To fight and die for a cause is certainly admirable, but what if that cause is one that strikes terror into the heart of the free world, while showing contempt and disregard for human lives? This is what the Islamic terror group ISIS specializes in, and while their influence is on the wane in places like Iraq, the anti-Christian ideology continues to be dangerous and might be deemed to even be “romantic” by certain quarters. What are some of the main causes in which people join up with ISIS? Apparently, food and money are two of the main driving factors, especially among the young and gullible.

There are eighty-one accused men and boys who are reformed, having served some time in prison after fighting for ISIS in Syria, have been released in order to be reunited with their respective families.

It was interesting and enlightening to peer into the exact reasons as to why these people joined ISIS when the version of Islam practiced by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his army of terrorists happen to be at the most fundamental level, a very pure version of Islam that harks back to the 7th century. According to a certain Ezadeen Khalaf, who is a former shepherd, he claimed that he decided to pack his bags and join up with ISIS out of desperation, and not because he had this urge to kill people in the name of Allah and Muhammad.

Khalaf bared his heart out, sharing, "We were poor and hungry. Either you join ISIS and earn a salary or you have nothing." In fact, it is a refreshing turn to hear word that Khalaf himself and many others have now signed up to bring the fight to ISIS instead, be it on the ground or ideologically speaking.

Being poor and hungry are good enough reasons for anyone to sign up for any cause, as long as there is food on the table for the next meal and a little bit of extra money to spend on the side at the end of the day. In fact, history has repeated itself here yet again as the disillusionment with the existing social and economic structure is a fertile breeding ground for such militant ideas.

It is important to note that poverty and hunger are not the only reasons that drive people to sign up with ISIS, as there are several thousands of other young Muslims who have joined ISIS for reasons that they themselves know. Most of these people hail from Europe, but have decided to reject the freedom and other Western values, replacing it with extremism instead.

In fact, some of these people who grew tired of life within their communities took the extreme route of returning home for one sole reason: to carry out terror attacks. There are other less complex reasons for hooking up with this Islamic terrorist outfit, where a group of women from Indonesia shared in a northern Syria refugee camp that they made the 5,000 mile trek back in 2015 simply because they believed all of the ISIS propaganda that they have been bombarded with.

One of the women even mentioned that Syria is the “best place in the world and the people in there very happy, no poor, no sad." However, reality has proven to be very different once these women arrived, being abused (sometimes sexually) while remaining imprisoned by the extremists because they did not want to take up arms. Another shared candidly, "Not just naïve, we are stupid. We deceived very easily."

Anger, ignorance, and poverty are the main driving factors that ISIS continues to draw on in order to bolster their thinning ranks, and the war might be over soon with gains made by coalition forces in what were once ISIS strongholds.