(Photo Courtesy Keys for Kids Ministries)
Syria (MNN) — Kids are easily influenced, which makes the Islamic State’s practice of kidnapping young children so contemptible.
Kids as young as five-years-old are forced to become “Cubs of the Caliphate” in Northern Syria. Over time, this army of children is brainwashed to be as cruel as possible and to be willing to die fighting. They’re taught to shoot, behead, and slaughter any non-Muslim, or man, woman, or child who doesn’t practice the same extreme traditions as ISIS. Often, this may include their own people.
Business Insider shares the story of a fourteen-year-old Yazidi boy who escaped and spoke with Reuters, “They told us, ‘If you die, you will go to heaven and they [Yazidi people] will go to hell.’”
“Many of these kids have been victimized,” says executive director of Keys for Kids, Greg Yoder. “[ISIS] trains them in the way of Islamic Fundamentalism, and then they give them weapons.”
Yoder shares, “When you think of the kids of the caliphate…that are wreaking havoc in some situations in gruesome attacks…you can’t help but scratch your head and say, ‘What has our world come to?'”
Rather than viewing kids as expendable, Keys for Kids sees them as valuable. For the last 73 years, the ministry has been investing in the lives of children with the Word of God. Check out their resources.
“As Christians, our desire is to reach kids with the Gospel,” says Yoder. “Frankly, that’s what’s going to change our world. It’s not going to be…the radicalism that goes after and attacks them and kills them…. For Christians, it’s changing hearts and changing lives.”
Keys for Kids encourages and equips families to begin early to teach children to know and love God and to share Him with their friends.
Pray for the children in your circles to know they are valued by their Creator God. Pray for the desperate children used and abused by ISIS.
