Allahu Akbar – It’s for the kids
A family fun day organised by al-Qaeda’s branch in Iraq and Syria included the strange sight of an ice cream eating competition between two young boys.
The whole bizarre event was caught on tape.
The Washington Post reported:
Nothing says wholesome family fun like al-Qaeda, which is why the group’s Syrian and Iraqi branches held a festival in a rebel-held neighborhood of Aleppo. The bizarre event, captured on video, is part of a broader effort to show Syrian civilians a softer, cuddlier side to the militant jihadist movement, which has been seizing territory in Syria.
The event was hosted by two al-Qaeda-allied groups: Jabhat al-Nusra, an extremist Syrian rebel group, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which is based in Iraq and claimed responsibility for a recent jailbreak that freed hundreds of insurgents there. The groups have earned a reputation for fearsome fighting against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, but also for their severe rule over areas under their control. According to Syrian rights groups, Jabhat al-Nusra recently executed a 14-year-old boy in Aleppo for referencing the prophet Muhammad in a manner they deemed disrespectful.
The groups appear to be hoping that they can clean up their image and make friends with regular Syrians by, for example, hosting this Ramadan family fair. It’s a way to build support — regular Syrians are suffering terribly in the fighting, with food scarce and work virtually nonexistent — and to show that the groups can do things with young people other than shoot them.