The Islamic State (Isis) has reportedly released a mobile
app designed to teach Arabic alphabets to the "cubs of the caliphate"
using brightly coloured cartoon images of guns, tanks and rockets. The app was
released on 10 May by the IS's "Office of Zeal", one of the terrorist
group's propaganda outlets, onto their Telegram channels and other file-sharing
websites, according to conflict analysis website Long War Journal (LWJ).
Entitled Huroof, which means letters or alphabet in Arabic,
the app uses colourful pictures of ammunition, tanks and swords to help
children remember certain letters. For example, the Arabic letter "D"
is represented by the word "Dababa" which means "tank" in
Arabic. Following the same format, the app includes vocabulary illustrations
for "sarukh" (rocket), "dhakheera" (bullets),
"fas" (axe), "mudfae" (cannon) and "tayara"
(airplane).
The app is clearly marketed towards children, peppered with
pictures usually associated with children's learning tools, including balloons,
flowers and stars.
The app also features games that "include militaristic
vocabulary" and a nasheed (a cappella Islamic song) "littered with
jihadist terminology" to help its younger audience memorise the alphabets,
according to LWJ.
According to The Guardian, a press release released with
screenshots of the app and a link to download it said it "teaches the cubs
the alphabet letters". The terrorist organisation typically refers to its
adult militants as "lions" and its child recruits as
"cubs."
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