´In the Skin of a Jihadist´

By using a fake Facebook account, journalist Anna Erelle (for security and safety reasons, a pseudonym) tried the traps of the digital Jihadist propaganda. In the Skin of a Jihadist is her encounter as a pretender Islam convert based in France, a girl called Melodie, as she was flirting online with Bilel, the right hand of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Daesh leader.

The initial aim was trying to understand the roots of digital Jihad, how young, often Western, girls and boys from the West are falling into the traps of the propaganda. How they cannot be horrified by the violent videos shared generously all over the social media channels? The distorted religious interpretations they are fed with do appeal a certain need of respect and balance for a loneliness and lack of belonging. 

´Melodie´ was easily caught into the net of macho pride and religious self-rightneousness. The fighter, who happen to have at least another wife, was at ease sharing information about the latest fights, as well as about the smuggling networks operating at the border between Turkey and Syria. 

What in my opinion, although the book has interesting testimonies about the psychology of the people involved in designing the Islamic state, it lacks details regarding the operations of the Jihad 2.0. Although it is hilarious to be shared details about how such a high profile Daesh fighter was longing for the fine lingerie distributed in the corrupt West, and the naive hurry of getting married online with a woman he hardly knew - despite the complex counter-spionage like teams Daesh used to have - I had the feeling that the author went way too much involved in the so-called romance. She haven´t fell in love, Gd forbid, but there is way too much space dedicated to the story instead of exploring a bit more the modus operandi, the agents and tools.

From the journalistic point of view, the book may also raise questions regarding the use of such methods in order to obtain information. We may be happy to read about such relevant details, but is this the real way to get it? Was it not possible to obtain them any other way?

In the Skin of a Jihadist by Anna Erelle - against whom there is a fatwa decision issued online - despite its shortcomings, is an important source of information about the mix between extreme movements and sophisticated online strategies, compromised by the very human feelings, such as longing for love, belonging and maybe some fine capitalist lingerie.

Within the Mind of A Daesh Follower

 

A Cameroon-born teacher who relocated to France and worked as an educator with underpriviledged children in Paris, Sophie Kasiki takes the radical decision to join the Islamic State, without actually being aware what she is doing. At least, this is what she confessed in her post-escape memoir, Dans la Nuit de Daech. Confesion d´une repentie, published by Robert Laffont. 

Recently converted to Islam, Kasiki was convinced to go to Rakka, by two young men she met at the center where she was working. As she was going through a stage of soul searching, at a very personal and family level, she thought that by ´helping´ in Syria she would be part of something bigger than her. As many other women who joined the Daesh whose testimonies I´ve read or listen to, she was promised comfort and relative luxury, a cheap life and a community of like-minded people (what exactly this means it´s a completely different subjective story). Kasiki takes her son with her telling to her husband that she is actually doing some volunteering work in Turkey. 

Once taken to Syria, her nightmare and the plan to escape is started. She will encounter there a different reality that she naively not even imagined: of abuse and extreme brutality, perpetrated by a bunch of radicalized foreigners utterly disrespectful when not openly aggressive against the local Syrians. An army of strangers took over Syrian teritory. 

As she succeeded to connect with her husband several times, he got in touch with the France anti-terror experts and despite the slow down and the bureaucratic asperities, Kasiki and her son will return to France. After some interrogation sessions and a couple of months of prison, she is free and able to share her story.

The book is an useful testimony for anyone trying to better understand the recruitment methods and the overall functioning of Daesh. It can be added as a psyhological handbook about the type of personality usually attracted to such deadly extremist adventures.

Dans la Nuit de Daech has a very simple writing, the linear kind of story from A to B, lacking any kind of serious introspection and eventually a critical evaluation of her own decisions and risks encountered. It is an useful bibliographical source - especially for the French-speaking realm - but needs a serious critical add-on.