Iraq

Why I Joined ISIS: As Told to Maya Gebeily | Matter

/ Maya Gebeily / Leave a comment

[Published here on February 26, 2015]

In interviews I conducted with ISIS fighters and supporters, I tried to bring it back to basics: why did you join, what’s it like, where’s your family? These brief yet illuminating conversations gave me a glimpse inside their heads.

We are friendly! Unless you are an enemy, of course, I mean, just because people are in ISIS doesn’t mean that they go around on a killing rampage. They are humans, they laugh they joke, they goof with each other. The beheading, execution in public are messages to ISIS enemies, but also part of Sharia law and shows that they implement it fully.  — Abu Bakr al-Janabi

Mainly my main inspiration to come to Syria was George Bush, Tony Blair, and the presidents of the West and their foreign policy towards Islam — Egypt, Kashmir, Sinai, Yemen, Afghanistan. Guantanamo Bay. Abu Ghraib. —Abu Sumayyah

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Who is ISIS Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi? | Newsweek

/ Maya Gebeily / Leave a comment

bakr[Published originally here. Omar al-Khani (Turkey) and I reported the following, edited by Newsweek Middle East Editor Janine DiGiovanni]

On the rare occasions when ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is seen in public, his entourage is somewhere between that of a president and a mobster. “The minute he entered, the mobile coverage disappeared,” says a 29-year-old resident of Raqqa in Syria—who asked to be identified only as Abu Ali—recalling the flawless security on one occasion when al-Baghdadi entered a mosque. “Armed guards closed the area. The women were sent upstairs to the women’s section to pray. Everyone was warned not to take photos or videos. It was the most nerve-racking atmosphere.

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The Struggle of Female-Led Syrian Refugee Households | VICE

/ Maya Gebeily / Leave a comment
From left to right: Jilan, 16, and Iman, 17, who live in the Domiz refugee camp. Image by James Haines-Young

From left to right: Jilan, 16, and Iman, 17, who live in the Domiz refugee camp. Image by James Haines-Young

[Published here August 4, 2014]

Since the beginning of the conflict more than three years ago, Syria’s death toll sits horrifyingly somewhere over 120,000. But the real number of destroyed lives is much higher: Three million refugees, scattered throughout the region, escaped the war alive. Though they survived, their homes have been demolished, their memories faded, and their dreams rendered impossible. Painstakingly, some women who turned into widows or single parents have tried to reassemble their lives, readjusting hopes and goals to fit a harsh new reality. Here is one story of a women-led household—a rare occurrence in the Middle East—inside the Domiz refugee camp in Iraq.

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How ISIL is gaming the world’s journalists | GlobalPost

/ Maya Gebeily / Leave a comment
Tweets from Islamist fighters.

Tweets from Islamist fighters.

[Published here June 25, 2014]

BEIRUT, Lebanon — “Just don’t make us out as if we’re beasts and terrorists, you know? We’ve got families like you, we’ve got sisters like you, and you’ve probably got brothers like me.”

Despite his earnest tone, there aren’t many who have a brother like Abu Sumayyah.

An ethnic Kashmiri raised in the UK, Sumayyah has been living in Syria for about a year and recently pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS), the powerful Al Qaeda-inspired group making gains in Syria and Iraq.

After discussing his reasons for waging jihad in Syria, Abu Sumayyah was keen to make sure I left the interview with a positive impression of ISIL. “Be a good journalist and portray the truth, not what [others] want you to portray,” he said.

Like Sumayyah, ISIL members — from the leadership down to supporters abroad — are using social media to propagate a carefully-crafted narrative about ISIL. In the process, they’ve made themselves increasingly accessible online by tweeting, following, direct-messaging — and even in some cases successfully manipulating — foreign journalists.

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