In a new Alhurra documentary series, ISIS defectors provide first-hand accounts that reveal the extremist group’s entrenched culture of deception, intimidation, cruelty, drugs, and sexual abuse.  The series, Exiting ISIS, debuts this Saturday, July 1, at 20:00 GMT.

Through rare interviews, the 13-part series tells the stories of former ISIS members who provide unique insights into life in the Islamic State.  They show ISIS’s hypocrisy as it captivates its followers with the promise of a global Muslim caliphate.  Exiting ISIS documents why ISIS militants joined the armed group and ultimately decided to escape.  Defectors provide revelatory details about how foreign fighters were recruited; how they travelled to Iraq and Syria to join the fight; how women were forced to torture other woman who have transgressed by singing, listening to music, dressing with insufficient modesty, or leaving their homes without a male escort.

In each episode, Exiting ISIS provides insightful testimonials of deserters denouncing ISIS’s lies, its false promises, its cult of violence and death, and its widespread corruption and inequality. They believe that, in doing so, they will reveal the truth about ISIS and discourage future potential recruits from joining.

“It is essential that the defectors be able to share with our audience their first-hand accounts of the ordeals they have endured living under ISIS and the horrors they witnessed,” stated MBN President Brian Conniff. MBN manages and oversees Alhurra Television. “This series communicates the fear and terror felt by those trapped under ISIS rule.”

The first episode of Exiting ISIS profiles a 22-year-old Iraqi from Hawija, known as Mohammed.  He details how intimidation forced him into ISIS. Once he joined the group, his conscience was shocked by the injustice and the manipulation of Islamic teachings by ISIS to advance their corrupt agenda and soon wanted to leave. He shares the fear that he felt when he tried to run away and how he was forced to remain in the group to protect his family from retaliation.  Mohammed stresses that ISIS works to obscure these bitter realities and that the group is far removed from true Islamic teachings.

Exiting ISIS will also be streamed on Facebook Live when it debuts on Alhurra.

(Source: Alhurra press release)