An ISIS Couple’s Troubling Path to Terror Recruiting

New York Times ^ | March 24, 2019 | Hannah Beech and Jason Gutierrez

[reaganaut1]

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines — She was a Catholic math whiz with an M.B.A. from one of the best universities in the Philippines. He was the Muslim descendant of a sultanate family, schooled in computer science.

The couple, Ellen Barriga and Mohammad Reza Kiram, could have served as the model of a modern interfaith marriage. Instead, they are poster children for how violent ideology transformed educated Filipinos into agents of death for the Islamic State.

In 2015, Ms. Barriga and Mr. Kiram traveled to Syria to join the terrorist group, becoming key recruiters of other Southeast Asians, according to Philippine and American intelligence officials.

In January, American-backed Syrian forces announced that the pair had surrendered, joining thousands of foreign militants caught between a crumbled caliphate, which lost its last territory in the region on Saturday, and home countries reluctant to take them back.

A year after arriving in Syria, Mr. Kiram, wavy-haired with jutting cheekbones, appeared in a video for the Islamic State. In it, he and a Malaysian and Indonesian urged foreigners to wage jihad in Muslim parts of the Philippines, where the Islamic State has been gaining strength.

“Worshipers of the cross,” he warned, “we will use the language of swords and language of bullets. Our brothers in the path of Allah will soon rise in your own land.”

Holding a dagger, Mr. Kiram then beheaded a hostage kneeling in front of him.

Last year, the United States Treasury Department placed sanctions on Mr. Kiram, 29, for “brutal acts as part of a propaganda campaign to attract radicals to join militant terrorist groups in Southeast Asia.”

Ms. Barriga, who converted to Islam after earning an accounting degree, has been accused by the Philippine authorities of channeling Islamic State funds to local militants and aiding in a failed bombing attempt

[reaganaut1]

I have some sympathy for people born into the Muslim faith. Nobody chooses their parents. I have no sympathy for people who convert to Islam and become jihadists. I can't control who my children marry, but I have told them I will not attend a Muslim wedding.

[Steve_Seattle]

I’m surprised this story saw the light of day. I’ll give the NYT credit for this one.

[2banana]

When a Christian woman marries a muslim man...it never turns out well. Especially when you move to a muslim country.

[FreedomPoster]

Especially if there are children involved. They are the property of the husband, period.

[Cowboy Bob]

I think we should treat these people in a humane way - they should be “put to sleep.”

[Lurkinanloomin]

The more devout the muslim the more dangerous they are.

Mad Mo made it so.

[Capt. Tom]

“We need to figure out how people like Reza Kiram, with no prior indication, become violent extremists,” said Col. Leonel Nicolas, the commander of the joint task force in the southern city of Zamboanga, where Mr. Kiram grew up.

IMHO Mr.Kiram asked himself what good is worldly gains if I don't do what Allah wants done.
Then he follows the fundamentals of his Islamic faith and kills us Kafirs.

The problem is, following the fundamentals of Islam to please Allah, and by following the examples set by Allah's messenger Muhammad, and the 1400 years of Jihad by fundamental Muslims. -Tom

[Secret Agent Man]

They ought to be. They were here under Christian marriafes for centuries as well. Its why they get his last name.