Where Does ISIS Get Its Recruits?

Ever since the fall of Baghdad, and maybe a little before, my brother who shuttles between multiple cities to secure a business has enjoyed a deep-rooted relationship with a very loyal shipper.

Last week and perhaps for the first time, the shipper lost a tiny but important parcel. My brother, whose Iraqi civil status ID card, spells his name in full, called the shipper to bring the matter to his attention. "I don't have it yet; it's small, but significant; I was supposed to have gotten it last week." The shipper who usually addresses my brother by his first name was very apologetic. "I'm sorry this has happened. I will immediately investigate and get back to you!"

And investigate he did. The parcel was retrieved and my brother was called to pick it up at one of the lesser convenient Baghdad locations, a not so secure, busy downtown office, next to a crowded bus station known for its history of suicide bomber visitations. After standing for an extended period of time in the heat of the afternoon waiting for his name to be called, my brother was handed the parcel, neatly packaged. On every side of the square box that made up the parcel, there was a label with his first name, and phone number, handwritten in impressive Arabic calligraphy. Someone had taken the time to write his name clearly on each side and hand print the phone number next to the name. Each label seemed to conceal yet another one underneath. My brother peeled off each label, and sure enough, revealed four, more professional looking, laser printed labels with his full name (including family name) and phone number.  It suddenly occurred to him what had happened. The shipper had intentionally covered up the official labels (printed by the original overseas supplier) with his own 'hand-made' ones, omitting my brother's family name intentionally. His friend, the shipper had done that to protect my brother and his business.

Since the onset of the civil war, and increasingly under the sectarian authority of the Maliki government, Iraqi citizens had scrambled to obtain multiple identification cards; ones that contained just the first name and fathers' name, omitting the family name (a naming convention enforced in Saddam's days); and others that included their full family names. I must explain here that Arabic naming conventions are based on a long chain of names, representing your more direct and recent ancestry. Depending on where you were going to use the ID card, you were best off cherry-picking the more 'neutral' names in that chain to replace names that were obviously indicative of your sect. In Iraq, roughly 90% of family names identify sect. 

As much as he was grateful for the kindness of the gesture, my brother was very frustrated. "What's wrong with our family name anyway? Didn't we establish the first charter schools all over Iraq? Did we not contribute to the development of this country since its independence?" Independence, now that was one word that you could no longer associate with Iraq. Once a sovereign country, it is now made up of a conglomerate of client states to its warring sectarian neighbors. When my cousin, a sitting member of parliament attempted to intervene in the case of a direct relative, a retired physician over the age of seventy who had been detained indefinitely without charge, she was advised to knock on the doors of the Ministry building in Topkhaneh, Tehran. There she would find her answer, not in Baghdad. 

I recall vividly before the fall of Baghdad. I had gathered family here in Columbus, Ohio who were Shiite, for dinner. The father had lost a brother to sectarian persecution under Saddam's tyranny. His mother's dying wish to know the whereabouts of her son was never satisfied. We sat debating the on-setting war, arguing that the US had no business invading Iraq. In pain, the father said, "I would collaborate with the Devil if I had to, to bring that rogue down!"

The atrocities committed against the Shiite majority by the former regime were massive. The persecution against the Sunnis by both the Maliki government and Shiite militia in the predominantly Sunni parts of the country had been intensifying. Scores of young Sunnis were detained after suicide bombings and never released, even after the culprits had been identified and executed. Usually the cost to release any detainee, jailed without charge meant the confiscation of their family's entire life savings. That coupled with Mailiki's extreme exclusionist policy had led to the same sentiment I had personally heard years ago in Columbus, Ohio, "(We) would collaborate with the Devil, if we have to..!" And collaborate they did...and open the flood gates to ISIS, much to the detriment of the diverse population in those areas, especially the Iraqi Christian and Yazidi minorities that bore the brunt of the consequences. 

I and most Iraqis have always argued that a proxy war between the Jaffaari powers of Tehran and Damascus on the one hand, and the Wahhabi powers of Riyadh was being waged in Baghdad and all across Iraq. It amazes me when these regional powers pretend to 'unite' against a common front, a monster, they both contributed to creating, each in a different way. Assad's regime was more than happy to arm the Islamic extremists that splintered from the secular Free Syrian  Army, thus forming ISIS; he didn't want a secular competitor. With an extreme Islamic option, it would be much easier for the Syrian people to decide who they want to side with. 

As the world wonders where ISIS gets its recruits nowadays, last year when Mosul and large parts of Anbar Province were captured, areas where different flavors of Wahhabism had flared most people did not think twice where their allegiance would be!