Muslims are Killing their Brothers in Islam

By Anne Speckhard, Ph.D.

“Muslins are Killing their Brothers in Islam” is ICSVE’s newly released video clip in the Breaking the ISIS Brand–ISIS Cadres Counter-Narrative Project. Produced by ICSVE’s Zack Baddorf, this video clip is based on Anne Speckhard’s and Ahmet S. Yayla’s interview in Turkey, of Syrian ISIS defector, Abu Abdullah. In this clip Abu Abdullah tells about the terror tactics of the group and how he was forced to participate in an ISIS beheading of a thirteen-year-old boy. Unable to banish this horrific scene from his memory, Abu Abdullah states, “This kid was crying loudly and I couldn’t do anything for him. I swear to Allah that I’m still upset [from seeing that]. It was very sad. [He was] an innocent child!  What was he found guilty of? ” He goes on to accuse ISIS of killing innocent Muslims, “I swear that [ISIS] Muslims are killing their brothers in Islam. I saw it with my bare eyes, right in front of me.  I swear they are killing Muslims.” Then he warns others, “Don’t be lured into joining the Islamic State.”

The transcript of the video clip is below and the video can be viewed here .

Title: Muslims are Killing their Brothers in Islam

0:07    [ISIS] brought a young man [to us]. He was 13-years-old.

0:10    He was 13-years-old.

0:13    What I heard was that there was a [young] man praying the shahada.

0:27    He was crying. He was very young, just a child really.

0:31    ABU ABDULLAH

Former ISIS Soldier

He could sense that they were about to behead him.

0:36    It was like he had seen a beheading before.

0:44    [ISIS] beheads people to spread terror,

0:47    to impose their power over people in the region.

0:53    We would bring people to watch the beheadings.

0:54    We left the [bodies] hanging publicly for three days so that everyone would see them.

0:59    They left them hanging for three days until the dogs were watching [the bodies] too.

1:06    I brought the boy down on his knees and I tied his arms together.

1:15    He knew something was going to happen and he started to cry.

1:18    Deep inside of me, I really wanted to let him go.

1:20    But I couldn’t.

1:22    If I did, I would be the one who was going to be beheaded.

1:25    They would behead me instead [for disobeying them].

1:28    They beheaded the boy.

1:30    I was deeply affected by it.

1:32    This kid was crying loudly and I couldn’t do anything for him.

1:39    I swear to Allah that I’m still upset [from seeing that].

1:42    It was very sad. [He was] an innocent child!

1:45    What was he found guilty of?

1:50    Every time someone hated someone, they would accuse him of being a Free Syrian Army member.

1:57    [The kid] was not even a member of [them].

2:02    He was beheaded unjustly.

2:06    I swear that [ISIS] Muslims are killing their brothers in Islam.

2:11    I saw it with my bare eyes, right in front of me.

2:15    I swear they are killing Muslims.

2:21    Don’t be lured into joining the Islamic State.

2:31    The Truth Behind the Islamic State

2:34    Sponsored by the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism www.icsve.org

Anne Speckhard, Ph.D. is Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University in the School of Medicine and Director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE) where she heads the Breaking the ISIS Brand—ISIS Defectors Interviews Project. She is the author of: Talking to Terrorists, Bride of ISIS and coauthor of ISIS Defectors: Inside Stories of the Terrorist Caliphate; Undercover Jihadi; and Warrior Princess. Dr. Speckhard has interviewed nearly 500 terrorists, their family members and supporters in various parts of the world including Gaza, West Bank, Chechnya, Iraq, Jordan, Turkey and many countries in Europe. In 2007, she was responsible for designing the psychological and Islamic challenge aspects of the Detainee Rehabilitation Program in Iraq to be applied to 20,000 + detainees and 800 juveniles. She is a sought after counterterrorism experts and has consulted to NATO, OSCE, foreign governments and to the U.S. Senate & House, Departments of State, Defense, Justice, Homeland Security, Health & Human Services, CIA and FBI and CNN, BBC, NPR, Fox News, MSNBC, CTV, and in Time, The New York Times, The Washington Post, London Times and many other publications. Her publications are found here: https://georgetown.academia.edu/AnneSpeckhardWebsite: https://www.icsve.org