Since the emergence of ISIS on world’s stage, it has occupied vast swathes of Iraq and Syria. The basic agenda behind the emergence of ISIS is the creation of a so-called Islamic Caliphate, which is not limited to boundaries of Syria, Iraq Jordan, Israel, Palestine and Levant but beyond these borders.
According to an estimate, up to 30,000 foreign fighters from more than 100 countries have joined Islamic State since 2011. According to an Associated Press report, the numbers of foreign fighters joining the militant group increased by 71% between mid of 2014 to March 2015.
According to David Malet’s Freedom Fighter Project, most of these foreign fighters are from Nigeria, Egypt, Libya, and Afghanistan. Foreign intelligence agencies have raised the issue that the freedom fighters of wars in Iraq and Syria were radicalised by this terror organisation to cause chaos in their native states.
Like the backgrounds of these foreign fighters, their motives are also mixed. They share very little in common. The thing witch is common among these foreign fighters is their estrangement from their countries. According to a BBC report, a family of 12 people – including grandparents – left Luton, England for Syria. It is the second such family that headed Syria from the United Kingdom. No one has the correct answer as to why they left.
According to an interview between BBC and a fighter of ISIS, none of them were forced to join the militant organisation. They joined it on their own will. Joining ISIS frees them from oppression and corruption endured in man-made law. They are able to practice their religion freely. It could be a fabricated answer but social media posts of these wannabe terrorists show their estrangement from their societies. In the same video of Eid greetings, one British fighter said he don’t find any better place than the land of Khilafah and they don’t need any democracy, all they demand is Shariah.
Similarly in another video, released in July 2014 by Al Hayat media centre with the title “The Chosen Few of Different Lands”, a Canadian named Andree Poulin who converted and now is known as Abu Muslim described about his life current life that before entering Islam and being part of ISIS he was normal happy Canadian. He also mentioned that he was not like a social outcast, nor he was an anarchist but merely a normal person, but then he realised that he can’t live in infidel state where they pay tax which they utilise to wage war against Islam.
The reality, however, is that Poulin was not a normal living person. He was interested in explosives and deeply dipped in communism and anarchism. He was also engaged in violence against a man with whose wife he used to sleep. These facts were not mentioned in his hagiography.
To attract masses around the globe, ISIS does not just come up with videos containing messages of their ideologies and narratives of foreign fighters but in such videos these fighters also makes plea to join them. In the same video Poulin also mentioned that they just not need fighters, there is also demand for engineers, technicians, fund raisers, technology experts, doctors and other professionals. This message has broadened the criteria of those who want to join ISIS.
Female foreign fighters also come up with same reason – estrangement from the western society and call from religion. According to human right activists, these women are actually victim of propaganda created by ISIS. The main struggle attached with these victims is to make them rethink about their assumed Utopian world. It is really hard to sway those people who have joined ISIS.