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SA families signing up with Isis

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Picture: Reuters/Stringer
Picture: Reuters/Stringer

A Gauteng man has abandoned his job and his family to join the extremist Islamic State, also known as Isis.

His shocked parents only learnt about this when they received a call from him last month saying he was in Syria and was not coming home. They pleaded with him to come back, but their pleas fell on deaf ears.

The unnamed man, who is in his thirties, is one of more than 25 South Africans believed to have been recruited by the Islamic State.

On Friday, broadcaster Al Jazeera reported that an investigation it conducted had found that at least 23 South Africans had travelled to Iraq and Syria to join the group, and that a number of sources had confirmed that they included families with children who had left the country in the past year.

At least eight families were believed to be among the Islamic State recruits, Al Jazeera reported. And some of their extended families have reacted with shock and confusion over their departure.

A Turkish foreign ministry official, who asked not to be named, confirmed to Al Jazeera that about a dozen South Africans had been detained and deported for trying to reach Islamic State territory as recently as last month.

Na’eem Jeenah, executive director of the Afro-Middle East Centre in Johannesburg, who conducted research for the Al Jazeera investigation, said: “The 25 is just a figure we know for sure. There could be more.”

The Islamic State appears to be actively recruiting in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape and Eastern Cape, Jeenah said, and the recruitment was often done online.

“But lately, South Africans are recruiting each other face to face,” Jeenah said.

“The age groups they seem to be targeting are individuals between 15 and 45. However, there are families who have joined the group,” he said.

Jeenah said he knew of a husband, wife and three children who emigrated to Syria recently, but said: “I don’t think they would be joining the Islamic State to fight, but see the country as an ideal state to live in.”

Regarding the dozen South Africans who were detained and deported last month, Jeenah said he was not sure where they were intercepted and how the authorities knew about their involvement with the Islamic State.

“The Turkish authorities did not give us more information, but we know that they were sent back to South Africa. The state intelligence questioned them on their return, but they didn’t divulge any information,” he said.

The recruitment drive by the Islamic State in South Africa has been under the spotlight after a teenage girl from Cape Town was taken off a British Airways flight early last month because she was allegedly on her way to join the group. Her relatives tipped off the police after she disappeared from her parent’s home.

Investigations revealed that the 15-year-old had been interacting with recruiters on social media and reading material that suggested that she was joining the group.

After the incident, various Muslim organisations came together to discuss how they could deter South Africans from joining the Islamic State. A recent resolution taken was that on Friday, imams in mosques across the country should deliver a “national unified khutbah” – sermon – to encourage Muslims “to be wary of Islamic State recruitment activities in South Africa”.

Speaking on behalf of the Muslim Coalition, Ebrahim Patel said it was important to warn South Africans against being recruited.

“What the Islamic State is doing is completely wrong and, as Muslims, we condemn it. They are making Muslims and Islam look bad around the world,” he said.

“Islam does not support shedding of blood, nor does it teach intolerance.”

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