ISIS Recruiting Pharmacy Students Through Social Media

Meghan Ross, Associate Editor

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is using social media to recruit Israeli Arab pharmacy and medical students studying in Jordan to work in its field hospitals, according to Business Insider.



The terrorist group’s reasoning for targeting pharmacy students is its issues with finding qualified medical personnel to treat its fighters.



ISIS has been using verses from the Koran to remind students about their Islamic duty to treat injured Muslims, Business Insider reported. The students have been asked to fly to Turkey and then to Iraq or Syria to start working at ISIS’s bases, where they would treat wounded fighters.



“They try to develop a personal connection with them, that they are obligated as Muslims to treat the organization’s wounded who are fighting against [Syrian President Bashar] Assad’s regime,” a source told Business Insider.



The source also said ISIS is telling the students that they do not have to fight and that it would be a “great deed” to work in its field hospitals.



Business Insider reported that some families have helped students stay away from the ISIS calls, but for others, the Israeli security services has had to step in and persuade them not to go; otherwise, they could face prison time.



Police and the Shin Bet internal security service estimate that more than 30 Israeli Arabs have joined ISIS, Business Insider reported. One Israeli doctor named Othman Abdelkayan joined ISIS in Syria in May, which is when he was supposed to take up a residency program at a medical center. In October, his family reported that he had died in Syria, according to Business Insider.

