My Journey into the Heart of Terror by Jürgen Todenhöfer

Author:Jürgen Todenhöfer
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781771642255
Publisher: Greystone Books
Published: 2016-02-19T05:00:00+00:00

DAY 2, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2014

IT IS 4:00 AM. The fighters are getting ready for morning prayers. I can hear footsteps and voices. Later, they prepare their breakfast in the kitchen. It’s way too early for me. I stay in bed and sleep on. Five hours later, we get up. There is a knock on the door so loud that Malcolm thinks the GSG 9 (German counterterrorism and special operations group) has arrived. Completely terrified, he sits straight up in bed. The door opens and the IS fighter with the American accent asks in English: “You guys need anything? Some eggs? Tea?” Room service IS style. Sure, why not?

When he does in fact reappear ten minutes later with scrambled eggs, canned tuna, jam, flatbread, and tea, we’re quite amazed. “There you go. Typical IS breakfast,” he says as he turns to leave after bringing us, apparently, a typical IS breakfast.

Frederic asks him, “Are you from New Jersey?” His accent reminds Frederic of a friend he has in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey. He’s almost sure of it.

“What makes you think that?”

“You sound like you’re from Paterson, Jersey.”

“Close.” He doesn’t say any more than that. He just laughs and leaves to join the other fighters.

On the way to the washroom, I see five people from IS sitting in the sun in the courtyard chatting. Three seem to be in their early to mid-twenties, the other two perhaps in their late thirties. Somehow, the whole picture is really surprising. We are with IS and we’re being treated really well. Right in the middle of a war zone. A few days ago, none of us would have thought that possible. Was something awful awaiting us just over the horizon?

WHILE WE SPEND the morning waiting in the courtyard enjoying the sun, we can hear bombs going off in the distance. But the noise doesn’t seem to interest anyone here. The fighters sit down beside us and want to know what we have in mind. We want to know exactly the same thing about them. But the young men of IS have made up their minds, and they don’t want to reveal their real identities under any circumstances. Treading cautiously, we discover snippets about their former lives. They are very eager to talk about the future and less eager to talk about the past. However, the breakfast American does admit he’s from New Jersey. He used to work in Hawthorne, twenty minutes from Paterson. Frederic knows the area like the back of his hand.

From the young man from New Jersey, we hear sentences such as: “If the Americans come to al-Dawla al-Islamiya, they’ll find themselves in a second Fallujah.” Or: “Muslims have been oppressed for hundreds of years. That’s why we’re going to fight on to the end now to protect the weak. We’ll protect the Christians as well, if they want to live amongst us.” Over and over again, he tries to explain to us that Christians don’t have any problems in IS. All they have to do is pay a small protection tax.

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