Sharia, Kalashnikovs, Islam: 10-year-old reveals life inside ISIS training camp

London: “I was told anyone who does not follow the Quran was an infidel. I was shown how shoot and behead them,” says 10-year-old Abu Adam (name changed) who was until recently one of ISIS’ poster boy for child soldiers.

A caliphate cub, as they are called, the Yazidi born child was held captive in the Al Farok Institute in ISIS held Iraq, where he, along with over 150 other young kids were indoctrinated into the radical interpretation of Islam. And it doesn’t stop there.

According to a report in the Daily Mail, the kids were trained in using military weapons such as Kalashnikovs (AK-47) and were drowned in calls of ‘death to infidels’ through the day.

“ISIS taught me to beat and kill and behead anyone who is not a Muslim and does not follow the Quran. I was told anyone who does not follow the Quran was an infidel. I was shown how to shoot and behead them. We were forced to chant; ‘I will fight for ISIS, I will fight for Sheikh Baghdadi,” he recalls.

One of the best fighters in the academy, Abu Adam, is one of the handful of the caliphate cubs to be rescued.

Describing the ordeal that the kids were put through, Adam said, “We were taught about Islam and how to fight, that was it. We were woken at 4 am for the first prayer. We went back to sleep for a couple of hours. They woke us again at 6 am. They taught us the Quran and Sharia law until 12. Then after lunch, at 1 pm, we would receive military training.”

And the training was equally strenuous. “We would start off with exercises. We would loosen up, stretch and bend our legs, do push-ups, star jumps and sit-ups. I became very strong. We stood in lines and punched the air and we learned how to box in groups. Later in the day they showed us videos of infidels being beheaded. They showed us again and again,” Adam said.

Explaining how he was trained in guns, Adam said, “ We were trained about the Kalashnikov and the pistol. They taught me how to fire it, to take it apart and how to clean it. I fired the Kalashnikov many times. I fired it at bottles of water, at trees and at dummies. They taught me to use a knife. So that when I became a soldier I would be able to behead the infidels. I had to wear the ISIS army uniform. It was camouflage like a soldier, or black or grey. I had to wear a bandana with the ISIS emblem.”

But he adds, “I did not want to fight for them or be a soldier for ISIS.”

Forced to speak in Arabic, the children were brainwashed hard to forget their Yazidi roots. Adam recalls the numerous nights he spent cooped up with other Yazidi kids, whispering in their native kurdish tongue. And finally, after completing almost an year under the terrorist organisation, Adam’s family was able to get a message through to him, aiding his escape.

But the influence of the militants is something that the 10-year-old is fighting hard to be rid off.

“During the first week his [Adam’s] mind was not good. He was still interested in Islam. He questioned his [Yazidi] religion. When we took him to the Lalish Temple [the holiest shrine in the Yazidi faith], he told me that he didn’t want to worship stones,” recollects Adam’s brother.

Adam now has a different life. He hates Islam and the ISIS, and living in a refugee camp in northern Iraq, he does not bear any physical marks from his months of captivity.

But it is difficult to gauge the psychological bearing that his ordeals have on his mind. Summing up their fears, Hussein AlQaidy, director of the Office of Kidnapped Affairs in Dohuk province, Iraq, said, “We don’t know what will become of these children in future. We fear they will harm not only Iraq but the whole world.”