ISIS Hunts Down Kfar Nabel Activists as Agents of the West

By Hazzaa Adnan al-Hazzaa

(Kfar Nabel, Syria) – The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, also known as ISIS, did not interfere in the public affairs of Kfar Nabel before December 2013, when it took control of the city of 30,000 people with practically no resistance.

During their time in Kfar Nabel, ISIS raided several media and development organizations, including the Media Office in Kfar Nabel, Radio Fresh, the Mantara and Ghirbal magazines, and the Dignity Bus, an initiative offering financial and moral support to school students.

ISIS members confiscated the contents of the offices and detained nine of the workers they encountered for interrogation, charging them with collaboration with the West. They released eight of them a few hours later, claiming that they were misled and that they had no interest in them. They added that they were looking for the organizations’ funders and directors, which explains why the editor-in-chief of Ghirbal magazine, Mohammad al-Salloum, remained in their custody until the Free Syrian Army (FSA) secured his release on January 4.

 

That same day, ISIS peacefully withdrew from Kfar Nabel towards Kfarzayta in the suburbs of Hama as a result of mediation efforts and pressure from the FSA. After the withdrawal, the Damascus Bureau spoke with the freed activists about their experience and their opinion of ISIS.

As was the case with all the detained activists, Mohammad al-Salloum, 33, was directly accused of spreading secularism, atheism, and blasphemy, as well as opposing Islamic sharia and collaborating with the West.

Salloum mocked the accusations and said that he was beaten and insulted only once during his detention, by a Tunisian fighter.

“I am a Muslim, but I hate ISIS,” said Salloum, who described his magazine as independent and neutral, criticizing the negatives on all sides and aiming to build a civil society based on the principles of freedom, justice, equality and the rule of law.

The targeted organizations have still not been able to fully resume work. They have not yet retrieved their confiscated equipment and are still trying to replace them. Despite ISIS’s withdrawal from Kfar Nabel, the activists still feel at risk even though they have not received any threatening letters. Rumours abound that ISIS is going to launch operations in all the areas it lost, assassinating anyone who stands in its way, from activists to FSA commanders.

Abu al-Bara’a al-Baljeeky, an ISIS commander who was killed in mid-January, had threatened to attack Idlib province, where Kfar Nabel is located, with hundreds of car bombs.

ISIS detained and interrogated Youssef al-Ahmad, 23, the editor-in-chief of the Mantara magazine, for one day before being released. Ahmad describes his magazine as satirical, critical and independent, keen on correcting the mistakes of the revolutionaries and contributing to building a civil society. “My magazine has never attacked Islam, Islamic sharia or Islamic history,” he noted. He said that he was beaten and insulted several times, and was restrained and blindfolded during the entire time he was detained. His guards would throw water on him every hour to prevent him from sleeping.

ISIS members detained Saleh al-Abed, 27, the head of productions at Radio Fresh, a subsidiary of the Media Office of Kfar Nabel, for four hours before releasing him. He said that he was not mistreated, and that his interrogators asked him about the media office director’s relationship with the United States and for the names of western journalists who come to the media office from time to time. Abed added that the aim of Radio Fresh is to present accurate news and information and to contribute to the building of civil society, noting that it has never attacked Islamic sharia. On the contrary, it actually airs religious programs such as “Religious Counsel”, a program hosted by Sheikh Mohammad al-Hamid, and “Our Lives,” a program hosted by a number of Islamist advocates.

“The first step to building a new state is to topple the regime,” said artist Ahmad Jalal, 32, one of the more notable activists targeted by ISIS, due to his caricatures of the organization as a thorn in the side of the FSA. Jalal believes that the goal of the uprising is to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and to build a state based on the principles of equality and justice, regardless of the form it takes. “I hope this new state derives its laws from Islamic sharia,” he added.

Usama al-Rahhal, 29, an ISIS fighter from Kfar Nabel, left the city shortly after he was interviewed on December 31, 2013. He defended ISIS’s actions, saying that it is in a state of emergency and expressed doubts about the organizations and their ties to the West, which he believes means ill towards Islam and Muslims and favours Israel over the Palestinians.

“We do not want to terrorize or kill anyone unless we have a rightful reason. We want to consolidate the pillars of our state and implement sharia. We want God’s rule on earth, even if it is by the sword,” he said.

Raed al-Fares, 43, the director of the Revolutionary Media Office in Kfar Nabel and one of ISIS’s prime targets, responded that Islam cannot be confined to the sword or to the barrel of a gun.

“Turning one man’s mind to the light of Islam is more beloved to God than forcing all of humanity into blind allegiance to God’s will,” he said. “Assad accuses us of being agents of the West as well,” he added, mocking ISIS’s similar accusation.

“We are not intellectuals. Our project is a humanitarian one for children and the future generation,” said Nour (a pseudonym), an activist targeted by ISIS for her work on the Dignity Bus project. “In attacking our offices in Kfar Nabel, ISIS is attacking every child who comes to us with a smile and hope for an hour or two of normal childhood away from bombs and siege and war,” she added.