It’s charitable giving, but it doesn’t come from the heart. One has to give — or else.
“’Kulfa Sultaniyya’: Islamic State’s new tax in eastern Syria,” Enab Baladi, September 30, 2022 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
Since early September, Islamic State (IS) cells in Deir Ezzor have relied on fundraising operations from merchants and residents of northeastern Syria, an area controlled by the international coalition-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
IS groups are sending private messages through the WhatsApp application to some people in the villages of the northern countryside of Deir Ezzor, demanding payments as Zakat for the organization, or what it currently calls “royal cost” (Kulfa Sultaniyya).
This situation has recently escalated, according to residents and activists contacted by Enab Baladi, and it targets civilians and capital owners under threats of punishment for those who refuse to pay.
Under the heading “royal cost”
Since early September, Islamic State (IS) groups have informed traders and civilians in the northern and eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor via text messages or paper posters bearing the organization’s seal and signature about the obligation to pay Zakat.
IS warnings also targeted employees of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) (the political umbrella of the SDF), threatening them with death if they did not cease to work for AANES or to contribute to the Zakat.
Activist Obada al-Furati, a resident of the northern countryside of Deir Ezzor, told Enab Baladi that the phenomenon of fundraising is not a new one. However, the pace has risen over the past period, although there have been many SDF security campaigns against these cells in the region.
At the same time, a number of people in the region tried to exploit this phenomenon to blackmail some people and obtain financial gains under the name of the IS organization by threatening SDF employees in the area through paper posters, making it difficult to identify those behind these royalties, according to al-Furati.
The director of the Naher Media platform interested in reporting on the eastern region of Syria, Abdul Salam al-Hassan, told Enab Baladi that these royalties were imposed by the organization under the name “royal cost” (Kulfa Sultaniyya) instead of the name Zakat that the organization used to call the fundraising process during the period of its control over the region.
The use of such designation is due to the fact that the IS organization no longer controls actual areas in Syria, so Zakat may not be collected in the absence of actual control.
The researcher in jihadist groups’ affairs, Pr. Abdul Rahman al-Hajj told Enab Baladi that the organization’s efforts to survive were continuing, and fundraising in that way was one of its sources of funding.
With regard to the possible application of this mechanism in the Syrian Badia, al-Hajj added that Syria’s Badia represents an “appropriate environment” for the existence of the IS organization because control over it is difficult, in addition to the organization having a history of living in it while most of its leaders come from a tribal background, which is the trait of the social environment in the Syrian Badia.
Source of funding?
In mid-September, IS issued an audio speech by its official spokesman, Abu Omar al-Muhajir, in which he sent numerous messages, but he also called on his supporters to endorse the organization with men and money.
The messages sent by the organization through the publication centered on its demand for “Muslims to join the (Islamic State),” and it singled out the residents of Syria and Iraq as they were witnesses to their rule in the region….
