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Daesh Militant Captors 'Didn't Even Have the Quran,' Says Former Hostage

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electrotek2/04/2015 6:18:34 pm PST

There’s truth to that CuriousLurker. This piece from Foreign Policy has this to say:

Nor would such pamphlets change the opinion of the group of men gathered in Zarqa. None of them appeared to be particularly religious: Not once did the conversation turn to matters of faith, and none budged from their seats when the call to prayer sounded. They appeared driven by anger at humiliations big and small — from the police officers who treated them like criminals outside their homes to the massacres of Sunnis in Syria and Iraq — rather than by a detailed exegesis of religious texts.

The men, for instance, did not see a contradiction between supporting the jihadis’ austere version of Islamic law while also holding a basic enthusiasm for recreational drug use.

“We don’t take drugs,” said Jihad, the former drug dealer, before seemingly backtracking. “But we know the deals [for where to get drugs cheaply] … so when we want it, we could get it.”

At that point, the group of men burst into uproarious laughter, and began listing the most popular drugs — marijuana, the amphetamine Captagon, and the opioid Tramadol. Jihad told a story of giving a friend who was experiencing withdrawal symptoms an “antidote,” which appeared to be more drugs.

The men laughed harder, and for a second the Islamic State was forgotten. It could have been a crowd of friends gathered anywhere in the world.