A former aide of Osama bin laden has appealed to British Muslims not to join Islamic State for the so-called jehad in Syria as he denounced the group’s beheadings and mass rape as “completely against Islam”. Abdullah Anas is the most senior former jehadist and one of the architects of the Afghan jehad against the Russians.
In a rare interview, Anas told The Sunday Times that ISIS was exploiting conflict to advance its own agenda, rather than helping oppressed Syrians.
“This jehad is not legitimate,” Anas said. He denounced the group’s beheadings and mass rape as “completely against Islam” and said the Quran called for prisoners to be treated with the same compassion as orphans and the poor.
He urged young British Muslims not to fall for ISIS slick propaganda on social media, adding: “You are not helping (your Syrian brothers).”At least 700 British Muslims, including girls as young as 15, are believed to have travelled to Syria and Iraq to join ISIS and other jehadist groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra, an affiliate of Al-Qaeda. As many as 30,000 foreign fighters have headed to the Middle East, including up to 5,000 from Europe.The influx of foreign recruits has echoes of the Muslim fighters who flocked to Afghanistan in the 1980s to help defeat the occupying Soviet army.
