After the fail of previous campaign las of which was by al-Baghdadi, ISIS announces a campaign to fund and prepare its fighters

Several reliable sources confirmed to the SOHR that ISIS launched a campaign a few days ago under the name “Equally a Mujahid is he who prepares one”. Sources also confirmed that the campaign aims at raising funds from civilians and the residents of ISIS-controlled areas for funding its activities. However, their calls have not yielded any support from the local residents. Therefore, the mosque preachers in ISIS-controlled areas focused their Friday speeches on “gaining support for the campaign”.  This campaign comes a few weeks after the failure of another one launched by ISIS under the name “Answer the Call for Jihad” in the areas it controls in Deir Ezzor and Al-Raqqah countryside. Specifically, the SOHR observed and documented back then that ISIS launched in May 2017 a campaign under the name “Answer the Call for Jihad” based on a note issued by ISIS leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, to the “Muslim Masses” calling for “mass mobilization to defend the Islamic Caliphate Territories” aiming at attracting the Syrian youth and the displaced to ISIS-controlled areas in Deir Ezzor, Al-Raqqah, Al-Hasakah countryside and Homs desert and at convincing them to volunteer in the ranks of ISIS. Local sources confirmed to the SOHR that ISIS, that circulated the note on mosque preachers in areas under its control, aimed at calling for volunteers on the pretext of “repelling the attack of the Kurdish atheists and the crusaders on Al-Raqqah”.

The “Answer the Call for Jihad” campaign was coupled then with a series of religious speeches at the mosques within the areas controlled by ISIS in Al-Raqqah and Deir Ezzor which are parts of the “States of Al-Raqqah, Al-Kheir and Euphrates”. Those speeches were intended to galvanize Muslim communities and induce them to fighting. Numerous local sources confirmed to the SOHR that those Friday speeches were focused on reading the Inducement note by Amir Al-Mu’minin (Leader of the Faithful) Abu Bakr El-Baghdadi”. The same sources also informed the SOHR that the note which was ascribed to the leader of ISIS includes a clear inducement and mobilization call on Muslims living in all the territories controlled by the Islamic Caliphate to engage in communal Jihadist activities in Al-Raqqah, so as to repel massive offensives on the city led by the Kurdish atheists and the crusaders. Similarly, the SOHR was informed by local sources that ISIS speeches and religious teachings at the mosques of Al-Raqqah were mainly intended to emphasize the importance of defending Islamic faith itself in case ISIS loses control of any of the cities, towns or villages. They also focused on instructing Muslims not to follow on the path of converts who flee away to the areas controlled by the infidels and start adapting to their Smoking and indecent habits. Some mosque preachers went even further to dub those fleeing civilians to the areas controlled by the “Euphrates Wrath” Operation Forces as “Indecent and Immoral” having fled the territories of ISIS and sought refuge instead in the arms of the atheists and crusaders.

It is also worth mentioning that SOHR activists observed, during the second half of last February 2017, that ISIS affiliate mosque preachers had dedicated their Friday speeches in Deir Ezzor and its countryside to galvanizing and inducing those attending the prayers to fight against the ruling regime. The mosque preachers told those attending the prayers that they received a message from Al-Baghdadi urging Muslims in Deir Ezzor to liberate their city from Christian occupation, that they have to join their brothers in Jihad, and that those interested have to register their names at the office of the Governor of El-Kheir State and with other Emirs so that they get prepared for fighting.