant in largely secular Turkey.

“The children of that country see all this and become either murderers or delinquents or homosexuals or thieves,” she wrote.

The Islamic State group, the self-styled caliphate straddling Iraq and Syria, appears eager to attract families. One recent promotional video shows a montage of Muslim fighters from around the world cuddling their children in Raqqa against the backdrop of an amusement park where kids run and play.

A man, identified in the footage as an American named Abu Abdurahman al-Trinidadi, holds an infant who has a toy machine gun strapped to his back.

“Look at all the little children,” al-Trinidadi says. “They’re having fun.”

It may promote itself as a family-friendly place, but the Islamic State group’s bloody campaign for control of Syria and Iraq has uprooted hundreds of thousands of people in a wave of destruction that involves gruesome punishments and spectacular acts of cultural vandalism.

None of that matters to Ummi Abdullah.

“The blood and goods of infidels are halal,” she said, meaning she believes that Islam sanctions the killing of unbelievers.

And the plundering of their property — “goods.” This is based on a statement attributed to Muhammad: “I have been ordered (by Allah) to fight against the people until they testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that Muhammad is Allah’s Apostle, and offer the prayers perfectly and give the obligatory charity, so if they perform that, then they save their lives and property from me except for Islamic laws and then their reckoning (accounts) will be done by Allah. (Bukhari 1.2.24)

Muhammad must fight against people until they confess that Allah is the only god and Muhammad is his messenger, and if they do, their lives and property are safe from him — in other words, if one does not confess that there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet, one’s life and property are not safe from the Muslims.

Ummi Abdullah’s story has already made waves in Turkey, where her disappearance became front-page news after her ex-husband, a 44-year-old car salesman named Sahin Aktan, went to the press in an effort to find their child.

Many others in Turkey have carted away family to the Islamic State group under far less public scrutiny and in much greater numbers. In one incident earlier this month, more than 50 families from various parts of Turkey slipped across the border to live under the Islamic State group, according to opposition legislator Atilla Kart.

Kart’s figure appears high, but his account is backed by a villager from Cumra, in central Turkey, who told AP that his son and his daughter-in-law are among the massive group. The villager spoke on condition of anonymity, saying he is terrified of reprisals.

The movement of foreign fighters to the Islamic State group – largely consisting of alienated, angry or simply war-hungry young Muslims – has been covered extensively. The arrival of entire families, many but not all of them Turkish, has received less attention.

“It’s about fundamentalism,” said Han, a professor of international relations at Istanbul’s Kadir Has University. The Islamic State group’s uncompromising interpretation of Islam promises parents the opportunity to raise their children free from any secular influence.

“It’s a confined and trustable environment for living out your religion,” Han said. “It kind of becomes a false heaven.”

Ummi Abdullah’s journey to radical Islam was born of loneliness and resentment. Born Svetlana Hasanova, she converted to Islam after marrying Aktan six years ago. The pair met in Turkey when Hasanova, still a teenager, came to Istanbul with her mother to buy textiles.

Aktan, speaking from his lawyer’s office in Istanbul, said the relationship worked at first.

“Before we were married we were swimming in the sea, in the pool, and in the evening we would sit down and eat fish and drink wine. That’s how it was,” he said, holding a photograph of the two of them, both looking radiant in a well-manicured garden. “But after the kid was born, little by little she started interpreting Islam in her own way.”

Aktan said his wife became increasingly devout, covering her hair and praying frequently, often needling him to join in. He refused.

“Thank God, I’m a Muslim,” he said. “But I’m not the kind of person who can pray five times a day.”

Asked why she became engrossed in religion, Aktan acknowledged that his wife was lonely. But in Facebook messages to the AP, many typed out on a smartphone, Ummi Abdullah accused her husband of treating her “like a slave.”

She alleged that Aktan pressured her to abort their child and said she felt isolated in Istanbul. “I had no friends,” she said. “I was constantly belittled by him and his family. I was nobody in their eyes.”

Aktan acknowledged initially asking his wife to terminate her pregnancy, saying it was too early in the marriage to have children. But when she insisted on carrying the pregnancy to term, Aktan said he accepted her decision and loved the boy.

Meanwhile Aktan’s wife was finding the companionship she yearned for online, chatting with jihadists and filling her Facebook page with religious exhortations and attacks on gays. In June, she and Aktan divorced. The next month, a day before her ex-husband was due to pick up their son for vacation, she left with the boy for Gaziantep, a Turkish town near the Syrian border. Aktan, who had been eavesdropping on her social media activity, alerted the authorities, but the pair managed to slip across.

It isn’t clear how many families have followed Ummi Abdullah’s path, although anecdotal evidence suggests a powerful flow from Turkey into Syria. In Dilovasi, a heavily industrial town of 42,000 about halfway between Istanbul and the port city of Izmit, at least four people – including a pair of brothers – recently left for Syria, three local officials told AP. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to talk to the media, said that dozens of people from surrounding towns were believed to have left as well.

Aktan says he is in touch with other families in similar circumstances. He cited one case in the Turkish capital, Ankara, where 15 members of the same extended family had left for Syria “as if they’re going on vacation.”

Even with U.S. bombs now falling on Raqqa, Ummi Abdullah says she has no second thoughts. “I only fear God,” she wrote.

For Aktan, who says he hasn’t seen his son since his ex-wife took the boy, her decision is a selfish form of fanaticism.

“If you want to die, you can do so,” he said. “But you don’t have the right to bring the kid with you.

“No one can give you this right.”

Hours after the AP first published this story, Ummi Abdullah’s Facebook account disappeared. Her messages to the AP were also removed, replaced with a message from Facebook saying they were “identified as abusive or marked as spam.”

Facebook did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

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Filed Under: Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, Daesh), Sharia Tagged With: featured


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Comments

  1. Champ says

    Sep 25, 2014 at 8:07 pm

    “He will know God and live under his rules,” she said.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Know God? You mean satan, right? Hey allah is satan and NOT the one true God, dontcha know …

    “Muslims believe that there is no other God besides Allah and that he is the God of the universe. They claim that not only is he their God, but that he is the God of the Jews, the Christians and everyone else. When examining the profile of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and comparing it with Allah’s profile, there are a number of distinct differences between them that can only result in one conclusion: These profiles simply do not match! Allah is NOT the God of the Bible!

    The Islamic faith, through the teachings of Muhammad, asserts that Allah is God and attempt to place him within the confines of the Holy Scriptures. When the Bible contradicts their teachings, they allege that it is flawed, has been tampered with, and has many errors. They further claim that the Koran, through the teachings of their prophet Muhammad, corrects them. However, it has already been established that Muhammad was both a false prophet and teacher. Therefore, Islam’s allegations are unsupported, baseless and without merit.

    There are a number of major differences between the God of the Bible and Allah. This chapter will focus upon five reasons why they are not the same. According to the Holy Scriptures, the God of the Bible is the one true God while Allah is a false god.”

    http://kingmessiahproject.com/is_allah_not_God.html

  2. Jacksonl03 says

    Sep 25, 2014 at 8:15 pm

    “But for a growing number of fundamentalist Muslim families, the group’s territory is home.”

    Replace “fundamentalist” in the foregoing with “utterly ignorant” and you’ve got it just about right on. Of course the poor children will grow up just as disadvantaged as well in that environment. If, that is, of course, if they live long enough to actually grow up.

  3. Zimriel says

    Sep 25, 2014 at 8:19 pm

    He hurt her. He never even should have mooted the “a” word to the woman bearing his child.

    • gravenimage says

      Sep 26, 2014 at 12:23 am

      This is true. But many women have been married to assholes at one time or another—many far worse than the guy in the story above.

      That doesn’t mean they take their little child to a hell-hole where he will learn to enslave women, mass-murder Infidels, and behead journalists and aid workers.

      Only a pious Muslimah would do such a thing…

  4. Wellington says

    Sep 25, 2014 at 8:21 pm

    “Muslims move to Islamic state….” Well, here’s the best case scenario: All of them do.

    A beautiful thought, no?

    • Mirren10 says

      Sep 25, 2014 at 10:26 pm

      “Muslims move to Islamic state….” Well, here’s the best case scenario: All of them do.

      A beautiful thought, no?”

      Damn right ! If only Western governments would encourage them **all** to do so. All the rats in one bag …

      • Wtf? says

        Sep 25, 2014 at 11:05 pm

        This is the best outcome. Let them all go and when they are naturalised Islamic Statists they become the enemy and the free world can bomb them with impunity. Let’s get those boats and airliners ready………maybe not the planes not a good mix with Muslims

  5. somehistory says

    Sep 25, 2014 at 8:21 pm

    This is insanity. The poor child. And multiply him by the thousands. Sacrificed to the beast that satan the devil has raised up (again) in this time of the end.
    She wants to protect him from “sex” and “homosexuality’ and “crime” and from being a “murderer” or a “thief.” She’s taking him into the middle of the snake pit.

  6. citycat says

    Sep 25, 2014 at 10:02 pm

    Love of child or deci of God
    Love and fear don’t tango good
    Worship Allah? Come back Satan, all is forgiven.
    Darkness stalks Earth, where is the light, where is the unity?

  7. Mirren10 says

    Sep 25, 2014 at 10:29 pm

    “Thank God, I’m a Muslim,” he said. “But I’m not the kind of person who can pray five times a day.”

    Apparently he drinks wine, as well.

    Ah, one of those ‘moderates’. I wonder if he’d been much bothered if the child had been a girl ?

  8. Elise says

    Sep 25, 2014 at 10:55 pm

    It’s amazing how many people don’t have self discipline, compassion, or integrity unless they are threatened by shariah law and hell. Is it lack of intelligence or culture? I suppose the reason so many of the people living in third world countries will never find a cure for cancer or Ebola is that they are waiting for Allah to make the first move.

    • mortimer says

      Sep 25, 2014 at 11:37 pm

      Good points. They have a deadening fatalism. The only initiative they take is to commit atrocities!

    • gravenimage says

      Sep 26, 2014 at 12:51 am

      Elise wrote:

      It’s amazing how many people don’t have self discipline, compassion, or integrity unless they are threatened by shariah law and hell.
      …………………………….

      Elise, I’m afraid Islam does *not* teach compassion and integrity at all—haven’t you heard about the horrors going on in the Islamic State—indeed, being perpetrated by pious Muslims *everywhere*?

      Even your reference to self-discipline is pretty iffy—sure, pious Muslims abstain from drinking alcohol and eating during daylight hours during Ramadan, and they pray five times a day—but they can also rob, threaten, and murder Infidels and the “insufficiently Islamic” with impunity, rape sex slaves and “uncovered” women, and “marry” little children if their sick tastes run to pedophilia. In addition, pious Muslims have no respect for productive work, and so consider it perfectly Islamic to live off the labor, goods, and money of their victims.

      I think the average Infidel is not only *far* more compassionate and possessed of far greater integrity, but he is apt to be more self-disciplined, as well.

    • Jerry says

      Sep 26, 2014 at 3:06 am

      Hi Elise

      Take a positive step to deal with Ebola:

      Please contract it.

  9. mortimer says

    Sep 25, 2014 at 11:39 pm

    Islamic countries don’t want this pure version of Islam. The ISIS version of Islam threatens the oligarchies’ very survival.

    ISIS is pure Sunni Islam.

  10. gravenimage says

    Sep 26, 2014 at 12:28 am

    Muslims move to Islamic State to safeguard children’s spiritual lives
    ………………………….

    What better ‘safeguards a child’s spiritual life’—or is more “family friendly”—than having the chance to play with the severed heads of Infidels, “heretics”, or “apostates”?

    God, I hate Islam.

  11. pumbar says

    Sep 26, 2014 at 12:57 am

    Hey Ibe “used CAIR salesman” Hooper. We know you read all this. Why don’t you get on over to Raqqa and tell them how they’re getting this so mixed up. Maybe take David CaMoron too?

  12. Jerry says

    Sep 26, 2014 at 2:55 am

    Damn. All that unnecessary fighting talk.

    I am a peaceful man.

    All I want is a franchise for an Irish Pub: The Pig and the Whistle

    just for Mosul first and for Mecca second, and to be able
    to to freely open and operate them.

    I am even thinking of offering the first 500 JW bloggers dropping in the first drink free.

    • Charli Main says

      Sep 26, 2014 at 4:57 am

      If you have a big Meccan breakfast on the menu, I´ll be first in the queue.
      Crispy bacon, pork sausages and scrambled eggs. Yum Yum !!!!!!!!!!

  13. Jerry says

    Sep 26, 2014 at 3:11 am

    I can imagine a recruitment poster for ISIL:

    A veiled psychopath holding a severed head of a baby
    and reciting:

    Bismill Allah Rahmani Rahim

    In the name of Allah the compassionate and merciful.

    I cannot seriously distinguish between Sunny And Shiite:

    They are all Shite worshippers of Shaitan.

  14. duh_swami says

    Sep 26, 2014 at 3:47 am

    I wonder if we will see pictures of her child carrying around dead heads.

    • mortimer says

      Sep 26, 2014 at 8:07 am

      You may see pictures of both of them dead after the terrorists used them as human shields.

  15. fair_dinkum says

    Sep 26, 2014 at 4:48 am

    i hope this is not just a fad…

    all of you. pack up and go!

  16. Laura says

    Sep 26, 2014 at 5:45 am

    I wonder what Ummi Abdullah thinks she will do for health care, employment, education and money, once the first flush of euphoria at living in the ‘Islamic state’ has worn off?

    • mortimer says

      Sep 26, 2014 at 8:03 am

      It will be no different than Taliban Afghastlistan where women had no medical care. She will experience ‘Salafi burnout’ the aftermath of realizing that Sharia paradises like ISIS lead to poverty, disease, ignorance and egregious stupidity.

  17. Mo says

    Sep 26, 2014 at 10:14 am

    You know, that might not be a bad idea! Why not have Muslims move there. Let ISIS support them.

    They’ll be happy living under sharia and being away from us evil infidels. The rest of us will be left alone to live as we choose.

    It’s a win-win!

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