There’s no shortage of ISIS propaganda spread on social media, but those wanting access to the extremist group’s publications could have ordered its propaganda magazine on Amazon until this weekend.
The online retailer has pulled down postings for four issues of Dabiq — the publication produced by the militant group’s media arm, known as the Al Hayat Media Center.
According to BBC, printed versions of Dabiq were available on the Amazon in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
READ MORE: Summer with ISIS? Guidebook aims to attract visitors to Islamic State
The magazines were being sold in two paperback volumes — issues 1-4 in Volume 1 and issues 5-9 in Volume 2 — which were reportedly listed on the site as being published by Amazon’s self-publishing company, the CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
Amazon has since pulled the sale from its site and posted a message stating, “This product is no longer for sale.”
READ MORE: ISIS revamps recruitment machine for West, using polished video, public-radio-style broadcasts
According to the Daily Caller website, which first posted about the online sale on the weekend, the publication was described like this:
“Dabiq is a periodical magazine focusing on issues of tawhid, manhaj, hijrah, jihad, and jama’ah. … It also contains photo reports, current events, and informative articles on matters related to the Islamic State.”
The first issue of Dabiq, titled The Return of the Khilafah (Caliphate), extolled a declaration from 2014 of its unrecognized caliphate in Iraq and Syria — the so-called Islamic State — while later issues called for attacks on western institutions such as the Vatican.
Some issues also featured purported final messages from foreign captives, whom ISIS murdered, accompanied by images showing the beheaded victim.
READ MORE: The twisted view of ISIS in latest issue of propaganda magazine Dabiq
There have also been messages purportedly written by the sole remaining foreign captive, British photojournalist John Cantlie, chastising Western government attempts to stop the spread of ISIS and the creation of the Islamic State.
Other articles in issues of Dabiq also try to present ISIS as having improved education, medical care and infrastructure in war-torn Syria.
The most recent issue, posted online in May, called We Plot and Allah Plots, shows U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry standing among Middle Eastern leaders. The issue explains ISIS’ desire to obtain a nuclear weapon that it could eventually smuggle into the U.S.
Comments