In the Skin of a Jihadist: A Young Journalist Enters the ISIS Recruitment Network by Anna Erelle

Author:Anna Erelle [Erelle, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Non-Fiction, Autobiography, Memoir, Politics, War, Terrorism, Religion, Islam, France
ISBN: 9780062417091
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2015-05-25T14:00:00+00:00

The next day

André sat in on our conversations less and less. He didn’t have time, and he’d already photographed Bilel and Mélodie from every imaginable angle. He also thought we had everything we needed for our story. We’d gathered a considerable amount of information on Internet jihadism, and many of our questions had been answered. He was especially convinced that our story would elicit retaliation, and he feared that the longer we let Mélodie exist, the more I was at risk. “Until we put an end to this,” he said, “you’re always going to want more information.” I agreed with him about the risk, and the danger of retaliation, since Bilel knew my face. But I was still hungry for more. I received almost daily news from families affected by the departure of a child. They were all desperate. And I hadn’t yet learned enough from Bilel to be able to help them. Bilel talked and boasted a lot, but much of what he said wasn’t interesting, and it was difficult to guide him toward important topics. Still, thanks to Mélodie I’d learned things I never could have grasped on my own. But it wasn’t enough. I hadn’t yet come up with an exit strategy. And some part of me felt like I owed her an honorable end, after all she’d had to endure. This story went beyond professional interest; it was personal. I realized I’d put so much of myself into it that my curiosity had become both legitimate and unhealthy. André understood and let me “do my thing,” but urged caution.

With André gone, Mélodie no longer communicated every day with Bilel. It drove him crazy, and I reveled in this small act of vengeance: denying him access to the woman he’d grown so attached to, Mélodie. She gave excuses: her mother wouldn’t let her use the family computer, and she could only contact him when she managed to get her hands on the MacBook hidden in her room. They’d only been able to Skype twice, during which sessions he’d spoken only of marriage. I wasn’t able to get him to supply any new information. I continued tracking the presence of the Islamic State’s mujahideen on the Internet. Photographs depicted them proudly posing next to bodies that they had decapitated. The victims were mostly Muslims. The Islamic State uses sensationalist, Hollywood-style propaganda in its quest for expansion, convincing recruits to join its forces—and only its forces. One example: ISIS’s “martyrs”* have peaceful smiles and angelic faces in propaganda photos, while the remains of its adversaries are hideously charred. In reality, ISIS takes pictures of its dead fighters immediately after they die, emphasizing their facial expressions. It lets other bodies, those of “nonbelievers,” decompose in the sun before photographing them. They look devastated by the Grim Reaper. The caption is often the same: “Look at the difference: our martyrs are happy when they meet Allah, since he is proud of them and what they have done. And look at the kafirs’ horrible bodies.

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