T
he importance of the media in mobilizing public opinion and
highlighting thorny issues in society is well known. Since the beginning of
the Syrian revolution, it has received widespread media attention that the
local, Arab and international media continued to cover the course of events
in Syria, each according to its own policies. And after the participation of
many external parties and the involvement of foreign militias and foreign
fighters in the Syrian conflict, the Syrian issue has turned from a revolution
of people demanding their legitimate rights in citizenship and democracy,
to a case of war against terrorism represented by Islamic organizations and
their fighters.
From this standpoint, Arab, Western and local media outlets gave a great
importance to monitoring news of the “Islamic State” (ISIS) and the war
against it and the problems caused by the presence of this group within the Arab and Syrian society in particular. Among these problems, we
can observe that the families of migrant fighters move to live in Syria with
their children, and marriages of foreign fighters affiliated with ISIS to Syrian women took place. The media outlets have differently reported on the
consequences of the existence of “ISIS”, in accordance with their various
policies and orientations.
65
| “Children of ISIS” in the Western and Arab media
According to United Nations data, the “Al-Hol” camp includes about 75,000
people, 15% of whom are foreigners. 19% are women, while children
HUMANS WITHOUT RIGHTS
The attention of the international community, through the media, has
turned to the children stranded in Syria, given that these children were
brought by their parents to fight in Syria from the point of view of some
Western media. The problem was presented from one point of view, which
is the return of foreign fighters and their children to their home countries,
as it is a thorny issue in all the countries from which they came. Especially,
after several countries refused to bring children back from Syria, for fear of
the security implications that may occur after they resided in an extremist
society. Many of the reports described the children as the “children of ISIS,”
or as the face or new generation of terrorism.
Most of the reports focused on the “Al-Hol” camp in Syria, which is under
the rule of the Kurdish “Autonomous -Administration” and the conditions
of the families of ISIS fighters after the collapse of their last stronghold in
Syria in 2017.
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