The Islamic State Is Recruiting the Deaf. Now One Organization Is Trying to Save Them.

When the president of the Deaf Bible Society learned that the Islamic State was attempting to recruit Muslim members of the deaf community, he decided to take action.

J.R. Bucklew was alerted back in March to the promotion of a video from the Islamic terror group that attempted to recruit deaf individuals in the Middle East — something that led him and his organization to launch a Christian resource aimed at reaching the deaf in the religion.

The leader of the Deaf Bible Society, a global organization that works to bring the Bible to deaf individuals across the world, said that he believes biblical access is a "human rights issue" and that he wants to be sure that every individual has "true and free access" to the holy book.

Part of the problem, Bucklew said, is the fact that deaf people in the Middle East have limited resources, so when a group like the Islamic State comes in and starts trying to teach its philosophy, the deaf do not necessarily have any other information that is consumable.

Listen to Bucklew describe the problem at the 36:00 mark below:

In fact, Bucklew said that there is "little to no access to Bible content" in the region, where more than 20 different sign languages are spoken.

He said that a printed Bible doesn't do the job either, as many deaf individuals in the Middle East can't read; also, the written word is not their "heart language," leading to a loss of meaning and tone when deaf individuals do read the text.

"[The deaf in the Middle East] have no true access to information and content and now all of the sudden you have a video that spread through the community that said, 'Hey, come join our team. We provide hope for you, we provide jobs for you, we provide empowerment for you,'" Bucklew said of the Islamic State video. "And the deaf are saying, 'You know what, we've seen a lot of bad stuff but this is the only thing that I've seen on video that I can identify with in language.'"

When he saw the Islamic State recruitment video aimed at the deaf, he said that he wanted to create a video resource that would help teach the deaf in the region about Jesus Christ's life. That resource, which is expected to release by the end of the year, will be used in an undisclosed country and will feature an unnamed sign language; this information is not currently being released due to security concerns.

The film was recorded by a native signer from the Middle East who is a refugee living in the U.S., and it has been tested by others in the Middle East. To ensure the individual's safety, he or she will be disguised with makeup and prosthetics.

Bucklew is hoping that the video message, which is two hours in length, will give those who see is hope after it is distributed through an app and on the Internet.

"Finding out that Jesus loves them and speaks their own language is incredibly affirming," he said in a statement announcing the project.