It’s been more than a year since Shaam and Ibrahim left Syria. Although both men appear to have shifted comfortably back into everyday life, they admit they are fearful of being arrested if they are caught talking about their experiences in Syria. While they acknowledge the risks individuals who have joined ISIS may pose in the UK, they also believe they've been betrayed by the UK government, which now potentially classifies them as terrorists despite just two years ago having proposed to arm rebels against the regime.

They also say that without being able to openly talk about their experiences, they are unable to help the increasing number of Britons heading to Syria, many of whom, according to Shaam, “don’t know what they are getting into”.

He continues: “You have all these groups talking about why young people are becoming radicalised and joining groups like ISIS, and there’s no one who can really tell them why what they’re doing is wrong. The groups who are currently talking about deradicalisation have no credibility – you need someone with on the ground experience of the conflict, and people who also believe in the idea of proper jihad … so that you can tell young people what they’re doing isn’t Islamically authentic.”

As the nature of the conflict in Syria has changed, so have the motivations of foreign fighters, Ibrahim says: “It’s not about fighting Assad any more. The smaller opposition groups who just wanted to fight the regime aren’t there wholeheartedly, and people who believed in the resistance have left.” He believes that the rise of ISIS means smaller groups “no longer have an Islamic identity – they don’t have the same faith in Islamic goals as ISIS or Jabhat al-Nusra, which might be why they aren’t moving forward".

Ibrahim fears that as the situation in Syria becomes more dangerous, there will be fewer Britons who will travel to fight Assad, although he believes the lure of ISIS, especially online, means that “vulnerable young people, especially those who aren’t really practising [Islam], will be attracted to them.

“The hype about fighting Assad is over, and larger groups like ISIS will have an appeal to these guys – they are in a vulnerable state, and they’re like a sponge, they’ll believe anything.”



