Jihadi Generations-Part II
Madrassas-schools for creating "holy warriors"
One way the violent extremist movements escalate is through the expansion of madrassas or schools, which teach, indoctrinate, inculcate, train and trade on their version of creating ‘holy warriors’.
Children during a protest held by the Lebanese Islamist group "al-Gama'a al Islamiya" in front of the U.N. headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon -Jamal Saidi-Reuters
The present estimate of madrassas (loosely translated as religious schools) is over 80,000 including public and private schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan. These madrassas have increased over decades with the support and funding from other Muslim countries, various agencies and departments of the United States government, and tax exempt United States, EU and other countries NGOs (non-governmental organizations) funding the general category of ‘education programs’.
“The primary worry with the explosion of Madrassah system is not with the schools in general, but the implications of the radical minority of them. These schools are affiliated with extremist religious/political groups, who have co-opted education for their own ends. These schools teach a distorted view of Islam. Hatred is permissible. Jihad allows the murder of innocent civilians, including killing and torturing other Muslim men, women, and children. The new heroes are terrorists. Martyrdom through suicide attacks is extolled.
Many of the radical religious schools also include weapons and physical training in their regimen. They require weekly lessons on political speechmaking (where anti-American and anti-Israel rhetoric is memorized). The students are young, dependent on the schools for the basic requirements to live, and cut off from contact with their parents for years at a time. Thus they are highly susceptible to being programmed towards violence.
These schools have become the new breeding ground for radical Islamic militants, where the next generation is trained and groomed. Their graduating classes form an integral recruiting pool for transnational terrorist and criminal networks.
There are numerous examples of USAID, DOS and NGO programs which misguidedly encouraged and funded, rather than deescalated or defunded “jihadi influenced”programs, with divisive ideologies promoting violent actions for children to be involved in, or exposed to, during their impressionable primary and secondary school years.
Children role playing against “Israelis” in school performances in the West Bank.
A History of Supporting Jihadi Curriculum and Training
The notorious University of Nebraska-Omaha project contracted by USAID, is one example of a misguided project which resulted in great harm. Initially $6.5 million dollars was granted to publish “The Alphabet of Jihad Literacy”. Funds were matched by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Printing was done by press companies in Pakistan and books were transported via contractors in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Although USAID dropped funding of many Afghan “education” programs connected with the University of Nebraska-Omaha, the textbooks they created, paid for and disseminated, continued to circulate in various versions even after the Taliban seized power in 1996, and again in 2021. Officials said private humanitarian groups paid for continued reprinting during the Taliban years.
The books and madrassa training remains widely available in schools and shops, not only in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but in Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Syria, Lebanon, Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, the Palestinian Territories and Yemen.
“The pictures [in] the texts are horrendous to school students, but the texts are much worse,” said Ahmad Fahim Hakim, an Afghan educator who is a program coordinator for Cooperation for Peace and Unity, a Pakistan-based nonprofit. An aid worker in the region reviewed the unrevised 100-page book and counted 43 pages containing violent images or passages.
‘US-sponsored textbooks, which exhort children to pluck out the eyes of their enemies and cut off their legs, are still widely available in Afghanistan and Pakistan, some in their original form.’ [ The Genesis of Global Jihad in Afghanistan, Pervez Hoodbhoy
While violent extremist groups (VEGs) in Afghanistan and Pakistan (Central Asia) increase their attacks on education and humanitarian personnel and programs in an effective strategy of deterrence, destruction and discouragement; they concurrently increase their own education programs, expand their training camps and bring in masterful teachers and successful trainers from many parts of the Islamic world.
These imams, mullahs and “abu” (father) figures/trainers are known for their effective methods and ‘successful’ students. These handlers also designate the children who will go to targets as suicide bombers. To be a martyr or shahid is considered a great honor for Allah. Families are encouraged to “sacrifice” their children “for the cause”. Payments are promised in return.
Sometimes the only schools open in a village or district are controlled by the Taliban or their affiliates. The Haqqanis (Haqqani network) operate countless madrassas and training bases in villages and cities in Central Asia. These serve as guesthouses and way stations for foreign fighters and terrorist groups -a fertile ground for cooperation among jihadi organizations.
“The madrassa system typifies the interlocking web of political and economic bargaining that has supported interactions between the Haqqanis, other militant actors, the illicit business community, and the populace. The madrassas have served as key conduits for cash couriers moving illicit proceeds out of Afghanistan, and for network leaders sending monthly salary payments to fighters inside the country.”
The Taliban and ISIS/Daesh, Hamas, Hezbollah and other significant Islamic terrorist groups require their curriculum must be implemented and only teachers loyal to their cause can be employed to teach. They siphon money from international organizations (UNRWA, UN) NGOs including church affiliated groups.
Government funding from the USA, UK, Canada, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa , Egypt, Qatar, Bahrain, Turkey, the EU, Russia, Korea and Saudi Arabia and many more listed in the report linked send money via “humanitarian aid projects”.-this report is from 2022. These figures have only increased since that year.
The mothers and sisters play a significant role in promoting “sacrifice” and having pride in their children as martyrs. Watch this mother speak from Gaza on video from PalWatch Media:
Most Palestinian “martyrs” achieve their status when they are killed after carrying out terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians. Whilst the media portrays Israel as the villain for “killing a Palestinian”, the Palestinian leadership celebrates the terrorist as a “martyr”, paying the family and turning the terrorist into a celebrity. This, in turn, continues the brainwashing of children in the Palestinian territories, where they see the glorification of the martyr and aspire to be admired in that way.
The payments to terrorists and glorification of the martyrs are nothing new. It is available for all to see. Yet, world leaders still allow Palestinian leaders to speak of “peace” when they talk at the UN without challenging them on this.
When Palestinian children grow up being taught that martyrdom is the highest honor they can receive according to their religion and in their society; “where their family will receive money for life and they will be celebrated, it is no wonder this cycle of violence will never end”.
"One has to be aware of the fact that members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) were thought to be competent suicide trainers while they were in Afghanistan." [http://www.dw.com/en/children-used-as-suicide-bombers-in-central-asia/a-18952256 ]
“Some are used for more gruesome tasks. The United Nations recorded 362 cases of child soldier recruitment in Syria in 2016 alone, of which 274 were attributed to the Islamic State. The terrorist group was reported to use children to carry out raids, engage in fights, and even execute enemies. But the path taken from child to executioner, experts say, all started in the classroom.”
A number of boys and girls have been caught before they were able to accomplish their ‘mission’ . They were arrested, questioned and incarcerated in places such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Gaza and Chechnya. Many of these children had been told they could perform these acts without being harmed themselves.
“The suicide attack was carried out by an underage bomber, a boy we think 13 or 15 years old, killing at least four and wounding over a dozen more civilians,” said Afghanistan Interior ministry spokesman, Najib Danish. A police spokesman said the attacker may have been as young as 12.
Defence ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri said the bomber “made it through the first checkpoint but was stopped at the second checkpoint and detonated”.
Female suicide bombers and children who are mentally and physically disabled have also been outfitted with vests and used as suicide attackers.
It is because of these surviving children certain methods are now known to the world about the training, propaganda and strategies taught by the Islamic State/Daesh, the Taliban, HQN and other violent extremist groups.
The Gulf States connection for Wahabbist influence, extremism, and funding of ‘youth programs’ which advocate and condone the use of terror to achieve their goals extends in many directions-to Central Asian countries, Europe and even North America. Often these connections are not obvious, but may be discerned by following the sponsors, knowing their mission statements, and reviewing their events and activist engagements.
A nine month long program, Black Lives Matter (BLM) in the UAE back in 2017, was labeled as the Youth Empowerment Strategy program at Dubai. The stated purpose of the program is to ‘to empower our youth with the knowledge, skills and confidence to conduct themselves with poise and professionalism’.
“Given that it is common knowledge Saudi and UAE state groups use educational programs as a way to radicalize youth, preach hatred and infect them with the Wahabbist ideology that breeds terrorism, what exactly is this program BLM is partnering with? More research and demands for clarification from Black Lives Matter is needed to clarify that American youth are not intentionally being exposed to state agents who are radicalizing them.” [Zero Hedge news, 01/08/2017]
Boys under the age of 15 years are called “Cubs of the Caliphate”. These children are forcibly subjected to specially designed trauma based training to create jihad ‘warriors’ willing to die for their cause.
Boys pose with training guns and uniforms for Palestinian Islamic Jihad PIJ camps
“Between the ages of five and 10, boys are enrolled in religious education, learning the Islamic State’s distorted version of Islam , which is taught in order to strengthen their ideology and pass it on to the next generation. Koran memorization, tawheed (monotheism), salat (prayer) and aqeedah (creed), and a few other subjects such as math are part of the Islamic curriculum. Then they teach them how to use a range of weapons and plan terror attacks.. These children have become like a time bomb, deploying around the world one day."
The horrific ‘graduation’ videos of children performing grisly violent acts are disseminated on jihadi sites via the dark net and even through sites on mainstream media. These are often used in recruiting advertisements or in reports shared to all ages via phone/text messages/images and video clips.
“Once boys ‘graduate’ at the age of 15, they are forced to commit a repulsive inaugural act, which has the aim of desensitizing them to violence, while also demonstrating their loyalty to the group and acting as a bonding activity: beheading a prisoner. It is an act that cannot be withdrawn, and it brings the group closer together as they complete the task.” [http://www.newsweek.com/children-caliphate-isis-islamic-state-cubs-iraq-syria-434192 ]
Training children in execution using human hostages and prisoners. Photo from Islamic State (ISIS) released on the anonymous file sharing website “JustPaste.it 2016
Madrassa type training in the USA
Madrassa type of training is also happening in the United States. These camps and schools started appearing decades ago. There have been numerous reports starting in 2000, coming from the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives –part of the US Department of Justice)-and local law enforcement, “that in more than 22 states, land has been bought and used for “jihadi training camps”.
”In 2001, ATF Special Agent Thomas P. Gallagher testified in court that “individuals from the organization are trained in Hancock, N.Y. If they pass the training in Hancock, N.Y., they are then sent to Pakistan for training in paramilitary and survivalist training by Mr. Gilani.” [https://counterjihadreport.com/tag/terror-training-camps-in-us-2/]Independent reporters identified ’Jamaat al Fuqra’ villages (a terrorist group started in Northern Africa in the 1980s) in Texas, USA since 2003.
Retrieved FBI intelligence reports stated that MOA [Muslims of the Americas] “possess an infrastructure capable of planning and mounting terrorist campaigns overseas and within the U.S.” and “the documented propensity for violence by this organization supports the belief the leadership of the MOA extols membership to pursue a policy of jihad or holy war against individuals or groups it considers enemies of Islam, which includes the U.S. Government.”
The FBI also stated that “members of the MOA are encouraged to travel to Pakistan to receive religious and military/terrorist training from Sheikh Mubarik Ali Gilani “, who was the subject of an investigation about Daniel Pearl, the executed Wall Street Journal Jewish journalist held hostage and beheaded in Karachi, Pakistan in February 2002.
There are no accurate statistics for the number of private and charter Islamic schools in the USA. A brief report by the Council of Islamic Schools in North America (CISNA) in 2021, stated there were “about 300 Islamic schools” . It might surprise you to know how many accredited Islamic universities are in the USA. Look at where they are, too. Who is funding these schools and colleges? This is only a partial list: (click on underlined phrases for links).
Next - part III-go to the link underlined
For Part I - go to this link (underlined)