Last February the Islamic State said it would soon flood Europe with as many as 500,000 refugees. And the Lebanese Education Minister recently said that there were 20,000 jihadis among the refugees in camps in his country. But the refugees are not all jihadi plants, and the Islamic State is chagrined that they’re not all thrilled by the prospect of emigrating to their Islamic Paradise.
“The Flood Of Syrian Refugees Puts ISIS On The Defensive,” by Deborah Amos, NPR, September 22, 2015 (thanks to Robert):
As more Syrian refugees board rickety boats on the Turkish coast, the Islamic State is cranking up its propaganda campaign.
The refugee crisis is also becoming a crisis for ISIS, as Syrians reject the group’s claim that the so-called caliphate offers a safe haven, and the refugees instead opt for the dangerous journey to Europe.
In recent weeks, ISIS has put out almost a dozen videos with messages that denounce the refugees, threaten them with the horrors of living among “unbelievers” and plead with them to join the caliphate.
“The idea that they are not heading to ‘ISIS land’ is a slap in the face,” says Alberto Fernandez, who ran the State Department’s counterterrorism communications unit before recently joining the Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI.
“They are leaving because their relatives were killed by Assad,” he says of the refugees. “That’s the ISIS demographic, but the people brutalized by Assad are not turning to ISIS.”
And that has rattled the group, according to Fernandez. The media coverage of the refugee exodus is impossible to ignore even in areas under ISIS control, he notes.
“You can’t avoid heart-wrenching pictures of people going West,” he adds. It is an affront to the basic ISIS ideology, he says, for a militant group that believes it is a sin for Muslims to live in inclusive Western societies.
For these ideological militants, “real Muslims” must become part of ISIS, and “if you are trapped in the West, go kill someone,” says Fernandez, describing the basic message of the Islamic State. The rejection by so many Syrians has prompted ISIS to try to counter the narrative.
The Soufan Group, a security consulting think tank based in New York, translated the titles of the recent videos, which include:
— Dear Refugees, Hear It From Us
— And He Will Replace You With Other People
— Advice To The Refugees Going To The Countries Of Disbelief
— Would You Exchange What Is Better For What Is Less
— Warning To The Refugees Of The Deceptions Of The Crusaders
The titles reflect “the group’s confusion as to how to exploit the issue, or at least limit the damage to its image,” according to the Soufan Group’s most recent report.
Syrian refugees arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey on Tuesday.Syrian refugees arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey on Tuesday.
Petros Giannakouris/AP“This is very unusual, in terms of so many on one topic in a short time frame,” says Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, an analyst at the Middle East Forum, a think tank based in the U.S.
Tamimi says one reason for this propaganda barrage is ISIS wants to get back into the media spotlight, but “they also want to counter the idea that they are responsible for the crisis.”
The overwhelming rejection of the caliphate is a serious blow, says Aron Lund, editor of Syria in Crisis, a website published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“It considers itself a caliphate and the only legitimate Islamic government,” says Lund.
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Angemon says
Oh, they’ll send them to Europe all right – but after spending a couple of months learning about using weapons, explosives, etc.
Don McKellar says
Of course.
And let us imagine ourselves in the shoes of one of these “refugees” who aren’t even from Syria (like 80% of the are, it appears, and most of them young men). You’ve got a choice to go to the Islamic State and live in an Islamic paradise (is there a greater oxymoron than that?) OR you can try to get to Germany where you don’t have to work for a living, can suck jizyah from the kuffar, live in an Islamic enclave which operates for all intensive purposes under sharia — but spend lots of time outside and watching all the shamefully undressed kuffar women (raping a few if you get a chance, as Allah okays that), and whenever you feel deep convictions to Islam, you can head out for a tour of duty with Islamic State and then, when you’ve had enough and the going gets hard, you can slip back into the land of plenty and all those kuffar handouts! It’s win-win for an Islamic supremacist. Not a hard one to figure…
Pete Daily says
Why would anyone want to live under a regime whose hallmarks and violence and destruction?
jihad3tracker says
FOR READERS HERE WHO MISSED ROBERT’S BRILLIANT ITEM “THE HIJRAH INTO EUROPE” — find it in the JW search box.
Send it on as a link to presidential candidates — MOST OF WHOM HAVE HIGHLY ACCESSIBLE “TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK” FEATURES ON THEIR WEBSITES.
And include your own remarks about how impossible it will be to make sure the United States is not admitting terrorists with the OBSCENELY GROWING “REFUGEE” QUOTAS — Obama’s wet dream of eventual Islam triumph.
Pete Daily says
Obama can’t have both Islam and homosexuality. He may have strong Islamic sympathies, but he’s not a real Muslim.
Westman says
“Would You Exchange What Is Better For What Is Less?”
Well Mr. Not- so-bright-with-a-PhD-in-a-useless-discipline Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, that really is the crux of the problem. You ruined what was left of an already over-stressed economy that needed more production by giving it more parasitism. The overpopulated land you hold does not have the directly usable resources to sustain the people. You may sell some oil but that is not an edible or immediately usable resource, in fact you didn’t have to plant, grow, or build it – you and yours are parasites.
The people, who can, are leaving you because you are violent and taking what they have left, including their dignity and the last remaining freedom.
The Infidels have far more to offer than you, but you are too steeped in 8th & 9th century assembled dogma to realize your days and that of your Caliphate, like all the others before, are numbered.
If you can’t figure out why your potential slaves are leaving, get a PhD in something like economics.
mortimer says
Everything you say is reasonable, yet still these refugees are not leaving their 7th century supremacism and misogyny in Syria and Iraq…they are dragging those same values with them into Europe without seeing that ISLAM IS THE PROBLEM that they are fleeing.
Westman says
That’s true Mortimer. Islam Ideology is the problem.
When Ireland emptied out in the 1845 famine, they were very steeped in religion. Generations later we had an Irish-Catholic President who didn’t represent the Pope. So there is a precedence.
How this current refugee problem works out for Europe will be an indication of how and if the last nation whose citizens are free to speak their mind, America, will able to integrate Muslims and former Muslims.
I am in the minority who think Islam is beginning to collapse; too late to avoid upheaval in Europe, and soon enough to make CAIR a pariah among American Muslims. Probably its decline will be just noticeable in my lifetime, but advanced in another 30 or so years. It would be greatly hastened if the world found a replacement for oil, stopping the subsidy for Islam’s parasitism.
Jay Boo says
Westman
You make some interesting points about Islam but your Irish analogy (extrapolation) is quite a stretch (to say the least).
Westman says
Hi Jay,
It is a stretch since the Irish didn’t carry the supremist attitude. On the other hand both migrations went from a dominant culture to another that profoundly influences the next generation.
Language influences thought patterns so English as a first language will begin the process of weaning the next generation away from language that resonates with Islam.
ISIS is also creating a humiliating environment for Islam; its apologists slowly losing the battle to refute the Islamic Ideology upon which ISIS is founded. One only needs to read comments on news articles of mainstream media to realize how far out of step Western leadership has become with the citizens.
Muslims will have a choice in the West to move away from Islamic dogma without fearing for their lives. Of course there will be many who reject the new culture and some of them will be very dangerous and destructive to both cultures.
Jay Boo says
I agree that:
“Muslims will have a choice in the West to move away from Islamic dogma without fearing for their lives. Of course there will be many who reject the new culture and some of them will be very dangerous and destructive to both cultures.”
There will be Muslims carrying knives very soon.
“Many Muslims in the United States observe Eid-al-Adha, also known as the Feast of Sacrifice, each year. This festival commemorates Ibrahim’s (Abraham) willingness to sacrifice his son to God. This festival also marks the end of the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.” (quoted from website)
http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/us/eid-al-adha
Westman says
Eid al-Adha – kill something or pay someone to kill something day. How delightful. It starts tonight.
Isn’t this the day that was chosen to execute Saddam? Apparently 2-legged animals are not excluded.
mortimer says
Muslims are fleeing ‘PURE ISLAM’.
gravenimage says
I *wish*, Mortimer. Instead, these Allahu-Akbarring mobs are bringing more pure Islam to Europe.
mortimer says
Exactly why wouldn’t these Mohammedans want to live in their pure Islamic lands?
Isn’t ‘pure’ Sharia what they claim they desire?
Exactly why are they fleeing pure Sharia?
Michael says
Pigs are e glorious.
duh_swami says
ISIS knows how to sort the wheat from the chaff…Nearly all the refugee’s are chaff, and would be heavily vetted by ISIS. Europe does not care if you are doing your Islam correctly of not…Even water has enough sense to take the path of least resistance…
Jay Boo says
I wonder why we don’t here about these refugees flooding into the Crimea or Russia?
Jay Boo says
United Pig Bath Appeal by Allah from his ‘official’ representatives in the Islamic State
Islamic State: A state of mind
BBC calls them the:…
Self-described
Self-proclaimed
So-called
(Islamic State)
In other words the “Nothing to do with Islam” (Islamic State)
vickie says
Where are the women in this picture?
Custos Custodum says
Alberto Fernandez, who ran the State Department’s counterterrorism communications unit before recently joining the Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI.
As true disciples of Goebbels and Mao, the Soros/Obama machine’s Ministry of Propaganda has worked hard to co-opt and integrate the entire main stream media through intimidation and some incentives. Most recently, the machines has taken a de facto stake in Fox News in the wake of the restructuring following the supposed exit of Saudi Prince Al-Waleed as a major shareholder and transition to the younger generation Murdochs.
Now it seems the State Department is buying out and co-opting MEMRI which until now has provided us with a reliable stream of high-quality translations. Watch out for MEMRI becoming a great deal less, erm, “controversial” before the years is out.
Custos Custodum says
P.S.: The drift of the government-run “National Public Radio” piece above is that the massive influx of mostly young Muslim men into Europe is a defeat for Islamic State (which long ago dropped the words “Iraq and Syria” from its name).
It may be true that IS is experiencing a corrosion of morale on the ground, particularly with foreign jihadis who are used to living standards and entertainment in Western countries.
However, none of this detracts from the massive effects that this hijra jihad (jihad by mass migration) will have on the targeted countries in Europe and the U.S.
As former Czech President Vaclav Klaus points out, the fact that this massive waive is happening precisely now and most “migrants” were not in immediate danger at home indicates that the entire spectacle is a well-planned operation by the cynical, utopian Left who aim to build a new Europe after turning existing societies to “rubble”:
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/09/22/politicians-inviting-migrants-europe-want-disintegration-says-former-czech-president-vaclav-klaus/
gravenimage says
What has led you to believe that MEMRI has sold out?
Enfant Terrible says
“Alberto Fernandez, who ran the State Department’s counterterrorism communications unit before recently joining the Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI….Now it seems the State Department is buying out and co-opting MEMRI which until now has provided us with a reliable stream of high-quality translations. Watch out for MEMRI becoming a great deal less, erm, “controversial” before the years is out.”
Your two points were obvious to me also. Surprisingly, no other posts mention the biases of the “expert” source and this NPR article. The State Department’s counterterrorism policy and associated communications have consisted of being in denial and apologetic in the face of pervasive and continuous Islamic Terror in the Mid East, U.S., and throughout the globe. (What society/nation isn’t confronted by Islamic Terror?).
Secondly, NPR’s article implies is likely written to: disassociate ISIS with Islam ; and cite the benefit of chaotic mass migration of “refugees” into European culture ( Refugees who will subsume that culture and society rather than assimilate. Current enclaves of immigrants, primarily Muslim, No-Go zones will increase in number and size.). In effect, NPR is saying since ISIS is unhappy about the inundation : ( , the inundation is good : ) .
The leftist world is a simple and happy place when you apply the right crayons and tear out the pages you don’t like.
Jay Boo says
Muslims men are so shallow.
Some European countries have legal prostitution.
In addition, It is rumored that some from ISIS are being lured away into becoming Shiites upon hearing of an ayatollah secretly offering a special deal of 73 virgins forever in Paradise.
Expect a Sunni / Shia bidding war.
Asian Crusader says
73.5 virgins* + 5 light-skinned boys if you become a 12er Shi’ite!
*may include manufacturer-warranted, reconditioned virgins
gravenimage says
Islamic State appeals to refugees to come to caliphate rather than Europe
……………………
Of course, most good-hearted Europeans believe that these “refugees” are *fleeing* the Islamic State.