Denis Cuspert, aka Deso Dogg, became notorious for joining the Islamic State, but this film turns the lens elsewhere: to German and international civilians fighting terror militias in northern Syria. As Germany deploys Tornado jets and supplies weapons abroad, volunteers on the ground take up arms alongside Kurdish commandos to stop IS and build an alternative society based on gender equality, religious freedom, and the rejection of the death penalty. Journalist Sebastian Weiss embeds near the front line, meeting ex-soldiers, social workers, and unlikely fighters—from a teenage Canadian to a Polish mother—battling just kilometers from Raqqah.
Tag Archives: attacks
The Rise of Deadly Tiger Attacks
Residents of the protected Leuser National Park in Aceh struggle to keep Sumatran tigers away from their livestock and homes. Once a rarity, these kinds of attacks are now on the rise in North Sumatra. Between 2019 and 2020, Sumatran tigers killed at least 20 cattle in this region alone.
The attacks are also an economic strain on the region’s farmers, costing around $10,000 in lost cattle. But there’s another, more concerning outcome of the rise in attacks—an environment of fear amongst those who call the forest borderlands their home.
The Canadians Joining ISIS
Canadian authorities have reported that at least 130 citizens are involved in extremist activities abroad, with 30 in Syria alone. In Calgary, five youths who attended the 8th & 8th Musallah mosque are known to have joined the Islamic State, leading the Canadian media to emphatically label Calgary a hotbed of terrorism.
In response to two so-called “lone wolf” attacks last year, Canada’s Conservative government introduced controversial anti-terrorism legislation, which some fear will only further marginalize the country’s Muslim population. Suroosh Alvi traveled to Calgary to investigate allegations of radicalization among the city’s Muslim youth, speaking with the imam of the 8th & 8th Musallah, as well as the mother of Damian Clairmont, who died in Syria fighting for the Islamic State.