A budding Australian model by the name of Sharky Jama has reportedly traded the runway in to join ISIS and is living in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, which has been under the control of the jihadist terror group for nearly a year.
Fallujah is just one hour away from Baghdad, which is yet again in the sights of the United States military as a strategic point of intervention to thwart the grossly underestimated force of the Islamic State. The U.S. has been stockpiling gear from the war in Afghanistan in Kuwait since June of 2014 in preparation for an invasion into Baghdad in an upcoming anti-ISIS offensive.
“Mr. Jama’s former social media accounts — including one with the username “thelastkhliafat,” a misspelled reference to an Islamic caliphate — have been deleted, but he maintains a Facebook page under a different name in which he offers his perspectives on Islamic State and life under its banners,” writes Al Arabiya News.
By thelastkhliafat “O Ummah of Islam. Listen and comprehend. Stand up and rise. For the time has come… http://t.co/9Ilf2pbAMR
— Mila R (@milaqislid) August 15, 2014
The recent ISIS recruit reportedly took a former La Trobe University student and a man described as his friend, Yusuf Yusuf, with him. Yusuf is said to have fled for another ISIS stronghold in Raqqa, Syria.
Jama revealed to a friend over social media that he had to shave his head prior to crossing the border into the ISIS territory, Al Arabiya notes. In Islam, shaving one’s head is seen as an favorable act that is revered by Allah and is as an integral part of making Hajj or Umrah (a pilgrimage which holds less weight than Hajj) to the Islamic holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
Shaving one’s body is a common act among Islamic terrorists prior to a suicide bombing or attack so that the body is clean upon entering heaven. Although the bodies of deceased Muslims are often cleaned and purified upon death, suicide bombers do not receive a normal burial and therefore shave prior to embarking on their journey to the end by making “final preparations” ahead of time.
Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter @AdelleNaz.