Former ISIS Hostage: ISIS's ideology is political, not religious

[RFS_Br]

Amanpour and François.
Screen shot/CNN

Didier François, who was held hostage along with three other French journalists by ISIS for 10 months before being released in April 2014, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in an interview that his captors did not keep a copy of the Quran. Asked by Amanpour if any of the guards where he was held ever spoke to captives, François said that the hostage-keepers forcefully described their violent ideology—but that religion did not enter into the doctrine as they expressed it. Said François:

There was never really discussion about texts or—it was not a religious discussion. It was a political discussion. It was more hammering what they were believing than teaching us about the Quran. Because it has nothing to do with the Quran.

They didn’t even have the Quran; they didn’t want even to give us a Quran.
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The entire 13-minute interview is worth watching; François was held alongside since-murdered American captives including James Foley and Steven Sotloff.

France negotiated with ISIS for the release of François and the other French journalists, but has denied paying for their freedom.


Didier Francois, ISIS, Quran: Former hostage says captors did not discuss religion.