Thousands of children living in areas controlled by Islamic State are being indoctrinated and trained to perpetuate the terrorist group's ideology, impose its rule and fight its enemies, according to a new report.
The Children of Islamic State, published by the Quilliam Foundation, a London-based counter-extremism think tank, also finds women are being treated as vessels by the jihadist group for the production of new generations.
The foundation says it hopes the report will "shed light on one of the gravest situations for children on earth" and encourage governments, international organisations and human rights agencies to defeat Islamic State, also known as Isis, and deal with the trauma of its most vulnerable victims.
Child soldiers
The report was produced in partnership with the
Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative
and
Unesco
.
It says there are 31,000 pregnant women in areas under Islamic State control and lists several categories of children living in the so-called “caliphate”: children of foreign and local fighters, abandoned and abducted children and forced or voluntary recruits.
While girls are compelled to cover themselves completely from head to toe and remain at home learning household tasks, boys are formed into “Cubs of the Caliphate” through “socialisation, schooling, selection, subjugation, specialisation and stationing,” the report says.
Through a survey of Islamic State propaganda, the report’s authors found videos of children employed in combat, suicide bombings and executions, and attending training camps and military schools.
Schooling included religious education, while training involved “normalisation to violence” by “threatening and playing with weapons and watching public executions and punishments”.
Islamic State was portrayed as a “‘utopia’, free from the immorality of the West”. The report argues that the “role of children in the ‘caliphate’ represents a culmination and acceleration of broader trends in the child soldier phenomenon”.
Islamic State recruitment of children “mirrors the practices of the Ottoman Empire”, which seized Christian children in the Balkans for military and administrative duties, the report says.
Training camps
During 2014-15, the terrorist group abducted hundreds of Yazidi and Turkmen boys, some as young as eight, and sent them to training camps where they were taught the Koran and “the use of weapons and combat tactics”. Kidnapped girls and women became household or sex slaves. Girls can be married at eight or nine, or at the latest, by 16 or 17. “In Islamic State, the woman’s role is ‘building the Ummah [society] producing men, and sending them out to the fierceness of battle’,” the report states, citing Islamic State’s own propaganda.
“Recruiters for armed groups see children as assets because they are able to perform multiple combat and non-combat roles. They are a crucial resource in times of war, given their ready availability in most conflict zones,” the report says.
“Children have been used as soldiers, human shields, messengers, spies, and guards, not to mention the forced marriage and rape that girls are subjected to. Children are considerably cheaper in comparison to adults, because they consume less food and do not need as much pay, while the immaturity of young recruits is beneficial to their recruiters.”
‘Next generation’
Islamic State leaders pay particular attention to children in their territory because “the future of any state lies with the next generation”, argues the report.
Consequently, Islamic State relies on indoctrinating children with its “extremist ideology as early as possible” to make it seem “normal” and ensure children defend it. “Not only can children help meet the present needs of the ‘caliphate’, once they grow up, they will continue to propagate its existence and expansion, thus securing its long-term survival,” the report states. In a section titled “Executioners”, the report states: “Children are used to execute those who do not comply with Islamic State ideology. By forcing young children to participate in executions, Islamic State normalises these atrocities and further indoctrinates children. “Some children assist in executions by handing adult fighters knives, while other children carry out executions themselves.
“Moreover, children are taught that execution is a privilege and an honour – and in one case, a prize.”The report adds that in a a recent video from Islamic State’s Kheer province, for example, six young children are “awarded the opportunity” to execute Syrian prisoners.
“The children run through a maze and celebrate after finding and killing the captives.
“A child states that they ‘have been raised to conquer East and the West and we will restore Al-Aqsa and Al-Andalus.”
