ISIS Raised: Meet the Next Generation of Jihadists
ISIS is training at least 50 British children for the next generation of Islamic terrorists.
A report from the Quilliam Foundation, a European agency countering Islamic extremism, called ISIS-trained child soldiers a threat to the international community.
"The future of children born and raised in Islamic State is a pertinent and pressing problem, requiring the immediate attention of the international community," the report says.
''As many as 50 children from the United Kingdom are growing up on jihad in Islamic State, and no prior research examines what will happen to them if they choose to return," it states.
The Islamic State exploits children to carry out its "dirty work," such as spying, murdering, and even becoming suicide bombers. According to the report, ISIS forces many of its child soldiers to join through abduction and intimidation.
"This is in part because children can be easily trained to handle small arms, weapons that can be carried and used by one or two people, including handguns, assault rifles, machine guns, grenade launchers, anti-tank or anti-aircraft guns and light mortars," the report continues.
Boys raised by ISIS jihadists are forbidden to participate in any kind of normal curriculum, such as art, philosophy, and social studies. Instead they're forced to memorize verses from the Koran and attend "jihadi training," which includes "shooting, weaponry, and martial arts," the report states.
Girls are kept at home and taught how to care for their future husbands.
The exploitation of children by the Islamic State, irrespective of their age, is seen in the group's propaganda videos. Last year, ISIS sympathizers posted a video of an 11-year-old child kneeling to kiss his father's hand before blowing himself up in car bombing. Another boy, a 4-year-old from Britain, nicknamed "Jihadi Junior" was filmed detonating a bomb that killed four prisoners.
Many jihadists are women from the United Kingdom, who eventually give birth in ISIS-controlled territory.
"There are currently 31,000 pregnant women within the 'caliphate," the report states.
That means there are potentially tens of thousands of children who will be raised in Islamic State's radical ideology.
The Quilliam Foundation is working on ways to de-radicalize these children, who suffer major mental and physical trauma. But for now, child soldiers indoctrinated with Islamic ideology pose a threat to the international community as a whole.
