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On September 17, 2015, the information office of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Al-Khair province released a video criticizing Syrian and Iraqi refugees who risk their lives to reach Europe. The video, which is 21 minutes long, featured an unidentified speaker urging Muslims to come live in the Islamic State rather than in Europe because it is obligatory upon Muslims to live in the land of Islam and leave the land of Kufr (unbelief). The video, titled "To the Camps of Abandonment" also included interviews with a number of residents of the Islamic State who called on the refugees to come live in the Caliphate. The interviewees noted that in the Islamic State, people enjoy living in dignity with their families, unlike the humiliation, danger and blackmail that they suffer in the camps and from smugglers. They also criticized Muslim leaders and scholars for being silent regarding the war being waged on ISIS and for not supporting the mujahideen.
The video also accused European countries and non-profit organizations of engaging in a "Christianization Campaigns" for refugees. Talking about those who have died in the Mediterranean sea before reaching Europe, the speaker said they were "running away from death, which, if happened while fighting for the sake of Allah, would be a martyrdom in the sake of Allah. There is no comparison between this death and the death of those drowned in the sea while on their way to the land of Kufr." He added, "You have lost the deal, lost the life and the hereafter."
To convince the refugees to return to ISIS territories, the speakers and the residents interviewed spoke positively about their lives in the Caliphate. One of them, who claimed that he had lived in Europe in the past, said: "We now [live] under the blessing of Islam. By Allah's name, we eat, drink, enjoy ourselves, have air conditioning, cars, internet and cellphones thanks to Allah. We have the worldly pleasures which they [the refugees] left to acquire." Others threatened that they would only travel to Europe as conquerors.
Source: Shomoukh Al-Islam, September 17, 2015
