Four Syrians are trying to take on ISIS in an unexpected way – they're making satirical videos to get people to laugh at the Islamist group.
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The Daya Altaseh collective hopes their videos will undermine ISIS' self-styled image as a serious group that must be feared and cannot be questioned. Daya Altaseh also want to use the videos to show that ISIS' interpretation of Islam does not represent the vast majority of Muslims, the Guardian has reported.
The video above, called "The Prince," depicts an ISIS leader as someone who listens to Arabic pop music and sends pouty selfies to women when no one is looking.
The four Syrians all fled to Turkey due to the horrific civil war in their country, which enters its fifth year this month. ISIS is one of a host of armed groups battling for territory there.
The collective's members – Youssef Helali, Mohammed Damlakhy, Maen Watfe, and Shaza Brimo, who also goes by the name Aya Brown – all left their homes in the Syrian city of Aleppo to relocate to southern Turkey.
The Syrian civil war has killed around 200,000 people and forced over half of the population to flee their homes, according to a UN-backed report released earlier this week. Most of those who fled have remained displaced within Syria.
ISIS has risen to prominence over the last year by taking over parts of Iraq and Syria, and by releasing brutal execution videos. It has used a slick online presence to recruit people from both Middle Eastern and western countries.
The Daya Altaseh collective say they have received death threats from ISIS supporters because of their videos, and they had to move to a new studio after unknown Syrian men tried to track them down in January, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Other attempts to ridicule ISIS include satirical television shows made and aired in Middle Eastern countries including Iraq and Lebanon, and a Japanese meme using screenshots from an ISIS video in January.