By Anas al-Bar | 2025-07-25

The "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) preys on the vulnerable via recruitment campaigns that target those who can be easily manipulated or whose difficult circumstances make them susceptible to extremist messaging.

It does this in part by monitoring social media accounts and identifying users whose posts demonstrate sympathy for the actions of extremist groups, according to counterterrorism experts.

These social media users become prime candidates for recruitment through a calculated transaction, strategy expert Tareq al-Shammari told Al-Fassel.

Joining a group like ISIS under any pretext is a dangerous decision with deadly consequences, he said, as new recruits quickly discover.

Recruits find they have fallen into a carefully prepared trap, lured by false inducements and misleading interpretations of religious texts that serve only the personal interests of group leaders.

While ISIS commanders and their families live in luxury, new recruits face a grim ordeal that typically ends only in death or imprisonment, al-Shammari said.

Fighters drawn by distorted religious interpretations that promise paradise and justify killing innocents under the banner of "jihad against the infidels" ultimately face punishment as terrorists rather than recognition as victims, he added.

Rank-and-file fighters cast aside

Many ISIS leaders abandoned their foot soldiers as they came under fire from security forces fighting to oust them from territory they had seized, leaving these rank-and-file fighters to face death and arrest alone, al-Shammari said.

Former ISIS elements standing trial for their crimes testify they were treated as "cheap cannon fodder," according to reports in the press, with their lives meaning nothing to leaders willing to sacrifice them when danger approached.

Many now languish in prisons, consumed by remorse and ostracized from their own families.

ISIS has destroys individual lives and tears apart families while targeting peaceful coexistence among various components of society through campaigns designed to incite hatred and dismantle social cohesion.

The group's acts of violence and genocide targeting ethnic diversity have created deep fissures within local community structures, Yazidi Group for Documentation head Hussam Abdullah told Al-Fassel.

After the devastation caused by ISIS, the security of Yazidis and other minorities may take considerable time to restore, he said.

ISIS deceives individuals who accept its ideological poison and fall for its lies and false justifications, he told Al-Fassel.