German Ex-ISIS Fighter: I Prefer Jail in Germany to ‘Freedom’ in Syria

A German-Tunisian named Ebrahim B. released details about life with the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) after abandoning his duties as a jihadi for the group. He hopes his journey will change minds of young people who still want to join the terrorist group.

Ebrahim claims the group conned him with a promise of four wives. He left for Syria, but militants arrested him because they thought he was a spy. They threw him in one of their infamous execution centers where he heard a decapitation.

“It was like the sound of a cat being run over,” he claimed.

The militants later threw the decapitated body into Ebrahim’s blood-smeared cell.

Ebrahim escaped, but the German faces charges “of being a member of a terrorist organization.” His trial begins on Monday in Berlin. Despite prison, he is happy to be back in Germany.

“I prefer jail in Germany to ‘freedom’ in Syria,” he exclaimed. “Islamic State has nothing to do with Islam.”

Ebrahim escaped in August 2014 when he took an injured fighter to Turkey for medical treatment. Last year, a Turkish nurse reported to authorities that medical personnel in the country had been forced to treat numerous ISIS fighters, including top commanders.

A mosque in Wolfsburg recruited Ebrahim along with at least 20 other men. Overall, 700 Germans have joined ISIS and 260 have returned. The German government believes “more than 90 Germans have died fighting for IS and similar groups in Syria and Iraq.” At least seven of those men came from Wolfsburg.

“If you see that your daughter or son has fallen into such a scene, or is slowly drifting from you, find the motive, why are they behaving like that,” he said. “Take a lot of time for the person, show them, that you’re his real family.”

Yassin Ousaiffi used Wolfsburg’s Ditib Mosque as an ISIS recruitment center. Ebrahim claimed he “indoctrinated” and “guilt-tripped” the men at the mosque to join the terrorist group.

“How can you sleep in peace, in the warm, with heating, while young Muslims are starving or women are being raped?” he told Ebrahim. “What happens to you, when you die in Europe and not in an Islamist town? When you die in Europe, you go to hell.”

Ousaiffi was banned from the mosque and fled to Syria. He is now a top ISIS judge, but also saved Ebrahim’s life. He convinced the ISIS court of Ebrahim’s innocence.

By September 2014, 400 Germans had left to join ISIS, including children as young as 13. Jihadists lured four girls with promises of marriage to terrorists. A month later, German authorities arrested four people who sent “military clothing and funds to militant groups in Syria.” German Abu Daoud appeared in a video in which he lashed out against German Chancellor Angela Merkel:

Obama. You filthy liar. You lied to your people and betrayed them. By redeploying your soldiers here to carry out cowardly airstrikes you desire to kill the Muslims. The same to you O Germans and to filthy Merkel who gave gifts to Israel. And [by Allah] you Jews, I say to you, Isra’il (peace be upon him) is innocent from you. He is far from you, having nothing to do with you. Gather together all of you. Hollande, Cameron and Putin, gather against the Muslims. You will only lose. You will only lose, and all praise is for Allah.

Failed German rapper Denis Cuspert is one of the more notorious German ISIS members. The State Department added him to its official terror list in February.

“Now calling himself Abu Talha al-Almani, Cuspert has pledged an oath of loyalty to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and appears to serve as an [Isis] recruiter with a special focus on recruiting German speakers,” said the department.

Cuspert released a video in April in which he rapped about attacks against Britain and Germany. The video also showed decapitations and Jordanian pilot Moath al-Kasasbeh’s execution, in addition to staged scenes of jihadists bombing New York City. Cuspert raps in German over the chilling footage:

Fill your car with gas my brother hurry up. Your neighbour is a kafir slandering the messenger. Take a big knife and give him what he rightly deserves! Even while you are in Europe do your jihad. Allah is going to reward you, finish the dirty one. Paradise is waiting. Do it with sincerity.

To the enemies of Allah, where are your troops? We cannot wait. O Allah destroy them! Grant us victory over them. Take from us; make us honourable,” before chillingly warning “War has just begun. We have smelled blood. … We want your blood, it tastes so wonderful!

Groups around the world have been calling for an ex-recruit like Ebrahim to speak out against ISIS.

“Many returnees are disillusioned and would like to tell their stories, but they are afraid of the consequences,” explained Peter Neumann, an extremism researcher at London’s King College. “It is important that people who consider going to Syria ask themselves critical questions. Many of them are under the impression that everyone who goes there is incredibly happy, incredibly determined, motivated, has no doubts and is completely convinced of the ideology. And this dropout has dispelled myth of determination and unity.”