Berlin: A German former fighter for Daesh has given a rare interview detailing the atrocities of the terrorist organisation, and warning potential recruits that, “You’re either dead or dead”.
The 26-year-old man, named only as Ebrahim B. under German privacy laws, recounted his experiences in a highly unusual interview with German media before he stands trial next month, charged with being a member of a terrorist organisation.
He described how he was recruited at a mosque in Wolfsburg in northern Germany. He said he had a difficult time at school and had recently broken up with his fiancee. “If I had been picked up by a rocker gang in Jamaica or by Hells Angels in America or something, I would have gone along with it,” he said. “I stumbled and fell into the wrong hands”.
Ebrahim said the recruiter argued: “How can you sleep in peace, in the warm, with heating, while young Muslims are starving or women are being raped? What happens to you, when you die in Europe and not in an Islamist town? When you die in Europe, you go to Hell.”
“They fool you,” he said. “It’s explained to you that you as a Muslim are allowed to marry four women. Who wouldn’t want to have four women?”
He travelled to Turkey with a friend in May 2014, before crossing the border into Syria. He was initially imprisoned over concerns that he was a spy, until his recruiter vouched for him. Ebrahim, a trained massage therapist, claimed that Daesh members were given a choice: “You must immediately decide to either be a fighter or a suicide bomber. In a nutshell, when you go there, you’re either dead or dead.”
