Refugee speaks out on life under al-Qaeda, ISIS brainwashing

Former Al-Nusra fighter and Syrian media activist Mustafa saw his friends being brainwashed by terrorist organization ISIS. He joined Al-Nusra in the past, because it was his best option in Syria. He fled the country when his friends tried to force him to join a terrorist organization.

The young Syrian man told his story to NOS reporter Lex Rudenkamp under the pseudenom Mustafa from an asylum center somewhere in the Netherlands, the broadcaster reports.

He hid his connection with Al-Nustra from the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and does not regret doing so. Mustafa believes that in the fight against the Syrian regime of president Assad, the Al-Nusra Front is the only group that has any decency. He first joined the Free Syrian Army, but according to him the army is weak and corrupt.

"In the West we have every reason to put Jahbat al-Nusra on the list of terrorist organizations, but in Syria this organization has a lot of support from Syrians", Runderkamp explains. "Al-Nusra is indeed religiously very fanatic, but also at war with ISIS over the power in Syria."

Mustafa no longer recognizes his friends who chose to join ISIS. He suspects that they were brainwashed. "They showed me pictures on their mobile phones of atrocities, massacres. I fled to Turkey when they forced me to choose for ISIS or Jabhat al-Nusra", he said to the NOS reporter.

Mustafa traveled to the Netherlands via the "classical route" - across the ocean and through other countries. "I did not see any ISIS-combatants on the way to the Netherlands or in the Dutch shelters", he said, adding that he does not expect any to come in the future either. "ISIS has enough money to travel in a different way."