The Islamic terror group ISIS is now focusing its recruiting efforts on children, posting videos of little boys firing weapons almost as big as they are.
In one, a child wearing a ski mask hoists an AK-47 onto a makeshift firing platform, pulls the trigger and then staggers from the recoil.
Reaching the hearts and minds of the next generation of terrorists has become a principal tenet of the Sunni extremist network spreading from Syria to Iraq.
A 13-year-old boy who spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity explained how he fled to Turkey after he was solicited by ISIS to go to a children’s terror camp.
“My friends and I were studying at the mosque, and they taught us that we should enroll in jihad with the (Islamic State),” said the child, identified as Mohammed. “I wanted to go, but my father did not allow me to.”
But the boy’s dad said ISIS terrorists showed up at the family’s house after learning he’d forbidden his son from attending.
They said “if you prevent Mohammed from coming to the camp, we will cut off your head,” his father recounted.
The boy went.
He said the children in his camp jogged every day, read the Koran and learned how to use weapons, including Kalashnikovs.
Then there were the really horrible demonstrations.
“We saw a young man who did not fast for Ramadan, so they crucified him for three days, and we saw a woman being stoned because she committed adultery,” the boy told the cable network.
Other times, they were forced to watch people get their heads cut off.
His father tried to visit several times, but camp guards rebuffed him.
“He is only a child, they might make him a suicide bomber and (convince him) that he will be in paradise and stuff like that,” the father said.
Yet, he said, he found it hard to believe the boys comprehended the true implications of what they were being taught.
“They thought war and guns were entertainment,” the dad said.
Nonetheless, he was finally able to persuade camp leaders to let his son out, and the family fled to Turkey.
Mohammed still has his faith. It’s just not the violent version that ISIS spews.
“I love my religion because I am a Muslim,” he said. “And I used to go with my father for the prayers before ISIS came. But my father has taught me that religion is not about fighting, but it is about love and forgiveness.”
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