Wives of Daesh members say COVID-19 for infidels, non-Muslims

Shaimaa Yehia

Apparently, the terrorist Daesh group sees the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) as a divine punishment against infidels, a recent interview by Rudaw news agency with several wives of Deash militants who currently live in al-Hol camp in Kurdish controlled north-east Syria.

“Muslims won’t die of this virus, only infidels will. God has sent his army. This is one of God’s soldiers,” says one woman.

This view is consistent with Daesh’s line on the virus, which sees the pandemic as divine retribution toward “crusader nations”, according to Rudaw.

An article by the New York Times has said the daily ordeals of overcrowded latrines and contaminated water, limited medical care, flaring tensions between residents and guards, and chronic security problems have left the residents embittered and vulnerable.

A recent Pentagon report that cautioned that Daesh was regrouping across Iraq and Syria said Daesh ideology has been able to spread “uncontested” at the camp.

It is impossible to know how many of the women are Daesh believers, and many have publicly disavowed the group. But a stubborn core of followers is menacing the rest with threats, intimidation and, occasionally, violence, aid workers and researchers who have interviewed Al Hol residents said.

The result is something more like a prison than a camp, a place where security concerns often overwhelm humanitarian ones — which only heightens the danger, according to aid workers and researchers who described conditions there to The New York Times.

“Living in conditions that are difficult and being surrounded by people who are highly radical — is that conducive to deradicalization?” said Elizabeth Tsurkov, a fellow at the Forum for Regional Thinking who researches Syria and Iraq, and who has visited the camp twice recently.

Al-Hol camp provides shelter to more than 67,000 refugees from around the globe.

Its 21 health facilities receive around 40 patients each every day. However, medical professionals do not have the equipment required to test suspected COVID-19 cases themselves, and consequently need to send tests to Damascus.

Thus far, there have been no confirmed cases in north-east Syria.

Camp management fears that controlling the spread of a virus like COVID-19 in a camp setting will be terribly difficult.

According to administrative officials in the camp, the crimes of “Daesh” women are repeated from time to time, as they try to kill or punish any woman who does not adhere to their teachings, such as wearing legal clothing and adhering to prayer and its timing, and they are trained for intentional killing in several ways, including strangling or using knives and other tools. Sharp.

The crimes of Daesh women are repeated from time to time, according to reports, as they try to kill or punish any woman who does not adhere to their teachings, such as wearing legal clothing and adhering to prayer and its timing. Moreover, these women get trained on several killing methods including, strangling and with sharp objects.