Report documents growing number of ISIL defectors

ISIL fighters are increasingly abandoning the armed group, citing brutality, corruption, terrible living conditions and violence perpetrated against fellow Sunni Muslims, according to a report released Monday.

The study (PDF), based on testimony from 58 former members of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, paints a picture of growing disillusionment with the armed group.

“When you want to stop [ISIL] from deep in your heart, you go public, and you talk about it,” said a German ISIL defector, identified as Ebrahim B., about why he was speaking out.

Defectors complained that ISIL bred fighting with other rebel groups opposed to the Syrian government of Bashar Al-Assad and implemented polices they felt distracted against the fight against Assad.

"From the defectors’ perspective, toppling the regime didn’t seem to be a priority for [ISIL], and little was done to help the [Sunni] Muslims who were targeted by it,” the report reads. “Instead, they argued, most of the group’s attention seemed to be consumed by the quarrels with other rebel groups and the leadership’s obsession with alleged ‘spies’ and ‘traitors.’”

The survey, compiled by the U.K.-based International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence (ICSR), also highlights widespread alarm about ISIL’s brutality against other Sunni Muslims. While those surveyed made little mention ISIL violence against minorities — including Kurds, Yazidis and Christians — it was common to decry violence carried out against Sunnis, whom ISIL has pledged to protect in its self-declared caliphate.

Violence against Sunnis, as described in the testimony, included the “killing of hostages, the systematic mistreatment of villagers and the execution of fighters by their own commanders.”

Other concerns focused on corrupt or “un-Islamic” practices, as well as a miserable quality of life while fighting for the group.

“While many were willing to tolerate the hardships of war, they found it impossible to accept instances of unfairness, inequality and racism, which they said went against everything [ISIL] claimed to stand for,” the report says.

Many defectors also complained about a daily life that fell short of the battlefield glories they were expecting when joining ISIL. Several defectors called their daily responsibilities dull or exploitative.

The report said the information culled from former ISIL fighters was not meant to be exhaustive, nor could it be concluded from the testimony just how representative the views were among members of the armed group. But it suggested that the trend of fighters leaving ISIL was growing and that dissatisfaction in the testimony gathered likely indicates wider disillusionment among the organization's fighters.

The ICSR collected testimony from August 2014 to August 2015, but the data suggest that the pace of defectors has quickened; a third of those surveyed left the group within the last three months.

Of the 58 defectors, more than one-third are Syrians, and nearly a quarter hailed from other countries in the Middle East.

In response to the testimony, the report suggested that Western governments craft strategies to resettle defectors outside ISIL territory and roll back legal disincentives for those fleeing the group. Many governments with citizens that have left to fight with ISIL have taken steps to cancel passports and bar individuals from returning.

The testimonies themselves remain powerful tools for countering the ISIL narrative, the report said.

“The defectors’ testimony can be important in helping to prevent young people from being radicalized and recruited,” the report said. “No one has more credibility in challenging [ISIL’s] narrative and giving a realistic impression of the group and the totalitarian society it seeks to create than the people who have experienced it.”