Whether they are religious or secular in nature, ideological movements are always characterized by a very rigidly defined world view and a utopian longing to build that one, ideal society. The problem they all face, however, is how to implement their ideals once they are in power. The tactics initially employed come down to efforts to win the ‘hearts and minds’ of the population they have conquered, but in practice these exercises soon deteriorate into suppression and violence because most people’s ideas on how things should be organized tend to differ from those of the ones in power.
In the Reports from the Islamic State (IS) series, the split between ideology and practice is the central theme. ThePostOnline has come into contact with bloggers from the Syrian city of Raqqa, the would be capital of the Islamic State since January 2014. These bloggers include 23-year-old medical student Ibrahim al Raqawi, who was forced to flee from Raqqa and who is now living in another place, and with Abou Mohammed who still resides in Raqqa. They are two of the people behind the website Raqqa is being slaughtered in silence. Based on the interviews with Abou Ibrahim and Abou Mohammed, this series paints a picture of daily life in IS-conquered territory, each time focusing on a different theme or issue.
The editor of the series is Jan Jaap de Ruiter. ThePostOnline has copies of all the chat sessions, which were conducted in English and in Arabic. Today we are presenting Episode 4: ‘IS also needs to be governed – for a while they even had an ombudsman’. Click here for part 1 (on education), here for part 2 (on women) and here for part 3 (on Christians).
If you claim to be a state, you are going to have to establish some form of government. You will need to see to it that the streets are clean, that garbage is collected, and that the street lights are on at night when it is dark. In this episode, I talk to Ibrahim about the services provided by the Islamic State.
And as it turns out, there are quite a few of these services. There is an Islamic court to settle conflicts between citizens. There is an Islamic police to guarantee safety in the streets. There is an Ombudsman for any complaints against the Islamic State. An orphanage. The Hisba Bureau, in charge of overseeing that all behavior, particularly that of women, be in accordance with the IS interpretation of Sharia (see also part 2 for more on this). And there is the Consumer Protection Agency, keeping an eye on the price and the quality of goods.
The Ombudsman service was rather short-lived. The building that housed it was turned into to a Dawa Bureau. The orphans, so Ibrahim told me, got goods supplied to them only once, as an IS PR-stunt. And finally, IS put up slick billboards praising the blessings of Sharia (see the photograph below). And the Islamic State would not be a state if it had not laid down the rules for governing the city in a fancy document with the organization’s logo printed on it, just as they did for education and the position of Christians.
Billboard in the streets of Raqqa “God’s law or Man’s Law?”
The Islamic State like any regular country has its tax system, but it turns out to be quite a burden on its citizens. Due to galloping inflation, the current exchange rate for the Syrian pound is down to 200 pounds to the dollar, where before the war it used to be a relatively stable 50 pounds to the dollar. A poll tax of 1,500 Syrian pounds per month is imposed on all storekeepers. The first sanction on defaulting one’s payments is having one’s store closed for three days. The second is being closed for a month, together with a fine and three days in prison. On top of that, stores are obliged to close five times a day for prayers. Furthermore, they are no longer allowed to put their wares on the street. If they should want to anyway, they can do so in an area especially reserved for the purpose, which will cost them an additional 1,500 Syrian pounds per month. The burden of taxation is high for the traders, very high indeed. In any case, the economy suffers as a result. A VAT has been imposed on imports and exports of goods, and people with a fixed line telephone connection are charged 400 pounds a month. The Morality Police are constantly patrolling the city, making sure particularly that all goods related to women, such as bras and underwear, are not displayed openly in the markets and most certainly not in store windows.
To give me an idea of how the burden of taxation works out, Ibrahim tells me that the average family income is 12,000 pounds, so about 60 US dollars. Before the war a loaf of bread was about 15 pounds, now it is 150; butane gas canisters used to be 400 to 600 pounds, now they are 10,000 pounds; a kilo of potatoes used to be 15 pounds, now it is no less than 75 pounds. It looks like the Consumer Protection Agency has its work cut out for it.
And a lot of people have lost their jobs. Lawyers for instance. They are no longer allowed to practice, because they do not operate in accordance with Sharia law, which to all intents and purposes makes them kafirs, infidels. Now they will just have to see how to make ends meet.
Still, IS cannot seem to get things running properly, let alone keep it that way. Thus on average there is only four hours of electricity per day, so that doctors in the hospitals are constantly faced with equipment they cannot operate because there is no power.
The bombings by the Americans and their Coalition of the Willing have only made things worse. The oil installations have been bombed, which no doubt is a blow to IS, but even more so to the population if they have to go without oil or gas, or will only be able to get some at extremely high prices, to warm their houses with winter being just around the corner. Besides this, the missiles have also hit the most important hospital of Raqqa.
On top of or maybe because of all this, income inequality is rising, something that is apparent also from Caliph Ibrahim’s latest missive. To celebrate the Feast of the Sacrifice all his men are getting a financial bonus of about $ 100.00 and one sheep each, but ordinary citizens get nothing.
When I asked him how he felt about the American bombings, Abou Ibrahim showed little enthusiasm. The IS men disappear among the regular people, blending in as it were. So far (date of the interview: September 30th, 2014) only about 100 of them are believed to have been killed. Moreover, IS’s popularity will only increase now that more than ever before the movement can claim the role of martyrs.
According to Ibrahim the solution lies in the Free Syrian Army first driving out the Assad regime with the help of bombings, and after that join up with the Americans and together fight IS. The fact that Americans take up arms against IS while earlier they failed to take action against Assad has rubbed many regular Syrians the wrong way. As ever in war, it is the ordinary people that end up paying the price.
Translated by Hans Verhulst
