A German author who recently
traveled to the Middle East has declared that the Islamic State terrorist
organization is "more dangerous than people realize."
Juergen Todenhoefer, an author and
former politician who's been a critic of American foreign policy, recently went
into territory held by ISIS to investigate the militant group.
In an interview with CNN published
Monday, Todenhoefer noted that he had traveled to cities like Raqqa
and Deir Ezzor in Syria and Mosul in Iraq.
"There is an awful sense of
normalcy in Mosul," said Todenhoefer, regarding how the city was under
ISIS control.
"One hundred and thirty
thousand Christians have been evicted from the city, the Shiite have fled, many
people have been murdered and yet the city is functioning and people actually
like the stability that the Islamic State has brought them."
Todenhoefer also noted that
"many of them are quite scared, because the punishment for breaking the
Islamic State's strict rules is very severe."
Originally an affiliate of al-Qaeda
and presently led by Abu Bakr al-Bagdadi, ISIS garnered international headlines
for their sudden conquest of territory and brutal treatment of prisoners of war
and civilians.
ISIS has taken territory in Northern
Iraq and Syria, taking advantage of the latter country's power vacuum due to
its ongoing civil war.
While being denounced by numerous
Islamic leaders, ISIS continues to be a force in the region due in part to its
ability to finance its operations via oil and a black market on local
artifacts.
Oliver Moody of the British
publication The Times recently reported that
ISIS was robbing churches and other cultural centers of precious artifacts and
selling them overseas.
"Willy Bruggeman, a former
deputy director of Europol who is now president of the Belgian Federal Police
Council, said that some of the artefacts had almost certainly been sold
illegally to buyers in the UK, although none had yet been traced to
Britain," reported Moody on Wednesday.
The English language edition of
Shafaq News supported that claim in a piece written in response to the Moody
article.
"ISIS elements use bulldozers
in order to get gypsum and wall paintings from old churches, which brings them
a lot of money," reported Shafaq. "Iraqi
Intelligence Service confirmed earlier this year that ISIS was able to collect
23 million pounds from the sale of artifacts from the Syrian city of Nabaq,
which is full with Christian Collectibles."
This is not the first time that
Todenhoefer has gone to Iraq to investigate the mentality of guerilla forces
operating in the region.
In 2009, Todenhoefer had a book
published titled Why Do You Kill?: The Untold Story
of the Iraqi Resistance wherein
the author talked with various Iraqis regarding their views of American
occupation forces.
"The book attempts to explain
why this resistance is not only fighting against American troops, but also
against al-Qaeda terrorists and the foreign-backed private militias of Iraqi
politicians. It clarifies the fundamental differences between resistance
fighters and terrorists," reads the description of the book on
Amazon.
