The hidden Agenda of Joining ISIS (why people Join).

ISIS fighter

Have you ever wondered why people in their right or crazy mind join the most dangerous terrorist organization in the world?
I made a secondary research from online sources, visited the library and came to the following conclusion which is open for criticism from scholars and this blog readers.

Read On
1. Seduced: Many young youth from the western world were busy playing extremist games and watching extremist videos as fun or to find out what the group is all about, then later they become attached and feel they can try it out, they believed the lies and see JIHAD as a cause worth dyeing for. Many westerners that were living in their comfort secretly ran away from home to join the terror-group based on the lies they get from ISIS most powerful recruiting tool which is the propaganda videos. 

Hoda Muthana a fmr American denied Of Citizenship after she joined ISIS and repent,today she carry the child of a slain ISIS fighter,She is regretting her actions now.

         The reverse is the Case in Africa, Now am using Northern Nigeria as a case study, where Poverty and illiteracy was the driving factors for naive northerners brainwashed by Extremist ideologies caused the voluntary enlistment into the West Africa version of ISIS called ISWAP or Boko-Haram.



2. Forced: When ISIS fighters begin to diminish in number as the battle get hotter, they resort to raiding villages, capturing teenagers and able bodied men and forced them to join the Terror group and anyone that refuses face stiff penalty.
3. Revenge: Victims of Western Air strikes unintentionally harmed, have to believe the Hoax fed by ISIS that all USA and its allies is concerned about is the destruction and oppression of the Muslim world, whether you are extremist or not,America is your enemy.
  During the Iraq war, The Shi'a Population already being  suppressed by Saddam Hussein applauded the US and its allies for intervention but that was short lived when a Shi'a Terrorist group arose and used the mistakes of US military activities which result to the loss of lives and property as a means to tell the Shi'a Population that the US government is same enemy to them as Saddam Hussein, No matter how unrealistic is that Shi'a Children Orphaned by the war believed it and took up arms to fight back.The Boston Bombings in USA was a revenge action by the two brothers that perpetuated the attack.

Christopher till date had no remorse, Same with the other man in the picture.

        Muslim westerners angered by the liberal culture of America and see it as a violator of Islam as a religion too were angered when they watched how Muslim-erotics videos were Sarcastically shared among youths, they see themselves as being suppressed by America culturally, Physically,financially and psychologically so they seek to join ISIS to carry out revenge or avenge their brothers loss against the perceived enemies of Islam.
       Perhaps one of the most important findings is that the fighters’ motivations tended to vary by their country of origin. Foreign fighters from places like the United States and Western Europe were far more likely to be facing some sort of identity crisis, a desire for a personal sense of recognition that ISIS provides. They were also more likely to be motivated by a rejection of Western culture.
4. No sense of Purpose:

Sally Jones the Punk singer joined after being radicalized by her late husband, she had no sense of Purpose.

 Vagabonds, touts and drunkards with no sense of purpose wanted to be part of something great, wanted to catch fun , experiment with combat join the terror organization without necessarily knowing what normal Islam or Extremist Islam is, the rites, the culture, they join and the group accepted them, brainwash them and then throw them at the front-lines.

5. Security Purposes:

Don't be surprise, not everybody in the group are there to come and do its activity for activity sake, There are spies sent from powerful Intelligence arm of the world to join this Terrorists, learn their way of life, fish out sensitive information about their members, report and foil Terrorist attack. The people involved here are former ISIS members cajoled by western Intelligence Agencies to spy on the group in exchange of reduced penalty, other members include Intelligence agents that risked their lives to partake in such risky operation.

These American kids lost it all.

During my findings i came across a report from Lebanon-based Quantum Communications provides some insight.
The researchers from Quantum collected televised interviews with 49 fighters in Syria and Iraq — some in custody, some who had defected, and some who were still in the fight. They analysed the fighters’ statements using a psycho-contextual analytical technique developed by Canadian psychologist Marisa Zavalloni to divine the motivational forces and personal characteristics of the subjects.
It is a small sample, not entirely random, but given the difficulty of surveying a group like ISIS, still provides value. How much value? 


The Quantum researchers grouped the fighters into nine categories, based on the reasons they gave for joining ISIS. They are:

• Status seekers: Intent on improving “their social standing” these people are driven primarily by money “and a certain recognition by others around them.”
• Identity seekers: Prone to feeling isolated or alienated,these individuals “often feel like outsiders in their initial unfamiliar/unintelligible environment and seek to identify with another group.” Islam, for many of these provides “a pre-packaged transnational identity.”
• Revenge seekers: They consider themselves part of a group that is being repressed by the West or someone else.
• Redemption seekers: They joined ISIS because they believe it vindicates them, or ameliorates previous sinfulness.
• Responsibility seekers: Basically, people who have joined or support ISIS because it provides some material or financial support for their family.
• Thrill seekers: Joined ISIS for adventure.
• Ideology seekers: These want to impose their view of Islam on others.
• Justice seekers: They respond to what they perceive as injustice. The justice seekers’ ‘raison d’être’ ceases to exist once the perceived injustice stops,” the report says.
• Death seekers: These people “have most probably suffered from a significant trauma/loss in their lives and consider death as the only way out with a reputation of martyr instead of someone who has committed suicide.”

The nine potential identities are not equally represented among the survey pool.


Drop your comment about why you think people join ISIS or maybe you are an Ex-ISIS member, you can share your view why you venture into this dangerous journey. 



Original Content written by: Afolabi Micheal.

 Afolabi Micheal, a student of Lagos state university studying political science Ed. A son of a Nigerian kick-ass war vet, a military enthusiast, a lad with a wealth of knowledge about everything you can talk about the military. he is informally into defence and military studies. Other Information about him classified for security purpose)