Isis orders civilians to hand over 'enemy' satellite dishes before Ramadan starts as videos show receivers being smashed

The group attempted to ban satellite receivers last year to stop access to 'crusader' television

Isis is ordering civilians living in its territories to hand over or destroy their satellite television receivers to stop the influence of “crusader” channels.

The terrorist group has launched a propaganda campaign styling the move as a “media war” against its enemies, showing dishes and boxes being stamped on, thrown from buildings and steamrolled.

Footage filmed in Iraq and Syria, including in Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor provinces, showed men and children joining in the destruction by jumping on scrap piles and taking axes and hammers to the equipment.

“Crusaders, your dishes will be used as scrap metal for our IEDs to tear your flesh to pieces in your own homes,” an Isis fighter told the camera, according to a translation by Riam Dalati.

Activists from Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently posted photos of a leaflet posted around the so-called Islamic State’s de-facto capital, which told residents to destroy their satellite receivers or hand them over to the “Hisba” religious police by the start of Ramadan next week.

The Muslim holy month has previously seen an upsurge in activity by Isis, with followers encouraged to launch terror attacks around the world and militants cracking down on any perceived infractions in its territories.

It is not the first time the group has taken aim at foreign television, including religious channels funded by Saudi Arabia and news broadcasters al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya.

There have been several attempts to ban satellite dishes, which were denounced as the “enemy within” in January following a “caliphate”-wide ban.

An infographic published in an Isis newspaper said they “spread false news” about the mujahedin and “disrupted their jihad” by turning other Muslims against them.

It also accused satellite television of “insulting Allah and making fun of his religion…with vile dramas”, promoting democracy and secularism, spreading immorality “by showing women, music videos, and so forth”, and even “propagating sorcery, charlatanism and rationalist philosophies that poison the mind”.

Isis runs its own television network, as well as radio stations, online “news” agencies, social media channels, magazines and newspapers, while strictly controlling people’s access to information.

Civilians are encouraged to visit dozens of “media points” run by followers, where they can watch Isis-mandated programmes and access propaganda videos and materials.

Militants started forcibly removing televisions from civilian homes in Raqqa in January, weeks after satellite dishes were declared to be the “machinations of Satan”.

Buying, selling, exchanging or repairing the receivers was specifically forbidden in a document that claimed to apply to all areas of its so-called Islamic State.

Refugees fleeing its Iraqi stronghold of Mosul have reported similar crackdowns, with one woman who managed to reach Europe with her husband and two young children saying militants did not allow them to watch television and controlled “every aspect of your life”.

Its latest propaganda push comes amid a series of military losses, with Isis fighting to retain control of the Iraqi city of Fallujah, as well as an advance by rebels on its territories in Syria’s Raqqa province.