ISIS Video Shows Brainwashed 'Cubs of the Caliphate' Training to 'Conquer Jerusalem and Rome'
A new video released by an Islamic State-run media outlet provides in depth detail into how the jihadi organization is brainwashing and training young children to become the next wave of jihadis who will help "conquer Damascus, Baghdad, Jerusalem, Mecca, Al-Medina, Dabiq, Rome and Andalusia."
The video, which was posted and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute, features a narrator who tours an IS (also known as ISIS or ISIL) "sharia institution" in the Syrian town of Deir ez-Zor.
The footage shows a class of young boys in green uniforms sitting down on the floor with their legs crossed while reading and reciting the koran.
During the tour, the narrator questions students about their dreams and goals of being infidel-killing jihadis.
"I want to be a martyrdom-seeker for the sake of Allah, thus heeding the words of the Prophet Muhammad: 'The martyrs that Allah loves most are the ones who fight in the front lines and do not turn their backs until they are killed,'" one brainwashed child told the camera.
After the narrator explains that the kids are urged to get to know the koran by heart, the video shows a couple young "cubs of the caliphate" applying their knowledge of sharia law in the public.
One jihadi-in-training is showng in the video stopping two other kids who look to be his age from swimming because they were wearing inappropriate attire.
"If a woman passes by, would you like her to see you this way?" the boy asked. "Put your shirt on."
Another boy is shown in the video telling his uncle that he must follow the words of the prophet and shave his mustache and grow his beard.
"The cubs do not engage only in activities in the field of sharia. They join their brothers fighting on the front lines," the narrator said, followed by footage of young boys shooting assault rifles.
"Just as they are humble towards Muslims, they are harsh towards the infidels," the narrator continued. "From a very young age, they are raised on harshness, hatred, and animosity toward the infidels."
The narrator goes on to bring up misconceived notions critical of Western civilization, which could lead viewers to believe that the caliphate cubs are being brainwashed with such notions.
The narrator said that Muslim children in the West are being pulled away from their religion by Western "tyrants" and that they will eventually "become soldiers of the Crusaders and will fight Islam and the Muslims so that they will become humiliated and subjugated."
The narrator also accuses those "tyrants" of killing thousands of Muslims and raping their women. The irony is rich in the fact that IS has killed and sexually enslaved thousands of religious minorities since the group rose to power in Iraq and Syria in 2014.
"At the same time, the Caliphate is teaching its cubs about their religion so that they become the vanguard of the army of the Caliphate, Allah willing, and so that they will become the generation that will conquer Damascus, Baghdad, Jerusalem, Mecca, Medina, Dabiq, Rome and Andalusia, Allah willing," the narrator said, followed by more footage of the child jihadis training and clearing AK-47s and other kinds of assault rifles.
The footage also shows some of the child jihadis training in combat tanks.
"The Islamic State is proud to have planted true Islam within these cubs, who will be in the midst of the battles in a few years, Allah willing," the narrator concluded. "Even if we are all eradicated and no one survives, these cubs will carry the banner of jihad and will complete the journey. By Allah, with these young men, we will make the infidels forget the whispers of Satan."
IS has been known to use some of its young "cubs of the caliphate" to execute its victims.
Most recently, IS released a propaganda video showing a British boy and four other "cubs of the caliphate" executing five Kurdish troops by shooting them in the back of the head in IS' Syrian stronghold of Raqqa.