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Eyewitness Accounts from Recent Defectors from Islamic State

(Perspectives on Terrorism) Anne Speckhard and Ahmet S. Yayla - 13 Syrian IS defectors spoke on life inside the Islamic State (IS). Syrians who join IS are rewarded with salaried jobs which for young men translates into the ability to marry and for young women the money allows them to save their families from literal starvation. Foreign fighters receive additional rewards: wives, sexual slaves, and sometimes homes and cars. Daily life is punctuated by brutal practices - including floggings, torture and beheadings. Defections were the result of exposure to extreme brutality, disgust over the slave trade, and observations of a total mismatch between the words and deeds of IS. Charges of corruption and complaints about battlefield decisions that produced unnecessary deaths in their own ranks were also causes of disillusionment. Dr. Anne Speckhard is Director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, Georgetown University Medical School. Dr. Ahmet S. Yayla is Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology at Harran University in Turkey.
2015-12-29 00:00:00
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