Can the West Fight ISIS Without Forgetting About Assad?

In this week’s Global Thinkers podcast, Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently co-founders Abdalaziz Alhamza and Hussam Alissa describe the dangers of reporting on the Islamic State and debate the best way to get the international community’s attention. FP Middle East editor David Kenner hosts.

About the participants:

Abdalaziz Alhamza and Hussam Alissa are 2015 Global Thinkers and co-founders of Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), a collective of citizen-journalist activists that tirelessly works to document the Islamic State’s brutality — crucifixions, beheadings, sexual slavery — in the Syrian city of Raqqa, the Islamic State’s self-declared capital. Many of its members work anonymously for security reasons; this past fall, two Syrian journalists — one an RBSS member, another a friend — were killed for their work. Since RBSS was formed in April 2014, its Twitter following has grown to some 50,000, and its dozens of videos on YouTube have hundreds of thousands of views. The Committee to Protect Journalists recently honored RBSS with an International Press Freedom Award. Follow RBSS on Twitter: @Raqqa_SL.

David Kenner is the Middle East editor at FP. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidKenner.

This podcast was recorded at FP’s annual Global Thinkers celebration in Washington, D.C.

Subscribe to the Global Thinkers podcast and other FP podcasts on iTunes here.