ISIS captors 'didn't even have the Quran,' says former hostage

[Ykcutnek]

London (CNN) A French journalist's ISIS captives cared so little about religion they did not even have a Quran, Didier Francois -- who spent over 10 months as the group's prisoner in Syria -- told CNN's Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview on Tuesday.

"There was never really discussion about texts or -- it was not a religious discussion. It was a political discussion."

"It was more hammering what they were believing than teaching us about the Quran. Because it has nothing to do with the Quran."

"They didn't even have the Quran; they didn't want even to give us a Quran."

http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/03/intl_world/amanpour-didier-francois/index.html

[renate]

1. k&r

[Orsino]

2. America's Christian supremacists don't generally tote Bibles, either, even when murdering. n/t

[joshcryer]

3. Of course it's political.

In fact some of the political points are quite "appealing." Anti drone for example. You can say some of the stuff in the burning video absolutely verbatim here. It is rather sound byte knee jerk substanceless garbage, though.

[GummyBearz]

4. They probably couldn't read it if they had it

Most of the European lower class couldn't read back in the dark ages of Europe, which is about the level civilization most ISIS fighters live in. Of course they have an upper class, who can read and use the internet, and can easily get the uneducated masses to do their bidding.

[starroute]

6. Do you have statistics to back that up or are you pulling it out of your ass?

The CIA World Factbook gives the Iraqi literacy rate for males as 86% and estimates 71% for females.

For Syria, the equivalent figures are 90% and 78%.

Not as high as most Western nations, but hardly "uneducated masses."

[CJCRANE]

8. Plus a large number of them are foreigners

who don't speak Arabic according to a German journalist who stayed in their territory.

[GummyBearz]

10. Yes

I went there and conducted a survey myself.


Just kidding. My post was more rhetorical about them seeming/wanting to live in the dark ages. Burn witches, stone adulterers, religious law for everyone, convert or die, etc. etc.

[question everything]

5. There is actually a former hostage?

I thought that eventually they kill all of them.

[geek tragedy]

9. some hostages get ransomed with money ISIS can use to kill and kidnap and torture other people nt

[ChosenUnWisely]

7. Why ISIS sounds and acts exactly like Christian Conservatives!

But I also see no difference between both groups, both groups pervert their religion and both groups kill people in the name of God to score political points.

[rug]

12. The GOP is having a public immolation at their next convention.

[haele]

11. Of course they wouldn't have a Koran. Too much contradiction to the "divine message" of Al-Bagdadi.

He's just another religious huckster who preys on disaffected and angry youth to consolidate his personal power.
And it's not that the Koran can't be translated; it's got as many translations as the KJV does around the world, easy to get a copy.

The reason not to have a Koran or any sort of "bible study" outside the direction of the supposed future Kalif of the new Sunni empire is the risk of the foot-soldiers learning that IS - or Al-Queda, or Al-Shabab, or any of the other supposed jihadist groups have very little to do with the teaching of the Profit they supposedly revere and protect. Oh, did I say Profit instead of Prophet? hmmm....
Does something similar to the saying "The Love of Money is the Root of All Evil" exist in the Koran?

Also, the prisoners IS takes tend to be more intelligent than the average jihadi on a rage-roid addiction; many would be perfectly capable of pointing out the discrepancies between what the captor's leadership is claiming to be the will of God or Allah, (or whatever they choose to call their divine inspiration), and what the divine rule book actually says. That can seriously undermine the authority of the leadership if the majority of the foot-soldiers are getting sick and tired of the personality-driven BS that goes along with such theo-thugocracy movements, but feel trapped because they're doing the God's Will. The 5% or so sociopaths and bullies that pull in the weaker soldiers can't maintain control if enough of them wake up to the con game extremist leaders play.

Haele

[ProfessorGAC]

13. Not The Least Surprised

These guys aren't jihadists. They're gangsters. It's about power, influence and ultimately $ as they control access to valued resources.

They're the current Middle East version of the original Sicilian Mafia. Just a bunch of thugs.