Security & Moral Predicament: The ISIS Women and Cubs

By Max Coutinho

The Islamic Caliphate has been declared dead but it left a trail of women and children whose destiny poses a moral and security predicament: should many of them, with western nationalities, be allowed to return? If not, where will they go and what should be done to them?

The Right Not to Return

The  Women Problem

There are reports that the women who left the West, to either join their husbands in ISIS, or get married to ISIS fighters, thought they would have a better life in the Caliphate. I’m in no position to judge their life in Europe, or in any other Western country, but it’s hard to imagine that life in a scenario of chaos and destruction would be better than living on this side of the world. Nevertheless, they now claim to have been tricked by either their husbands or handlers.

Facts: Many of those women were trained to kill. Many of those women are members of Terror Cells. And many of those women will not hesitate to use children to achieve their terrorist goal. Many of those women are firm submitters and blind by Islamist ideology.

This is the first time we have found a terrorist cell that was entirely composed of women - Abdelhak Khiame, Morocco's Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations

There is enough reasonable doubt not to allow these women to return to the West. But it is also understandable that Arab countries may not want them because they do pose a threat to Islamic Monarchies. And there lies the dilemma: if they are allowed to come back, the West incurs the risk of bringing back home terrorists or entire sleeper cells; if we negotiate with Arab countries to accept them and grant them full rights, as citizens, then they risk integrating terrorists or entire sleeper cells (which would backlash against the West later on). So, what’s the solution: incarcerate them, where, and for how long?

[The Islamic State] is using increasing numbers of women to evade security measures and spearhead a wave of attacks across Europe and the Islamic world as it loses territory in the Middle East - Abigail R. Esmand (source)

If those women are allowed to return they can always be jailed but how much would that cost the Tax Payer? If they are accepted in the Middle East, their Law will sentence them to death – this may sound awful but that’s the Islamic Law and since those women are Muslim, they have to submit themselves to that Law not to the West’s. Do we have the right to interfere with the Legal Proceedings of other Sovereign States? Nay. Besides, those women made a conscious decision before moving to the Middle East to support ISIS.

What about their children?

The Children Problem

Many of those women were married off with the sole intention of breeding children for the Caliphate; many of them already left with their children (in pursuit of their husbands); notwithstanding, the fate was the same: their offspring was transformed into the Cubs of the Caliphate, or the Lion Cubs – small children trained to shoot and behead infidels.

How many of those children were trained to blow themselves up too? How many of them were trained to drop off bombs undetectably?

How many of them were trained to tell a very good story to Western authorities once caught? After all, who wouldn’t believe in a small child? Western sensitivities will be used to their advantage.

Disengagement and Deradicalisation Programmes

One can already hear the growls of Humanitarian Activists defending Holistic Measures to counter the threat. Suggestions will fly left and right: the women and children are to be subjected to Disengagement and De-radicalisation programmes even though researchers like Jessica Stern have already showed there is no evidence of their success – in fact, there is one example of a Saudi element who graduated from a de-radicalisation programme and upon his release became the Al-Qaeda deputy leader in Yemen (read more Here).

Even if those women are put through these Holistic programmes there are no guarantees they won’t relay the baton to other radicalised converts, or Muslim-born women. If those children are enrolled in those Holistic exercises, they may not act upon what they were taught, however, they will be more susceptible to re-recruitment by other radical elements in the future – so far, there is no way to know what will be the long term effects of their training in the Caliphate (will they become psychopaths, serial-killers, what?).

Moreover, bringing those elements back would demand a substantial increase in resources to boost National Security:

• 24/7 surveillance of all returning elements
• Monitoring all attended Mosques and Cultural Centres
• Building Quick Response Units in case the elements are caught in suspicious activities
• Building facilities to lock them up in case of an emergency
• Change the laws to allow for the incarceration of Child Terrorists.
• Change the laws to grant more powers to Security Forces

Is the West political and financially prepared for all this?

Conclusion

Holistic Programmes do not seem to work. There is reasonable doubt about the innocence of ISIS wives and widows – let’s not forget that most of those women were active parties in the sexual enslavement of Yazidi Women.

In some cases, [the wives] were the ones who made women shower and put on clean clothes and makeup before they were brought to the men to be raped, (...) They were absolutely complicit, and they knew very well what they were doing. (Source)

There is a high level of threat, this is undeniable; therefore, those women and children are not be allowed to return to the West. They waivered their right to return the day they decided to join the ranks of a Terror Organisation and help to build the Islamic Caliphate.

So, what is the solution to this problem? These women are War Criminals and they are to be tried as such, be it in special courts set up by the West (in Detention Camps in the Middle East) or in Islamic Courts – which should be the preferred option as States are not to teach people that their actions do not have consequences (we reiterate: they did choose to become Muslim).

There is also reasonable doubt about the ISIS Cubs: they are potential dormant weapons. Many will try to compare them to the Child Soldiers in Africa, but it’s not the same thing as the African children were drugged with chemicals and then induced to kill, whereas ISIS Cubs were drugged with religious ideology and explained why infidels are such a threat to the Way of the Prophet. Only a very tiny number of the Cubs will succeed in subliming the terrorist training, but most will either become sadistic, psychopaths or terrorists.

So, what could the solution to this problem be? These children are also War Criminals but since the Western Law doesn’t foresee prosecuting small children (and ISIS knew it), they should be enrolled in Islamic Boarding Schools supervised by the Arab States (who are directly accountable for their future) with Western assistance.

This case is yet another proof that we need to adjust our Laws to punish war criminals of all ages and genders – so far, we have mostly gone after men.

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